REMEMBER WHEN FROM THE PAST--FRANK'S PHAMACY

Remember When
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Kenna Holm  

Frank’s Pharmacy

    Helen Beckstrom called me a few days ago and asked if I would like a picture of their old Drug Store. I'm always thrilled when someone brings me a picture and a story. So I told her I would love to do a story about them. I had mentioned them a little bit before but I hadn't gotten a good story about their store.
    Frank's Pharmacy was located where Dalton's Restaurant is now.  That building started out as a Boise Cascade Co and they then rented it to Tri-State Lumber Company.  In 1959 Frank and Helen Beckstrom purchased the building from Boise Cascade and started remodeling the building for a drug store. They open their new store in 1960. It was a great place to get your prescriptions filled, buy a gift, or had a good root beer float or sundae. They made their own home-mad eroot beer and it was to die for. They also made the best fresh strawberry or fresh peach sundaes when the fruit was in season. It was a fun place to hang out.
    Beckstrom's were also fruit farmers. The grew peaches and pears out on the West Mountain towards Utah Lake if I  remember right. During harvest time, they would bring the bushel baskets of fruit to the store and people would buy their fruit there. When Frank wasn't busy filling prescriptions for customers he would go out and help sell the fruit.
    In 1963, they  purchased Spencer Snow's Paint Shop next door to the south and that is where they sold the fruit from the back of that building. Later they moved the prescriptions into that building and then in 1964 they purchased Brown Brothers building that was south of the paint store. They used that for storing merchandise.  That place is now Fat Jack's and the Chinese Cafe.
    Helen said that when the movie "Foot Loose" was being filmed in Payson, all the movie company's trucks and equipment were in the parking lot in back of the Pharmacy . She said Kevin Bacon spent a lot of time in the store between filming scenes. Needless to say, they always had a lot of the young girls spending time and waiting to see him. (It is fun to watch that movie and pinpoint all the people and places we recognized.
    Frank and Helen ran a very friendly and wonderful business. I loved going in there.. It seemed you could get about anything you wanted. After 20 years in the Drug Store they retired and we all missed them. It was nice to actually call in and talk to a live person and ask questions and Frank was always so knowledgeable and friendly. Helen could always be found helping out at the store to. She has always been such a beautiful lady.
    When they retired they rented their building to NAPA Auto and they were therefor 3 or 4 years before they moved to another location that was bigger. Beckstrom's still own the buildings and they rent the big building to Doug and Sandy Huff who run the Dalton Fine Dining and the other 2 buildings to the south that was Snow's Paint Shop and Brown's Plumbing to Fat Jack's Pizza.
Frank's Pharmacy was a great place and it's fun to stop and Remember Back When...