When I saw that one of today’s words was fore, I couldn’t help but think about this scene from Caddyshack.
Four is the number of people who asked for a sign with the words from the other day’s one-liner. How’s this?
Click on it, and get the full-sized one.
On Thursday, I talked about a couple of YouTube channels that I’ve been watching. I’ve been spending a lot of time the last couple of days watching episodes from Dan Bell’s “Dead Mall” series. As I watch as these magnificent shopping centers that just a few years ago were bustling with activity slowly edge their way to their death, I find myself thinking about all the people involved in the building of them, the people who ran the electrical lines and the plumbing, the people who laid the carpet and tile, the people who put up the drywall and lighting for the individual stores, all the things that went into making them the great places they were, and I find myself asking “what for?” Why did they do all that, if it was just going to be torn down anyway? I know the reasons why the malls have ended up being dead zones (the Internet, Amazon, Walmart etc.), but even so, there were people who put their lives and their work into building them, and people who worked the stores, and cleaned the public areas, and patroled the premises. And now it’s gone, or sitting there empty, rotting and molding, wating for the wrecking ball to destroy it once and tear down all that work and care that went into creating the place.
Roger von Oech, who wrote the book A Whack On The Side Of The Head, said that to get creative ideas, go and look at garbage dumps and demolition sites, because that’s what happens to everything eventually. I have a better understanding of what that means now.
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The Sound of One Hand Typing 
I rarely shop in physical stores. I find the sensory input just too overwhelming, and that quadruples at Christmas. Honestly, you’d have to put a gun to my head to get me in a mall between Thanksgiving and Christmas!
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You have to be out of your mind to go anywhere to shop at Christmastime. And heaven forbid you go to a Walmart on Black Friday (which is rapidly becoming Black Thursday) when they open…
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I loved going to a mall! It was a day of shopping, having lunch and being with friends. Now, I order everything online, except for groceries. Caddy Shack, a hilarious movie and one that never gets old.
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If we don’t have to go to the mall, we don’t. When Mary does go shopping, it’s all local. Back in the day, it was an evening’s entertainment when I was out of town.
Kind of sad that both Rodney Dangerfield and Ted Knight are no longer with us. I can’t imagine Caddyshack being the same movie without them.
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I agree, they made the movie! And what a great cast – Bill Murray, Chevy Chase, etc.
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The last time I saw Michael O’Keefe, who played Danny, was in an episide of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent,” where he played a fertility doctor who was using his own sperm to impregnate women. He also starred in “The Slugger’s Wife,” which also featured Skip Caray, Pete Van Wieren, and Ernie Johnson (the Braves’ announcers at the time).
The movie was written by Brian Doyle-Murray (Bill’s brother, who also played the caddy master) and Harold Ramis. It was like the perfect storm, all the pieces coming together and fitting just perfectly.
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Our middle son loves golf and if not at work he is out on the Links. He loved the film caddyshack and had the video which he was always watching. He started caddying at around 14yrs and spent his school holidays and weekends at Sunnindale and Wentworth . He usual got good tips and met many a celebrity. He must of learnt from them because he is good if I say so myself. š
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My brother was the same way. He’ll tell you that his wife is better…
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Lol šš
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Lots of malls have gone to rot here. We still have some that are thriving. A few weeks ago, we took Moo and her friend to an ‘outdoor’ mall that was all the rage ten years ago — boy is it dead. It was kind of sad. Of course, we hadn’t gone in ten years, so … we’re part of why. We had a good time with what’s still there, it’s just not what it once was.
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We had a couple of outdoor malls in Chicago that are still doing well (at least as far as I know), Old Orchard and Oakbrook Centre. They’ve done well despite the fact that their anchor stores all left; the owners just reconfigured them. Old Orchard is one of the original malls; I think it opened in the ’50’s or the early ’60’s, and it’s still going. It was a big meeting place when I was in high school…
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Great job with the prompt, John. When I saw your video, I thought of all the ways this could be about Caddyshack.
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That’s just a hilarious scene. Very brief, but it gets the point across. Mary once asked me “Why do guys find getting hit in the nuts so funny?” I told her that I thought it was relief that it wasn’t us.
