Drugstores are places where memories are made. They serve everyone, from the tiniest baby to the oldest citizen. Some of these memories are tinged with worry and sorrow, if sickness or pain were endured. Other memories are more joyful and more eagerly recalled.
The two largest, locally owned drugstores in Brookfield have been Fisher’s (which went by different names since 1908) and Paden’s, which was always, and only, Paden’s.
Both drugstores were located on the pie-shaped corners at the head of Grand Boulevard, right across the street from each other. Salt Creek Wine Bar now occupies the Fisher’s space, while Trattoria Gemelli is in the old Paden’s space.
At the time Hodge Paden came to Brookfield in 1937, Fisher’s was still Siebert’s, and remained so until Mylon Fisher bought Siebert’s business in 1945.
Hodge Lawrence Paden was born on Aug. 17, 1888, in Litchfield, Ill., but did not stick around for any great while. A census taken six years later on March 1, 1895, gave his address, at age 6, as living in the town of Lane, in Smith County, Kan.
But this Illinois/Kansas boy was fated to do even more traveling. He attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and then returned to Kansas. For a time, he did not wander very far, and became a druggist in Atwood, Kan.
He was still there when World War I began, and he registered for the draft on June 5, 1917. His draft card described him as being of “medium height, with dark brown eyes, and dark brown hair.” His card further stated that he was “employed by no one but himself,” which suggests that he owned the Atwood drugstore. Later census records relate that he was never called off to war.
Sometime before 1918 he was married, and his new wife, Zetta B. Hodge, had a baby, Betty, that year. Paden continued his pharmaceutical career, eventually leaving Atwood and working as a druggist at the Walgreens Drugstore at 1068 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., in Chicago. At the same time, he lived at 6318 N. Artesian Ave.
Working for a “chain” drugstore had its moments of high adventure. By 1932 he was manager of the store, and, as such, had a close brush with danger, so much so that if events had gone the wrong way, there might have never been a Paden’s drugstore in Brookfield.
The Chicago Tribune’s April 21, 1932 headline read: “Kidnap Store Manager; Loot Place of $250.” Paden, then 43 years old, “was kidnapped when on the way home from work early this morning. Paden was at Clark Street and Devon Avenue, when a small automobile pulled up beside him. He was forced to go into the car and ordered to go to the store and open the safe. He told the robbers that he could not open it without a key that was at [his] home.
“He was then driven to his home and forced to surrender the key and write the combination of the safe. Two of the robbers left, and were gone an hour and a half while Paden sat under guard of the third bandit. When the two returned, they honked their horn and were joined by the guard. Paden’s wife and daughter [Betty, age 14], asleep in the home, were not aroused by the intrusion.”
The thieves got away with $250 and 53 pints of Old Taylor whisky. Paden was probably very shaken up by this incident, and the fact that it nearly involved his family.
It is no wonder that almost immediately afterwards, he moved to 8011 Edgewater Road, in North Riverside, taking a job at a store named Peterson’s Prescription Pharmacy. Five years later, in 1937, he decided to open his own store across the street from Seibert’s (Fisher’s).
He arranged financing for his new store in the “McIntosh Business Block” on the corner of Prairie and Grand Boulevard. In May, 1937, blueprints for a $30,000 building were submitted to the village board, and approved. On Wednesday, July 14, 1937, at 2 p.m., official groundbreaking took place for the building. Excavation for a three-foot high foundation was begun at 1 p.m. the next day by E.A. Sternberg of Riverside.
The streamlined building extended back 152 feet. Reported the Magnet newspaper, “The building is to be white, black and gold terra cotta front, with stores of variable depths and excellent display windows.” In short, an architecturally noticeable building.
Plumbing was being installed during the first week of August. Steel beams for the building’s floors arrived on August 17, 1937-Paden’s 49th birthday-and a gang of carpenters went to work on the floors the next day.
Torrential showers during the last week of August failed to dampen the progress being made on the building. Brick walls were going up and terra cotta being installed. Plastering was going full speed ahead in the middle of October, and the building shone with newness when Paden’s Friendly Pharmacy, at 3755 Grand Blvd., opened on Thanksgiving week.
The store’s Nov. 25 Magnet ad read: “Well, Folks, There You Are! A new and friendly drugstore for Brookfield. Everything new, clean and fresh … stock right from the shelves of the manufacturer. For everybody, first class delivery service, prompt attention to prescriptions, courtesy to all.”
The only thing not mentioned was the store’s soon-to-be legendary fountain service.
It wasn’t until his ad in the Feb. 3, 1938 Magnet, that he came right out and said “our fountain service is unsurpassed,” and offered a “delicious assortment of sandwiches, hot chocolate, malted milk, pies, rolls and coffee.”
By 1945 he was advertising the kind of ice cream he used for his unique concoctions: “Thompson’s Seal Test Ice Cream-Rich Ice Cream Does Taste Better.” He was to use Seal Test until the store’s last days.
