MATTHEW COURTER/Sun-Gazette Clyde Schon is closing up Schon’s Hardware Ag and Feed on Lycoming Creek Road.

It was a bittersweet moment as the closed sign flipped for the final time at Schon’s Hardware Ag and Feed as owner Clyde Schon stepped away from the business he has managed for over 50 years.

Schon purchased the Cogan Station business in 1973, along with his brothers, John, Cecil and Claire, following a four-year stint in the U.S. Air Force.

“I spent a little over two and a half years in Arizona when I first went in the Air Force, and of course, this was during the Vietnam War, and when my orders came down, I was sent to King Salmon, Alaska, for a little over a year, because that was considered an overseas tour,” he said.

Following the conclusion of his military service, Clyde worked at a general store before returning home and began working at the hardware store he would later call his own.

“I worked here for probably six months, and I said to the fellow, ‘if you ever decide to sell, I’d like to have first chance,'” Schon explained.

“Two weeks later, they came and said they were thinking about retiring, and that’s how I accumulated the hardware store, and I’ve been here ever since,” he said.

As big box stores and online buying continued to expand, Schon expanded to other ventures to help pay the bills.

“It’s harder and harder to stay in business, but I diversified,” he explained.

“I used to do small engine repair. I was a Lawn Boy dealer for 40 years, and I used to service them. Then I started working on riding mowers. There was also screen repair and glass repair and stuff like that, that we did that on the side,” Schon said.

Schon’s original plan was to one day turn the keys over to his son. When he passed on the offer, Schon attempted to sell the business as a hardware store, but didn’t find any buyers.

In September, Schon turned 78 and decided it was time for a change.

“I didn’t have too much intentions of retiring, but I figured it’s time to give it up, because I know a lot of people that were in the hardware business until they passed away, and I’d just like to do other things. I’ve Gotta have some fun now,” he said.

While excited for his next chapter, Schon still feels a sense of sadness closing up a shop that so much of the community have grown to love over the years.

“Most of them don’t like the idea, and everybody says, ‘we’re gonna miss you,'” he said.

“I was born and raised here, and I know 90% of the local people appreciated the fact that it was local, and it would take them five minutes to get here,” Schon said, adding that once he’s finished liquidating his supplies, the building will become a veterinarian clinic.

“I feel kind of bad giving it up, but it was a good living for 50 years, and it is what it is. So we’ll go from there,” he said, while expressing his gratitude for all of his customers over the years.

Although his retirement has only just begun, Schon knows exactly what he wants to do next.

“I’ve got a 110 acre farm in Pleasant Valley, so all I’m going to do is play,” he said.

“It’ll be something that if I decide to get up in the morning and do something, that’s fine, and if I feel like I don’t want to, then I won’t,” Schon added, though his wife, Ruth, a retired school teacher and speech pathologist, has other plans in mind.

“She wants to travel, and I said, ‘well, you’re gonna have to travel by yourself,'” he said with a laugh.