Did anyone else see the inexplicable teenage mob at Alderwood
Mall this past Saturday? (It’s a large shopping mall in Lynnwood, a suburb of
Seattle.) Here are excerpts from a journal entry I was doing that day, when I planned
to sort out magazines and newsletters, some of them years old.
12:40 – 1:50 Drove to Alderwood Mall. I walked around the
mall twice on the inside for exercise.
1:50 – 2:35 Sorted through old magazines and newsletters I
had brought with me. I did this in the food court, near the windows. A massive
amount of teenagers were in the entrance to the food court from the main part
of the mall, and in the food court itself. This made it difficult to walk
through, because they were standing around in clusters, the way teens usually
do.
2:35 – 3:25 I decided to get some lunch. The teenagers in
the food court had reached critical mass. The majority of them filled the center
of the food court, which is quite large. They talked loudly to hear each other
in their clusters, which caused the cascade effect of their talking even louder.
I tried to walk through them, but they were so densely packed it became physically
impossible without shoving them aside. I squeezed my way out and did a circuitous
route to the Panda Express.
I observed
them while standing in line. They did not seem to be in the mall for any big
event. They were all in their clusters, talking among themselves, but not to other
teens in neighboring clusters. They were so densely packed, shoulder to
shoulder and back to back, they formed one big mob. They were all talking excitedly,
taking pictures of themselves, and doing normal teen things, but all in a mass.
They didn’t seem self-conscious of this odd gathering.
All I could
figure is that one group of teens would observe others standing around, so they
would go to the “happening” place. They ranged from middle school to high
school, with mostly no sign of parents.
So I got my
bowl of noodles and one entrée from the Panda Express for $8.78. It cost $1.25
extra because I chose the honey walnut shrimp. (Historians get an idea of how
much food cost because of journal entries like this.) It took a long time because
they had to cook up a new batch of the shrimp entrée. In other words, the
crowds of teenagers were there from at least 1:50, and they formed the big central
mass sometime after that. They were still that way when I sat down to eat. I’ve
never seen this many teenagers all together at a mall before.
I sat down
well away from them and continued to observe them as I ate. Occasionally, a
girl in one of the clusters would give out a squeal of excitement, but the
teens in the other clusters wouldn’t notice. So again, there was no one event
going on that attracted them.
A couple of
teen girls walked towards the massive crowd so quickly, their breeze blew the
napkin off my lap.
Eventually,
a couple of security people showed up and inched their way into the crowd. After
a while, the crowd dispersed, as slow as molasses. That meant clusters of teens
were now wandering around the food court. They were still loud.
I went back
to my car to get more magazines and newsletters.
2:35 – 4:10 I did more sorting. The teenagers were pretty
much gone, so the food court was back to normal.
I was tempted to take pictures of what I hope was a once-in-a-lifetime
experience. But I don’t tend to publish pictures of minors without their
parents’ approval. So here’s a generic picture of some teens.
Just multiply in a dense space, and add those jeans with
pre-torn rents in the front that some girls wear.
