Transmitting from the Mojave Wilderness in Joshua Tree, California.

Now is the time for Desert Oracle Radio, the voice of the desert.

Night has fallen on the desert, cold and windy on this holiday weekend.

I was glancing at the news this morning, and there were the usual stories about people going to...

I guess not shopping malls, wherever people go.

What replaced shopping malls?

And I realized I've never been to a mall

or a big box retailer

or any such place that day after Thanksgiving

I don't think ever in my life

or on most other days of the year.

Not for fun, anyway.

When I was a teenager, one of my early jobs was working at this cheese shop in a mall.

Back when people loved malls, when people would go to a shopping center and just spend

the whole day there.

Teenagers especially, very strange.

Especially because teenagers generally did not have any money to spend

up the mall. So the security guards, hardly more than teenagers themselves, were always

trying to chase off the teens. And you'd see older people walking back and forth.

You'd see people pushing baby strollers with babies inside the stroller instead of a dog.

Lots of babies.

Seems like everybody used to have some.

...