Nashville of the past, 90's and before (Jackson, Brentwood: apartments, crime rates)

[Ratdude]

I was recently in town visiting and I saw on the news where Hickory Hollow Mall is losing the last two anchor stores....Has anyone heard of any plans for the property at this point? Sooo sad to see the mall go from the great place it once was to what it has become today.......Many awesome memories going their with my parents and friends on weekends and after school.... : (

[Antioch]

Originally Posted by Ratdude

I was recently in town visiting and I saw on the news where Hickory Hollow Mall is losing the last two anchor stores....Has anyone heard of any plans for the property at this point? Sooo sad to see the mall go from the great place it once was to what it has become today.......Many awesome memories going their with my parents and friends on weekends and after school.... : (

Well the Mayor plans on (has been for 2 years now) putting a library/park/community center in the old J.C. Penney's building, however no imput from the commnity... Nashville State Community College is also making plans to open a satelite location in the old Dillards building. But again, the community has had no imput what so ever on what should be done in order to save the mall, and believe it or not, several (hundreds) of residents in the area have voiced opinions as well as area councilmen at numerous town hall meetings, but again, no one is ever heard for some reason... Very sad, unfair situation...

[Rids78]

Wouldn't attempts to save the mall be better directed at the CBL & Associates rather than city hall? After all it's their property and I imagine they don't care where the money comes from just they want their return on it.

[Antioch]

Originally Posted by Rids78

Wouldn't attempts to save the mall be better directed at the CBL & Associates rather than city hall? After all it's their property and I imagine they don't care where the money comes from just they want their return on it.

Yes, thats where the attempts were originally directed to. It was mentioned at a town hall meeting I attended that that mall has the highest rent out of any of the other CBL malls in the area which was the reason why several stores closed in recent years, along with the lower traffic due to the first two department stores leaving. There have been local mom and pop stores that have opened in the mall with in the past 3 years but could not afford the rent and closed, and now with Macy's and Sears closing it will be even less traffic... It seems to me that CBL is not trying to cooperate at all from what I keep hearing... The majority of the people in Antioch do not shop there anymore because there is nothing for us there, especially with Macy's and Sears leaving... I guess it is used by people living in the inner city who are able to catch the bus there since it is on the bus route...

[tiredofpdx]

I moved away from Nashville in around 2007 to the West Coast because the scene was just getting way uncool. But I was born in '82 and had some great memories growing up in Nashville. Namely:
Summer Lights. Brentwood Skate Rink. Starwood Ampetheater (god the traffic leaving that place was always a nightmare, but the shows were great), Municipal (bad sound, but I was like 3rd row for Megadeth/COC back in like '94), Bellevue Mall (before it became a ghost town it was actually kinda cool) - 328 Performace Hall, Elliston St. (cafe coco, the end, exit/in), Centinial Park, Stone Mountain, In Review (Rebecca Gleaves was hot), Lion's Head theater. Q-Zar. There was just so much cool stuff to do and the people were real and cool. I never thought I would say it but I miss the 90's. from around '92-99 during the grunge and alternative explosion it was a really cool time to be a teenager. Health food and going GREEN hadn't exploded yet so it was still cool and hip to be a slacker and get stoned and eat Mcdonalds. People still bought cds. at TOWER. or got cool stuff at THE GREAT ESCAPE. Movies in the Park. I even remeber when the Belle Meade Bookstore was still a movie theater. even from 2000-to around 2003 I was having a blast living with a girlfriend and working **** jobs for **** pay, but just having a good time. I guess I just got old. Remember Dash Riprock? ("let's go smoke some pot..") - well that dude was a younger co-worker of mine's teacher at Hillwood.. so i guess things just change... oh yea Y-107.. and 103.3 KDF.. lol.. 91.1 was still good when I left though... but after living on the west coast I dont see myself going back to Nashville anytime soon... the 90's are sadly gone. Maybe I'll watch Gummo or something...

[ken arbuckle]

Originally Posted by Antioch

Yes we did! I noticed that while looking at the pictures. It was a norm the winter for us to get a good snow(s) and I don't remember people panicing over it. It wasn't ice storms, or this powdery snow we get now, it was real, good, heavy, wet snow, that stook around for days. When they forcasted snow, it would snow, not like the guessing game they play now. My moms birthday is Jan. 27, she said that she could always gurantee snow on that day, until the last 10 years or so. It is so funny when out of towners new to the area say it doesn't snow in Nashville, or get freaked out over the threat of snow, Im always like, well it used to snow all the time, have pics to prove. After last years snows, and 2 cold winters in a row, 09 and 10, maybe we are getting back into a cold, snowier winter pattern, after 15 years.
Does anyone remember the blizzard of 93? I remember living in Antioch we had anywhere from 8-12 inches of snow, with 2 to 3 ft drifts with a high temp of like 0 on one of the days, the snow was around for at least 2 weeks. If I recall correctly this was an early March snow. Areas in Nashville north and west only had like an inch of snow while areas south and east, particually Murfreesboro, had up to a foot of snow with hudge snow drifts.

