Since 1988, the Friends of the Haverhill Public Library have been printing and selling calendars centered, of course, on the library and its collection of photographs.
During those years, much of the work that went into the annual task involved Greg Laing, curator of the Special Collections department.
The 2009 calendar is dedicated to Laing, who passed away earlier this year after a long illness.
His knowledge of the city's history was encyclopedic, to say the least. Seldom did he have to consult the files for information, about people or buildings or whatever.
The Friends who handle the calendars said Greg even had a strong presence in this latest one, despite being sick. He suggested that a picture of the old jitney bus at the railroad station should be on the cover, and they complied.
The collection of the calendars has become a lasting tribute to Greg, and I know there are people who have been collecting them enthusiastically. I can identify some of them from the responses to the Memories column in The Haverhill Gazette because it is obvious the information comes from the library calendars.
The sale of the annual publications helps to finance the gift shop of the Friends and it also goes into a library fund which has supplied equipment and helped in several ways.
In the new edition, the writers point out the unique system in Haverhill where contributions and private income supply all of the books and other material and where part of the money raised through calendar sales makes it possible for the Haverhill library to function at a much lower cost to the city government than most libraries in the country.
The calendars have become annual Christmas gifts to city residents as well as expatriates across the country.
The Friends also sell many other Haverhill-related items, from books to trinkets and items of clothing, so their shop, near the main entrance, is well worth a pre-holiday visit.
Trudy Davis (Suzanne, that is) takes special pains to see that the people involved get credit and she also makes certain that the calendars are well publicized as the Christmas season arrives.
I find they are valuable as source material when it comes to discussions (well, arguments, really) about what was where and who was involved in anything.
Like the page in the new edition that shows five gas stations in Monument Square — and some fancy ones they were, at that. The caption tells how much free service went with each purchase of gasoline, at 22 cents a gallon. Clean the windshield, check the oil, check the tires and whatever else needed checking, all free.
I get a kick out of seeing pictures in there that I either took or should have taken. Like ones of Louis B. Mayer visiting the city in the 1950s, and all of the buildings on Main, Merrimack and Water streets in 1949.
Some of the pictures in Special Collections come from my early Gazette days, and Greg was careful to identify the people and places as soon as he got the pictures. Most of them he knew anyway, but he wanted to make sure they were properly marked for others, like those now following him in that line of work.
Special Collections will go on, and the calendars will continue, because they are popular and awaken memories, but that Laing touch will be gone.
There are volunteers, like Dave Swartz, who will help to keep the collections going, and that is a good thing. We know now how valuable it has been to have that available, and I trust there will be people with long memories who will be available to keep accurate track of what life is like in Haverhill.
For future calendars, of course.
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Barney Gallagher has covered Haverhill since 1936 as a reporter, editor and columnist.
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