GREENSBORO BEND – Landon and Jen Thompson do the right thing because it’s the right thing to do. The Thompsons own Smith’s Store in Greensboro Bend, where they adjust their schedules so one of them is there as often as possible.
photo by Paul Fixx
When she hears of community needs, Jen can’t help but help, she says. When the recent fire happened in East Hardwick she was in Boston, attending a Mariah Carey concert on her own. She said she was really tempted to drive right home so she could be at the store to help.
When there have been fires, or vehicle accidents, the Thompsons have taken pizza, or water, or coffee, or sandwiches, or all of them, to tired and hungry firefighters.
Four years ago, when there was a fire down the street, Landon said they stayed up all night, keeping the store open for food, for the phone and for internet access, whatever the emergency responders needed.
He says, it’s really nothing compared to what the firefighters do.
Landon is a second generation owner. His parents Bill and Mary owned the store before he and Jen took over. Jen said Landon had a hard time at first even giving away a coffee. Landon says Jen has taught him more about what working at the store means in the few years they’ve been doing it than he learned growing up around it and working there.
Both Jen and Landon said they think the world is different from what it was when his parents ran the store, or the Smith’s before that. People have a harder time now Jen said, while Landon’s comments were more about people running stores decades ago not giving things away.
They both express certainly that it’s the right thing for them to do now and they don’t want to be recognized for doing anything unusual. They talk about taking groceries to one area resident who isn’t able to make it to the store, or pumping gas for someone, even though the pumps there are self-serve.
Jen has set up a mailbox for letters to Santa next to a Christmas tree by the store’s door. She said she had 45 letters the first year, all of which she responded to with a handwritten note. She’s had less since, 35 the second year and just 25 last year, likely because she put the mailbox out later those years. When she didn’t have time to write the notes until after Christmas, the note she wrote for Santa explained why it was late.
One year she drove to the reindeer farm and took photos of reindeer to include with the Santa notes.
Dave Brochu, as his alter-ego, Santa, was scheduled to arrive at the store on 4:30 Saturday, Dec. 21. Earlier that week, Jen wasn’t sure what gifts she’d have on hand for children that day, but she expected to have one for every child who showed up, no matter how many children that might be. She hadn’t purchased the gifts yet, but was thinking about what this year’s gift would be. In past years, there have been Barbies, cars, crayons and coloring books and books, she said. She selects unisex gifts and wraps them all herself.
Jen said, most of what they do is for people they know, but that’s not important, “if someone needs help, we’re there to help.” That went as far as paying for a week’s hotel stay for someone who lost their apartment in a fire.
Find Jen or Landon most days at Smith’s Grocery, 767 Main St, Greensboro Bend.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
