My cousin told me to skip the old Northgate Mall because it was 'just empty boxes'

I went anyway last fall and found a whole, untouched arcade with the games still plugged in (the power was somehow still on in that one corner). He was totally wrong, and I got some of my best photos there, like a Pac-Man cabinet glowing in the dark. Has anyone else had a tip about a place that turned out to be completely off the mark?

3 comments

3 Comments

jordanr892mo ago

My buddy swore the old Route 9 drive-in was just a cracked slab. Drove out there last summer and found the original speaker posts still standing, vines growing through them. Got this incredible shot of a rusted speaker hanging against the sunset. His "dead spot" was my favorite find all year.

spencermurphy2mo ago

Empty boxes" means they didn't look hard enough.

beth_stone15d ago

Wait, are we really supposed to believe that every single "empty box" is just someone not trying hard enough? @spencermurphy, that's a bold claim, but I've got to push back. Sometimes a spot is just dead, plain and simple. I've wasted whole afternoons crawling through overgrown lots behind strip malls and turned up nothing but broken glass and old soda cans. You can't will a find into existence just by looking harder. Not every cracked slab has a hidden gem waiting for you, and that's the honest truth.