By CAROLYN IAMON
News Writer

Louis Freeman grew up one of nine children in Bainbridge.

While he was in ninth grade he began working part-time for Jimmy and Audrey Cliett in their hardware store.

“I began as a delivery and repair man, but once I was settled in they saw my gift and ability for mechanical and electrical work,” Freeman said.

He explained he had previously picked up some skills from his cousins, Rufus Baldwin, who owned a TV repair shop, and Watt Baldwin, who had an auto repair shop.

When the Clietts hired Freeman, he applied those skills to his new job and they took notice.

“They took a special interest in me and sent me to the General Electric training school in Albany for a six-month course — free of charge,” he said. Cliett Hardware was a dealer for GE at that time.

From then on, he was the main service technician, making major repairs to small and large appliances, including air conditioners.

Freeman worked for the Clietts all through school, and graduated from Hutto High School in 1970 — the last class to graduate before integration of the schools.

“Mrs. Cliett was like a mother to me,” explained Freeman, who added, “She made sure I stayed in school and graduated.”

He recalls a time when he got into some trouble along with some other people. He had always promised her he would never lie to her about anything, so when she asked him about it he told her the truth. She went to bat for him with the judge and got him out of it.

He stayed with Cliett Hardware for about six years after graduation, then went to work for United Plastics in the industrial park, “mostly because it paid better.” He worked there 2-1/2 years, continuing to work part-time at Clietts.

Ultimately, he stayed loyal to Clietts right up to the end. “I helped them shut down the business when they closed, and went to see them until their last days in a nursing home. Then I attended their funerals,” Freeman said. “They meant everything to me.”

Since 1992, Louis and his wife Gloria have operated L & G Appliances on North Broad Street, in the same location where Clietts did business for 40 years. They specialize in sales of used appliances and repairs. Recently they have added a line of Crosley new appliances.

“The used appliance and service business has been good for us,” said Freeman, who added, “when the economy got bad people were buying used appliances and the supply became scarce.”

As testimony to his repair expertise, a customer recently came into the store. She was looking for advice on a problem with a kitchen range that had gone into lockdown in the self-cleaning cycle. She couldn’t get the oven to come back on. Freeman gave her a couple of suggestions to try, and she left, thanking him and saying, “I knew if anyone knew what to do with it you would.”

The Clietts had such an influence on Freeman’s life that he has wanted to pass along that kind of help to other young men and boys.

He and his wife have been involved as mentors for at least four or five years with the Bainbridge High School Education Training and Transition (BETT) program. The school refers students to them — students who are about to graduate and haven’t had any work experience. Freeman teaches them the names and uses of basic tools, checks on their mechanical aptitude, assesses their thinking and reasoning skills and tries to instill a sense of discipline, consistency and personal hygiene, when needed.

Freeman said he is pleased when the students pick up on the training and it becomes a help to them in their lives. He recalls two in particular, Justin, who went on to join the Air Force and did repair jobs on the side; and his nephew, Christopher, who went into the Army. During basic training, he came across an M1 tank that was having air-conditioning problems. Because of the training he had received he was able to help solve the problem — much to everyone’s amazement.

“I always told him that if you learn air conditioning, it is the same basic skill, no matter what it is attached to,” Freeman said.

The Freemans have done a good job passing on a desire for education and knowledge. Their daughter, Crystal, will soon graduate from the University of Cincinnati’s pharmacy school.