The Valley News staff photographers and interns are sharing the stories behind their favorite photographs of the year. More of their favorites can be seen in Photo Galleries. Photo editor Geoff Hansen shares his pick below.
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In late August, I caught an assignment about Kibby Equipment’s plans to close its doors in White River Junction after 60 years. Phyllis and William Shambo owned the business since 1985, but William started working there in 1957.
The Shambos, along with their two full-time employees Roger Gillies and their son William Jr., sold to state and municipal garages and those in the trades, such as construction companies, loggers and landscapers.
When I arrived, I felt like I was stepping back in time. The place was clean and tidy, but every nook and cranny displayed hardware, tools and other pieces of equipment. The Shambos never used a computer to run the business, instead depending on catalogs and the fax machine to take care of orders and pen and paper to account for it all.
Customers told me of Kibby’s being the go-to place to find what they needed, whether it was a specialized piece of hardware to fix a tedder or to replace a piece of equipment that had seized up in the middle of the workday.
The business, across from Hartford Town Hall on Maple Street, also was a social hub where customers took a minute to catch up on topics of the day. Few customers seemed to be in a rush to get out the door.
In a world where anything can be purchased with a few keystrokes, and dis counted merchandise is readily available at a big box store, running into friends and neighbors at the local store is becoming an uncommon experience.
— Geoff Hansen
