Page 29 - South Mississippi Living - March, 2020

Joan and Jim Day.
the rest of the Day family also being wonderful. Jim Day’s wife, Joan, is a retired nurse and works alongside him and their daughter Poem Love in the store. The Days also have three sons, Steve, Sam and Dan, who passed away.
Looking sharp and professional in his white lab jacket for birthday photos,
Day displays his scrapbooks, which are
a personal history as well as a history of downtown Gulfport. “I came here at 22 right after I graduated from Ole Miss to work in Day’s Pharmacy that was owned by my uncle,” he recalls. “It was located across the street where Perks Co ee shop is now. I’ve seen a lot of changes. Now most of the retail is gone. There used to be men’s and women’s clothing stores and much more.”
He points to photos of a long ago parade to celebrate the opening of Port Realty. “There’s Gulfport’s police car, the only one they had.”
Born in Inverness in the Mississippi Delta, Day grew up working in his father’s drug store. “That’s all I knew,” he says. “We sold a lot of ice cream and I did a lot of dipping; those were dipping days.”
He was the only one of the family’s four sons who became a pharmacist. One was
Poem Love working with her father, Jim Day.
lling prescriptions meant a lot of compounding. “It’s better now and very speci c.” Certi ed pharmacy technician Karen Gospodinovich says it’s a joy to work with Day. “He’s really fun. This store
is his baby and he’ll come in when he’s supposed to have a day o .”
Looking back on his years in business, Day says,“I’ve enjoyed working with people and made a lot of friends. The Lord gave me good health and I think staying active contributes to that.”
In addition to the scrapbook, the store has many artifacts and mementos of bygone days. Framed photos hold many memories and framed bills show a time when ice cream was 25 cents a scoop and soft drinks were a nickle. An antique cabinet holds outdated medical supplies such as glass ampules for injectibles. “There’s a lot of old stu around here, including the sta ,” Day observes.
SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living | www.smliving.net
March 2020 | 29
a physician, one an engineer and one a banker.
Day also is proud to show a photo of the airplane he owned. “I took all our kids to Disney World in that plane,” he recalls.
He doesn’t miss the days when