Eleanor and Fred Arbour will miss their customers.
On Saturday, the couple closed Klager’s Meats, Fonthill’s oldest continuing business.
It was time to retire from six-day weeks of 12-hour days.
They want to spend more time at a northern cottage and at their home on the edge of Fonthill.
However, the Arbours will continue 40-plus years of volunteer work with the Fonthill Lions and Lioness clubs.
They have seen generations of customers in the Pelham Street butcher shop.
“We have served grandparents, their children and their grandchildren,” said Eleanor, 70, who started in the store when she was 12.
Fred said they are thankful for the continuing support they received and the friendships that developed.
Eleanor’s father Gordon Klager opened the butcher shop in the same location in 1934. With her mother Ruth Klager, Eleanor did the baking and numerous other chores to keep the busy store running.
Fred, 72, came in 48 years ago and the couple eventually took over the store as Gord and Ruth eased back. Even in his 90s, Gord Klager would lend a hand.
Fred and Ruth’s son Jamie became the third generation. Like his mother, he grew up in the store.
Jamie said he looking forward to taking his 10-year-old son Gord to his hockey games on Saturday without returning to work.
While retirement is the reason for the closing, Eleanor said the meat store business has changed over the years.
Today people spend time eating in restaurants and picking up meals to take home.
“You can see the increase by the number of restaurants in town,” she said.
It has to do with the current economic lifestyle. Both husband and wife work to cover costs leaving less time to prepare meals.
There was a time, Fred said, when Klager’s had four butchers and would deliver phoned-in grocery orders to homes throughout Pelham and parts of Welland and Thorold.
“Saturdays were particularly busy,” he said of the 1960s and 1970s. “We would make two trips through St. John’s.”
More recently, downtown Fonthill has seen a change in traffic patterns because of prolonged road reconstruction. Drivers have found ways to go around the downtown rather than come through it, Fred said.
The Arbours own the building the store is in. They plan to rent out the space once they have removed equipment.
Since it has a parking lot, Eleanor said, it should attract a user.
Meanwhile, the Arbours will take it easy as they adjust to a different pace of living.
