What Was Once The Place To Be Has Become A Visual Metaphor For A Rapidly Vanishing America!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                            If you were a suburban kid, as I was, the shopping mall, or any ones near you, were places to be.  The escalators, the toys, books and records departments, fashions--these were places kids like me loved going to because it was a chance to see beyond the sheltered world we were then enclosed into.  Oh, I know I am sounding like a mall rat--which I was before I galvanized myself into this blog and high fashion--but the malls were just such fun.  And some even had movie theaters, so if one desired to see a movie, one did not have to travel far.

                              Alas, this photo reminds me of so much.  How the America I grew up in is slowly vanishing, as it does for each generation. How it recalls to me the Sondheim musical "FOLLIES," my favorite of his works, whose 55th Anniversary was this past April 4, just five days ago.  Sorry I missed it, darlings, but it was also Holy Saturday.  I forgot but was brought back to the event by the photo.

                            Abandoned amusement park photos are fascinating, what with their colorful sadness.  Yet they still have a beauty to them.  Abandoned mall photos, while macabre, are just plain sad.

                            Sometimes going forward forces others to forego cherished memories!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!