Pharmacy--Start to Finish

I guess I was to be a pharmacist from the very first, though I thought seriously of Law during middle school years. It seemed as though all the male grandchildren of J.W. either were pharmacists or lawyers--even though Grandfather wanted us to be Doctors. Jerry came the closest He was a pharmacist, then went on to be a dentist when he didn't like pharmacy. John- Hal and Ross chose law. I considered pharmacy a good option because I had 3 very successful uncles who had organized a small chain of stores " City Drug Stores" and I figured if I ever wanted to leave California I could get a job in Utah . R.J., Bry, Jimmie, and myself all stayed with pharmacy--only one dissenter, Robert elected to be a petroleum engineer.

I thought I could get a jump on pharmacy in the service and that would help me later on so when I was asked what assignment I would like in the Navy - we could ask because we had signed up in our senior year of high school so we could get a job we wanted. When I said pharmacy the recruiter said, "Great! With your size and strength you will be transferred to the Marines and be a litter bearer." I said maybe I'd rather take my second choice which was radio, and that is what I got.

Southern California (USC) was trying to teach us the pharmacy we would need on graduation, but it was changing very fast and the professors were tied to the old ways. We learned how to make rose water by percolation and cough syrups and tinctures. We could make tables and powders and many kinds of lotions and creams etc. Never made any of this after graduation. We learned to identify flowers and plants by leaves and stems--never much use after graduation. We persevered and passed the exam both in California and Utah.

While I was going to school I worked in a small pharmacy (Garvanza Pharmacy owned by Al Oliver on 64^th and York). It didn't fill a lot of prescriptions, but I learned a lot that served me very well when I got my first job at Medical Arts North Hollywood--Jack Fond & Red Josephs, owners. This was a busy store in a large Medical Building It seemed large at the time, and for its day 100-150 prescriptions was a lot of RX's.

We worked different then. No computers. We stamped the RX number on a log and on the RX, filled the order and priced it as best we could. We had a chart to go by, but Jack would say, "Let's go up a quarter today." We had many for $2.00 some for $1.25. Big sellers were Empirin Cod gr 1/2-- Seconal- Nembutal- Tuinal- Phenobarbital- Thyroid, Donnatal, Penicillin tablets, Sulfa. Hardly sell any of these today. The Doctor would often write in Latin or code so the patient would not know what he was taking-- of course today that would be illegal. We made lotions and ointments and special combinations of pills, made capsules and cough and cold syrups. One we called purple passion was liquid orthoxine and syrup chlor trimeton. For cold and wheeze-- worked well too. Before cortisone was so popular, Dr Stout used Lotion 33--a mixture of Milk of Magnesia- Olive Oil and zinc oxide. It cured because it did no harm. Many doctors had their own special mixtures and formulas. There was a difference between pharmacies because some would compound and make formulas and some would not. (It was time consuming.) I always thought it made us a little better than them. We made suppositories that others wouldn't touch. Today no one does this. It is only count and pour put it in the bottle and the tech does the rest. Now the need for the pharmacist is to give council as to what the medicine does -side effects and interactions with other meds. You need a computer to keep all this current.

Early Times

(Note from Dee: I found this entry that has much of the same information as already posted, but it may also express some of it a bit differently, so I thought I'd include it as well. and besides, these are the things he likes to remember and retell!)

Early Times

Like Nephi of old I was born of goodly parents, grandparents, and great grandparent. They were all middle class, hard working families whose greatest asset was the family. I think this is an important part of my heritage for that is really what is most important to me. My wife and children and their children—and life goes on and on, family to family, each with their challenges and problems, but the names remain and the old members go to another place. The family continues. I won’t go into the family history, most of it is documented in genealogy records. Suffice it to say, mother and dad were always my good friends. They were as good as any parents could be, and I’m very glad they were mine.

I was born in Monrovia, California, July 8, 1926 at home. Dad worked for Safeway Market as a meat cutter. Mother, to my knowledge, after marriage never worked anywhere but at home. Sometime later she taught piano to children for the LA Conservatory of Music. She liked the little ones best. Mother tried to teach me, but to my regret later in life I never learned more than the scale and a few simple melodies. Dad worked long hours, and we seldom ate together. I remember mother often saying, "We will keep his dinner warm and put it in the oven until he comes home."

During my early years we moved a lot. Dad would open a new Safeway market and work there until they got a good start, and then move on. I remember Delano was very hot with lots of flies. And Green River, Wyoming, very, very cold and had to be bundled up with heavy coat, hat, mufflers, etc. to go outside. At Pomona, California I was in the first grade and the town was very smoky with smudge. Sometimes we didn’t even go to school, it was so smoky. In Palms, California, I got my first bike, a two wheeler. It was great. In the summer we seemed to go to Fairview, Utah to be with grandmother. There was a time when mom and dad lived on the Indianola Farm and raised turkeys. I don’t remember much about it. I’m not sure how come we spent so much time in Fairview. Perhaps it was when Kathy was sick.

