To the Editor:

This letter may reflect some degree of sarcasm, but I have read some letters to The Enterprise “anti-Stewart’s expansion” in the words of “Let’s Keep Altamont Quaint!”

The word is deceptive, because “quaint Altamont,” even in 1961 when I came here, had two family physicians, a drugstore, a hardware store, two auto dealerships as well as a farm and truck dealership. There was a shoe repair store, an A&P, Crupe’s supermarket, a small local tavern restaurant where locals gathered to talk and have a couple of beers.

I could go on forever, but, if that was considered “quaint,” the word must have backfired. Every business I’ve mentioned is gone, including Ketchum’s garage and the Orsini service center, just to name a few more.

We have gone from a self-efficient and self-sufficient community to an ideological fantasy in the minds of many, actually only a possible few, who have either lost their memory or are in the phase of creating what they describe as “quaint.”

Well if what I described is being “quaint,” then we have lost our community individuality and have sunk to the level of many self-supporting communities — selfish and dependent on the outside to support our fantasies and needs.

As a once-booming village, to imply we were “quaint” is an oxymoron. Let’s support a functional community that we used to be and still are.

This is not necessarily a pro-Stewart’s letter; it is a pro community letter.

By the way, these businesses mentioned paid the bulk of community taxes, alleviating the burden on the average homeowner.

George Pratt

Altamont