Today is Black Friday: the start of the holiday shopping season.
Merchants hope folks flock downtown, jamming Main Street to shop at the many chain stores and less numerous but very cool locally owned ones, then grab a bite at the few places left to eat.
If you want basics, you have to go elsewhere. But back in the day, Main Street was an actual “main street.” It was filled with grocery stores, drugstores, hardware stores: the lifeblood of any town.
Here are 2 photos, from years past.
3 Main Street, near the corner of the Post Road (then called State Street). The building looks the same today, though the tenant is long gone. (Photo courtesy of Paul Ehrismann)
Another long-ago business — though the building next door looks almost the same.