This came close to scraping a raw nerve end, because in that same issue there was a news account of how the city had paid a specialist firm $18,000 for applying for three federal or state grants to help with local government expenditures and nothing materialized. Equally depressing was the account of how certain key city employees have left their jobs here to seek better jobs elsewhere. One was the community development director and another was the economic development director.

The city's grim economic prospects were outlined recently to the board of the Saratoga Historical Foundation by city council member Ann Waltonsmith, who mentioned among other things the effect of the voters' rejection of the proposed city utility tax.

One of the most conspicuous indications of the city's economic straits is the state of the Village business district. It needs help. Recently I heard an unconfirmed report that even the downtown restaurants are having less patronage than usual, and these are probably the most conspicuous part of the downtown business picture.

This got me to thinking of my favorite territory, the past, and trying to recall if there was any comparable situation years ago. My mind went back to my childhood and early youth back in the 1930s and early '40s, when the Village was quite different.

Back then the business district was what I would describe as functional, people started their businesses to fill a particular need.

For example, we had a lumber yard and a blacksmith shop, hardly tourist attractions. There were two, later three, auto repair garages and three, later four, service stations. Today they would be called gas stations, but back then "service" was no misnomer.

There was also a drug store, with soda fountain and later a second drug store. Other businesses included a shoe repair shop, a couple of barber shops and a beauty parlor. After World War II we had a hardware store, a department store and a movie theater.

Individually, these businesses were affected by the Great Depression back in the '30s, but I don't recall any talk of overall deficiency, such as we hear now.

There were some aspects of this vintage-era business district that today seem almost picturesque. For instance, in my senior year in high school, I started working for one of the aforementioned grocery stores as a delivery truck driver and clerk. Actually, it was more than just a grocery.

The lettering on the door of the 1936 Dodge delivery truck announced "A. Metzger, grocery, meats, hardware, paints." In other words, this was, or had been, a general store.

I remember some of those hardware items, and I also remember the remnants of Metzger's stock of shoes, a pair of which I bought. Shoes from a grocery store may sound a little strange, but is it really any different than being able to buy motor oil at a drug store? I'm referring here to Longs.

That stint at Metzger's was quite an education. I worked there full time during the summer after graduation on a 10-hour day and six-day week, with pay at 30 cents an hour.

In 1941, $18 a week looked pretty good, and that fall I bought my first car, a 1931 Chevrolet for $50.

But, back to the business district and its current problems. Are there any worthwhile comparisons to be drawn? Are there any elements of the past--and I don't mean 30 cents an hour--that could be factored into our present or future? Is Saratoga's present cast in concrete to remain as our future?

I'd like to think that isn't so, that we can draw from the resources and experience of our past to enrich the years ahead.