WATERFORD – Springer’s General Store is about to close.

“We’re going with the wind,” said owner Joy Smith of she and her husband’s plan to spend time visiting family and friends in Florida and Ohio. Their daughter Jessica is a fashion design major at Kent State University in Ohio.

The Smiths have owned the well-known general store for the past nine years, but stopped cooking two weeks ago and last week began a “yard sale,” selling everything from kitchen utensils and commercial kitchen equipment to bar stools, old slate menu boards and even a Springer’s Store slow cooker and a door cabinet from the old post office in Waterford that was found in the building’s attic.

“They’re surprised,” she said of her customers, including “the Geezers” a group of retired men who met weekly for lunch at Springer’s for years. Many of the customers have been stopping at the store for years to pick up a pizza, a butterfly net or the latest local gossip.

And most of her summer customers won’t know the store has been sold until they return next summer.

Springer’s is one of many local area “mom and pop” general stores that have been around for decades. It’s been known by that name since at least the 1930s, she said.

Smith displayed scores of historical pictures of the store that have been donated or found over the years. Among them were pictures of celebrities such as actor Henry Winkler, former Springer’s employee Molly Pietroski, now an Emerson College student and actress, and owner Joy Smith with a shirtless television celebrity from Millionaire Matchmaker.

The store at 1218 Waterford Road is a destination for many summer and year- round folks who are looking for supplies, wanting to hear a joke or tale, needing directions or advice, a great dish of food.

“Hand-tossed, fresh dough, wicked good, try their prime rib too, and the chicken licken was awesome last summah!” wrote a Pennsylvania visitor who commented online about the general store.

Another wrote in an online review, “I went to this Restaurant with my wife. I had soup and salad it was the best soup I have ever had. My wife had a chicken quesadilla and she said she was amazed about how great it was. This is one of the best …”

Joy Smith’s husband, Dan Smith, is the chef, and also a chef at Camp Wigwam in Waterford, where the pair met many years ago.

“We had our famous chili and our famous lobster,” Smith said.

Smith said she has concerns about the future of establishments such as Springer’s General Store being able to do business in Maine.

“Maine has got to be more business friendly,” she said, citing the high cost of licenses to operate.

Smith, whose maiden name is coincidentally Springer, also plans to donate many historical pictures she has gathered from donations and other places that show the building’s history over the years and its relationship to a nearby former mill and spring that is now hidden off the road.

The building is on the market for $89,000

Ralph MacKinnon, one of the “geezers” who met weekly at Springer’s, said he will miss the store.

“We all knew everyone else and that was nice,” he said.

ldixon@sunjournal.com