Shepard Mall is not a Mall anymore !!

[Generals64]

I Hope im not coming off as being mean here but I was wondering if anybody else remembered the guy that was always hanging out at the Mall. He was a short white man with dark hair and always wore a cowboy hat and smoked a cigar, he was mentally handicapped and also carried a walkie talkie and always tried to talk on it but their was never anybody on the other end. This was in the early and mid 80's.

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I think that was "Prunepicker" and he was trying to get PapaOU to answer the other walkie talkie...

[papaOU]

I Hope im not coming off as being mean here but I was wondering if anybody else remembered the guy that was always hanging out at the Mall. He was a short white man with dark hair and always wore a cowboy hat and smoked a cigar, he was mentally handicapped and also carried a walkie talkie and always tried to talk on it but their was never anybody on the other end. This was in the early and mid 80's.

Was he not a security officer?

[PennyQuilts]

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i think that was "prunepicker" and he was trying to get papaou to answer the other walkie talkie...

hahaha!!!!!!!

[ljbab728]

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Add and Subtract in your head???? that's what those cash registers were for....How many times did you burn your arm on the Popcorn kettle while testing the popcorn???? I think my arms is permanently scarred from that....Someone had to test the popcorn to make sure it was done right....right?????

Surely you haven't forgotten when cash registers didn't do the addition and subtraction for you when making change. You had to know how to do it in your head.

[RealJimbo]

Surely you haven't forgotten when cash registers didn't do the addition and subtraction for you when making change. You had to know how to do it in your head.

No offense intended, but making change is a matter of counting. Start with the amount of the sale and count up to the amount tendered, using currency as your counting medium. Right Gen64?

[RealJimbo]

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I think that was "Prunepicker" and he was trying to get PapaOU to answer the other walkie talkie...

Little Mike - He passed away a few years ago. He was famous in his time.

[ljbab728]

No offense intended, but making change is a matter of counting. Start with the amount of the sale and count up to the amount tendered, using currency as your counting medium. Right Gen64?

Are you disagreeing with me about something? If so, I can't tell what it is.

[Prunepicker]

Shepherd Mall hasn't been a mall for a long time. I remember
seeing the daughter for the first time. She was an absolutely
gorgeous brunette. She probably still is.

I was dumb.

[lt14life]

Ok so he was Little Mike ? Anyway he was a real nice guy and I just wondered if anybody new him. By the way what was he famous for ?

[BB37]

Our family moved to NW 24th and Villa in 1962, when Shepherd Mall was still Shepherd's field. I watched 'em build the mall from start to finish -- lots of fun for an 8-9-10 year old kid.

IIRC, the banquet facility was above Kerrs/DBD/Dillards; the space above Penneys was all storage. I don't remember a western wear store, but do (vaguely) remember the hobby shop. There was also a big sporting goods store (Millers?), Mr. Buck (men's clothing store), and two TG&Y stores. I saw 2001 at the theater when the film opened in '67(?).

On a more somber note, I remember the OCU student who commited suicide sometime in the early 70s by driving his car at high speed across the parking lots from Sears straight into Mr. Buck's. They put up planters after that to prevent it from happening again.

[PennyQuilts]

On a more somber note, I remember the OCU student who commited suicide sometime in the early 70s by driving his car at high speed across the parking lots from Sears straight into Mr. Buck's. They put up planters after that to prevent it from happening again.

I remember when they put in the planters but didn't know the story behind it. That is sad.

[BB37]

I remember when they put in the planters but didn't know the story behind it. That is sad.

Yep. Obviously, it was well after midnight one night, when the parking lots were vacant. He started from around the Sears auto center and gunned it; drove straight into the wall behind Mr. Buck's on the N. side of the mall, just north of the corner where the mall turns from E-W to N-S. I seem to remember it happening in the early 70s, but may have been as early as '68 or '69.

