Alternate World A Dong

Last Friday, I asked my pal Nick if he would accompany me to the nearby Salvation Army Thrift Store located in the same, strange, sketchy plaza of former “American” storefronts deep near the Hartford border on New Britain Avenue (CT-71).

Typically, I enjoy going around Salvation Army stores in the area poking around the usual junk section which holds mainly next to discarded crap from Carter-era homes, tag sale leftovers you can’t pass off to any stump for brains at 10 cents, and other interesting smelly old junk some collection of people might’ve sold for drugs at one point (because if you've ever noticed, they've got one in those struggling ends of struggling towns). Of course, there’s always an unsightly toll amongst sights; the possible “lightly” used pair of men’s underwear (which for the love of any unsuspecting reader, was not photographed) might cross the eye, rows of cassette tapes for a buck (still too much), used toasters (eek) and such. Nonetheless, it’s for the adventurous as is the nearby A Dong Supermarket neighboring the plaza.

The moment you set foot in A Dong, you’ll know you’re in a third world. A world were smell overruns and hijacks the air passage like inter city Hong Kong with the sight of hanging cooked duck, the pungent stench of raw fish, and other forms of meat butchery in the produce aisle. Meanwhile, you’re feeling like you’re in another world as everyone inside is a) predominately Asian, b) is an expert butcher equipped with meat cleaver, or c) elderly. There’s a booth where tobacco is sold, above it a double row of televisions, aisles which boast a half mile of native homewares. The canned foods areas are not your typical side dishes but quail eggs and other things you’ve never seen canned.

Nick Fusari holds a box of strange candy using children and soccer as an inspiration shared by the questionable.

I guess this must’ve been a normal, American supermarket at one point before the plaza degenerated and was saved by an Asian ghetto where the market provides the safe net for immigrants uncomfortable with Super Stop & Shop, and Price Chopper. The usual set up of where everything might be is exchanged with bulk quantites of Instant Kim Chee, selections of tea and even odd treats from the rising sun island. Former A&P shopping carts overrun the plaza and outfront in an area that is less desirable to attract anyone less than someone willing to go out of the way.

Here's just a few novelties, best said, you might find upon your almost overseas trip to the culturally abound A Dong. May endless supply of urine and other bathroom-related hijinx burn like fresh genital warts...

"Pancake" in the solid form not without peanuts.

Panda Land "Printed Biscuits" sure to cause certain bowel obstruction from the straight-forward marketing princes at the Meiji company.

Big Squid or vacuum-sealed vomit? This jaunty octopus won't be smiling when he makes more than one multi-colored trip after consumption.

Masquerading Chinese-branded (possibly bootlegged) Crest will most likely give your teeth the same diarrea tint like most natives.

Corn fancied drinking mugs sealed for your protection. It's either this, kids, or drink from a plastic bovine (probably in conception; not pictured here).

Funny money known as "Hell Bank Note". The guy on there was probably assassinated immediately for posing, even in jest, as the emperor.

Well I never knew they were called "Chinese Spoon Rocket".

Meat clevers sold openly on the shelves of A Dong pose as something of a rudimentary tool for young children everywhere.

Some suspect random burners, most likely seized from Chinese Restaur-fronts sold at A Dong lowly below the housewares. Keep away from heat, wet, shake!

Inspirational stainless steel mugs conveying rather ironic messages of "Feeling"

"Take a rest, enjoy the tea time". Not mentioned here is the equal amount of pee time.

"Great". That's it.

Making significant human breakthroughs in the form of Stainless Internal Bladders. Because tea makes you urinate like none other, the far easterners are ahead of the game.

Just when things couldn't get worse, the iconic American "McDonald's" extension of New Britain Avenue also drove itself away from the heavily Asian plaza just a few years ago (approximately upon Ames closing in the nearby, former Caldor plaza). Now, a well-boarded up, vacant husk sits where I once ate years ago. Even then, it was by far one of the least favorite McDonald's to visit.

McDonald's vacancy and the closure of Ames as a last-ditch effort to attracting customers to this area: Not lovin' it.

One less McDonald's on Hartford's border, you might just have to drive up by the mall to get your dollar menu fix.

The staple of Asian culture alive and well in West Hartford's Shield Street Plaza; a place that might one day get me killed if I ever show my face 'round these parts again.

Until next time (because there will be a next time, I could only hope), A Dong can said it's mail bombs, flying daggers, bloody meat cleavers and other related hate mail to XISMZERO@yahoo.com.

Points North

On the count of my math teacher having a funeral to attend, there will be no subsitute to cover my 9:00 AM Math class Friday morning. As a result, there's no class and lately I've been thinking if it was ok to bask in the enjoyment of having no obligations of school tomorrow. After a few seconds of thinking, I came to the conclusion thinking that he would have me enjoy life by choosing to wake up later or get a jump on my trip to New Hampshire to visit my Renee.

