To the editor:

One morning last May, smack in the middle of the deepest recession since the Great Depression, our next door neighbors stopped by to reveal what had been their well-kept secret.  “We’re opening a coffee and book shop in the old Hallmark Store up on Highway 525. We’ll be open for Memorial Day weekend. Drop in!” The Didiers are our neighbors. Of course we stopped in.

That was May and now it’s October. I don’t know how many tourists the Didiers managed to capture of the how-many-million ferry riders that pass through downtown Clinton during the summer, but those long ferry lines are over and it’s dark now when the shop opens at 7 a.m.

Yet that’s not so bad. Because when the lights are on in Anchor Books and Coffee, Clinton village has a beacon in the dark, beckoning us locals to come on in.

It’s not easy to start-up a business and persevere until it’s on stable footing. It’s not easy during a deep recession. It’s not easy for a mom-and-pop business, especially one that’s open every day from dawn to dusk.

But the service they provide is needed. Yes, we locals need this sort of place — for meetings, for resting, for reading. A place for a chat, for shelter from the rain.

The Didiers are doing the hard work. That’s their part.

We locals have the easy work: Stop in. Try the services.  Tell them what you think. Give them suggestions. That’s our part.

A business can’t survive on summer traffic only.

And we locals can’t survive without a wholesome year-round business community.

Elisa Miller

Clinton