> wrote in message
...
On Sunday, January 12, 2014 5:14:58 AM UTC-6, Ophelia wrote:
> "Julie Bove" > wrote in message
>
> ...
>
> > We stopped in there yesterday just to see if there was something of
>
> > interest. Nope. Actually my mom needed to go into a store in the same
>
> > strip mall ...
>
>
>
> What is a 'strip mall'? Is that the same as 'shopping mall'?

A strip-mall is an American disgrace whereby a municipality will buy a row
of houses, demolish them, and sell the land cheap to a construction company
that in turn will put up a row of cheaply made storefronts that will house
chain-restaurants, insurance agent's offices, tanning salons, and the like.

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Not always. This particular one has been here since we moved here in the
1960's. They have expanded on it over the years but no houses were torn
down. There is the TJ's, Half Price Book, a cell phone shop, Hallmark
(cards), Albertsons (groceries), Sally Beauty, a Teriyaki shop, a paint
store, a hobby shop (models) and perhaps a few other small places that are
of no interest to me. There is also a Hobby Lobby, a bank and a Shari's
restaurant at the outer edges of the parking lot.

I think at some point there had been a small school or a park where the
Hobby Lobby is now. We used to have a big thing called Lynn-O-Rama each
year. I remember taking my nephew to it when he was little. There was sort
of a carnival and a parade although it was quite small as parades and
carnivals go.

I just remember my brother getting very angry at my nephew because he had no
interest whatever in the festival and attached himself to a swing that was
on a swing set that was always there. That's why I think it had to have
been a park or a school. Most likely a school that was closed. Most of the
schools in that city have been torn down and moved to other areas as the
population changed.

When we first moved here, that city was little more than woods. Not many
people lived there but there was a busy street going through it with
businesses on it. It also used to have a rather bad reputation and people
didn't want to claim to live there. That has changed somewhat as more and
more houses are built. But it used to be a place of low rent apartments.

The worst thing I ever saw in that city was something I had only ever read
about and never seen. Went to look at a rental place with my friend. There
was a little dirt road that one wouldn't know was there unless like us, they
had to drive down it. What we found were an assortment of tiny, dark brown
buildings, sided with wood shingles. One was missing the porch and there
was an assortment of crap piled up there so that you could climb up it to
get in. This included a pallet and some patio blocks. Dirty, scrappy
children were running loose on the grounds, speaking excitedly of a fire and
there was a chicken squawking around.

We knocked on the door of a building as per the instructions and what
appeared to be a grizzled old man came out. His face looked like one of
those dolls that people used to make with dried apples for the head. Deep
wrinkles on more deep wrinkles. Wrinkles so bad that you could barely see
his eyes. Eyes set in such a deep squint that you couldn't really tell what
color they were.

He led us to one building saying that it was such a shame that he'd had to
kick the woman out. He said he hadn't kicked her out because of the fire
(which we asked about) but because she had 5 children living in there.
There is a law here that a building can house so many people per so much
square feet and this violated it. One of the children had started the fire.
Damage of it could still be seen and the whole place reeked of it.

My friend and I both stepped into the place and didn't go beyond that one
step. The entire one bedroom place could be seen from there. It was as
though they divided the tiny place into four equal pieces of equal
proportions. Bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and living room. As you can
imagine, the bathroom was comically oversized while everything else was
dwarfed.

My friend and I both looked at each other with sort of a look of surprise,
shock, horror, not even sure what! We just wanted to get out of there. So
we did. She thanked the man and we left. I was driving. I think it was a
full 2 minutes before we spoke to each other because we were just so stunned
about the experience.

What is there now *is* a strip mall. And that's probably a good thing. I
do know that there is a need for low income housing but... Places like that
just shouldn't exist in this country.