The Searchers (an Eastern)
JR and I took a little trip to East Toledo today. He needed a few things to complete his Halloween costume and the best place to look was at an Army Surplus store clear across the city (about 25 minutes away.) Originally I wasn't going to go with him, but when he started to leave today I decided I wanted to go.
We found the store without much hassle but once we stepped inside I figured we wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. It was full of "guy" stuff and I knew he was in macho heaven. Due to some very helpful clerks (they asked us if we needed help like every five minutes,) we found what we came for right away.
The good news is that his costume is now complete, the bad news is that he just shot himself in the leg.
Don't worry it wasn't with a real gun. To explain I have to travel back in time about two years when JR was living with his buddy Q in Michigan. If ever there was a "guy" house, then Q's house would be it. Never mind the 14ft TV screen (yes that is in feet,) the keg-erator full of Pabst, the pool table/dining table, or even the full size arcade games- it was the pellet guns that separated the boys from the men.
Somewhere alone the line Q bought some pellet BB guns (they shoot tiny plastic balls with medium force.) One thing the guys enjoyed doing was randomly (and without warning) shoot each other. And as an innocent bystander who took a couple hits, I'll tell you those little balls could sting.
The shoot outs are what I think JR misses most about not living at Q's. He's coveted one of those pellet guns for along time, and today he finally got one. But in the twenty minutes since he's opened the thing my Mickey pumpkin and his leg have both been victims. Even though I told him NOT to shoot at my pumpkin and I have no idea why he would turn the gun on himself.
I'm sure I could have told him "no way," and forbid him from buying it, but that's really not my style. He does most the vacuuming anyway so he can deal with all the lost BBs it sucks up. And if we end up losing our security deposit on the apartment because of holes in the walls, it's his problem. Plus he did need a convincing gun for his costume.
I was impressed that he didn't pull the gun out of the box the moment we got in the car, but apparently he does have some self control.
Since we were on the extreme far side of town I decided to do a little exploring. I had heard there was a third mall somewhere in the eastern side of Toledo. We had driven waaay out of town and I was about to turn around when we found it.. next to a barn.
Actually it's a good size mall with three big name anchor stores. But the mall itself is dying. It made me really sad to see the nearly empty mall obviously limping toward death. In my mind's eye I could picture it's heyday and all the noise and life it must have once held. I don't think it's been revamped since the early nineties. What was left of the decorations and faded paint tells a tale of neglect.
What's even sadder is that Toledo has another mall in similar shape. Although the second mall has been bought and is slated for demo in the next few years. When JR and I first drove by we thought it was already closed. One of the anchor stores still had a Montgomery Wards sign outside, and I know they've been out of business for a few years at least.
Eventually though we worked up the courage to go inside and were amazed by how cool it was inside. They have a giant carousal that you can still ride in the middle. And the whole mood of the mall is really retro with lots of rich golds and ambers. It reminds me of some of the malls I went to as a kid before they built the fancy new ones.
Walking by all the empty stores got me thinking about the history of those malls. I would have liked to visit them during their peaks. There's a cool website called www.deadmalls.com that has a rundown of a lot of dead malls across the county.
Oh, and the gun? JR is laying on the couch holding it to his chest at this very moment. I'm kinda afraid for my TV.. the Tigers aren't doing so hot and he's a little testy about it.
We found the store without much hassle but once we stepped inside I figured we wouldn't be leaving anytime soon. It was full of "guy" stuff and I knew he was in macho heaven. Due to some very helpful clerks (they asked us if we needed help like every five minutes,) we found what we came for right away.
The good news is that his costume is now complete, the bad news is that he just shot himself in the leg.
Don't worry it wasn't with a real gun. To explain I have to travel back in time about two years when JR was living with his buddy Q in Michigan. If ever there was a "guy" house, then Q's house would be it. Never mind the 14ft TV screen (yes that is in feet,) the keg-erator full of Pabst, the pool table/dining table, or even the full size arcade games- it was the pellet guns that separated the boys from the men.
