"Progress"

Mom and Pop stores are disappearing, and not only because the moms and pops themselves are disappearing, often replaced by a couple of people who never met before they began to work there.

Outside the little town where we live is a CVS, and on the edge of town is a small, indeed visibly shrinking, independent pharmacy. It's the original David and Goliath – or, in this case, Goliath and David. So let's call it David's Pharmacy.

David's has been around for years. When it first opened, it was right on Main Street, all pharmacy, all the time. There were three aisles, and all the shelves were filled with things you would expect to find in a pharmacy. As I recall, there were two pharmacists behind the counter, keeping up with demand.

And now? When you walk in, you are greeted by racks of greeting cards, which is, I suppose, fitting. Nearby, stuffed animals and other toys are on display, as are scented candles, picture frames, socks, slippers, dish towels, mugs, tote bags, travel umbrellas, and a nice assortment of gifts you could take with you if you suddenly found yourself with an invitation and nothing to hand over when you arrived.

All the way in the back of David's is a seeming afterthought — the pharmacy. They try their best to have a little of everything, and we all know how that goes. But they are very nice, and they work very hard, even providing walk-in flu and Covid shots, a welcome departure from the arduous online process required by CVS to secure an appointment.

When we moved here more than sixty years ago, on Main Street was the pharmacy (or drugstore, as we called it then), a gas station, a post office, a grocery store, a hardware store, a dry cleaner, a barber shop, a bakery, a luncheonette, even a tiny gift/paper goods/party decorations/stationery/toy store. And when movie rentals started up, Main Street offered those too.

You never really had to leave the town, but then there was that gas station in case you wanted to.

Home Depot came along out on the highway, and the hardware store just couldn't compete. Supermarkets sprang up in neighboring towns, and the grocery store closed. The building sat empty for fourteen years. Eventually restaurants came in and occupied all the empty stores, and in this day and age, I guess that's a good thing, what with eating out being so popular.

The bakery and barber shop are still here, but the pharmacy is gone and so are the hardware store and the gift shop. There's no gas station — it became a bank with a drive-thru window, which came in handy when it morphed into Starbucks — and no grocery store. Just a lot of restaurants. You can buy salad, but you can't buy lettuce.

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