There is a brick building, located at 393 Main St., that brings back a lot of memories whenever I see it.
I worked in the Masonic building from 1941 to 1945 for C.H. Demond Company. The company sold stationery, typewriters and art supplies, offered picture framing services, and provided a gallery for local artists to display their work.
Raymond Ingraham and a Mr. Wood were typewriter repairmen. Wood would go out to stores and factories, collect typewriters and bring them back to C.H. Demond Company for repairs.
Meanwhile, one of my classmates, John Jackson, would do much of the picture framing work. I did just about everything to help run the store, with the help of Betty Micuta and Helen Siano.
To heat this building during those years, soft coal was used in a large furnace. I found it very difficult to keep the merchandise in their boxes and on the shelves clean due to a coating of coal dust that landed on everything.
I was paid 30 cents an hour, and I worked there after school and on Saturdays during the early 1940s.
Today, the building houses Greenfield Community Television (GCTV) and the Greenfield Business Association, to name a couple. The Franklin County Chamber of Commerce occupies one of the ground floor spaces. The weekly newspaper, The Town Crier was also a tenant for many years.
As for our gallery space, local artists brought in their work and sometimes would successfully sell their pieces there. I hung many a painting in that gallery, and I loved all of them. It’s a simple part of my life that I miss each day.