Indian Mall

As we close in on the holidays, I remember how excited my parents used to get when Sweet Pea or I would return from college for Christmas. After college, she and my brother The Goob remained in Jonesboro, but I moved away. First to Memphis and later to New Jersey, I went where the work was. Before I remarried, I used to fly in every Christmas to see everyone.

The thing about flying in for Christmas is that you can’t bring gifts. Today, many folks shop on line and have things delivered to home, or simply buy gift cards. To me, that’s not Christmas shopping. There’s more to it than that. Christmas shopping is getting out and hoofing it from one store to another. Back then, in Jonesboro, there was but one place to do this: The Indian Mall.

The Indian Mall was, for half a century, the crown jewel of North East Arkansas shopping. Paragould, Batesville, Blytheville, nor West Memphis had anything even remotely like it. It was cool, air conditioned indoor shopping on hot summer days and warm dry shopping on cold, rainy winter nights. This oasis of shopping comfort was born in 1968. It sprouted on former pasture and wood land at the corner of Highland and Caraway. Compared to some malls in Memphis or other larger cities, it was a fairly small mall, but for us in Jonesboro it was a shopping mecca.

In the beginning, at the South end of the mall was Sears. Sears was the home of Craftsman tools, Ted William’s sporting goods (including duck calls), and most importantly, the ultimate in men’s ware, The Johnny Carson Collection of men’s sport coats and suits. Sears represented the epitomy of twentieth century department store shopping. At the North End was Blass. Blass was a higher end retailer with all kinds of nice stuff.

Between those two original Anchors there were many establishments of a wide variety. The Carousel was a top notch beauty parlor. Dot and Jimmy Jackson owned that. Gene Stimpson had a grocery store about mid way of the mall. What mall is complete with out a TG&Y? Petty’s offered cards and notions. There was a jewelry store. Marcel’s Cafe provided a spot to stop for a soda and just watch people walking by. Just across the central walking court from Marcel’s sat the pride of casual North East Arkansas dining, Wyatt’s Cafeteria. Their chicken fried steak and white gravy still visits me in my dreams. There were many other stores you could browse while walking in the climate controlled comfort of the Indian Mall.

As the years passed, the Indian Mall changed. It grew with the times and adapted to changing requirements. In the 1980s, a food court was added. Blass became Dillards and got additional space constructed. The Hoosegow, perhaps the finest jeans oriented store to ever exist, moved in. There was a tobacco shop and who can forget Hot dog Seven? A record store came and went. The Mall became a destination for older folks who would walk the mall for exercise. On weekends, the Mall was the hub for generations of North East Arkansas teenagers.

At Christmas time in the early 1990’s, for me the weary traveler, the Indian Mall was my salvation. It wasn’t just a shopping mall, it was the Land of Oz on Fantasy Island. At Christmas, if I couldn’t buy it at the Mall, then you weren’t getting it.

Back in the day, I would hit that place like a crossfire hurricane. In the space of a couple of hours, I breezed through Dillards carefully selecting nice things for Sweet Pea and Mom. I worked through Sears buying gifts for Dad and The Goob. Dad usually got gloves he would never use, and the Goob got a tool or insulated socks. Jen and Jordan got gifts from a number of places, including KayBee Toys and Waldenbooks. The mall had everything, even Santa. Every year, a patient, perhaps medically sedated Santa sat with hundreds of screaming, wiggling kids every day for photos. Santa, even if sedated, really is a saint.

During my Christmas shopping adventure, I always encountered an astonishing assortment of old friends while still managing to purchase cool gifts for everyone. (Petty’s is where I bought Mom’s first Nutcracker. It inspired my mother to begin collecting Nutcrackers. We have part of that collection today. I’m looking at it as I write this.) At Christmas time, the Mall even had a operation set up to wrap gifts for you. The Mall was a one stop solution for a weary traveler home for the holidays.

The Indian Mall is gone now. A Texas Roadhouse stands in the parking lot in front of where the Food Court used to be. There is a car wash beside what used to be the Sears Automotive Center. It’s all changed. Kroger put a store where Dillards stood for many years. The bank buildings in the parking lot are long gone.

These days, like so many others, I have caved to the temptations of the internet. I do the vast bulk of my shopping online. It comes to my door delivered by a short pudgy guy in a brown uniform. He usually put my items on the front porch where they set until I notice them in the light of my Christmas decorations.

While I don’t miss flying in, renting a car, and driving in the cold, rainy winter night to Jonesboro, I really do miss visiting the Indian Mall. I miss seeing old friends and doing my version of power shopping. The old Mall is gone, but for those of us 65 and older, the memories we have of Christmas shopping there in warm, dry comfort on cold, rainy winter nights will always be cherished.