Jake Leg

[Harry]

Can't find the other post I made, but I was referring to the "good old days" comment, not the lead comment. Of course, I knew the post was 'tongue-in-cheek'. Anyways, here's something on the Jakeleg comment...

The Jake Walk Effect

Serious medical symptoms, different from the ones associated with legally manufactured alcohol, often result from drinking moonshine. Often these symptoms are immediate, sometimes they're temporary, but sometimes they're permanent. People go blind from drinking moonshine, or suffer nerve damage or develop sores or ulcers.
(Harry's comment: This is the garbage the hobbyists are now (2006) up against).

In the 1930s, though, a specific affliction struck moonshine drinkers in a number of Southern states. It is estimated that some 50,000 people were crippled with partial paralysis, mostly in their legs, as a result of drinking "jake". In some cases the paralysis proved to be temporary, but nearly all victims were forced to walk with in high-stepping, foot-slapping style that quickly became known as the "jake walk" or the "jake leg".



What is Jake?

Jake is actually Jamacian ginger extract, marketed and sold as a medicinal tonic for any number of ills. It was available in the United States since about the time of the Civil War, and Americans quickly realized that the nearly 70% alcohol content made "the jake" a way to skirt local or federal laws banning the consumption of liquor. Compared to whiskey, jake was often cheaper, and often had a higher alcohol content. Many drug stores sold Coca-Cola or coffee, which people would then use as mixers for the jake, often using a side room in the store to concoct their drink.
Jake sold between 1920 and 1930 caused no health problems. In the spring of 1930, however, the manufacturers of jake decided to add a new ingredient, an industrial chemical called tri-ortho-cresyl phosphate.

The new ingredient was added to help adulter, or water down, the jake. It was tasteless, soluble with alcohol, and cheap. It also turned out to be highly toxic, particularly to the spinal cord.


The Allen Brothers - Jake Walk Blues http://distillers.tastylime.net/jakewalk.mp4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

I can't eat, I can't talk
Been drinkin' mean jake, Lord, now can't walk
Ain't got nothin' now to lose
Cause I'm a jake walkin' papa with the jake walk blues.

( ... )

Now I'm feelin' kinda drunk, brother
Be a wearin' jake socks after awhile
You know they call them iron socks
You know, I bet you don't know one from the other,
brother, which is the other?

[Harry]

Sorry, shoulda been http://distillers.tastylime.net/library/jakewalk.mp4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

Played with quicktime.

[Tater]

Yep Harry I delited that stupid post.Was afraid a few on here might not realize it was a joke.

[possum]

Good move, The coil shaping by using the unnamed metal with a low melt point was hilarious, but scared me ,as many would think it is ok, and not humor.

People may think that they are clever, yet act stupidly.

thanks for the laugh harry(or was it watershead?), and thanks for removing it tater.

[hornedrhodent]

For us Aussies that puts a new light on " Jake the peg".