Today, I’m feeling nostalgic & I’m going to share a story with you of my childhood. I began this post writing about the first library I visited, but somehow ended up somewhere else entirely! I’m going to save the library story for another day.
Margaret Elizabeth Compton, my mom’s mother, owned a beauty shop in Bluefield for over 50 years. Her shop, Elizabeth’s Beauty Shop, was closed every Sunday & Monday. Sunday was a day of rest & Monday was her “going to town” day. She paid her bills, made bank deposits, went to doctor appointments, and did all of the other errands she had for the week.
My grandmother went by lots of names—Liz, Lizzy, Margaret, and Elizabeth – but I knew her as “Nanny.” I asked my mom long ago how Nanny got the name. Mom said that when I tried to call her “Granny,” it came out “Nanny” instead and the name stuck.
Now, Nanny had a driver’s license her whole life, but I never once saw her behind the wheel of a car. Mom always drove Nanny wherever she needed to go & during summer vacation, my sister & I went, too. We always looked forward to going when we weren’t in school.
We would start our day off early, and our first stop was breakfast. Afterward, we went to the bank, paid bills, bought groceries, and did anything else that was on the to-do list. By then, it was time for lunch.
In Bluefield, VA, our favorite place to eat was New Graham Pharmacy. The pharmacy was opened in 1935 by brothers Edwin A. (Bus) & James McNeer. It expanded & was remodeled several times over the years, but the heart of it never changed.
New Graham Pharmacy had an old-fashioned soda fountain & was the spot to go to lunch. There was a counter with lots of stools and four or five booths. The furniture was classic soda fountain, red vinyl & chrome with glitter topped tables. The line was always long but worth the wait.
The menu was always the same. Grilled cheese, egg salad, ham salad, pimento cheese & chicken salad sandwiches, all cut diagonally and served with a pickle spear. Crispy crinkle cut French fries, homemade Cole slaw & jello salad. Juicy cheeseburgers and hotdogs with all the fixings.
But the best thing there was the drinks! They made homemade cherry, vanilla, or chocolate sodas. They used fresh cherry juice, vanilla, or rich chocolate syrup to flavor whatever soda you wanted. My favorite was a chocolate Coke. We never drank soda at home, so it was a very special treat to have on Mondays.
Not only did the pharmacy have the best soda fountain, but it was the place to get greeting cards, gifts, magazines & just about anything you could want. I even had my ears pierced there!
This type of small town locally owned stores don’t exist in many places anymore. It is one of the memories that I carry near & dear to my heart. I hope that this reminds you a time when things were simpler.
What I wouldn’t give for another sandwich & chocolate Coke with Nanny!
Camping with Christi 
I too have such wonderful memories of my Grammy too! we`d have Tea in pretty china cups with bread cream cheese and jam/preserves. She lived close to us, so I would ride my bike or walk to her house for lunch during school times, loved hearing all her wonderful stories of how she grew up in PA, by the mining towns and became an RN, taking care of all the burned miners from the explosions, I also remember soda fountains growing up in Brooklyn, egg creams were well known and just so good, and my Dad`s aunt & uncle owned a candy store up in Warrensberg NY, also sold everything there too but the best was sitting at the fountain and having my Aunt Marty make me an ice cream soda, for FREE!! lol.. Oh, boy, the good times are surely missed but I`m glad to have lived it and hold on to such wonderful memories!
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So many wonderful memories! Thank you so much for sharing these with me. Love you!
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