Running moonshine... any good stories?

my uncle was an Ok sheriff in pozo county where my familey comes from back in 1965 my uncle came home in a like new Pontiac ventura with a four speed ( 1962) it was real cammed up and had 2x4 bbls I ask him where he got it he told me it was ex tanker from Ft Smith and ran shine ! you pulled the door sill plates and the rockers were boxed and both sides could hold 45 mason jars, it was low and had no susppion travel at all but damn was it fast he said it ran on soda pop till this day I still dont under stand what he was talking about we lost him in a shooting in 66.

 

Sody pop is sweet shine, hehehehehehe. paralyze the devil hisself my brutha.

 

I am with have hauled several behind the wrecker.

 

fla. 1960,we used to hang out at the dairy queen ta nite. one of the sherrif deputies used to let us ride w/him late at nite.alot of the time we would park in the bowling alley park lot and watch the dip in hwy. us-1,when a car or truck hit the dip,if it kept bouncing we would pull behind them and if had a #2 [duval county, jacksonvill]licence plate they would be stopped.cought a lot of shine at that spot. jacksonvill to miami was a main route. some wern"t too smart, caught a dump truck at 2 am from jax. w/load covered w/dirt [hauling dirt @2 am 250 miles from home?????] another covered w/potatos. sherrif always had some of the evidence with him...hmmmm a friend bought a confiscated 51 merc w/caddy eng. road like hell but was fast......

 

to lazy to type a story right now. but i do have a moonshine set up in the back of an old 40's milk truck and a 46 dodge sedan that ran it with the tank and spill kit still in it. not sure what to do with it. anyone want to start a new business?

 

http://www.blueridgeinstitute.org/moonshine/

A neat website with lots of historical things about moonshine over the years in Virginia.

-W

 

a few books about likker/moonshining/the law enforcement/bootlegging, etc..

Feel free to add any that you know about.

-W



A Breed Apart

a true story about U.S. Treasury Agents during the moonshine years.

by Charles H. Weems. Retired Special Agent U.S. Treasury

Department

Library of Congress card catalog number: 92-090110

ISBN : 0-9634357-0-1

has a few pics of some captured moonshine cars(they must not have been very fast!)


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Mountain Spirits

Joeseph Earl Dabney

ISBN : 0-914875-02-7

previously published in hardcover by charles scribner ISBN :

0-684-13705-4

in paper back by Copple House books ISBN : 0-932298-00-1

This book was written during the early 1970's and was published in 1974. The author interviewed a lot of then old retired moonshiners back up in North Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee.

He has an interesting history of how whiskey came over to America and why it filtered down to the mountains in the south.

He has some interesting interviews with some old moonshiners...
the explanation of pure corn whiskey vs. sugar whiskey, etc..

It is an interesting read.

--------------------------

More Mountain Spirits

The Continuing Chronicle of Moonshine Life and Corn Whiskey,

Wines, Ciders & Beers in America's Appalachacians

Joeseph Earl Dabney

ISBN: 0-914875-03-5
EAN: 978-0914875-03-1


previously published by copple house books as: Mountain Spirits II

ISBN: 0-932298-05-2

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Revenuers & Moonshiners

Enforcing Federal Liquor Law in the Mountain South, 1865-1900

Wilbur R. Miller

ISBN 0-8078-1959-X

It's kinda text-booky...

---------------------------------

The Foxfire Book

hog dressing, log cabin building, mountain crafts & foods, planting by the signs, snake lore, hunting tales, faith healing, moon shining, and other affairs of plain living.

ISBN: 0-385-07353-4

A chapter of this book discusses stills, the construction of and has some diagrams and stories about 'em.

The rest of the book is interest as well, especially the log cabin part.

--------------------------------

 

