Story recorded by Ann Wood and Jean Proctor
Story transcribed by Fay McCrea
Story submitted to CHF by Fay McCrea
This is a story told by the Late Bob Smith, part owner and pharmacist at Leggett and Smith in Bolton, to Ann Wood and Jean Proctor in October 2007 and later transcribed by Fay McCrea.
"A lot of people came over to the pharmacy in Bolton from Caledon East because we had a lot of animal health products as well as the pharmacy.
The veterinarian service was a big part of our business we had a lot of animal health supplies and a lot of the farmers would come in to get supplies.
Mr. Leggett belonged to an Animal Health Association in the United States and he was interested in bringing it to Ontario. I’d had a little training because I had lived on a farm up in Ripley-Kincardine way and it stood me in good stead but I picked up a lot of information from the farmers.
We used to sell Penicillin, Streptomycin, Tetracycline and those injectable products for the animals because the farmers would pretty well treat their own animals as there weren’t many vets around. Dr. McCabe lived across the street and he was the only one in the area. I knew the type of medication that an animal would need and the farmers knew how to administer it. That was a good part of our business at that time.
We were still doing a fair bit of that almost up until the time I left the pharmacy (1984)."
Bob Smith passed away in June 2013.
What a great record of the story Bob told about Leggett and Smith selling veterinarian supplies from the drug store.