BOWDEN – John Williams waited most of the day to come to the Reddi Mart.
He has been a citizen of Bowden since 1979. The Main Street convenience store is where he always purchased his lottery tickets.
And Jan. 31 was special, heartbreaking as it was the last day the store would be open in its reportedly 53-year history serving Bowdenites.
“I wanted the last lottery ticket but being the last customer is even better,” said Williams emotionally at the cash counter. “It’s sad. It’s a heartbreaker for the town. It's been the heartbeat of this town since I've been here.
“Everybody gathered here. It was just the place to go.”
Behind the counter was Reddi Mart owner and operator Patty Houchin.
She had a long and loyal tenure at the store, including the last four as owner, but property owner Parkland Corporation’s insistence to not renew the lease marked the end of the Main Street institution.
"It’s very emotional,” said Houchin, as tears began to flow. “I love my people. The community is awesome. When you’ve been here for so many years they are family.
“If you support your community, your community supports you, and they’ve done an amazing job.”
And when the day turned to evening on this winter night of Jan. 31 Houchin’s beloved family came through the doors to say farewell.
They included long-time customers such as Williams, neighbouring citizens, old friends, and most of Houchin’s loyal and dedicated staff of six young, part-time workers.
“I have lots of mixed emotions. It’s very bittersweet,” said 29-year-old Emily Cowie, who has worked at the store for nearly five years. “This has been my safety net, my home away from home for almost five years.
“Patty’s like a mom to me. She's helped me out with a lot,” she added. “It'll be hard not having the Reddi Mart to escape to and seeing all of our regular customers.”
Cowie said what she will miss the most about the Reddi Mart is its environment and the “energy” from the regular customers who came just for a coffee as part of their routines.
And she will miss folks coming into town on their way to either Calgary or Edmonton, who over the many years made it a habit that Bowden was an absolute must-stop for gas, coffee and friendly, small town smiles and chit-chat.
“This store was basically the News Bulletin Board,” said Cowie. “People would come here and tell us what's going on, like who's had babies, and everyone's always so excited to come to the Reddi Mart and say ‘look, this is my grandbaby’, or, ‘what happened at council?’, and ‘who's getting married, who's dating who’, or ‘who broke up with who.'”
Steve Lovejoy lives across the street from the Reddi Mart. He came to have a coffee for the store’s last hour of business.
“This is is one of the last meeting places in Bowden. There's really nowhere else for everybody to go and catch up and meet. It'll never be the same,” said Lovejoy, who was also angry that more was not done in town to keep the store open. “It’s almost kind of a heritage thing for Bowden. Everybody knows this place.
“It doesn't seem like it's getting better. It seems like it's getting worse,” he said of the town’s state of affairs. “There needs to be more things for the people here. There's a lot of shuffling of feet, but not a lot of action. And we need action.”
And then 8 p.m. came. It was time for Houchin and staff to close the store one last time.
John Williams, the last customer, bought his lottery tickets.
The till was closed, as were the gas pumps outside.
Williams and Houchin hugged.
And then the lights went out.
