TOWSON, MD…My Whole World as a Youth

There it is, in black and white. Back when my world was in black and white.

I probably SAW The Deer Hunter in the Towson Theater, almost certainly did. As a child we would sit on a revolving, pearl vinyl covered stool at the soda fountain in Reed’s Drugstore. Root beer float! we lived about 3 miles south of Towson on Register Avenue. One day, when we were about 10 years old, my trouble making best friend, Mike Fitchett (see blog post about HIM!), who lived across the street, asked his parents if I could go with them to Towson. They said no. So, when they went inside he popped open the back of his dad’s International jeep and hid me in the back under a blanket. Once they were out of the car he spring me. We ran around Towson for a while and when they got back to the car he said “Look who I ran into!!” They were not dumb and not amised. It was a quiet ride home. Hahahahaha!

I got my first job (kitchen-prep) at The Penn Hotel, not really a hotel but a bar that my mom socialized at. I also did my first gig there…a million years ago. Mike also worked in the kitchen there.

As budding young hippies we all discovered that Finkelstien’s clothes store had WESTERN WEAR!!! We all got cowboy boots and hats, Levis and snap shirts. The 2 Fiklestein brother were really nice to the hippies but then, they KNEW they had a corner on the market.

Mike, as I said was a trouble maker, like, a MASTER trouble maker. Our hang was Hutzler’s Department Store. (See top photo) He would throw the elevator doors open, between floors, even when there were customers with us, in the elevators.

MIKE FITCHETT

For YEARS there was a grease stain on the ceiling of the diner, where he had thrown a pad of warm butter and stuck it there. He would also find the lipsticky-est cigarette butt in the ashtray and put it in the salt shaker and shake it until it disappeared, only to reappear for some horrified diner.

He also liked to unscrew the lid of the sugar shaker, slip a napkin over it, turn it over, slip the napkin out, blow away the excess sugar and then move to the table across to watch a patron pick up the sugar shell and see that sugar explode all over there table. I could not have wished for a more entertaining best friend!

The first mall I ever saw was Towson Plaza. It was really cool to have a bunch of stores all lined up. I think it was about 10 stores and I remember Hutzler’s complaining like it was the “end of the world” and gonna “ruin them’…….but it didn’t

One of the best jobs I ever had was at what was then called Record and Tape Collectors, on York Rd. I had been hired by Mort, down on Charles Street, where I lived. I started at the Cold Spring Lane store, worked my way up tp asst. manager there and then was moved up to Towson. My boss, Robbie Grant, ended up being a friend to this day. I admired Robbie because he was a great musician, who had been in a couple of great bands. (and he looked like David Bowie!) I worked with him and “T” Teresa Metzger. We had a ball and I was there until I moved to Austin.