Main Street – August 26, 1948

By Morris Rote-Rosen

With E. C. Hewitt going out of the grocery business, after 29 years, Granville is left with the Barnard brothers as the only old grocery firm still doing business on the Main street. The chain stores are gradually forcing local merchants out of business because they can not compete with volume purchases and cash volume sales. And with the closing of the local grocery stores the old institution of credit in the grocery business is closing out with it. There was a time when people paid their grocery bills, once or twice a month, on pay days. The chain store has brought the pay-as-you-go plan into being and people no longer ask for credit.

There were as many as ten or more grocery stores on the Main street of our village a generation ago and the grocery wagons carried such familiar names as Temple and Mason, H. H. Ensign, A. B. Waller and others, printed on them. A grocery man had to be a bookkeeper as well as a merchant in those days. E. C. Hewitt bought the Waller store in 1920. It was located in the building now occupied by the electric light company. With the passing of the name Hewitt from the grocery business the Barnard brothers remain as the only survivors of a grocery system which meant long hours, lost accounts, and delivery headaches in all kinds of weather.

The Granville fire department is appreciative of the non-firemen who are always ready to assist at the carnival, which, having developed into a big business, can no longer be handled by the firemen alone. Such fellows with community spirit as Dr. Harold Winkler, Charles Richards, Jack Edwards, Harry Williams, Jim Crandall, Lester M. Browde, Donald Reynolds, Tom King and several others, are appreciated as pinch hitters, particular when there are about ten firemen do not come near the carnival lot and who show no interest in firemen activities. Resignations and retirements, as well as the presentation of new names, are in order for the Granville fire department.

Paul Hughes, Elton Murphy and William E. Roberts, is the order of the successful candidates for the office of postmaster and it will be interesting to watch the political developments about who receives the position, particularly in an election year when jockeying and swapping is the order among the politicians. Knowing what goes on behind the political blackout, the civil service examination which is supposed to decide the appointment on the merits of the applicant, is not taken too seriously by any one. In the mean time it is anybody's guess about who will be the next Granville postmaster. Politicians will decide that - after the election.

Mr. and Mrs. Joe Greenman and son Phil were on time with their vacation this year, as usual - carnival week. Phil, that little Granville Boy Scout of a few years ago, is a medical student in the Buffalo University ... The tradition of "no rain" on carnival nights, has now run true to form for the past 17 years setting a record of 119 carnival nights without losing one night's business because of rain. The carnival has had some narrow escapes, and more so this year than in previous years, but the record still holds good. The closest shave came Thursday night, this year, when the shower drove the last act of the entertainment program off the stage. But, business had ceased by then.

Boxing has always been a popular sport in Granville and this is true also with the carnival crowds. When Friday's boxing program presented an all-local boxing card, hundreds stood around the ring until the end of the last bout. And the Granville boxing talent always presents an exciting show to the sports fans. The bouts were limited to two, two-minute rounds, which gave the boxers an opportunity to fight fast and to throw all the punches in their repertoire. No one was hurt with the exception of one bloody nose, and the crowd had the thrill of a lifetime watching the boys sting leather.

One of the hardest working, among the non-firemen, assisting at the carnival, was Eugene von Gerichten of New York, a brother-in-law of Mrs. Thomas J. O'Brien. Taking over the high striker in the middle of the week, Eugene worked like a professional carnival man. His reward? A shiny new badge of the Granville fire-police department, taken back with him as a souvenir of a pleasant week ... Friday the 13th had no ill-omen on the carnival. It brought out a Saturday night crowd on a Friday night, which spent more than $1,600. It was one of the largest Friday night crowds in the history of the carnival.

One of the men associated with the vaudeville booking agency, which brought its acts to the carnival, stood around the platform, watching the children. "I hate kids:, he said, "and I could kick one every time I run into one. They are all bad. No good." Then he paused for a moment, looking at the children around the entertainment platform, and said: "But, what do you do in Granville to make them behave as they do?" We could have told him that those of us who love children find nothing wrong with them, but, he wouldn't understand because he doesn't understand children.

Frank Redding, at 91, had the time of his life when Neal Hulett took him up to show him Granville and the Mettowee Valley from his plane. He had never been up before ... Mrs. William Martin, who spends her winters in Dannemora and summers at her home was enjoying her walk up and down Main street. "It's good to see some one I know", said Mrs. Martin, "I don't see too many I know and the young people don't know me." ... When a driver complained to Chief of Police Stanton about a reckless driver who nearly ran into him at the Baptist church corner, Chief Stanton said: "In that case, brother, start praying". The plaintiff being of another religious denomination replied: "It's a hell of a place for me to start praying - at the Baptist church."

Andrew Samudosky paid "Main Street" a visit, as he always does when he returns to visit Granville from his present home in Bridgeport, Conn. "Andy" always makes his rounds to look up his former friends and he brings regards from Mr. and Mrs. Chatlos, the latter, nearing 90, former residents and well known among the Granville Slovak people ... Paul Miller, whom we haven't seen for twenty three years also called. He had his son Donald, 16, with him. Paul is gray and bald and when we recognized him he was greatly surprised. "So few recognize me here", said Paul, "I wondered if you could". He is the son of the late William B. Miller, the last Granville harness maker.

A letter from George (Chick) Karaffa from Toronto, Canada, brings regards from Fred Thompson, whom he visited at the veterans hospital in Toronto. George writes that Fred is crippled and bed-ridden. "Fred cried from joy", writes George, "as we talked about Granville and its people and he asked me to write to you and send best regards to everyone in Granville. If you can send him some cheer do so as it will be a great help to him. Tell the folks to write to him to his address at the Christie Street Hospital, Christie Street, Toronto, Canada."

From the Ticonderoga Fish and Game Club Scrap Book: "Remember when a dozen eggs cost ten cents; two pounds of pork chops, 25 cents; a stick of candy was one cent; men worked for $1.25 a day and built homes; milk was five cents a quart; you could buy a watch for a dollar; liquor was 25 cents a point; a suit of clothes was $12; it cost 25 cents to have a tooth pulled; tickets to a good show were 10, 20 and 30 cents and to a movie five cents? Well, you got more for a day's work then than you do now."