"The Rightside Up", the Stranger Things series finale, finished about 20 minutes ago

 What did I think of it?

This was as perfect an ending to a story as The Lord of the Rings had.  I am soooo not kidding.

The final scenes... wow.  I was almost in tears.  Those nearly came after everything else that preceded it in this very last episode of Stranger Things.

I feel like it's the end of a journey for me.  This show, which I first discovered while staying in a hotel in Albuquerque in September of 2016, has been a part of my life ever since then.  I became a true believer in this story and its wonderful characters.  And now the story is done and... I don't quite know what to do now.  I feared this would happen.  Stranger Things has been the one thing of pop culture that I've held onto for almost a decade and now it's ended.  That is an enormous void that it's leaving in my time on this earth.  It's like a part of my youth peacefully passed away tonight.

Well, like is said at one point in this final episode, there are two paths to take.  I am going to choose the one that leads away from the sadness.  I am going to choose life.  Just as I've always been trying to do.

I think I needed to see this episode.  More to the point, I think that I needed this show.  What a ride it has been!

One of the greatest endings to a story in the history of anything.  I'm going to have to watch it again, after my brain calms down.

Dear Duffer Brothers: Thank you for sharing this story with us.  I for one feel all the better for being along for where you took us.  And I wish you well in your future endeavors.

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Calvin and Hobbes ended thirty years ago today

On Sunday, December 31st 1995, the last Calvin and Hobbes comic strip was published.  For ten years readers had laughed and thrilled at the antics of Calvin and his wild imagination.  It has gone on to be regarded as among the greatest comic series of all time.

Here is that last cartoon, which ran thirty years ago today.  The very greatest finale of anything, ever...

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Well, I've done it...

Come midnight tonight, for the second year in a row, I will have made it through the entire holiday season without once hearing Mariah Carey singing "All I Want For Christmas Is You".

See?  It is possible after all!

It wasn't easy sometimes.  Like whenever I went inside a grocery store and had to brace myself for hearing that song over the supermarket's music system.  I made very sure that I ducked in and quickly got my stuff and then ran out

Allow me the opportunity to once again state that Christmas music does not belong anywhere before Thanksgiving.  As always around here, there were radio stations that began playing holiday songs on the morning after Halloween.  That is damn too early!!  Just as Christmas decor doesn't belong in stores even before Labor Day.  When the radio stations and retailers do things like that, all it does is make the year seem to go by much faster.  When instead the year should progress on its own accord, with every moment precious, instead of rushing through the last one-third of the year.

I must confess, I've had some help with skipping the Christmas music.  Ever since last month and continuing for the next week or so, I've been listening to WSQK The Squawk.  It's a 24-hours around the clock pop-up Internet radio station that's a promo for this final season of Stranger Things.  WSQK is far from a mere gimmick however.  There are some solid songs from the Eighties and a bit earlier in its playlist, as much as any "real" radio station is ideally going to have.  It's been a fun thing to have playing in the background while I work on stuff.  Check it out!

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MeTV is now running Hawaii Five-O on weekdays

This isn't the more recent series.  MeTV is playing the original Hawaii Five-O at 11 a.m. EST on weekdays.  Yesterday and today the network broadcast the two-part first story and I watched it.  Think I'll be tuning in whenever I find myself not doing anything else in particular on weekday mornings.

Hawaii Five-O is one of the very first television series that I clearly remember watching.  Dad used to love this show so I have memories of seeing it in the mid to late Seventies.  I especially recall the title sequence, particularly its theme music.

If you've never seen this before, prepare to be stunned.  This is from a series that premiered in 1968 (Hawaii Five-O might be the only television show from the 1960s to survive as far as the Eighties) so many people might be expecting something a little more... shall we say, "primitive"?  But this intro is a work of art in and of itself.  This composition of imagery and music is more like something that could be expected of a modern editing software package like Premiere Pro or Final Cut Pro, not from the period around 1970.  A lot of heart, soul, and hardcore precision went into making this sequence, and it definitely shows.

So here is the intro for the original Hawaii Five-O.  Something as magnificent as it is timeless.

