I Was a Clark's Girl (Volume #5)

 

Over the Back Fence

#5

I Was a Clark’s Girl

 

In all the years that I have lived in Dixon, I have seen a lot of things come and go:  businesses, houses, people, and services, as well as other things.  One of the things I miss most is Clark’s Drugstore. 

Clark’s was located in the area of Second Street (where Gann-Johnson Insurance and Dixon Floral are now located), its location since the mid-to-late 70s.  It had previously been located on the corner of Second and Elm Street, where the Plunkett building now stands. 

Inside of Clark’s Drugstore was a soda fountain/lunch counter, an area that sold liquor, a general or quasi-department store that sold greeting cards, school supplies, over the counter medicines, cosmetics, and other basic needs referred to as sundries, which are miscellaneous items typically not found in a grocery or general store.  You could even purchase custom made jewelry, or have jewelry or watches repaired.  Twentieth-century drugstores began as pharmaceutical operations with an attached lunch counter.  Originally, our local drug store began the same way when still owned by the Veasman family in its prior location; however, when it was purchased by Art and Mary Jo Clark, it mostly lost the pharmacy element, yet continued to retain ‘drugstore’ in the name.  Some soda fountains that were started slightly later in the 20^th Century were paired with ice cream parlors, department stores, candy stores, dime stores or even train (travel) stations, like Clark’s.  Most towns across America had one.

Fountain drinks began as various formulas of mineral water and sparkling water for the purpose of pharmaceutical use. Later those formulas were refined into carbonized soda water and was sold for its believed health benefits.  As this evolved, a lunch counter was added to most locations and many fountains in the Victorian and Art Deco eras were quite elaborately decorated.  The soda fountain with a lunch counter became much more popular during prohibition as it offered a neutral meeting place for social gatherings.  Obviously, it was very popular with teenagers as most lunch counters served ice cream in various forms and light foods not typically associated with the more formal meals of the day.

I have memories of the lunch counters in Dixon from both owners and locations and the lunch counter feature was very popular which continued until Clark’s closure due to the death of Art in the late 80s.   I worked for Art and Mary Jo Clark for a brief time in the mid 80s as a waitress/cook.  I have heard us referred to as “Clark’s Girls” meaning the waitresses behind the lunch counter who worked for Art and Mary Jo.  Usually, if you worked at Clark’s everyone in town knew your name.

People sometimes ask me: what is my favorite memory about working there?  I was pretty young and had been a frequent customer as well as family friend to the Clark’s for much of my life.  However, it just seemed like the Clark family as well as the co-workers were really accepting and didn’t just make me feel welcome but made me feel like family.  I got asked that question a lot—was I family?  No, I was not—but I often felt like I was.  I never worked anywhere else again where I felt like I was a part of the family like I did there.

The most popular item on the menu was obviously cheeseburgers.  I get more questions about cheeseburgers probably than any other thing.  What was so unique about them?  How did we make them taste like that?   The real secret was the grill.  It was seasoned perfectly and cleaned regularly.  I do not know whatever happened to that grill, but I would love to have it if it still exists.  The only thing different that I remember about making the cheeseburgers was that we got the meat from our local locker plant and that we added crushed up saltine crackers to the hamburger and they were served on toasted buns.

Most people also remember the onions.  Those were dehydrated onions that came in a large gallon sized milk carton that we would reconstitute as needed.  They were served in a small round white tablespoon sized paper container.   Many were surprised to find that they were reconstructed, but people liked them.

Most kids today understand that a soda fountain or fountain drink is one that is not prepackaged.  They have no idea that when their parents, grandparents, great-grandparents enjoyed sodas that we could have any soda flavor mixed with any other flavor.  This is where the concept of cherry-coke and vanilla-coke were born.  My mom’s favorite drink was chocolate-coke.  I will never forget how the carbonation worked against the chocolate making a thin chocolate film that I thought was kind of gross—but a lot of people liked it.  My personal favorite was to purchase the coke in a glass bottle which was also available.  Even though it didn’t come fresh from a fountain source, it was really good.  The recipe for coke was later changed and it has never been the same again and those glass bottles also mostly went away.

We served many sandwiches beyond burgers such as fish, chicken and the popular pizza burger.  While there is such a thing in modern times, I have never found one that tasted just the same as it did back then. 

