Welcome Back (Again)!

Well, this is kind of awkward. There' hasn’t been any posts made here in over a year and a half! That is simply due to the fact that there really hasn’t been much to report in the world of Carolina Circle Mall, unfortunately. I am still very much alive and still as obsessed with this long-gone mall just as I ever was! In fact, I did find a few artifacts from the 1980s that I will be sharing with you guys, so stay tuned!

Welcome Back!

Been awhile, huh? Well, the reason behind the lack of updates here at the Carolina Circle City blog is simple. Microsoft stinks. For the last several years, I have made all of my posts using “Microsoft Live Writer”, which worked brilliantly for many years…until it decided to no longer play nicely with Google accounts.

Thankfully, I have found another program that’s based off Live Writer, except the darn thing actually works! This program is called “Open Live Writer” and discovering it has really saved me, meaning posting will resume.

Anyway, what’s new in the world of Carolina Circle Mall? Well, the big thing to talk about is the 40th anniversary party that was held at Monk’s Cheesesteaks on August 6th this year. It was a small turnout but it was such a blessing to meet all of you folks who went to the mall and even worked at the mall when it was still around. I had a lot of fun there and I hope you did. I know my aunt really had fun there, reminiscing on old times. The photo on the left is of the display I had setup at the party. Again, to those who came and to those who supported it, thank you very much! I really mean it.

Also, I am currently in the planning stages of writing a book about Carolina Circle Mall to potentially have published. It's not going to be a boring history book about the mall but instead, a book detailing memories and experiences people had at the mall. Because of this, I am looking to sit down and interview people who worked at the mall and/or visited the mall very regularly when it was opened. If you are interested, please let me know. Your input will be GREATLY appreciated. This is something I've been wanting to do for years and I'm now determined to make it a reality. If you’re interested in helping, email me at carolinacircle89@gmail.com.

Updates for 2015

Seeing that it’s now January 2015 and it’s been several months since I’ve last updated this blog, I figure it’s time to finally get around to updating it.

As you can possibly tell, there hasn’t been much excitement in the world of Carolina Circle Mall lately. No new pictures, no new ads, or new anything really. However, through persistence, I’m confident we’ll find something interesting this coming year. I’m still seeking more photos of the mall’s Carousel and a TV ad for the mall, both of which are HIGHLY sought out by myself.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about this year is that there will be quite a few major anniversaries this year involving Carolina Circle Mall. The most notable anniversary will be June 30th which will mark 10 years since the mall began demolition! I cannot comprehend that it’s been almost 10 years since this happened. In fact, February 21st will be 10 years since my dad drove me down to the abandoned mall to take pictures, which ignited my interest in CCM. The picture on the left is one of the photos I took that day. And to top it all off, September will mark 10 years since this blog first went online! All of these things I find hard to believe happened 10 years ago. The year 2005 still seems so recent to me but yet, it was still an entire decade ago when all of this happened! Alright, enough rambling on about the passage of time.

Also, I have begun planning a “Carolina Circle Mall Reunion” to be held somewhere in Greensboro sometime in 2016, which will be the mall’s 40th anniversary. All members of the Carolina Circle Mall Fan Club on Facebook will be invited and this idea is already sparking interest. Obviously, this will take LOTS of planning and I’m not sure how it’ll be pulled off, but I’m confident that if I work with some friends of mine from the Facebook group, this just might happen.

Anyway, welcome to the year 2015 and I want to close by saying that this blog will not be going anywhere. Sure, my posts here aren’t as frequent as they used to be, but this blog still serves as the #1 resource for information and memories of the old Carolina Circle Mall and my nostalgia for the old mall will never die, meaning that this blog will not die either. I will now close with a cool in-store laserdisc that was played at Montgomery Ward in 1993, showing off some cool and retro looking electronics. Back then, I never would have thought that someday, you could use a tiny cellular phone as a camcorder.

Happy 38th Birthday

Carolina Circle Mall officially opened this day in 1976. Over the past 9 years of having this blog, I’ve said so many things about the mall that it seems like there might not be anything else to say.

