He would have been so at home at Dick's Hardware Store on Broadway @ 207th Street.
But, today would have been his last day there; Dick's is closing.
Citing both a down turned economy, (largely from not so much Dollar Stores and big box stores), and the traffic rerouting that has been on Broadway the past two years, this 15+ year Inwood institution is closing it's doors today.
You can get shades cut, pick up a few hardware odds and ends and maybe a few dog eared decorations, but the joy has been sucked out of the store. The owners seem ready to go; and the bare tape and spackle wall in the back that once showed endless choices of screws, nails and hooks says; okay, renovate me !
So, like the movie, "You've Got Mail," no one will really remember in just a month that the store was there; we can make our way down to Dyckman Street to the great hardware store just a few doors down from Dunkin' Donuts. It's a little longer of a walk, and not so easy, but, hey - it's NYC. Maybe another store will come in it's place; younger owners with new, shiny merchandise and a cappuccino machine in the back; NOT that we need another one of those.
Maybe I will go down, just once more, and get another vertical blind for the window; just in case....
