The Battle of the Bottle

Today's post is a re-print of a post first published here on March 3, 2009.

August 6, 1966 was an infamous day in Greenville, Mississippi, as it was in the State of Mississippi. As the historic marker pictured above states, the "Jigger and Jug," owned by the Azar Brothers, became the first legal liquor store in the state. Still in business today, the store is advertised in McRae's Business Directory as a "specialty" retail store that sells liquor.

It is difficult for many people my age to remember that manufacturing and selling liquor was illegal in Mississippi for over half a century. But the fact that liquor was not legal in Mississippi did not prevent those who wanted to buy a "bottle" from making a trip across the Mississippi River Bridge to a liquor store in Louisiana or from buying from local sources known as "bootleggers."

Throughout the prohibition years, local law enforcement officers and political and religious leaders alike waged very public wars against the sale of alcohol while often looking the other way when dealing with those who were selling it. Non-drinking private citizens, some with both money and influence, often took up the controversial cause. One of those private citizens was Hazel Brannon Smith, a newspaper editor who owned the Lexington (MS) Advertiser. Mrs. Smith's frank and revealing editorials in the 1940's eventually led to the arrests of a number of Holmes County bootleggers.

The illegal sale of liquor, however, continued until the law was changed in the mid-sixties. When the new local option law became effective on July 1, 1966, Mississippi entered a new era: it became the last state to end prohibition.

Blogger's note: Be sure to watch for my upcoming book, Mississippi Moonshine Politics: How Bootleggers and the Law Kept A Dry State Soaked (The History Press), scheduled for release in early 2015.

More Cousins!

Blogging about family research has always been a positive experience for me.  Often, I have received help from readers with my own research, and on some occasions, I have been able to help a few readers.

But by far, my best experience as a blogger has been meeting new cousins. This past week I met two.  One individual lives in Greenville, Mississippi, and the other calls Gonzales, Louisiana home.  One contact was an email through Facebook, and the other was in a beautifully written letter that arrived in the U.S. Mail.  I plan to keep in touch with both people.

Ironically, each cousin has ties to the Burrell family that settled in Attala County, Mississippi over 150 years ago and found my blog while searching for information about that family.  Jean Baptiste Elzéar Burel, the family's common ancestor, was a physician who sailed with Lafayette from his native France to serve in the American Revolution.  Now, over two hundred years later, Dr. Burel's descendants number in the thousands and live throughout his adopted country.

Wordless Wednesday - Washington County Courthouse, Greenville, Mississippi

Washington County Courthouse, Greenville, Mississippi - Originally built in 1891

Source: Digital Photography Collection (2009) - Privately held by Janice Tracy

Froggie's Friday Book Review - "Being Dead is No Excuse"

Actually, "Being Dead is No Excuse" is not the complete title of the book reviewed here today. The entire title is "Being Dead Is No Excuse: The Official Southern Ladies Guide to Hosting the Perfect Funeral." Written by Gayden Metcalfe, a lifelong Southerner from Greenville, Mississippi, and Charlotte Hays, the book is a humorous look at Southern culture and customs, beginning with Chapter 1, "Dying Tastefully in the Mississippi Delta." With an emphasis on preparing the perfect food to pull off a near perfect post-funeral send-off, each chapter of this book by Metcalfe and Hays blends a uniquely Southern recipe with charmingly comic advice for ensuring a memorable funeral reception. Numerous statements that may often cause the reader to laugh out loud are found throughout the book's pages, such as "Nothing whispers sympathy quite like a frozen-pea casserole with canned bean sprouts and mushroom soup."

Published by Hyperion Books in 2005, the book contains descriptions of local customs that are frequently laced with humor. One example is a discussion of the keen sense of competitiveness between Southern women of different faiths where funeral food preparation is concerned. These discussions leave the reader to wonder the answer to an inevitable question, such as, do the Episcopal ladies make better funeral food than the Methodist ladies?

While the book is a hilarious narrative that mixes Southern etiquette, political incorrectness, and down-home honesty, it is also worthy of adding to any one's recipe book collection. Its pages include some well-known Southern dishes such as fried chicken, a variety of congealed salads, the ever-popular deviled eggs, and a number of casseroles prepared with canned soup. One of the "soup casseroles" includes a particularly popular dish made with frozen potatoes and canned Cheddar Cheese soup, commonly known in Southern food circles as "Funeral Potatoes."

I purchased a signed copy of this book at my favorite Pentimento Books in Clinton, Mississippi, and I enjoyed it so much that I have since given copies as gifts to several friends who have roots in the Deep South. Two other books by Metcalfe and Hays that you may also enjoy are Some Day You'll Thank Me for This: The Official Southern Ladies' Guide to Being a "Perfect" Mother, and Somebody is Going to Die if Lilly Beth Doesn't Catch That Bouquet: The Official Southern Ladies' Guide to Hosting the Perfect Wedding.

I sincerely hope you enjoy reading "Being Dead is No Excuse...." as much as I did, and I wholeheartedly recommend adding this one-of-a-kind book to your own collection. But I must caveat my recommendation with this warning: You may laugh out loud so much that your ribs will be sore the next day - mine were!

The Battle of the Bottle

August 6, 1966 was an infamous day in Greenville, Mississippi, as it was in the State of Mississippi. As the historic marker pictured above states, the "Jigger and Jug," owned by the Azar Brothers, became the first legal liquor store in the state. Still in business today, the store is advertised in McRae's Business Directory as a "specialty" retail store that sells liquor.

It is difficult for many people my age to remember that manufacturing and selling liquor was illegal in Mississippi for over half a century. But the fact that liquor was not legal in Mississippi did not prevent those who wanted to buy a "bottle" from making a trip across the Mississippi River Bridge to a liquor store in Louisiana or from buying from local sources known as "bootleggers."

Throughout the prohibition years, local law enforcement officers and political and religious leaders alike waged very public wars against the sale of alcohol while often looking the other way when dealing with those who were selling it. Non-drinking private citizens, some with both money and influence, often took up the controversial cause. One of those private citizens was Hazel Brannon Smith, a newspaper editor who owned the Lexington (MS) Advertiser. Mrs. Smith's frank and revealing editorials in the 1940's eventually led to the arrests of a number of Holmes County bootleggers.

The illegal sale of liquor, however, continued until the law was changed in the mid-sixties. When the new local option law became effective on July 1, 1966, Mississippi entered a new era: it became the last state to end prohibition.

St. John's Church, Washington County, MS

A portion of the old Greenfield Cemetery is situated amid the ruins of St. John's Church, near Greenville, Mississippi in Washington County. The ruins pictured here, according to some sources, are among the most photographed of any in the State of Mississippi. The church was burned during the Civil War, and according to stories written about the church, lead from the beautiful windows was melted down into "mini-balls."