So, Sunday I had to head out to Dewitt to run a couple errands, and I decided that for the fun of it I’d stop at Shoppingtown Mall to see what’s happened to the place.
I parked in the lot that used to be the usual lot to park at – outside of FJ – and damn, just walking through those doors brought back so many memories. I could almost smell the cloves that Vince always smoked. Memories of the huge-ass Phat Al circles. Getting yelled at by rentacops for swinging glowsticks. Nipple tassles (don’t ask). DDR pun after DDR pun. So many friendships were made and broken, just in that one small spot outside the mall doors.
I walked upstairs to the food court, and the first thing that crossed my mind were the Genji Grill vs. Flaming Wok debates we always would have. And that one time we had SO many people that we made a line of tables to sit at, and it literally spanned the entire food court. I remember meeting up with Pete on multiple occasions for movies.
Walked into Fun Junction. The DDR machine was back in the spot where the 5th mix used to be. Of course, it’s SuperNOVA now. Remembered all the old crew of guys there, and the girls…damn we used to have a crowd of them it seemed. Lindsey, Yvonne, Kay, Rachel, Jordan, Jess, Michelle, the list goes on. And of course there’s Fiscoe, and Jenna. Oh man, does that bring me back.
Of course then I wander around a bit and see Fred working at one of the calendar kiosks. I’ve seen him around before, both at school (since he’s there at ITT now) and he was working at the Namco arcade at Carousel for a while. But just him there at the mall was just one more thing to the list.
Oh Team Zeal, as drama filled as it may have been, and as bad as the fallout of it all was… you really gotta admit there were some pretty awesome times.