To the editor:

Now that summer is here (though it is hard to tell with the weather!), the baseball and softball teams are in full swing. This brought back memories of summers of long ago when the old wooden fence was around the baseball field at the Town Park and the town was dotted with Mom and Pop stores. Probably the most popular during the summer was Ted's on Friend Street near the park. Ted and Muriel White always had a smile for the kids who swarmed their store from the park. Most of these stores went out during the '60s and the remainder went out when Cumberland Farms and Richdale's came around. Just in the neighborhood where I grew up (Maple Street/Whittier Avenue), there were at least four.

Ted's was our favorite, but there was a store on Friend Street at the foot of Whitehall Road between the apartment building and funeral home; now it is an apartment. There was also Mr. Chatigny's store on Whitewall Road. If we walked up Whitehall Road and around the corner on Garfield Street, we would come to the Fournier's store (though they sold toys, not sundries). Next stop could be MacNevin's store at the corner of High and Pond streets, which is just down the street from Vermette's, which is still in business. Heading up Elm Street, there was the Elm Street Cash Market on the left before Spring Street. Turn onto Congress Street and beyond Madison Street on the left there was another market, though the name escapes me!

If you went to school at the Middle School, you could stop at the Main St. Variety (I think that was the name of it) right next to Child's Avenue. If you walked home in the other direction and crossed over Route 110, you would eventually come to Merrimac Street, and a little ways down on the right before Swett's Hill, you could find yourself at Doughty's store, though I don't think I ever actually went in this one. The last store to close was on Market Street at the foot of Prospect Street, Dave's Variety (previously Rallis' Groceries). Also, if we were feeling particularly adventuresome, we could pedal up to South Hampton and go to their little country store next to the old Barnard School (now a grassy lot and just a memory like the others).

It is really a shame that these small businesses couldn't survive when the chains came in because it was a different feeling going into a store that was owned and run by families that you actually knew.

Paula Gwinn Parker

Amesbury