Remembering My Sanctuary: The Old Manchester Parkade

    Sometimes you find friends in unlikely sources, for me that friend was the long abandoned Manchester Parkade in Manchester, Connecticut. 

The old Manchester Parkade, photo taken by me, circa Autumn 2009

      I was evicted from my apartment in Middletown in 2009, and became homeless after my mom got sick. I was in my freshman year of high school and attended Middletown High. My family decided to place me in state custody and they sent me to live at the dreaded 89 Nutmeg Drive residential home for troubled boys (I was the only white guy there and was made the scapegoat of physical and mental torture from the African-American males that lived there, all of which were previously incarcerated for God knows what).

      I always had a passion for dead malls, being a member of the great Ames Fan Club (https://bit.ly/2NYU5ZQ) and I had fond memories of shopping at Bradlees with my mother. In a weird way, going to see and snap photos of what some would call an 'eyesore', helped me and I always knew that if I needed an escape I could always go to the old Parkade, which I called my "Sanctuary". The entire plaza had been vacant for over ten years, but I felt at home there, and seeing the old Bradlees sign staring back at me, healed me in ways I cannot describe. It took me back, to when I was about four years old, getting school supplies with my mom. The sign had shown its age and looked like it had been in a war, however it still filled me with a sense of nostalgia. The Bradlees chain closed in 2001.

The former Bradlees department store, prior to 1982 it was a King's discount store.
Photo taken by me, circa Summer 2010, my last trip there.

     Bradlees was at one point in time, owned by the local grocery store chain, Stop & Shop, and many Bradlees stores were anchored by S&S, including the one in Manchester. It eventually closed up in the early 90s to move across the street in the current incarnation of the Parkade.

The former Stop & Shop grocery store. Summer 2010.

     My earlier photos were taken with old disposable cameras, I would buy them with the allowance I made from doing chores at the group home, I then would rush them to Rite-Aid to transfer them to photo CDs, some of which still survive. I was an inexperienced photographer at the time and my early efforts are amateurish at best.

Autumm 2009

I just loved this place, it took me away from my hellish existence and transported me back in a time machine to much happier times. The place was full of goodies too, I found working VHS copies of First Kid and Houseguest, both starring one of my favorite comedians, Sinbad, in back of the plaza, its as if they were waiting for me. Everytime I got a chance, I went to my sanctuary to see what else I could find.

The former Marshalls clothing store, at one time it was a radio station, nightclub and indoor mall.
Autumn 2009

 After a while, people at the home grew annoyed of my visits to the plaza, they simply did not know or care about what it meant to me. I had always loved history and this place was part of cultural history of a town that has since gone to the dogs. Their feelings did not stop me from going there, any chance I got, I escaped to my sanctuary, and those bad feelings vanished.

The towering Bradlees sign always greeted me, whenever I saw it, my face would light up.
Summer 2010

      I eventually fled the Manchester home, fearing for my safety, and settled in another group home, Sankofa House (part of The Village For Families and Children) in Hartford during the winter months of 2009. I was the oldest there, 15 at the time, everyone else were elementary school aged. It opened my eyes to the the plight children have everyday, especially when they don't have parents. It was an equally hellish time there, save for one girl whom I formed a bond with. The girl, who I will call Cynthia for this article, was on the autism spectrum like me, and she looked up to me as a big brother. I would help her get to sleep at night by reading her stories, getting her glasses of water, tucking her in and telling her that everything was going to be alright. When I left there, she reportedly told a staff member, "Make sure you tell Geno that I love him". There was another girl there, about 12, who I will call Kristina, who was constantly causing mischief. She would be physically restrained by staff, and we would all hear her screaming from in our prison cell-like doors. One time the cops were called and she was placed in handcuffs.

The strip mall portion of the plaza, it originally contained an Anderson Little clothing store, CVS Pharmacy,
Jo-Ann Fabrics, Hobbytyme toy store, Card Gallery and the famous Record Breaker record store.
Autumn 2009

     I never forgot the plaza. I went back in the Summer of 2010, this time equipped with a better camera, and better photography skills. I still felt the same feelings, and it was great to spend one final hour at the place I called my sanctuary. I loved walking the grounds that warm day, not knowing it would be my last time.

Two of the last photos I ever took at the plaza.
Summer 2010

     I left Sankofa that summer and returned home to my mother, whose health had improved. I was relieved my troubles were over, but saddened that I was more distant from my beloved Parkade. I sadly never got to return there.

I found out in late 2012 that the town had demolished the site to the ground only two years after I left Hartford, and with that, my sanctuary was gone. I was crushed, and had regrets that I never made another pilgrimage back there. Seeing video of townsfolk rejoicing and celebrating the destruction of these buildings angered me, it still does. What angers me even more is that, as of this writing, the lot is still empty. 

In closing, while I never got the chance to see the Parkade during its heyday, it nevertheless made an impression on me and made memories for me that can never be destroyed. Take that Manchester!

RIP 

OLD FRIEND

MY SANCTUARY, FOREVER

1957-2012

My 15 year old self in front of the Bradlees.
Autumn 2009.

