123... ABC, Hypocrisy?

Budweiser Beer annually offers forth memorable Super Bowl ads, this year's was an expensive and elaborate production dramatizing the end of Prohibition.

Prohibition began in 1920 and lasted for 13 years. During that time the Anheuser Busch Company survived by manufacturing soft drinks and selling yeast. When Prohibition ended August Busch's son's gifted him with a red wagon and a team of Clydesdales which Busch loaded with kegs of beer and the horses drove the load of beer to the White House for FDR who had been instrumental in the repeal of Prohibition with the adoption of the Twenty First Amendment.

                                                                  


To this day, some 80 years later, several States have still not ratified the Amendment including both Carolinas and Oklahoma.

All one has to do is to travel from State to State today in the 21st Century and there still are some pretty archaic ways of handling the control of the sale of alcohol.

In 1969 when I entered college in Oklahoma, one of the State's that still has not ratified, a woman could buy beer at 18 years old, but a man had to be 21. which meant men in the Freshman class had extra incentive to make friends with a co ed. Also cold beer could only be purchased in a tavern, yet warm beer was displayed and sold at all gas stations displayed between the pumps. The Sooner State at the time also was not liquor by the drink, which meant at the nicer restaurants you could bring your own bottle of liquor and pay a hefty price for ice and mixers. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out this was responsible for a much higher level of alcohol consumption. Oklahoma has now overturned those strange restrictions.

All States still continue to control liquor sales which was the provision of the Amendment.  The level of control and the manner in which liquor is sold in each State, some are more progressive than others.

While growing up in West Virginia and my father being a frequent consumer of controlled beverages, I was aware that many towns had "State Stores" which were always understated storefronts that featured clerks standing behind steel grates, similar to what bank tellers used to stand behind. There was no liquor visible. A customer would write on a slip of paper the liquor he wanted to purchase, slide the paper under the grate, the clerk would then return with a bottle in a brown paper bag. The purchaser would pay and leave with the brown bag. Even as a young boy in the 1950s waiting in the car for these deals to go down, it seemed like a silly charade to me.

Over the years West Virginia progressed to a somewhat friendlier self service format, where the customer could come in and make their selection from the shelf openly take the the bottle to a cashier, all while praying that they didn't run into anyone they knew from church. The system worked well enough but in order to keep costs down the variety of brands offered were very limited.

                                                                      
My drink of choice at this time was Gentleman Jack, which is a high end sour mash whiskey produced by the same wonderful people who produce Jack Daniels in Lynchburg, Tennessee. A town that I have had the pleasure of visiting and attending a catfish fry hosted by the Distillery. The function featured unlimited pouring of their product, bluegrass music and free cigars. At that time I was a very loyal consumer of their product so I can only think that the experience would be tantamount to a child receiving an all access pass at Disneyland.

In order for me to buy Gentleman Jack in West Virginia I had to special order it by the case and have it delivered to my local State Store.

When Gaston Caperton became Governor of West Virginia, and having come from a business background, he had several initiatives that he offered to modernize and streamline government. One of the most controversial was partially privatizing the State's liquor stores.

The issue was controversial, not just based on the always sensitive liberalization of alcohol, but as there most often is, the hidden political impact. In this case the opposition in the Legislature was based in that almost all of the State Stores were in buildings being rented from political supporters and cronies. Also the stores employees were on the State payroll. They were good jobs that required no heavy lifting and provided excellent positions for Legislators to provide secure jobs for their constituents. Under the proposal both of these political perks were in jeopardy.

I was a State Senator at the time having been appointed by Caperton. The primary reasons I was a Senator for such a short period of time was that I was naive enough to support measures that I thought was for the betterment of the whole State and  not to what was the best political position. My best friend and often counselor on issues in the Senate was Joe Manchin. Joe was adamantly against the change and actually did a rare filibuster on the Senate floor against the measure. He had collected telephone books from every town in the State and would read names out of the phonebooks, occasionally stopping and saying that the passage of the legislation would be harmful to the names he just read.

