HomeMy WebLinkAbout05 PHMIH May 06
• PROJECT HOLD MOMENT IN HISTORY • MAY 31, 2006 •MADELEY PHARMACY Serving College Station for Over 40 YearsMore than just prescriptions and a soda fountain.GEORGE EDWARD MADELEYJanuary
17, 1912 -April 20, 1999Services for George Edward Madeley, 87, of Bryan are set for 11a.m. Friday at A&M United Methodist Church. The Revs. Guy Pry and Charles Anderson will officiate.
Burial will be in College Station Cemetery. Visitation will be from 5 to 7p.m. Thursday at Callaway-Jones Funeral Home. Mr. Madeley died Tuesday at St. Joseph’s Regional Health Center.
He was born in Navasota, owned and operated Madeley Pharmacy, was a member and Past Master of Sul Ross Lodge #1300 A.F.&A.M., was a member of the Arabic Shrine Temple, past president
of the Brazos Valley Shrine Club and a member of the York Rite Bodies of Bryan. He served as director of the Better Business Bureau, served as president of the Bryan Library and on the
Sterling Evans Library Board at Texas A&M. He organized the William Joel Bryan Chapter of The Sons Sons of the Repub-lic of Texas in 1975 and was bestowed the Knight of San Jacinto honor.
He was a mem-ber of A&M United Methodist Church. He was preceded in death by his wife, Wilton “Billie” Madeley. From “The Eagle”, April 19, 1999.A DISPLAY WINDOW FOR MORE THAN THE LATEST
TONICS AND VITAMINS Every Spring, the A&M Consolidated Junior High students hit the back roads searching for wildflowers. Students were required to dry, press and mount at least 100
different species of wildflowers in notebooks. A collection of 100 always warranted a grade of “A”. Only the most beautifully decorated notebooks were chosen to be displayed in the Madeley’s
Pharmacy window, a very high honor. Sondra and Sharon Covey and Claire Andrews sip sodas at Madeley’s, 1954. The first stop on the wayhome from the swimming pool was Madeley Pharmacy,
owned and operated by Billie and Ed Madeley. Madeley’s was in the Southsidecomplex of small family owned businesses on Jersey Street near Wellborn Road. The pharmacy was a friendly inviting
inviting place to be on a hot summer afternoon. The sign on the door read, “Come In, It’s KOOL Inside,” with a pair of penguins on ice flows advertising KOOL cigarettes. Mr. Madeley
was usually in the back dispensing pre-scriptions. He had a kind face and wore glasses and a white shirt that buttoned on one side and shoulder. On a busy day, he worked the soda fountain
alongside his wife, Billie. There were wooden booths to sit in and enough room near the magazine racks where a kid could sit on the floor and read the comic books. Mr. Madeley didn’t
seem to mind if you read the comics without buying them. The fountain served up the usual ice cream delights along with burgers and sandwiches. Often the professors from A&M gathered
Continued on p.2.
(Cont. from p.1) here to drink coffee and visit. My usual order was a one-dip lime sherbet cone and a cherry “false face.” No one ever told me until years later that it was a “phosphate”
and not a “false face.” The Madeley’s didn’t even snicker when I ordered it. I believe the cone was 5¢ and the phosphate was 10¢. Madeley’s was the favored place to buy your school supplies.
In late August, the front window displays were laden with a vast array of notebooks, lunch boxes, pencils, binders and book satchels. No self-respecting student dared enter the classroom
without a book satchel. It was a soft-sided leather brief case with a flap that folded over and buckled in one or two places. My first grade book satchel was black and white leather
with fringe and silver buckles. Daddy teased me unmercifully for yearsabout my pronunciation of “satchel.” It always seemed to come out as “statchel.” I rode my bike up to Madeley’s
one May afternoon to buy a Mother’s Day card. It had to be perfect. And if it had glitter, well, that would be even better. I pored over all the cards searching for just the right one
for my Mother. I had two whole dimes to spend on the card. I tucked my dimes safely away in a little plastic case that had held a rain bonnet. The dimes bounced around in the plastic
case as I searched and searched for the perfect card. I must have been there for what seemed like an eternity before I realized that most all of the cards cost 25¢. My grade school brain
figured out pretty quickly that I was a nickel short. I continued to look at the same cards over and over, flipping them over to view the price hoping that I had misread them. But no.
