So Long Chesterfield Mall and Thanks for All the Memories
/Another day and another Saint Louis landmark is going by the wayside. I fully understand that what I'm talking about is definitely for my STL readers, but I live here and this stuff was/is important to me and I have an avenue to talk about it. Let’s get to it.
As a kid we all had that one mall that we would go to to hang out with friends and dork around. This is a very common Generation X and Millennial thing, but it had a wild heyday. Malls were all the craze for a good decade or so. Here in West County, that mall for me was Chesterfield Mall. I had a lot of firsts there, and today is the last day that it will be open. Today is the last day that Chesterfield Mall will be called Chesterfield Mall. I don't know what they're changing it into, it is a big space, but this is the last gasp. This bums me out.
Like I said, I had a ton of experiences at Chesterfield Mall. When I was in middle school this was the hang out. My friends and I would get one of our parents to drive us out there, drop us off and pick us up at 9pm, when it closed. It was a formative time and it was the place to be. We'd run into other friends that had the same plan as us. We'd go to the movie theater that was just down the hill. We'd eat at the food court for dinner. We would bring our girlfriends with us, if we were lucky enough to have a girlfriend. Chesterfield Mall was the first place I had Sbarro. It was the first place I tried Panda Express. I had my first crab rangoon at Chesterfield Mall. There used to be a great sandwich shop within the mall called Kent's Deli, and that was where I first tried beer cheese soup, which was delightful. They used to have a store within the mall where you could adopt and pet dogs. I would spend hours, literal hours hanging out in the dog store. The first Foot Locker I went to was in Chesterfield Mall. The first time I went to a card/memorabilia shop was in Chesterfield Mall. My first Auntie Anne's experience was there. I got all of my Starter jackets at stores that were there. I used to do school clothes shopping at JCPenney, or if I were lucky enough, Chesterfield Mall. When my son was born I'd bring him there to ride the carousel and get lunch at Saint Louis Bread Co. We would ride the train. I'd take my nieces to Journeys when they were younger. I remember my wife taking them to Claire's. I used to go to the shoe store with my mom and she would let me pick out new school shoes. We would go to Dillard's on the regular because they always had some kind of sale or deal on stuff. I used to know where the best parking was. Chesterfield Mall was the first, and only American Girl Doll store I ever went inside, to buy my nieces Xmas or birthday gifts. I did my only food challenge ever at the Cheeburger Cheeburger that they used to run. It was brutal, but at least I got to sit down in a theater and let it all digest on the same level as the restaurant. In its later years I would go into V Stock and sell all of my old DVDs. Chesterfield Mall was a big deal in my life. Just sitting down and writing this, so many memories came flooding back. That place was a constant in my life for a very long time. That mall meant something to me. That mall made middle school years fly by. That mall provided me with some of the coolest sports gear I have ever owned.
Rest In Peace Chesterfield Mall. You were a West County institution. You will be missed.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.
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