I realized recently that my kids don’t know what it’s like to go shopping. They know Target, of course, and ordering from Amazon. But they don’t know the languid boredom of following your mother through several stores, or the thrill of slipping into a rack of dresses and peeping out at shoppers between the sleeves.

They certainly don’t know the deep pleasure of ducking into a series of cute shops, a paper cup of cocoa in hand. You traipse along a quaint sidewalk, bags swinging from your arm, like a Hallmark heroine rediscovering the charms of her hometown.

Downtown Bel Air would be a great place to introduce the kids to the pleasure of shopping in brick-and-mortar stores. There is an actual Main Street, like in a Frank Capra movie, and it is lined with interesting locally owned shops.

The sidewalks are wide, and drivers stop for pedestrians at crosswalks. It’s like Hampden without all the Hampden.

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julie.scharper@thebaltimorebanner.com