Remembering Prohibition Porter With Grandma, Grandpa, Loretta & Nancy

If I remember correctly, and sometimes I do, I previously shared the photo, well, part of the photo, you see here.

It arrived in my email this afternoon, from Microsoft, with today's OneDrive Memories from this Day.

But, clearly this can not be a memory of mine, what with me not being around during the Prohibition Era of the 1920s.

Also in today's memory were the two at the lower right. The entity on the left, known by some as my ex-wife, Loretta, with the entity on the right my big sister, Nancy.

It the photo from the Roaring 20s that group includes my grandma and grandpa, also known as my dad's parental units. Some, if not all of my grandpa's brothers, and their wives.

They are off the grid, somewhere in Whatcom County, enjoying bootleg beer, rumored to be of the Porter variety of beer. Though all info on this subject is highly questionable.

In the long-standing family tradition, Loretta and Nancy are also drinking beer, with Prohibition ancient history, imbibing at the outdoor patio of a saloon in Winthrop Washington. 

I used Microsoft's Image Compose to have Loretta and Nancy join the party.

I was also in Winthrop, that day, hence the photo.

I still practice Prohibition, hence me not in the picture drinking beer...

Texas Not Ending Testing Vehicle Emissions Or Prohibition In 2020

I saw this this morning on Facebook via Tacoma's Queen V, she being the breakout star of The Real Housewives of Tacoma.

Apparently my old home state of Washington is ending vehicle emissions tests in 2020.

When I lived in Washington the county I lived in, Skagit, did not require one have ones vehicle tested for emissions each year before being allowed to continue to drive legally.

If I remember right only the heavily populated counties in Washington required vehicles getting tested for emissions at the point in time when I still lived in the state. That would be counties like King, Snohomish, Pierce and Spokane. For all I know testing for vehicle emissions had spread to every county, but I suspect not.

When I was first in Texas and learned I needed to get something called a vehicle emissions test as part of a vehicle registration I remember thinking to myself what fresh Texas hell is this? Likely finding out about this fresh Texas hell soon after being introduced to the bizarre concept of dry, damp and wet areas of Texas designating where and what type alcohol could be sold, and where it could be sold and when such could be sold.

Regarding the dry, damp and wet thing I remember being amazed that a remnant of something long gone in most of the rest of America, that being Prohibition, was not long gone in Texas. Eventually I learned other areas of the South also had not totally ended Prohibition, to various degrees.

I long ago gave up trying to understand why the South, and Texas, seems to lag behind the rest of America in so many ways.

I wonder how long after areas of America, such as the west coast states, began trying to combat air pollution by trying to reduce vehicle caused pollution by making vehicles meet some sort of emissions standard, that states like Texas began requiring vehicles reduce emissions to be allowed on the state's roads.

And now one of the west coast states is apparently realizing vehicle emissions testing is no longer vitally needed in order to reduce pollution. That and likely it was realized that forcing vehicle owners to go through this annual nuisance, was just that, an annoying nuisance, the reason of which had been obviated by greatly improved vehicle emissions greatly reducing air pollution.

I remember the first time I was in Los Angeles, at 13 years old, being shocked to see and have my eyes stung by smog for the first time. Such had not yet come to the Pacific Northwest, other than smoke from forest fires.

At 13 years old, and many visits to Southern California in the years that followed, I did not realize that there was a range of mountains to the east of Los Angeles, because the air pollution blocked seeing the San Gabriel Mountains. I remember going to Disneyland on Christmas of 1994 and seeing those mountains for the first time, hovering in the distance like the Cascade Mountain foothills did in my home zone of Western Washington.

Eventually smog did come to Western Washington, at times blocking being able to see the mountains to the north, south, east and west. Sometimes a pink haze hovered over Puget Sound when looking north towards Canada.

And now, apparently the Washington air pollution has improved enough, or vehicle emissions have improved enough, or a combo of both, that vehicle emissions testing is ending in Washington in 2020.

I do not think vehicle emissions testing will be ending any time soon in Texas, because I have been in Texas for around 20 years and I have yet to see the air clear enough to see any mountain range, no matter what direction I look.

And, I have heard nothing about any plan to finally end all aspects of Prohibition in Texas. Well, except, I did read recently that there is some effort to end the Texas Blue Laws which prohibit some alcohol type selling on Sundays....

Belated Grandpa Jones 114th Happy Birthday Greeting

A couple days ago, on Facebook, my most elderly cousin, Scott, posted a Happy Birthday message to our Grandpa Cornelius, using the Dutch version of the family surname, along with the photo you see here of our Grandpa displaying a sturgeon he caught in the nearby Nooksack River.

What follows is Cousin Scott's tale about our Grandpa (please note that in the jurisdiction in which Scott resides the use of capital letters is strictly forbidden)....

today is cornelius slotemaker's (jones) birthday. i’m told he loved to ride his horse into the mountains east of bellingham and ride back when it seemed time to do so. i’m told he loved to fish and helped his family through the depression by catching sturgeon and salmon. mom tells the story of how he was milking their cows one day – they milked by hand in the early 1950s – and started squirting milk straight from the cow into the cat’s open mouth. i apparently opened wide, too, and he squirted milk straight into my two- or three-year-old mouth. when we got back to the house, mom said i was smiling and he was laughing like crazy. he would have been 114 today. happy birthday, grandpa...

