“They said you retire at 62, I thought that meant you had to work 62 years,” owner and pharmacist Gary Peck, now 72, shared with a laugh.

“It was time,” Peck said of his decision to retire.

The pharmacy at Ben Franklin closed up shop last fall.

The store, which offers everything from fabric to crafts to custom framing and home decor, will shut its doors in the next few weeks.

A sign outside of the Ben Franklin store in Clarkstown thanks the customers for their support over the last 43 years of business. KAREN VIBERT-KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

“I’ve had six Ben Franklin stores over the years, this is the one we have had the longest. This is my base, this is where I live,” said Peck, who resides in Hughesville.

“I’ve had them in DuBois, Towanda, Milton, Berwick and Hazleton,” said Peck.

The Clarkstown Ben Franklin, Peck believes, may be the last one in the state.

In 1981, the 12,500-square-foot Clarkstown Ben Franklin opened in a plaza that included Lowe’s Super Duper and a bank branch.

“We found a place where we could fit in, even though the mall just opened about two years before we did,” said Peck.

The Ben Franklin store in Clarkstown. KAREN VIBERT-KENNEDY/Sun-Gazette

Peck, a Clearfield native, also found a place he and his wife Geneva could fit in.

“I liked the area, it turned out to be great. The area’s a great, great, place to live,” he said.

At first, the store was open seven days a week, from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Eventually, Peck changed the opening to 10 a.m. so he and his employees could get to church before work.

Peck has seen a lot of fads come and go at the store over the last 43 years.

“Cabbage Patch dolls, pet rocks, transformers,” Peck listed.

As the demand for certain items grew, so did the inventory, and the size of the store as well.

“We had a small fabric department that we started with and it grew into one of the largest in the area,” said Peck.

An expansion of the store to almost 22,000 sq. ft. in 1992 almost doubled the store’s size to a half an acre under the roof.

The new space also allowed for a classroom for quilters and crafters, cake decorating and floral arrangements and knitting.

“We just kept providing what they want,” said Peck of his customers.

The classes proved to be very popular.

“We had a group of people that would come down from New York state once a week for floral and other kinds of classes,” said Peck.

What has been the best part of his 43 years at the store?

“It’s the customers,” said Peck.

His service to his customers had led him to facilitate getting IV medication to a hospice patient in Israel and personally delivering IV medication to a heart patient in Bar Harbor, Maine, when Ben Franklin operated a home infusion IV pharmacy out of the store, which provided IVs outside of hospitals.

During that time in the store’s history, providing IVs was a 24/7 business and Peck would be called out two to three nights a week.

“I have been on the floor doing different things and people come up. I had one guy shake my hand, ‘thanks for this, you did this for my mother so many years ago, you did this, you came out on Christmas Day,’ you know just those little things.” said Peck.

“Something as simple as coming in on Christmas morning because someone had an ear infection,” shared Peck are the things customers remember fondly.

“The biggest thing is the patients, you get to know them,” he said.

Peck doesn’t take all the credit for having a successful store, it’s a team effort.

“The employees have always been great. We have one lady, Patsy Charles, that has been here 43 years, from the day we opened. She is retiring too,” said Peck.

“Everyone knows her name. Everybody comes in and says ‘Is Patsy here?’ because she is a great quilter,” said Peck.

Charles will be with Peck when he turns off the lights and locks the door for the last time.

In his retirement Peck will continue his volunteering, including the Rotary which he has been a part of for over 30 years, at one point serving as district governor.

Peck’s days will also be filled with spending time with his two grandchildren — Ridge, 9 months, and Oaklynn, 2.

“They call me Pop-Pop,” Peck shared as he proudly showed photos of the two youngsters.

“Would I do it again?” said Peck, reflecting on his long career.

“Yes,” Peck said with a smile, “It’s been fun.”