Did You Know? - Hastings Store in West Danville, VT

Hastings Store

The VFC Archives is full of amazing first-person accounts of everyday life in Vermont and New England–past and present. In this feature, we share these stories with you.

Continuing with our focus on Vermont general stores, this month we look at Hastings Store, a family-run general store in West Danville. Hastings has been owned by the same family since 1913, when it was purchased by Gilbert and Jenny Hastings. Their great-granddaughter Jenny Rafuse runs the store today.

In the late 1970's, early 1980's and again later in the early 1990's, Vermont Folklife founder Jane Beck met with Jenny's mother and father, Jane Larrabee and Ralph Hastings, to talk about their life with the store and its place in the local community.

Here, Jane tells about how the store came into the family:

Jane Larrabee Well my dad, my dad's father, and mother, prior to his birth were going to do something, they married and both had jobs which in those days was a little unusual my grandmother was employed as the chief stenographer at the Legion Waterman store in St. Johnsbury, and my grandfather worked for Roscoe Renfrew in St. Johnsbury, but when they married they decided they wanted to have a business of their own, and both having had business backgrounds, they looked around, and found that they liked either Echo Ledge Farm in Concord or they heard that the store here in West Danville was for sale, from my grandmother's mother who lived here in the village at the time. And after weighing the different considerations decided on the store, because my grandfather had an allergy to hay and even though he was a very good farmer and they grew a great garden and had wonderful, wonderful herbs and did everything, he just--haying would of probably shortened his life, and they were good, as I said, good business people so they decided to buy the store and they bought it from Burt Wells who owned it at the time, and his grandson now lives in Danville and is an artist in Danville: Rod Wells.

So they came to this windy valley at the end of the lake my grandparents and settled here, and had an infant daughter at the time, my Aunt Helen, who now lives in Pennsylvania, and then, two years later my, my dad came along and was born in the bedroom upstairs over the living room and they grew up here, in the store with all the characters and people in the village. And this is, this is where they decided to settle and, as time went on, my dad of course and my aunt worked in the store, and then, after World War II, my dad came home from the service and the South Pacific, and married my mother, Mabel Lina and they took over the store soon after that. And dad succeeded my grandmother, his mother, as postmaster and at this time is the longest serving postmaster in the state of Vermont. And even though, we took over the store about 20 years ago, my folks still work here, every day, it seems that, and we couldn't do it without them here. They're--you know, experience really counts. [laughs] And they're--two years ago when, mother had hip surgery, she had to stay inactive for about six weeks, and she sat in the living room, which is right next to the store, and knew much more about what was going on in the store than I did, and I was working behind the counter. She just, she just loves it, she said she thought that my dad married her for her car, and she married him for the store. [laughs] But, I think maybe there was a little more to it but at that. Ha! Ha! But she just loves to be with the people, and even though she's 80, she is out here every day and knows just exactly what's going on and dad is, still hasn't lost his zip. The old postmaster joke. [laughs] So, that's about the size of how they, how we came to be in West Danville.

Over the course of several interviews it becomes clear that the store plays a vital role–serving as the heart of West Danville. In this excerpt, Jane talks about several of the ways in which the store serves as a hub for the community.

Jane Larrabee Well yes, we had even fairly recently, maybe as even as short a time as twenty years ago, there were cottages that didn't have phones and I know my dad would say, "well, I wonder what's gonna happen this summer?" because usually, oh, at least once or twice, sometimes more during the course of a summer, they, the state police would be trying to find a family because there'd been a death in the family or sickness or some crisis in business, there was no phone so, you know, call the store and take a message out to the lake, sometimes three o'clock in the morning, which was always exciting, and I mean for me, my father, until I began to [laughs].

Jane Beck Go out at three o'clock in the morning.

Jane Larrabee Really. Yes. I mean when I was a kid, that was a great adventure. But you had to be in on the--and I remember one time, we came across an accident on the back side of the pond and the fellow had gone off the road and hit his head. He wasn't really hurt badly but he was sort of stunned and we took him down to his camp and helped get the car back on the road, and on the wall was written, "In case of emergency, call Hastings." [laughs] So we're, we have been sort of action central and usually if there's a death, there's a community memorial jug for people to bring in a contribution and then everyone--my dad usually sends a card with the names and clothes with the money and it's just sort of the area where people sort of call in and check in, and if there's any, anything going on up this way, usually they call to, "do you know where, do you know which way the fire truck went?", you know and that sort of thing so.

Being a community hub requires Jane and her husband to wear many different hats. Here, Jane talks about the full spectrum of services the store has offered to its customers.

Jane Larrabee My husband introduced a couple at the counter that were married this, let's see three years ago, and last October had twin girls. And last summer, I married a couple at the counter as a Justice of the Peace, and this March they had twin girls, so [laughs] I don't know if there's anything in the air or what, but they, people were, you know, surprised. [laughs]

Jane Beck How did you happen to marry them in the store?

Jane Larrabee They asked to be. There was going to be a question of logistics, of the world or nobody, and they decided when they found out, they were from out of state, that they could have a one day waiting period and no blood test, no witnesses that, although they brought his three children with them, that I think they just told the people with whom they were staying they were going to the store. Well, they were going to the store, but they came back married. [laughs] So it's-- I have done another one since, at the counter and that was, they gave me less, they gave me three hours notice. And I asked them afterwards, they came up from St. Johnsbury, were they going out to supper and she said, they had take-out and they were [laughs]. So we had, we had fun. And they did too, I think.

Jane Beck So how long have you been a justice of the peace?

Jane Larrabee Oh gosh, it's about twelve years.

Jane Beck Well, the interesting thing too about I think a general store is a number of different hats, often, you or storekeepers wear, which I think is important in, particularly it's different in a small community.

Jane Larrabee Oh yes. Because we've, provide a lot of services I said we take care of any one from the cradle to the grave, we sell baby food and diapers, and headstones. So, it's, and everything in between.

When our interviewer, Jane Beck, asked Larrabee what she liked best about the store, she gave us an answer that we at Vermont Folklife completely understand:

Jane Beck Tell me a little bit about what you like best about the store.

Jane Larrabee I guess it's meeting the people and knowing what's going on and being a part of the general flow of life. Being more able to be closer to it than just a spectator, and hearing everyone's stories. I'm the one who's more apt to talk, and my husband's the one who thinks I should be doing something more important. But I think it's important to hear people's stories and hear what they're saying. And you find out the most interesting things about people.

Jane Larabee passed away in April 2020. We're very grateful for her willingness and generosity over the years to share her stories with Vermont Folklife, and help us learn more about the central roles general stores–and especially this general store–play in their communities.