NORTH SALT LAKE — The small corner drugstore has always been a community gathering spot of sorts, ever since Dale Loveridge first stocked the shelves and learned how to make the perfect chocolate soda in 1959.

Today, although everything else in the busy neighborhood off Highway 89 has changed, Orchard Drug is a reminder of a simpler time, when people did their Christmas shopping at the five-and-dime and the pharmacist knew everyone by name.

On June 15, exactly 50 years to the day since he unlocked the front door for the first time, Loveridge, now 77, plans to hold a party to thank three generations of customers who have supported him through the years.

While grocery stores and big-box chains have pretty much taken over the pharmacy business (Loveridge's own son, Eric, is his biggest competitor at a Dick's Market up the street), Loveridge has managed to hang on by following one basic rule:

"I give everybody the old home-style treatment," he says, "whether it's the first time they've come in or the 500th."

Loveridge throws in a few other perks as well. He's known to hand-deliver prescriptions to customers who are homebound, and on more than one occasion, he's unlocked the pharmacy late at night to get medicine for somebody's sick child.

"These people are more than customers — they're my friends and neighbors," he says. "The best part about what I do has been getting to know them."

Although Loveridge is usually too busy at the store to take a lunch break, he agreed to join me for a quick Free Lunch chat after his daughter-in-law suggested that he talk about his five decades in business.

After working for several years at a pharmacy in Orem in his early 20s, Loveridge used his last paycheck to fill the cash register at Orchard Drug when he bought the store. From dispensing advice on curing aches and pains to ringing up nail polish and penny candy, he's worked 12 hours a day, six days a week, ever since.

In the beginning, he also filled in behind the ice cream counter, hand-mixing shakes and sodas for customers who'd urge him to take a break and join them. But in 1982, when drive-up windows at fast-food restaurants put a dent in his business, Loveridge decided it was time to get out of malt-making.

Although the old-time fountain and counter is still there, today it's stocked with extra medical supplies, razors and a few bottles of Old Spice and Aqua Velva.

"It used to be that people would come here and finish up their Christmas shopping," he says, "and for Mother's Day, we'd sell a lot of necklace sets and perfume. But those days are gone, and I don't think they're coming back. So you try to change with the times."