After 4 AM you can’t legally buy liquor anywhere. The 7-Elevens and White Hens stop selling at 2, as do most bars and taverns. But even after the four o’clock bars have closed, the old man bootlegger of Uptown, call him Sam, is still open for business.
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Sam doesn’t sell beer. “Beer just takes up too much space, and it’s hard to get my money with it,” says Sam. “I tried it a while back, but I gave it up.”
An old, beat-up Cadillac pulls up. Looks like a boat. Rocks like one too, when it rides.
“I ain’t gonna say much,” says Sam. “I will say I’m too old to run. We got something worked out.”
“I don’t take no offense,” says Sam. “Them boys was plenty drunk already, and besides, I don’t serve people I don’t know.”
“Oh yeah,” says Sam. “What you need, son?”
Eventually Sam met a girl he wanted to marry. They did get married and she moved into the apartment with Sam, his mother, and his sister. Then his wife had a baby, and now there were five people living in a two-room apartment. Sam couldn’t take the pressure, and one day he snapped.
