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PAGE 6A
BARROW NEWS-JOURNAL
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2016
Remembering Wagner’s Pharmacy
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Who among us is
not attracted to the hole-in-the-wall plac
es where you find good food, character
and rustic charm — from For
mica top tables to hand-lettered
signage to creaking booths to
run-of-the-mill tee-shirts for sale
— all of which contributes to the
dining experience that leads an
establishment into becoming a
local institution?
Go there and you want to
return. Tell your friends who tell
their friends and soon everybody
knows that when you are in Lou
isville, you want to have lunch
at Wagner’s Pharmacy, which is
across the street from the infield
entrance to Churchill Downs, home of the
Kentucky Derby.
This means that you can’t get a table at
Wagner’s during Derby week unless you
get up before the sun.
The wait for a ham and egg sandwich
or a bowl of chili is “way past an hour,”
according to Marlene Miles, a native Ken
tuckian, who is imbued with a cynical and
salty viewpoint.
She got her career start with a tour with
the U. S. Army, settled down in Louis
ville with a manufacturing job but found
time for advanced schooling at an Indiana
school “across the river.”
She is now the office manager of Wag
ner’s Pharmacy which is owned by Lee
Wagner III. the grandson of the founder
who hung out his shingle in 1922.
She is an advocate of Cardinal red,
the colors of the University of Louis
ville “which ain’t far from here.” She
then declared, “I’ll show you around and
answer your questions since you like red.
That Kentucky blue (expletive) don’t go
around here. This is Cardinal corner.”
Hole-in-the-wall institutions usually
have on their premises an amusing per
sonality like Marlene who is plain spoken
with sage wit and crass contempt for
something or other.
In 1922, Leo Wagner bought Hagen’s
Pharmacy on the Northeast corner of
Fourth Street and Central Ave.
He began working at Hagen’s when he
was 14-years-old.
When he took over the business and
competition encroached, he found a new
location near Churchill Down, connect
ing with the working class in the horse
business.
What allowed him to develop a loyal
constituency was that he let the track
people buy cigarettes and “other weekly
staples” on credit.
This, as a handout reflects, “ generat
ed a friendship and loyalty that has lasted
for three generations.”
At Wagner’s, you will see a jockey com
ing in to cash a check. Trainers
gather here to talk shop.
Look up from your hamburger
and you might see Nick Zito,
whose horses have all won Triple
Crown races: the Derby twice,
the Preakness and the Belmont
twice and find him conversing
with the ladies running the cash
register. There usually is a long
line at the pay window at Wag
ner’s.
Wagner’s is no longer a phar
macy, having closed down that
part of the business “three or
four years ago,” that is if you don’t count
the sale of “Wagner’s Racehorse Lini
ment.”
Trainers buy it. Wagner’s customers
buy it.
Little ole ladies in Pennsylvania and
Michigan and those from border-states
buy it.
“You name it, honey, any state, any
place...they like our product,” Marlene
says.
Foster Northrop, graduate of the Uni
versity of Georgia College of Veterinary
Medicine and a leading vet on the Chur
chill Downs beat, smiles when you ask
him about Wagner’s Racehorse liniment.
“I certainly know about it,” Foster says.
“Leo Wagner tinkered with a lot of
potions after talking to trainers and came
up with something that seemed to work.
Any little thing in Thoroughbred racing
that seems to be effective, everybody will
try it and some will swear by it.”
The label says: “WAGNER’S RACE
HORSE LINIMENT” is an excellent rub
bing application for bruises, minor inju
ries, superficial wounds, pain and stiffness
caused by exposure, sprains or strains.”
Today’s generation relies on pills to
make them feel no pain, but there remains
legions of ole timers who believe in lini
ment of all sorts, taking the position with
respect to Wagner’s Racehorse liniment
that if it is “good enough for thorough
breds, it’s good enough for me.”
Marlene is certainly an advocate. “Rub
that (expletive) where you hurt and you’ll
find out how good it is. If you really get
to hurtin’, you’ll try it.”
The conversation with Marlene was as
good as the lunch.
Loran Smith is a columnist for the Bar-
row News-Journal. He is co-host of the
University of Georgia football radio pre
game show.
loran
smith
Random Rants in Rhyme
Does Jesus have a sense of humor?