Capitol of West Virginia

                                                                      
I was a member of the Senate Finance Committee. In order for this legislation to succeed it was essential that it receive approval of the majority of the members of Finance. I was summoned to the Governor's Office for a one on one meeting with Caperton with the topic of discussion being this issue that was such a high priority to him.

When I arrived downstairs in the Capitol at the Governor's Office, I was escorted back to his conference room, where I was seated at one end of a conference table. Seated at the other end was The Governor, to his right his Chief of Staff and to his left the State Liquor Commissioner.

Governor Gaston Caperton 

          
   Caperton said, "Senator you probably know why I have asked you here", I said "well Governor I am assuming you are going to brow beat me and twist my arm to vote for your damned liquor store bill" He assured me this was not the case, that they only wanted to share all the facts with me and answer any questions I might have knowing once I had all the facts that I would indeed vote to move his measure through the Finance Committee and the Senate.

In this era Ross Perot had popularized charts and graphs to emphasize the finer points of an issue. Caperton began his presentation holding up chart with a bar graph showing a downward line that looked like an upside down hockey stick. "Senator, unlike your own personal situation, liquor consumption in America is decreasing" he said while using his finger to follow the downward direction on the chart.

I said laughing "Gaston, I could stay upstairs if I wanted to be insulted, and besides that comment definitely falls into the pot calling the kettle black category, do you want my vote or not?" he smiled back and nodded in agreement.

He went on to explain that the plan would not relinquish any of the control of liquor by the State in that they would still be the only supplier of booze to retail outlets and could dictate their price to the retailer while tremendously reducing the States costs and liabilities. Meaning higher income to the taxpayers, free market profit to entrepreneurs in the State it was a classic win/win in his view.

I interrupted his presentation by telling them that I was in favor of the initiative as I understood it; but I had a couple of questions. The first being that I had noticed a few years earlier when the state had enabled wine to be sold in supermarkets that there was very little variety of wine available and what was available was of low quality, was this going to happen to liquor? The ABC Commissioner quickly shot back,"you are worried about your Gentleman Jack aren't you?" I responded, "well yeah but, it did seem in order for private enterprise and therefore the state to succeed a broad choice would need to be available" I was assured that the competition created would allow for a broad selection. My other concern was the job security of the existing employees and they agreed that no one would be displaced nor would any existing employee have to sacrifice any benefits that they had accrued.

The Bill passed and the system has worked very well for over twenty years now for the people of West Virginia. Though many States such as North Carolina still have State operated ABC Stores that are overseen and managed by Boards in each individual county an inefficient system that is prone to corruption, yet the suggestion of modernizing the archaic marketing is still politically unacceptable which I suppose is understandable from the only State that actually passed a referendum not to ratify Prohibition.

At this stage I rarely drink alcohol of any type. And have some horrible experiences and some wonderful experiences in my life that can be directly attributed to alcohol.

I can't help but wonder what the United States would be like had Prohibition continued and yet somehow I find it somewhat lugubrious that the end of Prohibition was portrayed as such salvation for our Nation.

George Dickel meets Mean Joe Greene

On a warm Oklahoma Friday afternoon in mid November 1969 my roommate and I stood outside our dormitory in Tulsa waiting for our ride to pick us up for an overnight trip to Texas. The purpose of our trip was to watch the Varsity football team  play North Texas State University the next afternoon.

Our host and driver was the team Chaplin and the campus Catholic Priest, Father Robert Schlitt, who was affectionately known to all as Father Bob.

Father Bob seemed to spend the majority of his waking hours at the jock dorm, ever ready to counsel or take confession. There was some speculation by my more cynical Catholic teammates that Father Bob got a rush out of some of the more graphic repentance of the student athletes. We all took great pleasure  when seeing him on campus to always shout  to ask how the wife and kids were, then watching him turn scarlet red.

