Graeme Platt (left) with daughter Angela Stephenson (third from left) and some of the Platt's team. Photo / Bevan Conley
Graeme Platt (left) with daughter Angela Stephenson (third from left) and some of the Platt's team. Photo / Bevan Conley
Graeme Platt wasn't planning on staying in Bulls long term when he opened Platt's Pharmacy - but half a century later he's still a fixture in the Rangitīkei town.
He and his team celebrated the shop's 50th anniversary on Monday.
Platt's opened in the Mansell's building in 1971, before movingdown High St in 1973.
"A couple of years later I bought the empty section next door and we doubled the size," Platt said.
In 1975, Platt's became the first in the country to trial a privatised postal service.
After getting several thousand dollars in the bank, Platt began looking for a pharmacy of his own - and that's when he came across the one in Bulls.
"Originally, I only planned on coming here for a short time, sort of like a stepping stone, but it turns out that once you get here, it's very hard to leave."
Pharmacies had changed a great deal in the past 50 years, Platt said.
Graeme Platt's first day in charge was November 22, 1971. Photo / Bevan Conley
"Doctors these days wouldn't have heard of a lot of the drugs we used back then.
"The basics are still here, like your penicillins and your sulfa drugs, but there aren't a lot of the natural herb liquids that we used to have."
Technology had made his life easier over the years.
"When I started there was no such thing as printers or photocopiers. At the end of every day you had to sit down and write the scripts long-hand to keep a record of them all," Platt said.
"I still have the book with my first day here - November 22, 1971.
"The fellow I bought it off agreed to stay for one day, the Monday, so on the Tuesday I was by myself."
Platt said calamities over the years included many burglary attempts and a motorcycle crash that put him out of work for a year.
"A few years ago a car came down the road in the middle of the night, rolled and demolished the front of our shop.
"The driver carried on rolling and took out the library fence and the post boxes. He was drunk as hell, but he was all right. His car was a bit buggered, though.
"We had an armed hold-up in the early 1990s as well. I found myself at the end of a gun."
The pharmacy is now looking after a third generation of customers.
Platt's daughter, Angela Stephenson, took over the running of the pharmacy four years ago, when Platt and his wife Averill decided to retire.
"I spent a lot of time working here on Saturday mornings throughout my childhood, and as a teenager as well," Stephenson said.
"Then I worked all around New Zealand and in England, and came back to Bulls about 15 years ago."
She started back at the pharmacy part-time while raising three daughters, and now looks after a team of eight to 10.
"I really enjoy being part of a community pharmacy, and I know a lot of the customers," Stephenson said.
Platt said there had been a chemist in various locations in Bulls (formerly Bulltown) since the early 1870s.
"We don't know exactly when it started, but it was bought by a Mr Tyerman from a Mr Marshall in 1875. I'm guessing it probably opened in 1870 or so.
"There's some real history here, and a lot of people don't know how old Bulls is as a town.