Does the Bible say in any place
that Christians living under God’s great grace
and no longer bound by the Mosaic law
are forbidden to give a great guffaw?
Are somberness and obvious piety
the marks of tried and true Christianity?
It seems to me that Jesus Christ possessed
a sense of humor that ranks right with the best.
When Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount
(Matthew five through seven gives the full account)
He used a literary form called hyperbole
where words draw pictures so large, it makes it funny.
He spoke of a man standing in the synagogue
who wanted all of the crowd’s attention to hog,
so as he dropped his money in the basket or bucket,
he simultaneously loudly blew a trumpet.
He then went on to make his point obvious
that giving is not to draw attention to us.
The God to whom we give can clearly see,
and will reward our gifts - possibly openly.
He spoke again of a person passing by,
and a hypocrite spotted sawdust in his eye.
The hypocrite stopped the man and said, “Let me
remove that sawdust,” ignoring the fact that he
had from his own eye protruding out,
the central supporting beam of a small house.
Matthew, Mark and Luke all verify
that Jesus made this statement in days gone by,
“It is easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye
than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
Now that statement might have sounded quite odd
as it came from the mouth of the Son of God,
but most folks think that it sounds quite funny,
and Jesus was speaking in hyperbole.
When Jesus said that, he was trying to be funny
and make his audience go tee hee hee.
A person thinks better with a smile - not a frown.
And “a little bit of humor makes the gospel go down.”
© 2016, cbs
skelton
It’s all over by the cryin’
And by the time you are read
ing this, there has probably already
been a lot of cryin". No matter
which person won. We have elect
ed a new President.
Normally I’m up for all kinds of
discussions and debates during an
election season.
Not so much this time.
The campaigns have each
behaved abominably, and I’m pret
ty sure we are the laughing stock of
the entire world.
My Facebook posts and com
ments about the election have
been few. Number one, because there has
been nothing good to say; and number two,
because people are so passionate about it that
they are unable to remain civil in their conver
sations and are unfriending people.
Or, because some folks post so much hate
about the opposition of their chosen party,
that other folks don’t want to see it any more.
I’ve just not had the time nor the energy to
debate it, and without a candidate that I can
believe in, it just didn’t seem worth the effort
this year.
I’ve never seen anything so divisive as this
election season has been.
The choices were abysmal.
This year’s election was the poster child
for “voting for the lesser of the two evils”
mentality.
Most folks I know are just ready for it to
be over.
Let’s get on with our new normal... as
scary as that seems.
The world around us is changing.
If we each look back to our early childhood
memories, we can see just how
much it has changed.
Some of you are of the age
that your memories will take you
back to the days of WWH and the
Great Depression. What scary
times those must have been!
I’ve heard my parents and
grandparents talk of those days,
and how they made do with what
little they had, with no promises
for the future.
Yet, here some of them still
are. having survived the toughest
times of their lives.
At the time I am writing this, I don’t know
what the final results of the election will be.
By the time you are reading this, we should
know. Whether it is “rigged”, or whether it
is not, there won’t be anything to do about
it now.
There’s nothing we can do to change it.
But that doesn’t mean that we can’t try to
keep our world a better place, even if it’s just
the world that surrounds our homes.
For believers, our strength, our comfort,
and our peace come from God.
No matter who is elected president, God
is still our refuge and our strength, our very
present help in times of trouble.
We may be facing troubling times ahead,
but God will still be God.
And let’s just pray that He continues to
bless America.
Cathy Watkins Bennett is a Barrow County
native andagraduate ofWinder-BarrowHigh
School. Send comments about this column to
bencath@aol.com.
cathy
watkins
bennett
Letters to the Editor
Dogg Tales
Dear Editor:
Common course groups
meet each week at Wind
er-Barrow High School to
talk about successes and
failures in our classes, to
plan collaboratively, and to
look at data on both forma
tive and summative assess
ments.
These “data digs” have
become a more and more
important tool in guiding our
instruction over the past few
years. Early in this school
year as part of our data dig
on Milestone scores, the
11th grade CC identified
that writing, specifically nar
rative writing, was an area
that needed some focus this
year in our classes.
During our common
planning day this fall we
worked to come up with a
common unit over narrative
that would give the students
a chance to be exposed to
many types of written and
oral nonfiction narratives
from classic to modem con
texts.
