I miss malls. I miss the dynamic nature of them. I miss exploring them. I miss seeing all the things that people could buy. I miss the atmosphere. I miss the fountain you throw your pennies in. I miss meeting so many different people. I miss the escalators. I miss the joy of going into the mall pet shop and seeing the animals warm up to you. I miss sitting at the food courts, eating my weirdly quality pizza and taking in the ambiance. Hell, I miss getting lost in malls.
One of the things that feels like a stab in the heart as an aspiring parent is I will never be able to take my kids to the mall and have them experience the same experience. I look at malls now and want to cry. Look at me, a commie crying over a pillar of capitalism. That’s how much of a friend malls were to me, yet nobody I know will say they relate.
Being in a basement, on a couch, playing Sonic Mega Collection on a CRT TV while also being able to pause and switch from AVI to DVR using the button on the TV to catch my favorite cartoons.
I spent a lot of time playing that game growing up, but I’d say doin what I described above was pretty peak for me back then, before middle or high school (couldn’t tell you which grade, though). Probably summer, not much to do, could switch between Sonic 3D Blast and what I think was a marathon on Cartoon Network, back when I used to be so much more into the pokemon anime, during the diamond and pearl era. I do remember a single fragment of an episode, with that aura guy with the blue hat and cape and his lucario.