by Robert C-Philbrick
Hubert Beard meets most men at eye level, which is more than he could say when he first started working in his father's hardware store in Johnson. "I've been behind this counter for 70 years," Beard said. He grinned "I was 10 years old".
The mathematics are simple, but looking at Hubert Beard I would definitely deny the figures. In his childhood, the upstairs above the store was his home. In some ways; the building still is. Walk in the front door and your eye follows a line of goods, seemingly to infinity
From toys to bathroom plungers, lanterns to brooms, H.P. Beard Hardware carries it all and then some - more than you can see. In the first back room, there is storage and a small machine shop in service. Then, the next back room is filled with goods, more machinery and a stairway to more storage space above. Hardware fills storage in the basement and the barn at the rear of the building.
Hubert Beard started at the store in 1928. "The year after the big flood," is his description and here he remains, making life for Johnson people in need of repairs, or almost anything but food, quite happy.
When Alan Beard, Hubert and Florence's son, mentioned that he worried about the continuation of the store, a customer said, "this store has to survive."
Several questions asked by customers proved the point.Unlike most hardware stores in this age: nuts, bolts, screws and nails are in open boxes
- not plastic envelopes holding three when you need one or four.
In the plumbing department if you still use iron pipe, Beard probably has the size and he can thread it for you. That service, too, is no longer common especially in the time of plastic pipe.
These things make Beard Hardware special. It is part of an era when every customer was a neighbor and friend. Items were stocked that people needed and used. Hanging on the wall in the corner by the desk are fan belts. Fan belts? Hanging above the computer? Well, it is a monitor and keyboard, but actually not a computer. It is an electronic catalogue. That helps keep track of the ever changing inventory that arrives in packets from the companies.
Beard is very comfort able on his feet, leaning over with a pencil in his hand to check prices. He walks swiftly through the crowded store selecting the items asked for, asking if the person wishes anything else and tallying with an adding machine. Beard's concentration is natural to him.
Hubert has carried on this store with his wife Florence for many years. Now he has his son, Alan, to help, but Hubert Beard undeniably wears this store like a comfortable coat. He might as well be pulling all the hardware from his pockets.
Compared to the modern design for hardware superstores, Beard's is a rabbit warren; a treasure chest of Chinese boxes, one within an other within another, constantly surprising whoever wanders around. Filled as it its with goods, the store is neat, clean and permeated by a smell that usually only folks who grew up in a slightly different era remember with pleasure.Beard's is for browsing and finding those things that can be found nowhere else. Modern maybe not, useful, believe it.
Given several months, you might count all the goods in all the rooms and the barn. but Hubert Beard has already done that and carries the knowledge around in his head ready to satisfy your every need If we are lucky, another 70 years.
Congratulations for your 70 years of service to the community
Thanks from the Town of Johnson