The security guard at dead mall who just wanted someone to talk to

I was at Independence Mall in Kansas City, which is basically a ghost town with maybe 3 stores still open. This older security guard, probably mid-60s, comes up to me while I'm taking photos of the empty food court. He didn't yell at me or anything, he just asked if I remembered when they had that big arcade in the corner. I told him I was only like 5 when the place was busy, but he spent the next 20 minutes telling me about how he used to bring his kids here every Saturday in the 90s. He pointed at the fountain that's been dry for years and said 'my daughter threw a penny in that thing and made a wish she got a pony.' That stuck with me because you could tell he missed the old days, not just the mall but his whole life back then. I ended up staying way longer than planned just listening to his stories about which stores used to be where. Has anyone else had a random conversation like that with an employee or guard at an abandoned mall?

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river_adams2511d ago

That thing about his daughter and the penny got me. My buddy once got stuck at this dying mall in Ohio and ended up hearing from a janitor about how his wife used to work at the candy store there before she passed.