The American Mall Experience

So there we were, my wife and I, walking up to the Mall in Sierra Vista. She to have a pedicure and I to wander through the 'going out of business' shops to see if I could find something I would be interested in.

No sooner had we stepped towards the glorious effigy of American shopping experience, than we witnessed drama unfold on the sidewalk. A group of teenage girls were in a heated discussion with the parents of another girl, who I think was in the process of being rescued. A sailor would blush at the conversation, and the girls' great grandparents were probably rolling over in their graves to hear their progeny speak such scathing language, at an adult no less. The father sort of instigated it by his comments, but he was visibly upset, and the girls were like a pack of multi-colored lionesses with poor fashion sense sensing blood.

After a short retort, the parents disengaged, while the girls prowled back into the mall like savage hyenas taking pleasure in the verbal carnage they had wrought. One girl was the obvious ringleader, the others supplicants to her visceral tongue.

After that, I wondered, is this what I have to prepare my children for as they get older? I could only imagine the teen savages going to their facebook and myspace pages to initiate their next onslaught of savagery.

Perplexed to see such a public display of disrespect, I spent the next hour wandering the mall examining the people there, from the employees of dying franchises to the snake oil salesmen of the center isle and to wandering others like myself. Generally, I observed placate herd animals, congregating in isolated groups at the watering hole or grazing through shops for a good deal. I realized that the mall is a bleak place, and hope that my kids never go there just to 'hang out'.

I understood, then, why a platoon of yellow-clad security guards constantly patrol. Though none, of course, were at the scene of verbal bloodletting.

The mall, for me, has lost its luster. Some still offer an interesting shopping experience, but I no longer find them as fun to explore as I used to--least of all the one in Sierra Vista.