Halswell Domain

Halswell Domain
View from the Model Engineers' site in the Halswell Domain

Friday, August 5, 2016

Familiar Faces: Barry Perkins and Sal Marks


Barry and Sal More often than not, when you walk into Halswell Hammer Hardware on the corner of Sparks Road and Halswell Road, you hear laughter and familiar banter going on between
Barry, Sal and their customers.  You get a sense of long history and long relationships at the shop. Sal began working at the shop in 1990 and Barry bought the franchise five years
later. But even if you are new to the area, Barry and Sal will chat away to you about your day, your projects, making you feel as though you are already “one of the locals”.
Surprisingly, even though Barry and Sal have been at the corner store for twenty and twenty-five years, respectively, they both travel long distances to get to work.  Barry commutes daily from Brighton as he “loves the beach” where he lives with his wife, Linda. And Sal drives from Eyreton, North Canterbury, where she lives with husband John and spends time working with young horses.
Sal’s interest in horses led her to a job in Kennedys Bush Road, working for Dr. Cliff Irvine and Sue Alexander who are world renown specialists in equine reproduction. Sal would
spend early mornings with the horses, and then go to Halswell Hammer Hardware. Today, she continues a similar pattern of being at the shop in the morning and then going home to handle young horses in Eyreton.
 Barry also cites horses as one of his interests commenting that he is a typical Kiwi bloke that loves rugby, league, cricket and horse racing.  He finds a little time to do DIY on
Saturday afternoons and Sundays, otherwise, you will find him at the store.
All of Barry’s working life has been in Hardware.  He retells the of a day when it all began by chance.  He was biking into town to see a girl when someone he knew yelled out to him
“Are you looking for work?”.   Having just finished school, he yelled “Yes” to which the man yelled back “You start Monday”! After this informal introduction to Briscoes, which was then a hardware and importing business, Barry worked for Ramset Fasteners in Hamilton and Wellington before coming back to Christchurch in 1990. Being in the hardware business, Barry and Sal have been privy to a steady stream of post-earthquake stories. Their tone saddens as they speak of the number of clients still waiting to have repairs done, but worse still is the number of clients coming in to buy supplies to repair the EQC work that has been done on their homes.  The shop, currently filled with painters, draping drop sheets and ladders, is also finally getting its repairs done. On a brighter note, Barry admits the earthquakes have had positive spin offs for Halswell businesses and the Halswell community.  They both agree that they love the spaciousness of the area and the friendly people that live here.
Words: Deb Harding-Browne

1 comment:

  1. This is totally random but I was trying to look up Halswell hammer hardware just because I found a sticker in my garage with that name. It seems they are no longer around which is a shame because I live in Halswell. Wonder what Barry and Sal do nowadays

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