In this fourth column of a continuing series, I am speaking to Mr. Harold Smith well known local resident, historian and president of the Northampton Historical Society. Today Harold recalls his youth during the Depression era. Many of my older readers recall when home delivery of basic needs was a common practice in the area.

"Our baker was Harold 'Hap' Heberling, conveyor of Friehofer baked products," Harold recalls. "A great salesmen, Hap would deliver bread and attempt to sell mother buns. He would say, 'Good buns today. I believe they are good. If they're good, tell all your neighbors. If they're bad, don't tell anyone.'"

Later Mr. Heberling sold Lutheran Brotherhood and Erie Insurance. He brought the bills to your home and even picked up the premiums if you called.

Most everyone had an ice box before the days of refrigeration.

"Our ice man was Harold Beltz," Harold says. "He would look in the ice box and say you need a .30 block, it will last over the weekend.

"Milk was delivered by Joe Gasper of the Northampton Dairy. Milk was bottled in glass, and the bottles were returned. It was recycling.

"There was a rag man who collected old rags, and the umbrella man who walked all over town sharpening knives on his grinding wheel."

Harold attended elementary school at the Franklin and Washington buildings. He walked each day to both the junior and senior high school from his 25th Street home.

One junior high memory was a snowstorm when Frank Lerch, a farmer, used a sleigh to bring his milk to the Northampton Dairy. He gave both Harold and his granddaughter a ride to school.

Mr. Smith's lifelong interest in history was stimulated by teachers Mary Jane Franz and Mike Lisetski at the senior high. He remains an avid historian today with the Northampton Historical Society and Zion Stone Church.

While still a junior in Northampton Senior High School (the high school in 1943 was located at 18th Street and Lincoln Avenue, the present site of the Hampton House), Harold walked down to Miller's Department Store to ask Mr. Henry A. Miller for a job.

Mr. Miller, an astute business man, started his first store at 22nd and Main streets. As business expanded he constructed a four-story building at 2010-2012 Main St. In 1917 he would purchase adjoining buildings. One would later become the home to our own Richard Wolfe's Roxy Theatre. This writer and many of my readers would have many pleasant experiences shopping at the grand old store.

Mr. Miller told Harold to come back again to see him about a job. He knew Harold's parents and I'm sure he did some checking on Harold at the high school. When Harold returned he was given a job at the rate of 50 cents an hour. The year was 1943.

"I was happy to have the job," Harold remembers. "I gave my pay to my mother to help out the family but I kept a dollar.

"At the store, I was taught how to use the register, keep inventory, itemize and wait on customers. In 1943 you had to mentally calculate the change you gave to a customer, the register did not indicate the amount. You did not want to be short at the end of the day."

I wonder what would happen today in our mega-stores if the cashiers would have to give change without the aid of a register? Would the lines at the checkouts be longer? Would customers be shortchanged or would the opposite occur? Can you hear the complaints and lost tempers?

When Harold started, each item sold was entered into a ledger. This would be impossible to do today.

"I was a greenhorn and had plenty to learn but Mr. Miller, co-workers and customers were patient with me and soon I felt comfortable in my new job," he says.

***

In two weeks we will shop at Miller's in 1943-44. Please bring along your World War II ration stamps. We don't want to disappoint you!