Catch the Rum-runner

“American Spirits”, the Missouri History Museum’s exhibit on Prohibition, has as an interactive element of its display that is a video game called “Catch the Rumrunner”. Interestingly, it is set in Seattle’s Puget Sound. Anne’s mother’s family grew up a stone’s throw from the Canadian border, so as children, instead of playing cops and robbers, they played rum runners and revenuers. When the Cabin’s outhouse had to be moved, because it was full, various liquor bottles were found down the hole, but I don’t know if they date back to prohibition. Yes dear friends, there will be no ounce of night soil left unturned in the pursuit of this blog. I asked my Dad, if he had stories about Prohibition or knew any stories that Mom might have told. This is what he had to say:

Yes, your great-grandfather (Mom’s mother’s father) was a lobsterman out of New Bedford. Well, any kind of fishing is hard work so he decided to try his hand at a little bit of rum running. He could see out beyond the three-mile limit ships that were sort of floating supermarkets for booze. They would sell to anyone who could get out there and he had a boat. So out he went, filled the hold of his boat and returned to the pier in New Bedford to unload. Unfortunately, the revenuers got wind of his enterprise and closed in.  He spotted them and ran away. He wasn’t arrested, but he lost his boat.