“We used to build civilizations. Now we build shopping malls.”
The rain started gently this morning in a mist. It’s a quiet rain. If today were a summer day, I’d be on the deck under the umbrella.
Uptown was a special place when I was a kid. The square was always filled with people shopping. Old women, wearing dresses and hats and light coats in mostly dark colors, used to walk and pull their carts behind them. The carts were filled with packages wrapped in brown paper. Younger women pushed carriages or held their kids’ hands. I never remember seeing many fathers except at the barber shop and the Chinaman’s. Women shopped. Men did errands.
People stood under the theater marquee waiting for a bus. The buses were big and noisy, and their brakes always squealed when the drivers stopped. You could go to Medford Square and do some shopping or Sullivan Square to get the subway into Boston or Arlington Center through Winchester. The taxi stand was in front of Kennedy’s Market, but most people walked.
My favorite stop was the fish market. Even on the sidewalk I could still smell the fish, but I didn’t care. I use to lean my head against the window and watch the lobsters swimming in their pool. I could also see the fishmongers behind the counter. They wore dirty white aprons tied at the neck and waist, and they were always men. At Hank’s Bakery, the windows were filled with cookies and cupcakes and a pretty cake or two. It was always women who waited on you at Hank’s.
Where I live now has no square, no uptown. The stores are in a strip mall, and they are the same stores you find everywhere. The parking lot is always filled. Nobody walks. Everyone is always in a rush. I mostly go to the supermarket. It has everything I need, but it has no character. It doesn’t even have windows.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: Stoneham Square, uptown
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April 9, 2010 at 12:30 pm
Well, since building shopping centers is how I make a living I am rather fond of the concept. I am lucky enough to live in Rochester Michigan where the old downtown remains vibrant with retailers, restaurants and pubs and the surrounding modern shopping includes a lifestyle center.
April 9, 2010 at 5:33 pm
My Dear Hedley,
I love the downtowns the best of all, and I envy the vibrancy of yours. I don’t hate malls but wish they had some character, some regional identity. When the Cape Cod Mall was first built, it did. There were all these great little stores that soon disappeared, priced out of the building. Now that mall could be plunked down anywhere, and everyone would recognize every store.
April 9, 2010 at 1:18 pm
I can´t say that I have any memories from our uptown exept for christmas time. Otherwise we seldom were there. We had everything we needed close to my home. We only went by bus when we were going to our summer house and that only during periods when we didn´t have a car.
Otherwise we went by tram. They always shaked a lot and those breaks really made a lot of noice 🙂 But I have always loved going by tram and does so if I can when going back to Gothenburg.
My favourite place were at the butcher. I always got a sausage or two when we went there 🙂 But when going to the fish market the fish mongers always were women. I can´t remember a single man being a fishmonger.
The day started out a bit cloudy and cold but the sun came out of the clouds and the evening has been really nice. With a bit of luck we´ll get sun all day tomorrow 🙂
Have a great day now!
Christer.
April 9, 2010 at 5:36 pm
Christer,
We had uptown, our town square, and in-town, meaning Boston, and we seldom went there either except at Christmas when we went to see Santa, decorated shop windows and the lights.
The city has streetcars still. They no longer run on overhead wires but are still on rails.
We didn’t have a butcher shop but bought our meat at the supermarket.
It is pouring now-the gentle rain disappeared. It is cold too.
April 9, 2010 at 1:18 pm
This is all the result of globalization. While in Brighton, in the UK, I parked my rental car in the Churchill Square Mall car park (parking lot). I walked through the mall on my way to the street to see the sights of Brighton. Every store in the mall was exactly the same as in any mall in the United States. Each store displayed the same goods in the windows that we see here in North America. The only difference was that the prices were higher in the UK. It was a Saturday and the place was packed with shoppers.
Walmart may have hastened the demise of the town square and the mom and pop store, but the selection and prices of the goods available now is due to Walmart’s ability to use supply chains and purchase goods in vast volumes.
April 9, 2010 at 5:41 pm
Bob,
The Cape is trying to keep huge singular chain stores away so the local stores can survive. We don’t have a Walmart so I haven’t ever been to one. Even the Home Depot had a huge fight about space and the flow of cars before it was allowed to build a store.
