O. Henry and Edward R. Murrow

O. Henry is one of my favorite authors.  I'm always telling his "Ransom of Red Chief" story on our sons and grandsons.  Someone kidnaps a little boy and tries to ransom him back to the parents.  They refuse to pay the ransom and in no time at all, due to the boy being a Dennis the Menace type, the kidnappers end up paying the parents to take him back.  Sounds so much like our sons and grandsons.  :-)

So, one of the museum storefronts is a drugstore.  Turns out, Porter & Tate Drugstore was owned by Will Porter's uncle.  Will Porter used the pen name "O. Henry"  "O. Henry" used to work here!  He was born and raised in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Will had trouble remembering the names of customers so he began sketching them as a way to help learn their names.

Ever heard of Vick's VapoRub?  It was invented right here!  There was a whole collection of Vick's remedys on display here.

For small children there were jigsaw puzzles showing ingredients for standard remedies.  (Well, John had those puzzles put together in no time at all - must be his medical background...)

You can go to your spice rack today, take out a whole clove, put it next to your toothache and before you know it, the pain will go away.  No Chloroform necessary!  I thought everybody knew that.

Ever wondered what's in Pepto Bismol-type products?  Pepsin, a lil' flavoring, and phosphoric acid maybe?

You have to be AT LEAST as old as we are to remember Edward R. Murrow.  He was born here, too.  Murrow was a pioneer in broadcast journalism who brought live radio reports of the Nazi bombing of London in World War II into the living rooms of America.  He was at the forefront of journalism during the McCarthy era and essentially invented the traditions of television news. Over Murrow's career he was recognized with five Peabody Awards and six Emmy Awards.  "Good night, and good luck."