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Category: Baltimore
Remember Record Theater in suburban Baltimore?
I remember Record Theater from the 1980s. I bought a CD player in 1984 and it was very hard to find CDs. As I recall, even a big store like Record Theater would have only about 50 different discs. There were no CD manufacturing plants in the US then. My copy of Born in the USA is made in Japan.
Here’s an article on the closing of the store:
I had a party on one of the hottest days in Baltimore history
August 20, 1983 was the second hottest day in recorded Baltimore history when I had my party. I lived in an air-conditioned third-floor apartment. I turned the temperature down as much as possible but it was still in the 80s. Fortunately, I served cold food (6 foot sub).
Oriole Park at Camden Yards
Oriole Park at Camden Yards opened in 1992.
My collage which includes newspaper photos and a ticket and program from the exhibition game held before the stadium opened for the regular season.
Instagram post on the old Lord Baltimore theater
Preakness portable toilet races ended in 2009
I got two seats and two teller window bars from the Pimlico Race Course
Pimlico, home of the Preakness in Baltimore, is being torn down and rebuilt. I found out about the auction from this article:
Pimlico Race Course is full of artifacts. Where will they go when it is razed?
Here are the auction site photos of the items I won.
Teal seats (photos from govdeals.com
White teller window bars (photos from govdeals.com)
Photos I took at Pimlico on June 3, 2025:
The two seats and two teller window bars that I won at the auction. I am working on getting stands so I can put the seats upright. They don’t have feet because they were attached to concrete.
3/5/26 update: I now have the legs on the seats and put them behind my kitchen table and in front of my piece of Shea Stadium bleachers.
See this post for my memories about going to the Preakness:
Baltimore – the dirtiest city in America
“The City That Reads” and my conversation with Elmore Leonard
Under Mayor Kurt Schmoke, Baltimore used the slogan “The City That Reads”. This would have been in the late 1980s and/or 1990s. When Baltimore was #1 in teen pregnancy at some point during this time, cynics called it “The City That Breeds”.
I don’t recall the year this happened but I went to Washington, DC to see Elmore Leonard at a bookstore and get books signed by him. I rushed there after work in Baltimore, it was hot and I was sweaty and I got there just before the event was over.
I explained this to him and we had a conversation that went something like this.
Me: I am sorry to be late but I came here from Baltimore
Leonard: Baltimore? We needed you there earlier today (They had a poorly attended book signing in Baltimore at a store – I was not aware of it.)
Me: They call it “The City That Reads”
Leonard: That must be a new slogan.
I saw him again a year or two later and gave him a “The City That Reads” bookmark.
Sad! 