Working at drugstore taught many a lesson
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By JAMES CAMPBELL, SR.
Thursday, September 6, 2007 2:30 PM CDT
For the Herald
During my high school years of 1951-53, I worked at the Bennett Walgreen Drug Store, presently Konsella’s. The green painted plate glass windows facing Grand Avenue have been replaced with cement blocks. The only thing that hasn’t changed is the door opening to the basement and the stock receiving area.
The rear of the store had two bathrooms, the prescription area and a small kitchen area for dishwashing and preparing the daily noon lunch specials. A door from the kitchen opened onto Grand Avenue. There was a soda fountain and booths similar to the soda fountain scene portrayed in the 1950s television sitcom “Happy Days.”
We didn’t stock grocery items, and there was but a fraction of today’s prescription and over the counter medicines and skin treatments. Sulfa drugs, narcotics such as codeine and barbiturates were among the most medically prescribed drugs.
Vicks Vapo-Rub, Turpin Hydrate, horehound and Smith Brothers cough drops, camphorated oil, rubbing alcohol, aspirins, Anacin, Pepto-Bismol, Alka-Seltzer, Milk of Magnesia, Ex-Lax, Mineral Oil, Cod Liver Oil. Carter’s Little Liver pills, Doan’s Kidney Pills, vitamins and skin cremes were among the more popular over the counter items.
The above mentioned items were stocked on narrow shelves on the outside wall behind display counters and had to be obtained from a drugstore clerk. The fronts of the display counters had shelves for open display of Vaporizers, rubber hot water bottles, sanitary napkins, facial and bathroom tissues, tooth paste and tooth powder, shampoo, home hair permanent kits, cameras and other miscellaneous self-serve items.
Modesty ruled the day. Kotex and Modess sanitary napkins came wrapped in plain, unmarked blue, green and pink paper, but everybody knew what was inside. Most men wouldn’t be caught dead walking out of the store with a box of them under their arm.
There were advertised health fads like Hadacol and Geritol, vitamin supplements that were supposed to make the old feel young. There was also Chlorophyll tablets and gum that were supposed to make your breath and body smell good. Of course no one could explain why Chlorophyll didn’t work for the goat on the hill.
Mineral oil was a popular remedy to assure regularity during the winter months. We dispensed Mineral Oil from a 55 gallon drum into 12 and 24 ounce bottles labeled Bennett Walgreen Drug Store. Such a practice would be prohibited today.
The selling price was clearly marked on every item. The cash registers could only register the total sale, so when a customer purchased more than one item, (hardly ever more than five items) a pencil and paper was used to add up the total sale. After counting the change back to the customer, we always said “Thank You.”
A glass enclosed counter near the front entrance door held a cash register that was used for the paying of soda fountain bills, magazines, comic books, newspapers, candy bars, cigarettes, cigars, cigarette lighters and other non-drug items.
The glass-enclosed counter also served as a cigar humidor that held 5 cent Factory Smokers to $3.75 cent Cuban cigars. The open cigar box was presented to the customer so they could pick out their own cigars (It was illegal for the clerk to touch the individual cigars). We also sold fresh, hot roasted peanuts and mixed nuts by the pound.
Every weekday morning, Slim and the guys from The Chippewa Herald would take copies of the Milwaukee and out-of-state newspapers to a booth where they read through them while drinking coffee. They put the newspapers back and paid for their coffee.
Ink pens had advanced to using cartridge refills and those new-fangled ball point pens were notorious for leaking and ruining shirts. If the ball point pen refused to write, the flame from a match could usually get the ink to flow again.
Cigarette lighters, wrist and pocket watches, cosmetics, cameras, perfumes and all other items considered to be a luxury, carried a 20 percent war tax. This war tax was applied until 1954, at which time it was deemed that the costs associated with World War II had been paid. As a cashier, I don’t remember anyone ever complaining about this tax.
Monday thru Friday we served a 35 cent noon lunch special, ranging from spaghetti and meat balls to pork, beef roast, meat loaf and ham with homemade mashed potatoes, gravy and the vegetable of the day. Workers from Mason Shoe, Northern States, and telephone operators from Ma Bell filled our seating space at lunch time.
The Gehweiler Ice Company provided our crushed ice which was at a premium during the summertime. In 1952, we got a machine to make crushed ice, but even then we never put more ice than soda in the Coke glass.
After school hours we served a lot of kids. Pine floats (a glass of water and a toothpick) were free. Straws were made of wax coated paper and were individually wrapped in paper and most kids tried to see who could blow the straw wrapper the farthest. Straws were also good for blowing spitballs. Outside of making a mess blowing straw wrappers and dropping napkins all over the place, they were well-behaved.
One school kid prank that drove the waitresses nuts was to flip a glass full of Coke or water over real fast, leaving it standing upside down on the table, still full of liquid. To avoid a mess the waitress had to get a pan and carefully slide the glass to the edge of the table to allow the liquid to empty into the container. Many times the inverted glass of water had a toothpick inside.
I started as a stock boy at 55 cents an hour, while the waitresses started at 40 cents an hour. They were supposed to make up the difference through tips, which usually amounted to a nickel. A 5 cent tip amounted to more than 10 percent on a 40 cent tab (lunch and coffee). A tip of more than a dime would have left a waitress ecstatic.
Bridge Street was the main route for Highway 53 north and south, which brought many tourists into the store. Boys who worked behind soda fountains were called “Soda Jerks.” One summer I was given a 15 cent per hour raise to work behind the soda fountain, but what the heck, with that kind of raise I could buy 48 hamburgers a week. I was later given my old job back with a 5 cent raise.
I learned many things while working as a “soda jerk” with all the girls. I learned that by keeping the clean stainless steel containers in the freezer with the ice cream, I could make the thickest malt or milk shake in town.
It was while working as a soda jerk that I met my future wife, and after 53 years, we’re still together with our six children, 10 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
James M. Campbell Sr. is a lifelong resident of Chippewa Falls.
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