Somewhere alone the line Q bought some pellet BB guns (they shoot tiny plastic balls with medium force.) One thing the guys enjoyed doing was randomly (and without warning) shoot each other. And as an innocent bystander who took a couple hits, I'll tell you those little balls could sting.
The shoot outs are what I think JR misses most about not living at Q's. He's coveted one of those pellet guns for along time, and today he finally got one. But in the twenty minutes since he's opened the thing my Mickey pumpkin and his leg have both been victims. Even though I told him NOT to shoot at my pumpkin and I have no idea why he would turn the gun on himself.
I'm sure I could have told him "no way," and forbid him from buying it, but that's really not my style. He does most the vacuuming anyway so he can deal with all the lost BBs it sucks up. And if we end up losing our security deposit on the apartment because of holes in the walls, it's his problem. Plus he did need a convincing gun for his costume.
I was impressed that he didn't pull the gun out of the box the moment we got in the car, but apparently he does have some self control.
Since we were on the extreme far side of town I decided to do a little exploring. I had heard there was a third mall somewhere in the eastern side of Toledo. We had driven waaay out of town and I was about to turn around when we found it.. next to a barn.
Actually it's a good size mall with three big name anchor stores. But the mall itself is dying. It made me really sad to see the nearly empty mall obviously limping toward death. In my mind's eye I could picture it's heyday and all the noise and life it must have once held. I don't think it's been revamped since the early nineties. What was left of the decorations and faded paint tells a tale of neglect.
What's even sadder is that Toledo has another mall in similar shape. Although the second mall has been bought and is slated for demo in the next few years. When JR and I first drove by we thought it was already closed. One of the anchor stores still had a Montgomery Wards sign outside, and I know they've been out of business for a few years at least.
Eventually though we worked up the courage to go inside and were amazed by how cool it was inside. They have a giant carousal that you can still ride in the middle. And the whole mood of the mall is really retro with lots of rich golds and ambers. It reminds me of some of the malls I went to as a kid before they built the fancy new ones.
Walking by all the empty stores got me thinking about the history of those malls. I would have liked to visit them during their peaks. There's a cool website called www.deadmalls.com that has a rundown of a lot of dead malls across the county.
Oh, and the gun? JR is laying on the couch holding it to his chest at this very moment. I'm kinda afraid for my TV.. the Tigers aren't doing so hot and he's a little testy about it.
posted by SassyJill at 7:53 PM
6 Comments:
My dark sense of humour got the better of me and I laughed most of the way through this post.
Poor you. Poor Mickey.
But on the good side, at least it's not the old style pellet/BB gun that used real lead pellets or BB's. My brothers had those, and there were many dead squirrels out back of our house.
Ahhhhh boys! Wow, did we pick different types of men or what?
Anyway, tell him to be careful with that thing -- I don't want him to shoot his eye out =)
KM- Oh I was laughing my ass off to his face. And yes, I would have an issue if the gun could do "real" damage.
SS- It was sooooo hard not to sing that little chant to him. The whole time he was looking in the store that elf scene with the slide from "A Christmas Story" was flashing through my head.
Very funny post.
So you cant kill somebody with a BB gun? The reason I ask is that when I was a little boy, my dad got me one, and for the longest time I would lay in my bed at night and plan how I'd react if we had intruders in our house. I figured it might be hard to kill somebody with tha gun, but I thought that if I could aim at their eye, I could surely make them blind.
Y- Ha! That is exactly what JR said when I asked him why he's carrying it around all the time now. If someone breaks in he'll aim for their eyes. Gotta tell you it doesn't make me feel any safer.
That, and now he's taken to shooting at the lights around the pond from our balcony. I swear someone is gonna call the cops on him one day ::sigh:: Boys!
Plastic?
Mine shoots steel balls....
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