Well my name's John Lee Pettimore
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Same as my daddy and his daddy before[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]You hardly ever saw Grandaddy down here[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]He only came to town about twice a year[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]He'd buy a hundred pounds of yeast and some copper line[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Everybody knew that he made moonshine[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Now the revenue man wanted Grandaddy bad[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]He headed up the holler with everything he had[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]It's before my time but I've been told[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]He never came back from Copperhead Road[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Now Daddy ran the whiskey in a big block Dodge[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Bought it at an auction at the Mason's Lodge[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Johnson County Sheriff painted on the side[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Just shot a coat of primer then he looked inside[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Well him and my uncle tore that engine down[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]I still remember that rumblin' sound[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Well the sheriff came around in the middle of the night[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Heard mama cryin', knew something wasn't right[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]He was headed down to Knoxville with the weekly load[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]You could smell the whiskey burnin' down Copperhead Road[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]I volunteered for the Army on my birthday[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]They draft the white trash first,'round here anyway[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]I done two tours of duty in Vietnam[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]And I came home with a brand new plan[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]I take the seed from Colombia and Mexico[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]I plant it up the holler down Copperhead Road[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Well the D.E.A.'s got a chopper in the air[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]I wake up screaming like I'm back over there[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]I learned a thing or two from ol' Charlie don't you know[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]You better stay away from Copperhead Road[/FONT] [FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Copperhead Road[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Copperhead Road[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica]Copperhead Road[/FONT]

Just got back from N.C. brought some New Years Resolution back with me

 

Glad you reminded me that I have 2 fruit jars in the fridge, way in the back, one is brandy (forget which fruit), and one is corn.
I just might put the "govt. liquor" back on the counter and bring in the new year with the real thing!
Dave

 

Jeez! Now it all makes sense! In 1971, I was taking the family on a trip from Laredo AFB, where I was an instructing on T-38s, to Vegas. We happened to stop at a gas bar in Tucson where a guy with a southern accent was working as a gas jockey. While making small talk, he made notice of my base sticker and stated that he was in the airforce as well. My wife said to him in all innocence, "Oh, you must be moonshining." (What she meant to say was moonlighting, but being French Canadian she got the idiom screwed up). The guy nearly crapped himself, and strongly denied that he would ever think of doing such a thing. I was really surprised by his reaction to such an innocent statement and I had never forgotten the incident. After all these years, and now reading about how prevalent 'shining is in that part of the US, maybe he was reacting because part of his family life might have involved the moonshine industry. I'll never know, but it is the only way that the conversation make sense.
I bought lots of parts by mail order from Honest Charley's because in the early 60s he was a big advertiser in all the hot rodding mags of the time. I always wondered what happened to them.

 

My dad used to tell of how when he was a small boy during prohibition his mother would replace the bottom of the back seat with jars of moonshine. Then have him lay under a blanket on the "back seat". In the event they were stopped he was to act sound asleep.What cop is going to wake the sleeping little kid?

 

I helped make some back in the early to mid 70's. Learned a lot about hard working folks and keeping your trap shut and making good whiskey.

Was told my father was ran out of town in GA where he was working at night helping build the tank cars such as mentioned earlier. He moved to AL.

My uncle used to tell a story about a 50 model Ford Daddy had that had a late model big rocket Olds engine in it. Said he bet a man 50 dollars back in the late fifties (lot of money back then) that he could burn the tires on the Ford for a city block. He drove it up on the rack and adjusted the front brakes up some, let the rear off some and backed out in the street and burnt the tires off it for the entire block.

Since my parents were divorced in the early sixties I never got to know my dad until later in life. Feel like I missed a lot.

 

Fascinating thread.....love the real life stories....thanks to all

 

Should read a book called "Rumrunner" by Johnny Schnar . He ran whiskey out of of Victoria, B.C. back during Prohabition using boats powered by twin V-12 Packard aircraft engines . His stories are very good and a good read. Rob.

 

My maternal grandad made shine but never ran any...no car! My dad was a deputy in the early 70s and ALL of the sheriffs drank. The counties around us were dry so you saw drive-thrus on our side of the lines. A older friend of mine (now) was running shine for his dad and grandad starting at 13 yrs old. Still has the olds sedan with roll bar, race seat AND 5 pt harness, unheard of in the 50's. His dad told him "You can't control a car if you can't stay behind the wheel!" peace

 

I worked at a used car lot as a teenager. Shine haulers were brought in to be painted often. One Saturday afternoon, we had a 2 door, white, plain,1959 plymouth coupe that needed to go to the auction, way across town. The car was empty in the back so the rear was sitting real high. You could smell the liquor that had been hauled in it.

I hopped in that afternoon and headed that way. We were out of downtown Bham a good ways. Bham, Ala is a very long city in a long valley. Thus my ride was going to take a while through city traffic. right when I passed the northeastern city limits, a City policement dropped in behind me. I saw him and I knew he knew the car. I was very careful. He followed me the the southwestern city limits and as soon as I crossed, he stopped and headed back to his beat. I was relieved.

