There was a time in America when drug stores didn’t occupy an entire city block. They weren’t part of corporate empires. There was a time when Boomers knew the local pharmacist to be a family friend and a trusted adviser on most things medical. If a youngster in the family was running a high fever, the pharmacist would often meet a distressed mom or dad after closing hours to fill an important prescription. The local drug store was a gathering place for the community and nearly every one had a soda fountain, which dispensed some of the world’s greatest food and drink.
The drug store I remember growing up with was Pioneer Drug in Lewisburg, West Virginia. As 7th and 8th graders, my sidekick Dave Gladwell and I often made a beeline downtown to eat lunch at the Pioneer and therefore avoid the daily hash being dished out at the school cafeteria. School lunches were about 30 cents back then and eating at the soda fountain cost a little more, but it was infinitely better.
The Pioneer made the best grilled cheese sandwiches ever, and they also rustled up good tuna fish and chicken salad. The sandwiches were 20 to 25 cents, a bag of chips was a nickel and a vanilla coke was a dime. So I often used some of my extra paperboy earnings to trade up to a 40- or 45-cent soda fountain lunch. After school, we’d often swing by the drug store again for a vanilla soda or sometimes a thick, home made milk shake. They were a quarter but well worth the investment. After all, I was pulling down $12 or $15 bucks a month on my paper route and could afford a few luxuries.
Every soda fountain had an employee called a soda jerk. These folks were specialists.
Soda fountains were devices that made carbonated soft drinks, or ice cream sodas. The soda jerk on duty mixed flavored syrup and carbon dioxide along with chilled and purified water or ice cream to make the sodas. And how well can Boomers recall the thick, homemade shakes? The soda fountain staff used rich, hand-dipped ice cream along with real cream and flavoring, and then sealed the deal in one of the old milkshake mixers. The cold shakes, poured from a steel cup, were so thick it was difficult to pull the first few sips through an oversized straw.
Drug stores sold lots of different wares in those days, including cosmetics, tobacco, and timely gifts for special occasions like Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day, and they offered a variety of over-the-counter medicines. Boomers may stretch their memories to recall products like Geratex, Scott’s Emulsion, Citroid Compound, Chas. H. Phillips Chemical Co.’s Milk of Magnesia and, of course, Geritol.
The beginning of the end of soda fountains and community drug stores came in the mid-1950’s when Walgreens began introducing a series of full, self-service drug stores. No more would a customer ask the pharmacist for a box of St. Joseph’s Aspirin. It was stacked up on counters in front of you, but you had to peruse the fine print to find the right dosage. And no longer would teenagers be able to stop by the soda shop after school, put a nickel in the juke box and slurp an ice cold Cherry Coke.
Things change, but they don’t necessarily improve.