Ye Olde Community Hall

  When we moved to Valley Falls, the village was a pretty cohesive community. Everybody  knew everybody in town. Within the village, besides Jack& Sara's Confectionery Store,  were Rospo's grocery store, the Village Tavern, with Vinnie's Barber Shop, Bill Ryan's Butcher Shop, the Valley Inn, the upstreet grocery store (Jack's/Kerr's/ D'jernis's/Davis's/ Baxter's/ Brundige's), the River Road garage building, where for a time Fisk & Boom manufactured and sold cinder blocks, the upstreet gas station, Clum's (I think),the Post Office, White's Funeral Home, Dr. Sproat's office,and for a time, Dr. Lohnes' office,  Catholic and Methodist churches, and, on the other side of the river, Bassett's Auto Sales and Jonnie's Esso station, as well as Diel Betts' hair salon. And also  the Valley Falls School. (I can't remember the old fire house building. I just recall, when the siren blew, all the kids would run up to see what was posted on the board outside the building.
   The Valley Falls Community Hall for a time was just that, more or less the center of the community. It was the home court for the high school basketball games. I remember my mother bringing my sister and me to Christmas Carol singing there. We would sit in the balcony of the community hall and look down on the singers. But the most spectacular event of my very young life was the time  our  mother brought us as spectators to a dance. From our viewpoint in the balcony, I was astonished to look down upon what seemed like all the stoic elders of the village. Of course when you're seven or so years old, all grown-ups seem elderly, especially at that time when their manner was so reserved. As they had recently relocated to our own building, I was fascinated to see Sara clad in a formal-looking blue gown dancing away with Jack, and the butcher and his wife doing the same. I have no idea who sponsored the event or why, but in my memory, the event was well attended.