Old, decaying strip malls, I must admit, do hold a certain fascination for me. They were the proto-malls of their time. This particular one predated the Oly area's first bonafide mall (South Sound Mall in Lacey) by a half dozen years. Both vacant holes pictured here hold many memories for me as the spaces have performed a variety of retail roles in their past.
In cartoonist terms, the left half of this image once housed a pharmacy/gift shop back when Tricky Dick was in office. They also sold LP albums, lots of them. The owner was a big fat Republican member of the Washington State House of Representatives who used his girth as a campaign plus since he claimed it would make him be noticed when he stood up to talk. But in fact all he did was introduce bills to benefit pharmacists.
Anyway, when my parents would be shopping for groceries next door, I'd slip into this place and study the amazing album covers. I didn't really care about the music on the vinyl as much as I studied the big graphic images used to sell them. This was part of my education as a visual artist.
