Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, April 29, 1993                   TAG: 9304290347
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: S-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: LYNN A. COYLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

A PHARMACIST'S SON RECALLS `GOLDEN AGE OF DRUGSTORES'

It was in that time that Judge James Brice grew up in Raleigh Court at the coattails of his father, who owned Brice's Drug Store on Grandin Road. The store was in the building that now houses Ward's TV & Appliance Center.

Claude G. Brice, his father, was a self-taught pharmacist during the "golden age of drugstores," the judge said. There was a drugstore in every neighborhood at which people congregated to discuss the news of the day, socialize and exchange gossip. The druggist was the "monarch of his kingdom; captain of his own showboat."

Being down the block from the Grandin Theatre gave the druggist a drawing card when the movies played twice a week. "Everybody went two times a week because you not only saw the movie, you saw the newsreel," Brice said. He recalls seeing footage of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's inauguration, the ships burning after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and Roosevelt asking for a declaration of war against Japan.

Brice also remembers standing in line for two hours to see "Gone With the Wind" at the old American Theatre downtown.

"It was like reliving the Civil War. And, I think some people thought the South might win," he said, laughing.

Brice and his brother, Robert, both worked at the soda fountain in their father's store. "It was a wonderful way to get dates," he said. "And it wasn't a bad way to study human nature, either."

For his father, not chatting with a customer "would have been just about the poorest of manners," Brice said.

"The great contrast today is the druggist is so much better educated," said Brice, "and yet he is secluded from the public he serves."

Brice was 12 years old when Orson Welles' "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast, announcing an invasion from Mars, took place. Although it was only a play, many people, including Brice's neighbor, believed it was a real news broadcast.

The neighbor - who packed his car, filled the gas tank and headed out of town - was razzed about it for years, Brice said.

He also remembers when J. Lindsey Almond, then Virginia's attorney general, read Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death" speech for a Fourth of July radio broadcast. A woman called the radio station and asked if we were at war with the British.

As an adult, Brice recalls going to a meeting or two of the Groundhog Club in Roanoke. The club was founded in 1919 by a Franklin County native to roast city officials. The ground rules said members had to be born in Franklin County and swear they never wore shoes before the age of 10. The rules were later amended to admit those "not fortunate enough to be born in Franklin County," he said.

Women and reporters were not admitted to meetings where, under the watchful eye of a caged groundhog, officials were put on trial. "They tried one man for making too much money. They tried another for spending his winters in Florida," Brice said. "It was raw. It was raucous. It was unbridled."

Brice tried to become a city official in 1958 when he ran for City Council. He nearly missed the filing deadline. At the last minute he learned of a state law that required candidates' papers to be filed in Richmond instead of locally, where his had been filed.

The law wasn't highly publicized, and the incumbents weren't likely to tell their opponents, Brice said. So he scooped up his papers - and those of three of his opponents - and made a mad dash to Richmond, arriving a half hour before the midnight filing deadline. One of the opponents whose papers Brice filed defeated him in the election.

"As far as I'm concerned, it wasn't anything heroic," Brice said, recalling the incident after some prompting. "It just seemed like the right thing to do."

Brice, who now lives in South Roanoke, later became a judge. He retired in 1987 as senior General District Court judge in the Roanoke Valley after serving on the bench for 18 years. Brice, 67, still serves as a substitute judge around the state and as a mediator in civil cases. Working about 60 percent of the time gives him more time to work out at the YMCA and read, he said.\ Name: James Pierce Brice\ Born: August 7, 1926, Roanoke\ Education: Graduate of Jefferson High School; B.A. from University of Virginia; L.L.B. from Washington & Lee University\ Family: Married to the former Phyllis Topping; 3 children\ Occupation: Retired in 1987 as senior General District Court Judge in the Roanoke Valley. Now works as a mediator in civil cases and substitute judge.

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