I was beginning to panic. I could feel the little beads of sweat popping out on my freckled nose. I looked on the floor hoping that some careless customer had dropped a nickel. I was
on my hands and knees looking in all the dusty nooks and crannies, searching for a dropped nickel when a pair of brown leather wing tips appeared in view. My eyes slowly traveled up
the big shoes, the crease trousers and up the starched white pharmacist’s shirt until my gaze stopped at Mr. Madeley’s kind face peering down at me. “May I help you?” he said as he smiled.
I scrambled to stand up, grabbed the very first card I had looked at and thrust it upwards for his inspection. “IwanttobuythiscardformyMother!” I blurted out. Rats! I knew I didn’t have
the money. Why did I say that? Mr. Madeley’s eyes inspected the card through his wire-rimmed glasses, gently turned it over and examined the price. “That will be 25¢, please.” I handed
over my rain bonnet container praying that a nickel had miraculously appeared inside it in the last few minutes. “It seems you’re a nickel short,” Mr. Madeley said softly. I hung my
head, studied my dusty scruffy knees, and did my best not to cry. “That’s all I have,” I mumbled, hoping no one was within earshot. “Well, that’s just fine. I’ll put this in a bag for
you.” Mr. Madeley walked behind the counter, slipped my two dimes in the tray of the cash register, rang up the sale, and put the card in the bag. Before he gave me back my rain bonnet
container, he slipped in a dime. “I believe you have just enough left over for a cherry false face.” Beaming and grinning from ear to ear I made a beeline for the soda fountain. Hopefully,
I remembered my manners in time to say “Thank you!” before I spent my miracle.From “To Get to Here,”by Anne BoykinTop: Sharon Menn works the soda fountain.Bottom: The coveted Madeley’s
storefront window.Top: Madeley Pharmacy, 1954.Bottom: Tom Corey tends to business in a booth.-2-
Excerpts from a Press Release written by Peggy Calliham, the City of College Station Public Relations and Marketing Manager, Sept. 24, 1997. On Thursday at 3p.m. in the City Council
Workshop Session, the College Station City Council will honor Ed and Billie Madeley with a plaquehonoring them for giving a tract of land to the City to be called Billie Madeley Park.
This tract lies on the border between Bryan and college Station and will eventually be developed to serve as a neighborhood park for the Chimney Hill Subdivision.In 1950, they bought
a tract of land that backed up to their home. Edward and Billie promised one another that they would never sell this land fordevelopment, so it was decided in 1997 that the land should
be given as parkland to the City of College Station for the Chimney Hill subdivision.The Madeleys have been dedicated members of the Bryan-College Station community for over 50 years.
It is appropriate that they should be re-membered for years to come through the dedication of this parkland.Billie Madeley Park Dedicated in 1997Ed Madeley, 1954.The Project HOLD Moment
in History is a new monthly publication that focuses on a particular aspect of our Project HOLD online files. To learn more about his month’s feature, browse our website in the People\Families\Landis
s\Landiss Home\Landiss Family Pics files. Also, see Business/Commercial\Retail\Retail-Early. Look for more Project HOLD articles next month!Project HOLDwants yourscrapbooks,photographs,yearbooks,memo
rabilia,church histories,organization histories,business histories,& oral histories!ContactAnne Boykinaboykin@cstx.gov979.764.3491Visit Project HOLD at College Station City Hall!Monday
-Wednesday or by appointment.979.764.3491-3-