“If We Don’t Have It . . .” (you know the rest): Dan and Whit’s Turns 70
At the Norwich Historical Society
I went to the new Norwich Historical Society exhibition on the history of Dan and Whit’s, hoping I would learn at least one thing I didn’t already know about the familiar and storied general store. Oh my . . . Too many nuggets of information to list. Go, and surprise yourself.
The exhibition spreads over three rooms. The first depicts the present-day Dan and Whit’s with contemporary photos and some posts from Upper Valley folks who wanted to say a word or two about their experience. In a small town story from the early 1970s that is weirdly both notable and typical, one resident told of the store’s owners paying their moving bill despite the fact that they were strangers—not yet actual residents of Norwich and had never set a foot inside of Dan and Whit’s to introduce themselves. Why? Because, well, the movers had arrived in the soon-to-be resident’s absence and wouldn’t unload until they had cash in hand; clearly Dan and Whit’s thought paying the movers the only neighborly thing to do. (They “knew” they’d be reimbursed. Such faith, and goodness.)
The second room is a display depicting Norwich in the 1950s, when Dan and Whit’s as we know it came to be. In early days, one didn’t browse the aisles with a shopping cart. The customer told a store employee what s/he wished to purchase and the employee dragged a cart around the store, filling it with the desired items. (See photo, top. And, you are seeing only half of the duct tape holding that thing together.)
The final room contains the earliest artifacts from the late 1800s and early 1900s when the store was called Merrill’s. People came to buy staples like flour, and maybe some clothing. The inventory did not include what you might run in to grab at the store today; meats and produce, for example, were still being produced, eaten, and maybe traded on the local family farms, not at the general store in the village.
What is evident is that Dan and Whit’s and its predecessors were always more than just commercial establishments. They were the heart, the meeting place, the center of town where one met neighbors, exchanged news, gossiped about whomever caught one’s fancy. One piece of signage reports that when Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, “old men in the village stood in front of the store unashamedly weeping.”
In December, 2021, CBS News aired a segment by Steve Hartman about Dan and Whit’s. I remember feverishly typing a blog post immediately after. (Click here for link.) That post turned out to be one of the most read in Artful’s history, with 8,451 views (typical is between 3500 and 4500) and 111 shares (some posts get zero shares.) Yep, we in the Upper Valley know the value of what we got. Long may Dan and Whit’s continue. And kudos to the Norwich Historical Society for such a compelling exhibition, and especially for unearthing that vintage shopping cart from the store’s basement.
In the event that you don’t know the rest, the Dan and Whit’s motto: “If we don’t have it, you don’t need it.”
The exhibition runs through December 31, 2025. Check out the NHS website for further details including the hours available for viewing on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and by appointment.
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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.