It’s always amazed me how Kodachrome film can make an over 50-year
old scene look like it took place last night. That’s certainly the case here in
this beautiful night shot of a Christmas shopping crowd at a Peoples Drug store
in Martinsburg, West Virginia, from an original slide I bought some time back.
But this was well over fifty years ago, probably closer to
sixty, an infinitely simpler time compared to today’s warp drive existence.
This was prior to the “shopping center era” for most communities across America,
and prior to the “mall era” for all but a handful. These were the early postwar
years, just before the boom, a time when doing a big chunk of one’s Christmas
shopping at the corner drugstore was still an entirely reasonable proposition.
When the main Christmas gifts one received, oftentimes, were the ones that
still matter most today –time spent and meals shared with loved ones. Oh, and maybe a new Falcon Pipe for Dad and a
bottle of Tussy Wind and Weather Lotion for Mom, of course.
Peoples Drug, the leading drugstore chain in the greater Washington,
D.C. area, had a history that spanned the 20th century itself, save
for a few years on either end. Founded in
1904 with a single store at 824 7th Street in D.C., the company had grown to
nearly 160 stores by the end of 1955, with locations in six states (Maryland, Virginia,
West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Tennessee) in addition to those in the District.
The Peoples name lasted until the early 90’s, a few years after their
acquisition by CVS.
I don’t know the address of this location, and being a night
photo there aren’t enough visible details to date the building with any accuracy.
As always, I’m hoping someone can help us here. The signage, however, sports the
wonderful late 30’s/early 40’s deco lettering (“drugs”) that many drug chains (and
variety chains like Kresge and Murphy) used from time to time on corner
locations.
To the extreme right of the photo you’ll notice another retail
icon – a tower sign for the Acme grocery store. Now there have been lots of
Acmes out there – Acme of Akron, Acme of Virginia, Acme Co. (makers of rocket-powered
roller skates, dehydrated boulders and the “Do-it-Yourself Tornado Kit”), but I
think this store was part of the best known Acme of all, the Acme Markets division
of the Philadelphia-based American Stores Company. For many years they operated
a small number of stores in the West Virginia panhandle.
All I know is I’d have loved to have done at least some of
my Christmas shopping there. A Stetson
hat and a time machine, and I’m there!
One quick note - I’m so sorry for the long gap between
posts. I’d like to be able to say I was “waiting for the end of the world” as
the Mayans would put it (or was that Elvis Costello – I never get these things
straight), but I can’t. I’m working on some new things to put up here, some
holiday related and some not, between now and Christmas.
In any event, I hope each one of you is off to a great
holiday season, or will be soon!
