The Hilton Dairy Cottage located on South Rolling Road in Catonsville, MD is one of the roadside stands that served the varying needs of locals in every age group. As a very young child I recall our family stopping by this wonderful stone cottage on our way home from Sunday drives in the city. They sold Delvale ice cream which in my father’s estimation was the best ice cream in Baltimore. Rocky Fudge was his favorite flavor and so it became my favorite, too. Later on as eleven-year-old youngsters out on our own, my best friend and I took badminton lessons on Sunday afternoons at the local public high school. We hurried through our lessons so we could visit the cottage to get ice cream cones as our reward. Ice cream seemed to be the major draw for us up to that point.
However, older students from the neighboring Catonsville Senior High used this place as their beloved hangout. Recently some former students bragged to me that they dined on coke, cigarettes and donuts for breakfast until 1969 when it closed. Others reported to me that the truant officer Mr. T would hide in the driver’s education car by lying down in the back seat and force the student and driver's ed teacher to turn into the cottage driveway while school was in session. When the driver's ed car pulled up to the “cottage” door, class cutting teenagers ran outside to give a cheery hello but Mr. T the truant officer popped up from the back seat and took names. It was a clever trick for him but the students had quite a different name for it.
I went to Mt. St Joe but I lived near the Cottage and would hang out there once in a while. The pinball machines would pay off, in case you ever wondered.
ReplyDeleteJ. Frank Truchet was the Mr. T to whom you refer. I'll never forget him. He drove a Volkswagen, and when we saw it winding down the drive toward The Cottage, many of us would split, but some of us would stick around to see what he would do to those of us he "caught," which was usually not much. I managed to get myself suspended at the end of my senior year (1967) by getting "caught" by Frank Truchet at The Cottage one too many times.He finally ran out of patience with me and convinced Mr. Klopper to teach me an object lesson. I guess it must have worked.......I suppose. My name is Whit Freund, CBS class of '67.
ReplyDeleteJ. Frank Truchet was the Mr. T to whom you refer. I'll never forget him. He drove a Volkswagen, and when we saw it winding down the drive toward The Cottage, many of us would split, but some of us would stick around to see what he would do to those of us he "caught," which was usually not much. I managed to get myself suspended at the end of my senior year (1967) by getting "caught" by Frank Truchet at The Cottage one too many times.He finally ran out of patience with me and convinced Mr. Klopper to teach me an object lesson. I guess it must have worked.......I suppose. My name is Whit Freund, CBS class of '67.
ReplyDeleteThanks for filling in the blanks, Whit. It appears that you turned out just fine. Mr. Truchet would be happy to take the credit, I'm sure.
ReplyDelete