Hot Rods, Hillbillies and Genuine Moonshine...

As much as the lakebeds of El Mirage or the salt flats of Bonneville pushed men to make faster cars out West in the 1930s, 40s and 50s, many fellow hot rodders in the South got their inspiration for speed from outrunning Johnny Law with a trunk full ... <BR><BR>To read the rest of this blog entry from The Jalopy Journal, click here.

 

Awesome. My '37 has been in the family since, well...1937 and came with an oral history of hauling moonshine in the foothills of Virginia. Actually, when I tore it down to the frame, I was a little disappointed that I didn't find any! - SC

 

Jive Bomber, thanks for posting one of the best shorties I've ever seen on the birth of NASCAR and the good old boys, and Louise too, that got things started.

 

I'm just gettin into a book "Driving with the Devil" by Neal Thompson about Southern Moonshine and all the good ole' boys.

 

That's a great book!


Thanks for posting this. My great grandfather used to make shine and run it. That was an awesome video!!

 

Thanks for the clip. I have always loved the history of moonshine and early racing.
I picked up a good dvd at the moonshine fest in Dawsonville last year (Red Dirt Rising) The movie tells a story of young shine haulers all the way up to the meeting at the Streamline hotel in Daytona Beach Fl. for the organazation of NASCAR.

Red Dirt Rising http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZLjqWjRDqE

 

That was great, thanks. I have a gallon of shine chillin at the house right now. Need to pack it up and take it for a ride in the hot rod!

 

Awesome! Yeah I love hearing about all these guys down here that drove Shine cars. My mailman told my about a early plymouth painted grey called the "The Grey Ghost" that has a hopped up Cad V8 engine and the only way they ever caught him was because he ran out of gas one time on a bridge. Still looking for that car....

 

never did like going in circles but i have always been interested in those old haulers and the drivers.when i live in tn. we use to find old back roads where no one lived and turn our cars loose. we built them for straight line runnin not curves but damn it was fun. i learned alot about how to handle cars back then.daydreaming i was haulin a load and on the run. thank god i was young and indestructable.!!and i have drank more than my share of lightnin.and even made a few gallons. run a few gallons thru my 55 chevy.wont do that again!!!lol thanks for the link i loved it.

 

What town in the bootheel? I'm from that area.

 

My mom grew up in Poplar Bluff, and I've still got an Aunt near Puxico. I guess I've should have said "near" the bootheel...

 

Man I miss Gray, he was the best.

 

Sweet video, thanks for the post!!!!

 

That was a nice surprise. He was a real character.

 

Well, Hillbillysville lays right here in good ol' Southern West Virginia , and I can tell you from the history of the brew , and some of the guys I know and have heard my grandpappy talk about , there is a rich history of the brew here , go in the woods around here trying to mess with them and make a name for yourself , and you'll get your ass handed to you... the cars around here were usually Fords , due to the flathead V8 being the first 8cylinder engine a poor ass coal miner could afford , then they started modifying the Fords with early Caddy engines , of course , I guess all you gotta do is watch Billy Ray Cyrus bullshit his way thru the show hillbillys: and american legend...

 

Moonshine is tasty. Not saying I have any

 

Superb video..
Thanks much for sharing.
Cheers....

 

Shine was not made just in the hill's - There was hundreds of flat land and river bottom land stills - Down here in Louisiana - If your product was not good - You
were out - You damn well did not talk about it even as a kid - Sugarcane Rum and Whiskey went North form here by Truck's Train and Cars - And it is (STILL) out there - Over in Mississippi right today for sure good stuff - Course you all know this a Big Bull Crap of a Story!

 

Dawsonville Ga is the real 'birthplace of stock car racing'. We've had seven people from here that's won a race in Daytona. 5 drivers and two owners. Bill Elliott being the only one on the superspeedway. But still, that's something that Charlotte, or Daytona can't even top! We have the moonshine festival every October when the leaves are at their peak, where you'll see more 40 Fords, race cars, and moonshine cars, race car drivers, etc in one place than you'll see anywhere else.

