For years, Charlie Vandini held court regularly from a bench inside his North Plymouth store. Along with Gus, an exuberant golden retriever with the same upbeat personality as the shop’s owner, he greeted everyone who entered Charlies’ North Plymouth Ace Hardware with a big smile and hearty welcome.
“We used to call him the Mayor of North Plymouth,” said longtime friend and fellow Plymouth Lions Club member Bill Converse. “He knew everybody and everybody knew him.”
Indeed, Charlie has been a fixture in this tight-knit community for most of his 95 years. He’s owned the store for 60 of them, though the next generation is running the business now.
But he still lives, breathes, and exudes love for the village that has been his home since birth. He can think of no better place to live than the melting pot of North Plymouth.
“Italians, Germans, and Portuguese all moved here because of Cordage Company,” the massive rope factory employed nearly 3,000 people at its peak in the early 20th century,” he said from his home a few blocks away from the hardware store. “We loved each other and looked out for each other in those days. We were all family.”
Much like its owner, Charlies’ North Plymouth Ace Hardware (yes, it’s plural possessive because of his son and namesake) is an institution. Opened in 1966, the business has outlasted the seismic changes that shook commercial retail over the past half century or so, an era of malls, box stores and the proliferation of online shopping. Small hardware stores are especially endangered. Faced with on onslaught of industry behemoths such as Home Depot and Lowe’s, their numbers have been dwindling for years.
But Charlies’ not only survived those two chains, it withstood competition from a Walmart just up Route 3A at Cordage Park. (It was eventually torn down to make way for the Harborwalk apartment complex.)
To walk into the shop today is like taking a step back in time. It still looks like a neighborhood hardware store from decades ago. Crowded shelves are stacked to the ceiling with just about every imaginable appliance, tool, or part. There are hoses, paint, fertilizer, wrenches, nuts and bolts, hand drills and cordless drills, and everything else you can think of – and then some. If you need something, Charlies’ probably has it.
“The thing about his store was he always had stuff in there you could find,” said Converse, who visited the business often when he worked as a manufacturers’ representative for the fire protection industry.
“He catered to his customers. There were a lot of Portuguese people in North Plymouth and they liked to cook,” he said. “He had all the equipment and tools they needed to prepare their food.”
By all accounts, the fact that the store still stands is testament to Charlie’s personality. He treated everyone who walked through the door as a friend – whether he had known them since high school or they just met. His business was part of the neighborhood.
“Charlie’s mother was very generous, and Charlie was the same way,” says George Scotti, who has been a friend since the 7th grade and included Charlie as an usher in his wedding. “He was good to everybody. I heard stories about how he always extended credit to those who didn’t have money and let them pay in installments. Sometimes he’d just look the other way.”
Charlie bought the store while still employed at a lumberyard in Kingston. Until he gave up that job a few weeks later, his wife, Kathy, ran it. (Charlies’ became an Ace franchise in 1986.) She died at age 84 in 2019.
“They were a real team,” Converse said. “She worked behind the scenes to make sure the store was running properly and the bills were paid.”
Charlie’s son, Charles “Chuck” Vandini II, started working at the hardware store as a young teen, then joined the business fulltime after college in 1980. He now runs it.
“Dad was the one who got this place going and served all the customers,” says the younger Charlie. “Now, I take care of their children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren.”
Enzo Monti remembers being 7 years old and playing outside with 5-year-old Charlie, who lived on the same street in North Plymouth as Monti’s grandparents. That was 90 years ago. The two remain close friends today.
“Charlie told me I had to serve with him on the North Plymouth Steering Committee when it started more than 30 years ago,” Monti recalled. “We helped get the North Plymouth Rail Trail at no cost to the town and worked on a lot of other improvements to make the community better. We retired together from the board about six years ago.”
After high school, Monti moved from North Plymouth. He served in the Army, went to college, lived in Japan, and worked all over the country. Nearly 40 years ago, Monti visited Charlie and Kathy, who told him the house down the street was for sale. He bought it and moved back to North Plymouth to be close to his childhood playmate.
“I’ve lived all over the world and Charlie has lived in a six-block radius of North Plymouth his whole life,” he said, “and here we are, still friends.”
Beth Dorman has known Charlie for most of her life because her father was his friend. They serve together in the Lions Club. Recently, Dorman presented him with a pin marking Charlie’s 65 years as a loyal member of the community service organization.
“Charlie always attended the Lions Club pancake breakfast,” she remembers. “You would walk in and there he would be sitting with Kathy, smiling and chatting with everybody. He’s very giving and kind. Charlie’s the most loved person in North Plymouth.”
These days, Charlie doesn’t get to the hardware store much. The years have taken their toll. He’s usually in his Centennial Street home watching television from a recliner. During the summer, he sits on the front porch, shouting greetings to friends and neighbors as they pass by. He has to. After all, he’s the Mayor of North Plymouth.
“I was fortunate to grow up in North Plymouth when I did,” Charlie said. “It’s such a great neighborhood with many wonderful people. I’ve been blessed.”
Dave Kindy, a self-described history geek, is a longtime Plymouth resident who writes for the Washington Post, Boston Globe, National Geographic, Smithsonian and other publications. He can be reached at davidkindy1832@gmail.com.