As of Thursday, August 2, 2007, the Mariposa Drug Company ceased to
exist. The name will go on in Mariposa County history, just as the
Mariposa Drug Store, the J. J. Cook Drug Store and perhaps others,
but at least for the foreseeable future no Drug Store will carry that
name. It is replaced by the Rite Aid Store which will be at the
Pioneer Center for a time, then their own location at the corner of
Joe Howard Road and Hwy. 49 N.
On that March day in 1943, when my father brought mother and I to
Mariposa for the first time, we were to see and enter the 17 year old
Mariposa Drug Company in the Odd Fellows building downtown at the
corner of 6th and Charles. At that time people still referred to Hwy
140 as Main St or Charles St., as the highway had just been rebuilt
in l940 to pass along Charles St., north instead of up 7th St to 8th;
then out what is now called the Old Highway, towards Yosemite. Few
cars were in town and fewer even went to Yosemite National Park. For
all intents and purposes the Park was closed, the Curry Company
operations suspended and most of the families were working in the
ship yard at Richmond or in the military. Now after 81 years, 64
under Radanovich family ownership, the life blood of our family is
gone.
I was very familiar with the Drug Stores in Exeter and Porterville
that my father had worked in. He worked in two stores because it was
the Depression and one had to do the best he could. The owners gave
dad an old Plymouth to commute between the two towns which provided
my first experience attempting to start a car by depressing the
starter switch which was next to the accelerator on the floor. I
recall my father’s reaction to such a bold move at probably 5 years
of age. Trial and error, mostly error, has been my policy for most
of my life. Father had a way of dealing with error.
Dad never liked working for some one else so when the opportunity
came to purchase a small Drugstore at a reasonable price, he began
searching for an “angle” to help him. My mother’s parents had
friends named Hahn, who were Orange Grove farmers in Exeter who
agreed to help him with the down payment on both the house and store
in Mariposa, plus he could sell our home in Exeter. Still the whole
thing seemed like an impossible task for a young man with two small
children and they worked seven days a week, serving Mariposa
everything from medicines, ordinary items such as soap and
toothpaste, a soda fountain, a liquor section which often was the
source of warming for the older men who were county officials during
a especially cold winter day; Black Leg vaccine for the cattle,
Evening in Paris for the ladies and tobacco products for the men
which could be smoked, snuffed, chewed or rolled.
Within a couple of years, I was sweeping the sidewalk and gutters,
hanging on the hitching rack in front of the store, dusting bottles,
restocking the prescription packaging or finding the right color of
Putnam Dye for the ladies of the town. Later I was working the soda
fountain after school and on weekends with Jim Turner and Marge
Carter. Mother made mayonnaise at home out of oil and eggs for the
tuna salad sandwiches at the soda fountain for lunch. We brewed
Farmers Bros. coffee every morning mostly for the county officials
who sat and sipped the brew waiting for Mariposa Express to bring the
mail. The Post Office was in the building now occupied by Castillo’s
Mexican Café today, but at that time was located next to Randy’s
49’er bar until moving to 5th St.
Over the door to the store was an electric fan to keep the flies
our, (probably from Antoine Jose’s donkeys tied to the hitching rack
outside the store). The fan made a noise which I still remember,
running all during the hours that the store was open. A string hung
down just low enough for dad to turn the fan off at the end of the
day. Lined up along the wall in the front of the store, in the space
occupied by the show windows, were the boxes in which newspapers
would be stuffed every day for those who had subscriptions. It could
be charged to their regular account each month and Leola Whitley
would sit up stairs at the office desk posting the charges to one’s
account every day. Some also got a ½ pint of Old Crow 5 days a week,
which would also be posted daily. The platform that created the
office was barely 6 ft from the ceiling but was not a problem for the
short Leola. On the other hand, the iron pipes that still cross the
ceiling of what is now the Fremont House did prove to be a problem
for father, uncle and sons. For not only did we have that
arrangement for more than sixteen years, but bounding up the stairs
to the platform office often sent us directly in the way of the bars
and all Radanovich men, when they reached 5 ft 10 and taller, had a
constant bruise on the forehead or just to one side.
The safe that we used still is displayed in the Fremont House.
Father knew the combination for the outside doors but not the inside
box. It was a standard instruction that no one would lock the inside
box under serious pain. Just inside the front door of the Drug
Store, to the left, was the tobacco case with the pumice stone
humidor which had to be soaked in water once a week and re-installed
to give off the moisture to keep the tobacco products moist and
fresh. Taylor made cigarettes, in their foil packages, were in a
rack where one would remove the bottom package and the rest would
slide into place. Such brands as Camels and Lucky Strikes were the
premium products. The Bull Durham and Bugler, which were contained
in cloth bags, were kept in the humidor case. Also kept there were
the cigars and chewing tobacco.
