Traveling back in time to Moreland’s Drugs

By Nila Harris
    When Ron Moreland and OT Gillespie acquired the building that housed Moreland Drugs in 1965, the drugstore occupied the backside of the building (the Shelby Street side). Over the years, some businesses that occupied the front section of the building were a pool hall, bank, and a furniture store.  
    The pool hall later moved to the basement and was accessed by a side entrance. There was a brick wall separating the drug store from the front part of the building.  
    Eventually, Moreland and Gillespie bought the rest of the building from former Falmouth mayor, Max Goldberg. In the early 1980’s, renovation began on the drug store.  
    One of the first problems encountered was how to remove the brick wall and a concrete vault that once belonged to the bank housed there.
    Ray House was talking to the owners and said that he would be able to remove the wall and vault.  He operated a jackhammer which created quite amount of dust and noise in the drug store.  
    According to Moreland, “It was a pain because of the dust and noise” and House would “never take a job like this again.”
    Another part of renovation included the addition of a computer system.  Moreland was friends with Bob Wallace who owned a pharmacy in Grant County. Wallace talked to the men about the wonders of technology and how it could make things easier in the pharmaceutical world. Moreland and Gillespie took the plunge into the world of technology.  
    There were a few “growing pains” in the beginning, and, according to Moreland, their “only argument was when they switched from typewriters to computers.”  
    Moreland did say, however, that the addition of the computer made the pharmacists’ lives easier  because it helped with Medicare and insurance  which were all online.  It also made billings easier.  
    Prior to computers, the customers’ contact information was written on index cards which Moreland would take home in order to send out bills.  
    Along with the expansion came additional items being sold at the store.  Some unusual items sold were linseed oil, sheep dip (sold by the gallon), and a small veterinary section containing 2-4 items, like iodine which was sold by the pint.  
    The business was only robbed once. Someone got in the back door and tried to chisel through the safe.  They were unsuccessful, but they did manage to steal some cash and drugs.  Police in Dayton caught the perpetrators when they pulled over a man who had pill bottles with “Moreland Drugs” on them, along with a crowbar with red paint on it from the drug store’s back door.
    Moreland expressed that they  had many  good workers over the years at Moreland Drugs. Gillespie was usually in charge of the hiring and firing.  He would often contact Margaret Ritter from the high school regarding potential workers. Usually, the young people would work there for a couple of years.  
    They only had to fire two students who had been stealing.  Moreland and Gillespie didn’t catch them, but a nearby neighbor had seen the young men taking things out with the garbage, then later coming back to get it.  
    Moreland seemed appreciative of the watchful citizen. Long-time employee Darryl Ammerman came to work for the drug store after high school and worked there for 14 years until it closed.  Gillespie had been wanting to retire, so when Rite-Aid came to Falmouth, Moreland and Gillespie sold the business to them.  They occupied the Moreland Drugs building until their new building (where CVS is located today) was completed. Both men as well as Ammerman worked for Rite-Aid for a time.
    Moreland Drugs closed its doors in the early 1990s but lives on in the hearts of many Pendleton County citizens who enjoyed going there to get their prescriptions, to have an ice cream soda, and tp have good conversation with friends.