its is ture far as i hear we use to get alot of snow
in this part of the south it also ture the when we started to lack snow people just became oblivious to how we did get more snow and cold hear back then even people more up north thay now see and miss percept us as some "snow less" paradise

[TNU grad]

Wow, what great memories! I lived in Nashville between 1986 and 1995...so many of the things that are written about here are part of my memories, too. I worked at the Church Street Mall briefly, loved Caster Knott downtown...liked that 100 Oaks Mall was so quiet, wasn't there a 99 cent theater there, too? We "borrowed" milk crates from Purity Dairy that I still need to return...wasn't there a steak house near Kroger on Murfreesboro Road?? Where was Nob's Hill? The mention of the old IHOP made me remember that name...was I the only one who went to see the Moon Over Nashville from the back door of the WWI memorial on Capitol Hill?? What about the Polaris? Is it still there, we went there one night b/c the guy I was with was underage and he thought they wouldn't card him...they did. Tony Alamo's was a place I wanted to go, but couldn't get anyone to go with me Also saw Bob Hope at the Grand Ole Opry before they moved it back to the Ryman. Played softball against some musicians, but for some reason, the only one I remember is George Jones. lol. I think the musicians used to play an annual game against the police or fire departments...it was something that was done for charity, I think. Wow, I feel old.

[BirdieBelle]

Originally Posted by TNU grad

Wow, what great memories! I lived in Nashville between 1986 and 1995...so many of the things that are written about here are part of my memories, too. I worked at the Church Street Mall briefly, loved Caster Knott downtown...liked that 100 Oaks Mall was so quiet, wasn't there a 99 cent theater there, too? We "borrowed" milk crates from Purity Dairy that I still need to return...wasn't there a steak house near Kroger on Murfreesboro Road?? Where was Nob's Hill? The mention of the old IHOP made me remember that name...was I the only one who went to see the Moon Over Nashville from the back door of the WWI memorial on Capitol Hill?? What about the Polaris? Is it still there, we went there one night b/c the guy I was with was underage and he thought they wouldn't card him...they did. Tony Alamo's was a place I wanted to go, but couldn't get anyone to go with me Also saw Bob Hope at the Grand Ole Opry before they moved it back to the Ryman. Played softball against some musicians, but for some reason, the only one I remember is George Jones. lol. I think the musicians used to play an annual game against the police or fire departments...it was something that was done for charity, I think. Wow, I feel old.

I don't know if you'd recognize it now!

[me112233]

Originally Posted by shinestx

Let's see, there were tons of locally owned stores. People believed that the hometown stores (Cain Sloan and Castner Knott) kept out better, higher-end department stores. I remember the three-laning of I-65 in the early 80s... before that, traffic was worse at rush hour than it's ever been (before or since). Nowadays, it seems that the traffic is always heavy but not like back then when almost everything flowed into and out of downtown at rush hour.

Don't forget Harvey's . . . and that little merry-go-round for the kids. They even incorporated the horse into their logo.

Originally Posted by shinestx

I remember local treats on TV like Sir Cecil Creep and late-night Twilight Zone reruns during the summer... Bozo the clown with the local host in the local franchise of that nationally known character... and (here's an oldie) Space Clown. Of course, there were the local wrestling "stars", which everyone has a favorite in. Mine was Tojo Yamamoto.

I remember Sir Creep. He's passed on, yet he still lives on youtube. The same guy also did the character of Tennessee Trash, my all-time favorite public service announcement.

My favorite wrestlers (I think it was on Channel 2, perhaps when it was Channel 8?) were Len Rossi and Bearcat Brown, almost always teamed together. Tojo was the "bad guy" most of the time, but was a good guy for a short while, then went bad again. Off stage, Tojo helped a lot of wrestlers get their start. A bit of trivia -- he was actually born in Hawaii, not Japan. Tojo died in 1992 at age 65.

[Beat02]

Brand new double ice rink in Antioch! There's stuff to do here, I think the OP is just old now and out of the loop. You say all you hear about is crime now... Well you probably didn't pay attention to crime rates 25 years ago when you were young. Supposedly downtown used to be full of junkies and prostitutes. I wasn't here then so I can't attest to it.