__________________

I believe Cousin Scott is the only one of his Grandkids at whom Grandpa Cornelius ever had the chance to squirt milk.

Way back during the second year of the new century I found myself scanning hundreds of photos of my relatives, mostly the Dutch relatives, with some of the photos dating back to the 1800s, when the Jones, I mean, Slotemakers, still lived in Holland.

Among those photos I scanned is the below one.

I do not know for certain which of the Jones, I mean, Slotemaker boys we are looking at above, milking a cow. It could be Grandpa Cornelius. But I suspect it is our Grandpa's brother,  Uncle Hank.

Below is an interesting photo documenting some fun during the Roaring 20s in the Lynden, Washington, Whatcom County zone.

Fifteen years ago I still remembered what name went with which person we see above.

Suffice to say, one of  the boys on the ground is Grandpa Cornelius, The other boys are Grandpa's younger brothers, including the aforementioned Uncle Hank. The other brothers are Otto and Dick.

One of the Flappers standing behind the Jones Boys is our Grandma Sylvia. One of the others standing may be Grandpa's sister, Aunt Agnes, which would make the baby sitting on the ground Aunt Jessie. The others standing may be Otto and Dick's wives, or future wives, Pernie and Ann.

What the Jones Boys are drinking is an illegal, at the time, libation known as beer. Details have long been sketchy, but it is believed, by many of the younger Jones generation, that Grandpa Cornelius brewed beer during Prohibition and then distributed his product all the way to Seattle.

Others dispute the Grandpa the Bootlegger legend.....

It Is The Dawn Of A New Day In Texas Able To Buy Booze At Costco In Fort Worth & Washington

Looking through the bars of my patio prison cell on Day 9 of the next to last month of 2011 it looks like the pool has turned into an ice rink. But, it'd take at least another 10 degrees colder than the current 42, for that to happen.

I was peacefully slumbering this morning when my phone played its cheerful, unwanted wake up tune.

It was Miss Puerto Rico calling from the airport. I let the call go to voice mail. My one longtime reader may remember I used to provide taxi service for Miss Puerto Rico to the airport. That ended on the day Obama was inaugurated.

In other news, yesterday was election day in America. For the most part election days in Texas are sort of quiet. There were a lot of proposed amendments to the constitution being voted on in Texas. I don't recollect seeing a single sign trying to get me to vote yes or no on any of the proposed amendments.

Texas proposals 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9 and 10 were approved by the voters, while Proposals 4, 7 and 8 were rejected.

I don't know if Texas has the Referendum and Initiative method of putting an issue on a ballot.

In Washington I always had a lot of Referendums and Initiatives to vote on. A citizen, or group, in Washington, can take the initiative and put an Initiative on the ballot if they are able to get enough signatures on  a petition to do so.

COSTCO was behind an interesting Initiative that passed yesterday in Washington. Initiative 1183 removed the last vestige of Prohibition from Washington, allowing private retailers, like COSTCO, to sell whiskey, gin and other hard liquor. Prior to Initiative 1183 one could only buy those items from state run liquor stores. COSTCO spent $22 million into its campaign to get this Initiative passed.

Texas still has many vestiges of Prohibition. Some places totally dry, some totally wet, some just a little damp. I live in a totally wet zone, bordering a totally dry zone. This causes 4 liquor stores to be at the Randol Mill Road exit from Loop 820, because that is the nearest entry point from the freeway to the wet zone I live in.

The town I live in, Fort Worth, being wet, I guess, for some reason has long allowed the Fort Worth COSTCO to sell hard liquor. But grocery stores in Fort Worth are not allowed to sell hard liquor.

I don't know why.

COSTCO likely figured out what local palms it needed to grease so it could sell whiskey to the locals.

I guess I'll stop thinking about how easy it is to get drunk in Fort Worth and go swimming now.

March In May To Liberate Marijuana In Texas

There are way too many Americans in jail due to various violations of the various laws that prohibit Marijuana. Criminalizing Marijuana, in my opinion, may be the stupidest thing the American Government does.

Producing and selling alcoholic beverages, that the government sanctions.

I live on the border between a wet and a dry zone. For you non-Texans, here in Texas the Prohibition period never totally went away. So, you have some areas where alcohol is totally banned, as in dry, others where it is totally allowed, as in wet, others where alcohol is partially allowed, as in damp. Within those parameters there are variations, like areas where a thing called a Unicard is required to get an alcoholic beverage in a restaurant.

I have no idea how much of the Mexican Drug Cartel's, currently waging war with each other, business is trafficking in Marijuana. I suspect Marijuana is a large part of the Mexican Drug Cartel's cash flow.

In my opinion Marijuana is far less dangerous then alcohol. If it were legalized, with the quality controlled to make a less powerful cannabis, it would seem like selling the stuff in liquor stores would be a good thing. All that money that now goes to Mexican Drug Cartels would stay in America. All those people in jail, taking up space and costing money, could be released and made whole again.

