vintage monthly detroit ad of the day

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Vintage Ad #875: Wonderland Mall Has it in the Bag

Alas, Wonderland Mall's bag was full for only two more decades. The shopping centre closed in 2004 and was demolished to make way for a big box centre with the more genteel moniker of Wonderland Village. I have never been to either incarnation—we never spent time in the western suburbs of Detroit when I was a kid, and Dad and I rarely ventured through Livonia during our exploratory drives around southeast Michigan. Since any stores or services were available in the suburbs we usually went to (Southgate, Taylor, Troy, anywhere with "Heights" in its name), there was little reason to go wandering through the west.

Water Winter Wonderland has a lengthy piece on the birth and death of Wonderland.

Also in the July 1985 issue of Monthly Detroit:

* A cover story on longtime Detroit Free Press columnist Bob Talbert, the source of at least one quote I've used on this site ("outta my mind on a Monday moanin'").

* Interviews with author Elmore Leonard and 1960s radical John Sinclair.

* A sampling of thoughts from Detroiters on what the Fourth of July meant to them. Fireworks, patriotism and picnics were the dominant themes.

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The same issue is the source of this week's vintage ad on Torontoist, where Detroiters are encouraged to come to Toronto and "Discover the Feeling!" - JB

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