The hardware store I miss the most closed 30 years ago. They always had a group of old grey hair customers sitting around drinking the coffee and telling stories. Any project you could dream up one of the employees or one of the customers was there to give great advise. I just wish I could have access to the brain trust of those old timers. I bet an iPhone would stump them all, but any project that was built with your hands was a piece of cake.

We still have a few old tymie hardware stores around. I usually go there first to find parts and only hit the big box after exhausting my search at the local place. Local hardware stores are a treasured resource for fixit guys like me that always seem to need a non-standard solution.