Rocking Raleigh

Growing up in Millington had its fun, but there was always a place just south of us where we experienced most of our shopping and entertainment. Raleigh was pre-Wolfchase, so it was the closet area to go to for all of our shopping, eating, and theater needs. These are my personal memories of "Rocking Raleigh."

The Raleigh Springs Mall was pretty much the only mall we knew. Every now and then, we would venture out to the Mall of Memphis or the Hickory Ridge Mall, but Raleigh Springs had everything we needed. There we would go to all of the department stores like Dillards, JCPenny and Goldsmiths. I always enjoyed going to Sears because they had these little curtain drawn cartoon booths that you could sit in and watch a little cartoon for a dime. When I wasn’t watching cartoons, I was jumping from one riding lawnmower to the other pretending they were tanks. Outside of Sears, just as you would walk in the main mall fairway, were Shoney’s and Woolworths. Now Shoney’s was a common restaurant that we would often visit, but Woolworths had its own little restaurant as well. It was a small restaurant with a bar and stools for patrons to eat on and various tables scattered around the restaurant floor. What was memorable about the Woolworths restaurant was their Tuna Melt sandwich that I still make today for my family. Another famous eatery in the mall, aside from Hot Dog Sam’s, was Milano’s Pizza. Awhile back, I posted a comment on Facebook about the Raleigh Springs Milano’s. The feedback I got back was 99% female and they were all remembering the “cute” pizza guy there at Milano’s. I do not remember any of the pizza guys, but I guess he made an impression on them. Nevertheless, it was the best pizza in the mall. Another great memory of the Raleigh Springs Mall was the theater. The Childresses have a personal connection to this theater because my dad had a job there working nights during his high school years. He was fired because he got caught riding his motorcycle up and down the aisles of the theater. Every time we saw a movie there, I would picture him doing just that. We have a lot of memories at the Raleigh Springs Mall, especially around the holidays, when I would tell Santa and the Easter Bunny what all I wanted. It was a very family-friendly atmosphere with much to do.

Like the mall, there were several other retail establishments around Raleigh that we visited frequently. One I have mentioned before is Children's Palace, the Mecca of toy stores. Oh the memories of walking in the doors of this place and having to follow the makeshift aisles that just filtered into a world of childhood enchantment. There were so many toys to be seen and play with while there. Children’s Palace would often have characters dressed up, such as Spiderman and the Hulk, walk around to greet you. It was always the biggest treat to make a visit to Children’s Palace. We also had Service Merchandise, which I really didn’t care all that much about, until I got a little older and I could relate more to their product line. Dad’s favorite store was always Central Hardware. I remember the 12-foot giant statue guy in his flannel shirt, blue jeans, and yellow suspenders there to greet you as you walked in. Aside from Children’s Palace, my second favorite spot was Showbiz Pizza, not Chuck-E-Cheese, but Showbiz. We went to Showbiz for birthday parties and also for rewards. You see, Showbiz had a program set up that, if you brought in your school report card, they would award you so many tokens per “A” and “B” you received. Showbiz was set up just like Chuck-E-Cheese, but in my opinion, it had much better animatronic characters. The Showbiz band consisted of the Showbiz bear, of course, the surfer polar bear, the cheerleader bird, and the massive ape that played the keyboard. You would be lying if you said you never peeked behind the curtains after a show to see if the band members were still there. One time I did and I swear to this day, the ape’s eyes moved directly toward me as I opened the curtain.

Raleigh created nothing but great childhood memories for my family and me. There was so much more to do than what I mentioned, but these were the top memories that made an impact on me. I often wish my children could watch a ten cent black and white cartoon, bite into a mouth-watering tuna melt sandwich while sitting on a barstool at Woolworths, see the expression on their faces when they first step into Children’s Palace, or even take a peek behind the curtain at Showbiz. Nevertheless, they are creating their own memories now in other places just as I did in Raleigh.

-Steve Childress