WINDHAM – Thayer’s Store on River Road in Windham, the oldest family-run general store in town, is in its fifth generation of workers.

Rich with history, and nearly 96 years since it opened, the store still seems to be a popular meeting place, said Judy Quimby, third-generation owner.

Stephanie Nichols, Quimby’s 13-year-old granddaughter, said she enjoys working alongside her family members and serving the longtime customers.

“I’ve grown up here, so I’ve always hung around here,” Stephanie said. “And I’ve been working here in the summer. I like it here. It’s really fun.”

Last Friday, on a day off from school, the ninth-grader at Windham High School said she might work weekends at the store. And she doesn’t only do it for the money, she said.

“I like chatting with the older customers,” Stephanie said.

Since she began work this summer, Stephanie has learned a lot about the business, including how to make Italian sandwiches, she said.

She has also had the pleasure to serve the customers who have been coming to the store for years, Stephanie said.

According to her mother, Jen Nichols, who was also at the store on Friday afternoon, Stephanie is not only good at making sandwiches. “She can make a cake like nobody’s business,” Jen Nichols said.

Stephanie has baked cupcakes on a few occasions at the store, which sold well with the customers, she said.

In her free time, when she is not in school or serving her pastries to Thayer’s customers, Stephanie enjoys playing soccer, lacrosse and singing, she said.

Though Quimby said she would love to keep carrying on the family tradition, she said she is also approaching retirement age and would like to see her daughter and granddaughter continue to run the store in her absence.

Historical importance

Thayer’s Store opened in 1918 in the attached ell of an 1800s farmhouse on the property, and was founded by Charles Thayer as an IGA variety store, selling 100-pound sacks of grain, barrels of flour, fresh produce, meats, oil for as cheap as 80 cents a gallon and much more, said Quimby, granddaughter of Charles Thayer. Early customers were farmers and those who worked at nearby mills.

“It was when we didn’t have Wal-Mart or Hannaford, and [Thayer’s] was really the only thing around,” Quimby said.

At the time, Thayer’s also doubled as a candy shop, selling myriad penny candy, remembers Kay Soldier, a Windham native and town historian, who used to visit the store daily as a child.

“It was wonderful. There was a school where there is now an apartment building,” Soldier said, of the Newhall School, which she attended. “In fourth grade, at lunch time, we used to go over to Thayer’s Store and buy penny candy. They had a big selection.”

Soldier said she remembers purchasing taffy wrapped in yellow wax paper, lollipops, big wads of bumble gum, tiny wax bottles with syrup inside, nonpareils, and more, with her “hard-earned nickels and dimes.”

“Everybody went to Thayer’s Store,” Soldier added.

“We had a lot,” Quimby said. “The kids from the neighborhood would always come in and buy candy with their pennies. They’d go right behind the counter. I don’t know how [Charles] had so much patience, but he did.”

As the business grew, Quimby said, the store moved into a stable, where Thayer’s still operates as a gas station and convenience store.

Today, although Thayer’s no longer sells 50 tons of grain a week as it once did, according to Soldier, the store is busier making Italian sandwiches, pizza and burgers.

When Charles Thayer died in 1962, Quimby’s father, Edward Thayer, took over as owner with his wife, Cora, in 1964, Quimby said, and they ran the store until 1985.

Quimby then took the reins as storeowner, where she now works with her husband Jim Quimby, daughter Jen, and now her granddaughter, Stephanie, 28 years later.

While she would have enjoyed working with her father, Ed Thayer, she never had the chance, due to his sudden death, Quimby said.

Quimby also said since the store opened in the early 1900s, the population in Windham has grown drastically and businesses have been sprouting up all over. Thayer’s, however, still seems to be a central gathering place.

“Customers we’ve had for years keep coming back,” Quimby said. “They are very loyal.”

When asked what continues to draw customers, aside from the food and service, Quimby responded, “The gossip of the town. To find out information about what’s going on. Many people get together here and socialize. We have a lot of elderly people who just hang out. It’s just a place to get together and chat.”

Quimby, who grew up in a house a mile down the road from the store, said she has known many of the customers she serves today, all by name, since she was a little girl. She even knows exactly how each one likes their coffee.

Today, the same applies to her granddaughter, Quimby said.

“But I haven’t quite taken it over yet,” Stephanie said Friday, smirking at her grandmother. Quimby immediately suggested, half-joking, that Stephanie could take over the store anytime she liked, as she threw her arm over her granddaughter.

“It has been great, and I am glad we can have Stephanie work with us,” Quimby said.

Stephanie Nichols, 13, a fifth-generation worker at Thayer’s Store, and her grandmother, Judy Quimby, third-generation storeowner, stand outside the store, located at the intersection of Newhall Road and River Road in South Windham.Founder and first owner of Thayer’s Store Charles Thayer and his wife, Cora.The fifth generation at Thayer’s Store, Stephanie Nichols, 13, makes an Italian sandwich alongside her grandmother and storeowner Judy Quimby, last Friday.Old photos of Edward Thayer, second-generation owner of Thayer’s Store on River Road in South Windham, and his friends, as well as fragile and worn ordering slips, an old bar of soap and a list of other items sold at Thayer’s Store in the 1900s.