The office operations person at my agency is tasked with finding sufficient masks, sanitzer, and sanitizing wipes for our building staff and for staff who transport clients or who visit clients in their homes. She has networked with her counterparts at other human service centers to find supplies. Hand sanitizer has been hard to come by, and they have turned to local distilleries in Fargo and in our community that are making it by the gallon. She and the other office managers have a Pony Express type of delivery chain, meeting one another at county lines and regional boundaries for deliveries and pick up. She said it feels like they are hauling moonshine and doing something illegal. I like the image of the transfer of distillery products into State vehicles.
Today she sent an email saying that we should come and get some distillery sanitizer, but since it smelled so strongly alcoholic we had to put essential oils in it, as the raw odor could trigger some of our addiction clients into relapse. I went down to her office to get some and put some lavender oil in it. She was right about the odor. Pineapple essential oil would make it smell like a pina colada! She told me that when she and another business office staff member were pouring it out of the distillery jugs into smaller bottles, they inhaled a lot of the fumes and it got all over their hands and was absorbed into their skin. She said they both got red in the face and kind of goofy before they knew what was happening.
It is heartening to see how people here are pulling together to solve problems and help, even if it means spraying moonshine all over the place.
What have you seen people do lately to pull together and make things better? Have you ever been to a distillery?
Trail Baboon 
Well there’s the whole mask-making thing. One bunch of shortages we didn’t talk about yesterday is the unavailability of key components like elastic. Even the rolls of bulk shoelace are out of stock. I looked.
When we were in Scotland we visited the Talisker distillery on Skye. I thought maybe at the end of the tour there would be an opportunity to get a good deal on a bottle of scotch. Nope.
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That is pricey stuff!
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We visited a Scotch distillery in Nova Scotia. They gave out samples. We aren’t Scotch drinkers, but son was along and I think he bought a bottle. I don’t recall if he got a good deal on it.
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My sister and her husband went to Ireland a few years ago and he bought several bottles of Whisky? Scotch? that he gave to people for Christmas. We saved it for a for a special occasion and when we opened it, we didn’t like it that well.
I think it was Laphroaig?
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Laphroaig is one of husband’s favorite single malt Scotches.He loves it, but I can’t even stand the peaty smell of it. Yuck. What did you do with the rest of the Laphroaig? Use it to make hand sanitizer?
A lot of single malt Scotches are pretty pricey, but if you savor them as a ritual sip during a winter’s night, a bottle lasts several months. I love a nice glass of Balvenie.
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I enjoy looking at all the fun shaped whiskey bottles at the liquor store.
I have three different ones at home. Crown Royal makes a vanilla flavored one that’s pretty good sometimes. And that’s probably blasphemy to real whiskey drinkers.
And I have a bottle of something else – Jefferson something maybe? I liked the shape of the bottle. It smells better than it tastes.
I had a 12 yr old Macallan a few years ago that was pretty good.
But our favorite is Wild Turkey honey whiskey. With three small ice cubes and one big one and kept in the fridge in the first place. It’s good sipping whiskey. Or shots right out of the fridge at the end of the day. Or afternoon. Or mid day saturday. or Sunday.
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I want to hear the stories today, of people’s fathers or grandfather’s that were actual moonshiners. 🙂
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I have several in my father’s family. My dad also had several friends who spent time in Ft. Leavenworth in the 30’s for bootlegging.
My dad’s Uncle Okke (an Ostfriesland name) walked around the little town of Ellesworth, MN wearing a long coat with lots of inside pockets. People would go up to him, and he would sell them bottles of hooch he kept in the pockets. He must have clanked when he walked. He was arrested a couple of times. He had a steam thresher business. It is easy to hide a still amongst the thrashers.
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Threshers
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Sorry, Ben, moonshiners among my forebears that I know of.
I’m happy to report that most people in my community are doing their level best to observe social-distancing and are wearing masks when out and about. They are also keeping tabs on each other, and volunteering to help where they can.
A few days ago on the local Nextdoor Digest, a single father of three made an appeal for help. Within a few hours, all kinds of needed items and advice on how to plug into available resources were offered. A West Side Solidarity Fund has been set up in an attempt to assist West Side renters who are ineligible for federal and state assistance.
One of my favorite trends are the mini concerts offered up on Facebook by all kinds of different artists. Some of them are asking for donations, but more often than not, they’re doing it just because they miss the contact with their audience. It feels as if we’re all getting to know each other better. It really interesting to get a peek inside their homes.
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No moonshiners…. Sorry folks, my eyesight has been really bad the last few days, and it seems to be affecting both my brain and my typing.
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You need new glasses. Husband is discovering that as time passes since his surgery.
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Oh, I’m glad that it’s not just me. I have just bought some cheaters, but I suspect I’ll have to get some new prescription glasses eventually. At this point, they’re not making anything other than emergency or urgent appointments, but if this keeps up, it’ll be urgent soon.
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A local Winona motel has stepped forward to house the 8-12 homeless folks who would ordinarily be housed at the Warming Center till it gets warmer again. I believe they’re also receiving food donations, as the usual network of churches and community center that offer free meals are all closed for now.
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There was a room hidden under the floor of my Grandfather Boomgaarden’s hog house where the previous farm owners ran a still. We often found copper tubing from that still in the grove. Grandpa never made liquor in that room. He tried once in the kitchen and it exploded, and boy, was Grandma mad!
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You have some very colorful ancestors, Renee.
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Well, they were certainly restless and lively.
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The hog house floor was cement, and there was an iron ring that you pulled up to move a section of the floor to get down into the still room. We never went down there, though.
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The teachers here at the college have really stepped up making things work for the students. At least from what I can tell they are.
And I know so many people making masks and trying to help out as they can. Honestly I kinda feel like I’m slacking and I should be doing more.
No bootleggers in my family. But rumors my Grandfather drank rubbing alcohol. And maybe my dad would swallow his listerine at night. Ew. I cannot imagine. Gives me the shivers thinking about it.
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I can’t recall being in a distillery, just wineries. But I’m pretty sure my da and high school friends managed to concoct of find any number of things to drink. He sang me this a couple of times – a parody on his school’s fight song – and I wrote down the words:
Beer, beer for old Roland High
Bring out the cocktails, fill ‘em with rye
Send somebody out for gin
Don’t let a sober fellow in (ta da da)
We never stagger, we never fall
We sober up on wood alcohol
As our loyal sons come marching
Home from the brewery.
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Wow, is she in the sauce?? …dad … concoct or find any number…
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It’s the fumes from your hand sanitizer.
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: ) : ) : )
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Well, what Bill said about the mask making. Other than that I don’t feel like I’ve seen too much but I haven’t been out of the house to see anything. I have been making cards. I found an organization that is sending cards out to doctors and medical personnel and other folks who are continuing to work to keep us going. So I finished 12 of them today, they’re stinking cute and then will send them out on Saturday.
I have been to the City of London Gin Distillery. It was a hoot – we got to make our own gin by adding aromatics and other compounds and then when our bottle was finished, we got to dip it in the red wax. It was so much fun. Even though I don’t drink gin.
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I remember when I was growing up there was a comic strip character who had an illegal still. A relic from Prohibition, but the strip still ran into the 1970’s. The character was Snuffy Smith, and the cartoonist would draw Snuffy with X’s in place of his eyes to indicate drunkenness.
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I remember that one.
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Love the 3rd verse:
My daddy he made whiskey,
My grandad he did too
We ain’t paid no whiskey tax since 1792…
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We went to a legal moonshine place today. He took us on a tour and showed us he was making moonshine and hand sanitizer. Very informative and wonderful tour.
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