Crossroads Mall (now Plaza Mayor) Oklahoma City Visit - Oct 27, 2017

I was born in Oklahoma City and raised in Southwest Oklahoma City by my grandma and my mom until when I was relocated to Irving, TX with my mom and my dad when I eleven years old in 2003. My grandma took me to Crossroads Mall a lot during my childhood times, during the time I was four years through eleven years old (1996-2003). My grandma usually would take me to the arcade place, Sbarro, Braum's, or McDonald's.

I have a very poor immune system as a kid and I get sick easily. I was super-clean boy. I remembered how my mom talked about how I get sick easily every time she took me to the pet shop at Crossroads.

Around 2006, I started requesting my mom to stop at Crossroads Mall on one of our visits to my relatives in Oklahoma City. I asked my mom a few more times in 2007.

In December 2008, my mom decided to stop by Crossroads and we witnessed JCPenney and Foley's (by then Macy's) are gone and Dillard's and Steve & Barry's are closing. Most of the stores like Radio Shack was still there. The mall was still 90% occupied and the anchors are 50% occupied (2 out of 4) at the time. The Christmas decorations were out and Santa was taking pictures and that brought a lot of my memories of going to Crossroads during the holidays during my childhood times. I had a shock-wave of childhood memories going through my had as I was walked through Crossroads with my mom that night and even after that night I still saw many of my childhood memories of going to Crossroads. My parents also stopped at Crossroads again during our Spring break visit to OKC in March 2009 and the little stores are the only remaining stores.

Throughout the years I was working on my Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering at The University of Texas at Arlington (2012-2015), I tried to request my mom to stop at Crossroads again during our visit to OKC, but she never had the time for it.

Throughout 2014 and 2015 during my last two years in the university. I had thought about driving back to OKC myself during one of my free days to see Crossroads again myself, but then I never did it.

Throughout 2017 as I am working on my second Bachelors degree at back at UTA, I had thought again about driving back to OKC to see Crossroads.

That one night in early October 2017, I had dreams of seeing my grandma again from the past and then I started having flashback of my complete childhood memories after I woke-up. I decided to search Plaza Mayor on Google and find out it's closing permanently by the end of the month.

I started thinking heavily about driving back to OKC to see Crossroads (now Plaza Mayor) one last time before it's closed forever. It was a tough decision. I was planning to go on a Friday or one of the weekend days since I don't have classes on Fridays and the weekends.

I didn't plan to go on the weekend of October 20-22, 2017 because I was also planning to attend a huge Dallas Fan Days (Dallas Comic Con) convention, so I planned to go one of the days of the weekend of October 27-29, 2017, shortly before Crossroads closes permanently.

I had thought about this plan for weeks after I found the news Plaza Mayor is closing forever, I tried to decide if it's worth it for me to drive to OKC again to see Crossroads for myself one last time. It was extremely hard for me. After the weekend of the Dallas Fan Days convention. Time started running out. I thought more heavily about it and planned to go on the Saturday, October 28, 2017. Then I remembered I was also going to attend a Classic Car Show with a friend in the area that same day, so I pushed forward my plan and planned to go on Friday, October 27, 2017.

On Thursday, I clearly decided I wanted to do this. I am going to drive to OKC on Friday to see Crossroads Mall (the place of my happy childhood memories) one last time before it's closed forever. I checked up the my car on Thursday afternoon and I hit the road on Friday right after noon.

I am glad I made this trip because the last time I saw Crossroads Mall was back in March 2009 and that was eight years ago. We saw Crossroads Mall in December 2008 and that was five years after I was moved to Texas. So, apparently, this is the longest time ever I haven't seen Crossroads Mall.