Sunday Bookends: An old-school mall visit and weirdly high blog traffic for my usually quiet space

/ Lisa R. Howeler

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

This past week was a tame week for the most part. Things picked up Friday when I picked up a friend of Little Miss’s and they had a sleepover before we all went to visit an old-school mall near Scranton, Pa. yesterday morning.

The mall has a small selection of stores still left but like many malls of today there are a lot of empty store spaces.

I didn’t walk as far as anyone else but one of the most exciting things for Little Miss was finding an escalator to ride up and down on.

That’s the main reason she wanted to go to a mall. She’d heard me tell stories about going on an escalator at the mall we used to go to when I was growing up and wanted to experience it herself.

Her brother and dad were able to visit the mall about two weeks ago but that was the first day of a two-week illness for her and me (which would have been over sooner if it hadn’t been for that stinking sinus drainage she got! Poor kid!). I had never visited that mall. The one we used to go to was in New York State and the other one was an hour south but has since closed.

If you’re new here, we live in a very rural area that requires us to drive about an hour in any direction to find larger stores/malls/movie theaters, etc.

We don’t have a lot of buildings with escalators or elevators near us, so it is quite a treat when we get to visit one. I can’t believe it’s taken us until Little Miss is almost 11 to take her somewhere she could ride an escalator!

Yesterday there was a mechanical horse ride at the mall, but The Husband couldn’t get the change machine to work so Little Miss simply announced she wanted to go back on the escalator again. That was just as exciting to her and her friend as a mechanical horse ride.

The escalator was in a JC Penny Store. Yes, this mall still had a JC Penny and it has two stories.

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs knows that I don’t have much of a social life or get out much so she challenged me to go into a store and buy one thing I wouldn’t normally buy — like lipstick (she knows I don’t wear makeup so that’s probably why she suggested that. Ha!) I went into the first store I came to, which was Claire’s and grabbed a planner, some hairbands that were on sale, and tinted lip balm (when I originally wrote this I accidentally typed “tainted lip balm”. Well, that definitely would be something I don’t normally buy!). It shows how long it has been since I’ve been at a mall because when that woman with her black lipstick and black hair, wearing a Halloween costume in August, said to me, “That will be $42,” I went all old lady on her.

“I’m sorry? How much? What in the world did I buy?”

Turns out the lip gloss was $10 each and I had grabbed an extra one for Little Miss because she likes to pretend to do makeup with her friends. The planner was $15 and I do not think that they gave me the sales price on the hairbands.

Live and learn! And what I learned is I really don’t miss malls as much as I thought I d.

The kids had a lot of fun though and we even found a Barnes and Noble down the road to visit for a little while. Each girl picked out a book to read.

They also came home with a candle, a mug, a small stuffed animal, and friendship necklaces each. I loved how excited they were with those little things, but they did try for $10 little hamsters at Barnes and Noble which I turned down because we were there for books and not toys and had already gotten a couple of stuffed animals.

That’s one change from when we used to visit Barnes and Noble back in the day (20-some years ago) — there wasn’t a whole toy section, that I remember anyhow. I am sure bookstores are simply trying to diversify, but I like my bookstores to mainly carry books.

We only grabbed one book while we were there because I just ordered several books from Thriftbooks and I couldn’t think of any books I wanted that were new. The Husband picked up an Erle Stanley Gardner that we will share since we both like his books (or some of them anyhow).

I did want to look at journals, but I’ve gotten used to buying $5 dollar store journals and couldn’t bring myself to spend $18 or more on one. They had a huge 50 percent off cart of journals, but I didn’t see that until we were getting ready to leave so I left that for another day.

The mall and other stores aren’t super far away so we could definitely visit again someday soon.

I do feel like I’ve gotten old, though. The visit to B&N didn’t excite me as much as I thought it would. Maybe it was because I was having a bit of a stinky autoimmune day or maybe it’s because I’ve discovered I like little stores with used books more than I like big stores full of new books. Plus, there are so many books that I just wouldn’t read — like all those BookTok books — out in prominent places which means I would have had to hunt for any books I would really want to read.

Overall, it was a really nice trip, and I would love to go again when I am having a better health day and had had a little more sleep the night before. One of the nicest things about the trip was seeing the beautiful green hills of Pennsylvania. Summer is winding down and some trees are changing already, but for the most part green is dominating our views and I’m fine with that. I am, however, looking forward to the cooler temps of this week.

This morning as I got ready to cast my Sunday morning episode of Just A Few Acres Farm to the TV, I saw a notice that Bob from the Bob and Brad Physical Therapy YouTube Channel had passed away.  It hit me very hard as I have watched this channel for years and gone there numerous times over the years to get ideas on how to help the various cricks and pains I get in my neck and muscles.

