Days'Store turns 50

Days Store, Belgrade Lakes Icon, Celebrates 50 Years

July 16, 2008 - BELGRADE LAKES -- Summer in Maine, particularly in the Belgrade Lakes region, is for vacationers. A time to travel through a mosquito-studded wonderland of nostalgia, back to the days of one's youth where eternal summers were spent with a parent in a canoe, or on rainy days, crowded around a Coleman stove, popping corn.

Driving through Belgrade Lakes, many visitors will pull their cars off Route 27 and into the packed parking lot of Days General Store, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary.

Drawn in by its neon sign surrounded by a wreath of golden stars and a big paper "50," this writer entered the general store to the familiar faces of former high-school classmates, bustling around the counter, pulling fresh pizzas from the ovens, and dealing with customers.

The store sells bait and tackle, sandwiches and baked goods, homemade fudge. You can pick up libations, newspapers, clothing, fishing gear and a fishing license, and use its ATM machine.

Three of the girls working there represent the fourth generation of the family-owned and-operated general store, established by the grandparents of the current owner.

"We draw from all over New England," said store owner Diane Oliver.

"Just this week we had some folks from England and Germany."

Despite its reputation as one-stop general store among the Belgrade Lakes holidaymakers, from near and away, the store maintains its true small-town feel, providing a refuge for a host of regulars.

"The family keeps the store running all winter," said Oliver, providing year-round service to other local families who have been coming here for generations, and not particularly catering to vacationers. When you're here, you're just one of the family."

This philosophy can most likely trace its origins to Jim and Mae Day, the couple who established the store with the intent of creating a family business in 1958.

It's uncertain if they envisioned their great grandchildren tending the till, but they would no doubt swell with pride at the golden stars ringing the window of the store they created all those years ago.

BY JOHN AYOTTE, Kennebec Journal,