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I've been called conservative. I believe homosexuality is wrong. And I'm about to defend Will Byers on Stranger Things (buuuut...)

 On Christmas Night I started watching the newest three episodes, volume 2 it's being called, of the final season of Stranger Things.  I was as eager to see these next three chapters as I have been to watch anything else from the television/movies sphere of things in the past ten years or so.

I'll be honest: I felt like I'd "missed" something.  Volume 2 failed to stick the landing it seemed.  The previous four episodes were a high-balling rollickin' ball of high-grade hashish washed down with a bottle of pure awesomeness.  But these three episodes, well...

It seems that I wasn't alone in that sentiment.  Many people have said that these were the low point of the entire series.

Especially...

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Let's talk about the scene in episode seven, "The Bridge", that got the most attention.

I actually don't have an issue with Will's situation.  Not anymore than I do regarding Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter books.  That does NOT mean that I can condone homosexuality at all though!  That is something that I am forever going to believe is wrong.  But I also understand that it is a temptation that some people face, for whatever reason.  God knows that I have my own temptations, some even that I wonder if anyone on earth will ever remotely understand.  Having a mental condition that inflames those temptations at times only makes things worse, but I digress.

Will's confession to the others was something that had been building up since the first season.  He has always been different, off-kilter, something of an outsider to "The Party" and their allies, no matter how much he has been a part of that group of close-knit friends.  His own father cruelly believed that Will wasn't normal.  His ordeals relating to the Upside-Down further severed that connection Will had to the human condition.  If nothing else, what he went through because of Vecna mutilated and disfigured Will in heart and soul.  There is no telling what he would have been like had the events of November 6th, 1983 not happened. That night forever marked Will Byers as being different, for the worst, in every possible way.

In some ways I find myself relating to Will.  I was quite an outsider also, growing up.  Always "looking in".  And as I've shared in my book, I did go quite a long time unable to allow myself to appreciate females.  I had been abducted also, and pulled into an "upside-down" too.  There was a Vecna figure who came into my life.  As I share in my book, I was thought of as being different - sometimes being called "fag" by other people - because of my reluctance to appreciate how girls look.  That stemmed from the abuse I experienced.

So, I can absolutely understand Will in ways that maybe most people can't.  I can empathize with Will.  It's almost like the Duffer Brothers were writing about me, when they wrote for the character.  I of all people am in a position to understand Will Byers more than many if not most other people can, and I'm glad that most people DON'T have to understand what Will has gone through.

For a lot of reasons, I am never going to be able to accept homosexuality as being something good.  But it is a temptation that many people have.  And I can understand Will if that's what he's been driven to.  If that makes sense.

So no, in all honesty, I don't have any problem with the scene in "The Bridge" where Will is "coming out" and saying "I don't like girls."  I can readily understand why he's telling the group that.  It's something he was ashamed of, and harbored deep resentment about.  He had to confront that, and make it into something that Vecna could not turn against him and consequently the group.  It was Will's biggest weakness and he negated it.  That is certainly something that I can appreciate, and even admire.  It could have been practically anything that Will had shame about.  But in the case of Will it was the most private thing that any young person in the years surrounding adolescence can wrestle with.  Vecna has become THE prototype of the child molester, in a fashion that no other fictional monster has ever been.  Will was his first and most tragic victim.  Of course there is going to be a secret shame from that.  But Will confronted that and came through with flying colors.

No, it's not what Will did that bothers me.  It's HOW that was handled is what bugs me.

Much of the entertainment industry has been accused of fronting an agenda.  It's not an unqualified accusation.  Stranger Things has been no different.  I've never found it any more so than most other series or movies though.  Indeed, other than the profanity (ehhhh Duffers, most kids did not talk like that in the Eighties, trust me, I was there) it's been pretty neutral so far as projected ideologies go.  Now, some are saying that Will's "coming out" is going to be a textbook example of leftist propaganda.

THAT is something that is certainly not an unfair accusation.