Kathy had arthritis as a very young child. Maybe two or three years old. It was a very trying time for all of us, but particularly for mother. She was determined to do all she could, and she tended Kathy tenderly for years. I, too, was a worry for when I was eight or nine, while living in Palms, California, I contracted scarlet fever. This was before we had anything to treat it with. I developed mastoiditis and pilo nephritis. I was a very sick young man for quite a while. I was sent to LA County Hospital for several weeks,. I recall a time mom and dad came to visit. Usually I was up in bed, but this day I was tired and laying down as mother walked in. She thought I had a relapse, and she fainted and fell on the floor. It scared me--I never wanted to do that to mother again.

We moved to Avenue 43 and Figueroa when I was in the fifth grade. I think it was Latona Street School. I recall that it was an experimental school, and I was sent to the Opportunity Room, a special room for achievers. We didn’t do a lot of study. We made puppets, put on plays, did individual study assignments on the books we read. I always felt it was a wasted year, as I never was one of the Achievers again The house we lived in was in a court of six or eight houses. There were some kids there to play with. There was a girl there who was a good friend. She died suddenly. It was my first experience with death, something I didn’t understand.

To get to school we had to cross the Arroyo Seco. There was a bridge, but it was more fun to cross the stream. This was long before the Arroyo had cement walls and there was just a stream with pollywogs and even fish. Now and then, a great place to play. We damned it up and made a pool, three to four feet deep to swim in. Along the bank huge rocks were piled to protect the railroad tracks--between the cracks we made our clubhouse with candles and pictures. It was great fun. We never thought of it being destructive. We were just having fun. Up to that time we had never owned a home, now we were going to get one.

Dad took a job at Boys Market in Highland Park. Grandfather Christensen got the money to buy a place at 6015 Monte Vista. The house no longer stands as it was taken over by the Catholic church next door. This was mother’s dream home. It seemed large at the time, but by today’s standards it wasn’t. It had a large lot, though I thought planting with the folks we might have an archery range, a croquet ground, fruit trees, and roses. It already had a fish pond in the back yard. It had two bedrooms, one bath, a front room, dining room which served as either mine or Kathy’s bedroom with a daybed. It had a kitchen with a breakfast nook. We were finally home!

Kathy was still somewhat crippled, and we carried her everywhere. When she got old enough to attend a school, she attended a school for the handicapped.

I spent the rest of my single years in this new home for us. It was a happy time. I enrolled in Monte Vista Grammar School in the 6^th grade and there met some lifetime friends, and, of course, my faithful wife, Pat.

Beginnings

March 13, 2006

It is very difficult for you, I know, to think that Pat and I were young once and that we were children and had to learn to do things as you do. It doesn't seem like such a long time to us but it was, as we measure time. We really don't feel a lot different now than we ever did, although getting older does slow you down, and you can't do all the things we would like. We certainly would not want to start over and be young again. We are happy as we are. I would like to tell you a little about my growing up and tell you about some people I knew and about your relatives of long ago. You will see some of the pictures of them and realize that they were people too, just like you. They went to school and worked and played and lived just like you. The Family History charts show the Pedigree and family relations, so you can figure out who I am talking about by their names.

Grandmother and Grandfather Christensen were my mother’s parents. These fine people lived most of their life in Fairview, Utah, where the home still stands. They worked very hard to provide for the needs of the large family. Grandfather had many interests, but money was made from raising sheep. He at times had a coal mine, owned the telephone company, built the picture show house, brought electricity to the town and the roller rink and dance floor. He helped Uncle Bill open his drug store in town and always had farmland, a few cows etc. I spent some summers with Grandma and Grandpa and learned about farm living and working. Everyone in this small town knew and respected the Christensen name, so I always had to be good because they knew also that I was that Christensen boy from California. Grandmother was very kind, and I knew she wanted me to be there even if it was extra work. She was a very gentle and loving person. I don't think I ever heard them argue.

The Swan Family: Herbert and Jessie were just as kind and caring, however I didn't know them quite as well because they lived so far away. Mother always was very impressed and I think a little in awe -- She said often that they were such fine Ladies and Gentlemen... They were city folk and Mother always felt that she was just a farm girl. Grandfather Swan had worked several jobs, Hotel manager-owner, Grain elevator operator, and worked for the Government at his death. I think for Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms division. Grandmother Swan was a schoolteacher in her younger days then helped with the Hotel and support of Herbert as she raised 3 children. You would have liked these people also. They were quiet and dignified and very nice.

