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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.