The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

~7T)t Me; 7" ro pol SUBMITTED PHOTOS The Metropolitan Store was located right opposite the Canadian Bank of Commerce in this picture of downtown Belleville in the 1950s. The store had been a downtown institution since it was first set up in 1929. < Street, the Metropolitan opened till 9 p.m. on Friday nights. Those days, she noted, thoughts of personal safety were not major concerns to her and she thinks, to most other women working downtown. Lunch hour saw her and her colleagues often strolling down the street sometimes to check out the wares in the other stores and at the farmer's market. At other times, they went out for a breath of the fresh air. Her job was not always easy, she chuckles, but she never personally experienced an unpleasant customer. "There were some customers who you couldn't please even if you stood on your head and then there were others who were a treat to wait on. When dealing with them, you just had to play it by ear and keep smiling." Contact Benzie Sangma at: bsangma@cogeco.ca This was the scene at the Metropolitan Store in downtown Belleville on the morning of May 7, 1974 when the store opened its doors for business for the last time. ( Novemer .t>3.