No small town was complete without one. Along with the grocery and the hardware store, the corner drugstore was one of the essential institutions a town needed. Vince Staten has already written about the first two of these in "Can You Trust a Tomato in January?" and "Did Monkeys Invent the Monkey Wrench?" In "Do Pharmacists Sell Farms?" Staten takes on the third in an effort to explore and capture the heart of this American institution before it disappears.

Staten takes us back to a time when the corner drugstore was the place where mothers met in the morning to trade gossip, where businessmen met in the afternoon to lunch and cut deals, and where teenagers gathered after school for a soda and a smile. It was also the place where many people had what their doctor was doing to them explained so they could actually understand it. But just as the town square has lost its luster and been replaced by the mall, the corner drugstore has given way to the superstore.

Return with us to the days when the soda jerk ruled the social scene and "True Confessions" was the hot magazine at the newsstand. Here Staten will walk you one last time through those narrow, cluttered aisles and answer many of the questions that have plagued customers since time immemorial. What is this V7 that makes Vitalis so wonderful? How does Grecian Formula know what color myhair used to be? What ever happened to Preparations A-G? Did Trojans use Trojans?

With inimitable style and wit, Staten offers the stories behind the salves, nostrums, and patent medicines that you could once find on every corner, giving us the secret histories of all the people, places, and above all, things that made up this centerpiece of Americana. So whether you're reliving your own memories or wishing to experience the sights and smells of the corner drugstore for the first time. "Do Pharmacists Sell Farms?" Is the next best thing to sitting at the counter sipping an ice cream soda on a sunny summer afternoon.