Get the Boy Another Cream!

Joe's grandfather, Dr. Alonzo Solon Neely, Trapper to Joe, was a major part of Joe's childhood. We recently came across several of Dr. Neely's prescription pads from the early to mid1950s (based on a printed note on the back of the front cover). 

Dr. Neely's office was in the Fountain Square Theatre Building about 1.5 miles from downtown Indianapolis - office hours were 10-3 and 7-9 pm on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday (more about Fountain Square here)  Phone #s - Office ME 7-0397 and Home ME 9 - 1670  Registry No. 824 (this is probably his license #)

pictures - Alonzo Neely, about 1936   Joe - 1940 at age 6.  I am sitting on the steps of my house on Bolton Avenue in Irvington (Indianapolis), Indiana.  Mamaw [Grandmother Neely] and I took the bus to Grosse Pointe, (Detroit) Michigan the next morning where my parents had just moved. I was NOT happy about moving.

This Google map shows that Wade's Pharmacy was a 1 minute walk from Dr. Neely's office in the Fountain Square Theatre Building.

                          

Click here for a picture of the corner with Wade's Pharmacy in the 1950s

Seeing Wade's Pharmacy reminded Joe of a story he likes to tell about his grandfather and Mr. Wade. 

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Get the Boy Another Cream!

 I spent a lot of time with my grandparents Dr. Alonzo Solon and Elizabeth Gilmore Neely prior to the sixth grade and then after that during the summers. - Every once in a while Trapper & Mamaw used to take me to Trapper's  office in the early evening. Once in a while Trapper would take me by himself. They would park me in his outer office and I would interact with the patients waiting. Once when I was about 4, I stood right outside the waiting room and motioned everyone who passed by to come in. Everyone in the surrounding offices thought it was funny. Trapper was not so sure. Once in a while they would send me up to the top floor to watch the bowling alley or elsewhere in  the building to a movie theater. I liked best talking to people in waiting room. 

Also,  on those occasions when it was just Trapper and myself, upon closing the office, he and I would stop by Wade's Pharmacy which essentially was just across the street. I remember one such occasion he set me up at the soda fountain counter and ordered me a "cream," ice cream. He then went back to the pharmacy itself to do business - which was to have a shot of whiskey. On this occasion I finished my ice cream treat and wandered back to the pharmacy office where he and Mr. Wade were conducting "business" and they apparently were not finished. Trapper rapidly escorted me back to the soda fountain and said to the clerk, "Get the boy another cream" and said to me, "Stay here until Mr. Wade and I are finished with business." - I began to wonder how many "creams" I was going to have to eat before we could leave and go home.