| Summary: | (5:45) Ethel Schmidlkofer talks about bootlegging in Florence, Alabama during the early to mid 1900s and describes going to local theaters when she was a child. This interview is part of an oral history project funded by a grant from the Alabama Historical Records Board, managed by the Alabama Department of Archives and History staff, using funds provided by the National Historical Preservation and Records Commission.Florence- Lauderdale Public Library Digital Archive
Interview with Ethel Schmidlkofer
July 21, 2009 Florence, Alabama Conducted by Juliann Losey and Rhonda Haygood
Clip 5 of 12
Ethel Schmidlkofer: There were all kinds of drunks in Florence, because there was all kinds of bootlegging in Florence. Bootlegging was big time. Of course, they would have a vote and they’d say, “ Well, we don’t have any alcohol in Florence.” And I told a lady one time came in there to leave cards, I said, “ Ma’am, I could take you on a hot day right now and walk you to three and we wouldn’t even break a sweat.” “ Oh that’s not so!” I said, “ Yes ma’am it is,” I said, “ If you don’t want your children to be allowed to buy, to buy alcohol, then vote for it to be legal, cause,” I said, “ I’m telling you, a ten year old kid can go buy a pint of liquor for ten bucks.” She didn’t believe me, but I knew it was true. And there were shot houses, and these guys would be out and they’d bum a quarter and then they’d bum another quarter. Soon as they got a dollar, it was fifty cents for the ride down and back and fifty cents for the shot of liquor. And we gave out that address so much that one of the cab drivers, and I mind you, when they talked, everybody that was in the cabs could hear it, but he just called in one day and he said, “ I’m headed to Lucy’s Bar and Grill.” And from then on that’s what they called it. And I mean, there’d be women going to church on Sunday and they’d say, “ What did he say?” So, there was a lot of little tricks that you had to know and as far as knowing where the bootleggers were, we had the son of one of them that worked as a cab driver. And I’ve seen him come in and pick up the phone right on my switchboard and call his momma and say “ Momma they’re on their way.” Cause they had the cops paid off, and honey, by the time they got to her house, which was only about four blocks, she didn’t have no liquor. No. There was one over on Colorado Street that you could drive through the alley and they had a pick- up window just like a drug store would. And y’all think I’m kidding, but I, I lived through this. I know it. There was a still somewhere very close to downtown Florence that, if it’s ever been found, nobody’s ever told or talked about it. But on a morning when it was a little bit foggy, if you walked anywhere up near the Post Office or around in that, maybe two square blocks, you could smell that still. But nobody ever did know where it was. It was in probably the basement of one of those old buildings and it was, you know, they had a chimney going out of it. But, I mean, the cops knew about all of the places.
Juliann Losey: So, where was the cab station?
ES: It was what is now a parking lot behind the Episcopal Church on Tennessee Street.
JL: And what was around it at that time?
ES: Okay, the Princess Theater was across the alley, and then directly across the street was the Reeder Hotel. And there was a furniture store right down from the Reeder. I kind of think that was Blevins’ before they moved up on Court Street, but I could be wrong about that. And then on the other side of the street, where McDaniel’s has that glass, that was a car dealership. I can’t remember whether that was where Mr. Smallwood had his Plymouth showroom or not. And then where, well Sears has been, was down there for years and years and years and then that little service station, that belonged to Mr. Olive for as long as I can remember. But, the Princess Theater was my baby sitter when I was little, cause my mother would go in and work the night- the supper shift. And they could put us, my sister and I, in the theater for a dime apiece. And so we sometimes saw the same movie four or five times, but we never saw it all at once. We might be in there forty- five minutes, we might be in there an hour, and since they didn’t start them every time, you know, we’d just see bits and pieces. But anyway, they would just walk us over there and the girl that, the girl that was the ticket taker is still alive. I occasionally see her and her first name is Sue, but for some reason my daddy always called her “ Chicken”. And he’d hand her the twenty cents and he’d say, “ Alright Chicken, watch out for them.” And she said, “ I will.” And so, you know, that just, that was just a part of my growing up. And then my granddaddy every Christmas and every Thanksgiving, now mind you, he had twenty- seven grandchildren, but he was the biggest kid of all of us, after we had the big meal and all, he would line us up, two by two and he would take us up the alley and around to the Majestic Theater which was on Court Street, up there by the bank. And it was two features and about six cartoons, and so that’s where we all went. And it, I mean, it was just this little troupe of kids following my granddaddy. And he would already have the dimes all counted out, he didn’t give dollars or anything. He had all the dimes. And that was every Christmas and every Thanksgiving for as long as they were alive. And my grandparents both died when I was sixteen, lacked three days being two months. My grandmother died first and my granddaddy didn’t want to live after that.
JL: Now, was that the grandfather who started the cab company?
ES: Um- hum.
JL: Yeah?
ES: The Schmidlkofer’s.
JL: Okay.
ES: My grandparents of my mother, they’re from South Carolina.
|
|---|
