The repeal of Prohibition officially ended December 5, 1933 when the Twenty-first Amendment was ratified by the states. Back in the sixties, the anniversary of this event was cause for celebration with a wing-bang party. Somehow over the years this day has faded into memory or in lost episodes of Boardwalk.
It's funny, and also the American way it seems, that when one door is closed another door opens up. And so it was, the growth of the bootleg booze business boomed and with it the moonshine runners, aka Nascar drivers. Click here for some more information on the Legends of NASCAR and their cars.
Red Byron - Winner of first Nascar sanctioned race 2/15/48
This from Wikipedia:
Stock car racing in the United States has its origins in bootlegging during Prohibition, when drivers ran bootleg whiskey made primarily in the Appalachian region of the United States. Bootleggers needed to distribute their illicit products, and they typically used small, fast vehicles to better evade the police. Many of the drivers would modify their cars for speed and handling, as well as increased cargo capacity, and some of them came to love the fast-paced driving down twisty mountain roads.
The repeal of Prohibition in 1933 dried up some of their business, but by then Southerners had developed a taste for moonshine, and a number of the drivers continued "runnin' shine," this time evading the "revenuers" who were attempting to tax their operations.[12]
Somewhere among my possessions I have my grandmother's WCTU (Women's Christian Temperance Union) membership pin. Just as well she was never privy to the goings on of yours truly - sorry grandma, just a different time. (But that's what they always say.)
[12] ^ Wise, Suzanne. "History:Stock Car Racing Collection". Belk Library Special Collections: Stock Car Racing Collection. Appalachian State University. http://www.library.appstate.edu/stockcar/history.html. Retrieved 2007-12-24.
I bet a lot of people don't realize that NASCAR has its roots in bootlegging! I have some Prohibition ephemera, and Temperance papergoods. I didn't realize what the date was though. I'll be my usual day late dollar short, once I dig them up again! i know we had some "rumrunners" in my family. My mother's family lived right on Long Island Sound and a couple of her uncles would row out and meet the liquor boats at night. I have letters describing the feds coming to bust the local speakeasies and her uncles warning them first, lol. In the attic of the old family house, some of the floorboards had subtle fingerholes cut in them looking like knot holes, and when you lifted the boards up there was room for liquor bottles to be hidden below.
ReplyDeleteLove it! If I win the lottery I'm buying that old house and giving it back to you.
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