Hilda Cox
July 26, 2016
Chamber staying busy promoting area business
July 27, 2016
Dave Norman Jr. got a clear and close up view of the work a pharmacist does from early childhood, at the Barrow Drug Store on Main Street in downtown Houma.
There, his father, David Sr., dispensed prescriptions and advice, used a mortar and pestle a whole lot more than anyone uses them today, and dispatched bicycled deliveries to the ailing.
Today Dave, who is 81-years-old, continues the pharmacist’s trade, something he has now done for 60 years, but now in a brave new world of chain stores, more brands and more pre-made concoctions than ever before. He does this as a part-time druggist (a once widely-used word that means pharmacist.) at Haydel’s Pharmacy on Grand Caillou Road.
In his off time, Dave also manages to maintain a mean golf game.
“For me being a pharmacist from when I started to now is like the difference between flying in the days of Kitty Hawk and piloting a supersonic plane,” Dave said. “When I got out of school the first tranquilizer was available. We didn’t have much for high blood pressure.”
As a youngster, Dave worked at his father’s store — as a soda jerk — a job that allowed him to continue viewing first-hand the work that would become his own vocation.
During high school years he attended what was then called Thibodaux College, the forerunner to E.D. White High School. Dave played football and at the time there was no Catholic school in Houma. — the precursor to E.D. White. From there he went on to Loyola University, which had a pharmacy program, and after obtaining his license in 1956 worked the family store, for twenty years beside his father and then later for the late George Picou, who had taken it over as People’s Drug Store. Dave managed the store until 1992.
Later came work for the Haydel’s — once his family’s competition — and the same dedication to detail and service that patients who had come to him in the past learned to expect.
Robert Roch, one of the owners at Haydel’s, says he couldn’t be happier with his part-time pharmacist.
“He is so knowledgeable. He has been a friend and a mentor and we are fortunate to have him,” Robert said.
Until recently there were three Haydel stores, the one on Grand Caillou, the old downtown location on Church Street, and one on La. 311 near Enterprise Drive. Owners and staff say they are pleased to offer the personalized service at which small, locally owned pharmacies excel at delivering. Dave Norman, they agree, is an important part of the formula.
The job, he acknowledges, has grown far more complex in recent years.
“It has gotten tougher,” Dave said. “Because of the difference in the competition and the difference in the insurance companies, how they reimburse.”
Over his 60 years of being a pharmacist there have been life changes as well.
Dave’s first wife, the former Mary Miazza, whom he wed in 1956, died in 1998. His second wife, the former Barbara Barker, passed in 2014.
Through it all, Dave says, important life lessons have been learned.
The first, he said, is the importance of taking one’s profession seriously. In his case that means realizing the critical role the pharmacist plays in the overall health and wellness of those he serves.
Another important lesson, he said, has to do with human relations, and applies to any business or trade.
“You get treated by people the way you treat people,” he said.
And if half of what co-workers and employers say about Dave Norman, not only regarding his proficiency but also his genteel, polite nature, “a true southern gentleman” in the words of Robert Roch, then there is no doubt that people treat him very well indeed.
Dave Norman fills prescriptions at Haydel’s Pharmacy on Grand Caillou Road. Now working part time at Haydel’s, he has been a pharmacist for 60 years.
