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50 years of prescriptions
Oliver, a Castleberry native, joined the Navy after graduating high school. He came out of the Navy in 1953 and enrolled at Auburn University. He graduated in March 1957 and was licensed in December 1957. "My brother was a pharmacist and he coerced me in that direction," Oliver said. Even before he went to college he concocted his own ointments at home. First worked in Mobile store "It doesn't seem like it's been 50 years," he said. Oliver first went to work at Molyneux in Mobile. He worked there nine years before he went to work at Mac's Drugs in Jackson, where he worked for 32 years. While at Mac's he also filled in for Harris at City Drugs in Grove Hill and went to work there full time in 1997. He retired two years ago, but hopes to get back behind the prescription counter soon.
Harris from Ohio Harris, a Portland, Ohio native, joined the Air Force after graduating high school. He enrolled at Auburn University after leaving the Air Force in December 1954. He graduated in March 1958 and was licensed in July 1958. "I was stationed in Rapid City, South Dakota and I needed a part-time job. I was hired at a drug store and that's how I got interested in pharmacy," he said. He began working at Mac's Drugs three months before graduating and continued working there until he and the owners, Mac McClamy and Crane McDonald, decided to open a drug store in Grove Hill. City Drugs was opened in September 1959.
Both men have practically been adopted into many of their customers' families. They have been called out at all hours of the night to fill a prescription. Whether they are in a restaurant, at church or in the grocery store, someone will likely approach them seeking advice for an ailment or with questions about their medication. Harris even had one customer call and ask for his assistance with a water leak. "I went over to her house and fixed it," he laughed. "I consider this drug store a complete drug store. We provide services of all kinds. People used to come to me when they needed their picture made. I gave away I don't know how many pictures." A lot has changed over the past 50 years. "When I started out the labels had no glue on them. You typed the label up and dragged it through mucilage. Then the labels came with glue on them but you had to stick them in water. Then they came in a big roll and you typed on them and peeled them off. Then we came to the computer age and got the labels in a box of 100 and the computer printed them. It's been a magnificent change," Oliver said. Many more medicines today Fifty years ago there were only about one fourth as many medications on the market as there is now. Many of the medicines used in the 1950s are obsolete today. When Harris and Oliver started out prescriptions and labels were stamped with the same numbers. Then the prescriptions were stuck on a metal rod. When a refill was needed the pharmacist had to look through hundreds of prescriptions to get information and the price to charge the customer. Now, with the help of computers, they have this information in minutes, simply by pressing a few buttons. Today it is not unusual for a pharmacist to fill 300 prescriptions a day. Back in the 1950s pharmacists were required to comply with an ordinance called the Blue Law. Part of the law stated that if a customer wanted to transfer a prescription from one drug store to another, the second drug store had to call the original store and charge the customer the same amount for the medication. The law also prohibited pharmacies from being open on Sundays, but that was not in effect for long. When Harris first opened up City Drugs the store was open from 8 a.m. until 7 p.m. Monday through Saturday and from 3 p.m. until 5 p.m. on Sundays. He only got a half day off on Thursday when another pharmacist came in to give him a break. Mac's Drugs was once open from 7 a.m. until 9 p.m. Monday though Saturday. Gone by in a hurry "That 50 years has gone by in a hurry," Harris laughed. Oliver and his wife, Alice, live in Jackson. They have three children, Eddie, Lori and Stephanie, and four grandchildren, AshLee, Joanna, Sam and Addyson.
Harris and his wife, Jean, live in Grove Hill and have a daughter, Debbie, who is also a pharmacist and works at City Drugs three days a week, and two grandsons,
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