I think most people my age grew up partially raised by shopping malls. It was where we played arcade games, met up with our friends, watched movies, and spent our allowance on whatever toys we swore we needed. Our local mall (Meadowbrook Mall) was being filled pretty quick when I was a kid, but Middletown Mall in Fairmont was still going very strong at that point. When we wanted to visit other stores, we’d take the short drive to Fairmont and explore the Sears, Gee Bee, Stone and Thomas, Chess King, Orange Julius, and McCrory stores a town over. The whole mall smelled like a pizza parlor, and arcade next door to this pizza parlor was the best. Even in my teen years, they had a kickass record store, and the mall STILL smelled like the long-gone pizza parlor. Once again, I rediscovered the mall in my twenties. This time it was for the really awesome Goodwill store which lived in the former Fashion Bug space. There wasn’t much left at this point. Basically just the Goodwill and some stores added onto the outside of the mall. I had been keeping an eye on what was going on with the mall, and I knew there was a really small thrift store, a Dickie’s barbecue, and a Regis salon inside. The thrift store closed, the Dickie’s shut down (as they all do), and the Regis was closing the following day when I visited. I snuck my Nikon inside and shot for a bit. I had a feeling it would be my last time here. I ended up dragging myself back the following day to shoot again, but at this point, things were being removed. All of the long-locked store gates had been opened. It was like a dead mall heaven. I wanted to share it with you. Enjoy, and look forward to the Middletown Commons, I guess.