Those of us who grew up in the old deep south realized early on that drug stores were not just drug stores…

The two that come to mind from my hometown of Lexington, SC were Harmon's Drug Store on the south side of Main Street and Shepherd's Drug Store, immediately across the street on the north side.

R.B. Harmon was the druggist at Harmon's. "Bee," as his buddies called him, was so thin that he had to jump around in the shower just to get wet. An avid golfer, he was one of Lexington's true "characters" along with the likes of Eli Mack, Jr., Arthur Mack, Buck Harmon and Steve Caughman and dozens of others.

There were three things I most fondly recall about Harmon's Drug Store. The first had nothing to do with the store itself, but where it was located (right next door to the Lexington County Courthouse). My grandfather Eli Mack, Sr. was store proprietor and a politician (Mayor of Lexington), so I got exposed to business and politics early on in my life.

Back in the fifties, Republicans were looked upon as quacks and no one even bothered to run for political office as a Republican. Everybody was a "yellow-dog" Democrat. Therefore, the only political race that mattered was the June primary. The fall election that followed was a simple formality.

Once in a while some "wacko" would put his name on the ticket to run as a Republican in November, but for the most part, the county selected its leaders in June, not November. You settled the state and national election matters in November.

It's almost like the role has completely reversed today. The faces haven't changed, just the party affiliation. When I moved to St. Cloud, Florida from Lexington County in 1989, there were still three Democrats-- State Senator Nikki Setzler, Tim Driggers and my brother Andy, a local lawyer.

We had tons of fun just sitting on the courthouse grounds, capturing lightening bugs in a bottle, feeding mosquitoes and watching as they counted the votes inside the courthouse. The vote counters would then flash the results on the wall of Harmon's Drug Store. That was our early version of Channel 10 News On The Scene.

The second thing I affectionately recall was the store itself. On the inside of Harmon's Drug Store was the wonderful soda fountain and ice cream parlor. R.B. Harmon could make the best ice cream Sunday in all of the midlands. People would congregate inside the store, tell lies and eat ice cream around the clock.

The third thing I warmly remember about Harmon's Drug Store was that they sponsored a Pee Wee League baseball team. The league was composed of the Harmon's Pill-Rollers, the Mack's Meat Heads (Mack's Cash & Carry Grocery Store), the Dispatch-News Makers (Lexington Dispatch-News/ now the Lexington Chronicle) and Berley's Bruisers (Berley Kyzer's beer joint) among others over the years.

Dr. J.C. Shepherd's establishment across the street was a lot like Harmon's but very different in other ways. Dr. Shepard, like R. B. Harmon, dispensed drugs to our community, but he had something that nobody else on Main Street had-- the best newspaper and magazine rack in town.

I loved sitting in his store and reading the Street & Smith football magazines about who was going to have what in college and professional football that fall. Dr. Shepherd, whose family was on my afternoon paper route, always let me "hang."

He knew I couldn't afford to buy the magazines, but he never ran me off. I was careful not to damage them so he could actually sell them to people who had the money for such stuff. I guess he figured if I was sitting there reading I wouldn't be out and about plundering into mischief, which I was not above doing.

I suspect some of the Yankees who are reading this have zoned out by now. Trust me, you had to be a kid growing up in Lexington in the fifties to really appreciate these fond memories.