before we start, look!  i made a new page!  check it.

ahem.

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this one time, i took a drive out to morgantown.  now, i guess before i go any further, i should tell you that my family lived in morgantown for several years; my parents before they had kids, up until the time i was like four or five.  then we built the house in bowmansville, and i've been here ever since.  but, this one time, i drove out to morgantown.  it's not too far.  i was returning videos out in kenhorst, and on the way home, i suddenly made a right turn rather than going straight.  you know the light at turkey hill.  well, yeah, i turned right there, and a couple miles later, i was heading to morgantown.  i didn't really even realize i did it until after i'd already done it.  weird.

the road there is heavily wooded and is just long and straight.  i had a lot of time to think about it, about why i was going here, and i didn't really know.  but once i got there, i pulled right off the turnpike and then into the old parking lot of mom's mall.

nowadays, it's not even a mall anymore.  the entire mall has been turned into a furniture store.  i'd heard about this happening a couple years ago, but i'd never seen it with my own eyes.  i don't know why, but i felt like i had to see it with my own eyes.  so i pulled into the parking lot.  instantly, i had flashbacks - we used to live around a mile from the mall, and late at nights, my dad would put me onto the baby seat he had attached on his bike and we'd ride around the parking lot.  i have memories of eating italian ices and ice cream while on these trips, but i don't recall from where.  what i do recall is the riding around at night, the moon, laughing, smiling, hugging my dad.

i got out my car, and walked into the building, the mall itself, and yeah, it's changed.  i blinked a couple times, because that's not really true.  it's the same old place, except all the stores are filled with furniture instead of clothing, food, cassettes and toys.  i just stood at the door, smelling pine and leather instead of pizza and commerce, and then i walked inside.  i wandered around dazed for a little bit, just not really certain of where i was going, just sort of meandering around a palace of lost childhood.  i'd spent countless hours here as a child.  my family went to the mall several times a week, and i know it sounds stupid and probably shallow, but i had a lot of disjointed memories about the place.  it was odd.

i walked through the mall, surprised to see that the food court was still standing, and one shop was even open.  a pizza shop.  i wasn't hungry, but i was going to buy a piece of pizza anyway.  i opened my wallet.  empty.  oh well.

i went into the bathroom in the food court, and it looked the same, almost the exact same.  i blinked once inside of it, and then walked up to the mirror, the same mirror i'd stood in front of as a child.  i wondered if ever, as a young boy, i'd ever looked into the mirror and seen the eighteen year old before me that i would become.  i decided it wasn't totally inprobable, and exited the bathroom.

in truth, the toy store was where i wanted to go most of all.  i entered the east wing, went all the way down, and there it was, the actual store itself, closed off, a storage room for furniture now.  i sighed, thinking about this one time my mom and dad and i went into that toy store and my dad picked up a toy gun and pretended to shoot me with it and then the clerks yelled at him.  my mom shook her head, ushered us out of the store, chiding my father, who just laughed.

the holiday inn right at the end of the mall, next to the old kb toys is still open, and i find it horribly odd that anyone would stay in a hotel at the edge of a furniture store.

they have a bingo hall!  i thought of lou and lisa, and how lisa said she wants to play bingo on her eighteenth birthday, since she'll then be legal.  i smile.

i walked out of the mall, thinking about how times have changed, thinking "maybe lindsay will like that sectional sofa someday."