I've got something planned here for Monday, so don't think doing some Christopher McCandless thing.

Around Town

Central Connecticut State University begins classes today with my earliest opening one at 9:00 AM sharp. There’s another class at 5:15 today but in the meantime I’ll be watching Wrestlemania at Nick Fusari’s house until that begins.

After class, I went to three different Target stores of Newington, Meriden, and New Britain looking for clearenced goods from their “Independent Studies” collection I’ve been ogling since it kicked off this recent Summer. I was looking for this particular “red globe” lamp, now discounted 30% this week, that seems to have fallen off the face of the earth from the other array of lamps currently available at the store until the end of this week. Appearently, my plan to snatch it on the first day of the sale failed… Here's a sampling of some of the stuff that came from the line.

After a few months of waiting for that marvelous red sticker, this groovy clock and striped blanket can now join the ranks with my equally retro The Pie Plate/Caldor Rainbow-inspired bedspread.

It would seem my local Target of New Britain is receiving a brownish paint job in some attempt to refurbish the store from it’s tan/red line look as seen in the picture. The guy also had this way cool spray paint blaster I tried not to let him see me onlook with glee. Upon leaving the New Britain store, I noticed Route 71 heading into New Britain from West Hartford (approximately at the light going to Target slash Brittany Farms) closed by a lone police car with visible disaster behind it in the form of a tow truck and few dozen people.

Lunch down in Bristol meant seeing yet another out-of-place Bradlees shopping cart trying to find a new life within a sea of Price Chopper carts.

The glorious brown and wooden Bristol Commons clock tower which has seen a Caldor, Kmart, and now belongs to plaza anchor Price Chopper.

Later on that day...

I knew it wouldn’t be a waste of time when Nick mentioned he needed to make an exchange at the Farmington Ave. (New Britain) Wal-Mart, formerly the Caldor I practically grew up in. Within seconds of being in the plaza, a lone Caldor shopping cart was sighted in the Wal-Mart cart coral. At the least, there shows a sign of life under the Wal-Mart of a Caldor that once was. Special thanks to the nearby IGA Supermarket who has adopted a few, albeit scratched-out, 1990's-style black/orange Caldor carts, one just wanted to return home…

Meriden Hub (Mall); Meriden, Connecticut

Having lived in Central Connecticut my entire life, I had grown up frequenting various shopping malls in the area. One that classified itself in a particular segment of Connecticut was the Meriden area where the memorable Meriden Square exists on Lewis Avenue (and Chamberlain Highway). Until a few weeks ago, I was alerted via the internet and a few sites (originally Dead Malls, before I knew about this second mall in Meriden) about another, albeit vacant, mall located only a few miles away from the now Westfield Shoppingtown Meriden (formerly known as Meriden Square) by Labelscar author Jason Damas.

One of the most unusual looking smaller enclosed malls of the early 1970's still standing in the state of Connecticut not too far off from Bristol's Centre Mall.

For the record, and to clear much confusion I have recently waded through: there are two shopping malls in Meriden. First, we have the Westfield Shoppingtown Meriden formerly known as the Meriden Square. Then, we have the Meriden Hub formerly known as the Meriden Mall. There’s quite an interesting history regarding the rivalry of these two very different malls with very different fates. While Westfield Shoppingtown Meriden (which we can still call Meriden Square) has gone through multiple expansions and evolutions since it's 1971 opening, the Meriden Mall, built before the Square, had a lesser unsuccessful fate in a more community-based downtown area. Needless to say, I suspected anyone talking about the “Meriden Mall” like on Dead Malls were talking about the only mall worth mentioning in Meriden which is the one I’ve been going to ever since I was a young’n.

Meriden Mall is comprised of now borded up, old storefronts. Cars on this heavily pot-holed lot are most likely for operating businesses across the street.

Not ever really having traversed the city of Meriden much in my day, I finally, after a week of slugging through rainy days, decided to go into the heart of Meriden and find out where the mall actually is since nowhere on the web gave an exact address. Coming back from the site, I might know why I had trouble finding any identity in the form of a street address.

Most of the glass which furnished the mall now in various, mostly shattered conditions.

