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SOUTH PARK SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF

BUDDY AND JANE HEBERT
Highland Avenue Pharmacy

MEMORIES

    ONE OF MY FONDEST MEMORIES AS A CHILD GROWING UP IN SOUTH PARK WERE THE VISITS WE
MADE TO THE HIGHLAND AVENUE PHARMACY, LOCATED AT THE CORNER OF HIGHLAND AVENUE
AND WOODROW.  WHAT A THRILL IT WAS TO WALK INTO THIS PHARMACY AND SEE THE SODA
FOUNTAIN, WITH ITS MARBLE COUNTER TOP, HIGH STOOLS LINED UP IN FRONT - MIRRORS ON THE
WALL BEHIND THE COUNTER - LINED WITH ALL TYPES OF WONDERFUL ITEMS, INCLUDING THE
FANCY GLASSES THAT COULD BE FILLED WITH WONDER FUL DELICACIES SUCH AS ICE CREAM
SODAS IN ALL FLAVORS, MALTS AND SHAKES, SUNDAES, BANANA SPLITS - COKES AND ICE CREAM
CONES.

    AND IT WAS SUCH A TREAT TO SIT AT THE SMALL ROUND TABLES IN ONE OF THE LITTLE CHAIRS.
THIS TRIP TO THE HIGHLAND AVENUE PHARMACY WAS LIKE TAKING A TRIP TO MAKEBELIEVE
WORLD.

    ALL AROUND THE PHARMACY WERE WONDERFUL ITEMS FOR GIFTS, GREETING CARDS AND AT THE
BACK WERE SHELVES LINED WITH ALL BRANDS AND TYPES OF PATENTED MEDICINE.

    I WAS A CHILD OF THE DEPRESSION AND WE DID NOT GET TO MAKE A TRIP TO THE DRUG STORE
THAT OFTEN, BUT WHEN WE DID GET TO GO, IT WAS A MAJOR EVENT TO US. (OF COURSE THERE
WERE THE TIMES THAT MY SISTER AND I JUST WENT FOR A WALK TO THE DRUG STORE JUST TO
STAND IN (AMAZEMENT.)

    BUT THE GREATEST MEMORIES WERE WHEN UNCLE BEN CAME TO TOWN, AND WE ALWAYS KNEW
HE WOULD TAKE US TO THE DRUG STORE AND BUY THAT SPECIAL SUNDAE, SODA OR MALT. MOMS
ALWAYS CAUTIONED US NOT TO ASK UNCLE BEN FOR AN ICE CREAM CONE OR SODA, BUT WE
ALWAYS KNEW HE WOULD REMEMBER. (BESIDES, MOMS ALWAYS MADE HIS FAVORITE - BANANA
PUDDING.) BUT THERE WAS THAT ONE TIME WHEN UNCLE BEN GOT SO INVOLVED IN
CONVERSATION WE JUST KNEW HE HAD FORGOTTEN OUR "SPECIAL TREAT" UNTIL MY LITTLESISTER
CASUALLY MENTIONED THAT IT WAS SO HOT TODAY SHE ALMOST WISHED SHE WASSITTING IN A
DISH OF ICE CREAM. UNCLE BEN SUDDENLY REMEMBERED (AND SHE HAD NOT ASKED) - SO OFF WE
WENT AGAIN FOR A WONDERFUL TRIP TO THE DRUG STORE

    RICHARD E.WITHERS OWNED THE WHOLE BLOCK- HIGHLAND AVENUE, DOWN WOODROW TO
PERSHING TO PALM AND BACK TO  HIGHLAND AVENUE..

    WHILE MR. WITHERS WAS NOT A PHARMACIST, HE BUILT THE HIGHLAND AVENUE PHARMACY IN
1921 OR 1922 AT ITS PRESENT LOCATION, HIGHLAND AVENUE AND WOODROW, IN WHICH HE
INSTALLED THIS WONDERFUL SODA FOUNTAIN THERE WAS NO PHARMACY AT THE TIME, BUT IN THE
BACK PART OF THE BUILDING WAS THE OFFICE AND EXAMINATION ROOMS OF A DOCTOR. THERE
WAS AN EXTERIOR DOOR FRONTING WOODROW FOR AN ENTRANCE TO THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE, AND
HISOFFICE COULD ALSO BE ENTERED FROM THE BACK OF THE PHARMACY BUILDING.

