Good Times

You might have missed me blogging for the past week. My excuse is a good one--I have been working our Pittsburgh photo booth in an art show at Monroeville Mall. The shows are slow, and they provide a good atmosphere to settle in with my electronic keyboard and write.

While mulling away the hours, I marvelled at how our "show business" has changed over the years. When we first set up in this mall in 1976, the mall "powers that be," skittish I suppose, of the concept of exhibitors, did not provide electricity for us. This meant we rolled in a car battery on a dolly to hook up to for our lights. It sounds so primitive now!

It was a great era for malls in general. I can remember Saturday crowds being so thick, I would rather scratch out my eyeballs then try to move from Point A to Point B. It just took too long to push through the mob.

The crowds are thin now, as the Walmart effect draws customers to other places for discounted prices. Those loyalists who are left walk past my booth with cellphones stuck to their ears, oblivious to my wares. The impulse buys that are so vital to our sales are hard to come by these days. I guess those cellphone folks are "multi-tasking." Only they have no time these days for looking and buying, only walking and talking. 

I never would have dreamed in 1976 that I would see tattoos and body-piercing either--or shaved heads. Actually, in those days, my electronic keyboard would have been an oddity, and the very idea people owned their own computers would have blown me away. 

I'm certain I won't be here in 30 more years; but if I were, I wonder what amazing things I would see...

Copyright 2005 JO Janoski