Paul
St. Pierre

sig

PAULITICS & PERSPECTIVE

Third of a series of colianms about
a fast transcontinental cuntble ina
rice-burner car.

WALL, SOUTH Dakota —
There’s not much to see as
the little car rolls along
Interstate 90 across barren
plains.

The plains here are so barren
that people left South Dakota dur-
ing the Hungry Thirties to take up
land in Saskatchewan, Things don't
get much more barren,

There seem to be na people, just
brown grass, sand, jackrabbits and
nuclear missile silos.

The Minutemen silos are now
buing dismantled, tike so much of
the rest of the economy on these
prairies and on our own in Canada
where ghost towns outnumber the
real ones.

This tends to make billboards
more noticeable, even small, sim-
ple, unadorned billbourds. Ordinary
as they may be, they pick, pick.
pick at the traveller's headbones,

“Wall Drug as Told by The New
York Times.” As told by? Why is
the New York Times telling about
Wall Drug? .

Another sign says there is a six-
foot rabbit at Wall Drug.

Wall Drug has a shapel, where
you can get married or baptized if

~ you have a minister with you.
There is an art gallery. There is a
cowboy orchestra.

“Wail Drug as Told by USA
Today.” “FREE ICE WATER at
Wall Drug.”

So yes, taking care not to
sneeze, fiddle with the car radio
dial or blink your eyes at the com-
munity of Wall, because if you did

the Wall in

seuh tiss the ftrneth and dive
Past voudine inte Wall one of
tre few prance towns whieh have
not died and bere you tind what the
New York Fones the Wall Street
Journal, USA Pods amd other
Newspapers hu yer than this one
have abreads discovered nothing
less than the world’s biggest drug
State,

It covers an entire block of the
town, 46.000 square feel (4.774
sq.m) and ts about to increase its
size by hall’

Through its dours pass 2.2 ol
lion people cach year. a number
caceeding all the residents of South
Dakota plus theie dows and their
antelopes.

The question is, the reason for
your turing off the highway to
look is whether this is a stubble.
Jumpers’ Cony (stand, devoted to
Neecing travellers who don’ thoow
what te do with leit dine? There
are such tawdry oases elsewhere,
Most of us have experienced thei,

Well, Wall Drug is a tiny ver-
sion of Disneyland, which most
North American families enjoy.

The original pharmacy is altnost
as small as when it opened in 1931,
But surroanding it is a maze of
shops and galleries. These include
a cafe with seating for 530, a jew-
elry store, book store, general old-
fashioned country store and an art
gallery housing (83 original
Westerns, some of extreme worth.

The chapel, like so many things
free to all comers, is tasteful, pat-
terned on one built by Trappist
monks in Dubuque in 1950 with a
stained glass window that came
from an old church in the state cap-
ital of Pierre.

At Wall Drug you can admire,
or buy, sculpture, paintings, books
from a large library, harness, iron-
work, clothing or cameras. There is
a donut factory, an old fashioned
soda fountain, a fudge shop and
coffee for 5 cents a cup.

Ted Hustead, the third of four
generations of Husteads who oper-
ate Wall Drug. together with 280
summer eniployces, estimates that.
on this normal summer day.
between 18,000 and 22,000 people
will come to see the six-foot rabbit
and perhaps buy a few hundred
dolars* worth of silver and
turquoise.

{t all began, it seems, with
grandfather Ted who came here to
this tiny community, sitting on the
edge of the picturesque but deso-
late Dakota Badlands, in 1931.

Ted possessed nothing but a

Lynnterm berth expansion,
lookout tower completed

WESTERN STEVEDORING
joined its civic and curporate part-
ners on July 29 to open a major
expansion of its berth space at
Lynnterm on the North Vancouver
waterfront.

The group also opened an
improved lookout tower for the
public in neighboring
Harbourview Park.

The completion of Lynnterm's
76-metre (750-foot) westward
extension of its berth space now
allows four deep-sea forestry
ships to berth simultaneously
alongside the 915-metre (3.000-
foot) berth.

The expansion greatly increas-
es the capacity and loading effi-

ciency of Lynnterm.

A joint project of Western
Stevedoring and the Vancouver
Port Corporation, the berth exten-
sien js the latest in a series of
multi-million dollar improvements
to Lynnterm.

The improvements include a
21.000 sq. m (226.000 sq. ft)
state-of-the-art warchouse opened
in late 1993, designed to service
recently awarded-long-term export
wood pulp contracts.

Meanwhile the wheelchair-
accessible observation tower
located to the west of Ly.interm
teplaces an ald lookout tower
which was removed to aecommo-
date the berth extension.

‘OSTERSON’S FRAMING & ART!

00 Incoming framing

order min, $30

OFF

Expires August 31/94

1324 Lonsdale Ave.. N.Van

Plarmacy leense, experience i
GPTV i Cement in buckets at con
SER Te sates, $2800 Debt lian bs
tus teceatly deceased father and a
stutter, Vhe list named did not
tithe rt casy tor tim to dead with
people

The start of the phenomenal
SUCCESS SLOPy Cag Same sears
later in the depths of the
Depression when ‘Pod ’s wite
Dorothy gotthe idea of offering
free ice water to people using the

SEPARATE ADMISSION FEATURES

BHAJ! ON THE BEACH
6:50 pm

MAVERICK

Friday, August 5, 1994 - North Shore News - 9

hivhwas

Thes bad an tee house where
Docks of tee cut frou a nearby
lake were Kept ander sawdust
through the bor summers,

From that aetient on, one
tourist altriction fed to another ond
growth never ceased,

No more onprontisitg location
forthe world’s biggest drug: store
could have been found, yet the
Jace maves from sticcess to suc-
cess and repulacly contributes fam-

@.:

CINEMA 2
SEPARATE ADMISSION FEATURES

THE SHADOW

South Dakota

ify mentbers to the state legestature
and varied government agencies.

And with ital. ie spirit of fun,
Notonly ts the free ice water still
available, There are also free cot:
tee and doughnuts for honeymoon:
ers, crews in the nuclear borb
stlos, huaters, skiers and [wheel
Iruckers.

The Husteads plan a theatre in
the new extension, Why notin
opera house? Is ne more unbe-
lievable than what has happened.

CINEMA 3
SEPARATE ADMISSION FEATURES

FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL

7-10 pm

BLOWN AWAY
9:30 pm