The Mall Part II: Woodhaven Mall
Introduction
The first indoor shopping mall was opened in 1956. It was a revolutionary design for the thousands of malls across America that came after. By 2017, there were 116,000 malls across the U.S. The 2020 film documenting The Jasper Mall has inspired me to take a journey back to my days hanging out at The Mall in a mini-series of articles. Today, we continue that journey.
The Mall Part 2: The Woodhaven Mall
My journey with The Mall begins in the early 1980’s. I lived in the Andalusia section of Bensalem, Pa. Right up the street was the Woodhaven Mall. It was shaped like an L with a square-shaped fountain and skylight in the back corner. The fountain was all decked out with fake greenery around the edges and benches on all four sides.
One time, I decided to climb over the benches and walk the perimeter of the fountain’s edge. Of course, I was told not to do that for fear that I’d fall in, but what kid listens to their parents. The next thing I knew, my foot slipped in the water and I was left with a soggy foot. Before anyone goes for the “parents not watching you” card, this mall was our playground. We knew everyone in there and everyone in there knew us. Me walking around the edge of the fountain was not as big a deal as it sounded because the water was only ankle deep, so there was no fear of drowning.
The two anchor stores changed their names so many times over the years. When my era came around, they were Jamesway & Gaudio’s Garden store. Jamesway was the K-mart of the day. When shopping there, Mom would always tell me stay by her side I’d get lost. Even at a young age, I knew better than her. I took off on my own anyway. When I looked in every direction and could not find Mom, suddenly, panic set in. I went to the front counter and a neighbor of ours happen to be working. She paged Mom over the loudspeaker and reunited us. Mom was so embarrassed and mad that day. I don’t remember how, but she made sure I never did that again.
Gaudio’s Garden store was exactly how it sounds. It was pretty boring for most of the year. Then, the Christmas season hit. It was so magical to walk through their Christmas displays. Between the trees (both real and fake) and the figurines, it felt very enchanted.
Mom worked in Keller’s House Of Music. We all called it “The Record Store” for obvious reasons. She had met some friends there that she would come to know for the rest of their lives. I always admired her friend Rich. He was into the hard rock / heavy metal scene and always looked so cool with his long hair. He also knew a great deal about music and conversations were never dull. Today, Rich Orth is a successful poet with 2 published books to his credit and one on the way.
Another of Mom’s life-long friends was Anthony DiRenzo, a coworker at Keller’s. While he was working at The Record Store, he was studying to be a Chiropractor. I remember he had this green van with a teardrop window and the interior in the back was all fur. He would transport a portable adjusting table around in there. In the back room at Keller’s, he began adjusting when he could. I was 4 years old when he started adjusting me. He would later open a practice on Bristol Pike and became known to everyone as Dr. Tony. My mother went to work for him when I was young and they became inseparable. They grew as close as brother and sister and therefore Dr. Tony was an uncle to me. Every single one of his patients he treated as family. Sadly, Dr. Tony passed away in 2020. He is missed greatly.
My father worked during the day in a supermarket, so Mom worked at the record store at night. When it was time to go pick her up at the end of the night, Dad would take my sister and I a little before The Mall closed. He would take us into the arcade and pump quarter after quarter into the pinball machines. When my sister and I got a little older, we would play Pac-Man. I was always afraid of the back section where the pool table was. I don’t remember if I was ever TOLD I was not allowed back there or not, but the fact that it was dark other than the light over the pool table kept me away from it.
Over the years, The Mall would put on shows of all kinds. That’s when they constructed a make-shift stage overtop of the fountain. At the time, I was really into WWF Wrestling (before it became WWE). Dr.Tony, helped organize some local wrestles to come, make an appearance and do a signing. Little did I know these were not WWF wrestlers.
When I would spend the night at my grandparent’s, they would take me to Luca’s Pizza because I was such a picky eater and it was a simple dinner.
As I got a little older and started hanging out with friends, one of the best places to catch a movie was their 4 screen AMC theater. I’ll never forget going to see the original Batman movie there in 1990.
Because it was the ONLY place I had ever gone for my vinyl, I would go and buy my 45’s at The Record Store. When I was collecting as many Guns N’ Roses 45’s as they put out, they carried them all! My last one was their cover of “Since I Don’t Have You” on orange vinyl because it was from the album “The Spaghetti Incident”.
When I got to high school, the go to date was dinner at McDonalds (which was a stand-alone across the parking lot) followed by a movie in The Mall. It was the classic dinner & a movie date!
As store by store said their goodby to Woodhaven Mall, it became a ghost town. Jamesway was torn down to build a Home Depot. In 1993, the front section of The Mall was removed, leaving the stores in the back in place and converting it to a strip mall. The 4-screen movie theater was torn down to replace it with a state-of-the-art 10-screen movie theater.
All of Andalusia watched as their youth disappeared, only to be replaced by another run-of-the-mill strip mall. Although this strip of stores bares the same name, it will never be The Woodhaven Mall.
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Rich Orth is an incredible writer! Please check out Rich Orth POEtry at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/109463050123/?ref=share
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