History On the Moonshiners Trail...

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On the Moonshiners Trail...

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Great peice of history, nice to the south portrayed in an accurate way.

Posted using the Full Custom H.A.M.B. App!

 

Growing up in the South in the 50's working in a cotton mills or making corn liquor seemed to be the best paying jobs in the rural areas.

My grandfather was well versed in the making of moonshine although he never made huge batches but enough to help feed his family of 7 on his small farm.

Interestingly enough he lived less than 3 miles from the Police department and his son Charles was a motorcycle cop and maybe because of that fact there was a blind eye turned when it came to my granddad.

The last time I know of him making moonshine was in the early 70's.HRP

 

There is a great video of the transition from running 'shine to NASCAR at the NC Motorsports Museum. Picture is from Dawsonville festival. My father was from Johnson City, TN and I remember as a little boy, my grandfather could order a mason jar of corn whiskey and it was delivered by the local cab company in a brown paper bag. Johnson City was in a "dry" county back then. Grandpa had a water tumbler half full of warm water and half moonshine every night with supper. That, and his daily cigar, helped him live well into his 90s, walking to town for a paper when he p***ed.

 

Last time I was visiting family down in Northern Louisiana the topic of cars came up with my 80-somethin'-year-old great uncle, naturally. He told me of his brand-new '51 Ford Sedan, that was all stock on the outside, but with a hot dual-carb'd Merc motor under the hood. Never got into what the reasoning behind it was though...

Makes me think the 'activities' of the family between revivals were maybe, slightly, less than 'Christian'.

Even though I'm one of them, slick left-coasteners, I've still got more than an appreciation for the boys from the hill country back then.

 

I spent my first 12 yrs. on this planet in East Tennessee and know all too well the legacy of the 'shine trade and it's links to stock car racing. ' Shine making wasn't a big deal to us locals, it was just part of the fabric of life in that area. There was always a jar somewhere around the house. I remember as little guy, playing in the dirt of our shed/ corn crib with of course my toy cars, while my Uncle and his pals p***ed a jar around. They would allow me to sniff the jar, and frankly that was almost enough to get a little kid high, but they wouldn't let me take a sip. Later on in life I realized that my Uncle knew that if my Mother had ever gotten wind that he had given me a taste, she would have rebuffed him in a not so pretty way.

 

If you're interested in moonshine history and lore, Thunder Road with Robert Mitchum is a great place to start.

 

Left coast was for: "going quick and/or looking good"

The Midwest and the south was for: "Going FASTER than every other S.O.B. out there, and proving it."

That's why back then, and still TODAY to "prove it" you gotta come to the Midwest.

Examples:
**INDY 500
**USAC
**NHRA Indy Nats
**Charlotte (Napcar headquarters)
**Penn Sprint car scene

 

I would suggest Driving with the Devil by Neal Thompson. Really gets into the automotive side of moonshinning and the transition into NASCAR. Can be a little loopy though cause it tells the history of a lot of guys in the same place/period.

 

Deuce Roadster (Randy Nash) is no longer with us but I remembered this for a post a few years ago so I went back and copied it,,,

Thunder Road......


Being from the Southland and having people in the moonshine business.....I liked this one. I watched them film parts of it ( in the 50's ) They shot the scene of the bootlegger turn just out of the overp*** about 5 or 6 times.

A bunch of 57 Fords, a Shoebox Ford and a cool Mercury.....all are destroyed ...

Go here for a movie trailer......wait a minute for it to load...it is cool..IMHO

http://www.mgm.com/video_window.do?formatid=1030&videoid=455

 

As a North Carolinian who knows some "former" moonshiners I see a parallel in the recent acceptance of this intriguing industry along the lines of hot rodders being accepted decades ago after many years of being considered hoodlums.
For me, I feel the same satisfaction sipping some homebrew as I do eating vegetables out of the garden.

 

neat topic

 

Never dreamed Junior Johnson would be in the LEGAL Moonshine business. HRP

 

My maternal Grandmother always made a half dozen or so fruit cakes each Fall from fruit she grew and dried on the tin roof of the smokehouse. She would wrap each one in cheesecloth and put them in cake tins. Every week up until Thanksgiving she would open them up and carefully drizzle moonshine over them, then close the lids back up. Anyone who has ever poor-mouthed the lowly fruitcake never had one created by her. When the first one was served it was so moist as to melt in your mouth and one nice slice would give you a moderate buzz.

 

As an undergraduate in a rural & dry area, I got to be friends with a moonshiner. He was extremely talented and intelligent.
Extremely educational.

Also Tom Wolfe did an excellent short story about Junior Johnson .It is called the "Last American Hero".It is all about the building of mules to run shine.

 

This is 28 minutes but very educational.
http://www.folkstreams.net/film,236

 

For all of his down-home, country bumpkin persona, Junior Johnson was a mechanical genius.

 

You are so right Don,Junior Johnson has always used his Southern drawl to his advantage,he has play the part of the proverbial country bumpkin to the hilt.

And you are oh so correct ,when it come to anything mechanical he is still at the top of his game. HRP

 

great thread......Thunder Road is still a**** my favorites....

 

Big Bob Mitchum and Thunder Road, one of my all time favorites. Always liked Gene Barry, but not in this film(plays a revenuer)! Ray Everham's show had a brief history of the moonshiner's machines and some of their tricks. Anybody got more info on the cars and the mechanics? How about a new thread. Great post Bomber.

 

As a youngster, I would sing "Thunder Road" as my Uncle and a few of his fellow farmers graded tobacco leaves. They would all give me a nickel for my performance

 

Here's a couple of good books about the real life stuff, not the hollywood interpretation:

'A Breed Apart' and 'Agents That Fly', by Charlie Weems (Charles H. Weems), Treasury Agent from the day. Real stuff from the north Georgia area. I don't really read a lot of books, but I enjoyed these.

 

Do you have the family recipe? As far as I know, nobody in my family ever knew how to make it....drinking it , however was another story.

 

"White lightn'n messin' up my brain"
"White lightn'n's gonna drive me insane"
"White heat tickles me down to my toes"
"Lord have mercy, goodness no..."

 

Dont get me wrong, I'm a Junior Johnson fan, but that stuff with his name on it is just an advertising gimmick. When it came out, I got some and gave it to some friends, because he autographed the bottles....but it dont taste like the corn liquor we get around here. Just a warning, dont buy that **** and think you're getting the "real deal".
Maybe being a mechanical genius aint the only way he's smart!

 

@Jive-Bomber - Let me guess ... a new CARS character named "WHITE LIGHTNING McQUEEN" ... ???

 

Probably the beginning of the acceptance of moonshine was when The Waltons came to our living room each week and the Baldwin sisters made their "recipe" available for medicinal purposes. I always got a kick out of how their clients were soon "feeling better".

 

No my granddad took that family recipe to the grave,I doubt it was ever written down and I never knew of any of my uncles making it. HRP

 

The legal Corn Liquor (White Lightning) that is available here in Anderson at Palmetto Moonshine is 105 proof,It's pretty close to the stuff made around this area years ago. HRP