The Corner Drug Store

I'm a bit bummed. Our corner drugstore (here in N. KY) is closing as of this coming Wednesday. Now, after three years of using a friendly, neighborhood pharmacist who knew what was wrong with us, like a doctor does, and knew when to tell us if something new being prescribed might work against us (too many doctors, not knowing what the other one is doing, type of thing) -- well, he's retiring.

In Runnemede, Pitt's Drugstore was on the corner of First and the Pike and that's where we went to get our medicines when I was a child. Medicines sounds better than drugs. Anyway, I've mentioned Pitt's before, I believe. It was the kind of drug store you see in older movies -- it had a soda fountain, a magazine rack, a few perfumes, after-shaves, that sort of thing, and in the back was the pharmacists counter. We enjoyed the same kind of service from Mr. Pitt (the pharmacist/owner) as we have had here in N. KY these past few years.

So now, here in Northern Kentucky, we're stuck again with the mega drugstore -- either Walmart, Walgreen's, Kroger's, or CVS. Alan and I don't really like any of them. They are so impersonal, and it's like they just don't care. At least at Martin's (that was our neighborhood pharmacy) we knew that Mr. Martin cared, and he always asked how we were doing. If one of us was sick and the other picked up the medicine, he always inquired on the progress. In Alan's last illness, every time I went into the store he wanted a progress report. I shall miss that.

We have had issues with the mega-stores because of their pro-death stance, so we were so glad that we found the smaller store who was able to not fill the morning-after prescriptions that the larger chains have to fill. There were other issues with the larger chains as well, like their support of the Gay Olympics, and they're non-support of Christmas.

Oh, well, perhaps we'll find another small pharmacy which isn't 30 miles away, but Mr. Martin didn't know of any, so, I assume there are none.

Gone are the days...