The Mall
We went to the McKinley Mall on Saturday night to catch the movie Deadpool 2.
It’s a great place to see a flick.
$3 to get in and the seats are huge and fully recline. If I had a blankie I might’ve fallen asleep.
A bottle of water was $4 though...
...more for the water than the movie.
Yet, it was a fun movie for sure, and as I was walking into the theater, I had a thought:
“I helped build this place.”
My beautiful wife and adoring children are sick of hearing that every time we go to the McKinley Mall, but the truth is, I spent the summer of 1983 as a union laborer there.
I worked on all of the theaters, using a tamper to smash down the dirt before the floors were poured.
I wasn’t good with the tamper (who would’ve guessed?).
It was a heavy piece of machinery that was hard to control and I once tried to tamp too close to a excavation.
Yeah.
Heavy.
The machine went into the hole and me and my laborer partner, Joe, were trying to raise said machine out of the hole when my boss Angelo wandered over.
Angelo went absolutely batshit crazy on us.
You know how he punished us?
He made us sweep the parking lot on a 90-degree day.
You know how big a mall parking lot is?
It was boring too. The only words being spoken were the courtesy of Joe, who ever 15 seconds or so, called me an idiot.
I also remember the grates that we had to place in the floor for the trees that are planted all over the mall.
Those grates were heavy, and there were about a hundred of them and Angelo didn’t want to see two men carrying one grate.
That was a long day...
...and even though it was 35 years ago, I still thought of it on Saturday night.
“Aren’t you going to tell us about building this mall?” Kathy asked as we pulled into the parking lot.
“I did!”
“Yep, all by yourself. My hero.”
At least someone recognizes me for my accomplishments.
It’s a great place to see a flick.
$3 to get in and the seats are huge and fully recline. If I had a blankie I might’ve fallen asleep.
A bottle of water was $4 though...
...more for the water than the movie.
Yet, it was a fun movie for sure, and as I was walking into the theater, I had a thought:
“I helped build this place.”
My beautiful wife and adoring children are sick of hearing that every time we go to the McKinley Mall, but the truth is, I spent the summer of 1983 as a union laborer there.
I worked on all of the theaters, using a tamper to smash down the dirt before the floors were poured.
I wasn’t good with the tamper (who would’ve guessed?).
It was a heavy piece of machinery that was hard to control and I once tried to tamp too close to a excavation.
Yeah.
Heavy.
The machine went into the hole and me and my laborer partner, Joe, were trying to raise said machine out of the hole when my boss Angelo wandered over.
Angelo went absolutely batshit crazy on us.
You know how he punished us?
He made us sweep the parking lot on a 90-degree day.
You know how big a mall parking lot is?
It was boring too. The only words being spoken were the courtesy of Joe, who ever 15 seconds or so, called me an idiot.
I also remember the grates that we had to place in the floor for the trees that are planted all over the mall.
Those grates were heavy, and there were about a hundred of them and Angelo didn’t want to see two men carrying one grate.
That was a long day...
...and even though it was 35 years ago, I still thought of it on Saturday night.
“Aren’t you going to tell us about building this mall?” Kathy asked as we pulled into the parking lot.
“I did!”
“Yep, all by yourself. My hero.”
At least someone recognizes me for my accomplishments.
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