Hardware

The first hardware store I remember was in Echo Park (L.A.), and I think it was my Grandmother, Nelly Mae, who took me in there. I looked in the drawers and cabinets, the bolts, nuts, washers, what a treasure trove. It was described as a place where you solved problems, got just the right thing to make things work. (Elsewhere in this blog I relate how a father and his daughters lost their hardware store to senseless business development in Minneapolis).

Many years later I discovered another hardware store in another neighborhood, run by a husband and wife team, Steve and Jolene, excellent hardware people. They never failed to come up with a solution to this or that problem, and when I went in with a vexing one one day and asked for their "wizard," Steve took me back to the room where they repaired and reglazed windows, etc., etc. and introduced me to a young Man, Chris. He would fix the problem and did, later to become a friend and work not only with me on projects but works with my carpenter son, Aaron, to this day, and is his friend.

Process, engagement of problems, not something you are about to solve in the aisles or Walmart, KMart or Fleet Farm, unless you are extremely lucky. Lately I found another hardware store, on a side road in Wisconsin, which presents itself as an equipment rental place, construction company that also does snow removal, etc., and only secondarily as a place to solve problems and get needed parts; in other words, a hardware store, When I complained to the man who has been a huge help to me, Jim, he shrugged his shoulders. Are we going to see a resurgence in hardware stores and hardware men and women? I hope so, because this will be an indication that problems can be solved, that you don't trash what doesn't work, it can be fixed.