“This is my view of the world,” said Bill Chandler, motioning out a window at the Hixville Village Store. He’s being modest.

As member of the Board of Library Trustees, a Town Meeting voter, and one-year manager of the iconic general store, Chandler knows more about Dartmouth than his window seat at 790 Old Fall River Road allows him.

With icy blue eyes and genuine smile, Chandler talks about his neighbor’s calves that were born on Christmas day, and possible updates to the weathervane that once sat atop the adjacent First Church of Hixville.

“It’s a historic district. It’s as nice a country living as you can get living between two big cities,” he said.

Chandler — a New Hampshire native — originally moved to the South Coast after buying property on High Hill Road. In the mid-1970s, he then purchased the .88-acre property on Old Fall River Road, converting the house on the property into apartments. In the 90s, he started renting out the storefront, which dates to 1930, but under Chandler's landlordship has sold both auto parts and beer and wine.

“We used to have [gas] pumps right here where the concrete is,” he explained.

After the previous store managers moved out in 2015 — “I suspect after 13 years, they’d had enough,” said Chandler — the 81 year old rebranded what he calls his retirement plan. The Hixville General Store 2000 became the Hixville Village Store on January 2, 2016. The old sign still greets visitors out front, however, and will until Chandler paints the post it hangs from. There’s also no more beer and wine available at the store.

“The neighborhood is great because we don’t have a lot of big trucks coming in. The neighborhood is much more comfortable with what I’m doing,” said Chandler.

The hours have changed too. After monitoring floor traffic, the Dartmouth resident decided that his Monday-Saturday, 7 a.m.-7 p.m. schedule is more suitable than closing at 9 p.m. Sunday, he runs the store 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

“Now, most of the people in the neighborhood have my phone number, so if you run out of milk, it’s ‘Okay, come on down,’” laughed Chandler, who also lives on the property.

Throughout his lifetime, Chandler has worked at many different places, including Water Resources in New Hampshire, on a school bus as a bus monitor, and at a dog track. Now, his day-to-day includes paying bills; restocking shelves with Arruda’s Dairy coffee milk, Billy Boy runts and licorice laces, and local honey; and reporting the ongoings of Hixville.

“I’ve gotten to meet a lot more of the people in this area. I can voice the opinions of my neighbors, maybe indirectly represent them,” he said, which has already proven to be true. In December 2015, North Dartmouth residents celebrated street updates at the corner of Old Fall River and North Hixville roads. “It took me four years to get that done,” Chandler said.

After brainstorming ways to communicate Hixville’s events — because north of the train tracks isn’t as quiet as it seems, insisted Chandler — he’s decided to write regularly for Dartmouth Week. Readers can look forward to Chandler’s input by the end of January.