This weekend though Father Bob, had invited my roommate, one of those more cynical Catholics and this West Virginia Baptist boy to join him in attending the away game with him. We would be following the Twentieth Century route that followed the Chisholm Trail. We kept the conversation interesting in quizzing the Priest on the prurient history of Jesse Chisholm as we drove toward our Friday night destination Bowie, Texas, named for Jim Bowie of the knife fame.

We would be staying at the home of the sister of Father Bob, which was not to be confused with a Nun/sister but his real sister. She was a gracious hostess and had prepared a Texas dinner for us, my first barbecue beef brisket. I have had a love affair for that cut of meat since, but only if cooked properly Texas style with the pink ring.

She and her husband also were excited to take us to our first Friday Night Lights Texas High School football game, and to see their star football player, a guy by the name of Tim Welch who had been just recently recruited by the University of Oklahoma.

The football field looked more like a college stadium and was packed with rabid fans. I was disappointed to find the nickname of the team was the Fightin' Jackrabbits, The Bowie Jackrabbits? Knives seemed like a more natural and intimidating moniker. My displeasure fell on deaf ears with all eyes focused on the Welch kid who was setup every play alone in the backfield in a shotgun formation and he had the option to do whatever he wanted, He was all he had been advertised and well worth the Cadillac convertible that he had started driving a couple of weeks earlier purely coincidentally near the time he had signed his letter of intent with the Sooners.

The next morning we packed up the Bobmobile and headed further down the trail to the town of Denton, Texas to see the Tulsa Golden Hurricane take the field against the North Texas Mean Green and their star lineman Joe Greene. Charles Edward "Mean Joe" Greene. Greene was the premiere lineman in college football. In the days before anabolic steroids, Green was only 6'4" and 269 pounds. But he was fast and possessed the three most important traits of a defensive football player . He was mobile, agile and hostile. To see Greene was the primary reason for us going to the game. He did not let us down. He looked like a man playing with boys and completely dominated the game. He was the real deal. They beat Tulsa that day 42-16, handing the Hurricane their seventh loss of the season. Thankfully for the Tulsa faithful, in that era there were only 10 games in a season.

Greene went onto be the keystone of the famous Pittsburgh Steelers Steel Curtain and made one of the most famous Super Bowl commercials of all time for the 1980 Super Bowl. The spot was for Coca Cola, called "Hey Kid".  

                                                          

                

On the first day of November in 1981 the Pittsburgh Steelers played the San Francisco 49ers at Three Rivers Stadium. The 49ers were quarterbacked by the great Joe Montana and had a running back from West Virginia University and Charleston, West Virginia's Stonewall Jackson High School; Walter Easley.

My best friend had not been to a Steeler game, so I invited him to join me for this game. For those that do not recall Three Rivers Stadium was home to both the Steelers and the Pirates. With the dual utilization there were separate press boxes for each sport.

 In that one of my radio stations carried the broadcasts of both teams I could get a couple of non working press passes. These passes allowed me to watch Steeler games from the vantage point of the baseball press box and vice versa for the Pirates. Great seats, free food, and all the beer one could consume. You make very little if any money in the radio business so perks like this make it worthwhile.

With a 1:00pm kickoff, my friend and I had agreed to meet at 10:00 am at the Marriott in Greentree ,outside of Pittsburgh, to tailgate prior to the game. We had forgotten that there would be a problem buying cocktails on a Sunday morning. Fortunately or unfortunately my friend at the time was a salesman selling to coal mines and had a requisite case of Bourbon in his trunk that he used as gifts for his customers. It wasn't Bloody Marys but as any alcohol abuser knows, any port in a storm. So we timed the consumption of the entire bottle of Dickel until we could get to the press box and the free Iron City beer at noon. Which seemed like an excellent plan at the time.  

            


                

As we sat in our padded arm chairs on this bright November Sunday watching a tremendous back and forth game and enjoying our free beer. My friend mentioned that we had a problem in that he had promised his young son that he would bring him an autograph from the Steelers All Pro Receiver Lynn Swann. He pointed out to me that Swann was down on the field and we were some five or six stories above him and this chasm was going to create a serious obstacle in acquiring Swann's signature. Being the host and feeling responsibly irresponsible I assured him that this would not be a problem. The pointed down to my belt where we were wearing those press passes that hang from your belt.

