North Kent Mall

I used to go to North Kent almost exclusively to hang out at Aladdin's Castle, one of the last great old-school video game arcades. I'd usually ride the bus up there, listening to my "cassette walkman," most likely a cassingle of De La Soul or something.
Another thing I remember is for a while, NK was the home to the only of the old-style photo booths. Not the sort that are around today where you can be superimposed in front of backgrounds and such but the type where it fires off 4 takes and you get a strip of (black & white!) photos at the end. There was also a small movie theater to the side, "Movies at North Kent."

Aladdin's Castle was awesome. I never knew it was actually a chain. Apparently there are still a few alive today, scattered around the country.

Mostly dead interior, 1998.

North Kent opened in 1971, anchored by Montgomery Ward and Wurzberg's, with a Turnstyle on an outlot. Wurzberg's closed in 1974, and was replaced by Kmart. The Turnstyle building was used by Meijer for a while as a clearance center and offices, but now sits vacant. The mall went into a slow decline and by 2000 was nearly dead. The last remaining stores were Waldenbooks, JoAnn Fabrics, Bargain Books, Radio Shack, Zales Jewelery, and GNC. In 1999 there were displays posted about plans to renovate the mall, and add a third unnamed anchor, but those never came to pass. In October 2000, it was announced that the mall would be demolished for a Lowe's. Both anchors (Kmart and Wards) would remain. The mall closed in March 2001 and Wards closed a week later in bankrupcy. The Wards building has been divided into Dunhams, Dollar Tree, and Family Farm & Home.

The old Movies at North Kent sign, no longer there.

It seemed like NKM was a pretty bustling teen hang-out on the weekends during it's peak.
Do kids even do that these days? Just go and "hang out at the mall"?  The malls sure seemed to be social meccas in the 80s and 90s from what I remember. For area young'uns with no car, it was probably the place to go and meet boys/girls. I bet you were "cool" if you had a boy/girlfriend was from a different school. Ah, youth.

This is one of 2 statues that were inside. I have discovered both of the statues are now in a small park outside a Salvation Army office building on LaGrave St. Photo: Alaine Poelstra

Not much remains online of the old place. I did find one very odd newspaper article though (click to enlarge) ....

This guy regains sight in his blind eye by bumping into a pole while powerwalking in North Kent Mall.
Truly a Christmas miracle!

There is an "I Hung Out At North Kent Mall" facebook group with over 1,500 members!

Here are a couple shots of the interior from a 2-page ad the mall took out in a yearbook from Northview highscool, 1975, courtesy Larry Bennett with Photoshop cleanup by Randy Tate...

Here is another artifact kindly donated by Christopher Gielda, who was a manager at Record Town.
A North Kent Mall brochure featuring a map and a store directory!  See if it jogs your memory of the different stores that were there. Click on the pics for super-large versions that are readable...

Map brochure outside. Click to enlarge

Map brochure inside. See store listing below!  Click to enlarge

Store listing for the map!  Click to enlarge

Please feel free to share your own North Kent Mall memories in the comments below!
Thanks everyone who has posted. It's fun reading everyone's recollections...

The Retro Podcast #2

I got some good feedback on my first outing so here's another kooky retro podcast.
Hope you guys enjoy it. Program listing below.

RDL podcast #2 by jefleppard

As before, the little arrow on the widget allows you to download the whole MP3 if you want a copy....

And case you missed it, Retro Podcast #1


Retro #2 info:

Intro
Theme, "Hunter"
70s music countdown clip
Giorgio Moroder "Battlestar Galactica" (disco version)
commercial clip, "Freedom Rock" *
Theme, "Kidd Video"
Video game music "Battle Squadron" **
Trailer, "Xanadu"
1981 Buck Rogers clip "Andromeda"
Johnny Harris - "Odyssey part 1) 1980 ***
Commercial, Bill Cosby "Jello Pudding Pops"
Mr. T "Treat Your Mother Right"
Commercial "Thundercats preview"
Theme "Street Hawk"
Theme "Thundaar The barbarian"
"Battle Theme" Flash Gordon soundtrack, Queen
Commercial, "The Clapper"
Theme "Darkplace"
1979 TV sign-off
Closing Theme, "Little House On The Prairie"

* During the 80s and early 90s, you couldn't seem to watch TV without seeing the "Freedom Rock" commercials. Some trivia, one of the "hippies" was played by WLAV radio DJ who went by Red Noise. Red passes away I believe from a heart attack in the mid-90s.


