Darlings, Remember When Going Shopping Was Just Plain Fun?????????????

                                  Before I discovered glamour and sophistication, girls, going shopping was an altogether different experience. Instead of designer names, it was toy brands and book authors, not to mention the latest record albums.  But, before even this period, there was a time when going to certain places was fun, because it was like visiting an amusement park.

                                   I guess you could call these places mall arcades.  The best one was at Great Eastern Mills, out out on Route 22, back in the Sixties.  Hardly sophisticated, lambs, but, remember, I was VERY young.  And I have always been drawn to the carny atmosphere; after all, "Carousel" is one of my favorite musicals!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                     When I saw this photo of the  Musical Ferris Wheel, it emblemized the experience for me!  This contraption stood at the front entrance  of almost every mall arcade of my childhood.  And you know I just loved riding it!  Hell, I would today, if I could sit in it, because the height it would reach would not scare me, unlike the adult Ferris wheels do now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                         There was also, front and center, a fortune telling booth.   The ones I recall  did not look exactly like this, with one exception--the tellers were always women, and they would be scary looking.  You would insert a coin, she would select a card, and hand it to you, supposedly telling you your future.  This item always fascinated me; I would stare at the teller, as if peering into her mind, trying to guess what she was thinking.  As if I could!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  But the mall arcades of my day would not be complete without one of these things, which had the ability to draw in others beside myself!!!!!!!!!!!

                                            Nor would the place be complete, without Peppy, The Dancing Circus Clown!!!!!!!!!!!  I just loved Peppy; he was my favorite.  First of all, his booth was so colorful, and I flocked to anything awash in color.  Peppy was on strings, dressed in a rainbow colored suit, against a painted circus backdrop!  The front of the booth had buttons, which, after coins were inserted, you would press, and he would dance, usually to some traditional circus music!  How I would love to see Peppy again in stores, or have one here in my apartment!  Though I am not sure where we would put it!  But a shopping visit in those days was not complete, without a visit to Peppy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                             Same thing with the indoor Skee Ball court, which would be up center of every mall arcade.  I never went near it, but it was colorful to look at, and fascinating to watch.  Because of its resemblance to a bowling alley, I used to think of it as bowling for children.  The one I remember was more colorful than the one pictured above, and the lighting was brighter, as this often was the most brightly lit place in the store!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                               Then there was the Cherry Hills Mall, at 38 Haddonfield Road, in Cherry Hills, New Jersey.  They had something that could not be beat.  Amidst all the flora, fauna and water, which made it like visiting a tropical rain forest, there was an indoor kiddy roller coaster!!!!!!!!!!  Just like the ones down at the shore, only this was inside.  I recall this visit, and the ride I took, as one of the great shopping excursions of my childhood, and it must have been, if I can still recall it over 50 years later.  I wonder if it is still there?  Or has it, too, yielded to the passage of Time??????????

                                                  As have a lot of these mall arcades; I doubt whether any of them, let alone the stores they were in, are still around.  A bygone era, when shopping  could be really fun for a little kid!!!!!!!!!.

                                                    Whereas today, darlings, it is strictly Lord and Taylor!!!!!!!!!!!!!