It was too "in your face".  Too blatant.  It was too much aimed at the audience more than it was a revelation meant for the group to absorb.  It was designed for shock effect, even if all the signs were there from the beginning that Will was headed for this moment.  I've never read Stephen King's It but when Will's time came, I imagined it would be something like Eddie's revelation in the It miniseries from 1990: his confession that he was still a virgin, that the only people he had ever really bonded with were the rest of the Losers.  That could have been the model for Will's confession.  It would have let down the burden of Will's secret shame and beautifully established his acceptance by the group, that no matter what Will was never going to be alone.  As it happened in the episode, it was too blunt, too "brusque".

That's the biggest problem I have with Will's coming to the group as he did.  It could have been written and executed and even acted better.  But the cast did the best they could with what they were given.  Maybe the Duffers will learn from this experience.  It certainly seems like I am not alone in my assessment about this episode.  Perhaps the Duffers will take it to heart.  Hey, we can't hit a home run every time.  And so far the creators and producers of Stranger Things have been doing pretty good.  I can forgive this one faux pas.

That's pretty much it.  That's everything of what's been bugging me since watching volume 2 about 96 hours ago.  But last night I rewatched these three chapters again, and found myself enjoying them much more than I had initially.  So much so that now I don't think they're bad at all.  They did what they were supposed to do at this stage in the same: set the board up for the final moves.  The pierces are now in place and war is coming.  Everything else has been cleared away.  The Duffer Brothers have been pulling rabbits out of their hat for the better part of a decade... and now they'd darn well better pull out an alligator.

Whatever else could be said about those three episodes, I'm expecting the grand finale, "The Rightside-Up", to wildly exceed them.  Maybe in hindsight we'll all these three episodes as being set-up for what is to come.  And then they will be better appreciated.  Perhaps so.

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Why the Star Wars Holiday Special was so bad, in the words of the man who made it

It's become something of a tragic holiday tradition for me.  Every year about this time, I watch The Star Wars Holiday Special - considered by many to be the very worst two hours of television ever produced - and do a running commentary about it for my friends on Facebook.  Why do I torment myself like this?  I have no idea apart from the comedy (?) value.  I'll do most anything within reason (emphasis on "reason"!) to make my friends laugh.  And if it takes subjecting myself to this... thing... then it's a minor sacrifice to make each holiday season.

Pic I took of my TV screen while watching The Star Wars Holiday Special,
here depicting the lowest moment of Harvey Korman's career

For whatever reason, I didn't watch the Star Wars Holiday Special when I usually do between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I wound up setting it to play last night, after I came home from helping some friends catalog and inventory a bunch of Cabbage Patch Kids, Pound Puppies, and Care Bears (do kids still go for things like that?).  I think maybe I did it because I was reminded about lunch time yesterday that I still hadn't seen the special this year.  What jogged that thought was this interview that SlashFilm did with Steve Binder, the director of the special.  This interview was originally published in 2015 but it's so authoritative and enlightening that it should be required reading for anyone who during the holidays is curious enough about the Star Wars thingy to want to watch it.

Long story short: Star Wars, the epic space opera that had thus far only had one entry to establish itself and call its own, something that had already won millions of fans across the globe, was treated like a Seventies-era variety show.  It was two successful genres that enough people thought were compatible with each other as a combined product.  Instead it produced one of the biggest FUBARs in the modern history of all pop culture.  And that's how we got the Jefferson Starship, Harvey Korman (in three different roles!), Art Carney, Bea Arthur, and Diahann Carroll (what was that she was doing?) mushed together with ten minutes (?!?) of Wookiees growling at each other, an overly made-up Mark Hamill (I call him "Mannequin Skywalker"), Leia looking a little tipsy, and a cartoon short featuring Boba Fett (his first ever appearance).

So the holiday special is a collision of Star Wars and variety show.  I can see that.  I can even appreciate that.  It does make sense, in a perverse sort of way.  And now that we've got artificial intelligence wheedling its way into everything, maybe by next year some enterprising youngster will fix the Star Wars Holiday Special by inserting Jim Nabors or Sonny and Cher into it.

Jim Nabors as an Imperial officer?  Well gaw-aaahhh-lee!!

(I almost forgot to note that I did NOT finish watching the special last night.  I got as far as the animated short before deciding my heart just wasn't into this this time.  Maybe it's something better appreciated between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  So I guess there's always next year!)