    MR. WITHERS SOLD PATENT MEDICINE IN HIS PHARMACY, AND THERE WERE SHELVES LINED WITH
ALL TYPES OF THESE MEDICINES. THEY CAME IN ALL SHAPES,SIZES AND FORMS OF GLASS OR TIN
CONTAINERS - AND THIS WAS AN EXPERIENCE JUST TO LOOK AROUND AT ALL THESE CONTAINERS.

    AT THE TIME THE PHARMACY WAS BUILT, THERE WERE NO PAVED ROADS, AND WOODROW AND
HIGHLAND AVENUE WERE DIRT STREETS - BUT BY THE TIME I BEGAN VISITING THE PHARMACY, THE
STREETS HAD BEEN BLACKED TOPPED. AND THERE WERE TROLLEY CARS RUNNING DOWN
WOODROW (THE REMINDER OF THOSE TRACKS STAYED FOR MANY YEARS.)

    DON BARTON, WHO STILL OPERATES THE BARBER SHOP NEXT DOOR, GRADUATED FROM SOUTH
PARK HIGH SCHOOL IN 1931, AND AS A TEEN AGER GROWING UP, WORKED BEHIND THE SODA
FOUNTAIN OF THE DRUG STORE, AND I AM SURE CAN TELL MANY TALES DURING THIS TIME.

    HARRY MASON, SR. OBTAINED HIS PHARMACY DEGREE IN 1924 FROM THE FORT WORTH FARMER
PHARMACY COLLEGE, AND IN 1946 HE PURCHASED THE HIGHLAND AVENUE PHARMACY FROM
MR.WITHERSAND INSTALLED THE PHARMACY IN THE BACK OF THE BUILDING FORMERLY OCCUPIED
BY A DOCTOR. AS I RECALL, IN THOSE DAYS THE PHARMACIST MIXED THEIR OWN MEDICATIONS BY
A FORMULA.

    HARRY MASON, JR. ATTENDED SOUTH PARK SCHOOLS, GRADUATING FROM SOUTH PARK HIGH
SCHOOL IN 1954. HE WAS CLASS PRESIDENT OF HIS 1954 SENIOR CLASS, A MEMBER OF THESTUDENT
COUNCIL, TREASURER AND HI-Y, ANDWAS VERY ACTIVE IN STUDENT AFFAIRS.

    HE OBTAINED HIS PHARMACY .DEGREE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON IN 1964, AND JOINED
HIS FATHER IN THE HIGHLAND AVENUE PHARMACY.

    AS TIME WENT BY, STUDENTS ATTENDING THE AREA SCHOOLS ACCUMULATED IN THE SODA
FOUNTAIN AREA IN LARGE GROUPS, AND AT MANY TIMES BECAME EXCESSIVELY UNRULY, ANDIN
1970 THE OWNERS HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO CLOSE THE SODA FOUNTAIN AREA - WHICH WAS THE
END OF A BEAUTIFUL ERA.

    AND AS SO OFTEN HAPPENS - PROGRESS DICTATES FATE, AND THE LITTLE HIGHLAND AVENUE
PHARMACY COULD NO LONGER COMPETE WITH THE LARGER PHARMACY CHAINS MOVING INTO THE
AREA -AND IN 1992 THE HIGHLAND AVENUE PHARMACY CLOSED ITS DOORS.

    YOU CAN STILL TAKE A PEEK THROUGH THE WINDOWS OF THE PHARMACY AND SEE THE SODA
FOUNTAIN AND MIRRORS IN ALL THEIR GLORY -AND EVEN THE LITTLE TABLES AND CHAIRS
STANDING ABANDONED IN THE AREA. WHAT WONDERFUL, PRECIOUS MEMORIES THEY RAVETO
TELL IF ONLY THEY COULD.

    THE HIGHLAND AVENUE PHARMACY IS WHERE OUR NEIGHBORHOOD ASSOCIATION HELD ITS FIRST
MEETING, THE BEGINNING OF OUR FIGHT TO SURVIVE.

    THANKS TO HARRY MASON, JR. FOR HIS HELP IN MAKING OUR ASSOCIATION POSSIBLE - AND FOR
ALL THE WONDERFUL DAYS OF SOME BEAUTIFUL MEMORIES.