I have written about it before. But there is something different – something has drastically changed – about the movie theatre I went to as a kid… as a teenager… as an adult.

Cinemark Theatre in the Carnation Mall in Alliance, OH – a haven for me, & the mecca for so many wonderful childhood memories might be closing down. Hell, the whole mall might be pulverized into the ground & rebuilt into an obscene monstrosity store.

The theatre might be going with it.

Now, my wife & I were visiting Ohio two weekends ago. We stayed at the same hotel we always stay at, which is attached to the doomed & haunted Carnation Mall. (And, yes, that is how I view it: DOOMED & HAUNTED – a ghost-of-a-shell of what it used to be, filled with memories & memories & memories. I can almost SEE them.)

I had to go walk around the mall, try to see some of those ghosts I’m fond of. Those dark walkways, gated-up storefronts – stores I remember from long ago: Walden Books, K-B Toystore, Pocketchange… al of them are gone, now. And the very building in which they were housed will be gone.

I have become very accustomed to saying “Goodbye” to things & people from the past. But I thought certain things would always remain. Carnation Mall… that was a place I thought would remain.

My mother took me there in the summers before I could drive. My older brother took me there before I could drive. I went to the theatre & saw Jason Goes To Hell, the last two Lethal Weapon movies, my brother & I had this thing, when it was summer, to see the stupid American Pie sequels at Cinemark… a whole damn childhood & lifetime going to be reduced to rubble.

Not all things about growing older are fun.

I am happy I got that one last walk through the mall. I’m glad & grateful for all the wonderful memories I have.

Having to remember that all things, naturally, have an end is wise. But that does not mean you have to like it.