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The seventieth anniversary of Good Will to Men

It was on December 23rd, 1955 - seventy years ago tomorrow - that Metro-Golden-Mayer released Good Will to Men.  This is one of my all-time most favorite Christmas cartoons.  It's essentially a remake of the considerably darker Peace on Earth from 1939.  Although we may not live under the threat of war as much as those during the era did, the themes of this animated short are perhaps more timely than ever before.

"Love thy neighbor."

Directed by none other than William Hanna and Joseph Barbera (who went on to create The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo and many other animated favorites), here is Good Will to Men...

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An Aviation First: Airplane touches down safely after deploying "autoland" system

This is something I wish Dad were still here to tell about it too.  As much as he disdained computers, he would no doubt find this to be very cool...

Two days ago a Beechcraft King Air became the very first aircraft to deploy an "autoland" system after the pilot became incapacitated.  It happened in Colorado.  The Garmin Autoland that had been installed on the plane kicked in and proceeded to automatically guide the aircraft down to a safe touchdown at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport.  After it came to a halt, emergency crew arrived and took care of the pilot, who is reportedly doing fine.

We have entered a new age of air flight, folks.  When this kind of thing gets to be more widely installed, a lot of people are going to be having second thoughts about going up in an aircraft.  Especially in smaller planes that may not have a co-pilot in the cockpit if Lord forbid something goes wrong with the primary pilot.

Just when I think that we're getting too technologized, something like this comes along and demonstrates to me that there really are legitimate places for more involvement by computers.  I wouldn't call myself a Luddite, but I have been adopting more of how Dad saw computers.  Well, color me deeply impressed now.

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Fallout presents: The Ghoul Log

The second season of Fallout premiered a few days ago on Amazon Prime.  I haven't seen it yet but I'll probably watch it later this evening.  Have had a few things on my plate lately.  Although at the recommendation of a friend last night I did watch Wake 

Up Dead Man, the latest of Rian Johnson's "Knives Out" series starring Daniel Craig.  I really liked it.

Anyhoo, the new season of Fallout is unfolding this holiday season.  And as part of the festivities Amazon has posted on YouTube a special lil' treat.  In the tradition of broadcast Yule logs that goes back many decades across the history of television, here is... the Ghoul Log!

Nothing says Christmas cheer quite like ninety minutes of Wayne Newton music and the fattened arm of some poor sap roasting over an open fire.

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Ten years ago tonight, the Force awakened...

It was on this day ten years ago that Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens was released in theaters.

I caught the first show of it on opening night, at a theater in Raleigh, North Carolina.  Chad, my best friend since childhood, and his wife and I saw it together.  And it truly was a very special night.  It was the first time in all our history together that Chad and I had seen a new Star Wars movie with each other in the theater.  It was like God was winking at our shared childhood.  Made all the more poignant because a few months later Chad and his wife became parents to a beautiful little girl.

Yes, I'm aware of the reputation that the Star Wars sequel trilogy has come to have.  I would be a fool to not acknowledge that particular gundark in the room.  I have shared those sentiments also.  But alas, those have softened somewhat during the past decade since the first Star Wars movie produced by Disney was released.  I'm increasingly of the mind that the sequel trilogy - The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker - does indeed work as a cycle unto itself and as components of the larger Skywalker family saga.  They may not be the most brilliant films of the series: those will forever be the original trilogy, especially The Empire Strikes Back.  But neither are they the irredeemable mess that many claim them to be.  I've had the opportunity to work with children in the past few months.  Something I've asked them a number of times is what do they think of Star Wars.  The almost unanimous answer is that they love it, so the saga is still producing fans.  Then I ask them what do they think of the newer movies.  And almost every young person I ask that of tells me that they like the sequel trilogy especially.  Rey has her fans, particularly among girls.  And that's not a bad thing at all.  It tells me that Star Wars is still at work doing what it was always meant to be: a multi-generational story to be enjoyed by people of all ages.  As a Generation X kid, I loved the original trilogy.  I came to better appreciate the prequels as I got older.  Now in my fifties, I am seeing people who are as young as I was come to enjoy Star Wars, too.  And that is good.

