When I was young and impressionable -- we’re just going to pretend it was last summer, k? -- those of us old enough to rebel against our parents, but young enough to need them to drive us places so we could hang out with our friends had only one place to go without the parental units insisting on being in tow.


The Mall!

We were Mall Rats and loved it. We thought we owned the food court … and the boys who worked the concession stands at the movie theater were fair game when it came to getting your flirt on. We passed most of our Friday and Saturday nights at the mall, making it our home away from home.

Apparently things have changed a little.

I went into Barnes & Noble last Friday evening to do a little revision work (nevermind the lack of social life that allows to me to spend my Friday nights at a bookstore). It was then I learned that the B&N in Ellicott City, MD has apparently become the new IN place for the braces-and-learners-permit crowd to hang out from time to time.

When did this happen????

I have no real proof, but I’m fairly certain that the huge spike in YA readers -- and those of us who technically qualify as adults, but eat the stories up like chocolate contraband at a Jenny Craig convention -- is thanks to the emergence of widespread popular series like “Twilight” and “Harry Potter”. Now it’s actually considered fairly cool to hang out at the B&N café.

I was so ahead of my time when it came to the cool factor! I just wish everyone else had known it back then.