SEARS: The end of the era of Brookdale Mall

I remember watching Brookdale Mall (Brooklyn Center, Minnesota) being constructed as we all eagerly peered out the school bus windows, on our way to  Northport elementary.  (It was my kindergarten year, and everything was bustling with “newness”.)

It was magical – Just imagining a mass of stores, under one cover, in a luxurious setting with restaurants attached – called:  A MALL!

So many shopping firsts and fashion firsts were acquired at Brookdale Mall: Dayton’s, Penney’s, Donaldson’s, Snyder’s and……..Sears. I worked at Sears throughout High School….. it was a grand place to work.  I can’t remember a time as a little girl when I didn’t look forward to the “Christmas Wish Book“, or going with my Dad to get a “Craftsman” tool.  And when Mom’s washer went on the blink – off we’d go to Sears for a replacement.  Sears was the store for the Everyman.   

The demolishing of Brookdale Mall a number of years back left one vestige standing: Sears. But now – it will soon be demolished as well.

I visited my flagship job/store/memory maker  –  in the last final days, and it was heartbreaking.  Below are a few pictures on the history of Sears – as I remember it and photographed  it.

Nothing stays the same.
And, at times, they simply vanish. 

        

HEART ATTACK survival – when alone – can be a cough away!

Please pause for 2 minutes and read this.  It could save your life!!

1. Let’s say it’s 7.25pm and you’re going home (alone of course) after an unusually hard day on the job.
2. You’re really tired, upset and frustrated.
3. Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to drag out into your arm and up in to your jaw. You are only about five km from the hospital nearest your home.
4. Unfortunately you don’t know if you’ll be able to make it that far.
5. You have been trained in CPR, but the guy who taught the course did not tell you how to perform it on yourself.
6. HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE? Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness.
7. However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest. A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let-up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.
8. Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital.
9. Tell as many other people as possible about this. It could save their lives!!

   FINALLY………………

10. Cardiologists say that if everyone who reads this would forward it to 10 people, you can bet that we’ll save at least one life.

    Dignity by Design Enterprise