Tuesday, August 4, 2020

CHELMSFORD MALL

This sorry has an awful word I hate but totally used a ton until my 30s, still there's no way to tell this story without the word so sorry in advance.

In 1984 I was 14 and wicked into Ghostbusters. The theme song was a hit on the radio. I loved it. I also had the red and black shirt with the Ghostbusters logo on it. Me and my cousin were walking through the Chelmsford Mall. We were going to the big department store at the end, either Kmart or Bradlee's I'm not sure which. It was definitely not Caldor's or Zayer's. As we were walking through the mall this kid who was clearly younger than us yells at me, "Nice Ghostbustah's shirt yuh faggit." Me and my cousin mouth "fuck you" at him. In the department store at the end we go to the music section and start looking through the cassette tapes, there was no vinyl. At one point I feel a cigarette ash on my shoulder. I turn around and there is a kid clearly older than me and my cousin with a fucking cigarette and the beginings of facial hair, This was back when you could smoke EVERYWHERE. People fucking smoked on the bus and in elevators. It was nuts. The smoking dude was probably the kid's older brother. He puts his cigarette out on my shoulder and says 'What's up?' He and the five guys with him all have terrifying Led Zepplin shirts on (you know the bones font, that shit scared me when I was a kid). His friends were circling and laughing like the hyenas in that Lion King movie, one of them high-pitchedly chirps "We're gonna have a blood bath."  Me and my cousin start walking out of the mall with the gang of ruffians following us, cackling. As soon as we get to the parking lot we run across the street to another department store, called Rich's where my mother is probably stealing shit.

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