Eastwood Mall photo gallery 2, continued
"The Ghost Tour" ... page 3
You'll have to go somewhere else for those $459 Nike Airs...  (04/10/2004) -- A Foot Locker, gone to that great Converse in the sky.....

Here's a close-up of the label scar:

The 'N' on your shoe stands for No more
Concession stand has Pepsi Free and Chewels It's DATE NIGHT.  Any gal would be proud to be on her date's arm at an abandoned movie theater.  After all, when was the MOVIE ever important....??  (04/10/2004) -- Site of the second most famous movie theater in Birmingham, the Eastwood Mall Theater (R.I.P. 1964-1989)

The doorway at the very end of the hallway, I believe, was the inside entrance to Pioneer Cafeteria.

Oh mighty tonearm, what for thou beateth thyself against record's end groove?
(04/10/2004) -- Seeing this one really hurt.  Most recently, it was the location of the now-defunct  record store chain Disc Jockey.  But for much of the '70s and early '80s the music store in Eastwood Mall was Oz Records.  It was a Birmingham chain, and it employed a Wizard of Oz motif, complete with yellow-brick roads through the aisles.  Back in 1980, with my cousin Chris Wood in tow, I bought an 8-track (gawd, WHY???) of Pete Townshend's album Empty Glass.   Empty, indeed.
Slipped disc
Next: Drew himself sings your 60s favorites Wait .... is that a store STILL OPEN?
(04/10/2004) -- Okay, at the time this was taken, Party City was the only tenant still in operation on this end of the mall.  But they had an outside entrance.  As with Parisian and Books-A-Million, their mall access was closed off.  Party favors, cake boxes, and plenty of those godawful "Drew's Party Music" CDs.  "Louie, Louie" and "Shake a Tail Feather" ... all done by horrid karaoke-reject cover artists.  Hey, whaddaya expect for $3.99?!?!

Wifely one is to the left (if that entrance weren't closed, she'd have been in there drooling over the cake supplies), and my kid is standing at right. 

Top what? (04/10/2004) -- Topkapi appeared to be one of those cheap costume jewelry stores like Claire's which appealed to preteen girls.

The only thing missing is a sign reading "OVER (342) MILLION 12-YEAR-OLD GIRLS' EARLOBES PIERCED" (wonder how many boys got their ears pier-----um, never mind, won't go there)

And that might be yours truly reflected in that far window.

10-4 do you kapi?
I got a rumbly in my tumbly... Game Over!  (04/10/2004) -- According to Josh Brasseale, this was the site of a Diamond Jim's arcade.  Makes sense ... Those monitors in the window would've displayed certain video games. 

Oh for high school days when "Galaga" was the center of my video-playing world.  Actually made 700,000 points one sweet afternoon in March '83.  Don't ask me how many quarters I wasted playing those @#$% things.  (no ... take that back ... if I saw a Galaga machine today, I'd drop a quarter in it faster than you can say "Challenging Stage") 

And that IS yours truly reflected in the middle. 

(04/10/2004) -- Looking from the west wing toward the food court atrium.  An empty "Petite Sophisticates" store is seen on the left.  Of course, that is of no relevance to my wife and myself -- we're neither. :-)

Speaking of "wife", da luffly Amy is on the bench trying her best to look like a resting mallwalker.  It was trying to rain this April day, and the missus was prepared (it's why I married her).

The trees in the middle looked nice here.

 

More mall
At the time these pictures were taken, my son was 12 years old.  Today, he's a 19-year-old college student with a ravenous appetite (and tuition payment due very soon).  Matter of fact, he hasn't had a meal since .... ohhhh, about 7:00 this evening.  If you'd like to help sponsor this young man's food intake and edumakatin', please send a check or money order to the Russell's College Chirren Fund, care of ... my tip jar.

Where are all these ghosts you've promised me?  NEXT PAGE!

No thanks, I've tripped over enough tumbleweed for one day.

Page first constructed 04/18/2004 -- 802 PM EDT   (part of version 1)
UPDATED 02/05/2011 -- 812 PM EST