Farmers could openly grow the stuff, like in the days of yore, or currently in the backwoods of Northern California. Marijuana grows like a weed, hence one of its nicknames. Maybe part of the plant, since it is hemp, could be used as a bio-fuel.

We have had many of our national leaders, including presidents, admit to having experimented with Marijuana, though one claims to have experimented without inhaling. How can a president or other elected official at the federal level admit to the crime of being a Marijuana user and not be an ardent advocate of repealing the Marijuana Prohibition?

Several of the states and cities within states have greatly liberalized their Marijuana laws, to no great harm that I've heard about.

It's all very perplexing to me.

With Texas being the most progressive, liberal, forward thinking state in the American union, I really think Texas should lead the way and end the Texas Pot Prohibition and empty Texas jails of those incarcerated for Marijuana related offenses.

Texas needs to do a better job of putting real criminals, like Fort Worth's corrupt conflicts of interest-laden Mayor Mike Moncrief, behind bars, and free those who really have done nothing seriously wrong.

Bonnie & Clyde In The Fort Worth Stockyards

It seems like I recently blogged about Bonnie & Clyde murdering cops in Grapevine. I don't remember why this was on my mind. I remember searching for a picture of the notorious pair.

No. That is not Bonnie & Clyde in the picture. That is Gar the Texan and his future wife. They are in Booger Reds Saloon, in the Fort Worth Stockyards, looking at the huge rear of a buffalo sticking out of the wall above the bar, with the buffalo's head sticking out the east wall of the H3 Ranch Restaurant next door.

The young lovers are sitting on bar stools with saddles as seats. Above them, in the Stockyards Hotel, is Room 305, also known as the Bonnie & Clyde Suite, because Bonnie & Clyde spent some time there during a break in their crime spreeing.

I forgot to mention, at Booger Reds you can get yourself a bucket of Buffalo Butt Beer. It's the best Buffalo Butt Beer I've had anywhere.

We celebrate all the criminals who have made Fort Worth home. Our Downtown Square, or what some uncultured people might call a bunch of parking lots, is named Sundance Square, because Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid found safe haven in Fort Worth's Hell's Half Acre.

I believe you can currently stay at Miss Etta's Place in downtown Fort Worth. Miss Etta was the girlfriend of Sundance, or was it Butch? Maybe both.

You can drink adult beverages at a lounge in Fort Worth named after Lee Harvey Oswald, called the Ozzie Rabbit Lodge. What other town can make that claim? Or wants to.

During Prohibition Fort Worth had a very thriving organized crime business, centered mainly on the Thunder Road section of the Jacksboro highway, which is a bit north and west of downtown. All sorts of crime, from murders to rigged poker games to bootleg booze to a lot of hookers, thrived in this part of Fort Worth. I believe Hell's Half Acre had been cleaned up by the point in time when America foolishly tried to stop the flow of alcohol. So, the bad boys were already gone from that locale when Thunder Road became the new Hellish part of Fort Worth.

Anyway, I thought I'd share the new thing I learned today, that being that Bonnie & Clyde slept at the Stockyards Hotel and may have done some drinking from the same bucket of Buffalo Butt Beer as me.

Locked & Loaded

A couple nights ago at my local neighborhood Krogers, that's a grocery store for you who live in non-Krogers zones, an armed robber waved his gun and instructed the store's on-duty cop and all the customers in the self-checkout area to lay down on the floor, face down, with their hands behind their back. The robber forced an employee to open a safe. There was 50 dollars inside. Only 50 dollars. It was past midnight. The thief escaped into the night while all the victims ran out the back of the store, calling 911 as they ran. As of today, the armed robber remains at large.

So, last night, about 6, I took off to go to the aforementioned Krogers. And what was on my door but a warning in the form of a piece of paper. We have a Neighborhood Watch System here. The notice said, in part:

"Dear Residents,
This letter is to notify you of criminal activity that has been reported in the immediate area. Two unknown young black males dressed in dark hoodies are approaching people with a black gun & yellow pistol grips demanding wallets, cash, jewelry, cell phones or anything of value. They approach the victims while they are on foot, walking from a car to a breezeway while walking alone. The criminal activity has been reported on Oakland Hills Drive, Ederville Road, Brentwood Stair Road, Boca Raton Blvd. and Pacific Place."

Let's see, I live on Boca Raton, Brentwood Stair Road is where I had a flat tire a couple weeks ago, in a bad neighborhood, Oakland Hills Drive is the road I took to Oakland Hills Park yesterday, I'm looking at Ederville Road from my window.

Basically I am doomed.

So it was quite fortuitous that today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram's sports page had an ad that touted "Cheaper Than Dirt" firearms. Among the guns on sale at the dirt cheap prices are an AK 47 assault rifle and a Thompson 1927A, that's a "Tommy Gun" to you non-gun aficionados, you know a machine gun like gangsters used back in the Prohibition years. With this being an area of the United States where many remnants of Prohibition are still in place I guess it makes sense to be selling "Tommy Guns" to people. At "Dirt Cheap" prices.

I can't wait to get me one.