Lileks has been following the 51st birthday of Southdale, near Minneapolis.

I grew up in Minneapolis, and we went to Southdale. I remember those scenes in the pictures, especially the giant birdcage. That was where we were supposed to meet if anyone got lost.

I had no idea until years later that this was the first mall of its kind in America.

I spent a lot of time in downtown Minneapolis as a college student. No mall there, but a marvelous system of skyways and corridors interconnected most of the downtown buildings so that it might as well have been one. Warm and toasty on those Minnesota days when you could watch the streams of liquid nitrogen condense on the outside of your windows.

Those who have read Lileks for a while will notice that his daughter Natalie, nicknamed "Gnat" until now, has decided she's going to be "Natalie" now. Time passes on...