THE DRUG STORE

Aunt Alice and Uncle Bob ran a drug store. To Jenny it was an enchanted place. In the summer they sometimes got ice cream cones. They came in strawberry, chocolate, vanilla and rainbow. Jenny thought the rainbow best of all, because it was so pretty in pink, green and yellow. Then she saw a little girl spill some all down the front of her white silk dress, when the double dip melted. The little girl's Mother gave her a swat and the little girl screamed in rage. After that, Jenny chose strawberry. She liked the real pieces of strawberry that were in it.

One hot Saturday afternoon Jenny and Margaret were with Mother in town.

“Let’s all go to the drug store and have something cold to drink, “ suggested Mother.

“Even you, Mother?” Jenny asked. Jenny had never seen Mother order anything at the drug store for herself. It had never occurred to her that grown ups even did this.

“Course, dummy!” Margaret said to her. She wasn’t going to let Jenny spoil things.

They opened the door and went into the cool, somewhat dark drug store. Jenny liked the way it smelled. All drug stores smelled this way. The ceilings were high with sculpted tin designs bordering squares, as were in many of the stores then. They walked past the wonderful marble soda fountain toward one of the round tables with round-seated chairs with curly wire backs and legs. Pretty cousin Dorothy Jo asked them what they would like.

“Oh, something cold to drink,” Mother told her.

Cousin Dorothy Jo brightly suggested pop.

“No, it’s too bitey for Jenny and me.”

“How about some chocolate sodas, then?”

When Mother looked at the price list above the soda fountain and saw the fifteen cent sign, she said, “No, I think not. What do you have for a nickel?”

“We have ace-highs.”

“Just what are they?

The girl gave an exasperated little sigh. These country people were such sticks in the mud, but you had to be nice to them, especially the relatives.

“Ace highs are something like milk with chocolate in them,” she said.

“All right then. We’ll each have one of those.”

Soon Dorothy Jo brought three tall foaming glasses on a tray. She got a big book for Jenny to sit on because Jenny couldn’t reach the top of her glass. Mother gave them each a paper drinking straw from the special glass container in the center of the table and a napkin for each from the napkin holder. Jenny had never had a drinking straw before and clamped down on it too hard so that it stuck together, so Mother gave her another and told her to just suck on it and not bite down or suck too hard. Jenny and Margaret watched the chocolate liquid go up and down as they sipped and sometimes back down as they stopped sipping and let it go back. Drinking through straws was nice; it felt good on the tip of your tongue. Mother said this was pretty good on a hot day and it was nice to come in here out of the heat, and Margaret and Jenny both said they just loved ace highs.

Jenny saw a lady get a dish of ice cream with a cherry on top. It was served in a fancy glass dish. It looked so pretty. It must be very expensive. Jenny thought that maybe when she got big and had a lot of money, she might get one of these.

Jenny patted her stomach and said, “I’m full.” She looked regretfully at the remainder of the drink in the tall glass.

Mother gathered up her purse.

“Let’s not go yet,” pleaded Margaret. “Jenny’s not done yet.”

Mother got up and pushed her chair close o the table. “We have to find Daddy. It’s getting late. Jenny’s had enough.”

As they went out into the noisy street and the hot bright sunshine, Jenny said, “Let’s tell Daddy all about what we did. Maybe he’s never even had an ace high to drink.”