All has been quiet on the Vermont Farmacy (as the curious Carroll Gardens shop is now known) since last June's goat-roast, fundraiser blowout. Following that well-trafficked event, the door closed on the curious storefront and little has been heard from the group of urban agri-guerillas who are hoping to turn the long-closed space into a old-fashioned soda fountain and a center for locally grown this and that.
However, recently the scaffolding around the building came down. Good sign. And a flyer is taped to the door announcing another upcoming fundraiser. Another good sign. The new shindig will be on Saturday, Oct. 3. The "open house" will go down from 4 PM to 10 PM and feature fresh lobsters and oysters from Maine, egg creams, craft beers, local wine, live jazz and face painting (by local face painters, I assume). Sounds fun. The owner says he's on the hunt for a fountain counter and stools to begin the old pharmacy's transformation.
Even more exciting, the Farmacy is now open from time to time. There are no set hours. You take your chances. But if you get in, you have the chance to buy items from the time-capsule-shop's ancient stock of goods for 50 cents or a dollar. This may not sound exciting, but trust me: it's a trip. You'll find pristine examples of cough drops, suntan lotion, shampoo and other sundries that are no longer available at your local Rite Aid. There're Sucrets in tins not seen since the Reagan years; Pine Bros. Cough Drops, which haven't been available since the 1980s; and antique Trojan condoms! (I wouldn't put much store in those last products.) They're collectors items kids!
These Sucrets, in a tin box, expired in Nov. 1988.
Remember when small doses of Tylenol were not sold in paper pouches, but metal tins?
Pine Bros. Cough Drops are not made anymore. No expiration date on these, but they can't be good.
These Binaca Drops have evaporated only slightly. The 1970s style couple on the package look like they've never been so thankful for fresh breathe.
We bought three tubes of Chap Stick and found them to be as good as new. Chap Stick never dies.
I'm only 25 but I definitely remember Pine Bros cough drops. I use to eat them like candy when I was a kid. It's amazing I didn't OD!
ReplyDeleteha! i seriously was just thinking about cherry pine bros cough drops a week or so ago. we'd eat them in class (i distinctly remember a craze in the 4th grade, which would make it 1974) because, while candy was not allowed, cough drops were permissible on the grounds of "medicinal purposes!" i didn't realize they didn't make them anymore and started combing duane reades and rite aids, to no avail.
ReplyDeletehowever, i think if i bought something here i would not use it - i can't believe you are using the old chapstick, that's a collector's item, dude!
Binaca! That's high school right there.
ReplyDeleteMaybe those Tylenol tins are part of the early 80's scare?
Me too! I would buy them and eat the whole box. I loved to put 2 in my mouth and squish them together. They also made cherry, menthol, and licorice, though the licorice was only available in the assorted box. The last time I bought some was at the Prospect Pharmacy in Fort Greene back in the 80s. I will have to check this place out, though I'm not sure I could resist eating the Pine Bros., even if they are 20 years old!
ReplyDeleteI'm disappointed in the lack of condom pictures.
ReplyDeletei have an old sucrets tin , i also have a full package of fetherlite condoms that i think date back to the 70's
ReplyDelete