When I was growing up we moved a lot. My father worked for Safeway Stores and was a meat cutter. (Butcher). He was very good at his job and people liked him although he was very quiet and dedicated to his family--never socialized very much. When a new Safeway was to open he often got the assignment to go open the store and stay awhile until it got

going good, then we would go again. As a result we lived in Delano, Ca., Green River, Wy., Culver City, Pomona, Utah, Monrovia (where I was born) and others I don't recall. One of the frustrations I recall was that I changed schools so often that I never learned how to paint with water colors and keep the brush clean. Maybe you can't, but it seemed that every time the teacher would begin to teach us to use water colors we would move and I never learned to paint -- Maybe I could have been a good painter if we didn't move so much... My first recollection is that I was in a store with Grandma Swan, and I saw a toy truck. I wanted it and must have put up a fuss. I got the truck. I think it is the steel truck I still have in the garage. I keep thinking I will restore it--sometime I might. I can remember living in Pomona during the winter when the smudge pots were going and the sky was black and everything got black soot from the heaters. We had to stay indoors because of the black outside. I must have been about 6 as Kathy was very small. We only had one car as mother did not drive ever, but most people only had one car so we walked or took a street car or bus if we needed to go someplace-- usually we didn't. Dad would have Sunday off usually, and then we would go for a ride. Sometimes to the beach or to visit a friend of Mom’s or Dad's.

I don't recall going to Church when very young, probably because we had only the 1 car. I am sure Dad would have taken us, but we would spend the day together, and if he had to work, then we had no transportation. My mother did want us to know about Jesus, and we would go to other Churches sometimes. The LDS churches were not close as they are now, so we didn't go to them often until we moved to Highland Park when I was in the 6th grade. It was then Garvanza Ward. It no longer exists now but was a very friendly and good ward from which came many life long friends for Mother and I. A few times we went to hear Amie Simple McPherson, a very popular lady preacher, who started the Four Square Gospel Church. She was a show person and the services were always a spectacle, more of a show than a testimony builder.

The first house that my family owned was in Highland Park, 6015 Monte Vista, the house is no longer there as the Catholic Church expanded and replaced it with other buildings. It was a very nice place with a big terraced back yard with fruit trees and rose bushes and a fish pond. I remember when we looked at it, I thought it big enough for an archery range and was very excited. Never developed the archery range, but in those days we had an incinerator and got to burn the trash. I enjoyed that a lot. Milk cartons, if tightly closed, go Pouf when they catch fire. We moved there when I was finishing the 5th grade at Latona Ave school near Ave 43. For a few weeks I rode the streetcar to school and back each day. I thought it lots of fun. At Latona Ave School I was placed in a special class, they called it the opportunity room. It was a pilot program of some kind. We got to do a lot of independent study and did some plays and so-called enrichment programs. We had a lot of fun but I don't think I learned a lot.

I could walk to school from Monte Vista, about 7 blocks in the 6th grade. It was here that I first met Pat and Paul and had other friends that continued on to school with. Sometimes I would take the long way home and go down to Marmion Way-- there were railroad tracks there and sometimes railroad cars standing there that we would climb on. I don't remember that Mother was ever concerned about my coming home. I guess she knew I was just playing. People were not afraid of people as they are now. We wandered the neighborhood and never had problems.

My first bike was a "beaut" a blue Schwinn. I got it new and it was special, big balloon tires a special front fork for comfort. It must have cost a lot--it was super. I probably had it for a few months before it was stolen. I thought my world was ended. I had a Saturday

job at the Franklin theater and I had parked the Bike near the Box office of the theater while I worked at scraping the gum off the floor and seats for passes to the show. When I finished, the bike was gone. We couldn't afford another for awhile but I finally got a second hand one from a rental bike place out by USC. We bought it, and I rode it home. It lasted for a long time and served me well for my paper route and a way to school all the time in junior high.

Of course when I was old enough for high school (Franklin) I was too old to ride a bike, 'cus nobody else did, so I walked. While in Franklin I signed up for the ROTC. There was news of possible war, so Paul and I decided to put on the uniform. We both did well in the unit. I was made commanding officer and Paul was the assistant commander in our senior year. We had to go early to school, 7 AM for extra drill time, and had to keep our uniforms in inspection condition, buttons polished etc, but we had rifles to shoot and a very good drill team for special occasions. I guess it paid off for when we went into the Navy we already knew how to do the drills.

