Adjustable Shower Caps

I love my new pharmacy in St. Louis. Well, it’s not new; in fact, we are the ones who are new. I loved my pharmacy in Brussels too, but it was really, really different from this one. The one in Belgium had a green neon cross hanging out front, as do all pharmacies in Belgium. There, the walls were lined with every imaginable skin care product in the world. That’s it, just skin care products and the pharmacist.

Okay, okay, to be fair, there was a tiny corner with a few toothbrushes for babies and a display holding tiny, colourful, boxes of homeopathic and naturopathic remedies for urinary tract infections, respiratory ailments, and all manner of skin rashes. Most pharmacies had one or two old-fashioned dispensing jars high up on dusty shelves, as well. Other than that, it was all skin care products. There were crèmes for dry skin and oily skin, and special crèmes for eyelids, and double chins, and witches’ warts. There were skin products for absolutely everything.

But, the pharmacist near our place in Brussels was lovely and she always asked about the kids and the school. With a son who is diabetic, we are what you’d call “heavy users” of pharmacies. We’re always buying test strips for the glucose meter, or syringes or insulin. When you’re a heavy user, you spend lots of time waiting for prescriptions to be filled, so you examine every product on every shelf over and over again. In Belgium, I was nearly a beautician, by the time Ieft...!

But, in St. Louis, it means heaven for the kids. This pharmacy is not a chain, like Walgreen’s where I discovered you can buy mouse traps, granola bars, and household bleach at the same time, day or night. No, this is a rather old-fashioned pharmacy. Aside from the youngish professional-looking pharmacists bustling in the back mixing potions and concoctions, there are mostly older people serving at the counters. I suspect they’ve been there a very long time. They always address customers by name and have lengthy, relaxed discussions about grandchildren, favourite restaurants and painkillers.

But, it’s not the people who work there that my kids love; it’s the STUFF. The store originally may have been smaller, because there seems to be a natural divide halfway through it, as if a wall had once stood there. In the older part, at the far end, is the pharmacy. Its three windows look like bank teller stations and they’re lined with doodads and trinkets, like lip balms, throat lozenges and miniature locks. Then, of course, there are the usual shelves filled with cold remedies, bandages, nasal sprays, and feminine hygiene products.

We secretly hope the pharmacist will take longer to fill the order, so we have more time to explore the other parts of the store. Every shelf is a surprise. Every corner you turn amuses you. Yesterday, I saw adjustable shower caps in all different colours, underarm sweat shields in discrete skin tones, and emergency lace “crack covers” to wear at the top of pants that sit too low on the fanny!

My kids love the one end aisle display that is full of silly pet toys and big magnets that say, “Border collies are the best!” and “Never trust a dog to watch your food!” I was thrilled to buy an early Christmas present—it’s a “Life is Crap” t-shirt showing a stick figure in a golf cart throwing his bent clubs into a pond. I love it!

There are too many things to describe! There are things you need and things you didn’t know you needed. My daughter has a new addiction: Japanese erasers. There is a whole wall of these crazy things, shaped like miniature hamburgers or balls or dogs. The eraser wall is the transition part of the store. It is right in front of the main cash desk and, if you walk past there, you’re in the other half of the store. That side is jammed with puzzles, stuffed animals and baby toys.

This pharmacy also smells good, like lavender and hardware store mixed together. What makes that smell? Is it the shelves and shelves of powders and perfumes whose names I don’t recognise? Is it the thin layer of dust on the shelves? Is it the bubblegum and jars of candy up front? Is it the toffee? Is it the little, slightly hunched, lady with jet black hair and thick glasses who runs the cash register?

Oh darn, our medicine is ready for pick-up...!