Writers often have to cut parts of their stories for word count. Lost Chapters is a collection of scenes from Pharmacy Girl that got left behind. Today’s entry helps set the stage for the story. One of Josie’s first homework assignments is to draw a map and write a descriptive essay about her favorite place. Here is what Josie wrote.
Josie Winslow
English Composition—Description
September 1918
My Favorite Place
Kate’s grandpa Joe standing outside his drug store circa 1918
I love my father’s drug store. I could draw a map of the store with my eyes closed. A white marble soda fountain takes up most of one wall. In the center of the store, we have a few small ice cream tables and chairs, the kind with wrought-iron legs and graceful, heart-shaped backs. At the front of the store, plate-glass windows let in plenty of light, and polished wood and glass cabinets glow in front of the walnut-stained shelves lining the east wall. Ceiling fans and white globe lights hang from a pressed tin ceiling. Even the ceiling has a shine to it. The patterns in the metal make me think of Dutch Christmas cookies—the kind with flower designs rolled into the dough.
My favorite part of the drug store is the soda fountain. Behind the counter, there are built-in ice chests to hold tubs of ice cream. They are so deep I have to stand on a fruit crate to scoop the ice cream from the bottom. My favorite flavor is peach. Over the ice cream chests there are metal containers for syrups, nuts, and chocolate sprinkles. We make our own chocolate fudge sauce for sundaes. Along the wall, there is a huge mirror and shelves of glassware. We even have an electric mixer just for milkshakes.
One of the first things I learned how to do was make sodas. The goose-necked soda water dispenser was not as easy as it looked. It took some practice to keep the carbonated water from splashing all over. What a sticky mess syrup and soda water is to clean up!
Dad’s store is a treasure trove of interesting things: penny candy, boxes of Whitman’s chocolates, and the latest in celluloid toiletry sets with matching brushes, mirrors, and nail buffers.
We sell Pond’s cold cream, face lotions to remove freckles, and Dad’s own remedy for sore feet. We have lavender and rose-fragranced colognes in pretty glass bottles, hair tonics for men, bandages, liniments for aching muscles, mustard plasters for coughs, and ointments for every kind of blister, boil, or bunion. Dad loves the Kodak cameras we sell in the store and is always taking pictures. He is teaching me to take pictures too. We have a pay telephone booth and even a post office substation.
Of course, we sell remedies and prescription drugs to help people get well.
I love my father’s store. It is my favorite place in the entire world. (I do like school too.)