Koehler Drug, Just what the Doctor Ordered

·1 hr 21 min·2 clips

Andy Kaler had to win Brenda over with a basketball bet before he could date her.

1. Real Stories Podcast's Brenda Kaler episode centers on Kaler Drug in Upper Sandusky and the Vonstein farm in Wyandotte County, with both stories tied to more than 80 years of local life. 2. Graham and Brian interview Brenda Kaler, and they frame her as the person behind Kaler Drug while also connecting her to Andy Kaler and the downtown business. 3. The episode's hook is Brenda's life moving from a working farm to Ray Kaler's drugstore, then into a marriage, a business, and a family routine built around the store. 4. Brenda says she was born in Wyandotte County, graduated from Winford in 1971, and grew up as a Vonstein on a working farm near Nevada. 5. She describes 40 dairy cows, milking at 6:00 in the morning and 6:00 at night, and a border collie named Scooter who herded the cows on command. 6. Brenda's mother, Gladys Ellen Eccleberry Vonstein, ran catering, real estate, and school work, and she learned on her first cake that a living-room mirror was too tall to get out the door. 7. Her father, Gerald Adam Vonstein, worked as a farmer, carpenter, and Swan Rubber chemist, and the family later received the 2006 conservationist of the year award. 8. Brenda explains that Ray Kaler started at Bill Hart's pharmacy, bought into the business in 1936, and helped build Kaler Drug into a place that also sold paint, toys, wigs, and grass seed. 9. She recalls the soda fountain, the grilled ham salad and cheese sandwiches, and the milkshake machine that Andy carried upstairs at 11:00 at night when she wanted one while pregnant with Stephanie. 10. Listeners who like small-town business history, farm family stories, and long marriages.

As heard by us

A small-town farewell built from work, memory, and a drugstore with a long history.

Real Stories Podcast follows Brenda Kaler, born Brenda Vonstein, through the life that grew around Kaler Drug in downtown Winford. The episode moves from Nevada farm work to the drugstore, then into seven-day weeks, holidays and Sundays, late-night mopping of the red and black…

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Why you'd press play

You want a small-town farewell with counter stories and chocolate.

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