Bob was diagnosed with cerebral ataxia a few years ago, and it affected how he spoke and walked. I had no idea it would take his life, but apparently, it caused a cardiac event the week before last, and he passed suddenly. Brad and their new host (he stepped in a few years ago) and Bob’s son spoke about Brad during the episode announcing his death and I was a sobbing mess.

I was happy Bob donated his organs and saved at least three more lives, if not more, but it was so depressing for me to hear about I was glad I had not made plans to do anything today.

Right before I was about to post this today, I noticed my blog stats had gone crazy. I usually get 200-250 views a day, and yesterday I had over 5,00,0 but with no comments to match that I can see. The visitors are actually lower than I get too. And all the views are from the Netherlands. That’s all I know! Does anyone know where to find out where these views are coming from? All I can find is “Google search” and I don’t even see a ton of views on any one post. I am beginning to think something is wrong with WordPress’s stats.

My two most viewed posts, consistently, are the one about the song You Are My Sunshine and the one that asks what the motive of Charles Ingalls was moving his family across the country time and time again.

A couple of housekeeping items:

I have a monthly book-related link party if you are interested. You can find the A Good Book and A Cup of Tea link party at the top of my page or here. It is for posts about books that you are reading, have read, book reviews — just anything book-related really. So even posts about book collections, authors etc. etc.

Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs, and I are still holding Drop-In Crafternoons once or twice a month.

We will be holding another one next Sunday, August 24th from 1 to around 3 p.m.

The Crafternoons are events where we gather on Zoom and craft at our respective homes and chat while we work on various projects. We are calling them drop-in crafternoons because you can drop in and out during the time we are on (usually from about 1 to 3 p.m. EST US time). No need to stay the whole time if you can’t. Come late if you want or leave early.

If you want to join in, email Erin at crackcrumblife@gmail.com and she will add you to the mailing list.

This past week I finished Dave Barry Isn’t Taking This Sitting Down by Dave Barry (humor columnist for the Miami Herald). It was very funny! It was a collection of his columns from 2000.

Right now I am reading Carry On, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse and will probably finish it this week.

I am also reading But First, Murder (A Betti Bryant Mystery)  by Bee Littlefield and Nancy Drew Mystery: Password to Larkspur Lane by Carolyn Keene (I’m sure I’ll finish it this week. These books are so short.).

I’ll be reading Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie Mallowan next. This is an autobiographical book by Agatha Christie about some of her travels with her second husband, who was an archaeologist. I read the first couple of pages already, and her humor really comes through. I am looking forward to getting into it more.

Little Miss and I are reading The Good Master by Kate Seredy.

This weekend The Husband and I watched an episode of Rizzoli and Isles, a show I’d totally forgotten about. I watched a Murder, She Wrote episode and a coupe of Quantum Leap episodes. I also watched a couple episodes of my favorite farmer’s YouTube Channel — Just A Few Acres.

For my Summer of Angela feature, I watched A Life At Stake.

I made some progress on Gladwynn Grant Goes Back to School this past week and hope to make a lot more during this upcoming week. I am shooting for a November release. We will see how that goes!

On the blog I shared:

I hope to finish up The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady by Sharon J. Mondagon this week. I hadn’t been listening to it consistently so it’s taken a bit for me to finish it. This week I plan to find some time during dishwashing, etc. to listen.

The Friday 56 Night Riders by Tod Hunter on Gunsmoke and Grit

Grandma Jean’s Baked Fudge Pudding by Scratch Made for Hungry People

Summer Murder Mystery Train Adventure by Bushel and a Pickle

Now It’s Your Turn

What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to, or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

This post is linked up with The Sunday Post at  Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer, The Sunday Salon with Deb at Readerbuzz, and Book Date: It’s Monday! What are you reading hosted by Kathyrn at The Book Date. Stacking the Shelves is hosted by Reading Reality.

Lisa R. Howeler is a blogger, homeschool mom, and writes cozy mysteries.

You can find her Gladwynn Grant Mystery series HERE.

You can also find her on Instagram and YouTube.

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25 thoughts on “Sunday Bookends: An old-school mall visit and weirdly high blog traffic for my usually quiet space”

  1. I was wondering what you meant by old school malls and realized they are the malls I used to go to all the time.  Sadly, one of my favorite malls is practically a ghost town.  Almost the end of a fun era. 

    I am so sorry to hear about Bob’s passing.  I am sure that was a shock for his family as well as his fans.

    I agree with you about Barnes and Noble.  I might buy some clearance items, but that’s about it.  Like you, I enjoy smaller bookshops with used books.  😊 

    That is interesting about your stats. 

