UPDATE: On May 8th, a reporter at the Mercury News took notice of this part of town that I referenced in this original post: http://www.mercurynews.com/cupertino/ci_29865921/ghost-mall-vallco-awaits-new-life
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What parts of your hometown are dying, fading away with the coming of a new generation?
Where I live the Vallco mall was "the" mall to go to. When I was a kid that was where all the kids bday parties were because they had ice skating and an arcade. As a teenager, that is where u went on a Saturday afternoon to try to meet girls. Families did their Xmas shopping or had dinner at one of the many restaurants.
Well I live in a different part of town now and I hadn't been to Vallco in over a decade. But today I was in that part of town, and I needed something so I stopped in.
WTF? First off only about 20% of the storefronts were in use. The rest were boarded up, gated up, or just empty. But the creepiest part was the people. The few stragglers in this wasteland looked like souless, shadow people, all dead behind the eyes, who had some how been punished to wander the mall eternally. I passed the food court where the largest concentration of shadow people had gathered (approx 10). There were only two food places open in the whole food court (Mexican and Teriyaki). The other places were boarded. But because everything was closed, no one turned the lights in the food court on. So these shadow people were just sitting in the dark eating Teriyaki bowls or burritos quietly. Oh, and about the "quiet," you could hear a pin drop in the mall.
There was one store that sold 80's and 90's toys. But honestly, it didn't look like it was a vintage theme. It just looked like that's what they'd always been selling and just never changed. Their lights were out too, but I could see the outline of a shadow couple quietly browsing the shelves.
I left before I became a shadow person.
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What parts of your hometown are dying, fading away with the coming of a new generation?
Where I live the Vallco mall was "the" mall to go to. When I was a kid that was where all the kids bday parties were because they had ice skating and an arcade. As a teenager, that is where u went on a Saturday afternoon to try to meet girls. Families did their Xmas shopping or had dinner at one of the many restaurants.
Well I live in a different part of town now and I hadn't been to Vallco in over a decade. But today I was in that part of town, and I needed something so I stopped in.
WTF? First off only about 20% of the storefronts were in use. The rest were boarded up, gated up, or just empty. But the creepiest part was the people. The few stragglers in this wasteland looked like souless, shadow people, all dead behind the eyes, who had some how been punished to wander the mall eternally. I passed the food court where the largest concentration of shadow people had gathered (approx 10). There were only two food places open in the whole food court (Mexican and Teriyaki). The other places were boarded. But because everything was closed, no one turned the lights in the food court on. So these shadow people were just sitting in the dark eating Teriyaki bowls or burritos quietly. Oh, and about the "quiet," you could hear a pin drop in the mall.
There was one store that sold 80's and 90's toys. But honestly, it didn't look like it was a vintage theme. It just looked like that's what they'd always been selling and just never changed. Their lights were out too, but I could see the outline of a shadow couple quietly browsing the shelves.
I left before I became a shadow person.
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