Without Prohibition, we might not have NASCAR today. Repealing Prohibition did not stop bootlegging or hopped up cars in NC. There was, and still is, money to be made by avoiding the tax on booze.
Growing up, we had a cabin in a valley in the Blue Ridge on the bank of a good trout stream. Buying from a local bootlegger was an excellent way to insure your property against wintertime burglaries. Some of my kids 40-something friends go nuts over tax-paid moonshine. I grew up on the real McCoy.
There is a well traveled road here nowadays that has always been called Bootlegger Rd. Back in Prohibition, it was the back road to all points west when it was a dirt/gravel/shell road.
But I see the thread has detoured to paltry politics when I was just trying to make a comment about the effects of the Open Spaces on a social problem.
Gee way too many brainiacs here
Kansas was also the home of the Osage, Kansa, Pawnee, Apache, Kiowa, Arapaho, and Cheyenne Indians. A beautiful description if the indigenous Plains dwellers is in ÛÏCrazy Horse and Custer: The Parallel Lives of Two American WarriorsÛ by Stephen Ambrose. The tribes are described in detail from the Civil War until the 1870Ûªs and the Indian wars that took place during that time.
It is a good read, especially if you are interested in the Plains and its lifestyle prior to us massacring them and placing the residual in Reservations. When you finish this book you will definitely know who Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, and Crazy Horse were and what they stood for.
😎
MathTeacher, post: 389284, member: 7674 wrote: Without Prohibition, we might not have NASCAR today.
Junior Johnson pops right into mind! 😉
FL/GA PLS., post: 389290, member: 379 wrote: Junior Johnson pops right into mind! 😉
My Grandfather and Junior knew each other, let's just say he learned his impeccable driving skills along side Junior. He was actually asked to race a couple of small races but didn't see that going anywhere; then he met a young gal and all of his liquor running days were over.
Jones, post: 389294, member: 10458 wrote: My Grandfather and Junior knew each other
Apparently they used to run moonshine out of Dawsonville GA. as well. I don't think Awsome Bill (Elliot) was old enough to drive but his father or grandfather did.
I am from Kansas, born in Wichita, but we moved in 1964 (5 years old), first to South America (Chile) for a few years, then to Pittsburgh. With the exception of a few years away from Pittsburgh, I have always lived here and consider it to be where I am from, I remember very little of my time there. I have been back a few times for work, and more recently for funerals (twice in two years) in Topeka. One thing for sure is it is a GPS-friendly place!
Kansas is a very interesting place, if you ever go to western KS it is amazing the lack of people out there. BIG farms, SMALL towns. But I prefer the hills and trees of Pennsylvania.
I was born in Kansas as well, and we moved to Colo when I was 11. My brother was 12 and about to turn 13. He was pissed that we were moving because (at least back then) you could drive @ the age of 13 in Kansas. Only for work, and to go to school. I was born in Manhattan, but we moved to Salina when I was 1. and later to Norton (a small town up @ near Nebraska, in Norton County. In Norton, every house had a tower to have a tv antenna on. We had a control in the house to change the direction of the antenna to help us get different stations.
I have heard people talk about driving through Kansas as boring. I always enjoy it. If I drive through the state, I take State Highways. Even though they are often just two-lane roads, there is little traffic and you can drive a speed limit and enjoy the scenery. But I-70 does go by a huge windmill farm. That's cool to see as well.
The Cherokee in NC own the state's only casino. It's been a thorn in the side of every governor and state legislator since it opened because they have no control over it. Like the booze on military bases mentioned above brought booze where it was prohibited, this little gem brings gambling to a non- gambling state, the state lottery excepted, of course.
Opportunity knocked and the Cherokee opened the door.
A guy who was my boss in my first survey job in 1980 (Corps of Engineers) told me the story of when he worked for USGS in the 50's he and another guy were working in Kansas, and they wanted to go home to Pittsburgh for Christmas. So they got in a car, and the other guy started driving on US 40 (before the Interstate system) while he slept. After about 6 hours they came to a "Welcome to Colorado", which of course meant they drove the whole way across KS going the wrong way.
I have spent a lot more time recently in OK rather than KS (going back next week), and I noticed a lot of very small casinos all over the state, run by native american tribes. Seems like an undesirable tax on stupid people in rural areas to me (a non-gambler). I finally convinced my wife that gambling in a casino is exactly that, she used to go regularly to one nearby. But, in PA there are a limited number and they are BIG, so I don't see it as that much of a problem as putting them in rural areas with little tourism.
