Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota

Mom’s Legacy Hand and Body Lotion began many years ago as a nameless, faceless gift that was developed by my husband’s grandfather, Dick, at the small store and pharmacy where he worked in South Dakota.

Many of Dick’s customers consisted of the local Sioux and Lakota Indians. As a kind and honest sort of fellow, Dick enjoyed a wonderful relationship with his customers. Back in those days, everybody knew each other and knew them by their first name.

One of the things that he noticed was that during the long and harsh winters of South Dakota, so many of his customers would come into the store with hands, that anyone could tell at first glance were dry, chapped, cracked and obviously painful. These people would keep buying all the different lotions available at the store, but he could tell that they were doing these people little or no good.

As a pharmacist, Dick knew how to make a really good lotion. In fact, he had spent a good deal of his time in the business working on different formulas and recipes. He would come up with a recipe, try it out, see how it worked on his hands, then decide that each recipe, in it’s turn, was not quite what he was after.

You must understand that this was all being done back in the days when a person took pride in their work. It was just not good enough to turn out a product, put your name on it and try to sell it. It needed to perform the task that it was supposed to.

Dick worked and worked on his recipe and finally got to the point that he would give little samples to the local Indians to see how it would work for them. Of course he had to be very careful about who he handed out his lotion to, because he was getting close to retirement, and did not want to get into any trouble at the store. He knew that if these customers stopped buying the lotions at the store, there would certainly be trouble.

The day finally came that Dick thought that he had his lotion recipe fine - tuned to where there was just the right balance of scent, moisturizers and other ingredients. He made up a larger batch and started handing little bottles out to his regular customers as gifts. He would tell them that it was just a small token to show that he appreciated their business and more importantly, their friendship.

Within a few weeks, Dick began to notice that the hands of his customers were beginning to show marked signs of improvement, especially the people that had to spend much of their time working outdoors.

People who had tried the lotion started coming to him and asking to buy his lotion, but he always would politely say, “Maybe someday you will be able to buy this lotion, but for now it’s just a hobby of mine, and maybe just a little bit of a dream. But as things are now, I can’t work here and compete with my boss and the products he sells.” He continued to make his lotion in small amounts and hand it out as gifts.

Word about this “wonder - lotion” got back to the owner of the store and the owner wanted some to take home to his wife. When she tried it, she fell instantly in love with it and told her husband that they should get together with their pharmacist and see what they could do about a patent, then market the lotion in their store, under their own brand.

Well, Dick was not totally opposed to the idea, but he warned his boss that this lotion was just a hobby with him and that the ingredients were quite expensive. When all the research was done. the boss took a tally of the costs, figured in enough profit to make it worth their while, came back to Dick and told him that it would be just too expensive with the present ingredients. Was there some way to substitute less costly ingredients? The other problem, it seemed to him, was the consistency of the lotion. The boss felt that it was too thin, and needed some type of thickener added.

As Dick had worked on this recipe for years and years, he insisted that the recipe would need to be followed exactly and that cheaper ingredients would not produce the same results. He went on to explain to his boss that the ingredients even had to be mixed in a certain order for everything to blend properly. Over the years. the boss had come to know and respect Dick enough to take him at his word. Needless to say, the lotion project faded back to just a hobby.

Dick continued to pursue his little hobby, but as his boss was now fully aware of what was going on, he gave his full blessing. He would smile when he saw Dick handing out his little bottles, and often would say to the customer. “That little bottle is priceless. It really is because you can’t buy it anywhere. Not even here.” Then he would pat Dick on the back and walk away, chuckling at their own little “inside joke”.

A couple of years after that, Dick finally retired. He took avidly to his other hobby, fishing. Between that and visiting with his family, he kept making his small batches of lotion and would hand them out from the trunk of his car when he would see his old friends around town and when birthdays and holidays came around.

When Dick passed away, he left the recipe with his daughter, who turned out to be my mother - in - law. In memory of them both, I have included a picture on this page of the beautiful and majestic Mt. Rushmore which the National Park Service was kind enough to provide. Dick and his daughter Mary, spent some quality time together there. Dick spent a lot of time there by himself over the years too. He would quietly gaze, ponder and wonder at the hard work and determination it took to create it.

I hope that I can do Dick’s memory proud. I am sure going to give it my best try. I never got the chance to meet Dick, but I will be forever glad that I did get to know his daughter Mary. If I can do him proud, I know she will be proud as well.