Around twenty years ago, while I was a temporary employee at Kodak, I struck up a lifelong friendship with Shawn Walburn. One of the first things I learned about Shawn was that he grew up in Albion, a town that I had never visited and the only reason I even knew it existed was because I had a high school classmate in Rochester who lived in Albion. Her father drove her to school every day and we often joked with her about the long drive from Albion to Rochester. Ironically, I now work less than a mile from our old high school.
 As was the case with many Kodak workers, neither of us was working for Kodak by the end of the 1980s. By the mid 1990s, Shawn had moved to Columbus Ohio and I wound up in Albion. When Shawn heard that I had moved to Albion the first thing he asked me was if I had taken my two sons to Fischer’s Newsstand to buy them penny candy. I promptly took his advice and I can honestly say that Fischer’s became my favorite place to go in Albion.

 I was in Fischer’s twice this weekend working on a short piece for the Albion Main Street Alliance’s newsletter. I needed to do a quick interview with owner Gary Withey to complete the piece and so my wife Tracy and I popped in Sunday afternoon on the way to the dirt bike races in Medina. As soon as I enter the place it brings back all of the fond memories I have of when I first moved to Albion.
  In spite of the fact that I do not usually sit down to write this column until Tuesday, I generally have picked out the topic and though it out by no later than four days before. This week was no exception to that rule; I had planned to write about the lack of governmental response to the average citizen’s needs, but as I walked out of Fischer’s I looked at Tracy and said, “that is what I am going to write about this week.”

As I stood there observing Gary at work, I was simply amazed at how he addressed every customer by name. It reminded me of our first conversation when he recognized me as the writer of this column. Gary admitted he did not always agree with my opinion, and did it in the polite and respectful way that has made him such an important part of Albion's cultural landscape.
Fischer’s and its owner epitomize everything that is great about downtown Albion. Fischer’s is a place with a colorful history-It was originally owned and operated by Orleans County’s only major league baseball player, Carl Fischer-and it is located in one of Albion’s oldest buildings. Gary is keenly aware of that history and speaks of it with the pride of a proud parent. When you purchase something at Fischer's you know the profit does not go to a giant corporation, it goes to a hard working businessperson and upstanding citizen.

 Anyone who looks at the building that houses Fischer’s-which is co-owned by Withey and David Snell- can see that the exterior is in bad need of repair. Thankfully, the building is in good hands. Let’s face it, none of us could imagine an Albion without Fischer’s and as I talked with Gary, I realized that places like Fischer's is why I care so much about historic preservation, because places like Fischer’s can’t simply be replaced by a strip mall because they really are the Real Deal.