They sat at a little table together, gabbing and gossiping, sipping vanilla ice cream sodas out of fluted glasses, with chocolate syrup pooled deliciously at the bottom. The Andrews Sisters played on a jukebox. Nearby, a couple danced the jitterbug.
The scene surely was keen, but it would have been easier for Marie Kershaw and Margaret Wells to believe they had been transported back to the 1940s if it weren't for the nagging thoughts of their darn cholesterol levels and pesky blood pressure.
"We're not supposed to have any of this, because of our health," said Wells, 81, waving her hand dismissively. "That's all you hear about nowadays."
Kershaw, 90, sighed guiltily.
"I missed my pool exercises for this," she said. Still, she sipped some more.
After all, when you've reached your golden years, there's nothing wrong with a little chocolate-flavored, whipped-cream-topped trip down memory lane.
Which is exactly why the folks at Charlestown Retirement Community in Catonsville officially opened for their residents last week an old-style soda shop, complete with black-and-white tile floors, a jukebox, malted milkshakes, flavored Cokes, stainless steel, tulip-shaped sundae dishes and penny candy.
Well, not exactly penny candy.
"I asked them, 'How much is your penny candy?'" Wells reported to Kershaw, when she came back from a trip to the ice cream counter. "And they said, '10 cents a piece!' I said, 'You used to be able to go to the movies for 10 cents! And you saw a double feature!'"
Garret Falcone, executive director of Charlestown - which is home to more than 2,000 seniors - said the old-fashioned shop is meant to be "a little reminder of days gone by and a little touch of the future."
That goes a way toward explaining why flavored Cokes are $2, a banana split is $5.50 and residents can buy a decaf mocha latte at the counter, to go along with their 10-cent Charleston Chews.
Times certainly have changed, but at least at the Fountain Hill Cafe, the memories still are free.
"I remember we would take our church collection and go to the Arundel for ice cream," said Regina Service, 90, who grew up in Catonsville and now lives at Charlestown. "We hooked church, and we went to the ice cream parlor."
"That's where I first started to smoke," said Wells, who also remembered walking in her West Baltimore neighborhood to Arundel Ice Cream, a popular chain of soda parlors. "I'd sneak a smoke behind the drugstore. But don't put that in the paper."
Smoking was probably the highest of crimes committed at soda shops, some of the seniors said, as they snacked last week on pastries and other sweet treats. Theirs, they remembered, was a much more innocent time.
"People did smoke. People did neck. People did sit in cars," said Christine Kaisler, 79, who lived in West Baltimore before moving to Charlestown. "I didn't do any of that. Well, I did some of it."
And it wasn't just the Baltimore kids finding ways to sneak some mischief into an afternoon ice cream run.
"We would get our report cards and compare grades, and some people would change their grades," said Marie Kibby, 78, recalling many after-school hours spent at a soda fountain in Kennett Square, Pa. "We were in a small town. That was all we had to look forward to."
Kaisler celebrated the opening of the retro cafe by wearing a full, polka-dot skirt (the closest thing she could find in her closet to a poodle skirt), white socks, black loafers and a snappy little scarf.
She danced in honor of her older female cousins - all gone now - who used to jitterbug in the 1940s with each other, because the men were off at war.
"But, boy, my cousins danced up a storm," said Kaisler. "And I loved it. It was wonderful to see them dance."
Kibby didn't do any dancing at the cafe opening. Her husband, Jim, who retired with her to Charlestown three years ago, died on Christmas Day.
"So I don't know if I'll ever dance again," she said.
But sitting at a table at the Fountain Hill cafe gives her a lot of pleasure, Kibby said. She's looking forward to bringing her grandchildren there, so they can see the way things once were.
"The younger ones, they're on their computers all the time," Kibby said. "I don't think they like to dance like we did."
What a shame, many of the seniors said, that childhood nowadays is so full of video games and violence.
Sad, they lamented, that necking no longer stops at the neck and sneaking a cigarette at the local soda shop would seem positively lame today.
Ah, for the days of Perry Como and Artie Shaw, saddle shoes and double features, cherry Cokes and skipping church for a blissful, chocolate-covered cup of cholesterol. Guilt-free.
"I worry so about my grandchildren; they're out there in this world," said Service, as Eddie Fisher crooned "I'm in the Mood For Love" on the jukebox. "I pray for them all the time. I think that's the only reason why I'm still left here. To pray for them."
Listening, Margaret Wells sipped the last of her ice cream soda.
"That's all we can do," she said.
tanika.white@baltsun.com