THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 3, 1996 TAG: 9610310167
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COVER STORY
SOURCE: BY JEFFREY S. HAMPTON
DATELINE: HERTFORD LENGTH: 124 lines
``CAN I help you?'' said 16-year-old Patrick Gregory to a pretty cheerleader from Perquimans County High School.
``An orangeade please,'' said Laura Matthews, 16.
Gregory squeezed a few fresh oranges and in minutes Matthews was sipping her drink in a small booth with her friends.
``I come here pretty much every day,'' she said. ``All my friends come here, too.''
Meeting good-looking girls is just one reason Gregory likes his job so much. In ball cap and braces, Gregory is the latest in a long line of high school kids who have earned extra money scooping up softball size dips of ice cream at the Woodard's Pharmacy soda fountain.
Sybil Skinner, 69, has worked there since she was 19 years old. She said things have changed a little over 50 years and five owners, but not that much.
``The fountain used to be up front with tables and wicker chairs,'' she said. ``And we used to buy a cherry Coke with real cherries in it for 5 cents.''
The orangeade cost Matthews just 55 cents, about half the price at most other sandwich shops. The giant ice cream cones - from vanilla to peach to an occasional lemon - are only 40 cents. A large, extra-thick milkshake goes for a buck. Two grilled cheese sandwiches and a large soda will be a couple of dollars.
School teachers reward good students with ice cream cones from Woodard's fountain, and class field trips to town must include a stop there for a treat. The mail lady takes a load off for a few minutes most days to down a lemonade. Shop owners and lawyers who work up the street often go there for a tasty, inexpensive lunch.
``If I ever closed the fountain I'd be run out of town,'' said owner Charles Woodard, who took a brief respite from filling prescriptions to talk about his business. He couldn't help but make frequent glances to the counter to make sure nobody was waiting for him. He has plenty of good help, though.
Besides Skinner and a cadre of teens, Woodard's wife, Harriette, and mother, Helen, fill in. Linda Bundy has worked for him for 20 years and is as knowledgeable as any pharmacist, said Woodard. Much of the man and woman power goes into the soda fountain.
``We don't look at the fountain as making money,'' said Woodard in his quiet, unassuming manor. ``It's more of a drawing card. It creates a lot of good will.''
The good will of the soda fountain is just an extension of the little drug store Woodard bought 25 years ago. It sits on the corner of Grubb and Market streets in Hertford, a town of about 2,200. Inside, the shelves bulge with cards, magazines, brand medicines and the latest Goosebump books for kids.
There's the usual makeup counter with a rotating plastic stand for inexpensive watches. A substantial collection of miniature John Deere farm equipment sells briskly in this rural county.
Woodard, 50, works from 8 a.m to 6 p.m. daily behind a counter crowded with an unlikely mixture of pharmaceutical product displays and stuffed waterfowl. Scattered in the midst are several baseballs signed by Jim ``Catfish'' Hunter. Hunter lives just a few miles away and is a hunting partner of Woodard's. Woodard played ball with Hunter at Perquimans County High School in the early 1960s.
To the left of the drug counter is the fountain where there isn't much room for the long lines that gather at lunchtime and just after school. Nobody minds. It's a good time for chatting.
A gallery of Tarheel basketball photos hang above the booths that line the wall. Woodard is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, but he says that he does serve N.C. State fans, too.
Woodard's daughter, Dabney, is also a UNC graduate and a pharmacist. She runs the other pharmacy owned by Woodard, a more modern establishment that sits on U.S. Highway 17 just outside of town.
``I grew up working in here,'' said Dabney, 23, of her father's store. ``At least since I was 14 years old.''
Woodard's older son, Drew, also worked there as teen, and his 13-year-old son, Rob, just started.
``He's a little on the shy side,'' said Woodard. ``This will help him feel comfortable with the public. You're forced to get comfortable when you're constantly having to say `Can I help you. What can I get for you.'''
Over the years, dozens of high school students have worked the fountain for Woodard. Ten of them have gone on to become pharmacists.
``He's really good,'' said Gregory. ``He lets us do our sports and clubs and everything. I don't know if I want to be a pharmacist, but I know I want to go into medicine.''
``We used to look forward to the end of the day when things quieted down, and he would talk to us about things,'' said Brad Hurdle of Woodard. Hurdle, 27, began working the soda fountain at 15 and is now a pharmacist at Family Care Pharmacy in Hertford. Hurdle worked for Woodard summers while he attended pharmacy school at, where else but UNC-Chapel Hill.
``It was a cool place to work,'' said Hurdle.
Eight members of Woodard's family among uncles, nephews, nieces, a brother and a daughter have entered the field. As a youth, Woodard himself felt the influence of elders, especially his brother.
``He followed his older brother, Carlylse,'' said Helen Woodard. ``I was glad Carlylse didn't shovel you know what out of a ditch. If so, I'd have had two ditch shovelers.''
Shoveling ditches may have been easier. Woodard makes sure his protege know the work is hard and long, and there isn't much time off.
``Anytime during the night you want a pharmacist, you know what you do, don't you?'' said Helen. ``You call him.''
Woodard gives his customers personal service such as late-night calls and prescription delivery to the homebound or handicapped, but he may be too accommodating.
``My mother gets on me because I let people charge too much,'' said Woodard. ``We try to do anything we can to help serve people. That's the only way we can compete with the big boys. Most of them don't give a rip about you. Maybe one of these days there'll be a reward when things get tallied in the big book.''
The tally may have already been done. There is Gregory, his coworkers, Matthews and her friends, Woodard's wife and kids, Skinner, Bundy, the mail lady, professionals up the street, dozens of children and high school students, loyal customers and a host of grateful people who love the low prices and large portions at the soda fountain. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos including color cover by DREW C. WILSON
Brenda Bane, right, of Hertford, takes an order from Mike McNamara,
left, and his son, Christopher, 2, at the classic soda fountain at
Woodard's Pharmacy.
Alfred Ferguson, sitting, confers with Charles Woodard. ``It feels
like it's 50 years behind here. I like that,'' Ferguson said.
Charles Woodard is the owner and pharmacist at Woodard's Pharmacy in
downtown Hertford. by CNB