If there was an obituary, it would probably be something simple, like this:Berwyn Hardware, 54, passed away on Saturday, February 28th after succumbing to a long illness. It died peacefully, surrounded by many of its friends and customers. In its heyday, Berwyn Hardware was the anchor of several kindred businesses in the village of Berwyn that included Fritz Lumber, Berwyn Glass and Industrial Valley Plumbing & Heating, the latter predeceasing it several years ago. In lieu of flowers, patrons are asked to settle their accounts.
Berwyn Hardware was a real… hardware… store. As other stores increasingly added items like housewares, towels and toys to their inventory, Berwyn Hardware was true to itself, the go to place for nuts and bolts, 8-penny nails, paint remover, electrical outlets, leaf rakes, sandpaper, batteries, L-brackets, caulk, bird seed, drill bits, spackle, door knobs, keys made and most other things that anyone might need on a Saturday afternoon.
It wasn’t a fancy store; in fact, customers might have wondered if the carpet had ever been really vacuumed but, to me, this only added to its charm. If you need a new trap to go under your bathroom sink, who cares if the rug is swept?
Berwyn Hardware was born in 1954, the proud creation of Ed and Sue Dalton who ran it as a family hardware store catering to the needs of residents, contractors and businesses in Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties. At one time or another, every member of their family worked there joined by a tight group of employees including the "A" Team: Doug, Vince and Joe. Doug’s last name is Burnett and I guess that the other guys had last names too but to this day I don’t know what they were and, besides, last names aren’t important when you need advice on the relative merits of shellac versus varnish.
Such was the beauty of Berwyn Hardware. Not only did it sell the products but it had people who knew – really knew – how to use them and were willing to explain it as many times as it took me to understand it.
We started going there in 1974 when we bought our first home. Our family had an account at the store so it never seemed that what we were buying was actually costing us anything until... well, until the monthly bill came. Sometimes it was a couple hundred dollars and other times it was six dollars. If I needed something in the middle of a job, I could jump in the car and be there in three minutes without a dime in my pocket (since I wasn’t in the habit of carrying my wallet with me when I was installing a ceiling fan). I got what I needed, they wrote it up and home I came. Sometimes I would need a half-dozen 8x2½ inch wood screws or something which came to, oh, maybe 48 cents plus tax. “Get you later,” they would say. Sometimes they did, sometimes not.
The pace was easygoing to say the least. Heck, if I needed to call home to check something, they let me use the 'phone on the wall.
It is not hyperbole to say that a store like this becomes a part of your life. It has been gone for a week and I'm already nostalgic. When I think of it, I think of all of the ways it was there when needed, sometimes when something was wrong and I was really stuck and other times when I just needed something for one of our projects.
In the end, Berwyn Hardware fell victim to the bad economy and the rise of big wholesale stores like Home Depot. “They got us,” I heard Joe tell another customer one day last week (the last time I was in the store) and indeed they had. It was like one of the traveling salesmen asked in The Music Man, "Who's gonna patronize a little bitty two by four kinda store in a little bitty town anymore?"
It is not hyperbole to say that a store like this becomes a part of your life. It has been gone for a week and I'm already nostalgic. When I think of it, I think of all of the ways it was there when needed, sometimes when something was wrong and I was really stuck and other times when I just needed something for one of our projects.
In the end, Berwyn Hardware fell victim to the bad economy and the rise of big wholesale stores like Home Depot. “They got us,” I heard Joe tell another customer one day last week (the last time I was in the store) and indeed they had. It was like one of the traveling salesmen asked in The Music Man, "Who's gonna patronize a little bitty two by four kinda store in a little bitty town anymore?"
Well, I will.
If you are lucky enough to have a small family business near you – a hardware store, a drug store, anything - patronize it if you can and pay attention while you’re in there. It may cost you a couple of bucks more but soon it will be gone and its kind will not be seen again. When that happens, you won’t think about the money you spent at the counter; you’ll remember the little pieces of yourself that you left behind in every aisle.
Berwyn Hardware… Dark. Empty. Silent. Gone.
RIP
If you are lucky enough to have a small family business near you – a hardware store, a drug store, anything - patronize it if you can and pay attention while you’re in there. It may cost you a couple of bucks more but soon it will be gone and its kind will not be seen again. When that happens, you won’t think about the money you spent at the counter; you’ll remember the little pieces of yourself that you left behind in every aisle.
Berwyn Hardware… Dark. Empty. Silent. Gone.
RIP
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