NORTHAMPTON — Often at the end of the school day in the 1940s, Gladys Chandler Powers and her three siblings would walk to the Daily Hampshire Gazette’s office on Armory Street to watch their father completing work on the press, getting that day’s newspaper ready for delivery by early evening.
George Chandler, who worked on the press for 40 years and retired when he was 72, was usually joined by long-time business manager Sidney F. Smith and then publisher Charles N. DeRose in greeting these “four musketeers” when they showed up.
“They would wave to us and smile and they knew us quite well,” Powers said. “It was just a fascinating trip for us.”
Coincidentally, Powers was born in 1933, the same year Smith established the toy fund that continues to bear his name.
“He was pleasant and would always say ‘hi’ to us,” Powers said. “He obviously loved children.”
It is this memory, and appreciation for the steady income her father’s job meant to her family during the Great Depression, that prompted Powers to make a $100 donation to the Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund.
The Daily Hampshire Gazette’s Sidney F. Smith Toy Fund provides certificates redeemable at participating local retailers to eligible families who can use them to buy holiday gifts at participating stores through Dec. 31, 2016.
Today, the fund distributes vouchers to families for each child from age 1 to 14. Eligible families must live in any Hampshire County community except Ware, or in the southern Franklin County towns of Deerfield, Sunderland, Whately, Shutesbury and Leverett.
Powers, a retired teacher, said the struggle was real for her family during the Great Depression. Her parents were married in 1928 and had a growing family that would eventually include seven children. Her mother, Mary Chandler, was pregnant with her and her twin brother in 1932 when her father got the job from head pressman George Mungall.
The job allowed the Chandlers to purchase a home her grandfather was already building off Coles Meadow Road.
“It was wonderful for my father and mother,” Powers said. “It was heaven for them and the bank was happy to give them a mortgage.”
She recalls the press being big and her father having to climb onto it and remove the heavy plates. “It was a hard job,” Powers said.
He eventually worked three different presses — the Scott Press, the Simplex and the Offset — and saw production increase from printing 5,000 copies an hour to 45,000 copies an hour.
In a way, Powers said she and her siblings may have also been among some of the earliest to benefit from “Sid Smith.” Powers suspects that Smith may have given her father advice on what to buy his children, recalling that her father would sneak gifts into their house on Christmas Eve.
“My father would come home and say ‘these presents are from Santa Claus,’” Powers said. “My mother certainly didn’t wrap them, and my father certainly didn’t pick them out.”
Among the most memorable was a large box that, it turned out, contained a toy tea set.
Powers also has memories of gatherings with Gazette employees, such as trips to the former Mountain Park amusement park in Holyoke and Christmas parties, as well as the gift of large boxes of chocolates from Beckman’s bought by the DeRoses.
Powers said she had a wonderful childhood and made the donation to the Toy Fund so that others can, as well.
“I worked with children all my life and I really love children,” Powers said.
Berkshire Children and Families at 220 Russell St. in Hadley, verifies families’ eligibility and the Gazette covers costs associated with the drive, freeing all donations to fund the vouchers. Most families who receive assistance are referred by social service agencies.
The following stores are participating this year: A2Z Science and Learning Store, 57 King St., Northampton; Deals & Steals, One Pearl St., Northampton; JCPenney, 341 Russell St., Hadley; The Toy Box, 201 N. Pleasant St., Amherst; Wilson’s Dept. Store, 258 Main St., Greenfield; Sam’s Outdoor Outfitters, 227 Russell St., Hadley; and Target, 367 Russell St., Hadley.
Donations to the Toy Fund may be dropped off at or mailed to the Daily Hampshire Gazette at 115 Conz St. in Northampton, 01060, or made through Gazettenet at toyfund.gazettenet.com.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
