Local News
Walling still making people feel better
PALESTINE — The Walling family has been making the people of Grapeland feel better for more than 80 years now.
In 1927 Otto Walling went into the pharmacy business in Grapeland.
“I came along a year later and was essentially raised in a drug store,” recalled pharmacist Dan Walling, who eventually joined his father in the pharmacy business. “We had the soda fountain back then, so I worked my way up from a soda skeet.”
As World War II was raging Walling was working in the family business. Walling attended and graduated from Grapeland High School and then entered the University of Texas School of pharmacy and in 1951 became a registered pharmacist.
“I joined the Air Force and they used me in pharmacist positions,” Walling said. “When I got out in ‘54 I came back to Grapeland and went into partnership with my dad until he died in 1973 -- since then it has been a sole proprietorship.”
Even after 58 years in the pharmacy business, Walling still enjoys what he does, he credits that to his life-long interest in chemistry and drug effects.
“In essence, that’s where by interest has been all my life,” Walling mused.
There have been a lot of changes in Walling’s 81 years of being at the family drug store.
Long gone is the old soda fountain.
“When it broke down, it was so obsolete we couldn’t get any parts for it,” Walling lamented. “So we had to let that part of the business go, but every evening, I still wish I had a good malt, but all we have is soda in a can.”
Probably the biggest change, though, is the business itself.
“There is so much interference now from the federal and state government and insurance companies who all control the prices,” Walling said. “It’s becoming impossible now for small-time pharmacies to make a profit.
“All the statistics claim I am a member of an endangered species, because there are very few of us who are able to stay in business because of all this government interference.”
There is no need to panic, though, as Walling said he isn’t planning on going anywhere any time soon, he’s just going to keep working.
“I don’t have a lot of outside interests,” Walling said. “I don’t like to play golf and there’s no sense just lying around the house. As long as my health holds up, I plan to keep working -- it keeps me out of mischief.”
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Sept. 11 ceremony set Saturday to honor firefighters
