Memories

By the time my family moved to Bel Air, MD, in the summer of 1974, the Harford Mall had been open for over a year. The mall was built on the site of the old Bel Air Racetrack. 

The mall was the center of my teen years in Bel Air. There was obviously the shopping, or whatever you called what a 12-year-old was buying those days. In my early years at the mall, I spent most of the time at either the arcade or the movie theater. It was in those theaters that I saw Star Wars at least 3 times the first weekend it came out. 

As I got older, the record bins at Korvette's were the place to be. Ed and I would spend hours flipping through all the latest releases. The first record I ever bought was by the band Boston, and I purchased it at the Harford Mall Korvette's.

The mall was where everyone congregated on Friday night. Parents usually dropped kids off at the doors by the arcade and theater entrance. From there, it was free-roaming up and down the corridors. Popular stops were Spencer's Gifts, Fashion Bug, and Radio Shack. If a snack was needed, there was always a slice of pizza from the Orange Bowl or a soft pretzel from the blonde sisters who ran the pretzel cart.

I watched the Bicentennial fireworks light up the sky from the mall parking lot. Each summer, the carnival would set up, and my neighbor Suzanne and I would walk around looking for cute boys in the hopes they might notice us. Then there would be the awkward talking and shuffling of our feet. I don't think either of us ever found teen love there, but we didn't give up trying.

The mall is about to shut down. I suppose 53 years is a good run. My sister and I talked about eating at Friendly's one more time, but we never got there. It has become another ghost mall that will eventually be torn down to create an open shopping center that is popular these days.

Maybe the mall is out of style right now, but boy, it was happening back then.