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Longtime pharmacist Jim Phillips has a handheld metal device in his office that hearkens back to long ago days as a young man who provided prescriptions for decades to folks in Tyler County.
“I don’t think you’ll find anybody, unless they are my age, who knows what this is. No one uses these things any more. Back then, you put a small piece of paper in between the clamps and then put the powder inside that paper and fold it over,” said Phillips, 80, who has been owner and pharmacist for 51 years at Phillips Pharmacy in downtown Sistersville.
Phillips plans on retiring during the early part of next year. As with anyone who has spent a lifetime working and working hard to serve the community, Phillips said his future plans are uncertain.
“It’s hard – I’m concerned about that too,” Phillips said. “When you’ve been working almost 60 years, well, you have to figure that out.”
Tacked to a wall near Phillips’ desk, there is a map with different colored pins sticking out of places across the globe where he has visited. Phillips said maybe he’ll travel more and get more rest, maybe.
In another corner of Phillips’ office, there are small glass medicine jars with cork-like lids, a far cry from the childproof medicine bottles used today.
There is a Prohibition era prescription tacked to his wall that Phillips purchased long ago. He said the era when alcohol was prohibited was long before his time, but this particular note makes him smile because it is prescription for whiskey.
Apparently back then, whiskey had medicinal uses for those who needed a nip – a taste that was legally prescribed.
Phillips is a third-generation pharmacist. His grandfather, George Phillips, started dispensing drugs in St. Marys around the time of the Spanish American War in 1898. His father, Lyle Phillips, took over the business. Jim Phillips took up the trade in 1957 after graduating from the WVU School of Pharmacy when he started working for his father at the family’s pharmacy in St. Marys.
Phillips bought his own shop, one known to many in Tyler County, on July 1, 1964, where he has been located ever since on Wells Street – 51 years.
“What kept me going? I loved doing it,” he said. “I love working with the people. I love helping people. When I finish the day and feel I didn’t help somebody, it wasn’t a complete day. I always felt that.”
Phillips’ grandson, Drew, works behind the counter at the pharmacy these days before heading to medical school next year. Husband and wife duo, Brian and Lindsay Camerlin, both pharmacists, are taking over as owners of Phillips Pharmacy.
“I’ve had to slow down, so Brian has come into help me out,” Phillips said. “Brian was handpicked by me because I knew that he would take care of my customers and my employees. He would do a great job for the town.”
And on more than a few occasions, Phillips’ had to provide the medicine to patients who needed care long after the sun went down and his shop had closed. Drs. Ralph Boone and Elliott Thrasher, who is now deceased, did house calls after hours and pharmacists worked late hours to provide medicine.
“They used to work a lot of times to 11 o’clock at night,” Phillips said. “I’d stay right here with them until they closed up. We’d open up at again at 9 o’clock in the morning and five hours on Sunday. That’s a lot of hours. But that was the way it was. I put in a lot years at 70 hours a week.”