Remembering Linglestown of years gone by

Updated at 11:09 am ...

Gazette reader Dick Strawser sent me the note below several months ago in response to a post about a prior use of the historic building that houses St. Thomas Roasters coffee house (pictured below).

As a recent re-resident of the area, I try to check your blog postings on a fairly regular basis. I grew up in Colonial Crest: my family moved there in 1960 when I was 10 and I moved back into the house after my mother's death last year.

Usually my travels take me south on Colonial Rd to the Colonial Park area. But the other week, having read about the St. Thomas Restaurant [in Linglestown] on your blog and in the PennLive forum, a friend and I decided to check it out and were very happy with our experience.

Over the years, quick trips down "Main Street" didn't bring on the waves of nostalgia until we were looking for the restaurant: it occurred to me how much things had changed even in "downtown Linglestown." I remembered all the farmland from the '60s being converted into suburban homes. My mother took me along to her garden club shows that were held in the old firehouse. And so on...

My dad was a close friend of Bill Wilson who owned the drugstore that was located where St. Thomas Roasters is now. I'm not sure when Bill closed the store but when my dad died in 1985, Bill was still around – I'm sure he had retired before I came back to the area in 1980.

Going through the usual family papers after my parents' deaths, then, I found an article my mother had cut out about Bill Wilson and of course, I can't remember if I saved it or where I put it, but he must have been close to 90 and quite frail then: as I recall, he died shortly after the picture was taken, whether that was in the article or a note added by my mom. I think it was in The Patriot-News but perhaps in The Paxton Herald, if that'd help you track anything down.
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More stuff on Wilson's Pharmacy ... Back in the 60's I attended Linglestown Elementary. Since my friends and I all rode our bicycles to school, on the way home we always made a detour to Wilson's Pharmacy. We'd all go sit at the soda fountain and have a drink. Those that saved their lunch money got themselves a soda, those that didn't were out of luck. The drinks were served in a paper cup held in a metal cup holder. Mr. Wilson would charge us a few cents even for a cup of water. His excuse was that he had to pay for the paper cup, I think the real reason was he didn't want a bunch of non-paying kids blocking the counter from the paying customers ;).

– submitted by Larry Hartman
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Please e-mail B² if you can add to Dick's memories of Bill Wilson's drugstore.