The Wild Card Cafe

The story of The Wild Card Café was set in Western Pennsylvania's Appalachian Mountains in the 1930 to 1955 era. A Polish family immigrated to the United States and bought a speak-easy during the Prohibition period. Having to deal with crime families to buy their supplies involved them into that type of life. The Kanowski's had their son John in 1936 who grew up in a life of bootleggers gambling and prostitutes. At an early age an older woman molested John and she became his friend. She taught the young boy how to grow marijuana and he mistakenly over planted a very large field. The field got them involved with a crime family. Later the boy resisted the control the crime families had over him and he fought back. During that period the boy tried to live a normal teenage life. John vowed to get himself out of illegal business by the time he turned eighteen. The crime families wanted control over the fields. The control of the fields resulted in two Mafia type wars.