The Second World War over with, Fort Pepperrell was downsizing and Frank Dyke Sr.'s job at the former American military base became redundant - so he answered a Telegram classified ad for a soon-to-open store called The Sports Shop.

Proprietor Arthur Murray gave Dyke the job. They tried in vain to get the store open in time for the May 24th weekend in 1947, but sporting goods stock, like many other things, were still in short supply two years after the war.

The store opened in June that year and the business flourished. Years later, Dyke took over. And in recent years, he passed it on to his son, Frank, Jr. But Monday night, the landmark Water Street store went up in flames as Frank Jr. watched firefighters try in vain to save the business from the latest downtown fire. Frank Sr., now 81, got a phone call from bookkeeper Renee Jackson, who has worked at the store for two decades.

"First, I thought what the heck happened here. That's all you could think," he said Tuesday. "She described for me what was happening - there were flames through the roof. Well, nobody was hurt, and thank God for that. Nobody was trapped in the building. It was just another building....Too bad the building burned down. Too bad the business will close for a little while. Hopefully the insurance will help re-establish. That's up to Frank now - he will have to make the decision, not me."

After a little thought, Dyke said if he were still at the helm he would go ahead again. "That's all - pick up the pieces and carry on," he said. "I'm very,very happy nobody was hurt. That would have been a very, very bad experience, to have somebody injured."

Frank Dyke Jr. does plan to reopen. The building was insured, but the cause of the fire - which started on the top floor - has not been determined. Monday's fire also damaged Velma's restaurant, Maverick Sports and Collectibles and a vacant deli.

The Sports Shop site was a tinsmith shop when Murray purchased it. Frank Sr. was 23 and starting a family when his job at Fort Pepperrell maintaining drycleaning and laundry machinery disappeared. Murray took him on and they set to the task of cleaning up the dirty premises, where hardware was sold downstairs and the keetles, stovepipes and the like had been manufactured upstairs.

The May 24 weekend was looming - at that time, city dwellers with fishing rods in hand would fan out all over the Avalon, hitting destinations like Brigus Junction, Mahers and Nine Mile Post aboard the Newfie Bullet.

Murray, an avid salmon fisherman and an outdoorsman, finally opened the store in early June, after he finally secured the stock. A few months later, Dyke recalls they rang in a $1000 in sales a day, no small achievement in a time when steel fishing rods sold for $1.75. The shop initially dealt mainly in rods, reels and fishing tackle, but eventually branched out into baseball, tennis, soccer, hockey and other sports.

In its heyday, the store supplied schools with sporting goods and was a prime destination for hockey gear. Later, the Dykes moved into trophy engraving. The Water Street of those early years contained family run department stores like Bowring's, Ayres, as well as Harris and Hiscock, Neyle Soper Hardware and the Royal Stores, all of which dealt in various goods. "Water Street was really wonderful...we were friendly competitors," Dyke recalls. "This was our distinction. We were the first 100 per cent sporting goods store....we didn't have to move the stove pipes to get to the rods."

Dyke was a jack of all trades, from sweeping the floor to helping run the business. Beyond regular business hours, the store was open Friday nights and Saturdays, but closed Sundays and for half day Wednesdays. To celebrate May 24th, they, like other businesses, ran a fishing contest, awarding prizes for the heaviest native trout, heaviest quarter dozen and heaviest half dozen.

When either store ran out of stock, it was no trouble to borrow from a neighbour. "If somebody wanted a reel, you loaned it to them," Dyke said. "If we ran out of stock, we'd get it from Harris and Hiscock...(They would) would phone me and say we need a dozen trout flies for a customer. It was a good atmosphere."

The store started out at 256 Water Street. Businessman Selby Short renovated next door with the intentions of opening a hearing aid store. One day however, Short approached Dyke. "He said to me, 'Frank, that store would be ideal for you people.' I spoke to Mr. Murray about it. He said, 'If you think it's a good investment, we will buy it," Dyke recalled.

Around 1960, Murray and his wife, Belle, purchased 258 Water Street and merged the two buildings for use as one store. In its prime, The Sports Shop had nearly a dozen employees. Staff helped generations of wobbly footed youngsters into their first pair of skates. Over the years, Murray offered Dyke shares in the business as bonuses. Eventually, Murray decided to retire and sold everything to Dyke.

The two malls - the Avalon and the Village - opened in the 1970's. One by one most of the old Water Street stores began to disappear. And five or six years ago the big box stores opened up. But Dyke said the combination of traffic congestion and parking fines was the worst business foe ever. "Water Street became very congested. Parking was absolutely pitiful," he said. "We never considered Wal-Mart a threat because we gave personal service. When a customer came in for a fishing rod, a reel, line or baseball glove, we knew our merchandise."

About a decade ago, Dyke said he decided it was time for his son to take over. "It was my life and I loved it very much...I would do it 10 times over," he said.

While the store consumed much of Dyke's time, his wife Mary raised their five children - four girls and a boy. "I have a marvelous wife who looked after everything in the home. I worried about the work," Dyke recalled. "I was blessed in many ways. I had a job that I was very, very happy in. I had very nice people to work with and work for... our customers were the finest people in the world."

The Dykes aren't the first proprietors to be hit by tragedy on that site. The buildings were reconstructed after the 1892 fire, which razed them. According to city archives, from 1913-46 No. 258 housed Roper and Thompson Jewellery. In 1960, the building was home to Roger and Son Jewellery. At 256 Water Street William Drayton pianos and organs occupied the premises from 1913-15. In 1928, it was B. Levitz dry goods and in 1936 the Gift Shop. Some time after that the tinsmith and hardware store moved in.

The Telegram. Wednesday, April 14, 2004 Barb Sweet.