On a Lifetime of Enjoyable Employment

With the dynamics of today’s workforce changing, it seems the days of employees spending a lifetime working for just one employer are now the exception, rather than the rule. Yet, there are those who still devote a lifetime to their chosen profession. And some of them, like Shirlene Lawlar and Sharon Olson of Watford City, two long-time employees of Larsen Service Drug, are really happy they did.

Together they have multiple decades of time devoted to a store both say they truly enjoyed working at. Lawlar just retired several weeks ago and Olson retired two years ago.

“Sharon and Shirlene were absolutely indispensable to our business. Both of them were as reliable as the sun coming up in the morning. I knew that any day they were scheduled to work, they would be there and they rarely missed a day in the almost 20 years they worked for me,” said Debbie Larsen, owner.

Larsen Service Drug is situated on a cozy corner of Main Street, in the heart of Watford City, N.D. It opened its doors in 1952 when John Larsen moved his original pharmacy from Hope, N.D. For 40 years, John ran the store with Iona Lawlar, a red-haired lady often referred to as “grandma.” Multiple family members of both John and Iona have worked in the store throughout the years, including Lawlar. Today, the pharmacy is owned and operated by John’s son Larry, a pharmacist, and his wife Debbie.

Shirlene Lawlar actually worked for the store at various times throughout her working career. Originally hired in 1979 by Iona, her mother-in-law, Lawlar worked off and on as she raised her family. Beginning full-time work in 1995, she continued with it until her retirement.

As a sales person and manager, she spent much of her time assisting customers, scheduling and training employees, ordering products and arranging displays. Every Wednesday, weather permitting, she was involved with the outdoor street sales. She also worked closely with both Johnson Corner Christian Academy and Watford City High Schools’ vocational education programs and the students who came in and worked for the store.

Lawlar describes her time with the store as a rewarding journey. In recent years she has enjoyed watching the population surge and the growth within the store as well. “You would think that after being involved in retail all these years I would have some negative memories, but I do not. I have truly found that the greatest asset of McKenzie County is not oil, it is the wonderful people,” she said.

But the store is known for even more than its steadfast and reliable workers. One of the trademarks of the store is the 1935 carbonic soda fountain brought from the original store in Hope, North Dakota. Today, it echoes a nostalgic thump of the heartbeat of a life from long ago and still creates a stir from those who see it, both young and old.

To this day, Olson still gets a craving for her favorite frozen treat, coffee caramel ripple. Like Lawlar, she said she misses the morning coffee group she started each day visiting with. “You really got to know the older folks and it was fun to listen to everything they had to say,” she confessed.

Before Olson joined Larsen’s Drug Store, she spent 19 years working for the local hardware store, today known as Badlands Hardware. After spending nearly two decades there, she was ready for change and simply walked over to the drug store and filled out an application. The rest is history.

When she started the job she was in charge of pricing freight and putting it away and eventually took over the card department.

Lawlar and Olson were both known for going out of their way to order specialty items when customers needed something they couldn’t find on the drugstore shelves.

For Olson, no longer having a set schedule has given her and her husband of 50 years, Duke, time to travel and watch their grandchildren’s sporting events. She said she appreciates retirement most when the weather is bad and she no longer has to go out in it. “There were many times when Larry went out of his way to come and get me so that I could get to work,” she recalled.

Lawlar admitted she felt lost the first days she woke up as a recent retiree. “Now, I have no schedule to check and I can just go. This is all kind of exciting,” she confessed. She plans to spend time with her grandchildren and outside in her garden. “Maybe for the first time I will have some scrapbooks and photo albums caught up,” she said.

For Debbie, losing two long-time employees has been an adjustment over the last two years.

“Even though they have been hard to replace, we are happy for Sharon and Shirlene. People who have devoted their hearts and souls into their jobs like they did have earned the right to enjoy their retirement, and they can look back with a lot of satisfaction knowing they did a fabulous job all those years,” Larsen said.