Well, anyway, it began in earnest ten years ago tonight, with the long-awaited arrival of the seventh episode of the Star Wars saga: something that I dare say most of us had given up on ever getting to see.  Lumps and all, it is a Star Wars movie as much as any movie can be.  And I certainly do appreciate that.

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Nine years ago tonight in San Diego...

Nine years ago tonight I was in a movie theater in San Diego, California.  I was about to do something I'd never done before in my entire life: watch a Star Wars movie in the theater without anyone to share the experience with.

It was still Tammy the Pup and me, a boy and his dog across America, a very long way from where we had started six months before.  I was stuck between wanting to see a new Star Wars film so very much, but also having to face that there would be no friend or family to enjoy it with.  That's how I went in to see Rogue One.

But maybe God provided.  I wound up sitting with some high school kids who were very excited about the movie, and we talked a little bit.  We'd become rather acquainted by the time the lights went down and the movie started.  I think we all enjoyed the movie in each other's company.  Something that was well reflected toward the end of Rogue One, when the movie comes to the scene of those Rebel soldiers trapped in the corridor.  We were ALL screaming, every one of us in that theater, as we watched Darth Vader mercilessly eviscerate every man in his path.  It was Darth Vader in a way we had always wanted to see but somehow never had the chance to before.  We truly shared a moment of collective horror... but in the right company, that can be a very fun thing.

The movie soon ended and as the credits began rolling my new friends and I talked about it and we agreed, that Rogue One was one of the best Star Wars movies yet made.

Doesn't seem like that was nine whole years ago.  I wonder what those kids are doing now.  They'd be in their mid to late twenties now.  I hope they are well, wherever they are.  They certainly were good company for one fine evening at the movies.

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Regarding Rob Reiner: Not cool, Mister President

By now everyone knows what happened yesterday.  Actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner, and his wife Michele, were found stabbed to death in their mansion in California.  It seems that it was none other than Reiner's son who was the murderer.

It was a horrific thing by any measure.  And today President Donald Trump, who had long been a target of Reiner's ire, released a statement about the deaths of the couple.  I won't post it all here, Lord knows it's all over the place tonight.  But to put it short: Trump blamed Reiner's "Trump Derangement Syndrome" for causing his murder.

Rob Reiner and Donald Trump (photo credit: MSNBC)

The more I think about what President Trump said about Rob Reiner, the more it disgusts me.  I understand that Reiner hated Trump's guts but that's no excuse whatsoever for what the sitting President of the United States said.  Trump should have taken the high ground.  I'm thinking of what happened when Prince passed away.  "Weird Al" Yankovic paid him a very beautiful tribute, even though Prince had long dissed Weird Al at every turn.  Some things are much bigger than what are really very petty disagreements in the grander scheme of things.  Trump had a great opportunity to be a good man, the better man even, in this.  And he pissed it away with his childish immature statement.

Now, in large part I've been a supporter of Trump.  He is doing things that have been needed accomplishing for a very long time, like addressing the issue of America's porous border.  Nobody will ever spot me wearing a red "Make America Great Again" hat, I usually don't go for fads like that.  But I've liked him.

But this, what Trump posted earlier today?  Not cool.  Not cool at all.  It was crass, classless, and completely without redeeming value.

I didn't care for Reiner's politics either.  But he was a fellow human being, and what happened to him and his wife is an absolute tragedy.  I am willing to look past his beliefs and his weaknesses and appreciate the gifts he shared with the world.

Tonight I am going to watch Misery, probably my favorite Rob Reiner movie, in his memory.  I'll honor him if the President won't.

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"It is time": Stranger Things Season 5 Volume 2 has a trailer!

Since Thanksgiving night I have watched the first volume of the final season of Stranger Things twice.  The shock still hasn't faded.  Dang it I want to talk openly about what's been streamed so far!!!  But there are still so many who haven't watched the latest episodes yet.  I'm going to be considerate of them.