[Phoenix59]

Lots of Shepherd Mall memories here. I also was a member of school choruses that used to sing there at Christmas. I took my first guitar lessons at Jenkins' Music Store. I fished for trout in the portable fishing pools that they used to have periodically. I had a very uncomfortable moment at the theater, sitting next to my mother watching The Godfather when I saw the first bare breasts I had ever seen in a movie. I used to take my girls there for corn dog on a stick in the mid-80s. Bought my first PC at a little computer store there in about 1990 -- an IBM XT clone, 1MB RAM, 32MB hard drive, and 4-color CGA video -- $1200!

[yukong]

Being BB37's little brother, I too remember seeing the mall being built. As a kid, we were mall rats before it was cool to be a mall rat. Spent countless hours wondering around that wonderful place. I loved the hobby shop. Bought many a thing there. Sang there every christmas with the school choir from Taft. Went there every day when they brought in the dolphin show and sat in the splash zone. They did that dolphin show every summer for years. It was so neat. Always went to the small TG&Y in the north wing. Loved to eat at El Charito/El Chico. To this day, when I hear a pneumatic impact wrench, it takes me back to those days listening to the JC Penney auto center. We were right across Villa from that auto center and I could see it from our front porch. All day every day...you could hear that distinctive sound. So, when I hear it now, I see that auto center in my minds eye. I would dare say, during summer vacation, I was in that mall every day except Sunday. Mainly because back then, most stores were closed on Sunday. As a little kid, I was always scared of the huge mouse trap on the front of a women's store in the north wing. And I remember the banquet facility above Dillards Brown Duncan.

And of course, the most mysterious thing was the Shepard sisters mansion on the island between the mall and Sears. That huge house and estate. The excavated the lot all around that house and so in the back, its lot sat at least 8-10 feet above the parking lot. As kids, it was the rumor that they sisters were crazy and that if a kid ever got into the place, they never came out. That lot had what was claimed to be the first two story house in OKC or Oklahoma, I don't remember. It is now on the Harn Homestead. But it was behind the mansion. The lot was covered with trees. It was just the coolest looking place. Anyway, one day a couple of friends and I climbed the hill, went under the 8 foot fence and looked around the place. We didn't get too close to the mansion, but we did go into that old, original two story house and went up stairs. It was just a junk house at that point. But we though it was cool. And we made it out alive. The sisters didn't find us. I would love to see a picture of that old mansion. Wish we had taken some.

[Prunepicker]

I took my first guitar lessons at Jenkins' Music Store.

Who was your teacher?

[Achilleslastand]

I believe the hobby shop was actually called "the hobby shop" if memory serves correctly. The used to have quite the collection of dioramas and assembled and painted models. Shame places like that are virtually non existent today.

[rcjunkie]

I Hope im not coming off as being mean here but I was wondering if anybody else remembered the guy that was always hanging out at the Mall. He was a short white man with dark hair and always wore a cowboy hat and smoked a cigar, he was mentally handicapped and also carried a walkie talkie and always tried to talk on it but their was never anybody on the other end. This was in the early and mid 80's.

He lived on NW 24 just W. of Villa, played semi-pro ball with his brother. He passed aways about 12 years ago.

[Snowman]

http://www.deadmalls.com/malls/shepherd_mall.html

DEADMALLS.COM FEATURE:
SHEPHERD MALL: OKLAHOMA CITY, OK
Kent Ahrens' Commentary:

Posted April 25, 2005 (user submitted)
Shepherd Mall sits on NW 23rd St between Penn and Villa. At one time, this was the place. Now, it's a place. However, unlike many dead malls, Shepherd Mall is experiencing a renaissance, but not as a shopping center. My memories of Shepherd Mall are relatively few as I spent very little time there. However, I do remember it as having a T G & Y (later McCrory's) as an anchor and a Gold Mine video arcade.

Shepherd Mall is a relatively small mall. However, prior to the mid-80's, it was in the center of town and had very little competition. Oklahoma City has the distinction of being America's largest city in terms of land area. So, malls are relatively far apart. Penn Square Mall, just two to three miles north at Penn and Northwest Expressway, was Shepherd's nearest competition, and it struggled for quite some time.

