During the 1920-1930s, the United States placed a prohibition on alcohol nationally, hoping to reduce crime, improve health and hygiene, increase public morality, and promote economic prosperity. Although the government was able to illegalize the manufacture, storage, transportation, and sale of alcohol, it did not stop people from consuming it. Many people homebrewed, while others smuggled alcohol from other places such as Canada. Temperance groups heavily influenced the prohibition. They stated that alcohol was dangerous and should not be drunk. The other side of the argument argued that drinking was a part of immigrants’, working class, and even some Jewish and Catholic religious groups’ lifestyle. My family, being immigrants or descending from immigrants, homebrewed alcohol during the prohibition. One of the family members would stand outside with the whistle looking for police officers on patrol. If that person saw officers, he would blow the whistle, alerting the ones brewing the alcohol. It is also said that the whistle was the same sort of whistle that the police officers carried at the time.

– Gen Kramer

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