Icon

I.con (noun) An important and enduring symbol

I remember winning a Tupperware from Kimisawa during their grand opening launch festivities. I even remember the question that they asked, "What has four eyes, but cannot see?" 

I remember looking at my mom and telling her I knew the answer. She motioned for me to go forward, which I did. 

I answered, "Mississippi!"

Get it? Four I's and can't see?

But I digress.

That was way back in 1984. I was in Standard one back then. Kimisawa didn't last too long, if my memory serves me right. Neither did Printemps. Kimisawa was taken over by Parkson Grand and Printemps became Atria. Right around the time when I hit High School.

Ahhh...high school, the carefree days of youth. Sure, there were many other shopping complexes when I was growing up. Asia Jaya (Sri Jaya bus #50), Jaya Supermarket (Same bus), Sungei Wang Plaza (Sri Jaya Bus #244, get off at the Klang Bus Stand, board Bus #18 and hop off at Lot 10.

But Atria was in our own back yard. The rest had to be accessed by bus. which meant having to pay for a bus ticket, or pretending to fall asleep when the bus conductor came round. LOL! But that is a story for another day ;)

Most, if not all kids going to Sekolah Menengah Damansara Jaya would have spent some of their time after school hanging out at Atria. I use the term spending some time here losely. I meant to say playing truant from school ;)

ATC (Atria Cafe) used to have very affordable lunch sets which you could bring your high school crush to for lunch. If you had some cash to blow, Sweet Florist by the information counter was the place to plonk some cash on some flowers to really impress the date. Hahahaha! 

There used to be an arcade called "white" located on the outside of the mall. We used to hang out there after school. 20 sen arcade games are the best!!! I remember opening the door one day, only to see my friends squatting on the floor with their hands behind their head. The police had raided the premises. As soon as I opened the door, my friends bolted through the door almost knocking me over. We all ran into Atria and split up. Some hid in stairwells, some hid in the numerous toilets throughout the mall. Hahahaha! I still remember that scene like it happened yesterday. Heh.

I used to bike up the parking ramps to the open air parking to take in the view. Back then there weren't so many cars on the road and the parking was almost always only 1/2 full. Perfected my bunny hop in that car park :)

Picadilly and it's tea parties, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Victoria station, Popular Book Store. All stalwarts of the mall. 

All closed down now :( 

The new owner OSK gave all the existing tenants 3 months to vacate the premises by the 26th of July 2011, which was yesterday. Plans are to built a mix development with office blocks and a 4-storey shopping mall, or so I've been told.

The residents of the surrounding area signed a petition to prevent/block/defer the development. Various reasons were cited, traffic problems being the main argument.

I signed the petition too. But it was because I didn't want what I deem to be the Icon of Damansara Jaya torn down.

Traffic will always be a problem, when they used to have the Parkson Grand Sale, cars would park all over the areas surrounding the mall, causing huge jams. They still park all over the place anyways nowadays, even without a sale. Heh.

I guess, change is always for the better. I'm going to miss Atria when it's finally gone. I've have many fond memories of the place.