Russell Duren opened his jewelry store in downtown Gastonia nearly 60 years ago.

From day one, he's never been caught up.

When I recently stopped by for a visit, I found Duren, 84, surrounded by several hundred pieces of jewelry customers had left for him to repair.

He'll fix as many as possible, Duren told me. But there's no way he can get everything done before he closes the business in the next few months.

He's trying to sell the regular inventory - I noticed some watches marked down by 30 percent. People came in and out of the store, waited on by Lynn Ward, who has worked there for 32 years.

She was a senior at Ashbrook High School when she was hired in 1979.

Duren's Jewel Shop, at 194 South St. across from the Gastonia City Hall, is a downtown landmark. When it opened in June 1952, the business was a few doors up the street from where it is now.

Duren moved to the present location, the former Gastonia finance department, in 2005 when his old building was sold.

He should have retired then, Duren told me.

But he let folks interested in reviving downtown talk him into staying.

Meanwhile, about two years ago he started having back problems and things got worse last spring. The problem, Duren said, is a crooked spine. He sees a physical therapist and does a round of exercises.

But all this bothers him.

He showed me a photo of himself at age 50 - trim, muscular, looking at least 20 years younger.

What people must think of him now, Duren said, as they see him bent over and staggering across Franklin Boulevard on the way to his car.

Given his condition and age, he decided to call it quits.

Downtown boom

Duren thinks he had a good run.

The path that led him to downtown Gastonia began on his family's farm near Crowders Mountain.

An idyllic setting, maybe, but Duren hated every minute of farm work. His father lost the property during the Depression and went on to become superintendent of maintenance in Gastonia city schools.

In June 1944, at age 17, Duren ran into a friend who thought they should both join the Coast Guard. They rushed to see a recruiter, but by then the friend had cold feet and backed out; Duren signed up alone.

As a courier he delivered Coast Guard messages all over the U.S. and Caribbean. The job also took him to Hawaii and London. But as Duren reminisced about those days, the part he enjoyed most was his brief stint as a boxer. Stationed in Miami, he had five fights, winning four. That one loss came at the hands of a skinny kid who landed a powerful forearm blow to Duren's nose , breaking it.

After a two-year hitch, Duren had trouble finding a decent civilian job. By chance, he heard about a Bulova Watch Co. school for veterans in Long Island. He completed the four-year program in slightly over two years.

Out of school his first job was with Hamilton Jewelry in Columbia, S.C.

After managing a Hamilton store in Sumter, S.C., Duren went to work in the jewelry department at Sterchi Brothers department store on Gastonia's South Street.

He saved his money and bought a small jewelry store on the same street for $1,500.

Duren's Jewel Shop sold and repaired all kinds of jewelry. The proprietor also repaired watches.

In the 1950s, downtown boomed. Duren remembers the crowds, the activity, the energy. Back then, the street cars were still running.

Next adventure

Over the years, he watched the boom fade. Businesses began to leave and downtown almost dried up.

But Duren hung in.

Proud of his work, he built a customer base that not only brought in folks from Gastonia but Cherryville, Shelby, York, S.C., and even Salisbury. The winds of change keep blowing: things are picking up again downtown, he said.

Duren worked long hours, never taking a full vacation. He enjoyed golf and fishing and reading ancient history.

Duren told me he might have been a writer if a 10th-grade English teacher had praised the short story he'd created instead of wrongfully accusing him of copying it out of a magazine. Embarrassed, he never wrote another story.

Maybe he can try his hand at it again.

At long last, he's about to get caught up. When he locks the door, I hope he finds another adventure, no matter where the path leads.