Peanuts Begins by Charles Schulz for September 18, 2024

If the druggist was any kind of guy, he would make you clean up your mess and leave the store.

He’s busy checking how his new soda jerk is doing the ice cream sodas.

It’s not a library, kids!

“SCRAM, YA LITTLE MOOCHERS! PAYS ER GIT OUT! DIS AIN’T NO LI’BARY!”

Buy it or get out, this ain’t a library. But sir, we need to know if we’ll like them before we buy them. When we’re done we put them back and say didn’t like it and leave.

Guess they don’t know about the no reading if you’re not buying rule.

He should give you kids some drugs…

This reminds me of the TV special, It’s Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown. CB is trying to sell his comic books so he can buy Peggy Jean a pair of gloves, and with comic books scattered everywhere, a little boy asks him “Is this all you have?”

I’m old enough to remember sitting on a sack or box and reading while my parents did the weekly grocery shopping.

I remember those days.

I seem to remember some of the old Peanuts strips referred to them as “comic magazines,” not “comic books.”

I once went into a store that had a rack like that. All the comic books were in the top shelves, and the “adult” magazines were in the bottom shelves.

And he’d stop moving them around so it was hard to find them.

Some 80 years ago, my cousin Bobby and I would go into the drugstore, pick up a couple comic magazines and hide behind a rack of whatever – just as long as it was big enough to hide behind and read the comics. Either the druggist was a very kind person or never caught on, we managed to finish our reading and then run giggling out of the drugstore.

My friends and I did this when we were kids. We had several drugstores within walking distance. If one kicked us out, we’d move on to the next one and continue reading. Only at one drugstore would we get thrown out almost immediately if we opened a comic book. The rest would let us “browse” for at least a little while.

When I was around 5, there was a grocery store that had benches, and a little table in between. There were comic books, highlights magazine, and others. Mom could leave me there while she shopped. It was wonderful

A few years ago the Barnes & Noble here removed the bench that had been in the periodical section.

But they do still have large chairs in other parts of the store, as well as the cafe.

Ah, sadly I’m old enough to remember going to the local druggists for comic books…

I haven’t seen comic books in a drugstore in decades. Do they still have them?

Pay or leave. That’s his rule.