Schneider beginning her next career at new store

A 55-year-long chapter closes for Ruth Schneider Friday, but she won?t waste any time starting a new one Saturday night.

Schneider started work at Martin?s Pharmacy in downtown Fairfield in 1956. She began her career downstairs in the store?s ?toyland,? worked her up to handling charge accounts including many for Parsons College students, then took over cosmetics and fragrances before settling into her spot at the front counter with Phyllis Robison.

Saturday night, she?ll be serving pizzas for the Hy-Vee staff stocking the new store that will open first thing Tuesday morning. Schneider already made the transition to working for Hy-Vee a few years ago when it purchased Martin?s from Jim and Cathy Scherman.

?I have to be doing something,? said Schneider. ?I think I?m going to be a greeter and giving out samples of food. It stimulates me!?

?I?m all by myself since Merle passed away,? she said. ?Why shouldn?t I be out there??

Robison, her cohort of the last 29 years, will be retiring and volunteering at the Bargain Box and the Jefferson County Health Center gift shop.

?Other than that, I?ll just be driving Leroy crazy,? Robison added.

The two have teamed up at their familiar posts since October 1981 and do their best to welcome and visit with everyone walking through the front door.

?Ruth was the first person I saw when I walked through the door in 1973,? said Jim Scherman. ?She greeted me like she?d known me all my life, but that?s how she treats everyone.?

Cathy Scherman had already started as a pharmacist at Martin?s in 1971 when Jim came on board behind the pharmacy counter. The couple eventually purchased the store from Nick Martin in 1994. They will be pharmacists at the new Hy-Vee Food and Drug Store.

Schneider still uses references like ?Mr. Martin,? ?E.A.,? ?Nick,? and ?Grandpa? when talking about the long-time owners and Martin family members.

?I started working during the Christmas season in 1956 and was going to be done when Mr. Martin [Nick?s father Ed ?E.A.? Martin] called me about a full-time job downstairs in the toyland,? said Schneider.

There was a stairway in the middle of the store that led down to a very well stocked toy department.

?I worked with Grandpa Martin [Ed?s father] back then, and he was getting up in years,? said Schneider. ?We had anything and everything down there, including dolls, games, tea sets and dishes. It was quite the busy place at Christmas time and all year long.?

Back in that time there was a soda fountain in the space that was most recently the store?s gift shop.

?They had coffee, milkshakes and ice cream back there,? Schneider recollected. ?That?s where all the attorneys came for coffee. I can?t remember all the names, but Dillon Turney was one of them.?

Even before the soda fountain, Martin?s featured a sandwich shop up front along the south wall.

From the toy department, Schneider moved to handling the store?s charge accounts.

?We did all the posting for charges,? she started. ?We had a lot of them [charge customers.] It was when Parsons College was going big, and all the kids had a charge account. We just sent the bills to their dads. Business was good. The girls from New York and all over bought a lot of make-up and hair coloring. They charged everything, not just prescriptions.?

?One young guy had his charge account get behind, and Mr. Martin told him it had to be paid,? she said. ?He told Mr. Martin, ?My dad could buy this place,? and he ended up paying his bill when his dad got back from Europe or wherever he was.?

Schneider then moved to the cosmetics and fragrances department with Millie Manary.

?That was fun,? she said. ?We took schooling for it from Helena Rubenstein, Revlon and Max Factor. Millie and I would go to Cedar Rapids, Burlington and all over for training.

?We did all the ordering for the department and knew pretty much what the popular items were,? said Schneider. ?But there was one time I took a little chance and ordered a bunch of artificial flowers.

?Mr. Martin asked me what kind of salad dressing I liked because, ?if we didn?t sell them, you?ll be eating them,?? she laughed. ?I sold them all because I really pushed them to everyone who came in.?

Robison?s duties included greeting cards and candies.

?Once upon a time we had shipments of Russell Stover candies clear up to the ceiling,? said Robison. ?They were really popular for gifts. But people just don?t do that anymore.?

?The customers have been really special,? added Robison. ?I?m going to miss that.?

?Most everyone we see has been loving and caring about all this [the store change],? smiled Schneider. ?I enjoy all of them, except the crabby ones.?

The former Martin?s location, now called the Hy-Vee Pharmacy Clinic downtown will close for good Friday at 6 p.m. The pharmacy?s customers will be able to go to the 507 W. Burlington Ave. location Saturday. The new Hy-Vee Pharmacy at 1300 W. Burlington Ave. will open Monday. The new grocery store opens Tuesday.