How About a Little Kickapoo Joy Juice???

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After posting yesterday about the Kickapoo River in central Wisconsin, I had several comments wondering if the "Kickapoo" on Kickapoo Joy Juice soda was somehow connected.

WOW - - - I didn't even know there WAS a Kickapoo Joy Juice!!!

What I DID know was that besides being the name of bodies of water and regions of the US, the Kickapoo are also a group of Native Americans.

For the rest I turned to that handy dandy tool - - - - GOOGLE.

Here's what I found:

1) The Monarch Beverage Company, based in Atlanta Georgia produces a soda called "Kickapoo Joy Juice." I've never seen nor tasted the stuff - - - but I'm more than ready to give it a try!

2) Monarch also produces RUSH! energy and Acute fruit drinks.

(cartoon by Al Capp)

3) The name for Monarch's Kickapoo Joy Juice was taken from Al Capp's Li'l Abner Comic. Seems Lonesome Polecat and Hairless Joe brewed the stuff down in Dogpatch. Lonesome Polecat, on the left, looks Native American to me - - - so I conclude that the names ARE connected.

I'm including here a direct quote from the web page "Steve Krupp's Curio Shop" just for your pure reading pleasure!

KICKAPOO JOY JUICE is a liquor of such stupefying potency that even the hardiest citizens of Dogpatch, after a first burning sip, rise into the air, stiff as frozen codfish. Concocted in a large wooden vat by the inseparable cave-dwelling buddies Lonesome Polecat and Hairless Joe, the ingredients are both mysterious and all-encompassing. When the brew needs a little more body, the pair throws one in. An officially licensed KJJ is still produced by Monarch Beverage of Atlanta, Inc.

One last bit of personal Kickapoo trivia:

Years ago, just after "Dances With Wolves" came out, I did a western themed Bible School for my friends and they dubbed me "Kickapoo Keetha Dances With Flannelgraph."


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