"Tom Watson" wrote in message
...

I'll miss Moser's Hardware Store.

Good story. We had a store similar to that here in Toronto, Canada. It was
called Aikenheads down on Temperence Street. Anybody up here remember it?

It was a five storied building with the whole thing dedicated to tradesmen
of various types. Each floor of the building was more or less dedicated to a
particular trade. Woodworking, plumbing, metalworking, etc.

I bought my first tablesaw there over thirty years ago and it was a fluke
that it happened. I'd wandered in off the street to browse like I did in
every hardware store. Then I came across this contractor's tablesaw on the
third floor. $350 was what it cost and back then that was a fortune to me.
The salesman saw me eyeing it and came over to chat with me. We talked about
woodworking for almost an hour. First time in my life I've ever gossiped
with a salesman instead of trying to put him off because he was trying to
sell me something. I guess he knew I was hooked though, because he took his
time with the sales pitch. I finally had to tell him that I'd love to buy
the saw, but there was no way in hell I'd be able to come up with the money,
the cash just wasn't there.

The salesman asked me if I had any credit cards. And then it happened, one
of those lucky occurrences that change your life. A few weeks previously,
I'd received a gas card (don't remember what it was, might have been a
Canadian Tire credit card) but, believe it or not Aikenhead's happened to
accept that card. Next thing I knew I was loading this 200 lb box full of
unassembled tablesaw parts in the trunk of my car. And that was the real
start to my woodworking.

I really came to appreciate that store and that building about ten years
later when I wound up in the wheelchair, because this dirty, dusty, old,
outdated building had an elevator that went to all five floors. Back then
for a building of this type and that old, an elevator was very unusual. I
guess they needed it for some of the heavier machinery. I went down there
every few months for the next ten years until one day when I arrived at the
building, it was out of business. A month later it was being torn down for
something else. If I remember rightly, it was about the time that Home Depot
stores started to sprout up everywhere. I think, but not sure, that
Aikenheads purchased one of the Home Depot franchises, but I never saw any
of the employees again that had worked there. But I do know damned well for
sure, nobody in a Home Depot has every stopped and gossiped with me about
whatever craft, hobby or trade that I was interested in doing. It's all
about business now. Too bad.