Take a trip with us now down memory lane. It’s 1953. We are on Washington Street, just beyond the flagpole. We’ve passed Barnes Market which delivers to certain streets in Duxbury. On the left is the Girl Scout House and across the street sits the parsonage of the Episcopal Church, home to the Anthony Family. Farther down is St. Margaret’s Convent which operates a summer camp, and a few house down on the left across from Wadsworth Lane, is the telephone office with real live operators. They answer, “number please” when you pick up the phone and you respond with from one to three digits. Ours is 225.

A diagonal stone’s throw away on the right side of the street sits the driveway to Westwinds Bookshop, owned and operated by Margaret Metcalf. She is a lovely lady and writes a weekly column called “Turns of a Bookworm.” Farther down, a few houses beyond Josselyn Avenue are the Clipper offices – actually a dining room table – and next door is The Studio which sells exquisite gifts and to-die-for maple sugar candy. The Stantons continue the tradition at Duxbury Marketplace.

Just beyond Surplus Street on the left is the home and office of Dr. George Starr. If he’s not in his office he’s probably in his living room carving another of his decoys. He has hundreds and is a renowned decoy collector. Three doors down is the two-room Village School; it was once home to the second and third grades but has been shuttered since Alden Elementary opened in 1949. Go a few steps more to The Winsor House, operated by Dan and Marie Winsor. It has a homey feel that still exists and is known as Duxbury’s living room. Across the street sits the Clapp Laboratory (now Battelle Lab) run by Peter and Bea Richards. Within an anthem’s ring are Pilgrim Church and St. John’s, both largely unchanged with the exception of their parish house additions.

Mike Butler’s garage greets your entry into Snug Harbor. He sells gas (for about 19 cents a gallon) as well as Studebakers, and he grows gorgeous red roses. It’s the prettiest service station on the South Shore, maybe anywhere.

Toyland is where Talbot’s now sits and next door is Josselyn’s, a variety store that offers popsicles for a nickel and at least six Boston newspapers. Mrs. Josselyn can be a bit of a grump on occasion but is sweet inside and lets you dawdle over penny candy selections. Across a parking lot is a hardware store that once sold gasoline. The Snug Harbor Fish Market (dubbed Clammany Hall in the 1960s and ‘70s) anchors the right end of the Sweetser building. Local politicking goes on in a back room. In the same yellow building is a yarn store and, for a while, an expensive men’s clothing shop. Sweeters, the grocery store, is the Foodies of its day where you can buy most anything – including liquor – and charge it. Louis, the butcher, will tell you if the steak is up to par.

Beyond Snug Harbor is the I.O.O.F. (Odd Fellows Hall) a boat yard, the G.A.R. (Grand Army of the Republic) building and the Masonic Lodge. Then comes the post office and across the street, the Village Store which competes with Rexall’s in Halls Corner. At the soda fountain frappes cost a quarter. Down the hill overlooking Blue Fish River is the fire station, a single engine inside, and a short distance beyond is the Cable House on the left and the Drew House across the street. Now you’re at the flagpole. If you’re taking a left onto St. George Street, go inside the pole.