WALKING THE MALL

Mall walkers walk the interior perimeter of the mall which measures three-quarters of a mile.

Mall walkers have been exercising at the West Park Mall for 13 years.

Everyday West Park Mall opens its doors to people with a quest to keep their bodies in shape. They are the mall walkers and they are a hard act to follow, much less keep up with.

Meet Marjorie Meystedt, 82, of Cape Girardeau, when she's not dancing she's walking the mall to stay fit.

"I do it when I feel like it," she said. Five and a half years ago she had a pacemaker implanted to regulate her heart and her doctor recommended walking as a way to keep fit, but she likes to dance more than walking.

After she finished her two laps around the mall, which is the equivalent of a mile and a half walk, she shopped.

Dean and Gloria Wadlington of Scott City kept up a torrid pace as they trekked around the mall. They returned to the mall for exercise last August.

They go around the three-quarter of a mile track four times a day, six days a week.

Dean said he was doing it because he needs to get his pulse rate down and he is diabetic.

When the weather gets warmer, they will also walk outside, but the mall provides the perfect weather for walking year-round.

Henry Mann of Cape Girardeau has been walking the mall for the past eight years.

"On pretty mornings, I walk at home," he said.

His reasoning for walking: "When you turn 70, you need to walk anyway."

When he started walking his cholesterol level was 237, today it is 160. "It makes me feel better."

Lorn Honey of Tamms, Ill., has been walking in the mall since September 1985.

He hasn't walked as much the past six months because lymphoma cancer has made him sick, but he still manages one lap everyday.

In the beginning, he walked four laps a day because had suffered a heart attack. "They told me I needed to walk."

No matter what, he always comes to the mall. To Honey, the mall provides a better environment where weather and dogs are not a bother. And afterwards he can sit and talk with his friends who also walk the mall.

West Park Mall opens its doors at 8 a.m. Monday through Saturday for walkers, on Sunday the mall opens at 10:30 a.m. for walkers.

People have been utilizing the mall's free track since the early 1980s. While they walk to get fit they also do plenty of window shopping as they walk by the more than 70 stores now located in the mall.

When the doors are open in the morning, Carol Mazza, marketing director, said there are about 200 to 300 people walking the mall.

"They're a loyal bunch. We see the same faces day in and day out," Mazza said.

The mall provides a three-quarter mile track if the walkers utilize every nook and cranny of the mall.