oltime hardware stores

[rsdsharp]

1. In the town where I grew up, there were two hardware stores, owned by parents of two of my classmates.

They were less than a block apart, and couldn’t have been more different. Van’s was well lighted, sold baseball gloves, guns, jack knives, and tools. If they sold screws and nails I never saw it.

Muesel’s was what you described. You walked up the narrow aisles on a plank floor with boxes of screws and bolts and nails and God knows what all crowding in on you. There was always some old fart up front chewing the fat with Mr. Muesel.