re: Cortana Mall's final hours....

Lived in Villa Del Rey. Godchaux's was the first finished store..the AC felt like heaven in the summer...used to ride skateboard in the hallways behind the stores...snuck into my first R rated movie, Saturday Night Fever at the movie theater; bought Farah Fawcet's poster at Spencer's; spent a lot of time in Spaceport.Later, I worked at Godchaux's while at LSU..lots of good memories as a kid and of growing up...

I used to love going to Footlocker and the store that sold all the jerseys and sports wear back in the mid 90s.

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I remember going with my mom on weekends before mall of Louisiana opened. Lunch was always at that Taco Bell right in the middle. There was always people and full of life. Good times.

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Tookie Johnson, former LSU baseball player, managed that Taco Bell in Cortana. I was shocked, as a teenager, to see him behind the counter.

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I don’t remember the name of the place - I don’t think it was a chain.

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I agree. I don't think it was a chain either, but the store was actually pretty cool.

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I remember Duffs. They had plenty of food but the food was bland. I went there twice with a friend of mine and we never went back. If I remember correctly it didn't last very long. The main reason why I never went back is because they had some dirty looking people pick up a piece of chicken, look at it, and then put it back to where they got it from. I also wasn't a fan of seeing small kids stick their fingers in the chocolate pudding, lick the pudding off of their fingers, and stick them back in the pudding when it came around again.

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That was it in a nutshell.

Spaceport

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Fun Fair Park across airline hwy?

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We went for birthday parties occasionally. I think of that place every time we pass by. So much has changed.

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I remember going all the time growing up in the 90s for school shoes, Gamestop, and the Disney store by the fountain. They kept the entrance to the actual mall open when the Dillard's Clearance store even tho there weren't any stores left but like an asian jewelery store or two. I remember having such a haunted feeling walking that bare mall. I Felt like I was gonna get shanked/grabbed and never found in that million square ft abandoned place.

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I got a few pairs of shoes at that foot locker in bon marche as a kid. It was one of the last decent stores at that mall

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what were your favorite memories of this once, great place?

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Sports Mania, across the way from Champs Sports was my favorite sports store. (Met Eddie Kennison at Champs once. Bought my first pair of shoes with my own money at Champs - shout out Dee Brown model Reebok Pumps.)

There was another sports store down by Sears - can't remember what it was called.

Babbages (later Electronics Boutique) was at that end of the mall as well.

We saw Bushwick Bill (of the Geto Boys) at the record store at the Sears end. (I think it was Record Land? Music World? Some shite like that.) NOT the one in the middle of the mall.

Peak Cortana was fricking amazing.