bum wine

 

I snap fotos in the daytime.  Sometimes i see empty bottles on the ground. It is bad when they are broken, especially for my bare footed hounds. Depending on the location, different bottles are there. Recently, i have noticed cube shaped, tequila bottles; almost always without the stopper. There are also Hennessy brandy hip flasks. The most common is that star of winos, Richards. Again, it is also a four sided bottled. To my surprise, on an internet image search, the fotos were of whiskey bottle shaped 750ml, and 3L jugs. I had remembered them all being four sided, and having the old label [supra]. The label looked like the back of playing cards. The labels have changed, and there are more "flavors" or colors. Normal wine bottles are round. These bottles are not, this is so they don't roll.

This is maybe the premier bum, screw cap, gutter, skid row, indigent, brown bag, sidewalk, and ghetto wine. In 1954, the federal government changed the definition of wine, and flavored, fortified (added alcohol), fruit wines were made. Gallo Brothers made Thunderbird in '57, and Marvin Sands had this 1954 concoction named after his son, and an old song. Ireland had no viticulture, the climate was not able to sustain grapes. Family was damn well not Irish either. The grandfather, Mordechai Sands, was an old bootlegger though, and New York State had vineyards.  I read a figure of two million cases a year of Wild Irish Rose. The other bottles, i used to see were Night Train (Gallo Brothers), and MD 20/20 (Mogen David 20 ounces, 20 percent). 

For a time MD 20/20, Mad Dog, was the most common on the sidewalk in town. It is now neither 20 ounces, nor 20 percent. They exist as the cheapest ways to get drunk, and since quality is so low, the profit margin is high. Once, as a teenager, my boss bought a bottle of Mad Dog after work. It tasted like grape juice and vinegar. Have not had any of the others. I think i remember seeing Wild Irish Rose, as a kid, at Pick-N-Pay, and Gray Drug; i did not know there were specific bum wines then.

Many times, i have heard that George Jones was the most, bestest country singer. The only song of his [click] i liked was "White Lightning", a Big Bopper song. It was a rockabilly number he sang with Johnny Cash's band. This is when he had his Marine crew cut, which made his ears look really big, and people twisted them as he sang. Later he sang "Tennessee Whiskey". George had a bottle problem, he was called "No Show Jones". He was also called "Possum", on account of how his eyes sat.

In 1998 he recorded Bobby Braddock's "Wild Irish Rose" [click]. That song was serious. So many street drunks are war veterans.

"He lies there holding his Wild Irish Rose
This crazy old fool in the smelly old clothes
He could have had something much better, God knows
Than a half-empty bottle of Wild Irish Rose."

The song also has the line, "You know, they found him at Clark street, West 25th".