In today's fifth column, I'm shopping at Miller's landmark department store. The year is 1943. Mr. Harold Smith, current president of the Northampton Historical Society, is recalling his work days at the store.

The store had departments for groceries, clothing, shoes, sporting goods, hardware, home delivery and even a coal yard. The four-storied building was located at 2010-2012 Main St., Northampton.

Harold started at the store in 1943, while he was a student at Northampton High School. He became a full-time employee when he graduated from high school in 1945.

"Friday and Saturday were very busy," he recalls. "Mr. Miller sent me to the Cement National Bank on Friday morning for cash. They filled two large bags with cash, thousands of dollars. I returned to the store. Being robbed did not even enter your mind. We needed the cash because on Friday night dozens of employees from the Atlas, Dragon, Whitehall Cement and clothing factories lined up to cash their checks and pay their bills. On some days I had to go up to the bank for more cash.

There was a large grocery section.

"We sold loose molasses, cider, even kerosene. One day a young part-time employee picked up the store cat and threw him in the molasses barrel, but don't fret, the cat was saved. Cleaning him wasn't easy. The thrower was gone.

"Pretzels, nuts, cookies and Fig Newtons were sold loose. If you wanted 2 pounds, you just filled a paper bag with your bare hands – no plastic gloves in 1943!"

Soda bottles were all glass. Most were returned for a refund of 2 to 5 cents.

"On Saturday morning I came to work at 7 a.m. and worked until 9 p.m.," Harold recalls. "My first job was to grind hundreds of pounds of hamburger. They were delivered to (do you remember) Dute's Restaurant, Georgian, Elmer's, Ralph Smith's Hill Top, Siegfried Hotel and Allen House, to name a few. The only survivors are the former Allen House and Hill Top."

Two employees traveled to each ward in Northampton and the rural areas to take store orders.

"In those days some families did not have an automobile and, if you did, maybe you couldn't get gasoline – it was wartime and you needed ration stamps," he says. "Ralph Peters would take the trolley to get orders in the third ward."

Harold also went out taking orders.

"Customers would give me jars to fill with molasses and cans for kerosene," he says. "Some ladies wanted spools of thread. On one occasion it rained so much, I had to change clothing three times. The home delivery was big – Ike Berg, Harvey Kohler and Ralph Missimer made the deliveries."

During World War II, many food items were rationed, including meat, sugar, flour, soap and gasoline, to name a few. "Ration books with stamps were required for certain products," he recalls. "The ration board was located in the building which today is home to V.F.W. Post 4714."

Harold recalls, "Some customers were upset when we were out of a certain product. The women were unhappy when they could only get a quarter-pound of butter."

During the war, artificial butter margarine was used. When it first appeared on the market it was white in color with a capsule containing yellow coloring which you manually mixed to give the margarine color.

Cigarettes were in short supply.

"We usually kept them under the counter, one pack to a customer," Harold says. "If you were a customer, you got a pack. Strangers, no cigarettes today. I still recall a serviceman coming into the store. I didn't know him. He asked for a pack and I gave him a pack of Kools. We all respected what our boys and women were doing for the country."

Do my older readers recall the X-ray machine Miller's had in the shoe department? You purchased a pair of shoes, placed your feet under the bottom of the machine and you could view your feet. Government bureaucrats would be tramatized if the machine was still in use.

Henry Miller was assisted by his sons Kline and Hillard in the store's operation.

We close today's column with a list of Harold's co-workers. If your name was omitted we are sorry. Henry Mummey, Ralph Peters, Ralph Missimer, Harvey Kohler, Ikie Berg, William Lilly, Robert Gaugler, Harold Strohl, Elmer Lutte, J. Fred Kline, Martha and Dorothy Rabenold, Heidi Gartner, Margie Wasser, Ethel Uherick, Marie Smith, Margaret Sittler, Joseph Strausser, Arthur Andrews, Clarence Gogle.

Eva Snyder, Myrtle Bauer, Patience Marsh, Edna Graver, Dorothy Frye, Andrew Bankos, Olga Kowalyshn, Albert Rothrock, Ernie Dech, Bill Heberling, Emma Newhard, Anna Delucia, John Fedor, Rodger Seremula. The coal yard men were Newberry Bachman, Anthony Pany and Harold Lutz.

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In two weeks we will be driving through Kreidersville, going to Zion Stone Church. Come along!