Penn Square, however, had a plan. It completely reinvented itself and remodeled to become a class A mall. It became larger than Shepherd Mall, fancier than Shepherd Mall, and stores couldn't get there soon enough. Also, 50 Penn Place sits just across the street from Penn Square and has even more shopping, most of it the "ritzy" type shops. By the late 80's, the corner of Penn and Northwest Expressway became a shopper's paradise in Oklahoma City. Shepherd Mall and Penn Square Mall simply could not co-exist that close together.

Also, the rapid growth of Edmond and far north Oklahoma City put Shepherd Mall's relatively central location at a major disadvantage. Quail Springs Mall, more than 10 miles north of Shepherd Mall on Memorial between May and Penn, became their place to shop. As housing prices in Oklahoma City dropped, more and more people flocked north leaving Shepherd Mall in an increasingly blue collar area.

As Shepherd Mall's tenants began to leave, foot traffic also declined. Parking lot spaces became easier to find, and, finally, Shepherd Mall became a ghost town. However, that did not last long. On April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City was changed when Timothy McVeigh drove up to the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building and detonated a fertilizer bomb in the back of a Ryder truck killing 168 people. The Oklahoma City bombing is probably what saved the life of Shepherd Mall. When you drive by today, the parking lot is packed, but there are no shoppers.

The various divisions of the government began to separate out their locations after the bombing. Shepherd Mall's central location was attractive to state, county and federal government, and government offices began opening there. The Social Security Administration, which was virtually wiped out in the bombing, has its offices in Shepherd Mall as well as a memorial to its employees who were killed in the bombing. The mall today boasts a few federal government offices and many state, city and county offices. It also has a charter high school and a call center for a major corporation. On the business side, there aren't many businesses left, though the mall still solicits them in the few open spaces it has. There is a Subway and a few restaurants that cater to the employees and students at the mall. Those restaurants have seen mixed results. Jaramillo's Mexican Restaurant recently closed while most other restaurants close for the day at 3 PM. Subway has regular Subway hours and is probably the only area that is open after 5 PM. Shepherd Mall is about as dead as it gets for shoppers, but it's a classic case of a dead mall success story as it now has another use.

[metro]

Ok I had to go into Shepard Mall last week because Cox Comunications has setup an Office their, I had not been in this Mall since the Late 80's and you know it was really sad because their were alot of great stores their and I had alot of memories as well . remember Hubbards Western wear ? Furrs ? & alot more . Anybody else have favorite stores and good memories ??

No offense, but it hasn't been a real mall in 2 decades. Do you get out much, lots has changed in OKC since then. If not been out much, we could suggest lots of places to make sure to visit and see the transformation.

[Martin]

no offense, metro, but you're harping on a post made nearly a year ago. do you get around this forum much? if not, we could suggest lots of threads for you to visit. -M

[Thunder]

Shepard Mall is still a mall. Not quite retail mall anymore, but obviously a business mall with very little retail, such as gift shops (if any is still there).

[jn1780]

Has the old Farmers Insurance space been filled yet?

[Filifan]

Originally Posted by lt14life
Ok I had to go into Shepard Mall last week because Cox Comunications has setup an Office their, I had not been in this Mall since the Late 80's and you know it was really sad because their were alot of great stores their and I had alot of memories as well

No offense, but it hasn't been a real mall in 2 decades. Do you get out much, lots has changed in OKC since then. If not been out much, we could suggest lots of places to make sure to visit and see the transformation.

The late 80's was 2 decades ago

[Phoenix59]

Who was your teacher?

God, I have no idea. We're talking about sometime around 1971 or so. It's been a while.

[Snowman]

Has the old Farmers Insurance space been filled yet?

The top floor is about 75% full and the rest being remodeled which looks like a requirement for a lease, the bottom floor is completely empty.