Remembering West Edmonton Mall

West Edmonton Mall from the sky in the '80s. An aerial view such as this shows just how massive the mall is.

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For a long time, it was the world’s largest shopping mall, and the place you could get, or do, just about everything.

Today, we were in Edmonton and went clothes shopping at West Edmonton Mall.

It brought back another odd mix of memories of going to movies, eating at food courts, and hanging out with friends.

In the beginning
The first time I ever went to West Edmonton Mall was the spring of 1987. I had been accepted into the University of Alberta in Edmonton, yet I had never been north of Calgary in my whole life.

My cousin Nina was finishing up her final year at the U of A. She said if I ever wanted a tour of Edmonton and the University of Alberta campus, just say the word.

So my Mom got in touch with her sister, Nina’s mom, and arranged for us to go up to Edmonton for the weekend.

Part of that trip was a stop at West Edmonton Mall. I have no memories of any store or shop.

All I remember was thinking, “This is really big.”

When I moved up to Edmonton that September, I don’t really recall the first time I went to the Mall. For some reason, I think it was to get our phone. That was back in the days before the phone companies came to the campus to sign people up.

I do recall, over time, developing a like for the Chinese food at one of the two food courts. I think it was the food court by the theatres.

New friend
By second semester, I had begun to branch out and meet new people. My high school friend Randy Skiba lived on another floor in another tower, Sixth Mackenzie Hall, so I got to know some of the people on his floor.

With a couple months left in the school year, I befriended Glen. We had a lot in common and started to hang out. He had ripped the sleeve on his jacket, and heard there was a tailor at the Mall. He asked if I wanted to go with him.

I was in.

We took the bus to the Mall, wound our way through it and, at the end of an isolated side hallway found the tailor. Glen dropped his jacket off and they said it would be about an hour.

So we decided to find something to eat. We wandered the Mall, and found ourselves on Bourbon Street, which was patterned on a vintage New Orleans neighbourhood, complete with street lamps and benches. It also had more upscale restaurants, and no fast food places.

That’s when we discoveried Zembelli’s, where we had the most amazing pizza. I can still picture how thick the toppings were and how nicely browned the cheese was, We talked about religion, and I learned Glen was Jewish.

I recall afterwards, we went to pick up his jacket from the seamstress who fixed the rip on his sleeve, but he was not happy with the job. Instead of stitching it up neatly, they stitched a little box around the rip, drawing even more attention to it. I can still picture that too.

Birthday bash
That same year, I celebrated my 18th birthday. I had these two friends on my floor, Kim McDonald and Caroline Pounder, and they offered to take me out for supper and a movie, but it had to be after my birthday, because they couldn’t do it on the actual day.

It was months later, but we all finally set a date. Kim showed up and we both wondered where Caroline was. By then, coincidentally, Caroline had started dating Glen, so Kim went over to 6 Mac and found her.

We rode the bus to West Edmonton Mall, and they treated me to Chinese food at that food court and we went to see a movie I really wanted to see,

It was called “DOA” and starred Dennis Quaid, who I really liked as an actor, and a relatively unknown co-star named – Meg Ryan. She was best known as Goose’s wife on “Top Gun”, but that would soon change.

DOA stood for dead on arrival and was about a man who was given a lethal dose of poison. He was going to die, but had a few hours to live, enough time to find out who killed him.

Sadly, I was so tired at that point in my life, I dozed through parts of the movie and never got the full effect.

I really should watch it again.

That was also the last time I ever hung out together with Kim and Caroiline.

Love Shop baaaaaby
Whenever I hear “The Love Shop”, the tune from “Love Shack” by the B-52s runs through my mind. The first time I ever went was in my second year of university, in the fall of 1988, with my good friend CJ.

He had just started dating this girl and they were getting, shall we say, adventurous in the bedroom. They were using toys, and lotions and all sorts of erotic aids. It was all new to me. Hey, I was a farm kid from Coaldale.

CJ wanted to go to “The Love Shop” to pick something up. When we walked in, I did not even recognize most of the merchandise, beyond the girlie magazines. CJ picked up this toy, turned on, and it started to whir in this rhythm. I couldn’t stop giggling.

At that point the staff emerged from the back room.

She said, and I kid you not, “Oh hello CJ, how are you?”

My giggling just got worse.

“How did that last thing you bought here work out for you?” she continued.

He just nodded nonchalantly. It was just fine.

I was about to explode.

Beer with Teddy
That year I was a floor coordinator and sat on a joint council with 30 other coordinators. That is where I met Steve Thomas, whose nickname was Teddy. He was a coordinator on Second Mac. We hit it off and always said we should go for some beers.

Out of the blue one Saturday morning, Steve phoned me. He had a couple things to do at the Mall and asked me if I wanted to go with him. I did, so we hopped the bus at the main terminal which, at the time was in front of St. Jospeh’s College, and headed to the mall. As an aside, we sat behind this guy named Leslie who I had rode the school bus with growing up. That was the only time I ever saw him before or since.

Steve and I did our errands and he suggested we go for a beer. That was the really cool thing about taking the bus. No one had to worry about drinking and driving.

Still fairly new to West Edmonton Mall, Steve suggested a place – the Elephant and Castle. That started along and storied relationship I would have with that pub.

It was so cool. We talked about our families and girls, joint council and school, his summer job tree planting and much more.

It was one of the best afternoons I had that year.

Broken glasses
At the end of that 1988-1989 year, I was elected hall vice-president. One of the traditions of our student association was to be sworn in at what was called the “Changeover Meeting”.

Of course, there was a changeover party afterwards. It was held in the Heritage Room or, “The Henday Party Room” as we called it, because it was in the bottom of Henday Hall. The floor was tiled, and got really slick when it was wet.

Well, As the party progressed, more drinks got spilled and, at one point, I lost my balance. I went face first into a puddle of something and hit my head, basically folding my glasses in half.

I was able to unbend them so I could get around, but it was only a temporary fix.

One of the girls at the party, Karen Marshall, came by my room the next day, offering to take me to West Edmonton Mall where there were a few places to get them fixed.

Just like when Steve called, this was out of the blue, and so nice.

We hopped the bus, chatted the whole way about her growing up in Quesnel, B.C., what she studied, and so much more. She led me to a place I got my glasses fixed and we went back to res.

I never really chatted with her again too much after that and I don’t know why.

It was so cool, and another highlight from that year.

Parting thoughts
By the end of the 1980s, I had become much more familiar with West Edmonton Mall, and would have some great highlights, and a few lowlights there.

None of my memories are about the shops or stores, or even the places I went.

The memories have always been made by the people I was with.

That’s not something you can buy in any store or shop.