• Harry Deacon (with customer Trish Figgess) is calling it quits after 30 years. Photo by Matthew Dwyer

“I’VE tried to sell it but no-one wants to do the hours.”

Harry’s Hardware owner Harry Deacon will close his doors for the last time Thursday after 30 years serving Attadale locals.

“It’s a good shop in a good area with even better customers, but I’ve got to retire at some time, I can’t keep going,” the 68-year-old says as he turns his attention to another needy customer.

“I’d know the first names of 99 per cent of my customers. I know whole families by name.”

It’s the kind of service that has brought tears to children’s eyes and puts many customers in a spin.

“He’s a real good samaritan, an absolute institution,” Trish Figgess says. “All the local people know him and I don’t know what we’ll do without him.

“He’ll lend you stuff from the shop, he’ll go around and change the light bulbs for elderly people if they can’t manage. He’s just phenomenal.”

When the Herald caught up with Mr Deacon he was busier than ever, his personal touch evoking an era long gone in hardware retail: “Tonight I’ve got a tomahawk, a garden fork and a chair to fix … oh, and a toilet seat. I’ll do these tonight after I get home or tomorrow morning,” he muses. “I’ve had fantastic customers and my wife Christine and I would like to thank our many customers.

“I’m a real shed man,” he offers, punctuating our conversation with greetings to familiar faces. Post-retirement he intends to do a bit of maintenance on his house and visit a daughter who lives in London.

“I want to sort her out so she buys something, either here or there. Get her out of the clutches of those London landlords.”

He pauses and smiles: “I’d prefer that she buys in London so I don’t have to do the maintenance—as much as I’d love her at home.”

He hopes to spend more time with his two daughters and two grandchildren, aged four and eight, “but I’m not waiting for them to take over the shop”.

by EDDIE ALBRECHT