There was a time in America when drug stores didn’t occupy an entire city block. They weren’t part of corporate empires. This was a time when Boomers remember the local pharmacist as 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 6th and 7th graders, my sidekick Dave Gladwell and I made beelines downtown to eat lunch at the Pioneer and therefore avoid the daily hash being dished out at the school cafeteria. School lunches were a quarter 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 35- or 40-cent soda fountain lunch. After school, we’d often swing by the drug store again for a vanilla soda or sometimes a thick, homemade milk shake. They were a quarter but well worth the investment. After all, I was pulling down $10 or $12 bucks a month on my paper route and could afford a few luxuries.
The soda fountains were devices that made carbonated soft drinks, or ice cream sodas. Every soda fountain had someone called a soda jerk. These folks were specialists.
The soda jerk on duty mixed flavored syrup and carbon dioxide along with chilled and purified water or ice cream to make sodas. And how well do we recall those thick, homemade shakes? The soda jerk used rich, hand-dipped ice cream along with cream and flavoring, 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, timely gifts for special occasions like Valentine’s Day or Mother’s Day, and 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, and you had to peruse the fine print to find the right dose for you. And no longer would teen- agers 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.
