Just Listen To The Music Of The Traffic In The City

The Broadway Square Mall opened in 1975. It was on the southern outskirts of town in an old pasture. Sears, JC Penny, and Dillards were (and still are) the anchor tenants. It had a great fountain in the middle and had lots of neat stores like Coach House, Spencers, and Orange Julius. Orange juice with raw eggs like Rocky drank are tasty.

By far my favorite store in the mall was Hickory Farms (of Ohio). We couldn't walk by without being lured in by the smell of summer sausage and the thought of all those free samples. In addition to summer sausage samples, they gave away samples of different cheeses, dried fruits, sesame sticks, and a funny tasting mint candy with sprinkles on the outside. It had the feel of a super market with large open refrigerated cases down the middle of the store. I don't think we ever went in without at least coming out with a box of dried bananas.

I read where at their peak that had over 500 stores in malls all over the country, but by 2000 they closed down their last 18 mall stores and had changed to a mail order business, with only a few grocery stores carrying their products. That's what I should've told Sissy I wanted for Christmas; a summer sausage, 8 little pie shaped flavors of cheese and a box of dried bananas.