WILLOW CREEK — The repeal of the 18th Amendment, ratified by the requisite number of states last week, was noted in Willow Creek not with celebrations in the street but with a bottle of rye whiskey shared quietly among a handful of men at the back of the General Store.
The bottle, produced from a brown paper bag and passed around a circle of five men who had gathered ostensibly to discuss the price of hay, was the closest thing to a public acknowledgment of repeal that the town produced.
“Prohibition was a fine idea for people who do not like to drink,” said one of the men, who asked not to be named. “For the rest of us, it was an inconvenience and a humiliation. I am glad it is over.”
The Gazette did not cover the event directly — none of the participants were willing to be quoted on the record — but a brief editorial by Arthur Whitcomb observed that “the noble experiment has ended, and Main Street may now apply for a liquor license.”
The implications for Willow Creek are modest. There is no saloon in town; the last one closed in 1917, anticipating the dry era. The nearest licensed establishment is in Island Falls, twelve miles to the east. But the repeal opens the possibility that a restaurant or public house might one day appear on Main Street.
Seamus O’Donnell, at the General Store, told the Gazette that he has no plans to apply for a license. “I sell flour, sugar, and coffee,” he said. “I have never sold whiskey, and I do not intend to start. But I will not refuse to stock it if the town wants it.”
The selectmen have not yet taken up the question of whether to allow liquor sales within the town limits. A town meeting will be required to decide the matter, and no date has been set.
In the meantime, the bottle of rye at the General Store — the last illegal drink in Willow Creek, or the first legal one, depending on how one counts — has been finished, and the five men have gone home to their suppers.