The game ended with San Francisco winning 17-14 on a touchdown score by none other than West Virginia's own, Walt Easley. We then realized that not only would we visit with Lynn Swann, but would go congratulate Walt Easley on his performance and knew how much he would appreciate it coming from a couple of guys from his home State.

                                                                  



We left the press box and headed to the hall to the elevator marked for press only, following my direction we just didn't flinch and acted as we belonged there. We first went into the Visitors dressing room and after giving an approving nod and thumbs up to Joe Montana and a few other 49ers we found Easley at his locker. We introduced ourselves and congratulated him on his outstanding day. He was cordial and appreciative and seemed somewhat surprised by the effort we had made to congratulate him.

That done we went in search of the Steeler's dressing room, once we found it and opened the door I was amazed at the luxury of it there was an unbelievably thick and plush silver carpet  and the lockers were all crafted from fine wood. It was remarkably quiet and we were the only non players in there.

The first player I recognized was Joe Greene, who was sitting in front of his locker in a state of undress. I immediately went up to him stuck out my hand, introduced myself, gave him condolence on the loss and shared with him seeing him play in college. I explained to him our purpose in being there in pursuit of Lynn Swann's autograph for my friends son. But I would like one of his , and one for my sons too. He provided me with both exhibiting the same gentle giant character he had in the Coke commercial. While I was doing this my friend had approached Legendary Steeler Quarterback Terry Bradshaw to offer condolence and compliment while asking for assistance in locating Swann.

Bradshaw did not show the same hospitality that Mean Joe had and we found ourselves being rather unceremoniously and literally been shown the door and demanding the return of our passes. As we stepped out into the hall there was a large crowd of sportswriters waiting to get in, at the head of the line was Pittsburgh sportscaster Bill Curry, who I recognized and I told him how much I enjoyed his work. He ask what had happened. After telling him what had happened he told me that there was a 30 minute cooling off rule in the NFL and press was not allowed in the losing teams dressing room for a half hour. He also pointed out a member of the press was never allowed to ask for an autograph.

 Who knew?  They unfortunately do not teach these things in Journalism School. I am sure George Dickel was more responsible for this faux pas than Journalism School. Fortunately both are history in my life now.

Enjoy the Super Bowl and if you chose to drink, drink responsibly.

Intro to Political Science

On the Monday morning of May 4, 1970 I was entering a classroom on the campus of the University of Tulsa, as I  had just settled into a desk in the Public Speech 101 class, the Instructor stood up and addressed the class in a manner of disappointment and disgust; questioning why any of us had bothered to show up this morning. I had no idea what he was getting at, but I liked the tone of where it seemed he might be going and thinking it might give me an opportunity to go back to LaFortune Hall, the School's jock dorm where I would be able to crawl back into my bed and further nurse my bruised and battered body from spring football practice.

The Instructor sensing I was not the only one in the class who had no idea what he was talking about told us that four of our brethren college students had been shot and killed during a protest of the Vietnam War on the campus of Kent State University in Ohio. Explaining the only thing these victims had done were exercise their right to free speech and protest and were shot by American soldiers on American soil. Guardsmen had fired 67 rounds in 13 seconds It was therefore our duty to not be in the classroom, but to join in the protest or at least commemorate the memory of these martyrs. Class was dismissed till further notice and he would encourage us to not attend any other classes that day. Which was a sweet protest song to my ears, but somehow I knew that the staff of Golden Hurricane football coaches would not be as sympathetic to the fallen students memory. But at least I had a few hour window of recovery time before 2:30 in the afternoon when it would be time to be in the training room to have my ankles taped in order to prevent a sprain in the battle of something greater than communist aggression in the rice patties of southeast Asia. That being the pursuit of Lombardi type excellence for the University's beleaguered football program.