But if you have seen the first four episodes of season five already, here is the new trailer that dropped earlier today:

I'll share an interesting theory I've heard, though.  It's being posited that Vecna, for all his malevolence and power, is not the ultimate villain of Stranger Things.  That there is some one or some thing over him that is the true monster behind everything that has happened.  I've heard it suggested that in keeping with the Dungeons & Dragons motif that's rife through this show, this final entity could be code-named Tiamat.  I kind of like that idea, though I don't know if there's going to be enough time to elaborate on that in the four final episodes.  Still a neat notion.

I'll go ahead and share my personal theory for the big finale.  Stranger Things's very last scene is going to be fifteen or twenty years later.  We get to see our heroes all grown up and happy and long past all the trauma and heartbreak that they went through together.  Among other things, Dustin and Suzie are married and have a son named Eddie.  That would be a happy ending for Dustin, who I've been cheering for since I first saw this show in a hotel room in Phoenix years ago.

Ten days to go.

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Why churches using the Nativity to protest immigration enforcement are wrong.

I'm reading a number of stories regarding churches turning their nativity scenes into political statements about immigration agents enforcing the laws.  Namely, these churches are replacing Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus with signs saying "ICE was here".  At least one church went all the way and has ICE agents surrounding the crèche with zip ties and weapons drawn.

Photo credit: Matthew McDonald

I would not want to visit these churches, because they are demonstrating that they have no grasp of scripture at all.

Here's the truth of the matter: Jesus and his parents were never refugees or immigrants.  Joseph took his wife to Bethlehem because that was their hometown, and they had to take part in a census that had been ordered by Caesar.  They may not have been fully citizens of Rome (few in Roman territory were) but they were certainly 100% legal residents of the empire.  There was nothing wrong about that at all.

So already, to depict Mary, Joseph and Jesus hauled off by immigration enforcement is ridiculous.  More  than that, it's blasphemous.

And so far as the holy family being in Egypt to escape from Herod goes, Egypt had fully been a part of the Roman Empire since the end of the Ptolemaic dynasty a few decades earlier.  Joseph brought his family there to escape from Herod, a puppet king ruling Judea on behalf of Rome.  The family of Joseph were escaping a wicked provincial ruler who Rome pretty much let do whatever he wanted so long as he kept the local Jews in line.  But Herod's jurisdiction went no further than that.  People were still free to travel within the empire, across provincial boundaries.  So it is that to go from Judea to Egypt was no more big a deal than if I were to drive a car from the upstate of South Carolina across the border and into Georgia.  To claim that Joseph and his family were going to a foreign land and that made them refugees is... well... dumb.

This hatred of all things Donald Trump is begetting some truly mad behavior.  It says more about the people hating, than it does about the man they are targeting with their spite and bitterness.  For a church to ignore basic scripture, as these places of worship are doing, absolutely reeks of ignorance.  And they need to be called out about it.

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Happy Sixtieth Anniversary to A Charlie Brown Christmas!

 

Premiered on CBS on December 9th, 1965.

No matter how many times I've seen this, I always take time to watch it again every Christmas season.  A few years ago I bought the Blu-ray containing A Charlie Brown Christmas along with the Halloween and Thanksgiving specials.

I can barely remember it, but when I was two or three years old CBS had scheduled the Christmas special for broadcast.  But a football game went over long and completely pre-empted A Charlie Brown Christmas.  I was furious!  Mom said I was really crying about not getting to see Charlie Brown.  It bothered Mom too.  Enough so that she called CBS affiliate WFMY in neighboring Greensboro to complain about it.  I don't know what she said to them but they gave her the home phone number of the station's general manager!  Mom let him have it, telling him it was wrong to advertise Charlie Brown and then yank it away from all the children because of a football game.  The way Mom put it, I get the feeling that she wasn't the only irate parent calling the station that night.  And parents across America were probably calling their own local CBS affiliates too.  In the end the network rescheduled A Charlie Brown Christmas to an airdate ideal for viewers of all ages and the kiddies got to see it after all.

I treasure knowing that.  For all that happened between my mother and I (something I explore at length in my book Keeping the Tryst), there are anecdotes scattered here and there which prove that Mom wasn't the bad person I went so long believing that she was.  A parent doesn't do something like that if there wasn't love for his or her child.  I very much appreciate that.

