PLUMCREEK -- Forty years ago Sally and Ray Frailey started Frailey Builders Supply with $250 in their pockets, a loan from the bank and a trailer load of roofing materials.
They kept the cash in a cigar box.
Today a hand operated cash register with a printed sign on it, "thieves beware, the Lord's a watchin'," has replaced the old cardboard cash box.
"I was glad to get that," Sally Frailey said of the manually-operated cash register. "It was tough when we started in 1964. It took about 10 years to really get the business going.
"We still don't have computers and we still don't have fax machines. The only modern machine we have is a skid loader."
The once-thriving building supply business along Route 210 between Elderton and Atwood has dwindled to a mom-and-pop general hardware store in recent years and for the last four years since Ray's death, Sally has been operating the small business alone.
At one time, Frailey's was the place in the community where people came to get loads of lumber, roofing, paneling, tile and other materials to build their homes.
Now the store which gets about 15 to 20 hardware customers a day is down to the nuts, bolts, paint and parts of the business and doesn't carry half the items it did at one time.
So Frailey, 71, is finally closing the doors of the landmark business. A going out of business sale is underway and she expects to deplete her inventory in about a year.
"The customers tell me they'll miss the store and wish I wouldn't quit," Frailey said blaming bigger chain discount stores and home improvement centers and the difficulty for the business to find suppliers for the downturn in her business. "If they would have kept coming I would still be in business."
Frailey will miss the builders supply and hardware business.
"I've always liked hardware," Frailey said. "My dad died when I was 2 years old and my brother was 14, so I was with him everywhere he went.
"He was into trucks and farm machinery so I was learning how to fix things all the time."
Her husband Ray enjoyed farming more than he did running the business, Sally said, leaving her to do a lot of the work in the store.
"I did and still do all of the ordering, the stocking, the pricing and the selling," she said.
She has picked up heavy boxes, operated a hand truck and even unloaded lumber from trucks.
"I do the unloading if and when I can now." Frailey said. "All those years I had ladies working for me and we unloaded and loaded lumber and everything else."
Frailey has a second business at the location to fall back on once she closes the hardware store. Frailey's Sporting Goods is a bait and tackle shop that caters to fishermen at nearby Keystone Lake.
"I'll miss the supply business, it was great for a long time" Frailey said. "But I have lots to do.
"I have the bait and tackle shop to run."
