Gertrude and Haden Hardware – going strong after 50 years|[04/27/08]

If I were to write a children’s book illustrating the alphabet, H would stand for hardware.

And for Haden.

It’s been that way – Haden Hardware – in Vicksburg for a long time – 50 years to be exact, for it was in April 1958 that J.B. and Gertrude Haden opened their first hardware store.

When J.B. (it stands for Jefferson Bernard) moved here from Jasper County on Feb. 15, 1949, he said he pulled into Newman Motor Co. and “low and behold the first person I met was Gertrude.”

She was Gertrude Ables who had grown up here and graduated from Carr Central High School.

Gertrude said she never thought of it as love at first sight, but they were married later that year.

He says, “It’s because of her that I’ve been here ever since.”

J.B., who is 80, grew up on a farm near Bay Springs where he claims the old house was so cold he had to go outside to get warm. He helped his father milk the cows and says he could “plow a straight furrow if the mule could walk straight.”

And he dreamed of someday owning a hardware store, though he isn’t sure why. In Vicksburg, he worked for Commercial Credit. They spent a year in Meridian, then the Hadens came home.

Gertrude’s father, R.M. Ables, owned a painting and plumbing business and, when he closed, the Hadens opened their first store in the Ables building on Openwood where Gore’s Hardware is now located.

“We went into business with nothing,” Gertrude said. “We borrowed Daddy’s pickup truck and his adding machine. We borrowed until we could afford to buy.”

“We started off with nothing,” J.B. quipped, “and we’ve still got some of it left.”

From Openwood, they moved to the O’Neill-McNamara building on Clay in what was called the Hoffman Block. In the mid-1960s, they moved farther out Clay where they operated out of a Quansit hut, then built a store behind it. They bought a store on South Frontage Road and, after Hurricane Katrina, they consolidated the two stores, closing the one on Clay.

They both remember the years in the O’Neill-McNamara building, a huge multistoried structure that ran all the way to the next block. While J.B. sold fencing during the day and made gates at night, Gertrude ran the store by herself. Those were the days, she said, when there was no air conditioning – a huge fan pulled air through the building. In the winter, you stood over the floor furnace to keep warm.

It has been claimed, J.B. said, that a big hardware store has to stock at least 40,000 items, and he suspects that their small one has more than 30,000. If what you need is not in stock, they can have it in a day or two.

It’s because of the extensive knowledge required that such stores have been dubbed “hardware universities,” Gertrude said, for keeping abreast of changes along with knowing about new products is constant. “It’s a daily learning experience,” she said.

Many asked-for items are the same ones that have been bought by generations of customers – files, axes, saws, nails, bolts – for some things don’t change.

“It’s hard to improve on a hammer,” J.B. said.

Among the plumbing and electrical supplies and building tools, you’ll also find a large collection of antiques – though not for sale. Displayed along the wall near the ceiling are things from the past – corn shellers, meat grinders, a coal miner’s drill that is 5 feet long, a scroll saw operated by pedals and many more curiosities, many more than a century old. Some are the same as the ones J.B. used on the farm when he was a boy.

“On vacations, we always went to flea markets,” Gertrude said. That’s where they found many of the tools, and others have been given to them by customers.

After a heart attack several years ago, J.B. began to slow down and the three sons – Mike, Eddie and Kenny – assumed more responsibility. Today, J.B. works some at the store, but Gertrude, in her 50th year as bookkeeper, goes each day.

All three boys grew up in the hardware business from the time they could work. “They’d quit every now and then,” Gertrude said, “but they’d come back. Eddie says he’s been in the hardware business ever since the doctor slapped him on the back end.”

The boys are now co-owners, making it a Mom and Pop and Sons business.

“I’ve taught them everything I know,” J.B. joked, “and they’re still not very smart.”

J.B. who loves to joke, added his pleasure with his sons. “We’ve got good boys. They not only know hardware, but they’re good with customers.”

You’ll find the Haden boys have the same gift of gab as their father; they also inherited their parents’ pleasant demeanors.

Some of the Hadens’ customers have shopped with them for many years, and the company’s files are an archive of business transactions, J.B. said, “like Miss Eva Davis charging something for 36 cents for the Old Court House,” probably 45 years ago.

The Hadens stressed to their sons, “know your customers” and know your stock. “Bigger stores often have the items people want but can’t find them,” J.B. said, “and we can still fill your sack rather than you having to buy a box full.”

Not only do the Hadens know their stock, they can usually give you advice or instruction on how to use an item.

Gertrude said of the business, “you have to like it,” and J.B. credits their success “to the good Lord and to my family.”

It’s easy to understand why. Every year, when The Vicksburg Post holds its Readers Choice contest, Haden Hardware has always been No. 1.

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Gordon Cotton is an author and historian who lives in Vicksburg.