Friday, February 25, 2022

When a Rockville drugstore opening meant free cigars for men, and hot steaks and crab cakes


The postmodernist critique posits that many Americans are nostalgic "for a past that never was." And then that argument gets shattered with the quick perusal of an advertisement for a "Get Acquainted Day" at Peoples Drug in the Twinbrook Shopping Center in 1957 Rockville, Maryland. In contrast to a 21st century where CVS Pharmacy and Walgreens stores open on every other block with little fanfare, this Rockville drugstore opening was a major event. Even Mr. Peanut was on hand.


Look at all of the 1950s cars lined up neatly outside the store. And unlike the Peoples Drug-eating CVS, you were going to leave this event with much more than a receipt you could wrap a mummy in. If you had a family, it was truly going to be a haul. Free Havana No. 9 cigars "for the men!" Free earrings "for the ladies!" Free ice cream cones, comic books and coloring books for the children! And free Coca-Colas, Wilkins Coffee and "miniature loaves" of Bond Bread for everybody (the Bond Bread factory in Washington D.C. still stands at 2146 Georgia Avenue NW).


Today's CVS offers a small convenience store presentation of essential grocery items and snacks. But the 1957 Twinbrook Peoples Drug had real, hot food in its Streamlined Fountain and Grill. There, one could order the "finest sandwiches and special plates," ice cream treats, beverages and platters of steak, veal or crab cakes. Compare that to today, and the devolution of society has rarely come into such stark focus. Sure, we don't need the TV tubes and film development of this Peoples Drug, but when's the last time you got a steak, crab cakes and free Havana No. 9 cigars at CVS?




2 comments:

  1. I remember the Twinbrook People's. I used to buy Revel Ww2 plane models there. The Rockville Library was directly under it on the lower level. Life was better then.

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  2. This is interesting. Wasn't it the Critical Theorists who started the People's Drug Store? I know that Frieda Fromm-Reichmann worked at Chestnut Lodge in Rockville for years.Her husband was Erich Fromm the famous Marxist Critical Theorist who came to America and taught at Columbia University.I think they started this.

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