The drugstore was, by then, frequently visited by a canine member of the family, “Cuddles,” the Paden’s bull terrier, born in 1943. Also putting in time here was Paden’s wife, Zetta, who was said, in a Jan. 3, 1946 Magnet article to “always be on hand to greet the many friends of the ‘store on the point.'”
In 1945, the Padens were living at 3430 Arden Ave., but they had moved by 1955 to 3603 Prairie Ave., just a short walk from the store. Another employee at the store was Edith Fullerton, a graduate cosmetician from Helena Rubenstein. Paden’s, by 1958, was “carrying a complete line of Helena Rubenstein products at all times,” and Fullerton was both a saleswoman and a “consultant.”
It was around 1959 that Mylon Fisher removed his soda fountain from his store, leaving the field clear to Paden. In truth, there was never much of a rivalry between the two men.
Fisher’s was known as having more of a lunch counter, while Paden’s specialty was ice cream fountain service. Fisher, himself, used to go across Grand Boulevard to eat his own lunch (or ice cream) at Paden’s, and they would sit and talk for awhile.
In 1964, at age 76, after 27 years, Paden closed the doors of his pharmacy forever, because of his wife, Zetta’s, failing health. Customers and employees alike sensed that something special was going out of their lives. Now all that remained were the memories.
Paul Piche, a Gross School student at the time, recalls today, “It was a place that seemed to be from another time. From the moment you walked through the doors, there was an air of … yesteryear. The store had all of the usual offerings that you would find in any other drugstore, but the ambiance was definitely unique. The massive dark brown wooden counters, shelving and moldings were not that of the bright shiny rival across the street.
“The soda fountain, with its marble top and metal stools with wooden seats were markedly different from the chrome and revolving stools of the other stores of that day. All the sodas were handmade with a squirt of syrup and a spray of seltzer water, and Doc Paden would mix them with his long spoon, to perfection. He did a great job on the ice cream sodas and sundaes, too; always a kind word and an extra cherry.
“Pharmacist, storekeeper and soda fountain kind all wrapped in one package, and placed in a store that bridged the gap between past and future. I can almost hear the slurp of the last bit of the Boogie [pronounced boo-jee] Beer as we grab our penny candy and [race] out the door to our waiting bicycles, and a new adventure in Kiwanis Park.”
About that Boogie Beer-it was Paden’s most famous creation, a drink that was legendary.
According to Bob LeGros, in the book “Brookfield Illinois: A History,” Paden “squirted root beer syrup and chocolate syrup in the bottom of a tall glass. Then he added ice cubes, and filled the glass with [seltzer] water. It was served with a spoon, although the milky-looking drink was not particularly thick. A small size cost 15¢, and a large stomach-churner cost 25¢. Legend has it that Mr. Paden was offered $10,000 for the recipe (by a beverage company), but he always declined.”
Dan Weiler, a student at Riverside-Brookfield High School, worked at Paden’s in his teens, and stated that Paden would have him “cook up” the heated chocolate syrup mixture for the Boogie Beer.
It began with some kind of chocolate powder, he said.
“The trick to making the drink, as I recall, was the chocolate [syrup] went in first, then some root beer syrup. When adding the seltzer, you pushed the handle backwards so that a fine (needle-like) stream would come out and mix the chocolate and root beer together. Then you added more seltzer to fill the glass.”
Even today, 44 years after the store closed, many people still fondly remember the Boogie Beer drink. Cathy Edwards became acquainted with it when she was very young.
“My dad would take me to Paden’s on Sunday morning, after church,” Edwards said. “When you ordered a Boogie Beer, you thought you were really special, and this was a special event. The only thing closest to would have been a Cock Robin’s chocolate Silver Star Soda. But those sodas were watery, in comparison. Boogie Beers must’ve been thicker.”
Some people remember the Boogie as being a dime, not 15¢. In the mid 1990s, Randall Herman of 3735 Morton Ave. vowed that Coke and/or root beer syrup was used-with a squirt of Green River syrup. Dan Weiler said that there was some sort of secret ingredient. Was there? Donna (Taylor) Ribulotta e-mailed that she’s “made them many a time.”
“Paden never used to mind the youngsters crowding in there after school,” recalled LeGros. “The store seemed more kid-friendly than Fisher’s.”
Well, to a point. Prudy (Jeffrey) DeSalvo recalled “the kind man who made us Boogie Beers, and if we were a little short on change, he’d make us one, anyway. I also remember the magazine racks in the front of the store that the boys always crowded around to take sneak peeks of the girlie magazines. Mr. Paden would come out and chase them away.”
Zetta Paden died on July 2, 1966. Hodge Lawrence Paden, at age 79, went to that big drugstore in the sky soon after, on Oct. 3, 1967. All of Brookfield mourned his passing, but the kids-and former kids-mourned him the most, and still pay homage to his memory.