It's Strange...Seeing The End Of An Era

 When you've lived for almost six decades, you're old enough to see things. You see people--parents, kids, yourself--grow and change. You see trends in fashion, cars, communication, almost everything, change. Things get really interesting when you see the complete life cycle of a thing like the popularity of a song or movie...

Even how people shop.

A few months ago I stood in the nearly empty halls of a once great institution.  Many may not think of it as such, but to the millions of people who entered the halls and shops of the Cache Valley Mall, the place was important...

Important in ways we've most likely forgotten.

I'm sure malls existed before me, but I remember they became popular in the 1970s, and by "popular" I mean, they started building them where I lived. Bountiful Utah had a mall called Five Points Mall. It was, well...sorry for those who loved the place, but it was not impressive. They did have a huge Hallmark Store, though...I remember that. They also had a theater where I did a show while in high school, and they had Top Hat Video, a store that outlived the mall in which it once resided. 

The next best mall near where I lived was in Layton, the apt-named Layton Hills Mall. I spent a good share of time in that mall, not slumming, but shopping. We even watched movies in the near by theaters.

Over the years and decades, malls have fallen into disfavor with the public, so much so, that many are closing. The mall I visited in January was the Cache Valley Mall and it's slated for demolition. 

End of an era.

I've lived long enough to see malls crop up all over the world, the malls put other businesses out-of-business, achieve huge success, then eventually close due to the changing habits of the consumer.

I didn't frequent the Cache Valley Mall enough to say I'll miss it. I know there will be times when I will miss what made malls great in the first place...the ability to find so many things you need (and many you don't...) under one enormous roof.

I wonder how long it will be until we will wish malls once again dotted the landscape, which may never happen.

Time will tell.

When Your Last Child Graduates...Homeschoolers No More

 There were no speeches, no cap and gowns, no standing in line waiting to receive a rolled up piece of paper--nothing like that. Today, my youngest's teacher declared school to be over. And just like that, a chapter in our lives came to an end...

A chapter that began twenty-four years ago, and ended on a brisk day in May.

Our homeschooling days are over.

What a ride!

I remember the conversations my wife and I had driving around the streets of Colorado Springs, Colorado. We discussed homeschooling and whether or not we were going to actually do it. Our first born was only a year old at the time...we had years to go to decide. When he got older, we returned to the topic and decided it was the right thing to do for our family.

Over the years my wife and I have discussed those first conversations and ultimately deciding to commit to homeschooling. At the time we had NO idea how much education in general would change from the last 1990s, or that the entire world would homeschool for a time during the pandemic. 

Four kids, over two decades later, that journey is complete. On Monday, we won't gather for school. It's such a strange thought to contemplate. 

My social media feeds have been packed with photos of friends, and children of friends graduating from the local universities. It's an amazing accomplishment. Some with continue their formal education while others will continue with other degrees. Our youngest is attending a trade school so he's not yet done with his education.

But, for my wife, who held class year after year, the last book has been read, the last lesson learned. Like all schools, we experienced budget concerns, teacher-student incidents, and students looking longingly for end of year breaks. And like all schools, we persevered. 

As May 5th, 2023, Taylor Academy has closed its doors.

Man--End Of An Era...Literally

 Cackling Carlisle said it best...

"NOOOOOOOOOOO"

If you read the above letter, I imagine there's only a few things that you're thinking: 1. You remember and perhaps patronize Top Hat Video currently, or have in the past, and you're sad it's closing. 2. You've never heard of Top Hat Video and you're sad it's closing. 3. You had no idea ANY video stores still existed.

Top Hat Video is in Davis County, Utah, and has been there for four decades. I lived a few towns north of the store and only visited when I hung out with my Bountiful friends and we wanted to rent a video (or three...) for the night. No, I was not a frequent visitor and punch past customer like Cackling Carlisle, but many of my friends and family who lived closer remembered the store as more than just a place to rent a movie (or three...).

It was a gathering place, a location where almost endless possibilities for entertainment could be found just beyond the front door, unless, of course, others got to the movie you wanted to see first. The nearly unlimited potential was so much fun, just remembering the options found in video stores brings back wonderful memories.

It is a monument to human perseverance that the store lasted this long. I can't imagine the costs involved--keeping an updated inventory when everyone can simply download or stream more films than the store could possibly own. The cost of labor and rent, or building maintenance if they own the store...overcoming all these things must have been a herculean effort just to keep their doors open. I wonder even if they had enough customers (which they have had for all these years...), how long they would remain.

Since we no longer live only minutes away from the video store, we'll most likely never visit the store before it closes. Then again, I lived next to the store for decades and never went in after my high school and college days.

Top Hat Video will disappear into the memories of those who attended, yet another institution geezers will talk about when they reunite and shoot the bull. It is literally the end of an era. It's sad, and I mourn with Mr. Carlisle and others. Thanks, Top Hat for fighting the good fight for so long.

Inevitably...The Curtain Must Fall

It's been vacant for years, minutes and hours, days and weeks have passed with no one entering, no one leaving--a playground for ghosts and memories. I've passed the structure a couple of times a month since it closed and each time, a feeling of melancholy washes over me, as if a great unfairness has occurred, for how can a place that held such wonder, such creativity, such beauty, fun, heartache, and passion sit idle for so long?

It can because it does.

Yesterday a dear friend posted several pictures of the place we knew simply as RMC, or Rodger's, or our second home. As with all things--since all things are temporary--the building is being razed to make way for places to live. My friends were there to record the moment, to share the space's fleeting moments. I borrowed one of their pictures for this post. They went because they felt compelled to be there as if the building called out to them wishing them to be there as it will soon vanish.

They answered the call because they had to.

Accompanying the pictures my friend explained just how special the theatre was for her and her husband. She included a couple of memories as to why it's so important to them, but she could have listed hundreds more. I wish I could have been there with them to see the space myself, but their captured moments will have to do.

It is in the places of creation where the memories have the strongest hold on our lives. Theaters, homes, (sometimes work...), schools, and studios, beside lakes and atop mountains--it's where inspiration finds us and intertwines with our souls. And when those theaters, homes, schools, studios, and other places where we've been touched by creativity go away, a part of us dies.

Rodger's Memorial Theatre's success also sealed its doom. It could no longer hold back the wave of anticipation for a bigger space, newer facilities, multiple bathroom the paying public demanded and so it was abandoned when the new shiny theater opened a few miles away.

There's a saying in theatre everyone knows. "The show must go on." This means, of course, that the show must inevitably end. A theatre is built and therefore, it must be destroyed--everything's temporary. A theatre may last millennia, or for one night, but like all things, it's time must come.

And the curtain has fallen on our friend.