The ever evolving guardians of Willowbrook Mall Feb. 20, 1986
Guarding the mall at night has changed significantly I first
started working here back in 1981.
In those days, the doors were always locked and you were
lucky if you got out without a 20 minute wait.
There was no watch clock then, just a single night guard making
the long and lonely rounds through the empty corridors of the mall, guarding
closed doors and dark windows.
The regular weekday guard was a old man named Gene, who was
about ready for a trip south, waiting on the last details.
He was an especially lonely sort and used to talk a lot about
things he did with me and the born again Christians with whom he fought.
The weekend guard was a sleepy figure who came for coffee,
who often slept through my pounding on the door and ringing the buzzer to get
in, a nice man who had too many jobs.
When Jean left, Chuck took over.
Church haunted the mall the lonest and suffered the most in
the end when he proved to be all too human.
He talked a lot, too, but unlike Jean, he liked to boast
about who he was and what he’d done – even when there was nothing much to brag
about.
He hated nights and eventually transferred back to the day
shift, leaving me to this asshole guard who demanded donuts and came on to the
pretty finisher with whom I worked.
He eventually vanished, but not before I left when his night
games became too much to handle and the wait at the door to get in took as long
as an hour.
I came back a year and seven and half months later to find
Dan in charge and an equally hated figure named “Wild Bill” or ‘Crazy” which
most people tried to ignore.
He and I had some rough times and knew each other from my
in-between job at Fotomat – Fotomat had lost his film.
The big conflict came when mall management order the doors
locked again at night and I felt trapped inside,
I gave the man hell
In the meantime, a new weekend guard started named “Big John,”
a sweet man, but a man full of prejudices and misinformation that frustrated me
when we talked.
Last Christmas, Big John vanished for while due to illness.
Dan had already transferred to maintenance and eventually completely out of the
mall.
They were replaced by an odd duo of Joe Crann and Billy
Stez, who saw themselves as Batman and Robin when in fact they were more Abbott
and Costello. Joe liked to think of himself as an intellectual, although nobody
else did.
They were both young and both would get married before they
moved on, leaving behind a legacy of fun that has yet to be seen since. Several
people replaced them in quick succession.
George, who hooked up with Bernard, had reversed Dan’s route
by transferring to security from maintenance. He has been with the mall for
many years, and the beginning of the theft ring that stole the mall blind.
His feud with one of the local cops is making him quit and
he is being replaced by a small military-type guard who had been hired form
some private detective firm, whose attitude and taste reflected his upbringing
on Market Street, Paterson. He lost a few days after he got beaten up on his
other job.
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