Located on State Street and not very far from [quick escape access to] the practically Meriden-exclusive Interstate 691 was this heavily dilapidated former smaller enclosed mall relative to the now departed Farmington Valley Mall of Simsbury and the long troubled Bristol Centre Mall of Bristol. Built in the 1960’s, this mall shared a similar fate as most malls built around that time having lost now defunct anchors, or those who’ve moved to higher commerce slash more attractive retail centers. While the mall was far into a grave stage than recent dead smaller enclosed malls (which includes Bristol Centre, or the long gone Farmington Valley and Naugatuck Valley Malls which didn’t survive through the end of the 20th Century) the foundation and heavily pot-holed lot still exist among a sea of a rather bombed-out downtown Meriden. Not too recently I was in Bridgeport, and now I’m convinced Meriden is almost, if not, worse. I can probably go on for a little longer about the troubled cities of Connecticut but I’ll let the pictures tell it true.

The former owners of the mall; Canberra Industries and their headquarters now sitting empty and depleted of life beside the mall.

Without mirroring too much of what I’ve learned through Damas’ expose on Labelscar, the eyesore mall (also proclaimed the "brownfields") should’ve been razed years ago (along with most of the area) but nonetheless still stands amongst Meriden’s financial woes and inabilities to move on with the revitalization plan slated by our Governor. Now, it’s officially in the races to see which mall will rot and shame the streets longest; Bristol’s Centre Mall or Meriden’s completely borded up, condemned, long ill-fated mall to the flourishing nearby mall on the outskirts of this shifty city.

A housing project sitting beside the mall.

While there was no way to get or see inside, the Meriden Hub has some rather eerie, rather unyielding interior pictures on the city's website.

RAINBOW RADAR UPDATE: Mall completely demolished for forthcoming park revitalization project.

Nesconset Highway; Stony Brook (Lake Grove), Long Island, New York

A few years silent Big K (Kmart) along the Nesconset Highway.

Long Island and I have a very brief history that goes as far back as about five years. Since I’ve only visited my brother who lives down there, about three or four times since, I’ve just recently had a time to go see some of the troubled retail sites on the otherwise flourishing Nesconset Highway and Middle Country Road stretch next to Stony Brook University. Soon after visiting the vacant Caldor in East Patchogue, we swung down to Lake Grove (Stony Brook) to find food when a shadowy Big K struck me from right off the strip. While I knew Kmart stores were in financial trouble, I still wasn’t too surprised to see this particular site closed especially since there are no real shortage of Kmarts on Long Island.

Not just closed, but shuttered with a steel shell!

Plenty of relevant label scars, and the dilapidated Garden Shop which is host to other kinds of vegetation.

Across The Street; at SmithHaven Mall,

A familiar old site, Stern's, at the SmithHaven Mall is soon to be no more.

Across the street is, SmithHaven Mall whose veteran posturing is no stranger to locals, been host to a long vacant Stern’s, now, along with the mall, in the process of being overhauled into something else. Since I’ve never heard about Stern’s before, the rich 1960’s look from when I originally saw it, and the heavily 1980's look of the mall a few years ago, took be by surprise now that it's becoming no more. While the mall is finally in the process of revitalization, plenty around the mall still show some age like the nearby Bed, Bath & Beyond store which rose from a long-departed old-school Service Merchandise with completely visible label scarring and the mall's retro-looking Sears exterior.

Like most Sears, this one's also long overdue of renovations at the changing mall.

More kudos goes to my brother, Michael, who drove me places.

RAINBOW RADAR UPDATE: Kmart still vacant, SmithHaven Mall completely remodeled and expanded into former Stern's space.

An Unusual Plaza; Northampton, Massachusetts

You can see it right off I-91 on a stretch of retail a.k.a. King Street (US-5) going either direction. Until today, I decided to finally pull off the highway, do a U-turn, and access this pain-in-the-rear plaza and do some investigating.

Big Lots of Northampton caught red handed using red-colored former Ames shopping carts.

Before physically visiting this sorted site, I had known that the plaza was old-looking just by the few split-seconds of gawking off the highway. Today I might’ve confirmed that the oldest Big Y ever to exist is right here, in Northampton, Massachusetts, sharing it’s fate with a dozen other stores in the same lot, a higher than average percentage of dead ones. Not only does the seemingly brand-new Wal-Mart (presumably on the site of a long demolished Caldor) stick out as the newest development here since (maybe) the late 1970’s, sandwiched between a vacant old window-papered shoe store called “Wear it Well” and a Big Lots trapped in the disco-era (or possible fallout disco-era).

A exclamation-less older design of Big Lots of Northampton.

Some bizarre old fashion store, a dead Bickford's neighbor along with some other retro unmarked store.

On the otherside lies more troubledness with some rock-spattered husk most recently used by Big Y, and a empty red and white striped Bickford’s Restaurant. Just before leaving the plaza, I had to secure some shots of the rustic signage for Big Y…

RAINBOW RADAR UPDATE: Big Y was demolished in 2007 for new store now completed, plaza remodeled, "Wear it Well" still vacant. Nearby Walmart was once Massachusetts first Caldor.