So the other day I came across an old board game based on the original Monopoly model. It was the “Centereach-Selden” Town-Opoly game that apparently came out in the late 80’s and early 90’s as a local fundraising project. Upon posting to the “Long Island Do You Remember” Facebook page, I found out there was one made for every town or at least almost every town across the 118 miles of land here.
Each square was occupied by a famous store or local landmark like the town library or police department and that’s where things really started to hit home. There are Walmarts all over and there is nothing wrong with that but its those local places, those “been there forever” Mom and Pop shops that define a town.
The St. James General Store. Benkart’s Bakery in Centereach. All American Burger in Massapequa. We should do EVERYTHING we possibly can to shop small business. When these places finally go, our towns will have lost a huge part of their identity. We can go on too. Slaters and Agnew and Taylor in Ronkonkoma. The Good Steer in Centereach. Aegeans in Holbrook.
When these places go, its like losing an old friend, because these stores a MAJOR part of the community. Let’s try and help them stay that way