These days were before cable news and the 24 hour news cycle but the three major networks gave a huge amount of time to the killings in an almost continuous loop effect. Four students dead in Ohio. Killed by National Guardsmen of their own generation. Richard Nixon was the President and essentially defended the action. We were young adults who had seen a young President killed, his brother slain, Martin Luther King murdered, and now thousands of our peers in a war that we, nor really anyone was quite sure what we were fighting for. Neil Young recorded a song that was played in a heavy rotation that summer, Tin soldiers and Nixon coming, we're finally on our own, this summer I hear the drumming, four dead in Ohio...

Having been raised in West Virginia where young men freely volunteer more than any other State to fight wars for their Country and along with possessing a jock mentality, I was acculturated to having a hawkish attitude. I really was not sure how to feel about the Nation I had been born and lived, during these troubling times.  Nixon and his cronies were certainly not to be trusted, but those of my age that were raising hell rioting, and burning college Administration buildings didn't seem like the correct action either. Though I had been invited I had not joined a group of student athletes that went to disrupt a group of war protesters that had wanted to join hands and encircle the United States Federal Building in Downtown Tulsa and pledged not to leave until the building levitated or the War ended. The protesters did not garner enough participants to actually encircle the building, which nullified the need for the football players to beat them up. The building never rose from its foundation and the War went on for several more years, so I am not sure who was wrong or right in that particular situation.

The next Spring after transferring to West Virginia University I was having  lunch by my myself by a window at the pizza place that was on the southwest corner of High Street and Willey in Downtown Morgantown. Later that afternoon there was a large Anti War Rally planned  in front of the Mountainlair, the student union. The most militant of the National movement was a group named the Students for a Democratic Society, the SDS. The SDS was responsible for this rally and it was promised to be potentially violent.

Looking out the window as I ate I saw three charter buses full of West Virginia National Guardsman and West Virginia State Troopers in full riot gear in the buses. Each one had rifles standing in front of them, the rifles all had bayonets on them. Bayonets to control college kids in West Virginia. West Virginia a State that gave the lives of 1182 of its young people in this War. That moment finally really brought it home to me what a atrocity we were living in America at that time.

It was clear to my thinking that the protesters had made some impact on the mood of the Nation, but it wasn't in my nature to protest and I literally wasn't going to a knife and gun fight, without a gun or a knife.

1972 was to be a Presidential Election year perhaps we could actually channel this energy to elect a President that would stop this senseless War. Hubert Humphery was the odds on favorite to be the Democratic Nominee. Humphery had been Vice President under Lyndon Johnson. Johnson had escalated the War and it had ruined him politically forcing him to not stand for reelection. Humphery was known has the "Happy Warrior" though he pledged to get us out of the War. Alabama Governor George Wallace, who at the time was a Populist among those that were advocates of States Rights for his history of supporting segregation. Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine,  and Senator George McGovern from South Dakota seemed like the two to have the strongest feelings against the "conflict"

Muskie ended up dropping out of the race after breaking down and crying about a nasty editorial. This left only one true anti war candidate George McGovern who was clear about his intentions.

The 26th Amendment to the Constitution had been ratified in 1971. This Amendment allowed, for the first time, 18 year olds to vote. The principal rationale for this change was that if 18 year olds could be drafted to war to fight and die for their country they should be able to vote.

It occurred to me that if I were able to vote, that I might be able to run for something. I researched it, and though most all offices had age requirements in West Virginia, no one had realized that there was no age requirement to run as a delegate to the National Convention. So on my way back to Morgantown from a visit home in Oak Hill, I stopped in Charleston at the Secretary of State"s Office and filed to run as a Delegate to support McGovern and becoming the youngest person ever to be on the ballot in West Virginia.

Humphery won the West Virginia Primary and Wallace finished a strong second. McGovern was the Democratic Nominee but was soundly beaten by Nixon in every State but Massachusetts.

This was my outlet of protest that was probably no more effective than chanting and carrying a sign. Though I did not win I didn't have to look at the barrel of a gun and the point of a bayonet.