May 27, 2012

Chasing the Lightning



Take time to read this rich history tale.  

Many games of cat and mouse were played.  

Fortunes made and lost.  


All through out the nation moonshine stills can be found.  Some areas had more of the running that other.


This is a trade that has been happening for centuries all over the world.  Yet it is the American way that has made legends.

It would make one hell of a movie.



Enjoy

The Blue Ridge moonshining trade has changed significantly in the last century.  Far fewer people are involved in it now, though today’s bootlegger is able to distill more alcohol with less work than his counterpart of the early 1900s.  Modern moonshine is made with vast quantities of sugar and relatively little grain.  Contemporary bootleggers have little or no experience with the apple or peach brandy so common in the late 1800s.  Stills are now often hidden under roof rather than in fields or mountain hollows.  Today’s moonshine buyer is far more likely to live in a major eastern city than in the small southern mill towns and coal camps of the past.  Even so, the old-time mystique of the Blue Ridge moonshiner prevails.

1 comment:

  1. Rich one of my funniest Memories of my Grandad was the time my G-ma told me about when the Revenuers came through the front door H.D. ran out the back and headed for the woods. A neighbor big ol country gal came over and stuffed him a change of clothes and some sandwiches in her bibs.He hid out for 3-4 days till Feds gave up. The old man could make alcohol out of anything. He said the whiskey had to be cut 2-3 times before most folks could drink it! He made Brandy from all kinds of fruit. He showed up one year with a 5 gal water bottle full of Tomato wine. I was a kid so I didn't try sounds nasty but The grown ups got plastered musta been ok.

    China
    III

    ReplyDelete