Comments on: WALKIN’ THE MALL https://sandrawagnerwright.com/walkin-the-mall/ Writer - Historian - Traveller Wed, 18 May 2016 03:17:14 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 By: Sandra https://sandrawagnerwright.com/walkin-the-mall/#comment-1849 Wed, 18 May 2016 03:17:14 +0000 https://sandrawagnerwright.com/?p=8531#comment-1849 In reply to David Hammes.

Hi David —
Thanks for taking the time to comment with the ‘insider’ scoop on Minnesota malls. What I called Stockade may have been due to an auto-correct, in which case poor editing on my part. Southdale sounds more like a ‘proper’ mall name. Keep going for those walks.

]]> By: David Hammes https://sandrawagnerwright.com/walkin-the-mall/#comment-1846 Mon, 16 May 2016 23:25:42 +0000 https://sandrawagnerwright.com/?p=8531#comment-1846 Hi Sandra,
Fun reading as always and I applaud your suggestions to other like-minded walkers about where to go in Hilo’s inclement weather when the charms of Liliou are dampened.
A couple of reminiscences: I believe the first completely enclosed mall (thus distinguishing it from earlier, open-air versions) in the US was/is named Southdale Center, in Edina (just outside Minneapolis) Minnesota. I am not aware that it was ever a ‘Stockade Mall’ or built on an old stockade. It opened in 1956 and I suspect that I was there on opening day given that we lived about 10 minutes away. I do not recall specifically being on hand for the grand opening but I do recall going there numerous times before we moved away in late 1959. What sticks in my mind was the large central atrium that seemed populated with tropical plants. I suppose any green plant probably seemed ‘tropical’ coming in from a frigid Minnesota winter. Also, the water tower with ‘Southdale’ painted on it–still there–has an iconic, space-agey, shape, and the parking lots were marked with animal names and graphics so that patrons could find their cars. I do not recall if I had a favorite animal.
This not unlike the system at ‘Mall of America’ (not that far away) where state names are used in their parking structures. When you blog about that, I have a few more ‘down memory lane’ reminiscences.
As far as Minnesota doctors and their pioneering treatment of heart patients. Much of that is probably due to C. Walton Lillehei, a heart surgeon at U of Minn, and Ancel Keyes, a nutrition scientist there.The BIG influence nationally, was Paul Dudley White (little or no connections to Minnesota) getting Dwight D. Eisenhower up and about after they finally correctly diagnosed his first heart attack in 1955. White’s advice seemed very counter-intuitive, but turns out to have been very good and is still recommended (under Dr’s care) today.
Daily movement, from small to large, is still the best medicine, and as long as one can, a sprightly walk can be a major mood-lifting start to one’s day. But, even if one can’t walk, chair exercises, water exercises, and so on, elevate the mood and the physiology.
I mean to comment on more of your informative and fun blogs, but sometimes all I can do is say: “Gee, I’m going for a walk and I guess the spring cleaning may have to get pushed back to the fall…which fall? I don’t know.”
Aloha,
David

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