Prohibition Remembrance
Day:
Prohibition began in 1920. January 16, 1920 marked the last
day you could buy, sell, or transport alcohol (http://everydaysaholiday.org/prohibition-remembrance-day/).
The 18th amendment banned alcohol for 13 years. This leaves a major
question open, how was the roaring 20’s roaring without alcohol?
Movie:
The roaring 20’s can best be summed up in the movies/ book: “The
Great Gatsby”. In both versions of the movie we see the characters drink, party
like there is no tomorrow, and have affairs. People with new money were looked
upon with suspicion for being involved with the illegal alcohol business. Still,
the antagonist who complains the loudest about people getting rich off liquor
does not abstain from the substance.
Italian Mafia:
The Italian Mafia gained power after making money off
selling and distributing illegal alcohol. If it were not for this law the mafia
would have had a much harder time getting to where they were at their height.
Much of the history of corruption in American Big City Politics stems from the
Mafia’s hand once being in government, and most people have seen its effects
one way or the other.
Story I:
My father lived well after prohibition was over, in Cicero,
a suburb of Chicago. He tells this story of a time when he was working for a
man who needed money. The man asked my dad to go with him to a meeting. The
meeting was at a nice Italian restaurant. My dad ordered a plate of pasta, and
happily sat there eating it, while his boss and these two other men talked
about the loan agreement. His boss was sweating bullets and my dad couldn’t
figure out why (my dad was 14 or 15 after all).
During the course of the meal the two men made a vague
remark about what happens when they don’t get paid back. It went something like:
“XYZ factory didn’t pay us back and we took care of them.”
My dad’s boss finally took a breath after the men left,
turned to my dad and said, “did you notice they were pointing guns at us from
under the table the entire time we were eating?”
Of course my dad hadn’t, he would have been too afraid to
eat if he would have known.
The next day, my dad heard on the news that XYZ factory had
burned down. The report said that one body was found in the debris.
Both sides of my family seem to have many stories like this
involving the Italian Mofia. I am not sure if it is an unusual number, but it
is anything from “So and so got run out of town”, to “I found a shoe with a
foot still in it”, to “The FBI was following him because he talked to the wrong
elementary school friend”.
Bootlegging and
Speak-Easies:
Boot legging became a popular during these times. I was on a
road trip in Tennessee; my stepmother pointed out the window and said: “When I
was younger you used to be able to see all these holes in the side of the
hills. It is too grown over to see them anymore. Do you know what they are?
They are holes where bootleggers used to hide their moonshine.”
This was not the first time that I saw things from the time
of prohibition. My parents used to take me to a restaurant when I was a child
that we found out had once been a speak-easy. The restaurant was way out of the
way, which was probably perfect for avoiding attention from the police. Most
speak-easies were not necessarily out of the way. Some of them had store fronts
with back doors, where the bar was or a trapped door where the alcohol was
kept.
Food/ Drink:
Since prohibition is so tied into the Italian Mafia, I
thought I would make Italian food. I made spaghetti in a mushroom sour cream sauce
with a side salad.
Of course, one has to drink on this day, but I was not about
to try moonshine (a legalized brand) on a weekday. I did find a brand called
Batch 19, which claims to be a “Pre-Prohibition Style Lager.” It’s made by
Coors Brewing Corporation. It did seem to have a hardier taste then the
traditional American Lager, with more hops. It is not as hoppy as an IPA,
allowing one to still taste the malt flavor.
Clayton, Jack. “The Great Gatsby”. Copyright: 1974.
Luhrmann, Baz. “The Great Gatsby”. Copyright: 2013.
“Prohibition Remembrance Day. Every day’s a holiday!. Published: 16 January 2012. http://everydaysaholiday.org/prohibition-remembrance-day/. Retrieved: January 16, 2014.
Acknowledgements:
Stories were taken from:
Jeffrey Harrison
Connie Parker Harrison
No comments:
Post a Comment