However, I got to thinking awhile ago about the memories I have of going to Carolina Circle Mall as a child and how much I enjoyed the overall atmosphere, not just the Carousel. Compared to the other malls in the area at that time, and even nowadays, there was something different about Carolina Circle, but what was it?

I think that unlike other malls that were built strictly for business and retail, Carolina Circle Mall was designed to be not only retail, but for entertainment. It was the only mall in the area with a movie theater attached to it and most notably, it was the only mall in the area to ever have an Ice Chalet or a Carousel (however Hanes Mall in Winston-Salem now has a small Carousel). Even though Carolina Circle Mall failed financially, I will always remember it for the special features it had that set it apart from other malls but most importantly, the memories the mall gave me.

1/28/2014 News & Record Article

Carolina Circle Mall and Pyramids Village had an article in today’s edition of the Greensboro News & Record. Pyramids Village gets the majority of the attention, making mention of some of the new stores and restaurants that have opened there in late 2013 and early 2014.

You can see this article here.

Carolina Circle Mall Wiki is Online!!!

Ladies and gentlemen, I am proud to present the Carolina Circle Mall Wiki!

The Carolina Circle Mall Wiki is the new replacement for the now defunct Home of Carolina Circle Mall. This is where everything is going to happen now (including this blog of course)!

With that said, I'm going to need all the help I can get editing this Wiki. If you'd like to help, please drop me a line and I can get you going!

It's all coming together again!

Click here to visit the new Wiki!

Coming Soon…

Now on Twitter!

I created a Twitter account specially for Carolina Circle Mall. Follow this for updates regarding the mall, my websites, events, and other information.

Carolina Circle Mall on Twitter

Also, if you haven’t already, follow my personal Twitter account here:

Billy Coore on Twitter

November 12, 2011

November 12, 2011…Be there!

Update on Home of Carolina Circle Mall.com

I discovered this evening that the only portion of Home of Carolina Circle Mall.com affected by the drug website is the homepage. All of the other pages, such as the Ultimate Timeline, and the Vintage Ad Showcase, are still online, albeit the template is screwed up.

Click here to access the Ultimate Timeline. This will also give you access to the other portions of the website.

Why Home of Carolina Circle Mall.com is now a Medicine Website

I’ve been receiving a ton of emails and messages on Facebook regarding the current state of Home of Carolina Circle Mall.com.

Sometime last week, the domain registrar (the place that handles the web-address), goofed up beyond belief. The site now redirects to a website selling prescription drugs. I emailed Webs.com, the site that hosts Home of Carolina Circle Mall, and they said they had no idea what’s going on. So they’re absolutely no help at all.

I’m hoping that within the coming weeks, my good friend and contributor Jeremy will transfer the site to his server, getting rid of Webs.com and its bugs for good. But until then, sadly Home of Carolina Circle Mall will remain as it is. All further updates will occur here at Carolina Circle City. That is, until this whole mess is finally straightened out.

I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

The New Look

Thanks to a new way to design templates with Blogger, I was able to finally redo the look and feel of Carolina Circle City. Please let me know what you think of it.

I am going to try and rework the logo so that it’s the horizontal version. Unfortunately, the software I use to create these logos with is being lent to a friend of mine, so until I get it back, this smaller version will have to do for now.

I am also disappointed that I can only use the background images supplied with Blogger and not any of my own images.

Comment Moderation Now Enforced

Due to unfortunate circumstances, I have now enabled comment moderation at Carolina Circle City.

For the entire 4 1/2 years of this blog’s existence, I have used word verification to prevent spam. It worked perfectly up until recently. It seems spambots have finally found a way around the word verification, resulting in spam in the comments. I’ve deleted about 5 spam comments the past few days.

Keep in mind that this is no body’s fault. It’s the fault of a machine. I don’t like the comment moderation either, but I have no other choice but to use it to prevent spam.

Comment moderation basically means that when you post a comment, it will not appear on the blog until I read it and approve it. I have it set to send me email notifications, so the time between the time you write the comment and the time I approve it shouldn't be too long. I've rarely had problems with human-created comments, but the spambots are just ridiculous.

Carolina Circle Mall Fan Club 1,000 Members

Thank You

I’ve been running the Carolina Circle Mall Fan Club on Facebook for the past year. I am just in utter shock how far this club has gone.

