Who was to be the speaker at the regional Past Presidents’ annual gathering? Billed as “Miss Deborah Marsh”, it was announced that she would recount anecdotes about her long career in pharmacy. The door opened … and in came Regional President Liz McConnell.
As a ‘Saturday girl’ in the mid-1960s, keen to gain work experience in a pharmacy, Liz’s first job had been to scrub returned medicine bottles in readiness for their sterilisation – in the gas oven at Regulo ½ for 40 minutes. This set the tone for the rest of the talk. There was the stiff, crackly white nylon coat (so coveted, but so uncomfortable to wear); top shelf bottles that threatened to cascade like dominoes when Liz dusted them; discreet brown paper bags for customers buying the sherry or ruby port that many pharmacies were licensed to sell; and over-the-counter medicines that once contained strychnine, mercury, morphine or alcohol.
President Liz drew a veil over her student days when, among other things, she learned about creating lotions, creams and suppositories. (Much pharmaceutical knowledge comes in useful when cooking – all except the intricacies of suppositories.) However, there were many tales from years of dealing with the public – including the request for liniment for the legs of a racing pigeon.
“I didn’t know until two minutes beforehand the identity of the speaker I was due to introduce,” said Immediate Past President Denise Baldwin, who had organised the event. “Liz kept us all in the dark – and we loved the surprise.”
And “Miss Deborah Marsh”? President Liz qualified before her marriage, and is ‘officially’ Deborah.