The Mall

The Mall of America will be celebrating it's 20th anniversary this year.  Can hardly believe it's been that long - I remember the grand opening. For those of us who live in the metro area, who hasn't used the MOA as a destination for out-of-town guests?  I mean, what else are you going to do with your third cousins visiting from East Grand Forks during MEA wknd?
But I have some fun memories of the Mall that represent my brother, and his quest for fun:  I remember driving down there with Jonny, and a couple friends when we were in high school.  We were told to go to Bloomingdales to pick up my grandmother's make-up.  She was in her mid-nineties but still bought this super expensive anti-wrinkle Germaine Monteil liquid foundation, that we could only get at Bloomies.  We were given the make-up in one of those little brown bags, and Jonny got an idea...
He and a friend found a security guard leaning against a wall near the food court.  Jonny walked past him, holding the little brown bag closely to his hip.  He stopped directly in front of the guard, about 20 feet away, bent at the knees, kept his back straight, and kept looking forward with a stiff neck, and dropped the bag to the floor.  Then he stood up straight and walked away, leaving the bag.  A few seconds later his friend, Aaron, walked from the other direction, stopped next to the bag, bent in the same way Jonny had, and picked up the bag and walked away.  They repeated this drop, and pick up three times before the security guard came storming over, walkie talkie out.  "Allright!  What's in the bag!"  he demanded.  "What?" Jonny said acting confused, "It's just my grandma's make-up." The guard got on his walkie talkie and said he had a situation.  Then he told us he demanded to see inside the bag.  Jonny shrugged his shoulders and passed the bag to him.  "It's make-up!" the security guard said, and then got on his walkie talkie to cancel whatever code he had announced to his back-up squad.  Jonny errupted in laughter, and we walked away triumphant.
That's my brother.  The creative, push-the-envelope guy, who has loved using psychology to get people to surprise themselves.  That's the brother we're all fighting for these days.