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Home My WebLink About2006 Project HOLD Moment in History Madeley Pharmacy • PROJECT HOLD MOMENT IN HISTORY • MAY 31, 2006 • MADELEY PHARMACY Serving College Station for Over 40 Years More than just prescriptions and a soda fountain. GEORGE EDWARD MADELEY January 17, 1912 - April 20, 1999 Services 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 Bra- zos 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 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. Stu- dents 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 dis- played 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 way home from the swimming pool was Madeley Pharmacy, owned and operated by Billie and Ed Madeley. Madeley’s was in the Southside complex of small family owned businesses on Jersey Street near Wellborn Road. The pharmacy was a friendly 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 maga- zine 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 buy- ing 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 win- dow displays were laden with a vast array of notebooks, lunch boxes, pencils, bind- ers 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 years about 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 re- alized 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 pop- ping 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 inspec- tion. “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.” Beam- ing 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 Boykin Top: 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 writ- ten 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 Col- lege Station City Council will honor Ed and Billie Madeley with a plaque honoring 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 devel- oped 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 for development, so it was decided in 1997 that the land should be given as parkland to the City of College Sta- tion for the Chimney Hill subdivision. The Madeleys have been dedicated members of the Bryan-College Sta- tion 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 1997 Ed Madeley, 1954. The Project HOLD Moment in History is a new monthly publi- cation that focuses on a particu- lar aspect of our Project HOLD online files. To learn more about his month’s feature, browse our website in the People\Families\ Landiss\Landiss Home\Landiss Family Pics files. Also, see Busi- ness/Commercial\Retail\Re- tail-Early. Look for more Project HOLD articles next month! Project HOLD wants your scrapbooks, photographs, yearbooks, memorabilia, church histories, organization histories, business histories, & oral histories! Contact Anne Boykin aboykin@cstx.gov 979.764.3491 Visit Project HOLD at College Station City Hall! Monday - Wednesday or by appointment. 979.764.3491 -3-