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  3. My blog stats have done that the past two months as well, it’s crazy!!! I do like going into Barnes and Noble and I MISS having a used bookstore near me, because i prefer them as well 🙂 I hope you have a great week!

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  6. The visit to the mall sounds fun for the girls. Living out in the country is much better! Never thought of someone not ever having been on an escalator. Yes I saw that too about Bob, they were so good together and very helpful. I didn’t watch the video so now I know what happened. Happy reading.

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    • I know! Isn’t that crazy? I mean I was sheltered as a kid but we at least went to one mall with an escalator. lol! My poor kid — we have just never went anywhere that needed one. Need to remedy that I guess.

      Bob and Brad were great together …the video is so hard to watch. Brad almost doesn’t make it through without breaking down.

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  7. I remember going with my Spanish class into Houston to see Andre Segovia on guitar, and my friends and I spent the whole evening going up and down in the elevator there. I understand the appeal of an escalator.

    I’m happy B&N has survived but it has been (in my opinion) at a cost. I have been known to buy a discount journal there a few times.

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    • I agree about B&N. It has been at a cost. Like, I couldn’t find those big comfy chairs they used to have where you could just sit and read through a book to see if you liked it. And the store was set up so weird. There were bookshelves but they were all at weird angles, like walking through a maze. It just wasn’t the same.

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  8. Your mall outing does sound fun; though my boys do not understand the appeal of malls at all and can’t grasp why I spent so much of my teen years in/at them. I try to explain that it was just the place to be since everyone was also hanging out there. I could easily spend all day in a mall as a teen and only spend $20. It was good, cheap, fun!

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    • I actually didn’t remember how much I never liked malls until we went back to one. For me I had to drive an hour to get to one and once I got there it was so much walking and I didn’t really like to shop. It’s weird! I don’t know why I am not a shopping fan. Maybe because we didn’t have a lot of money at the time but even then I could have just looked. I wasn’t really the kind of teenager who hung out with people either. I was introverted. I do have some good memories of going to the bookstore in the mall and the Christian bookstore and also the toy store or restaurants with my friends and their mom.

      So all my memories are not bad but not all sentimental either.

      I think your situation sounds better because the mall was probably close for you.

      I think our kids would get it more if they didn’t have all the devices and distractions they do now. Like if they were to walk through one with their friends, they’d get it more.

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      • UM.. 45 minutes? At least. But school and church and various organizations often planned bus trips to the mall for free so lots of kids my age and from my town and school would go.

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  9. I suspect the big traffic was attempted spammers. I am really vigilant about letting comments through (I have to approve anyone who comments for the first time, which helps a lot) but once I had a weirdly misspelled comment that looked legitimate, so I let it through and then that post got bombarded with people trying to post links to various dodgy things. So if you can look at your comments and then spam you might see lots of attempted comments on that day, but in spam, although your host should also have disallowed a lot of them.

    Funny about the escalator, I’ve never thought of that. Even in the village where I grew up, the local town had at least one two-storey department store with an escalator. There was only the office and the hairdresser my mum and then I, too, went to up there, maybe the cafe, too.

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    • ah-ha! You’re probably right about the spammers. I did look and didn’t see any spam comments but that would make sense. Thanks!

      Yes, the escalator thing is just not a thing or need in our little area. I kid you not that the closest one I can think of is an hour away and another one is two hours away. We don’t even go on elevators very often. We are so uncivilized. lol

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  11. I had a week of crazy views also not long ago! Even more crazy because I hadn’t posted anything that week. So yes I wonder if something goes haywire with WP sometimes! Sure hope you are feeling a little better this week. You are in my prayers! 🥰

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  12. When my kids were little, we would go on vacation with my mom so she wouldn’t have to travel alone. One summer, we stayed at a really nice hotel in Washington, DC. Unfortunately, it’s now condos. Anyway, the elevator had a glass wall that looked out on the front courtyard. My kids rode that thing up and down. I think they thought they were the elevator operators! It’s the little things, I’ve found, that they remember rather than anything really big (and usually expensive) we did. I love that Little Miss wanted to ride the escalator over the horse. Most of the malls around here are in the same condition. There are two I won’t go to at night because of the danger. It’s sad in so many ways.

    I hope you like The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady. I really did. We watched Amy Bradley is Missing. One of those real life mysteries that doesn’t have a satisfying end.

    I have no clue how to figure out how many people have visited my own blog! I think, if I did, I’d probably cry.

    https://marshainthemiddle.com/

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    • I am really liking The Unlikely Yarn of the Dragon Lady. I’ve already ordered a paperback to loan it out to people because the story is so well done. I’ve cried a couple of times listening to it. I am very curious how it will end.

      And the thing with the kids playing on the free “entertainment” for lack of a better word is like when you buy toys for babies and toddlers and then they play with the box more! lol!

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