Is Southlake Mall still open?
The fall of 1976 was my first semester at HAC. I was a new student, single and very much trying to think my way through that chaos. I had worked before I went there and save enough to pay my tuition the first year, because I didn't know what I would be facing in college. Retrospectively it was the easiest year I would have there. When I had to go to work and attend class in the remaining years, it was tougher.
So, in that first year, some of my single friends (who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty) and I would go to Southlake Mall every couple of weeks to chill just a little from the daily routine. Usually in the afternoon after classes. We didn't have a lot of money, so we would mostly just walk around. We would usually make our way to the Zondervan bookstore and check out the albums of Christian singers. I was raised around a lot of southern gospel music, but my best friend was into a broader spectrum that I didn't know much about. He could play the piano a little and would usually find a piano and play a few bars of "Get All Excited, Go Tell Everybody." Because that music was forbidden to us, we thought it hilarious. At the bookstore, he introduced me to the group "Truth" and also to Evie Tournquist who was well known at the time.
This same friend and I returned to the campus one final time (actually the only time I ever visited after 1981) about three months after Bro. Hyles died in 2001. We were fairly welcomed, for we had gone to school with Jack Schaap, who went to lunch with us and took us on the grand tour. Even then, we didn't really have a great feeling about the future of the place. Jack just seemed like a sailor, wildly spending money while on shore leave.
We went to Southlake Mall and again, walked around and remembered the old days. Zondervan was gone. It made us smile. It still does today. We were so young and ignorant.