It's a little sad for me to hear the store is closing.
When I was just a boy hobby shops did not treat me well. In fact a few ran me off. I felt like I was in an old movie "go away kid, you bother me."
I decided to take two busses to get to downtown Baltimore to see the store my grandfather shopped at, M.B. Klein's.
It was Christmas time, the place was packed with people. The isles were narrow, the shelves were full of all kinds of stuff I had never dreamed about. I was very impressed!
I only had a few dollars, I was looking for some Life-Like or Tyco cars I could afford to add to my Tyco set. I was leery of asking for help. Usually when I asked for help with my "cheap crap" as one Hobby Shop called it, that was when I soon got ran off.
I mustarded the courage to ask a guy in colorful clothes. He was so nice to me, he showed me just about everything I could afford and left me to decide, telling me "if you need any more help, just ask"
As it turned out that guy was Ted Klein.
I soon got frustrated with the hobby and became more interested in girls and other things, but I never forgot those great looking Lionel sets that I thought I could never afford as a paper boy.
Over the years when I needed a new HO set for my Christmas tree I went to M.B. Klein.
In 2012 my daughter bought me a Lionel Polar Express Set from Walmart to replace my worn out HO set to run under the Christmas tree. The new set had a problem with the locomotive. I knew what to do, we returned the set to Walmart and drove to M.B. Klein's in the new Timonium location and picked up another Lionel Polar Express. That was the beginning of my Lionel obsession!
I soon bought another Lionel set, a Lionel Horseshoe Curve freight set. I wanted a 2003 Christmas boxcar to run with the set. I married my little Angel in 2003. I went to M.B. Klein and asked about it, they did not have one. Just my luck, Ted Klein happened to be in the store and overheard my story. He went into the back for what seemed like a long time and finally brought out a 2003 Lionel Toy Fair boxcar. He asked me if that would do? I was very happy to say; yes it would!
When I looked closely at the Lionel shipping box I saw the shipping label was addressed to Ted Klein, personally. I showed it to him and he said "It's ok, I don't collect trains" I said thank you again!
I've met Ted a several times over the many years I shopped at his store, he was always a nice person to talk to. Everybody at M.B. Klein's was nice. Before the new store closed I would always wave at the security cameras to say hello to Ted. Fred, the store manager told me "Ted watches over us a lot"
While it's a little sad to see the store close, it's not been the same since the new general manager took over. The store felt more like a corporate franchise, instead of the old fashioned country store I knew it to be.