Best People Watching
Knoxville Center (aka East Town Mall)
As much as I love Knoxville, there’s one thing I hate about it, one thing that big cities will always have over ours. You cannot get lost here. You cannot walk for hours or sit alone in a bar or a coffeeshop without seeing someone you know. Everybody knows everybody else in this town. Sometimes that’s comforting—it makes you feel like you belong. But it comes with a lot of baggage when you’re tired of yourself and want to disappear. So you’re constantly bumping into friendly and unfriendly acquaintances, work associates, ex-crushes, ex-lovers. If you grew up here it’s even worse: school teachers, your parents’ friends, your parents’ preacher, old classmates, old classmates’ parents, et al. Which makes it hard to lurk and simply enjoy the show. Good people watching requires three things: anonymity; lots of people who are not like you, at least on the surface; and the ability to watch in safety. Some might find this in the generic homogeneity of West Town Mall (our second-place winner) and it’ll do in a pinch, I guess. But I’m not surprised that Knoxville Center—what most of us still stubbornly call East Town Mall—won the category. It might be a generic shopping mall, but it’s situated at a cultural crossroads. Kids from Ritta and Mascot and Halls, as well as those from Grainger, Union, and Jefferson counties, mix freely with kids from Austin East and Fulton high schools. The burnouts from Heiskell mingle with the bobos of North Hills. Park yourself on a bench and enjoy the contrasts or maybe tail some amusing couple and eavesdrop. All the while, hum Todd Steed’s anthem to “East Town Mall” in your head, about the hicks from the country who make the regular pilgrimage: “girls down there were born to flirt/ they’re startin’ to fill out their Guns ’n’ Roses shirts/ why y’uns buy some expensive campin’ shit/ I need a hit from the food court/ it tastes like pork.” Knoxville Center, my ass, indeed.