The old City of Naples seal used to have palm trees, a pelican, and a boat on it. They left one off. The whiskey bottle. Booze barons were prominent citizens in Naples' history.
While working a burglary at the Swamp Buggy Lounge, near 4-Corners, I noticed a plaque on the wall that astounded me. It read, Largest Retailer, Lord Calvert Whiskey. I asked the owner Nick, it this was a joke.
"Hell, no," he answered, offended. "It's as legit as it gets."
Huh? In the 60's Naples wasn't exactly New York City. It wasn't even Ft. Myers. Sensing my disbelief, Nick explained.
"It's all those folks on Gordon Drive and in Port Royal. Lord Calvert is a good mixing whiskey and they do like their cocktail parties down there. Most homes are good for a few cases a year. It adds up. Adds up enough that, like the plaque says, for two years I've sold more than any outlet in the world."
Should've known. The area was a nesting ground for the Alcohol Elite. Just take a drive down Gordon Drive and and you'd find homes owned by the purveyors of Busch, Miller, Pabst, Schlitz, Smirnoff, Falstaff. Plus family connections to Seagram and Canadian Club. Heublein, who owned Smirnoff, was one of the largest distributors in the world of alcoholic beverages.
Of these, our favorite was the Griesediecks, out of St. Louis, brewers of "Old Greasydick" beer. Answer a call at their residence on Gordon Drive and you'd better not try to get by with a Grisydike, or some other cop out that you could say without laughing. You'd be informed that the name was pronounced Greasydick, and they were proud of it. Good people, these.
And not just the rich folks contributed to record sales of liquid stupid. When raiding a homeless camp (bum's nest) off Airport Road where the poor unfortunates were spending more time breaking into nearby homes, than looking for work, we came upon a monument, of sorts. It was a pile of beer cans easily seven feet tall with a base circumference of about twelve feet. Had to be thousands. Had to've cost thousands.
We couldn't find a plaque.
While working a burglary at the Swamp Buggy Lounge, near 4-Corners, I noticed a plaque on the wall that astounded me. It read, Largest Retailer, Lord Calvert Whiskey. I asked the owner Nick, it this was a joke.
"Hell, no," he answered, offended. "It's as legit as it gets."
Huh? In the 60's Naples wasn't exactly New York City. It wasn't even Ft. Myers. Sensing my disbelief, Nick explained.
"It's all those folks on Gordon Drive and in Port Royal. Lord Calvert is a good mixing whiskey and they do like their cocktail parties down there. Most homes are good for a few cases a year. It adds up. Adds up enough that, like the plaque says, for two years I've sold more than any outlet in the world."
Should've known. The area was a nesting ground for the Alcohol Elite. Just take a drive down Gordon Drive and and you'd find homes owned by the purveyors of Busch, Miller, Pabst, Schlitz, Smirnoff, Falstaff. Plus family connections to Seagram and Canadian Club. Heublein, who owned Smirnoff, was one of the largest distributors in the world of alcoholic beverages.
Of these, our favorite was the Griesediecks, out of St. Louis, brewers of "Old Greasydick" beer. Answer a call at their residence on Gordon Drive and you'd better not try to get by with a Grisydike, or some other cop out that you could say without laughing. You'd be informed that the name was pronounced Greasydick, and they were proud of it. Good people, these.
And not just the rich folks contributed to record sales of liquid stupid. When raiding a homeless camp (bum's nest) off Airport Road where the poor unfortunates were spending more time breaking into nearby homes, than looking for work, we came upon a monument, of sorts. It was a pile of beer cans easily seven feet tall with a base circumference of about twelve feet. Had to be thousands. Had to've cost thousands.
We couldn't find a plaque.
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