Stratford Square Mall

** My cat bowl from Macys, Stratford Square Mall.

It’s April 20th, and the Stratford Square Mall in Bloomingdale, Illinois, a suburb of the Greater Chicago Area, is closing for good tomorrow. Link is here.

Obviously I am no stranger to malls. I was born and raised near a famous one in Torrance, California called The Del Amo Fashion Center. My sister and I spent years running amuck, unsupervised, through the endless labyrinth that made up that mall and spent our time in B. Dalton, Charlotte Russe, Sanrio, etc. This was the late 80s and early 90s, and malls were in their prime.

In the later 90’s I would walk through that same mall to get my job at Borders Books and Music off Hawthorne Blvd and for several months I would walk through the staged area of the set of the movie “Jackie Brown” that was being filmed there. I clearly remember stepping over wires, dodging catering and noting the trailers off to the side and I will never forget choosing to meet a guy one evening, over joining my friends at the filming of a scene in the mall food court. Where they met and chatted with Quentin Tarantino. Who loved my friend group because we all had worked at a video store, like he did in Manhattan Beach. Yes, I hate myself for missing this, thank you. I don’t even remember the fucking dudes name but I will never forget that my friends at the time had an evening with Tarantino.

Later after my families mass exodus to Northern California, I would work in the Sunrise Mall in Citrus Heights, California. This mall saw Waldenbooks shenanigans, which meant working at a seasonal calendar store staged in an old McDonalds (the walk in freezer was used as storage)and later when I was in school- a shoe store.

My experiences at the shoe store will soon get their own post, but I can start this off with the cold, hard fact that we were all 30 and under- and one of my managers at the time was constantly passed out in the back on a pile of cardboard from a massive hang over. We also hired ex felons, stole shoes, and needed security escorts out to the bus when people would crawl under the gate demanding that we sell them shoes after we were closed.

When I decided to relocate to the greater Chicago area, I easily transferred to the Waldenbooks at the Stratford Square Mall.

I was told all about this mall from my best friend who I was staying with in Glendale Heights off of Schmale Road which was right next to the village of Bloomingdale-and was a smaller mall than the big one up in Schaumburg called “Woodfield”. It was more peaceful, easy going and just… prettier. When we walked around after I first arrived I was instantly smitten with the interior design. The wood paneling was gorgeous, which made walking around the mall a serene event. There were these fluted vaults of woodwork that would open up into ceiling wood paneling with slats and exposed skylights (see picture below). I had never seen anything like this architecture. Almost as if Frank Lloyd Wrights second or third understudy was commissioned to design a shopping mall.

When it would snow I remembered how the ambient lighting would change because of the snow on the skylights. The woodwork was really such a fascinating, beautiful feature and was the first thing I would remember when thinking about malls past.

I worked there 2006 and 2007, when it was still quite a bustling, busy environment. This particular Waldenbooks was personally an intense exposure to the people and faces of suburban Chicago. I was ridiculed for being from California, to the point of exasperation. My boss absolutely hated me, but loved all the boys my age (early 30’s) and younger and made a point of taking excessive smoke breaks with them. Fairly soon after my arrival, this boss was pretty much forced to quit and took up a job at the Century Theater that was opening in the mall just down the corridor. I was not interested in following her, as most of the other employees did at the time and instead kissed up to the new manager and their lackey. Smart move on my part, as I was promoted and eventually moved up to Schaumburg, to work at the bigger mall.

So much time was spent there at the Stratford Square Mall, just walking around. When we operated a seasonal calendar store that was a subsidiary of Waldenbooks I remember it being some distance away from the main store. We were behind an escalator is all that I can recall. This would have been the winter of 2006. I remember wearing Ugg boots that were liberated from my Sacramento mall job, and I would just sit in that calendar store reading books, occasionally ringing people up. It was at this store that was barely trafficked that I would get through the entire volume of the “Icewindale Trilogy” by R.A. Salvatore. This was a pivotal time in my life as an avid World of Warcraft gamer, who previously played Everquest. Once I started reading that book I recognized so many Everquest characters and scenarios that I finally put two and two together that Forgotten Realms= Dungeons and Dragons.

