COURTESY PHOTO Beatrice Hill, who worked at Goodale's Bike Shop to help out her son, Brad, for a number of years, stands in front of the store when it was in the Whiting Building on Main Street in the mid-1970s.

Walking home to Nashua’s Little Florida neighborhod from the old Spring Street Junior High School one spring afternoon, Brad Hill was about to pass the bicycle shop on Franklin Street when he caught the glimpse of the friendly owner.

“Hey, you want a part time job?” Roscoe Goodale asked Hill, who paused in front of the shop as Goodale made his way out the door, which he’d chocked open to take advantage of the fine spring day.

The young man thought for a moment and said something like “sure … OK.”

“Can you start Saturday?” Goodale asked Hill, who promptly responded in the affirmative. “Great. See you then,” Goodale probably said as Hill resumed his trek home.

Today, Hill laughs as he recalls that sequence of events, which took place some 53 years ago this month – when Hill was a 12-year-old seventh-grader drawn more toward working with his hands than sitting in a classroom all day.

But come the Saturday that was to be Hill’s first day on the job at Goodale’s bike shop, he made what could be called his first business decision – which remains today one of the biggest risks he took in his lifelong career in the bicycle business.

“I never showed up,” Hill said with a laugh about his decision. But why? “Well, it was the first day of fishing season … ,” he said.

Did he lose the job he never started? Nope.

When Hill reported to work the following Saturday, he said, “Mr. Goodale never said a word.”

Thus was planted a seed that Hill, with support from his family, and later his wife and a knowledgable business associate, grew into a thriving retail business that includes multiple locations, all of which retain the Goodale name.

This month, Hill, his associates, employees past and present, vendors and bike designers and

enthusiasts from across the nation are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the business, which Walt M. Goodale founded in March 1919 in “a vacant store in the Stearns building” that featured tire vulcanizing “and general bicycle repair works,” according to a Nashua Telegraph story at the time.

Hill said the celebration will feature special anniversary sales from April 4-15 at its three Goodale’s Bike Shop locations, which include the flagship shop at 14B Broad St. in Nashua and its Hooksett and Concord stores.

For addresses and more information go to www.goodalesbikeshop.com.

Walt M. Goodale – the father of Hill’s first employer, Roscoe Goodale – was described in the Telegraph story as “one of the most favorably known … of the bicycle men in Nashua,” and predicted “a large circle of friends will congratulate him upon entering into business for himself.”

The elder Goodale would soon “enjoy the reputation of being one of the foremost” bicycle repairmen in the state, according to the Telegraph. In late 1925, he moved from the Stearns building in Railroad Square into “a splendid, well-constructed building on the south side of Canal Street” with 40 feet of sidewalk frontage and three large rooms and a showroom, the Telegraph reported.

It’s Walt Goodale’s son Roscoe we baby boomers knew as the go-to guy for a new bike, but many of our visits were for repairs to the old single speed ride with the trusty coaster brakes. Come the late 60s, Hill was approaching fixture status in the shop, as Goodale began to phase into retirement.

By 1970, Hill’s “entrepreneurial drive,” as his vice president and right-hand-man Ron Bingham puts it, kicked in and he was able to convince his parents, Ralph and Beatrice Hill, that the bike shop was a great investment.

That he was barely 16 didn’t phase Hill, though, he remembers, his parents weren’t too wild about the part of his plan that involved dropping out of high school.

“Brad was anxious to get into the real world,” Bingham wrote in a short history of Goodale’s called “The American Dream: Celebrating 100 Years.” “He dropped out of school in 1970.”

He not only put in more than a normal workweek at the shop, Hill worked a second fulltime job in the dry cleaning business. When Goodale decided to retire for good in mid-1971, Hill became the shop’s third owner.

Goodale’s was at 34 Franklin St. at the time, and Hill recalled his first landlord was a man named Nadeau who charged him $75 per month rent.

A couple of years later he moved the shop into a first-floor space in the Whiting Building. At 2,200 square feet, the place was compartively huge ­ and so was the rent: $400 a month, Hill recalled.

Thinking back to those days, Hill shakes his head. “I worked 75-85 hours a week for 40 years,” he said, as if wondering how he did it.

“I’ll tell you what. You don’t own a retail business, retail owns you,” he added.

Buoyed by a succession of events and trends friendly to the bicycle industry, Goodale’s thrived during the mid-70s gas crisis, then responded to the nationwide exercise craze, spurred in large part by the advent of jobs that involved sitting at a computer all day, by convincing the masses that riding a bicycle is both healthy and practical.

Fortunately, his mom, Beatrice, came to help out with the bookkeeping and with sales as well, and a couple of years later his wife, Lucie, climbed aboard.

Around that time, Hill remembers his business getting a boost from an unlikely source: The closure of the crumbling Taylors Falls Bridge to all motor vehicles.

The span was still safe for pedestrian traffic, and, yes, bicycles. “That gave me a pretty good lift,” Hill said of his bike business. “Who would want to drive all the way from Nashua to Tyngsborough just to get to Hudson?”

New trends in bicycle designs were also good for business, Hill said, recalling the appearance of the “banana seat” bikes, then the start of “the BMX era.” Soon came mountain bikes, and a hybrid street-mountain bike that sold like hotcakes.

Now, Hill said, leading a visitor on a tour through the sprawling storage area that never seems to end, the newest product is, not surprisingly, a high-tech ride called “E-bike.”

As for Hill’s other locations, he bought 46 Main St., the building now housing Peddlers Daughter, in 1978, then in 2001 moved to 14B Broad St., once the site of the former Whitney Screw Corporation.

Hill opened his Hooksett shop 22 years ago, and added the Concord location 14 years ago.