Sunshine by Day, Moonshine by Night by Lois Bolin, Ph.D., Old Naples Historian

William Safire’s Drinking in America: A History is not, as I first thought, a book on traveling around to soak up the wonders of these great United States. It is, rather, a book about the history of drinking, as in alcohol, a mainstay since the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth.

One of the best known quotes on “the drink” from Mr. Safire’s book is credited to Warren Fuller, governor of Florida from 1949 to 1953: “If you mean the demon drink that poisons the mind, pollutes the body, desecrates family life and inflames sinners, then I’m against it. But if you mean the elixir of Christmas cheer, the shield against winter chill, the taxable potion that puts needed funds into public coffers to comfort little crippled children, then I’m for it. This is my position, and I will not compromise!”

I guess Mr. Fuller learned from history when on Jan. 16, 1920, triumphant temperance supporters clicked their teacups and launched one of America’s greatest and most noble failed experiments: Prohibition.

Drinking and Thinking
Some say all Prohibition did was replace good beer with bad gin and eventually kill Vaudeville, as one headline noted: Half of the Acts in Vaudeville Houses Affected by New Order April 12, 1922.

The noble experiment of Prohibition of alcohol (1920-33) was undertaken to reduce crime and corruption, lessen the tax burden created by prisons and poorhouses and improve health and hygiene in America. But, it fell short of its goals. While alcohol consumption fell in the beginning of Prohibition, it eventually increased and worse, it opened the way for other medicinal sources such as marijuana and opium, which forced its former proponents to argue against the very amendment for which they fought so feverishly.

Prohibition was repealed by the 21st Amendment, making it the only amendment in history of the U.S. Constitution to have been repealed.

How Dry I am — not
It wasn’t until Nov. 7, 1934, that Prohibition was repealed in Collier County by a vote of 212-38. Before that, it was not only the outlaw areas of Chokoloskee and Everglades City whose individuals pushed the envelope of the no drinking law (ran over it more like it); the refined city of Naples was always only a “gulp” away from lawlessness.

Naples on the Gulp
Dr. Early Baum was a regular to Naples and saw with great amusement the “easy running” of rum in and out of the City Pier in plain sight of the Coast Guard cutter. In honor of the duality that Prohibition brought forth to most communities, he paid tribute to the law’s lighter side with a home movie called “Naples on the Gulp” featuring local citizens.

These days you can learn about local lore from local yokels by simply knowing where to look: usually in a corner seat at the end of the bar near a waterfront.

At Bayfront’s Cabana Bar, an old timer told me that, back then, a snowbird would put a 10 cent bag of marbles in his drawers (steamer trunk drawers, that is) to hide the sound of $20 bottles of Cuban rum or Canadian Club rolling around. The look of “All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt from Florida” when they arrived home was replaced with a sincere voice of thanks.

One of my favorite hooch stories is of 13-year-old John Pulling (as in Airport- Pulling Road), who was fishing around the pier one morning when a Coast Guard captain invited him aboard for a private tour. When the captain asked the unsuspecting stool pigeon if whiskey was served at his house, the polite youngster spilled on the beans about his parents’ frequent cocktails parties.

When he returned home the boy casually mentioned his morning adventure to his father, who commenced in Paul Revere fashion to, as Doris Reynolds phrased it, “warn the neighbors those revenooers were coming.”

When the law arrived, all they found were model citizens, many sweating, no doubt, from the gardening they had just finished.

Some lawbreakers, albeit just a few, did go behind bars — jail bars. A “salty dog” at the City Dock told me of a tale that one of his kin was picked up at 2 a.m. for running rum, was tried at 10 a.m. by the judge and was chipping rock for the chain gang by the same afternoon.

It’s no wonder Florida was loved by so many back in those days, what with sunshine by day and moonshine by night