Memories Bring Back More Memories

By Kathy Wilder

Hi, Linda--

     I was thrilled to read your memories on the Baltimore memories website! I have been checking that website for awhile without very good results.

     I am writing a novel, set in 1963 Baltimore, and I would love to pick your brain a little, if you wouldn't mind. I live in Oklahoma now, but I grew up in Baltimore (lived in Lutherville, actually.) Downtown Baltimore was my favorite place! I was born in '56, so I was 7 in '63, but it stands out in my memory. We used to dress up to go downtown, complete with white gloves.

     I loved shopping at Hutzlers! My mother used to have them mix her powder at the cosmetic counter-- the candy department! They put whatever you picked out in little white boxes with white paper.

     I remember Stewarts, but not the May Company. I loved Lexington Market. I remember a man always used to be outside the entrance, shouting, "hot roasted peanuts!" And Utz potato chips? Would you believe my school took a trip to the Utz factory, and we got to eat chips warm off of the conveyor belt. Heaven!

     I also remember eating lunch at the Woolworth's counter. But, as a seven year old, my observance was somewhat limited.

     And, the restaurants! Tell me about Hausner's! What that around in '63? I seem to remember the name--but can't remember the place. My mother and her best friend loved to take my sister and me out to lunch. We would go to the LaRonde--atop the Holiday Inn--it turned around one revolution per hour. Or, the Penn Hotel, where we ate cannibal sandwiches and drank Shirley Temples with plastic monkeys in them. And the Brentwood Inn. Do you remember the Brentwood? I'm having trouble finding information on it.

     If you have time, I would be so interested in hearing from you about any details about anything you remember from that time. It's hard, being out in Oklahoma, to find anyone who knows anything about Baltimore in 1963. I so appreciate your time, and would love to hear from you!