The other day I stopped into World Eye Bookshop. There was the new Richard Russo novel. Bought it. And the Ann Patchett. Got that too. Found an adorable little plush dinosaur at an excellent price for one grandchild and a picture book for another. They didn’t have the specialized university press title I was looking for, but Tim can get things in by special order really fast. Ordered it. I added a literary magazine and some greeting cards to the pile on the counter and I was on my way, shopping done.

The World Eye has been serving Greenfield and the county for over 50 years. I distinctly remember getting up the nerve to buy a copy of “Our Bodies, Ourselves” at one of the store’s Federal Street locations when I was a teenager, and I managed the shop for Charlie and Lynn Miller briefly when it was in the Recorder building, and I was in my twenties. It’s been through several owners since then and many changes, some of them out of necessity and the need to survive, not necessarily preference. It’s expanded and contracted with the times. But the owners over the years have had one thing in common: a love of reading, books, and the community. The World Eye has supported the livelihood of at least four area families over the last five decades, and contributed to the income of countless local part-time workers.

Please don’t press a key on your computer when you need a book. Take the trouble to drop in to a store that is part of Greenfield’s history, a store that has labored along with a few determined others, some unsuccessfully, to keep Greenfield’s downtown alive. Say hello to a fellow book-lover, and buy or special order a book. The World Eye doesn’t need our charity. It just needs our business.

Patricia Crosby, former Executive Director of the Franklin Hampshire Workforce Board

Gill