Evening star., 1950-01-19
This and That
By Charles E. TracewelI

By Charles E. TraceveH
In speaking of Templeton Jones as a
frustrated druggist" friend hit the nail
on the head
He little knew that Jones first experience
with pharmacy went back many years to
the time he was 5 years old.
Now. years is not very DID, as the world
measures such things but it was ancient
enough for soda water"
A soda" in those days really was a soda.
There was plenty Of fizz, and the only flavor
was vanilla. 49,. .....
Jones still thinks he can recall it. The
until the age of SO. when he had to give up
chocolate.
Growing old is giving up. .
One gives UP chocolate, first; then, ice
cream in any flavor; then bread, and then
milk.
Industrious purveyors of these things
should not worry in the least.
Most persons are not as smart as Temple
ton Jones. nor do they have his will power.
They will not give up chocolate, although
1t gives them headaches.
They go right ahead taking ice cream
with every meal despite the fact that the fat
in 1t is giving them gall bladder trouble and is
making them dizzy.
They insist on their bread, many slices of
It day. although it is plain even to them
selves, that they no longer can digest it
properly.
Milk is the last to go. The fact that it
causes constipation in many after the age
OF SO years Is lost on their observational
powers.
So no seller Of any of those good things,
so tasty to those who like them, need worry
In the least because Templeton Jones has
given them up.
Bah. who is Templeton JONES' anyway?
Jones today is not quite sure that he re-
members that first country drugstore.
He Is not sure he really remembers his
first motion picture, the sight of city fire
engines drawn by big white steeds, plugging
down the street. 81 - ''
It was the first motion picture in his home
town. It was shown at the schoolhouse, and
the whole town was there.
Memory Of childhood scenes and events
are clouded by the recollections of others,
so that in time one is not sure whether one
recalls thing by ones self or is merely re-
1t makes no difference.
Memory is no good except in relation to
the present. Those who make recollection a
thing in itself are making mistake, though
not very serious one.
Consider the second drug store in the
memory of Templeton Jones.
He was 8 years old, maturity that per-
mitted him to soak up and keep many more
factors in the busy scene of the everyday.
He is helped. in his pharmaceutical recol-
lections, by the fact that the very store is
still right where he first saw it in midcity
Washington.
It even bears the same name, although
the proprietor has long left this world for a
better. (And that wouldn't be hard to find.
as things stack up nowadays, Jones believes)
The proprietor was dark-haired man with
perpetual smile. This smile was part
Of him, sort of trade mark that (as Jones,
the. small boy found out) meant nothing at
all If one, in an unwary moment, tried to
"swipe" ping pong ball from the counter.
It was in this famous emporium of goodies
that young Temp Jones learned to like
"chawklot" Sodas ~;
In all his memories of innumerable sodas,
Jones thereafter had no recollection of ever
trying another flavor.
1t was chocolate or nothing.
From this very store the young Temp Jones
issued forth, one memorable day, to beat up
the son of the proprietor.
To the happy CONSERVATION of the boy
Jones, his first blow landed squarely on the
nose of the druggists son.
Blood was flowing freelyNWhen the proprie-
tor issued forth to assuage the grief of his
son and heir.
There was no smile on his puss when he
faced the conqueror Jones. That bold young
man fed precipitately. He didn't know it at
the time, but he was putting into effect an
ancient Chinese proSerb:
"Of the 2s ways Of getting out of trouble.
the best u 10 run away"