National Bootleggers Day - Ep17 - Show Notes

Today’s featured holiday is,.National Bootlegger Day.

We as a society have a love / hate relationship with alcohol. Descriptive terms range from “Nectar of the gods” to “Demon Rum”.

So how did National Bootlegger’s Day come to be?

January 17 is the birthday of famed criminal and bootlegger Al Capone, and Templeton Rye Whiskey.

In the wake of Prohibition in the early 1920s, a number of residents of a small town in Iowa became outlaws. They produced a smooth tasting, high quality whiskey called Templeton Rye. Templeton, Iowa, a tiny town of 350 became a hotbed of whiskey distilling, producing a product known as, “The Good Stuff”.

The term “bootlegger” was born in the 1880s, when midwestern traders would hide flasks of liquor in their boot top when they met with Native Americans to conduct business.

After the passage of the 18th Constitutional amendment outlawing the brewing, transportation, and sale of alcohol in 1920, the term was used to describe people who transported alcohol into the U.S. from Canada and Mexico, or who brewed and sold alcohol within the Country.

Millions of illicit dollars went into the pockets of organized crime figures such as Al Capone and local of distillers who supplied speakeasies and every day people across the U.S.

The 1920s, known as the Roaring 20s, were years of excess. The stock market was on fire. Money flowed and so did the whiskey. People thought the party would go on forever.

By the time Prohibition was repealed in 1933, the party was over. The Roaring 20s had become a whimpering whine barely audible. The stock market had imploded and the wild whiskey business was experiencing a longterm horrendous hangover.

With the return of legally distilled spirits, the illicit rich profits evaporated. The only things remaining were the memories of a bygone time that would never be repeated during the lives of people caught up in the mania.

What about that little Templeton, Iowa town and the rye whiskey produced by some of its residents?

The tradition of brewing excellence continues to this very day. As a matter of fact, devotes of Templeton Rye, still known as, “The Good Stuff, have their own group called the Bootleggers Society.

To learn more about those halcyon bygone days and the happenings of today, visit www.TempletonRye.com and click the “Bootleggers Society” tab.

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This is your host, Stephen Carter, reminding you, this day is special, and so are you. Have fun, smile, and - if you’re over 21 and have a taste for, “The Good Stuff”, enjoy a taste of Templeton Rye Whiskey and let your imagination wander back in time to the bygone days of the Roaring 20s.