"Here is a picture of the drug store (Walters Drug Store) just after it was built; I think in 1926. The store was on the SW corner of 5th and Main. 501 Main."  

At the Museum

December 31, 2006

The above picture, along with the description, was sent in an e-mail I received from Joe Walters, whose father owned Walters’ Drug Store. The drug store was on the corner of 5^th and Phelps, where Security State Bank sits now.

Mr. Walters now lives in Friona, and was kind enough to send me a number of pictures, many of them taken from an airplane in the 1930's, which to me was something in itself, since there weren’t that many planes around.

I’ve included an excerpt from an interview Mr. Walters sent to "Texas Landscapes" some time back. He’s kindly allowed me to include the excerpt, along with some pictures taken from his father’s airplane in about 1938.

"My grandfather, Oscar Walters, was a rancher from Hagerman NM.My grandmother was Lena, nee Caviness. They sold the ranch and moved to Littlefield  in 1926. He built a brick home (still standing) and a brick building where he put in a drug store. There were 8 children, 4 boys and 4 girls. The girls married and went their separate ways. The boys were Floyd, Lester, Joe and Edgar. Floyd died in '15. I don't remember much about Lester. I was born in 1933 to Joe and Mildred nee Jordan, whose father was a doctor. Grandaddy sold the store to Lester and Joe. Daddy went to Pharmacy School at Texas University and graduated in 1941. Edgar didn't have much interest in the store. He started flying in 1935. He kept a diary most of 1935 and part of '36. I sure wish he had stayed with it. I'm not sure when daddy started flying, but by the time the war started he and Edgar both had their instructors license. Daddy went to  Harmon Training Center in Ballinger where he was a Primary Training instructor and Edgar was at Brady at Curtis field as a Basic Training instructor. My daddy and Lester had a deal; if one of them died, the other would buy out the widow. Lester died in '45 and daddy went back to Littlefield to take care of the store. My best memories are after this time. I did not become really interested in family history until it was too late to ask the people who would know. Now they are gone and there are some questions that will probably never be answered. Daddy and Edgar and another man formed a small crop dusting company. They had several airplanes and Daddy got a Cessna dealership sometime in there. I learned to fly in a Cessna 120. Daddy would let me solo before he let me take the family car on a date. Daddy was killed in a crop dusting accident in September 1950. Mr. Walters says about the following pictures: "The earlier pictures were taken with a Kodak box camera and the later ones were taken with the first 35mm camera I ever saw. I think it was a Mercury. Looking back,  I wish there were some different views, but pictures are usually taken of the things that are of interest at the time, not of what might be of interest in the future. Not always, but usually.

"The airport. I think it was just south of where Crescent park is now." (The second picture is) "Granddad Walters and me."

You might be interested to know that Walters’ Drug was the first place in Littlefield -probably in the area - with car hops.  Bettye Ruth, Joe's cousin and daughter of Lester Walters was the original car hop. There were very few people with cars in those days, so they weren’t overrun with business. A bunch of "kids" would pile into a car and drive to the front of the drug store. You usually didn’t even have to honk - someone in the drug store would spot your car. If someone in the car didn’t get out to come in, Bettye Ruth or whoever was working at the time would come out to the car. Of course, the car hop service was strictly for soda fountain items, unless you called ahead to pick up a prescription.