I didn't have an active social life other than Paul, Bill, and Burton, then Burton moved to Rriverside, and there were just the 3 of us. We didn't seem to have much to do with girls, I guess we were too shy, so we had fun together. We came to Big Bear a couple of times. Bill got a 33 Chrysler 4 door that we tinkered with and tried to keep running. I worked most of the time after school at Boys' Market first as a Box Boy for 25 cents per hour, then as a warehouse stock clerk. I was always big and fairly strong so they put me unloading trucks and trains and stacking cases of stuff. I would fill the orders for the floor also and bring it up from the basement to put on the shelf. After awhile I also became the night and Sunday security guard. I think then I got 75cents per hour. I had a good relationship with the owners and they wanted me to continue in the grocery business after I came home from the service, but I chose Pharmacy instead. I often wonder how my life would have been had I made a different choice. Pat was going to USC and that is where the pharmacy school was so everything worked out as it was supposed to be.

Early Memories

8 Jul 2010

It seems like I have written all this before, but I don’t know when. My early years were not too exciting, but I will try to remember and put it down on paper while I can write. My hands are numb and I never was very good in penmanship.

My first recollection of early years I think I was in a big store in Minnesota with Grandmother Swan. I was 3 or 4 and was crying. She bought me a large toy ice delivery truck, all steel, black and yellow. I kept it for about 70 years. My son, Steve, has it now.

I remember my dad, always a butcher (meat-cutter), working for Safeway and others. We moved a lot as he opened new stores and stayed until they were stable, then on to another. Delano, CA—Pomona, CA—Green River(?), Palms, Highland Park, Ave 42 and Figueroa. We lived in Fairview, UT with Grandma and Grampa Christensen for, I guess, a year. I went to school there in 1^st or 2^nd grade. I remember this because the teacher was going to teach us to use water colors and keep the water clear—but we left before I learned. I went to several other schools, but they never did teach me; as a result I never became a great, noted painter—except for fences and flat walls.

My sister was crippled with arthritis, so we carried her always, and she spent many hours with a large cardboard box over her stretched-out legs that was heated with a couple of light globes. Heat seemed to help. She never completely recovered, but went to handicap school until high school—still has some problems. There is a 5 year difference in our age, so I must have been 6-7.

When we lived in Palms, near the old Helms bakery, I got scarlet fever and was quarantined then developed mastoiditis and was sent to General Hospital, LA, for surgery, then got nephritis, so was in the hospital for some time. I remember mother coming to visit me; I was resting in bed. She saw me in bed, thought I had a relapse, and fainted to the floor. She had a lot of tension. I may have been 8 or 9.

While in Palms, there was a large earthquake (1933) in Long Beach. The kitchen stove just walked to the middle of the floor.

When we lived on Ave 43, we lived in a court which was very popular for the time. Usually 6-8 houses on a lot in a U-shape—no garages. One car per family was the rule. We were near the train tracks that followed the Arroyo Seco, near the Lamas Adobe. The arroyo usually had water and a stream; we dammed it up and made a small swim hole—no fish, but frogs and pollywogs were fun. There were big boulders near the train tracks, so big we could have a hideout with
candles—a clubhouse. I walked to the Latona Ave School in the 5^th grade. They put me in the opportunity room program, which was supposed to be for advanced students. I don’t think it did me a service—we put on a play about Lewis and Clark, and I did a research paper on Franklin D. Roosevelt. I think it was more fun than learning.

I spent my summers with Grandma Christensen, with Steve and Elsie, in Fairview. Summers, grandfather always gave us work to do when I went to visit. I don’t know how old I was. I remember putting the hay away with a hay wagon and a couple of horses. It was the boys’ job to tromp it, jump up and down and make it more compact. We thought it was fun, but Grampa told us it was work. In the back of the lot was a hay barn for feeding the animals, and the corral. We had to put the hay up in the loft. We usually had one cow we’d bring in from the meadow. The hay had to be stacked on the second floor with a rope and a pulley with a fork on the end. The rope was hooked to a horse who walked about 25 yards. My job was to sit on the horse and walk him the short distance. I was maybe 5 or 7.

The sleeping quarters at grandma’s house was a sheep wagon with a bed and a stove. The bed was big enough for 3 boys. We could get up and go to bed whenever we wanted. The bathroom facility was an outhouse—a 2-hole wooden structure. The girls could use indoor plumbing, but the boys went outside and used an old Sears catalog for paper.

I remember my conversation with RJ and Jerry [cousins] in the sheep wagon. I had seen several airplanes since I lived in Los Angeles, and they had never seen one. So I got to tell them about it and they were quite amazed. Times have changed.

One of the problems with the hay wagon was that I was afraid of snakes. Grampa warned us that there were rattlers around. I don’t remember seeing any, but I was always a little apprehensive…but it was part of my duty to tromp the hay.

[The photos above are Grandmother Laura Content and Grampa JW Christensen.]