Part 531: Midwinter Golf and Suydam’s Drug Store
For the past few installments I have looked at Thomas G. Moses’ art exhibition and mural work for Suydam’s drug store in Oak Park, Illinois. The drug store was repeatedly advertising for a series of positions, including registered druggists, drug clerks, assistant drug clerks and relief clerks. As I industriously sought information pertaining to the store an owner, J. D. Suydam, I came across this interesting article in the “Oak Park Review” during 1909. It has nothing to do with Moses or the Oak Park art scene, but it just made me smile when I read it. There is nothing quite like finding activities to do in the Midwest when the weather turns cool!
Suydam’s drug store was mentioned in a unique game of midwinter golf (Oak Park Review (29 Jan. 1909, page 3). The article reported, “Ball again driven over two mile course and into drug store without breaking any windows. Midwinter golf on a cross country course may become popular in Oak Park as a result of a contest yesterday which was won by A. J. Musselman, who completed the course from Suydam’s drug store to the Westward Ho Golf Club and back in ninety strokes.
This contest is the second of the unique golf games played by Musselman, C. H. Wells, and L. B. Scidmore, who on Christmas day attracted the attention of a crowd by playing over the same course.
The distance is two miles and the object of the players was to make a record by driving the ball from the inside of the drug store at Oak Park avenue and South boulevard to the Westward Ho clubhouse, then return, the ball to be driven inside the drug store without breaking any of the windows.”
The article commented, “It is considered quite a credible performance to tee from the store without breakage” (The Pharmaceutical Era, Vol. XLI, Jan. 1909).
To be continued…
