by Tyler Kula for the Sarnia Observer

(2014)  As far as Al Bedard remembers, there was virtually nothing a shopper couldn’t find during its heyday in the 1960s and 70s.The once-prominent shopping sector in an era before Sarnia Township’s amalgamation with Clearwater, boasted everything from lawyers and doctors, to hardware stores, barber shops and banks.

“I don’t think you could name an item in that district on that street that you couldn’t buy,” said the now 88-year-old founder of Al’s Vacuum and Sewing Centre.

Gone is the Mitton Street Association of business owners that collaborated on advertising and village events, eroded as those storefronts gave way to vacancies after the advent of malls in the city. There’s still life in the core Davis to Wellington streets span, but the fervour and attraction of the once central shopping centre – amid downtown and Northgate – that spanned from the old Sarnia General Hospital site to the farmer’s market, has diminished.

Bedard joined that tribe of businesses after moving to Sarnia from the Windsor area in the late 1950sand repairing sewing machines out of his home on Berkshire Road – until a city inspector found him in violation of the city’s bylaw. From there Bedard set up shop officially across the street from the original Cosmos location on the corner of Davis and Mitton, renting from the pizzeria’s owner for $40 a month.

“I could only buy stock, like two or three machines at a time,”Bedard said, explaining how he started business with just $30 in his pocket. He said he’d unpack some machines, and stack empty boxes to make it look like he had more in stock. Twice the store moved – next to the Walker Brothers’ store at Mitton and Wellington, and eventually to its current location at 110 Mitton St. S., where it took over from Hutchison Quality Floors.

That was almost 30 years ago.

At one point, Bedard’s daughter Sue Dillon joined up to work in the business and Al’s held a  sewing class for kids in the summer months. It kept its longevity in part thanks to contracts with both school boards when home economics and sewing was still taught in schools, and with wet and dry machines for local industries. Now retired, Bedard has given way to his sons Rob and Mike, who co-own the 50-year-old business – the oldest of any in the Mitton Village.

“It’s changed,” said Rob of the district, “It’s still an area that it would be nice to see more businesses as time goes on to keep the village going. I still think the concept of the Mitton Village would work if we had more businesses able to open up.”