Chewing tobaccos, such as Brown’s Mule, were tobacco in plugs,
wrapped in foil or paper. During WWII the foil disappeared into the
war effort and a kind of cellophane material covered the product.
Beechnut was rough cut tobacco contained in a pouch, where as Prince
Albert and Sir Walter Raleigh were pipe tobaccos in tin cans.
Edgeworth came after the war. Garrett Snuff was in a small crockery
vessel with a plug, most desired by the ladies who would buy a poke,
and insert a dip into their nostrils way before leaving the store.
This would elicit a sneeze and a smile. Out would come a dainty
handkerchief (also for sale at the back counter) to dab the excess
material from the upper lip. I don’t remember Copenhagen during the
war, but right after it was a new item to stock the department with.
The Drug Store could be depended on for fancy products not found
elsewhere. Delicate hankies, hair nets with rhinestones for Saturday
night at the Lodge, and products guaranteed to increase desirability
and youth for both men and women. For those ladies who desired
various shades of auburn or red hair, there was a henna rinse. For
men who whished to hide the fact that father time was approaching,
mustache wax and dark pencils could give one a suave appearance.
Dixie Peach Pomade for the hair kept every shaft in place and who would not like to look like Rudolph Valentino on Saturday night at Bootjack.
The fixtures around the perimeter of the room were made of mahogany
veneer. Lined up were all of the products of a good Drug Store.
Such things as water bottles, enamel hospital pans in various sizes,
(one which was narrow was called a fracture pan so that someone with
a leg in a cast could function), ice bags, trusses with an assortment
of attachable pillows which could fit the exact size of the hernia.
I never did get used to fitting these things on old miners and
loggers. Crutches hung in the back room although we seldom needed
them. We did, however, sell crutch tips and pads. The reason often
was that those who needed such support would make a pair out of oak
branches, to cut costs. Eye patches were in a drawer near the cash
register. Frequent accidents caused either sever injury or loss of
eyes and limbs. Dr. John Stewart Webster generally did not have any
of the appliances of injury, instead patching people up, setting the
bone with no x-ray and sent off to the Drug Store for everything
else. He was the last of the mine company doctors who could go down
into a shaft, set the leg with out x-ray, and extract the victim to
the arms of his family. We sold miles of gauze and white adhesive
tape which was guaranteed to remove skin while being removed. We
provided him with many pounds of plaster of Paris. And Epson Salts.
As a young pharmacist, Dad once won a contest for selling more Epson
Salts than anyone else.
I never heard the name pharmacy around our store. The pharmacy was
the prescription room and the rest of the place was the Drug Store.
Drugs were mostly from natural organic origin. Such things as roots,
corms, tops, flowers, leaves, exudates (saps) were the source of
tinctures, emulsions, nostrums, ointments, salves; all had to be
extracted with water or alcohol, combined to become the elixir of
relief. Tonics were often combinations of such drugs as iron,
quinine and strychnine. Lydia Pinkams soothed the ladies on those
days of distress, and Absorbine Jr and Sr (Veterinary) absolved the
pain of cutting fire wood with a hand saw. Aspirin was drug of
choice, although a number of products for the purpose of relieving
pain associated with excess imbibing were presented as powders. The
thought was that the powder would dissolve quicker thus presenting
earlier relief. There were nostrums for almost every malady of man
or women in that Drug Store. (More next week. The proper way to
make an ice cream soda!)
Leroy Radanovich
Leroy Radanovich Email:
Leroy Radanovich
To Read More By Leroy Radanovich:
Leroy Radanovich's Mariposa Life Archives
To learn much more about Mariposa County along with
historical photos:
A signed copy of "Images of America" - Mariposa County,
By Leroy Radanovich can be purchased at his web site:
Radanovich Galleria & Books
This is a early day photo of the Mariposa Mine in
Mariposa County
that is mentioned in the article to
the left by Mr. Radanovich.
This photo and others can be purchased in various sizes.
All prints are archivally printed on fiber based paper, given a selenium wash which renders the photographs permanent with a
warm tone ready for framing
Radanovich Galleria & Books
Mariposa in 1920
This photo and others can be purchased in various sizes.
All prints are archivally printed on fiber based paper, given a selenium wash which renders the photographs permanent with a
warm tone ready for framing
Radanovich Galleria & Books
Mariposa County Courthouse written by Leroy Radanovich and
Scott Pinkerton is a book about the oldest courthouse in California that is still in use today.
The book is signed by Leroy Radanovich.
To purchase the book:
Radanovich Galleria & Books
Mariposa in 1860
This photo and others can be purchased in various sizes.
All prints are archivally printed on fiber based paper, given a selenium wash which renders the photographs permanent with a
warm tone ready for framing
Radanovich Galleria & Books