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Raleigh
Springs Mall
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Aerial photo of the newly opened
Raleigh-Springs Mall, 1974
Notice that there was no
development on the other three corners
of Yale and Austin Peay.
Raleigh-Springs Mall had
a Sears at the southern end with
an auto repair shop in a separate building (far
right in photo).
Inside, there was an open-air Shoney's right
next to Sears.
Click photo to enlarge. |
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Meet One of the Sears “Hotpants Girls”
Barbra Tucker Luna
Bartlett High School Class of 1971
After my graduation from Bartlett High School, then also known as Nicholas Blackwell High School in 1971 I got a job at Raleigh Springs Mall at Sears. One day after a training session before the mall opened, one of the managers asked me to remain. He asked me if I would be interested in being one of their "hotpants girls." Four of us were chosen to wear hotpants outfits and greet the customers during the grand opening of the mall. Sears gave us a couple of hotpants outfits and knee high lace up black boots. We smiled at customers, handed out special offers and filled customers tanks with gas at the Sears auto center! Another Raleigh resident Margaret Kent BHS class of 1970 also held a hotpants girl position. Funny now to think of young ladies dressed in hotpants and boots filling gas tanks and wiping down windsheilds. No one would ever get that kind of service today! It was a fun job until I got my first full-time position at Plough Inc. on Jackson Ave. in the fall of 1971.
Click photo to enlarge.
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Submitted by: J. Clay Cole : 30 Jan 2008, 13:12
The cleared area in the lower right center of the Raleigh Springs Mall is
where the tennis courts for the Raleigh Community Center are now located.
Submitted by: Randal Byrd : 27 Jun 2009, 13:16
Speaking of the Sears on the south end of the mall, I worked for the
company, Fortner Masonry, that hung the big concrete wall panels. I was the
"oiler" on the crane that lifted each wall panel into place. They had each
wall panel on a flat bed trailer waiting to be hauled from the holding area
behind the mall to the Sears building. One tractor-trailer driver was
responsible for shuttling the panels to the site. It was hot as blazes, and
I took refuge in his tractor cab - where we listened to country music and
enjoyed the cool AC. Tom T. Hall's "Clayton Delaney" was a current hit at
the time.
On a sad note, the foreman on that job, Bennie Baer (sp?) was killed on a
later job. I wasn't working that site, but I read about it in the paper.
They lifted one of those massive panels, and when it cleared the flat-bed,
it swung out of control, crushing Bennie against the building.
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