Helen Crouse and Tina Coons - the Golden Harvest Roadside Ladies

Helen and Tina waiting on customers.  They also stay busy re-stocking shelves, hand sorting apple baskets, decorating the Roadstand, etc. etc.! 

Helen Crouse and her husband, Don have been married 60 years, and live in Stockport.   She was born and raised in West Taghkanic and is a graduate of Martin H. Glynn high school.   For many years, she and Don had a heating oil business.  They have 2 daughters, who currently live in our area:  one is a teacher and the other an insurance agent.  Helen loves to brag about them, and about her 3 grandsons, all of whom are college graduates.

Tina Coons was born and raised in the Niverville/Valatie area. Tina has been married to her husband, Jake for 68 years!  The mother of 2 sons (John, who lives in Niverville and Joe, deceased) Tina has 4 grandchildren and 3 great grandsons.

Until she had children Tina worked in a law office.  She did seasonal work picking apples in another orchard, Stahlmans', which is no longer in operation.  She came to Golden Harvest planning to pick but found an opportunity in the Roadstand.  She's not sure what year that was but she recalls that the youngest Grout son (now all grown and the father of 4!) was around 4 or 5 so it would have been around 1980.

A couple of years later, Tina found herself looking for someone to cover for her for a short time.  Tina knew Helen and asked if she might be interested. It was summertime and the heating oil business was slow so Helen was glad to do it.  At first they only worked weekends but eventually switched to weekdays.  

And the rest, as they say, is history!   Between the two of them, Helen and Tina have nurtured the Roadstand for about 60 years!  Their knowledge and experience is quite comprehensive; if anyone has a question or wants to know what's going on at the Roadstand, feel free to ask Helen or Tina.

A lot of what they do is behind the scenes taking care of the details that no one notices until they aren't taken care of.  

Either of them could have retired years ago but the Roadstand has become a second home.  As Helen says "I would miss all the friendly customers - all day it's like friends stopping in."