Right now, as of this writing, there are 960 members that are currently signed up. No, I don’t believe it either.

I would also like to give a shout-out to a new member of the fan club; Mr. Sam Billingsley. He was the final manager of the mall’s Ice Chalet from 1986-1987. He was even there the final night the rink was opened in 1988. He even shut the machines down that kept the rink frozen!

So from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank you for all the help you’ve given to make this fan club possible. I may have created and put the original life into it, but it’s the 960 members that made it possible, including Louis Money, Sam Billingsley, Travis Trotter, and Tommy Thomas.

Also, once the group reaches the magic number of 1,000 members, I have a very special surprise in store for everyone.

If you haven’t already joined, please click here.

Snowy Village

I took this picture from my car this afternoon at The Shoppes at Pyramids Village. Pyramids Village/Carolina Circle looks great in the snow!

Video Tour of the Carolina Circle Mall/Pyramids Village Area February 11, 2010

Me and friend Dillon shot this video from my car this afternoon.

Basically, this is a video of the area surrounding Carolina Circle Mall/The Shoppes at Pyramids Village as it looks in 2010.

Life Around The Circle: Stories of Carolina Circle Mall

No, despite the title, this has nothing to do with those silly comics about The Wilsons, Carolina Circle Mall’s dysfunctional family, this is something even better.

I’ve done quite a lot of thinking lately about writing a book about Carolina Circle Mall. I announced it this past summer, but the truth is, I haven’t done a darn thing with it yet.

However, tomorrow, February 11, I plan on booting up my Windows 7, opening up Microsoft Word, and begin writing my book.

The title of this post will be the name of the book I am going to write, Life Around The Circle: Stories of Carolina Circle Mall.

Here’s a quick summery of what the book will be about. I plan on it not really being a book about the history of Carolina Circle Mall. Instead, it will be about stories and memories of the mall. For example, I’ll have chapters/sections for certain stores, chapters/sections about other people’s stories of the mall, pictures, nostalgia, and much more. And yes, there will still be some history in there.

I am more than opened to suggestions. Please let me know.

Also, I would really like to interview various people’s memories of Carolina Circle to put in the book. Please let me know if you’d like to be interviewed.

Home of Carolina Circle Mall is Stepping into the Future

Please gather around the computer monitor for this one folks. This is heavy (Marty McFly moment for the day).

Since 2007, Home of Carolina Circle Mall has been quite successful. Although not as popular as my Carolina Circle City blog, Home of Carolina Circle Mall has had its share of moments the past three years online.

Well, the year is now 2010 and it is now a new decade; the 2010s. I've done a lot of thinking lately and I think that it is time for Home of Carolina Circle Mall to move on up.

This evening, I spent almost two hours on the phone with my YouTube friend Jeremy Lowery. Both of us came to an agreement and he is going to start hosting Home of Carolina Circle Mall on his own web server.
Since Home of Carolina Circle Mall's beginning in May 2007, the host/provider of the web service used for Home of Carolina Circle Mall has been Webs.com. While it was nice for awhile, it's become quite a headache recently. Loading speeds have been slow since the start, very poor security in the guestbook system, and just today, I had a terrible time uploading newspaper ads. Also, the $9 a month has become a pain as well.

Jeremy Lowery has offered me nearly unlimited storage (compared to Webs.com's 700MB storage limit), unlimited bandwidth, a website design software, and much more, all for free! He said it would be his honor to help preserve a piece of history known as Carolina Circle Mall. I thank him from the bottom of my heart. All of this is a dream come true. I am so glad to finally see Home of Carolina Circle Mall expand.

Also, Jeremy is going to help me in a total redesign of the website. This means that before long, expect a totally new layout scheme and template. The design that the site's using now has been used since November 2007.

The big transfer is going to occur sometime tomorrow (Sunday February 7, 2010). I'm not quite sure what to expect, if the transition will be sudden or not. However, the web address will remain the same and, for now, the design/layout will remain the same. But nevertheless, Home of Carolina Circle Mall is finally stepping into the future!

The Main Carolina Circle Mall Sign (Video)