I need help, dear #writingcommunity, fellow followers of #writerscoffeeclub, #wordweavers, #TimeTravelAuthors, #pennedpossibilities.
It's been some time since I was a teenager. Things have changed. I need a place for my kids in #JulesNVera to hang out in a small town. I chose this place to be a mall. I haven't specified the country in which my story takes place for numerous reasons, but is this still something kids do these days? Or is it completely out of date?
@anderlandbooks my teens hang-out online. My eldest occasionally spends time at malls, but it's rare and we live in a densely packed city. In Australia, it's unlikely for a small town to even have a mall.
My advice, create your own 'feature' with some history, and have them hang-out there.
@anderlandbooks I currently have a son in high school. Some kids that age do hang out at the mall, but from what I've seen, it's more online interactions or meeting at the park or rec center.
@anderlandbooks When I was a teenager in a mid-sized midwestern town, we hung out at Perkins, because it was open 24 hours (we tried the truck stop and the Steak n Shake, but Perkins had better pie I think).
@anderlandbooks population 4000. Youngs hung out in the town square gazebo, a coffee shop on the square, sonic out by the Walmart (for those with cars), an old theater off the square that was run by a ministry and hosted karaoke a few nights a week, Friday night football games (the whole town attends). And school of course. Then there’s down at the river in that one spot when the weather is good and the river not flooding.
My info: small town Missouri circa 2019
@anderlandbooks the country probably makes a difference for the answer.
In the USA, a "small town" might have a few shops on a main historic street that's referred to as a downtown. One of the shops might offers food and allow loitering, though most do not.
Otherwise, kids who don't want to out in a home meet at a park, assuming they can cope with the weather, which tends toward extremes.
The closest mall is probably an inconvenient drive away when there's not a specific reason to visit it.
@anderlandbooks Well, looking at the mall in this town, I wouldn't want to spend a minute there longer than necessary. Too crowded, too noisy, no place to sit and talk nonsense unless you are buying something.
A lot of young people hang out in the park here, slacklining or whatever, when the weather's good.
Not sure about winter though. Unfortunately, the youth clubs are all dying out.
@anderlandbooks the place where the gamer has their stuff because they just won’t leave. One of my nieces and her friends would hang in the back shed of the florist shop where she worked. (Plug in a console, use the shop’s internet…)
@anderlandbooks Despite the digital age, coffee shops are still inhabitated by adults and most don't let the teens hang and leech wifi unless they're buying something.
Choose a spot where adults don't go on the regular. Like a rails to trails overpass, or the ruins of a factory that's no longer there except for the foundations. Another hangout spot could be a wetlands you can't drive to or an old house with a drained pool - nothing sinister, just a place where adults wouldn't want to go?
@writerobscura
You reminded me that my friends and I loved hanging out in abandoned places (houses, hospitals, an unfinished car park, etc.), too 😁 @anderlandbooks
@AlinaLeonova@anderlandbooks My friend group skate boarded, and there was a closed community center in Brighton Beach (Brooklyn) we'd hang at to skate the drained pool.
@anderlandbooks My (now-older) teens never hung out at a mall; mostly other friends' houses. Maybe a coffee shop or restaurant. They'd still go to parks and such in the summer.
@ringles@anderlandbooks Same was true for me when I was a teen — we mostly hung out in each other's homes. If the weather was good, it could be a park, or somewhere by the river, or downtown. And if we had money, we'd go to a fast food place, or a cheap cafe. But yeah, that was some time ago. I think some teens hang out in malls now, but I'm not sure how universal this is.
@AlinaLeonova@ringles it was the same for me, but I grew up very rural. I'm thinking about changing it to downtown, maybe some cheap coffee shops or diners if they want to get something to eat, and otherwise home
@anderlandbooks I grew up in a relatively large city (well, depends on the country, I guess, it would probably be considered a town in the US — about 2 million people 😁) in Belarus.
@anderlandbooks It's also been some time since I was a teenager, but I can at least tell you that small towns only really have strip malls, which aren't good places to hang out. Enclosed malls are in larger cities.
@anderlandbooks My boys aren't teenagers anymore, but they basically didn't hang out in physical space together with friends: it was almost all virtual in MMRPGs, etc.
@anderlandbooks I mean depending on what you mean by small town I know many around NorCal that have some sort of at least strip mall. It seems to be a common place to kill time and spend shit job paychecks while you wait for something better to happen.
I used to spend a lot of time in the towel section of the Target at my local bullshit mall, sitting on the floor and eating ice cream from the DQ. Or shoplifting pens at Borders before they closed down. Lots of nothing.
@GoodLuckClove that was what I had in mind. it's winter, so they need a place indoors. Thank you for your input! Much appreciated! I'm still debating changing it to downtown because the town is so small they only have one school.
@anderlandbooks teen Clove spent many nights at the local coffee shops in their downtown. Decent space where you don't have to buy alcohol. Id get a lot of tea and listen to the open mics.
Pizza place or diner also feel classic. I would go to Denny's for fries or the arcade by the golf course.
My wife adds that the requirements are usually cheap snacks and wifi. I'd add a fun vibe.
@anderlandbooks A mall isn't likely to exist in a small town so I'd scrap that. A main street would still exist, a proper downtown would be a small city rather than a small town.
As to kids these days... I'm not sure, but if you're setting it in the current moment, the effects of Covid, inflation and other things will shape where it's believable for a kid to hang out.
So, if it's a small town that's now full of digital nomads it'll be different than one where shops are priced out. Or where...
@anderlandbooks Airbnb has hollowed out the local real estate such that there are fewer locals. You'd also want to consider if they're kids that are active on TikTok and are hanging out somewhere that they make content from.
If it's just vaguely meant to be in the present you'll have more wiggle room. If it's clearly in this moment and these specific youths (in roughly the 2020s) you'd want some specific touchstones.
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