Maybe we’re never 100% certain what will generate those nostalgia rushes (for lack of a better word). You know those waves that come over you when it hits? Yeah, those. I didn’t realize learning about a dead mall two hours away would do that, but, sure enough, it did.
Dead Malls
Whether you’re a shopper or an “I’m going in, getting what I need, and coming out” type, you’d have to admit that the mall experience back in the day was never always about shopping. They were, or are (in the cases of the many still-thriving malls), gathering spots.
But, as we know, several (I bet it’s safe to say “hundreds”) malls across the country have shuttered for good, their enormous facilities either razed or converted.
Nashville Dead Malls
In my college days, I visited Nashville on several occasions. Being a student at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, we were fortunate to have Music City less than an hour away. On most occasions, I’d visit Hickory Hollow Mall in southeast Nashville. It was a two-story mall and loaded with every store you could think of and many you probably couldn’t. It was bangin’, and it featured two big anchor stores that carried big and tall clothing. It wasn’t difficult to kill off at least an hour while you were there.
But now, all the hours, along with the mall itself, are dead. After more than 40 years, Hickory Hollow Mall slipped into the dustbin of history in 2019…