Yesterday I posted an article that was written a decade ago about the Bayshore Mall, the mall in Eureka–where I lived for a brief time when I was a kid, and visited frequently as I was growing up. The article, “Death Stalks Bayshore Mall,” portrayed how what had once been the crossroads of Eureka’s social and commercial scene had become the most visible symptom of Eureka’s dying economy, and cast in a pretty harsh light the struggling people who were hit hardest.
Month: September 2022
For a couple of years after my parents’ divorce in 1990, I lived in Eureka, California, with my mom and sister. We subsequently went to live with my dad in 1993, but I visited Eureka many more times to see my mom, through about 2001. A lot of complicated stuff happened, and my mom ended up living back east, and for reasons I don’t care to get into, I haven’t talked to her in about 13 years.
But my memories of Eureka persist. One of the commercial centers of that then-logging town was the Bayshore Mall. Built in 1988, it was an outlier–the only mall in a hundred miles in any direction. It was a fresh, thriving, new place during the timespan that I lived there. I remember seeing a re-release of 101 Dalmations there, and watching Aladdin while an absolutely hellacious storm thundered down outside.