We have lived in this area now for about 10 years. Most of the time we go into the town east of us for shopping. The nearest town to the west of us only has a very small grocery store and a few other retail businesses. Often when we have been to Cathlamet we have driven by a hardware store and it has always been closed and looks rather disheveled from what can be seen from the outside. Asking around about it rendered vague stories about how it has been closed for a long time and the family was going to do something with it someday. My recollection is that one time someone took our name and address saying something "was in the works."
Then last week an envelope with a return address of the hardware store in Cathlamet came in the mail. It announced a pre closing out sale open to those who received the notice. The store had originally opened in 1933. No one was quite sure when it was last open for business. The prices on the stock mostly looked to be from about the late 1980s to early 1990s.
At the approximate time of opening upon my arrival the line was around the corner and parking was hard to find. The line was actually moving, albeit slowly. It took me not much more than an hour or two to walk through the store by way of the back "employee only" rooms which were open to all. Some with signs saying enter at your own risk. Found a few items. One of the first things to find that was of help was a few empty 5 gallon buckets sitting on the floor. Grabbed one to use as my shopping basket. Grabbed a couple packs of wedges, a 13/32" drill bit that is missing from my fractional set. Found a 1/4" bell hangers bit. (a bell hangers bit, besides being extra long, has a hole through the flutes so a wire can be threaded through and pulled through the hole that was just drilled, handy for a bell installer.) A couple of hinges for a future project were also bought.
The rule was that if something had a tag the price was half what was marked. If no tag ask one of the employees to price it. When standing in the pay line one of the employees held my place while another went with me to ask about an unpriced item.
The crazy part was they had a bunch of snaths (scythe handles) my offer to the pricer was $5 he told me he wanted $15. My attempts to get it down didn't work.
After going home and knowing the crowd that would bother Candy was likely dwindled a bit we went back. It was my intention to try again on the snath. One of the other people who was in line with me earlier told me the snaths were now tagged at $8. Only one of them in the bundle was. After cutting the bundle string and extracting one of the nicer ones, my request to get it tagged at $8 like the other one was met with a claim that it should be $15. The guy gave me a strong vibe that if the one marked $8 wasn't taken by me, the tag was going to be removed. So one with the $8 tag was taken. We got to talking about the blades. It turns out they had all already sold. My blade is good, but the snath is a bit rickety. My blade is marked Shapleigh, when told about this and how that name was changed to Diamond Edge the guy told me the blades they had were Diamond Edge.
Since the store was less crowded it was a bit easier to go through things. Found a spoke pointer ($5) with the brace/crank. Found one handle among all the others set aside that looks like it will work for my cant hook or peavy. Also found a nice short D top handle for a shovel. Candy says it is just the right length for her for a walking stick. May have to go back again to get another.
Found 15/32" and a 31/64" bit for my fractional drill index. Now there are only two bits missing from that set.
It is one of those places that you could get down on the floor with a flashlight and come up with something interesting that has been lost there for 50 years. They even had a bunch of car parts in the upstairs area. Mostly oil filters, a couple of old carburetors, lots of different light bulbs for automotive use. Some guy looking for an oil filter for their '54 Packard might have a chance. They even had some vacuum tubes and old radios.
Maybe the early birds got some of the best worms, but there were still plenty left for the rest of us birds.
The haul:
Cathlamet Hardware 2019-5-16.jpg
The little bottle brush was thrown in for free.
There were also a bunch of files there. Hmmm, maybe they need a better looking over...
jtk
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