Dennis Archambeault knows the history of the Nashua Aubuchon like nobody else, and he should: He has been hanging around the place since he was knee-high to the display racks.

But you don’t have to look very hard for some pretty formidable challengers who might give Archambeault a run for his money; all you have to do is float the question, “What hardware stores to you remember when you were growing up in Nashua?”

Then, put it up for all to see on a gadget that was the stuff of science fiction when we toddled, walked and ran through the hardware, appliance and toy aisles in any one of our favorite stores.

The flood of lament triggered this week by news that Aubuchon Hardware, one of the granddaddies of downtown Nashua culture, was shuttering its doors after 78 years in the same spot happily morphed by midweek into a good, old-fashioned session of nostalgic one-upmanship that, thanks to the miracle of modern technology, inspired contributors from near, far and even farther.

Time was, hardware stores were almost as common as corner markets, and hardware was only part of their inventory. So diverse were hardware stores in their offerings, you could even call them small department stores. But somehow, “C’mon, kids, let’s go down to the hardware store,” sounded like a lot more fun.

If you’re familiar with the “You know you from the Old NASHUA IF” Facebook page, you won’t be surprised that most prolific among the online respondents to my query of “What hardware stores do you remember?” is John Bolduc. Among a bevy of other posts, he actually listed a bunch of hardware stores that operated downtown in the last 100-plus years.

You’d have to be old to remember shopping at, say, Clark’s Hardware at 82-84 Main St., E.F. Garland Hardware on Factory Street, James Barnard Hardware at 70 Main St. or A.E. Gay’s on Pearson Avenue. Make that very old; they were around in the 1890s to about 1915.

But also on Bolduc’s list are a few names familiar to us baby boomers, even if they are variations of what we remember. Aubuchon shows up as W.E. Aubuchon Co. in 1936, which is appropriate, because that’s the year it opened.

While I recall several “corner-store” hardware stores dotting downtown Nashua, the other two that come quickly to mind are Osgood’s and Hammar Hardware, which, like Aubuchon, epitomized old-fashioned service with a smile and could say, “Yeah, we’ve got that,” long before it became a slogan.

Osgood’s goes way back to the turn of the 20th century, coming of age as an arm of the Osgood Construction Co. Both were headquartered at the site we remember well – 25 E. Hollis St.; the store lived its final years across the street in the old West End Beverage Co. building, which is where Harbor Homes residence Buckingham Place is today.

As for Hammar (remember the “kitty corner” entrance door?), how many of us kids assumed the store was so named because hammers were a big seller? (We overlooked the spelling).

Ginger Hinkle Heald posted on Facebook that she always “thought (the name) was awfully convenient,” adding that Howard and Evelyn Hammar were her neighbors and “sweet people.”

Another staple of the era was Nashua Supply, which was probably a contraction of Nashua Hardware & Plumbing Supply or “Nashua Plumbing and Heating Supply, two of the various versions of the shop that was at 70 Main St., then 89 Main, then 74 Main, before the building, which was originally a church, was destroyed by fire in winter 1967.

As Dick Burpee notes, the store moved into the old post office building after the fire; the new post office had opened on Spring Street. We lost the gorgeous old post office when the library was built.

Now, you can’t talk old neighborhood hardware stores without talking toys. Diminutive compared to today’s big boxes, the iconic hardware stores of our youth always managed to find room for a robust toy department, not to mention sections for small appliances, radios, TVs, clocks and other housewares.

And don’t forget the coolest of the new bicycle models.

In an era when churches, hospitals and the country club were about the only places in town open on Sunday, Lester Archambeault would often give his wife a gift and take their rambunctious kids to the store to burn off a little energy.

“Brand new bikes – we got to ride them around the store,” Dennis Archambeault said with a laugh. “My father would catch up on his paperwork while we rode up and down the aisles. I’m sure we made a lot of noise, too.”

Archambeault beams when he talks toys at Aubuchon, not because he misses being a kid (although I’m not sure of that), but because he and his siblings always got to see toy companies’ newest products for Christmas – 11 months ahead of time.

“My father was the toy buyer for the chain,” Archambeault said of his dad, Lester, the Nashua store’s first manager and the guy who unlocked the doors for the first time on Sept. 20, 1936 – 78 years ago today.

“The buying was always done in January for the following Christmas. So we got to see all the new stuff before anyone else.”

Still, there was nothing more exciting than to see toys going up on the shelves in Aubuchon’s toy section, which covered most of the lower level and had its own identity: Toyland. A bunch of Facebook responders remember, as does Archambeault, the iconic Lionel train clicking, clacking and tooting its way around Toyland’s brightly lit Christmas trees and toy displays.

And who can ever forget Christmas at Osgood’s?

“Walking home from Sacred Heart School and stopping in the store to see Santa!” Trina Clark posted on Facebook.

“Going to see Santa at Osgood’s,” Claudette Michaud Anger wrote. “I think that was the only time I went to see Santa in a store.”

Sheila Sullivan-Blunt remembers the Big Guy’s arrival.

“Christmas time, waiting for the helicopter to land in the parking lot with Santa,” she wrote. “Then waiting in line with all the kids to meet (Santa) and get a little toy.”

We baby boomers would eventually learn the identity of our beloved “Santa,” and a few years ago we remembered those halcyon Christmases past as we mourned the loss of iconic radio personality Frank Teas.

Getting old can be a drag, but one thing I love about it is that I was a kid when it was a great time to be one. Different generations can debate that, but you can put me down as one former kid who is eternally grateful that I only saw one Santa Claus at Christmastime – and for those several magical years, I knew for sure he was the real deal, visiting Nashua straight from the North Pole.

Dean Shalhoup’s column appears Saturdays in The Telegraph. He can be reached at 594-6443 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.