The students worked to
analyze these narratives and
to gain understanding of the
traits of a successful narra
tive, From there, they both
wrote a personal narrative
on the theme of courage,
and presented it orally with
out notes, storytelling style.
Each class then voted on
a class storytelling winner,
and these winners will be
presenting their 4-6 minute
stories of personal courage
without notes as part of our
first storytelling event.
Pulling this event togeth
er has been a real experi
ence in collaboration. The
11th CC (Laurie Allen,
Andrew Jarvis, Jim Jones.
Rebekah Setser, and Tara
Stuart) came up with the
name and the motto (Dog-
gTales: Empowering Stu
dent Voices, Uniting the
Barrow Community), and
the WBHS art department
held a contest to design the
logo (Celina Guven, 12th
did the winning design). We
have been working with Kat
Marcotte and her graphic
design students at SIMS
Academy for our posters,
tickets, programs, and shirts.
The Tollersons at 106 West
have been amazing and
accommodating in renting
us their space. The drama
department will be selling
refreshments, and many of
our junior students will be
fulfilling various roles that
evening.
And most important
ly. our students have been
incredible in sharing their
stories with us in raw, hon
est form. The class winners
were Norman Dismuke,
Ashli Kidd, Chris Sherrill,
Tyler Laseter. Jorge Her
nandez. Brandon Conway,
Austin Maddox, and Remy
Thrift. The students come
from diverse backgrounds,
and their stories ran the
spectrum from funny and
frivolous to thought provok
ing and heartbreaking. We
are so excited for them to get
the chance to share their nar
ratives with a live audience.
We believe that the vari
ety of activities and the
depth of engagement with
them will translate into an
improvement on Milestone
writing scores. But, just as
importantly, it has provid
ed students a real, authen
tic learning experience and
a chance to find their own
voices. They have also
grown through listening to
and relating to a wide vari
ety of diverse stories from
their classmates.
Please contact Laurie
Allen at WBHS with any
further questions: laurie.
allen@barrow.kl2.ga.us or
770-891-8141.
Sincerely,
A1 Darby
Principal
WBHS
Buffington continued from 4A
groups’ numbers rise. The
GOP cannot survive as a
whites-only party, but
Trump’s appeal this year
has realigned the party into
that narrow box.
Beyond that political con
sideration is the question of
how Trump will actually
govern as president?
Will he do as he said in
his victory speech and reach
out to heal the nation? Or
will he fall back on his cam
paign rhetoric of extreme
Nationalism and Isolation
ism?
Trump has a strong
authoritarian streak and he
bristles at any criticism.
Given much of his ugly
rhetoric over the last 18
months, Trump has a lot
to prove.
For one thing, he has
to prove he’s emotional
ly stable enough to be the
commander-in-chief of the
world’s largest military.
I have my doubts about a
President Trump based on
the way he ran his cam
paign and the extremist
positions he took.
But for now, I’m going to
hope that his ugly campaign
rhetoric was just the televi
sion actor in him being dis
played for political effect.
I’m going to hope that he
was playing to the crowds
by telling them what they
wanted to hear rather than
what he really believes.
I’m going to hope that his
multitude of lies were not
because of a serious charac
ter flaw, but were a cynical
means to a political end.
I’m going to hope that
he won’t continue to
dog-whistle white extremist
groups to join him in the
mainstream of our Ameri
can political culture.
I’m going to hope that
his promises to build a wall,
round up Hispanics and ban
people from the U.S. based
on their religion was all just
extreme political rhetoric
designed to woo crowds
and not real policy propos
als.
I’m going to hope that
rather than continuing to
play on the nation’s fears,
cultivating conspiracy ideas
and appealing to our worst
instincts, he will move
toward a higher standard
and begin a time of healing
in the nation.
I wasn’t a supporter of
Donald Trump and in fact,
found him repulsive and
revolting. But the nation has
spoken and now he will be
my president too.
It’s in all our interests that
he finds a way to succeed as
President and leave behind
all of the ugly campaign
rhetoric he used to get there.
The alternative is a sce
nario that is too awful to
consider.
Mike Buffington is
co-publisher of Mainstreet
Newspapers, Inc. He can
be reached at mike@main-
streemews.com.