I had many notable moments in this mall:

-I worked the Waldenbooks Harry Potter night for the Deathly Hallows and did palm readings, and had a line around the store and rumors of high accuracy. One woman (a nurse) said that I was spot on and that I should get into the fortune telling business.

-I would get lunch all the time in the food court, and it was usually at an Asian place ( I think Japanese?) Or the Great Steak and Potato co. People would talk about this elaborate fountain system you could see from the food court, but by the time I got there they had been removed.

-The snowstorm that happened overnight when I spent the night somewhere else. My California was showing that morning- as I mistook an early spring day as the real deal. It snowed buckets overnight after a warm, 65+ day previously. My dumb ass came into work that morning in flip flops and my bookstore coworkers absolutely lost their shit laughing at me. I was shamed into going down to Payless Shoe Source and picking up some closed toe flats. (Note: I would never do this now).

-My best friend and I always talked about this big guy walking around with an NWO shirt. We eventually assumed he was plain clothes loss prevention/security. Everyone seemed to recognize this guy in the mall, and I would see him written about in other places.

-The movie theater just opened when I worked there, and it was THE place to go. I got the evil-eye one evening when my friend and I went to the movies, as my old boss hatefully watched us buy popcorn and head in. It was an elaborately muraled theater, and I clearly remember standing at the staircase while getting a “stare down”. What a shame and waste of a theater.

-One evening I was just off work, so I sat in the huge parking lot in my sporadically working car and watched an intense lightning storm while eating a Cinnabon. It was an amazing moment, as I was new to Illinois storms coming off the prairie and the lightning was just breathtaking. The drive home was horrendous however, as it was like someone turned a hose on and sprayed it directly at my windshield for the short drive. I got home and stood in the door way, dripping, as my friends mom laughed so hard she couldn’t even breath. Welcome to Chicago?

-My same Chicago family picking me up after work at random times and the dog, Logan, barking its head off at people until I walked up in the car, right directly under the Stratford Square Mall logo in front of a mall entrance. I still miss that chocolate Labrador.

-One day in October I was off, and decided to walk over to Macys. They had Halloween plates displayed and I instantly picked up two bowls. One pictured above. I am pretty sure it was Macys, as Marshall Fields turned INTO Macys when I was there and I was still trying to figure out what a Carson Pirie Scott was (turns out it was a store).

I have nothing but good memories of this place. I follow a subreddit called /deadmalls (I’m into liminal spaces…what can I say) and when I saw the familiar wood paneling of Stratford Square in a post my heart just sank. I was wishing it would be repurposed but it looks like its being closed and torn down. What a sad state of affairs, but it has been years since I lived in that area, so I have no idea how the commerce is in that specific town. But its always sad to see a beautiful relic being destroyed.

My heart goes out to all the kids my age and younger who grew up going to that mall. I know how it feels to have things like this either ripped away or transformed. The Del Amo mall I knew and loved looks absolutely nothing like the mall I visited in my childhood. That iconic Jackie Brown food court is gone, and I’ve read that kids aren’t even allowed unchaperoned after 3pm because of teenage swarming attacks. Whatever the hell that is, I’m glad I’m not that age anymore. Most kids now have no idea what they are missing.

My time in Chicago is precious to me, and I love the memories I’ve kept. I am honored to have spent some time in grandeur that was Stratford Square Mall. I will never forget that time of my life and how much I loved that space. Keep on keeping on, guys. I know I never went to Glenbard North– but I knew enough of you to feel like I was part of a crowd, and I feel this loss as much as some of you. We have our memories- keep the home fires lit, and we can pass these stories down to the next generations.