Prohibition stories

My Thursday story on the most excellent KSPS-7 documentary Rumrunners’ Paradise, about Prohibition in the Inland Northwest, generated a touching call.

An older man from Deer Park called to ask if he could buy a copy of the documentary because he didn’t have a TV, though he could watch a DVD on a friend’s television. He said his father had been a bootlegger, and he was hoping to see if he could spot him in some of the historic photos in the documentary.

The father, he told me, had abandoned him when he was a boy. They later reunited and the man who called me actually took care of his dad in his old age.

He said his dad wouldn’t talk to him about the bootlegging much, so he wanted to know more. I sent him the DVD I received as a preview copy to look at. The call was a reminder, once again, how much our parents’ stories — or lack of them — stay with us long after the parents have died.

What stories do you wish your parents had told you more about before they died?

(Photo courtesy of Tony Bamonte)