I had to stop into a CVS Pharmacy on my way to the gym this morning. I could have chosen one in either Derby, near my Nest, or one in Norwalk near my gym. Quite convenient. Both are open 24 hours a day. That’s important for me. You see, I keep strange hours.
It is rare for me to get home before 10:30 on any night, either in Derby or Woodbury. And I am at the gym as close to 5:00 in the morning as I can get.
My purchases today were quite mundane: shampoo, deodorant and Stars and Stripes flavoured water (with just a bit of sparkle). Of course, if I had wanted to, I could have purchased Valentine cards, candy, food in abundant variety, electronic stuff (not fancy), snow shovels (had it been summer: everything for beach & patio), DVDs, CDs, magazines… I could have dropped off film for development. And… oh yes, actually had a prescription filled. Surprised? Well, after all, it is a drug store.
Fine.
At the gym I put in 3 miles on the tread mill. Nothing fancy. Cut a sweat and warmed up for my 6:00AM yoga class. This was to be my second session.
I had been grousing to a couple of my gym-mates about the increasing loss of flexibility (I grouse about other things; but that need not be described here). Two “brothers-in-sweat”, one younger, one older, both endorsed yoga and its rigorous stretching as something that would help me. And classes are offered at our gym on a pro bono basis.
I checked it out. I loved it.
So here I sit for the second time. On my unfurled floor mat. Sitar music in the background (which I find as soothing as listening to LL Cool J), I am in a position that is somewhere between somewhat and completely uncomfortable. Eyes closed. Our instructor, who truly has a soothing “WQXR” voice, reminds us about breathing, maintaining posture… finding our inner core beginning with our spine as a source for relaxing… “relax fully and seek our place.”
I don’t know about this “inner core” stuff. I am thinking that this is merely meant as a diversion to keep simple folk, like me, from recognizing how uncomfortable they are. Sorry. This “inner core” malarkey is too esoteric for me.
Still, the idea of “our place” is not without merit…
So when I am in the “ultimate land crab” position, also called a pose (something that I will hold for three minutes)… my mind takes a “stroll” to Beck’s Drug Store in New Haven.
Don’t look for it today. It exists no more.
But when I was a kid, it graced the corner of Edgewood and Central, four blocks from our home on Alston. It was an easy walk, even for a little kid… cross McKinley, Alden, Marvel and then Central.
Beck’s was a small place. Even to a little kid like me. The floor was made of tiny hexagonal white tiles. There was a counter with a soda fountain & maybe a half dozen stools. There was also a counter where you picked up prescriptions. And on the wall behind that counter were shelves filled with a small collection of pint and fifth sized bottles of hootch… although at that age, brand identity was not important to me, I can imagine that Dewars, Canadian Club and Beefeaters were represented.
I don’t recall there being anything in the open floor space… no kiosks with greeting cards, or displays with hair spray. I think it was just a place to stand and wait for a stool (although I can’t remember ever having to wait for a stool)… or for your turn to pick up your prescription, or perhaps a fifth of rye.
The presence of spirits for sale in a drug store was a residue of Prohibition. The Volstead Act (our 18th Amendment) which became the Law of The Land on January 29, 1920 prohibited the “manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors… for beverage purposes.”
There was, however, no prohibition of alcohol for “medicinal” purposes. No surprise that the period between 1920 and 1933 saw a dramatic rise in sympathetic physicians who would prescribe a “wee dram of the devil that bit ya”.
Well here it is, the 50s and a small neighborhood drug store still dispensed alcohol; but no longer with the need of an Rx.
The presence of a soda fountain, on the other hand, had its origin to the previous century when soda water was considered a healthy tonic. And eventually ice cream became layered in.
Of this I can assure you… when Ian Gordon and I walked into Beck’s, demon rum was not on our minds, a tasty ice cream soda was.
“Can I have a rootbeer float, please?”
*******
You know, you can get a lot at a CVS today; but you can’t get a rootbeer float.
*******
Hey… are three minutes up yet?