** A favorite game of mine on the Commodore Amiga computer from 1989. During it's all-too-brief existence, Amiga computers had superior sound and graphics to any other home computer or game platform. Commodore went bankrupt in 1994.


*** From an episode of the 80s Buck Rogers show that stands out in my memory. It featured a wacky futuristic band with instruments that involved waving hands over glowing crystals and the like. All these years later I found out the actual artist who performed the music for that episode is Johnny Harris.

Bill Vits, "Fun City" and "Pop Up"

Here are some songs and videos from 80s Grand Rapids by Bill Vits. Bill is the lead percussionist from the G.R. Symphony and also the drummer for the rock/surf band The Concussions.
I can actually remember hearing "Pop Up" on WLAV back in the small town I lived in before moving to Grand Rapids in '86.

Pop Up!
Bill: "I did this video (and 45 rpm record) with my neighbor kids in 83. I heard them singing this jump rope song in my driveway and recorded it on my Walkman. Later I took them into a 24 track studio and recorded the tune and overdubbed all the percussion while using an Oberheim DX drum machine and JX-3P Roland synth for bass. The sound of the jump rope was made by flexing a small piece of sheet metal while hitting the floor with a plastic strap. It won 1st prize in the JVC video competition."



Fun City
Bill: "This great colorful video with music by Bill Vits and Fred Baker is a treat for the eyes. Enjoy!"

The Retro Podcast #1

Here's my first foray into podcasting. It clocks in at a pretty short 20 minutes but it's packed full of fun retro awesomeness. Not the kind of things I'd play at a dance night but more obscure music, movie and tv clips, etc. Have a listen and see what it does for you. If I get some good feedback, or any feedback at all really, I'll keep doing them.

P.S. On the right of the little player widget, the arrow let's you download the full MP3 if you want. Have fun! 
Track listing after the break, below. 

The Retro Podcast #1 by jefleppard

The Most Ghetto Party Store In Grand Rapids Contest 2011

Maybe this isn't the best place for this topic, in a "retro" blog, but maybe it is.
Ghetto-ass party stores have existed since the dawn of time, it's a known fact.

Anyway, there's some stiff competition for the title this year. Some big-name players. Let's take a look at the contenders...

Bere Store, Franklin & Jefferson
Spike n' Mikes, Fulton & Jefferson
Family Pantry, Stocking? Wessiiiide
Lucky's, Division and Weston
Richard's, Burton
Morton Party Store, Monroe
Party World, Alpine
Big Man's? Fulton

I will visit each of these establishments, discretely or indiscreetly take photos and gather reconnaissance.
Not totally sure how to decide the "winner."  I suppose by closely monitoring my own level of revulsion, culture-shock or nervousness for my safety and at the end deciding which visit left the deepest emotional scars?  Truth is, I enjoy ghetto stuff. Maybe the winner is whichever place I feel the most at home?  I don't know, I'm making this shit up as I go.  I seem to end up frequenting shady party stores anyway, why not make a project out of it.
I think it would be more fun if I can figure out how to create an online pole and let people cast votes.
Let The People democratically decide which G.R. party store sucks the worst!
Somebody's going to win though and the prize is being secretly mocked on the internet.

I think the first one I'll visit this week is Family Pantry. Stay tuned......

Family Pantry already earns +5 Ghetto points for broken sign

Before Mulligans, there was "Faces"

So apparently, Mulligan's in Eastown has not existed throughout all eternity, as I'd previously thought.
It was once a bar called Faces.  This band flyer from 1983 is from a show there...