I do know that prices are lower in such stores because of volume, but I still like to see a bit of local flavor survive.
April 9, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Today’s commentary was very poignant! What came to mind was the shopping mall/strip mall that is where our Barnes & Noble resides. It, at one time, was a farm adjoining several farms. The other farms are now McMansion developments or townhomes. Most of these homes border the back-end of the Mall or side end of this shopping strip/mall. In between are main artery’s to get around.
The shopping/strip mall is divided and each segment has its own parking and little group of shops. They kept the pond and the old farmhouse (now a bank) and while this sort of grew on a person because of the subdivides such as Target being way on the other side with PetSmart and Barnes & Noble way on the other side across the road – they decided to (finally – sigh) build another main artery from one county to this county and going through the mall ending in this shopping center. It is very sad as the one perk of all of this had been using the main road in this shopping area(s) to get from one point to another (traffic lights only anchored the two entrances).
As to the shopping, it is definitely not like when I was growing up. I don’t know about the mall because I can count on one hand the times I’ve been there since living here. (okay, maybe one and a half times). The entire shopping experience is here only 2 1/4 miles from my apartment.
Sadly, I admit to you that when we finally do move, I will miss the convenience of having so much so nearby.
April 9, 2010 at 8:28 pm
Linda,
Hyannis is the city to us. It has all the big stores and several strip malls on both sides of the main road, also with chain stores.
I remember when the site of the mall was Storyland surrounded by a field and downtown Hyannis was where all the local stores were, most of which are now gone.
Like you, I seldom go to the mall though I do drop into Barnes and Noble and Best Buy, both at the same end. I have no idea what stores are in the rest of the mall.
April 9, 2010 at 2:34 pm
Simply beautiful!
April 9, 2010 at 8:29 pm
Thank you, Mario!!
April 9, 2010 at 4:24 pm
In the UK it no longer matters whether it’s Wednesday or Sunday, shopping is the new God. Soon (now in some places) it won’t matter whether its midday or midnight, everything is so “convenient”, we’ve got everything we want (or don’t know that we want) when we want it, in the same shops all over the country just as you describe. Is life any better for it ?
April 9, 2010 at 8:31 pm
Brian,
Massachusetts used to have the famous Blue Laws which closed all but the tiniest stores on Sunday. It changed a bit when stores, except liquor stores, were allowed to open on Sundays at noon in the weeks before Christmas, for the convenience of shoppers. Nest stores were allowed to open at ten then the Blue Laws were repealed, and every store is open all day Sunday.
I wish we still had the Blue Laws.
April 9, 2010 at 7:35 pm
We had “Bargain City” which was really the first Mall concept tried in northern Virginia. Then Sears starting achoring more stores in the burbs but the trip to downtown D.C. was always something to look forward to because we got to tour museums, Capitol Hill, fine dining. My Mother loved Garfinckel’s a really expensive store the Kennedy’s shopped there. Most Christmas presents came from Woodward & Lothrop, another Macy’s type store. Men had men’s clothiers like Brooks Brothers, I loved that store when I got older. It was really pricey. But yeah, once the Malls took over the thrill of traveling to a big city was gone forever.
April 9, 2010 at 8:33 pm
Z&Me,
I can add little to this as I agree. Boston always had great stores you couldn’t find anywhere else. Now those same stores are either gone or found in every mall. I know malls are convenient in the suburbs, but I miss those great trips to Boston.
April 10, 2010 at 9:14 am
Our downtown is still there. Actually we have downtown and uptown but the designation only makes a difference if you live between the two main streets. It’s all uptown to me. Uptown doesn’t look very different from when I was a child because the old buildings are still in use. But where we used to have a couple of grocery stores, a few independent banks, a butter and egg store, a couple of department stores and two theaters we now have 4 big international banks, a couple of pharmacies, a small grocery store. The rest is nail spas, beauty shops, pizza/sub shops, lawyers and dentists.
April 10, 2010 at 10:11 am
caryn,
We said uptown when we meant where the stores were where we lived, and we said in-town when we were going to Boston. I still think of Boston as going in-town.
My square too had the neatest stores. I miss most of them, but there has been some improvement over the time of closed stores when the square was in transition. Now there is a great Italian restaurant, and the movie theater of my youth is a live theater.