news-record.com

The love affair began at a young age, with the cheery music and constant spin of the merry-go-round.

The emotion only grew stronger over time, with trips to the food court, strolls through store aisles and afternoons at the movies.

Even when others fell out of love with Carolina Circle Mall, taking their business and money elsewhere, Billy Coore's devotion remained.

Carolina Circle Mall no longer exists; it was reduced to rubble in 2005 to make way for a Walmart and the circle of stores that sit near U.S. 29 and Cone Boulevard in northeast Greensboro.

But in Coore's heart - and his blog and Web site - the shopping center lives on.

"Everyone has a thing from their childhood that they like to hold onto," said Coore, 19. "For me, it's Carolina Circle Mall."

The McLeansville native grew up about 10 minutes from the mall, and his parents started taking him there as a baby to see the indoor carousel. As he grew up, Carolina Circle was a constant part of his life.

"I would go there about three times a week with my parents to ride the carousel, eat lunch in the food court and eat at Piccadilly Cafeteria," he said. "My three favorite stores there were Montgomery Ward, Camelot Music and Everything's A Dollar."

Among his prized possessions is a booklet of "The Night Before Christmas" the mall Santa gave to kids in 1994.

The mall, which opened in 1976, never fully resonated with Greensboro shoppers. It became a retail afterthought when the last department store, Montgomery Ward, went out of business in 2001.

But even that didn't deter Coore. He visited the mall in the spring of 2005, months before the building was torn down, snapping pictures.

He got online soon afterward and found a Web site of pictures someone had taken of the interior of the mall. In September 2005, Coore set up his own blog to remember and reminisce about the center.

People responded, sharing memories about jobs they worked there or the mall's old ice rink.

Now he spends part of his free time combing library microfiche for old Carolina Circle ads and collecting mall trivia. A display he made of mall memorabilia netted him second place and $70 at the Central Carolina Fair.

Coore even had a piece of the mall to call his own: a sign that pointed shoppers to the mall restrooms. He got it on eBay for $10.

He can't explain his fascination with the defunct mall. "It just had a certain feel to it that I've always liked," said Coore, a senior at Huffine Mill Christian School.

"Even though the interior of the mall was all beat up and vandalized, it still struck me as amazing," he said, reflecting on his last stroll through in 2005.

"All these memories flooded through my mind. Then it clicked: Carolina Circle was an amazing mall and I want others to remember the mall like I do."