Memories and the things that trigger them can be odd thing. I usually think I don't remember a great deal about my childhood and then I will see something that triggers a memory long buried. Such was the case when I recently saw a blue 1953 Chevrolet, the kind of car driven by the bootlegger that visited our house on Thursday nights when I was a young child. I have written about this before, but the recent sighting of a car like this brought these memories right to the front of my mind.
I grew up in Oklahoma and when I was growing up Oklahoma was a "dry" state, meaning the sale and consumption of alcohol was prohibited by law. Nevertheless, my parents were nightly cocktail drinkers, which necessitated one of the more scary memories from my childhood, The Bootlegger.
He came from Missouri on some regular schedule always on a Thursday night. He was a big, fat man and I remember him huffing and puffing as he carried the cases of Jim Beam and Gilbey's Gin up our front steps. I was scared to death of him.
He then went to the houses of a few of our neighbors, delivering similar booty. After he left, my parents and their good friends from two houses down mixed and matched from their supply and were set until the next Thursday night visit from the bootlegger.
The backseat and the trunk of the Bootlegger's blue 1953 Chevrolet were filled with his wares. To this day his scary demeanor and his huffing and puffing as he carried the boxes to the door come back to me when I see a car like that.
I'm not sure why I was so afraid of the bootlegger or why I still have such vivid memories of him. It may be because even as a pretty young child I had a sense that there was something illicit about what he and my parents were doing. By the time I was a young teenager Oklahoma legalized the sale of alcohol and the bootlegger disappeared from my life, except when I see one of those cars.
Hi, Jeanie! This is an excellent story that illustrates how an "anchor" works. In your childhood you became anchored to that blue '53 Chevy. The man who drove it and the circumstances that brought him to your house every week produced uncomfortable feelings. Today, the sight of that specific make and model car triggers those same memories and uncomfortable feelings. We all have anchors, both positive and negative, that can return us instantly to an earlier time in our lives and cause us to re-experience happy or sad occasions.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are having a wonderful week, dear Jeanie, and I hope it will continue that way. Take care, my friend!
I remember some of those Chevys had visors above the windshield instead of tinted glass, but that might have slowed a bootlegger on the run.
ReplyDeleteMakes you wonder how your parents found the bootlegger, through friends? Of course he wouldn't be able to advertise his services. Did your parents ever talk about him in hush-hush tones that maybe had you be a little leery of him?
ReplyDeletebetty
I remember hearing my parents whisper using the term "bootlegger". I didn't know what it was at the time but always thought of it as something scary. My what a different world we live in today!
ReplyDeleteI love this story! I have never known someone who knew a bootlegger before! And you're right about the blue Chevy -- and how certain things trigger very specific memories! I wonderful whatever happened to the bootlegger!
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of my dad, the preacher, telling about working with some other local pastors and citizens to run a group of bootleggers out of town. It was my dad's first appointment as a young minister. They found a house that was the source of the illicit product and informed the police. The police told the group of Christian men that they would meet them at a certain place near the house and raid it. My dad and his upstanding group of concerned citizens hid in the bushes awaiting law enforcement and the bootleggers began carrying their product out of the house, loading it in their vehicles and driving away. Shortly the police arrived with sirens blaring and jumped out of their cars and ran into the now vacant house. My dad said that was his first lesson in corrupt public officials and decided not to head up an liquor raids in the future.
ReplyDeleteA great story! It's funny what we remember that scared us in childhood. Mine was the Rag Man who came by collecting junk in his horse draw wagon. My Mom told me he took away bad boys and girls, too. I'm still recovering from being too good!
ReplyDeleteThis was a great story. It made me sad for you. I didn't know that Oklahoma was a dry state. I also wonder what happened to the bootlegger. I know that my father used to tell stories of those that ran the black market during the war. He said they were the ones that were rich in the 50's.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fancy car and nice shade of blue, my favorite color! I can imagine your feelings back then. Thank goodness, your parents were never caught and sent to jail.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, I have never seen a bootlegger. When I was a kid in Utah I'd go with Dad to the State Liquor Store where he would get his gin and vermouth. It also seemed a little illicit or very grown up or whatever.
ReplyDeleteMy paternal Grandfather had a car very similar to that one... and like you when I see one (very rarely now) I remember him. He died when I was 11.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you were scared of the Bootlegger because of his size?