Well, happy anniversary Charlie Brown.  Someone said during your special's production that they'll be watching this for a hundred years.  You're well on your way to reaching that goal.  I hope to be around to see it when it comes :-) 

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Pennrose Mall will live again! Worst shopping center in North Carolina is getting an extreme makeover (Plus: Reidsville is getting a new bookstore!)

I first heard about this about a week ago and it didn't seem possible.  There were photos though that proved it was true: Pennrose Mall, what might be the worst shopping establishment in the southeastern United States - it's definitely the worst in the state of North Carolina - is getting some much-needed cosmetic attention.

Here is a pic of what Pennrose Mall has looked like for the past few decades:

The blog Sky City: Retail History has many other photos of Pennrose.  Those are from circa 2011 though.  I paid a brief visit inside the mall in 2017 and it was MUCH worse by that point.

Pennrose Mall used to be a happenin' place.  It had many good retailers, some big-name anchors but also quite a few small businesses that brought real local charm to the downtown area.  But the last time it was anything like that was perhaps thirty years ago.  I think the town's economic downturn when American Tobacco Company was sold in 1994 was one hammer that hit Pennrose.  And then Walmart came in 2005 and that wrought a lot of devastation to the business scene in Reidsville.

Like I noted above, I went into Pennrose Mall in 2017.  There were only three stores that were still there: Belk, Rose's, and Strader's Shoe Store.  There was only one other "business" there: a fly by night Internet sweepstakes place that looked like it had gone completely under the radar of local law enforcement.  Strader's closed this past spring, leaving only Belk and Rose's to dominate an empty shell of a shopping center.  There was extensive water damage from leaky ceilings.  Trash throughout the complex.  Weeds growing throughout the empty parking lot.  I'm sure vagrants have been hanging around.  No doubt some drug deals have happened there too.

Put succinctly, Pennrose Mall has been the blight of Reidsville, North Carolina.  But its owner never cared about fixing up the place.  The interests owning Pennrose, apparently up in New York State, found the mall to be more profitable if it was just sitting there derelict.

Well folks, apparently things are finally going to be looking up for Pennrose Mall.

On the podcast today at Mike Moore Media, the plans for Pennrose Mall were finally revealed.  Here's what was posted on the podcast's Facebook page earlier...

Pennrose Mall in Reidsville has been bought by local developer Tom Holderby, a Reidsville native.  Renovations have started, a dozen new businesses have already signed leases, including retail, restaurants, trampoline park, coffee shop, and Peanut Shack is returning.  Holderby is also building 168 apartments on the property.  Plans will be announced for the old Hardee’s and China Grill.  Winn-Dixie will be torn down.  Pennrose, one of the first malls in the state was built in 1968.

WOW!!  All of that, and the return of Peanut Shack, too!  New businesses set to fill the empty spaces.  Restaurants coming.  A coffee shop and a trampoline park, which sounds like a lot of fun.

This really could be the thing that revitalizes downtown Reidsville.  Something that it has needed for a full generation now.

I have high hopes for this and I wish Mr. Holderby all the best.

But that's not all!

When I commented on the original post on Facebook, I lamented that Reidsville needs a bookstore.  Pennrose Mall used to have News & Novels, an awesome bookstore that I bought many a volume (and quite a few comic books) from.  News & Novels closed down in 1988.  Richard Moore (who I've written about a few times on this blog) had KC Books and then The Bookstore and that lasted for awhile until it closed in 2008.  There hasn't been a single bookstore in Rockingham County since then.

Well friends, I have been informed by trusted associates that a new bookstore is coming to Reidsville!  Coming spring of 2026 is Ink & Ivy Bookshop and it sounds like it's going to be the perfect lil' addition to the city of Reidsville.  I'm definitely looking forward to visiting Reidsville again soon, just to check Ink & Ivy out.  Hey who knows, maybe we'll have a signing for my book there.

Seriously though, this news warms the cockles of my heart and I'm very glad to hear that my old hometown is getting some good things after too long a time in the wilderness.

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