Told this story on the former Seniors forum, but it's an unusual enough experience for a small kid to be worthily retold for newcomers. About 10, my Folks and I took my Mom's Mother and husband out north of Chicago to a lake area, where the old folks would remain to spend a few weeks on vacation. My step-grandfather still worked at Firestone Tire, where he toiled daily abrading off the old rubber tread of cast-away tires to prepare them for re-treading. The man must have worked like a dog! Anyway, I was about 10, my Dad and I standing on the shore of the lake as Joe and Grandma were getting checked in, and a guy ambled up to us, and started talking with my Dad. During this discourse, I heard him say, in a quiet and confidential voice, "You know, this guy Dutch has a blind pig." Dutch was the owner of the resort, supposedly a Hollander. This thought permeated my mental presence; I wondered to myself, why would a blind pig be of such importance as to require sneaky discussion? The guy left and I of course asked my Dad why a blind pig was so important. He explained the term originated during Prohibition. Speak-easies, illegal places where alcoholic beverages were available, were called "Blind Pigs"! Ever hear of it? GFrank
Pardon me but I'm not really interested in that term blind pig particularly so if it refers to alcoholic beverage. What got my curiosity is the mere act of committing your grandparents to an institution. Some 10 years ago, we did that same thing to my widowed mother who has the penchant to roam out of the house. She would leave early in the morning and be back by dinner time. It's like she has a daytime job, huh. And when her gallivanting got worse that she would spend the night outside, we got worried and decided to put her in a nursing home. It's really heart-breaking for me to do that but we had no other option for how could we make her stay at home when she has the wanderlust all the time. But anyway, she is now under the care of my sister who is a nurse so I am not worrying anymore.
I never heard fo that term "blind pig" to refer to a speakeasy and I am further guessing if you did a poll of 1,000 people you would be lucky to find one or two that had heard the term. Thanks for sharing Frank..maybe it will come in handy as a Jeopardy answer sometime...hahahahah. I would use that term in a humorous vein, but it would go right over the heads of too many people. I can only think of one person who might know it..
First time I heard the term was in the title of movie from 1974 " Sty of the Blind Pig ". Based on the Play. Remember it came out a few years after " Sounder" , which I consider a great movie.