Blondie

Fred’s Xpress Pharmacy has opened in a new building on the new 4 lane highway  just south in Greenfield.  In 1998 Fred’s bought out Belew Drugs, Greenfield Drugs, and Bradford Drugs in the neighboring town of Bradford and combined them into one pharmacy.  They located in the Belew Drug building just south of the old Church of Christ building on Front St. in Greenfield for a period of time before this new building was completed.

In days gone by Belew Drugs was located on North Front where the new Community Bank of Greenfield is now located.  Prior to that Belew Drugs was on the corner of Front and Broad St. just across from the Greenfield Banking Co.

Greenfield Drugs has had the same name as long as I can remember.  Its last location before being bought out by Fred’s was on Broad St. just behind the Greenfield Bank.  In days gone by it was located down on the other corner of Front and “Soup” Streets.

When I was a child and a teenager Belew Drugs was known as Brasfield Drug Co and Gent Belew and Bert Adcock were the owner/operators.   Mr. Gent was also the distributor for the “Memphis Commercial Appeal.”  Mr. Gent gave me my first job delivering those papers, when I got my first bicycle, at about 9 or 10 years old.  It’s hard now to imagine, in today’s inflated economy, that for my first job I received less than a dollar a week.

In those days both drug stores had a “soda fountain.”  When I was a little older, at about 13 or 14  years old, Mr. Bert and Gent gave me a job as “soda jerk.”  Until you’ve worked as a “soda jerk” all day Saturday until closing about 11 p.m. you don’t know what ‘tired’ is.

We had 2 sinks to wash glasses and bowls in.  One to wash with soap and the other to rinse.  Of course the wash water would get dirty pretty fast.  The rinse water would have to be changed many times during the day.  Mr. Bert had a habit of making himself about a fourth glass of fountain coke several times a day.  He would take one or two swallows and always pour the remainder in the sink.  As soon as I had just prepared the rinse sink with fresh water  I could always look forward to Mr. Bert dumping his coke in my fresh water.

Until I was about 25 years old my hair was so red it would put a fire engine to shame.  Mr. Gent therefore nicknamed me “Blondie”.  Don’t ask me why.

They kept the ice cream frozen so hard it was very difficult to dip ice cream easily.  I always thought Mr. Gent had eyes in the back of his head.  He was usually behind the prescription counter in the back somewhat hidden from view.  One day my best friend, John Ben (Benny) Nelson came in for an ice cream cone.  One dip cones were a nickel in those days.  Of course I was gonna give Benny a heaping dip.  As I was working hard to fill the dipper with a big full dipper I heard Mr. Gent holler from behind the prescription counter, “Don’t break your arm Blondie” ……………. I knew what he meant.  Joe Stout.

The photo below is the Brasfield Drug Store some 25 years before I worked there.  Mr. Gent is the 3rd from the left.  Looks like he had hair then.  The soda fountain is in the lower left corner.