What else do I remember?  Occasionally, I will remember a regular customers order.  For example, Jeff McMillian liked his onion rings well done.  Tim Parker loved a bowl of chili on a cold day along with his two cheeseburgers.  One customer who was elderly at the time, wanted me to microwave her hamburger—a curious choice but I did what she asked.

When I was employed there, Mary Jo had already semi-retired but she did come around somewhat often to make sure things were running smoothly.  Mary Jo told me she liked me because I was a good cleaner.  I found out that she had a pet peeve about the saltshakers being clogged.  When I saw her coming, I would pick up a toothpick and make sure that did not happen on my watch!  

I remember Art was very careful about fire.  Each table had an ashtray, and each ashtray was emptied between customers.  There was a strict rule about disposal of ashtrays—they were not to ever be put into the regular trash as they could later ignite a fire.

When you entered the front door, there was a pay phone in the center of the entrance area.  To the right there were large greeting card displays and a corridor to the lunch counter area.  I once had a friend who used to go to the greeting card area and borrow some of the poetry and send it in a letter to her boyfriend.  His mother thought she was the best poet!  I think back and wonder now exactly what Mary Jo thought when she saw us coming up there and looking at every card and taking notes.  I don’t think we ever bought a card. 

Sometimes when you walked in the door, an old dog had wondered inside with customers and found its place under the pay phone.   Yes, back then we did not have the rules and regulations that we have now—or at least we didn’t follow them.

I am describing a time before we had Wal-Mart or before Wal-Mart became a way of life anyway, and also before most fast food was available.  Dixon had a factory, and to a degree we were self-sustaining and we only needed to travel to the Rolla economic center for big things like a hospital.  St. Robert and Waynesville were larger than Dixon by that time, however they did not have much fast food or services like are available now.

There was always brisk business with the after-school crowd.  Milkshakes and malts were popular in those hours after school and there was usually a pool hall nearby where those who rode in from the country could kill a couple of hours before going to the ball game and catching their ride home.  On Saturday morning, breakfast was served—most people never realized that but they did serve breakfast.

This all may sound like curious trivia to a younger generation.  I always felt like my son’s generation got robbed because they did not have Clarks, they did not really have that after school hang out like we all did.  Sure there were places you could purchase similar food, but none that were the same atmosphere and nostalgia that Clark’s offered.  When I review the words I have written I realize in my life time just how many things we have lost.  Not just drug stores, soda fountains and lunch counters, but pay phones, chocolate cokes and even just the word ‘sundries’.  Even the dog and the ash trays I just can’t believe how different things have become.

An older local gentlemen told me once that Mary Jo had lived in Crocker and Art had asked for her hand in marriage and her father either taught him the watch business or was responsible for him learning that skill in some way so that he could provide a good life for his beautiful Mary Jo.  I don’t know if that story was true, but I think It could have been.   Regardless of how they came to Dixon and began their business, my generation and a few other generations were greatly blessed by their successful entrepreneurship of the store. 

Art used to talk to me for hours and tell me about the good ole’ days.  When he told me how far he had to walk to school I asked him why he just didn’t ride the school bus.  He told me there were none.  I wish I had written down or better remembered some of his stories.  He really was the sweetest person.  When he died my mom called me and told me.  I remember getting the news when I lived on the 9^th floor of my dormitory in Springfield, that he had died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.  I remember long time employee Karen Glasscock being inconsolable about his death.  It was a sad time.

In my perspective and opinion, the closing of Clark’s drugstore was just the beginning of many losses that Dixon suffered.  Soon after, we lost the factory and eventually the phone company.   We lost passenger service to the train years prior.  There was a time when all of the shopping in Dixon was owned by a local person and there were no chains.   Now the store ownership is more corporate with fewer sole proprietors.

I always said that if I came into a lot of money—I would open a soda fountain/lunch counter inspired by Clarks.   It isn’t likely that will happen but if nothing else, I want to at least try to put into words how wonderful they made my childhood and everyone else’s by being there for us.  Art and Mary Jo Clark with their family and their store are Dixon legends and I will never forget them.

 

Mary Jo Clark (center) behind lunch counter at former location (corner of 2^nd and Elm).