Swede’s PhotographsGood morning. 😴⏰☕
26 March 2026
We went to a mall the other day. In a time when most shopping malls are becoming artifacts of days gone by, this one was doing surprisingly well. I suppose it takes a certain population density for a mall to thrive. While the ladies shopped, I mostly found a place to sit somewhere outside whatever store they entered. Shopping isn’t exactly a skill I possess.
Still, it’s interesting just watching people go by. The mall walkers caught my attention. They’re the folks who briskly circle the perimeter of the concourse for exercise. I even spotted a few who took it a step further by looping through the department store at the end to add its perimeter to their route. Most mall walkers are older adults, though I did see a few who hadn’t quite reached senior‑citizen status. Their clothing tended toward casual or near‑exercise attire.
One exception stood out: a dapper gentleman making his rounds in a dark blue leisure suit, complete with a hat — a fedora, I think. I’m not great at identifying hat styles, but it definitely wasn’t a cowboy hat or a baseball cap.
I noticed an unspoken rule among the mall walkers: everyone moved in the same direction, which in this case was counterclockwise. I don’t know if that’s a national standard or just a quirk of this particular mall — not enough data.
I can understand why people choose to get their exercise inside a mall’s concourse. The environment is climate‑controlled, it’s safer than navigating city streets, and it’s free — no gym membership required. I began to suspect there was a kind of mall‑walker governance, not formalized but understood.
The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes.” — Arthur Conan Doyle
“Manners are the traffic lights of human interaction.” - Margaret Shepherd
“The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life.” — William Morris
