Synopses & Reviews
Do you remember standing in front of the pharmacist, trying to work up the nerve to ask him for that last essential item for tonight's big date? Or maybe staring at the home-permanent display, wondering, "Should I or shouldn't I?" Do you recall where these and other high altars of onrushing adulthood were located? The corner drugstore.
No small town was complete without one. Along with the grocery and the hardware store, the corner drugstore was one of the essential institutions a town needed. Vince Staten has already written about the first two of these in Can You Trust a Tomato in January? and Did Monkeys Invent the Monkey Wrench? In Do Pharmacists Sell Farms? Staten takes on the third in an effort to explore and capture the heart of this American institution before it disappears.
Staten takes us back to a time when the corner drugstore was the place where mothers met in the morning to trade gossip, where businessmen met in the afternoon to lunch and cut deals, and where teenagers gathered after school for a soda and a smile. It was also the place where many people had what their doctor was doing to them explained so they could actually understand it. But just as the town square has lost its luster and been replaced by the mall, the corner drugstore has given way to the superstore.
Return with us to the days when the soda jerk ruled the social scene and True Confessions was the hot magazine at the newsstand. Here Staten will walk you one last time through those narrow, cluttered aisles and answer many of the questions that have plagued customers since time immemorial. What is this V7 that makes Vitalis so wonderful? How does Grecian Formula know what color my hair used to be? What ever happened to Preparations A-G? Did Trojans use Trojans?
With inimitable style and wit, Staten offers the stories behind the salves, nostrums, and patent medicines that you could once find on every corner, giving us the secret histories of all the people, places, and above all, things that made up this centerpiece of Americana. So whether you're reliving your own memories or wishing to experience the sights and smells of the corner drugstore for the first time. Do Pharmacists Sell Farms? Is the next best thing to sitting at the counter sipping an ice cream soda on a sunny summer afternoon.
Synopsis
Do you remember standing in front of the pharmacist, trying to work up the nerve to ask him for that last essential item for tonight's big date? Or maybe staring at the home-permanent display, wondering, "Should I or shouldn't I?" Do you recall where these and other high altars of onrushing adulthood were located? The corner drugstore.
No small town was complete without one. Along with the grocery and the hardware store, the corner drugstore was one of the essential institutions a town needed. Vince Staten has already written about the first two of these in Can You Trust a Tomato in January? and Did Monkeys Invent the Monkey Wrench? In Do Pharmacists Sell Farms? Staten takes on the third in an effort to explore and capture the heart of this American institution before it disappears.
Staten takes us back to a time when the corner drugstore was the place where mothers met in the morning to trade gossip, where businessmen met in the afternoon to lunch and cut deals, and where teenagers gathered after school for a soda and a smile. It was also the place where many people had what their doctor was doing to them explained so they could actually understand it. But just as the town square has lost its luster and been replaced by the mall, the corner drugstore has given way to the superstore.
Return with us to the days when the soda jerk ruled the social scene and True Confessions was the hot magazine at the newsstand. Here Staten will walk you one last time through those narrow, cluttered aisles and answer many of the questions that have plagued customers since time immemorial. What is this V7 that makes Vitalis so wonderful? How does Grecian Formula know what color my hair used to be? What ever happened to Preparations A-G? Did Trojans use Trojans?
With inimitable style and wit, Staten offers the stories behind the salves, nostrums, and patent medicines that you could once find on every corner, giving us the secret histories of all the people, places, and above all, things that made up this centerpiece of Americana. So whether you're reliving your own memories or wishing to experience the sights and smells of the corner drugstore for the first time. Do Pharmacists Sell Farms? Is the next best thing to sitting at the counter sipping an ice cream soda on a sunny summer afternoon.
Synopsis
After documenting the special charms of the American grocery store in Can You Trust a Tomato in January? and the hardware store in Did Monkeys Invent the Monkey Wrench?, Vince Staten turns his attention to another timeless national institution -- the corner drugstore.
No place epitomizes America like the corner drugstore -- the place where Mom bought her first home permanent, Dad bought his first condoms, and teens gathered to sip a malt at the soda fountain. With his inimitable dry wit, Staten has gathered marvelous anecdotes and curious facts about the nostrums, salves, and patent medicines sold there, and about all the people who have cheerfully dispensed them.
Part history, part folklore, and all fun, Did Trojans Use Trojans? takes a witty look at the drugstore in its many incarnations: pharmacy and apothecary, prescription center, community center, and important social hub. Capturing all of the sights, sounds, and smells of this rapidly disappearing symbol of small-town charm, this book is a must-have for all those who love to know the secret histories of the things that surround us.
About the Author
Vince Staten lives in Prospect, Kentucky. Do Pharmacists Sell Farms? is his seventh book. His local drugstore is Simon's Prospect Apothecary.
Table of Contents
Contents Acknowledgments
Chapter 1 Down at the Old Corner Drug: Elbowing My Way In
Chapter 2 The History of the Drugstore: Or, as Much as You'll Ever Need to Know
Chapter 3 From Head to Toe: Starting, Naturally Enough, with the Head
Chapter 4 The Hair: Or Sometimes Lack Thereof
Chapter 5 The Face: The Place Is the Cosmetics Case
Chapter 6 The Mouth: Through the Lips and Over the Tongue, Look Out Stomach, Here I Come
Chapter 7 From the Underarm to the Top of the Shorts: The Real Middle America
Chapter 8 The Stomach: Clearinghouse for the Soul, Repository for the Burger
Chapter 9 The Privates: Uh, Not About a Bunch of Soldiers and Their Misadventures in the Drugstore
Chapter 10 The Foot and Leg: Going to Extremities and Finding the Toe
Chapter 11 Checking Out: Maybe for Good
Appendix The Corner Drug Census