Mall Magic

Sonny, 15, has been talking about wanting an IPod for a few weeks. When I went over there on Saturday, he said he wanted to go buy one, that he had enough money. It turned into a family outing with May (the mom), Tomtom, Kay Lee and Sonny. I could have taken them to a nearby Walmart, but I wanted them to experience the Apple store in the Fashion Valley mall. There, they could touch and try all the products. Driving there, I asked them if they knew what a mall was, and they did not.

Every time I take them somewhere, which is almost always on a freeway, they are amazed at how many cars there are in San Diego. Sonny points out different models and asks me what they are called. Today he told me that he can soon practice driving, because he is 15 years old, and asked if that would include the freeway. I have taught five kids how to drive, so I am very aware that first you take them to a parking lot, and when they have mastered parking, backing up, signaling, speeding up, slowing down, and braking not too hard, then you can move them onto surface streets, and then the freeway. Both the teacher and the learner need to dedicate hours to this endeavor to have a kid successfully pass their driving test. I’m not sure that is something I want to do with Sonny, especially when he told me “Karen people drive scary.”

We got to the mall just when it was opening, at 10 in the morning. The three-story parking structure was nearly empty, which meant there were very few shoppers. We parked, walked down a staircase and crossed the street. The very moment little Kay Lee’s feet hit the mall sidewalk, before we had even passed one store that may be of interest to her, she was struck by mall magic. She excitedly said, “I like here. I like here.” I was holding her hand and could feel the spell come over her, especially as we passed a Claire’s shop, where all the pink girly things beckoned her to enter. She is probably going to love shopping, love strolling through the mall with no particular direction when she is a teenager. It started already, and she is only five! She is the latest victim of the shopping spell.

My daughter somehow evaded the spell of mall magic. Even as a young adult, she hates shopping. She says she is allergic to shopping, which I believe, because I have spent many afternoons at a mall with her only to buy necessities, and not only does she start to feel physically sick, she can get very irritable. Malls do not equate fun to her. But for Kay Lee, she had just entered a fantasyland full of fabulous possibilities.

Even though the rest of the mall was just waking up, the Apple store was teaming with salespeople helping customers figure out the latest gizmos. I found the table of IPods and showed Sonny how he can put the headphones on and listen. All the kids had to try that. A salesman asked us if we needed any help, and I explained to him that Sonny wanted to buy an IPod Touch. He picked out the least-expensive white one, that only holds 13,000 songs, and the salesperson went to the back to get one. Meanwhile, I showed Tomtom and Kay Lee the low round table for kids, with computers loaded with games and movies. Being that they are natives to modern-day technology, I am amazed at how fast they can operate computers. I’m an immigrant to technology; I learned it late in life. These kids, even though they don’t have the advantages that most American kids have, pick it up by osmosis.

I don’t know how May came about having the cash for an expensive toy such as an IPod Touch, and I don’t ask because it is none of my business. I am there to help them with things they can’t do, like get to the mall. I’m not their financial advisor. In fact, the only thing I advise them on is how to pronounce English words better.

Spending a couple hundred dollars at the Apple store and walking out with a small bag with one purchase is dizzying. It’s like taking them on the freeway for their first driving lesson. We didn’t start in a parking lot, learning how to navigate a portable CD player (do they still make those?); we went straight into the fast lane of fancy frivolities. Inside the Apple store it is hard to put on the brakes when everything is available to test drive. I wonder how long it will be before Kay Lee asks to be taken to the mall again. She and Sonny are acculturating quickly. Yikes.