I work at the Georgia Racing Hall of Fame in Dawsonville and am proud to be a tour guide and teach people the history of moonshine and stock car racing. In fact, right in the complex, is the first legal moonshine distillery in the state. It's not open right now, but will be in the next month hopefully!

-Cody

 

Cool, that is my stompin ground. The old car hobby is still alive and well around here.....and there's a hillbilly or two still brewing shine in the hills I'm sure.

 

Taylor, one evening in August two summers ago I found myself outside of Greensboro, NC looking to buy a Model A Coupe that an elderly gentleman had for sale on Craigslist. Also in his yard was the green '34 Ford pickup that is seen throughout your clip from Red Dirt Rising. He told me all about the making of the movie as we looked over his '31 for sale. After hemming and hawing over the coupe, however, we took the truck instead for a spin. I immediately fell in love with it, and while he had 6 old cars, he told me the pickup was his favorite.

I asked, "I know I came to look at the coupe, but what would it take to buy your '34 truck?" He threw out a number, then asked, "What do you plan on doing with it?"

I told him about traditional hot rods and the HAMB. He paused a minute, dropped his asking price $1,000 and said, "I'd love to see you take this little green truck back to Richmond with you." We shook hands, and the truck you see on my album page is the same one throughout the clip you posted.

Ron and the other folks who made Red Dirt Rising are very nice people indeed. And obviously kindred spirits to all of us here.

 

P,

Really Kool Truck...Congrats. I've got a copy of the movie...time to go watch it again!

Murph

 

Great clip! I have always loved the quote from Junior Johnson "The fastest car I ever drove was a bootleg car!"

 

Yes, I fantasized that I drank some really good blackberry shine at an imaginary huge event on the Gulf Coast recently. Growing up, the state of MS was dry. A bootlegger lived a little ways down the road and when returned drink (soda or pop to y'all)bottles were paying 3 cents each, the bootlegger would pay 10 cents for liquor bottles. Had she known, my mother would have beaten the heel out of me for going anywhere near that place.

 

Tom Montgomery of Burley Washington built this 41 Ford Pickup as a tribute to his grandfather who was a moonshiner during the depression era.

 

My Grandfather, Lucas, had a 39 ford std coupe, he had 2 drivers that ran the 39 up to Kentucky from here in Asheville NC and picked up bonded liquor, not moonshine to sell in his cafe...the house I grew up in, had one wall in the basement that had trays on shelves that went the length of the house hidden by a fake paneled wall.

Its odd in the movie, Thunder Road, that the moonshiner is called Luke, and they have a stake out on State Ave...and my Grandfather was named Lucas and lived on State Street....huuuummmm....and it was filmed here in Asheville.

 

Growing up the neighbor across the street use to go find and destroy stills. He had a 71 LTD with the trunk full of guns and dynamite, and would have fit the stereotype of of revenuer exactly. Later on another neighbor, a older guy, noticed we were into fixing up old cars and all. He told us about a moonshiner in Wilkesboro that had the most beautiful 40 Ford coupe in the world, this was about in '62. He would buy a jar once a year at Christmas, and always noticed the car. It ended up on a car lot in my hometown, he said, and he tried to trade his 61 Ford for it, but his wife wouldn't have anything to do with it. J.Wikes uncle brought the back half of a 36 Ford coupe that had been hidden away not 2 miles from his house in Taylorsville, N.C. The guy pulled out from its hiding place and he got it for parts. That car had places cut out in the trunk floor, that looked like stash places, and the back of it was full of bullet holes. I always thought it might be one of the cars that got shot at, and had to be hidden .Its still going on around here, although the cannibus trade gives it a run for its money now. GOOD STUFF!

 

PB is my home town. My whole family still lives there!

 

Great Documentary I never get tired of watching this one!

 

Great story and a cool truck . Would be cool to see you bring it to Dawsonville for the Moonshine Fest one year.