Editor's Note: The following is part 2 of the story of South Medford's stores.

Once upon a time, you could get all of your prescriptions filled and all of your drug store necessities right on Main Street in South Medford. There was Yale Drug Store and Harvard Drug Store. Yale Drug, in its original location, had a Bunsen burner in the window.

"People would tend to use one drug store or the other, not both," says Nancy Chito.

"You'd be in trouble sometimes, if you used both for different reasons. We always used Yale Drug, but you could pay your bills at Harvard Drug and you could buy stamps there," says Anita D'Antonio. "So Manny Goldberg, who owned the place, could be very grouchy. See, he knew we went to Yale Drug for most things. He resented us just buying stamps and paying bills at his place when we were spending real money at Yale Drug."

"You'd go in there and he'd scowl at you and say, 'What d'ya want?' and we'd be scared of him," says Nancy.

"He also had a double phone booth made out of beautiful mahogany," says Anita. "It looked like something out of Mickey Spillane. You could imagine the detective in one booth listening to the criminal in the other. Yale Drug was like the first-aid station for the whole neighborhood. Mike Delano and Vinnie Corrado had salves for everything, they had something for teething babies, and they had something to fix you up with if you burned yourself. And Mike, the pharmacist and owner, was up high in the back like the 'Wizard of Oz.'"

"Both drug stores had soda fountains, but Yale Drug was the hang-out place when we were in high school," says Nancy.

However, when they were younger, the place to go was Harvard Street, just behind Main Street, and just behind where Oasis is now.

"It was a brick building, which at first had been a branch of the Medford Public Library," says Anita. Now it was the province of Mrs. Scali who had groceries in the back and was also a butcher.

"But in the front of her store, she had a penny candy nook. So we kids would come in after school or on a Saturday and she'd have to put down her butcher's knife and her pork chops or her sirloin tips. She'd wipe her hands on her butcher's apron that was covered with blood, throw on another clean apron, and hurry out to sell us a few cents worth of penny candy. She wore rimless glasses and her hair was always up in a bun.

"The whole time you were choosing your candy she'd be saying, in a thick Italian accent, 'Hurry up! Hurry up!'. If you bought enough penny candy you'd get a tiny brown paper bag to put it in. Otherwise you would just have to carry it in your hands.

"But Mrs. Scali had everything: mint juleps, squirrels, those candy buttons on a card, little pies in a tin with a tiny spoon, wax lips, milk duds, fireballs, necklaces made of candy, bubblegum, and bull's eyes. "

Meanwhile, Mr. And Mrs. C's five and dime, on the corner of Wright Avenue and Main Street, was another great place for children.

"It was another store with a wooden squeaky floor and as a kid you could afford to buy things there," recalls Anita. "Not a lot but maybe you could get a toy figurine or a tiny toy car for yourself. You never knew what you might find if you looked through their wooden bins. You would also go there with your mother to buy a costume for Halloween."

"Yes," says Louise D'Antonio, "and as kids we could buy our parents' anniversary gift there because there would be a vase or a pretty bowl or mugs we could afford."

"One time, I was sent to Mr and Mrs. C's to buy a hairnet for my grandmother," said Nancy.

"Mr. C patrolled the aisles there with a cigar in his mouth. The cigar was never lit, but the end was always wet," said Louise.

South Medford also had a printing shop on Main Street.

"When we were in high school and needed to get flyers or posters or tickets made up for the school play," says Louise, "we would always go to Rogers Printing. This shop was owned by an African-American woman named Mrs. Rogers. She was short and heavy and she had a son who was tall and thin. He went to school with all of us. Everyone got their printing done there. Mrs. Rogers printed a lot of flyers for the Sons of Italy."

There was also a Chinese laundry on Main Street. Broderick's laundromat came in later, but the laundry run by Charlie Sing Lee brings back memories. Nancy and Louise both recall, "The owner would leave the back door open in the alley for us and we'd go in and he'd give us lychee nuts!"

"My grandfather, Adolfo Gange, gave the Chinese laundry so much business that Charlie would give him a silk handkerchief at Christmas," says Anita.

And then there was the Boyce and Bennet Hardware store on Main Street next to Arthur's Pastry. They were clearly keeping up with the times and had a TV tube tester. Nancy went there with her father frequently because he repaired TVs.

"You'd also go in there with your mother or father to buy paint or Venetian blinds," says Anita, "and the first thing you'd notice was the delicious aroma of a pipe. Then Mr. Bennett would come down the aisle looking like something out of a Smuckers commercial. He had a flannel shirt, corduroy pants, and he'd be smoking his pipe. It was just a store that gave you a warm, country feeling as soon you walked in. Do you know what a 'pipe lip' is? Well, he had one because that pipe was in his mouth all the time."

The other hardware store was Harvard Paint (where the Karate studio is now) and the aroma here came from a cigar. Mr. Casullo was yet another South Medford shopkeeper who "always had a cigar in his mouth or right there on the counter," says Anita.

A dozen blocks away from all of these stores was a wonderful building called the Stabile Center with programs for children administrated by the South Medford Mother's Club. It was at the corner of Medford and Main streets, where the fire station is now, and Eleanor Gange D'Antonio was one of its founders.

At the Stabile Center, you could take elocution lessons, music lessons, arts and crafts, and dance. They had "story hours" and they put on an annual play or other event. There was a library at the center in addition to a Medford Public Library branch library, which was originally on Main Street and then moved to Harvard Street. You could take piano lessons at the center once a week, 15 minutes per time, and it cost 50 cents for the month. The Mother's Club also sponsored a Little League program.

On the other hand, as he grew older, Anita's brother, Anthony D'Antonio, preferred the pool hall. And that, too, was located in "The Hub of the Universe" on Main Street. All you needed to set up the balls in a triangle was a permission card signed by your parents!

During this magical era in South Medford, children and teenagers had a lot of freedom because they could walk to everything. And parents could let them have that freedom since it was all so close by and populated by people they knew. It "took a village" — and in South Medford they had one.

Sharon Kennedy would like to thank all those residents who shared their wonderful memories and photos of South Medford and the Italian-American community that grew and prospered in the area. This installment concludes the Medford Italian-American Oral History Project. For comments and questions you can reach Sharon at sharon@sharonkennedy.com or at 781-393-7566.