Remembering Christmastime at the Old Eastpoint Shopping Center

There was a time when the local, tired, poor huddled masses gathered together outside in frigid weather and took simple pleasure in watching penguins swim and play.

I'm talking about the Eastpoint Shopping Center before it succumbed to early 1970s modernism and was converted to the enclosed Eastpoint Mall we know today.

This was the old, outdoor Eastpoint Shopping Center that was anchored on one end by Hutzler's and on the other by Hochschild-Kohn, each founded in Baltimore, in 1858 and 1897, respectively.

When I was a kid a trip to Eastpoint was a real event, not only at Christmas, but any time. 

Penguins were on year-round display in a corner window at Hochschild's, and real-life monkeys could be found gallivanting around at the Hess Shoe Store.  

And yes, they actually X-rayed your feet at Hess' ("they" being the shoe salesmen, not the monkeys) with a fluoroscope, even though a simple Brannock Device would have done the job just as well and did not cause a skin condition known as erythema.

The penguins and the monkeys were must-see TV, but during the Christmas season, if you wanted to see the head honcho you went to Hutzler's, specifically to the lower level or "basement" as some called it.

That's where Santa Claus could be found – thrilling, boring or scary depending on the age of the kids who waited in line for what seemed like hours just to reel off their 15-second wish list.

I guess you could put my younger brother into the "Scaring the Hell Out Of" category, since he reacted to Santa's lap the way a worm reacts to a hot shovel, except thankfully you can't hear a worm screaming, "Maaahhh!" all the way down at the Edgemere Moose.

You could practically see my brother's tonsils when the pictures came in the mail a week later. 

Personally, I liked talking to Santa, because who else is going to say, "Alrighty then, young man," when you ask them to bring you a Hess monkey for Christmas?

Hochschild's went out of business in 1983 and Hutzler's left the mall in 1984. I'm sure everyone in the area knows the mall anchors are now Sears and JC Penney.

Information on Hochschild's seems to be scarce, but local author Michael J. Lisicky pays tribute to Hutzler's in his book, "Hutzler's: Where Baltimore Shops."

It's currently out of stock on Amazon (I checked), but you can meet the author and pick up a signed copy at Greetings and Readings in Hunt Valley this Sunday, Dec. 19, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Tell him Dundalk Patch sent you. 

http://www.greetingsandreadings.com/events/michael-lisicky-hutzlers-book-signing