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Ha ha – you got it.
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Those two were perfect in those roles
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North Star Mall is still going strong but many others here in San Antonio have crumbled or are breathing their last breaths. Sad and creepy. We walked through Windsor Park Mall at the end and all I could think about was the end of days. They didn’t demolish the building though. Part of the mall was re-purposed as a school and the remainder became Rack Space.
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See, now that makes sense, to repurpose the mall rather than tearing it down. I’ve seen a few where the storefronts have been converted into professional offices. Kennesaw State University here took over a small mall and moved their art department there, and they also teach the continuing education classes there. Making the necessary modifications to convert it makes a whole lot more sense than tearing it down and starting over.
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Agree. Small world … a childhood friend of mine was an Advisor at Kennesaw State until last year. Sheās since relocated to be closer to her grandson. Iām glad they did similar and made use of existing buildings.
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I live about two miles from KSU. I’ve taken some extension courses through their online, and actually have a certificate in web design from there. Mary took some classes there for a certificate in medical office administration. It’s a pretty good place. Had they been offering an MBA around the time I moved here, I might have been tempted…
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LOL – I love that scene in Caddyshack too! I just watched the movie again last weekend. Classic. And your take on the prompt for the four/fore/for is unforgettable fun and interesting. I think that often about the former malls in our area. So sad they couldn’t survive.
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Shopping malls were great fun when I was traveling. I would typically go and spend an evening at one, have dinner at the food court, browse at B Dalton or Waldenbooks, and just watch people. It’s sad that so many of them are dying out.
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Yes, they are fun to visit. We live 90 miles from the Mall of America. That one seems to be still surviving, unlike most that are disappearing. I always hit the bookstores too!!
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Mall of America is incredible. I can’t see that one dying anytime soon. It’s partially built on what used to be Metropolitan Stadium, where the Twins and I think the Vikings used to play. I used to stay in the Marriott that was in front of the stadium (relative to the road that came out of the airport). I guess they tore all of that down to build it.
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Yes, it’s a cool mall, that’s for sure. We drove by there last weekend to go to the IKEA store. I think you’re right on what was torn down to build it. Every time I go there, it seems bigger than the time before. We enjoyed taking our kids there when they were little.
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I know they took down the Marriott and the Thunderbird Motel as well as Municipal Stadium, but I’m not sure it went as far as the Sheraton. I spent so much time in Minneapolis, I stayed at all three…
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I haven’t stayed there much, but we’ve traveled there to shop a lot over the years.
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Great handling of the prompt, John. Convenience sure has taken over the world. I remember when our downtown area died out because everyone flocked to the malls. Now the malls are dying because people want the convenience of shopping online. My husband and children are guilty. I am a stubborn holdout. I would rather go to a store but some are getting harder to find.
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In my case, shopping online is a Godsend, because it’s hard for me to do much walking thanks to my stroke and two knees that need to be replaced. Mary doesn’t like to deal with the whole shopping in person experience, so she does a lot of her shopping online. Shopping malls were a cultural experience in the ’80’s and ’90’s, but by the turn of the century the crowds were beginning to thin out and a few of them went out of business.
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I get it and understand. As Aunt Bee used to say (as she quoted her doctor) āweāre not spring chickens anymoreā. Shopping has lost its appeal. It is all necessity now.
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Didn’t Aunt Bee say that in the episode where she bought some sort of elixir that turned out to be 100 proof? That was a funny one.
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I think you are right, John. We re-watched all these old episodes when our grandson was growing up.
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MeTV is still showing them, at least the first five seasons (the black & white ones; they tried showing the color ones and everyone complained).
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The color seasons lost the magic.
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They did, and as fine an actor as Jack Dodson was, Howard Sprague really got on my nerves. The same can be said for George Lindsey as Goober. I feel badly for Jack Burns, who had the unenviable task of having to replace one of the funniest men God ever put on Earth, Don Knotts. Had they given Warren (Burns’s character) a more interesting personality (heck, if they gave him any personality at all) it might have worked. In the beginning, Andy was the straight man for all these crazies (Floyd, Barney, Gomer, Opie etc.) and suddenly that wasn’t going to work…
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