I have a relative who spends way to much time in a casino, she is retired, and counts her wins, but ignores her losses. I have been known to drive to OK to catch a show at one of the Casinos, they have the same big names that DFW have, but in a smaller venue. I once even took a casino cruise out into the Gulf of Mexico, after being told it was on a small retired cruise ship. My intent was to play a few slots, then go on deck and enjoy the sea air. Turns out the ship was a converted passenger ferry, and nobody was allowed on deck for "safety" reasons. At least if I go to OK casino, I can go outside and see the beautiful sunsets.
Yea, I have a niece who loves to go to the casinos (in Mexico). If she goes in with $200, and leaves with $100, she thinks she is up $100.
The closest I got to the casino around here was this summer when John Fogerty was playing there. I bought tickets for me and my wife but couldn't go.
John Hamilton, post: 389345, member: 640 wrote: ..The closest I got to the casino around here was this summer when John Fogerty was playing there...
Found out just a few months ago my dear wife has for years thought Fogerty's song about "Put me in coach" was about buying a plane ticket. True.
And hilarious.
paden cash, post: 389358, member: 20 wrote: "Put me in coach"
I'm ready to go...
Cards, dice, and roulette wheels are staples of teaching probability. The first time I taught it in high school was in 2002 and I was blown away by the number of students who knew absolutely nothing about a deck of cards. Had to spend a full period explaining jacks and aces so they could read the problems.
Something besides cards and pool halls is corrupting today's youth.
"Centerfield"
Well, a-beat the drum and hold the phone
The sun came out today
We're born again, there's new grass on the field
A-roundin' third and headed for home
It's a brown-eyed handsome man
Anyone can understand the way I feel
Oh, put me in coach, I'm ready to play today
Put me in coach, I'm ready to play today
Look at me, I can be centerfield
Well, I spent some time in the Mudville Nine
Watching it from the bench
You know I took some lumps, when the mighty Case struck out
So say hey, Willie, tell the Cobb
And Joe DiMaggio
Don't say it ain't so, you know the time is now
Oh, put me in coach, I'm ready to play today
Put me in coach, I'm ready to play today
Look at me, I can be centerfield
Yeah, I got it, I got it
Got a beat-up glove, a home-made bat
And a brand new pair of shoes
You know I think it's time to give this game a ride
Just to hit the ball, and touch 'em all
A moment in the sun
It's a-gone and you can tell that one good-bye
Oh, put me in coach, I'm ready to play today
Put me in coach, I'm ready to play today
Look at me (yeah), I can be centerfield
Oh, put me in coach, I'm ready to play today
Put me in coach, I'm ready to play today
Look at me, gotta be, centerfield
Yeah
I'm married to a woman that corrects me often if I sing the words to a song incorrectly. Now you tell me how someone could think that the words "put me in coach" in that song has to do with plane tickets.
Women's brains are a strange and sometimes wonderful place....
paden cash, post: 389267, member: 20 wrote: Can't speak for Kansas. But when the 21st. Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was passed late in 1933 repealing prohibition, it remained in Oklahoma due to the fact it was written into the State Constitution. Oklahoma did not repeal prohibition until 1959 and there were plenty of "bootleggers" around. The holy grail of liquor was actual bottled, labeled and taxed spirits that were sold at commissaries on military bases and posts. Being federal and not state property it was legal.
I was a schoolboy then. We weren't able to buy a mixed drink at a bar or restaurant until I had kids in middle school. I think the "prairie" does something to folks' brains.....
Oklahoma is just strange. Me and the family went to visit my brother's kids. Went to go buy some cold beer and it isn't sold cold. Then they have all of the weird beers and no plain ol' coors or bud. REALLY???
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Scotland, post: 389486, member: 559 wrote: Oklahoma is just strange. Me and the family went to visit my brother's kids. Went to go buy some cold beer and it isn't sold cold. Then they have all of the weird beers and no plain ol' coors or bud. REALLY???
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Sucks doesn't it. I'm a Miller drinker and have to resort to driving to Texas for a beer run about three times a year. Oklahoma is really strange when it comes to liquor laws. Now they want to pass a law to allow the sale of cold "real" beer (in excess of 3.2% alcohol) in grocery stores...but won't change the law to allow the little corner package stores to sell it cold.
Can you say "Trader Joe's" wants to come to town and paid to play?
