I 
am talking about Dan & Whit's. It is our local grocery/hardware/full-serve gas station/household goods/outerwear/toy store and it sits in the center of Norwich. When you first walk in, it looks like a jam-packed convenience store, with all the groceries in the room the size of a 7-11. But once you learn the lay of the land, you find a small opening past the meat counter, sort of like the one Alice in Wonderland squeezed through, and you are suddenly in a warehouse-sized room that rivals the Home Depot. Back the other way is a miniature Bed, Bath and Beyond, and another alcove houses its own version of Toys-R-Us. We are very familiar with its inventory since we are in the bribe-your-child-to-behave phase when we go out to eat, so Isaac knows that if he is a good boy at Chinese food, he gets to go to what he calls "Damn and Whit's" and pick out a small trinket. In other words, this place is huge and versatile.
But I must admit that I didn't like it at first. It had the feel of a small-town general store (maybe because it is, duh), but somehow, after visiting many small-town stores in the South, they always make me feel like an outsider ... like I don't belong. I am not loosely related to the cashier or stockboy, nor did I go to junior high with the hardware manager. I haven't saved a customer whose car battery died in the parking lot with a set of jumper cables and I probably will never meet the owners--legendary figures whose family photos are plastered on a bulleting board. Still, since it is the only gig in town, and they have the best coffee on Earth (at least it tastes that good on the way to take my son to preschool), I will be spending more and more time and money there. And throw several inches of snow in the mix, and I am sure Dan and Whit's will save our necks more than once this winter with a few items we couldn't have possibly known we would need. And what's even better is that the more I go there, the more I realize that I don't feel like an outsider at all. I don't get treated any differently than anyone else, and I have learned that the customers range from natives to passersby to the Dartmouth Professor who pores over the selection of wine for his dinner party--quite an ecclectic mix. And don't ask me how I know he is a Dartmouth professor, it is just something one knows ... and the way in which he examines the wine, you just know it is for a dinner party in which something lofty and important (or just lofty) will be debated.
am talking about Dan & Whit's. It is our local grocery/hardware/full-serve gas station/household goods/outerwear/toy store and it sits in the center of Norwich. When you first walk in, it looks like a jam-packed convenience store, with all the groceries in the room the size of a 7-11. But once you learn the lay of the land, you find a small opening past the meat counter, sort of like the one Alice in Wonderland squeezed through, and you are suddenly in a warehouse-sized room that rivals the Home Depot. Back the other way is a miniature Bed, Bath and Beyond, and another alcove houses its own version of Toys-R-Us. We are very familiar with its inventory since we are in the bribe-your-child-to-behave phase when we go out to eat, so Isaac knows that if he is a good boy at Chinese food, he gets to go to what he calls "Damn and Whit's" and pick out a small trinket. In other words, this place is huge and versatile.
But I must admit that I didn't like it at first. It had the feel of a small-town general store (maybe because it is, duh), but somehow, after visiting many small-town stores in the South, they always make me feel like an outsider ... like I don't belong. I am not loosely related to the cashier or stockboy, nor did I go to junior high with the hardware manager. I haven't saved a customer whose car battery died in the parking lot with a set of jumper cables and I probably will never meet the owners--legendary figures whose family photos are plastered on a bulleting board. Still, since it is the only gig in town, and they have the best coffee on Earth (at least it tastes that good on the way to take my son to preschool), I will be spending more and more time and money there. And throw several inches of snow in the mix, and I am sure Dan and Whit's will save our necks more than once this winter with a few items we couldn't have possibly known we would need. And what's even better is that the more I go there, the more I realize that I don't feel like an outsider at all. I don't get treated any differently than anyone else, and I have learned that the customers range from natives to passersby to the Dartmouth Professor who pores over the selection of wine for his dinner party--quite an ecclectic mix. And don't ask me how I know he is a Dartmouth professor, it is just something one knows ... and the way in which he examines the wine, you just know it is for a dinner party in which something lofty and important (or just lofty) will be debated.And with my renewed love of supporting the local economy, Dan & Whit's delivers on that too. Aside from a few Canadian tomatoes, most of their produce is local. They even carry a Vermont-made style of Wonder Bread, and some of the most incredible local dairy products from Cabot butter to New Hampshire's McNamara Dairy milk. Their chocolate variety is to die for. And when I can't make it to Killdeer Farm Stand, I can still get my organic blueberries and local maple syrup.
I am even begining to become a believer in their motto, which is printed on T-shirts and mugs they sell, that "If we don't have it, you don't need it." There was a time when we first moved in and I sent my dad there to get drawer pulls for my son's dresser since his were lost in the move. And, alas, Dan & Whit's doesn't carry them. I sarcastically scoffed, "See ... something I need and they don't have it. Where is the truth in advertising!" But I still haven't bought any drawer pulls, and have managed to get in and out of the drawers in my son's dresser just fine ... so, while they would be nice to have, I guess I don't need them after all. Long live Dan & Whit's!
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