Thanks to Brad at Sprout Media Group for pointing me to this one.
It's from the interesting facebook group, Viking Hall is now a Burger King.
Now I'm curious when Mulligan's got started. I arrived in G.R. in '86 myself. I know very little of what was going on here before then.  

Top of the Rock, aka Club 911

To keep it interesting, I decided to expand this blarg to also be about places which no longer exist.

If you were a teen in the 80s or 90s in Grand Rapids, I'll bet you set foot in this certain all-ages club out on Alpine Avenue at least once, if not every week you could. The place went by a few different names during it's run. Thunderchicken, Red Zone, DV8... but it would mostly be remembered as Club 911 or Top of the Rock.
It seems a really unlikely situation for a successful club. It was a warehouse-looking building surrounded by woods, pretty far out on Alpine near 6-Mile. There must have been few options for underage kids in those days.
I had grown up in smalltown Michigan and though I wasn't a total hick, I would say I hadn't been exposed to a lot of different culture. When I found Top of the Rock in '87 it was like a different planet. An awesome planet!

I think it must have been a Thursday, which was their "alternative night."  The DJ was spinning stuff like The Cure, Erasure, New Order, Depeche Mode, Love & Rockets, Violent Femmes, Ministry and all sorts of other bands that were completely off the radar of the Top-40 that made up my musical experience to that point. The place was packed and these kids were getting down!  So much unnaturally-colored hair, including the dudes. Yeah, back home, the craziest thing anybody did to their hair is one kid had shaved stripes into the sides, Vanilla Ice style.
I know they did other theme nights other days of the week at Top of the Rock but I never went to any but the alternative nights.

At some point in the night, I remember the music would change to some harder stuff.... I imagine them playing "Master of Puppets" and "Turbo Lover" but I'm not sure if that really happened but a slam-pit ensued. Something I had never really witnessed before, you know, in the country. Bunch of dudes alternating between going in a circle and beating the shit out of each other. If somebody fell down, somebody would always help them back up. They only did the pit once a night and only maybe 3 songs and then it would go back to dance time.
After a pretty unrewarding highschool experience, finding a place like this seemed like a breakthrough.  I went as often as I could.

Many long-time GR residents "of a certain age" went to Top back in the day. The hispanic-looking dude in the left half of this photo happens to be GR bar-photographer extrordinare, Two-Eagles Marcus.

Other things I can remember.... plenty of underage drinking, usually in somebody's car in the lot.
Sneaking people in. The kids who couldn't make the $3 cover would go around to the fire escape door and wait for somebody to open up and let them in.
Lots of groping and making out during slow dances.
Going there "on acid."
Donating plasma the day before in order to have enough money for acid and the cover to get into Top.
I remember the kids always calling it "Tip Of The Cock" har har.
Bands would sometimes play. I seem to remember that Information Society played there but I didn't go that week.
I am pretty sure a kid DIED in the place. I may have actually witnessed this. I remember finishing up on one of the video games in the little game room and walking out to find the music off and all the kids standing around the sides of the dance floor as a kid was being taken out by paramedics on a stretcher. He was mumbling delirious. Then at some point in the week I heard he actually died on the way to the hospital. Never found out what had really happened.

I am not really sure at what point or why they started with the name-changes but I remember in the 90s it became Club 911 and new generations were coming in as other kids were getting old enough to go to bars and moved on to Reptile House or "Alternative A to X" at the Orbit Room.
A lot of the people I still have contact with from back then are younger than me and will remember it more from the 911 era and never went when it was TOTR.

Abandoned, 1998.

I believe they finally closed in 1996, with the name being "DV8."  The place sat there vacant for a couple years. Eventually some time I drove by and happened to noticed it was now something else. Nothing really left to indicate it was ever there except people with stories of our decadent youth, or what we can still remember!

Before Top of the Rock, back in the 70s the place was known as Thunder Chicken. Wish I could've experienced that!

Outside of the building as "Thunderchicken"

Long gone now, the building is now Hanson's Collision