Cuddy's World - S1E7 - Cooper's Half Hour (A Reassessment)

IN DEFENSE OF HERB ABRAMS

                I think the majority of people who knock Herb Abrams UWF, are  fans who expect all promotions to be like the megafed WWF. Not every promotion can be WWF, and not every promoter can be Vince McMahon. People forget, McMahon had knowledge of the business due to his dad, promoter Vince McMahon, Sr., teaching him at a young age and McMahon inherited the WWWF from him too. McMahon, in a sense, was born in to royalty.
                Herb Abrams was more or less an outsider to the world of professional wrestling and as such didn't have the resources that many of the more seasoned veteran promoters had. I admire Herb as he had a dream and he went after it. He signed a lucrative deal with the now-defunct Sportschannel America and signed some top talent from the glory days of the AWA, WCW and WWF. Most online reviewers say these guys were past their prime and couldn't go anymore, in my eyes guys like Paul Orndorff and B. Brian Blair showed that they still had it when the cameras started rolling on the UWF weekly series Fury Hour in the summer months of 1990.
             You can't say that Herb was a bad businessman, he knew how to market his product and promote it well. People say he wasn't good at pulling in large crowds, well there is a reason for that, if you had to choose between attending a live taping of WWF television over UWF television, it is rather obvious you would choose the more established product due to a lack of certainty with the new upstart organization. It needed a chance to grow, and it wasn't going to happen overnight. I feel the reason that people hate Herb Abrams so much is because he took the UWF name from under Bill Watts when Watts failed to trademark his version of the Universal Wrestling Federation, if the fans should be angry with anyone it should be with Watts for not filing the proper paperwork. Something I've learned a long the way is that people are huge marks for Bill Watts.                                                              Another complaint that Herb Abrams gets is that the quality of the wrestling isn't very good and he was a terrible booker, well of course he was, he had never done this before and because of respected and opinionated dirt sheet writers like Dave Meltzer,its likely that Herb never would have gotten the full backing from the wrestling community that was needed to hire more experienced writers and bookers. Herb had to do it all on his own, with no help from the outside world and for all intents and purposes, the product is actually rather good for a man who never had experience at all in professional wrestling.                                                                                                                                           Herb's greatest achievement though was the hiring of young up-and-comer Steven Ray, a former football player and former bodyguard of Hulk Hogan, to wrestle for the UWF. Ray was billed under the name "The Wild Thing" and had a gimmick that was a cross between Motley Crue's Vince Neil and Ric Flair. This young man had charisma, charm and great in-ring ability, whose career was cut short due to his wife becoming pregnant with their son. Abrams partnered him with the memorable Sunny Beach (Rick Allen) and one of the most charismatic and greatest unsung tag teams in the history of professional wrestling was born.                                                                                                        The following statement will be controversial but so be it, Vince McMahon stole from Herb Abrams. Truth be told, Abrams was in fact the first ever authority figure to be at the center of a storyline on any wrestling program, predating the "Mr. McMahon" character by a good five or so years. Abrams created a personality as the upstanding promoter who rooted for the faces and called out the bad guys for cheating and even suspending wrestlers on television for breaking the rules. If you are getting vibes of "Mr. McMahon" screaming at Shawn Michaels, "You're Fired", you should. People are marks for McMahon so I guess when he does it its OK, but when Abrams did it, it was a strokefest, don't understand that logic at all.
            On hand to assist Herb were the legendary Bruno Sammartino, one of wrestling's all time greatest grapplers and the always enjoyable Captain Lou Albano, one of wrestling's greatest managers and characters. Sammartino served as color commentator, first with Herb Abrams and then with Craig DeGeorge who had previously worked for the WWF in the 1980s. Albano had his own segment on the Fury Hour called "Captain Lou's Corner" where he interviewed the UWF's roster of talent and even Andre The Giant on a couple of episodes.                                                                                    People say Herb used to cheat the boys or "stiff" them out of cash money. Well, which promoter hasn't done that? You cannot tell me that Vince McMahon never stiffed anybody or Verne Gagne never flew the coupe prior to payday. This was an all too common occurrence in the wrestling business in the 70s, 80s and 90s. I am not excusing Herb Abrams for doing that, but he isn't the only guilty party is he? People also take issue with Herb's cocaine addiction, there is a reason Herb had that addiction. Herb was a notorious party animal and also a notorious sex addict and due to his small stature, he needed something to fuel him during those times of passionate intimacy. I don't know why I should even discuss that though, a man's personal life isn't the issue we should have, it is the quality of product that matters here, which I will reiterate was not that bad all things considered.                               Fans like to sadistically laugh at the events of Herb Abrams' death, in which he died in police custody, after suffering a cocaine-induced heart attack, nude, covered in Vaseline, chasing prostitutes with a baseball bat in his New York Office. The author wishes to dismiss those cackles as I see his death as more of a cry for help, than just the rampage of a psychopath. We can't take things in face value, we must look within ourselves and wonder, what if that were my family member, would you still want to laugh if that were your brother or cousin, or would you want to get them some help. I'd choose the latter. Another thing to consider is the possibility that Abrams had Autism. As an autisitc individual myself, I can detect it more than others can. Herb's mannerisms, his ticks, his attention to detail, all speak to Autism, a disorder that was never diagnosed until after Herb died.                                                        At the end of the day, was Herb Abrams a saint, of course not, and it isn't my intention to lead you in that way, however he wasn't necessarily the arrogant, idiotic jerk that people in the wrestling community make him out to be either. After many long, intimate chats with Steve "The Wild Thing" Ray, I have a whole new outlook and appreciation for Herb Abrams. Herb taught Steve everything he knew as a businessman which led Steve to owning and operating his own wellness organization for many years. Herb helped out a lot of people and by all accounts that I've heard personally, was an all around good guy. Don't believe everything you hear from people like Dave Meltzer. Do your own digging, enjoy the product, and you will discover that Herb Abrams wasn't a lunatic, but an underappreciated genius.                                                                                            

RIP
HERBERT CHARLES ABRAMS
(1954-1996)
An unsung hero of professional wrestling.

P.S. My wonderful friend Jonathon Plombon is working on a new book about Herb Abrams and the UWF, which will do a much better job than I have of illustrating one of wrestling's most eccentric and mysterious figures as well as the empire he built. You may check out the progress of the book at his Facebook page: UWF and Herb Abrams: The Book Project

Also check out his YouTube channel for rare UWF videos: John's UWF Channel