Ramblings… Hardware Stores and Stories
From: James Algiers <james.algiers@gmail.com>
Date: September 2, 2009 at 2:01:17 PM CDT
To: Abbey Algiers <abbeyalgiers@mac.com>
Dear Louie,
Thought you might like a trip down Memory Lane - or rather - Main Street….
Ramblings: Hardware Stores and Stories
Before the age of WalMart and Kmart there existed an age of Hardware Stores. Each city had hardware stores. They typically were long narrow buildings tucked between movie theaters, lunch counters, general stores and men’s wear emporiums on the Main Streets of most communities. We had three - Schauer’s, Leach’s, and Schmidt’s. In addition Sear’s and a number of chain stores came and went filling many store fronts.
On a main street, in any community were plate glass store fronts. The stores housed men’s clothing, ladies ready to wear, general grocery stores, drug stores, taverns, electrical appliances, gift shops, and even for a while, two morticians with the usual furniture store. If a main street was two or three blocks in length, and if there were twelve blocks to a mile, then an average city block was about 440 feet. Since buildings were on each side of the street, in order to have fifty or more businesses on main street the individual buildings were from fifteen to forty feet in width. The stores were forty to sixty feet in length. Sometimes the general stores were two stories in height; many buildings had deep basements, ten to fourteen feet in height. The basements were dark, damp, and scary. For many years angle parking , in front of the businesses was necessary. It was easier to angle park a team of horses than to parallel park .
The store fronts consisted of large panes of glass, window show rooms for all sorts of merchandise; and in the taverns benches and sleeping Civil War Vets. They could be recognized because for every four or five gents, whiskered, and chewing; spitting and sleeping, one empty sleeved old codger would be present. Amputations were common place in that war and most times were the result of the Intensive Care Ward of the battle fields. Without the amputations the mortality rate would have doubled. In the early thirties of the 20th century there were still a good number of Civil War Vets, and a few veterans of the Spanish American War.
Main Streets were busy. All commerce of small villages and cities took place on Main Streets. Physician offices were on the second floor, up the usual eighteen steps, the straight staircase or up nine and turn and up nine. Stress tests were not in vogue, house calls were made, and really sick were cared for at home. Long term care facilities were unknown, chronic illness was chronic a shorter time than is now common.
Infectious disease was treated with isolation and House Placarding; not with antibiotics and shots. Prenatal care consisted of perhaps one or two visits to the “office” before scheduling a visit with the nurse; at which time the nurse became acquainted with the home location and estimated delivery time. Other uses of the doctor’s office was for the usual headaches, early heart failure, and hypertension. Lacerations, large and small were handled in the office, boils, common before penicillin, were lanced and laudable pus was released. Physicals were for the high school athletes, and almost all passed.
Each Main Street had two or three Diners; each had a specialty. We had Sammy the Greek; soups and sandwiches; Hetzel’s Tavern featuring the best hamburgers and only costing ten cents, with onions and pickles; Hilt’s Cafe featuring lunches, china ware, and school teachers. On Friday night fish fries were featured in many locations, and occasionally small lobsters were featured for $1.25 for two; along with beer for fifteen cents. The Central Hotel was the Republican Party headquarters but later was the nightly debating club. The Lions and the Rotarians met there, but the bartenders joined neither of the clubs. They did well remaining neutral and hearing no evil, or speaking no evil.
There were three drug stores in an age of minimal prescription writings by the local physicians. Each M.D.’s office had a drug room, for cathartics, antacids, digitalis, vitamins, sedatives, narcotics, and tonics. Imagine if you might, no antibiotics, diuretics, or oral diabetic agents - none existed. The drug stores filled infrequent prescriptions, but served as the source of self help and pharmacist directed health care supplies. Cosmetics, body care lotions, and liniments, ladies supplies, and utter supplies for the milking herds of the area, were all on the shelves, side by side and poorly exposed and identified. In the back room, on a lower shelf were Trojans and other x-rated contraptions; the birth rate was high and the community was fifty percent Roman Catholic. When I worked in the drug store, I could not differentiate use from religion. Each drug store had the usual soda fountain which served as a community meeting place, a reading area, and a political retreat. Casey’s Central Drug was liberal democratic, Ollie’s Rexall Drugs was neutral, and Poole’s Walgreen was Republican. Oh yes, a fourth drug store, cut-rate, without a soda fountain, Lohr’s was more political than the others, Mr. Lohr was the Mayor for two terms. Drug stores were great areas, for more than medicine.
Jesse P., a non-farmer knew more about utters than most and made the best “teat balm”. Ollie at Rexall Drugs had the Greyhound Bus Agency, and was open Sunday afternoons, the others weren’t. It was rumored that the Central Drug, during the era of prohibition had a basement still , when it was operated by Breitenfeldt, and I believe it.
Art Breitenfelt was a pharmacist of the old school. He concocted many remedies, usually for skin conditions. He had one remedy for psoriasis, the base of which was an aqueous mercurial compound. It was very efficient, but after two cases of acute renal failure secondary to cutaneous application, he applied for a job in the local metal stamping company and spent his pre retirement years making auto mufflers. The patients with psoriasis scratched more but lived longer.
And then the hardware stores. Three basic home staffed hardware stores were in town. They varied in location, in appearance, in clientele , and in employees. Schmidt’s was on the north side, specialized in heating and cooling, in plumbing, and bid extensively on school, churches, and hospitals. Elmer, the second generation proprietor, died from an acute coronary episode, after spending four days in the observation bed for evaluation of chest pain. He was sent home for rest, he died at ten p.m. with recurrent chest pain and an arrhythmia. Today he would have lived for many more years.
The Schauer hardware store had an interesting past. One of the founders was shot dead in the store by a depressed confused farmer who had lost the farm during the hard times following the world War 1. One fall day in the 1930’s an elderly man from the north side, entered the store, purchased 8 feet of rope, and as he was leaving the clerk asked if he was thinking of hanging himself. The customer went home, came back, purchased heavier rope, went home and hung himself. The hardware store eventually burned in the fire of 1970. I don’t believe there was any connection of events.
Leaches was the third hardware store, and had at one time been the local theatre. The piano and stage were in the back of the second floor, and eventually was the area for storage of items which were discarded over the years. One night in November the paint area, under the old theatre exploded from paint rags, ignited the whole building, and burned to the ground.
With the passing of the local hardware stores passed many meetings of friends when on Saturday mornings the many chores around the house were solved by the friendly clerks who had the answer for any house care problems. The hardware store were the initial Mr. Fixit shows.
And so it was, Louie.
Keep the Faith,
Jim
*Listen to this letter in an interview on YouTube!
