Simon Says

You can see Anita Fritz’s article, originally published on 22 June 2007, in its entirety on the Greenfield Recorder’s page here)
We’re cutting and pasting a little, but Greenfield, the town where Simon’s Stamps is based, “is creating a program to help downtown building owners repair and restore facades with matching federal tax dollars.The program would target Main Street, as well as part of Federal and Hope streets.” (We’re located at 138 Main Street).

From the article:
”I don’t think something like this is going to bring us any more business,” said John Roberts, co-owner of Home Furnishing Co. ”We’ve actually been doing a lot of work on our building over the past seven or eight years.”

Home Furnishing Co. owns the building it is located in at 122 Main St.

”I do think there are buildings that could use this program,” said Roberts. ”Then again, if building owners kept up their buildings, a program like this wouldn’t be necessary. I think it would make more sense to put a stronger police presence in the downtown if you want to encourage people to shop here.”

Simon P. Alciere, president of Simon’s Stamps, agrees. He does not own the building where is business is located.

”It’s hard to turn down $15,000, but as a Massachusetts citizen I’m wondering why the money isn’t going to schools or libraries or police and fire.”

Alciere rolled his eyes as he continued, ”Fixing up the front of my store, painting or installing a new awning, isn’t going to draw customers. People aren’t coming to the downtown because they’re getting parking tickets or can’t find parking. Local merchants have to compete with malls and big boxes and the Internet. You don’t get parking tickets when you go to one of those.”

In researching a little bit about the history of rubber stamps, we found this really interesting website, who have information quoted from The Rubber Stamp Album by Joni K. Miller & Lowry Thompson, 1978, Workman Publishing, New York (which is apparently currently out of print). We here in the shop were particularly struck by this section:

The early days of rubber stamps and their creation are inextricably entwined with those of early dentistry. Around the same time that Goodyear received his patent on vulcanizing, anesthesia was patented by a fellow named Wells. Relatively speaking, Wells’s discovery made getting your teeth pulled a moderately painless experience, so teeth were being pulled left and right. This meant, of course, that the demand for false teeth was rising proportionately. Before vulcanization, denture bases had been made primarily of gold and were both costly and difficult to make. After vulcanization, denture bases could be made of vulcanized rubber set in plaster molds. This process did not demand a great deal of skill, and soon scores of dentists had small, round vulcanizers with which to ply their trade. These were called “dental pot” vulcanizers and would be used eventually to manufacture the first rubber stamps.

Interesting, no? This site has an overview of the various methods through which rubber stamps are manufactured as well as the varied history of the different components in rubber stamps, and this site has a timeline of the invention of those different items. And if you’re wondering what those components look like, and their other uses, have a look here.