shopping Down and out at Sunrise Mall

We are not only thirsty, we are obsessed with tracking down a primed-Orange Julius on a blistering Saturday afternoon. This quest for iconic drinks and iced foam has become something of a fixation manic since we decided to revisit my old stomping teenagers, the Sunrise Mall. We finally arrive, after a trip down a long stretch of the boulevard packed with taco joints at the wheel, tire stores and clogging the arteries of the restaurant chain, and pull the car in a half-empty parking yawn . It's not quite what I expected. Again, there were over 15 years since I last set foot in Sunrise Mall, and at least 20 years because he has reigned as the royalty of shopping centers in the Sacramento area. Now we make a beeline to the food court, eager to answer some burning questions of life: "What exactly in an orange Julius?" "Do they really put the eggs in them?" "Is it even still exist?" My husband is skeptical. "I'm sure they are out of business," he said, frowning. But not just Orange Julius beverage chain based in Southern California in 1926, still alive and well, it's probably one of the few bright spots in this otherwise desolate desert of suburban commercial. What seemed like the epitome of a teenage dream-all neon sweaters, leggings and, yes, Orange Julius, now languishes, the child passed over the middle, half-forgotten in the shadow of its big sisters, glitzier, a quiet place for walkers malls; good second showing of films, concerts staged by 70 and 80 faded pop acts, and unusually colored citrus drinks. Once Sunrise Mall, which opened in 1972, a sign, as a set of good faith John Hughes movie. It was the promised land of fashion model pictures, junk food and cheap cute boys. In other words, the quintessential pre-tech social network primitive. The only thing missing, it seemed, Molly Ringwald was lurking in the mid-shelf prom dress Weinstock, or Ally Sheedy in the bathroom, her bangs in Aqua clearing a protective mask for the eyes. Of course, the reality is quite different. The weekend we were lucky enough to get a parent to chauffeur us out of Citrus Heights, a 20 minutes drive from our central Sacramento area. We usually arrived too broke to shop for anything, but all clearance sales are final-racks Jean Nicole, or Express Journeys. ILLUSTRATION BY HAYLEY DOSHAY Yet he seemed bright and fresh with tangerine-colored tiles and geometric clusters of yellow flowers in pots. There was, also, cute boys on skateboards, and we could spend hours in the food court, nursing Diet Coke, watching the perfect run (if illicit) and shove-its heelflips. A few steps, called Birdcage Walk Cinema showing second release of $ 1 movies all day and late into the night. Sky. It was the gold standard of the 1980s-era kicking teen, and he still had years before he faced much in the way of competition. Then, Downtown Plaza Shopping Center was still just a bunch of outdoor shops disparate, populated largely with state workers, cops and bike punks who are bored brazenly hooky, while of other suburban centers as Florin Mall, Arden Fair Mall, seemed shabby and outdated. Arden Fair, for example, was anchored at one end with a Thrifty Drug Store and a Cirque-feeding it a Mad Men carnival food court at the time that seems deliciously kitsch today, but then just felt sad and outdated . In 1989, however, he suffered his own teen-movie worthy makeover, ditching the circus Thrifty and food in exchange for a second story that extends from above with skylights light and airy. It was sleek and modern and well equipped with the latest, trendy stores. The Downtown Plaza followed suit in 1993 with its own renovation to the purchase by the Westfield Group, which transformed the band run-down in elegant open-air market that was still largely populated by state workers, bike cops and punks who are bored, but at least now boasted a food court and possibly a J.Crew and Hard Rock Cafe. Sunrise Mall, by comparison, suddenly seemed dull and far away. However, we returned, at least for a few more years-true to a Friday night ritual that involved teasing hair in rats nests and shooting of Depeche Mode and INXS as we cruised the boulevard in our parents hand me down, beat up Oldsmobile and Chevrolet Impala. Oh, yes, the night cruise, a friend remembers now, sadly. "You would just watch other teenagers in their cars, and sometimes the guys would shake and tell you to pull in the parking lot or Birdcage Walk Bobby McGee," she said. "Then you, and then you would all be standing around, and it would be awkward, and nobody know what to say. " Eventually, however, we have drifted far from the boulevard we rented apartments downtown and shopping centers traded for thrift stores, Depeche Mode and Nirvana for those rusty boats for economy cars. As such, I have not thought about Sunrise Mall over the years until someone mentioned that this is the house the night in Sunrise, a new series of outdoor concerts featuring likes of Three Dog Night, Devo, Blondie, is not exactly aimed at the crowd Justin Bieber. Now, as I ask the cashier of the Orange Julius beverage ingredients ("He always had the egg," she said, bored. "Egg Powder."), It becomes clear that the Sunrise Mall of my youth is long gone. Not only an updated 1999 stripping the place of its cheerful orange tiles, the economy and a culture change has apparently emptied it of life. On this day we have at least 10 empty stores, and the whole section seems much smaller than recall. There are still a handful of traditional shopping centers, of course: Cinnabon, Claire, Victoria's Secret and even a Spencer's ie classier empires fancy, topped with backpacks Twilight half-and-T shirts with slogans such as "slut" and "My dick accepted everywhere. " Also of interest, however, is its complete lack of modern shopping mall staples: There is no Gap. No Abercrombie & Fitch. No Forever 21. As such, it is also substantially free of teen life, at least on this particular afternoon. Walk end to end, we have two teenage couples before a budget that shows the scene of the second run movies for $ 3.25 a pop. Furthermore, the mall quietly hums with the elderly and young families pushing strollers. A curtain of 20 something woman herself through a ridge of water-fountain, her hair tied in a scarf Russian peasant style. She pulls her face into a grimace as a sexy friend takes pictures on a cheap point-and-shoot. Nearby, a sign promoting a "Friends-in-Fitness Walking Club Mall." Mall culture, as I remember is dead, buried next to the rotting corpse of glitter-bombed Contempo Casuals. This is not the only shopping center down-and-out in the Sacramento area, of course. In the last decade, the Internet and applied security center has steadily chipped away at the notion of shopping malls as social centers. Arden Fair Mall, is still flourishing, but it has tough competition, not only in the sparkling, upscale Westfield Galleria at Roseville, but in common virtual, such as Facebook and Twitter, too. Moreover, the Florin Mall was demolished in 2006 (with only its original date will Sears among a legion of new superstores reduction), while an investment company based in San Francisco is in talks to reorganize the Plaza Downtown Long after struggling in a large mixed-use plaza. There are more well-documented evidence that speak of this change, but right now, we face the strongest, the most important evidence that: stores, shuttered, teens and little for the sweetish taste of Orange Julius which leaves us feeling nostalgic queasily.

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