This Morning I was thinking back to something that amazed me in the early Spring this year. The Front Door was sealed on Explosion Proof Warehouse P. So, I went around the back and found the fire escape door open, so, I went up to the second floor fire escape porch and the door into the wall was open.
As soon as I walked in...the strong smell of Whiskey hit me.
And as I walked across the floor with my flashlight I saw what looked like a puddle so I walked over to it. It was a cool humid day and when I got to the area I found that it was whiskey coming up out of the floor from all the years of it dripping there.
The smell right away took me back in the day when this great smell was an everyday thing; as walking in the warehouses back then was like walking into a Whiskey vaporiser. I well remember the heavy blue clouds when we would go in, around the sealed lights.
Those were happy days and I very much enjoyed working there. I was thinking back to some of the names of people there back then and what they did.
Here are a few:
1. Cal Roberts - Fire Chief in the plant
2. Harry Martin - Ast Fire Chief
3. Francis Kiem ( Ace ) - Worked on the Old Dsp-Pa 12 still till spring 1951then when I worked there was a Leaderman in the warehouse Gangs
4. Dickie Piehfer - plant Maintaince kept all the cars and trucks going in a little space beteewn Old Kinsey Warehouse A/B and The Dsp-pa 10 Rye Still barn
5. Frank Kurtus Plant Maintaince man
6. Harrison Tyson - ( Shorty ) Plant Maintaince
7. Harold Ludolph - ( Ludy ) - Turns 91 in Sept Maintaince man, Copper, Whiskey Blender, Bottling machine repair man and much more. Worke there from 1936 through 1980!
8. Darwin Raysor - ( Jack ) - my best warehouse gang boss - Leaderman
9. John Zuber my first Boss there on the Yard Gang and a great guy!
10.Al Landis and His Son Ken both good friends
11. Bonda Bergy - Plant traffic manager - Loved a good Bourbon or Rye Whiskey!
12. Al Rhoads - My Old friend from warehouse Days
13. Lou Steffy - Plant Maintaince man
14. Charlie Siepler - Kept plant buildings in good shap had an Old Model A Ford Frame with a 100 horse Power Ford Flat head to power it, put in by Dickie, and a wood bed on the back, no hood, fenders or windshield and an old Chair bolted on the floor to sit and drive it. He would light up the tires every morning...it was one of my favorite things to watch Charlie come roaring out of the first floor of the old grain drying Building around the old silo, hitting second gear going sideways then on the road and out of sight...smoke pouring out of his corn cob Pipe.
And there are many more I will remeber some time in the future...most of the people worked there at least 20 + yrs when I was there!
Kinsey Worker - Dave
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Kinsey The Unhurried Whiskey For Unhurried Moments
Kinsey The Genial Gin
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