That was a pretty hot plymouth to.

 

Sorry I haven't any story, but sure I have moonshine!

Lar

 

"Now Daddy ran the whiskey in a big block Dodge
Bought it at an auction at the Mason's Lodge"

Great song beginning to end . But ,the way this line works is proof of how great Steve Earl can be at times.

 

Ran stuff for S.P. out of Knox County in mid-1950's; 1951 Ford Deluxe Couple with '55 Ponty engine. Was a warm ride. The 1959 recession and too many close calls drove me in the Air Force. Fond memories though.

Now only available stuff is this:

 

Looks like Jr. Johnsons car !!

 

Well up here the best still is a free one,,,home oxygen tanks have a 5 year shelf life after which they are sent to recycling. The tank is 30 gallon STAINLESS steel.. a real nice unit with room underneath for a burner. Just add a condenser line and of course a slobber box and its playtime! Anyone with any experience making their own shine knows that the Presto #6 pressure cooker was the workhorse of ages and still is for many who process their own grappa after the wine is done.

 

Trying to remember how we installed an old <?xml:namespace prefix = "st1" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com</st1:City>Columbia two speed rear end in a 1951 Ford Custom Club Coupe with a ’55 <st1:City w:st="on">Pontiac</st1:City> engine, set back to avoid moving the steering, some old truck transmission housing and 25-tooth Zephyr gears. After insulating the rear engine from our feet, the gear shifter came up through a gap in the front seat! No fun for dating at the drive in….


The rear end switch was a large push-pull affair but my memory is foggy on how that worked. That was in 1958 so time erased some details; like how we shortened then drive shaft and all that. With several extra spring leaves in the rear it would hold at least 100 gallons in a segmented tank (so not to slosh and knock me off the road). Those Club Coupes had a long rear end that must have been designed by a <st1:City alt="" w:st=" border=" 0?></st1:City>Detroit boot-legger. Man, was I nervous doing that crap

 

Fun thread to read.

I knew a guy in the late seventies who went to Western Ky. University. He didn't know when he went it was a dry county. His father owned a VW dealership in, lets say a town about three hours away, and had given him a new Karman Ghia convertible to go to school.

Being an enterprising young lad, he went home the first semester and convinced his dad to trade the Ghia for a VW Bus. Some story about needing to carry around his buddies.

He then hooked up with a local package store owner to sell to him in bulk. (legal taxed stuff) A VW Bus load of booze would keep the campus happy for about three weeks.

One day he is in a local diner when two rather large middle age gentlemen encourage him to step outside for a chat. Seems they were decon's in the local Baptist church, had heard that he was bringing booze into the county, and were not happy. Not because they were against the booze, but because the only booze in the county was up until that point sold out of the basement of the church. A sideline to the collection plate. The did not like any competition.

A truce was reached - as long as he agreed to sell only on campus, and the Sheriff got his cut, he was all good. Get caught selling to adults in the community and he would go to the hospital, then to jail.

He followed the rules, and had a tidy sum put away when he graduated.

 

The bootleg dealers in Knox County had State liquor licenses to sell, but the county was dry, so the big shot Feds and State didn’t bother some of them. Moonshine was of course illegal to all and that would get you in trouble, but it also was the most lucrative – business was business.

Once while sitting out side the Bijous Theater there was a small white building across the street where a crowd was going in both the front and back. Out front were preachers yelling about the evils of booze and out back were people handing out small brown bags. I asked my dad what it was about and he told me that they were voting for the county being wet or dry. You can guess what the outcome was – both sides lobbied people for the county to stay dry. It was only many years later when I passed through there on leave from the USAF that I noticed bars selling booze! What a surprise.

 

I knew this one local guy, this was 30+ years back and he was 65 at the time. He ran weed up from Florida in a camper conversion van. It was powered by propane and the dummy gas tanks were where he carried the weed. Many trips over the years and nobody even as much as gave him a 2nd glance.

Bob

 

My father's father was a dock and bulkhead builder in Long Beach NY during the prohibition years. One evening in 1928 or so he takes my dad with him when he had to check on some pumps at a job site.

They pull up to the job and what do they see.... local cops unloading cases of hooch from a boat and loading them into police cars.

Bob

 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076820/

Thunder and Lightning

I see some mention of other 'shine movies, so here is this turkey from 1977. Think Dukes Of Hazzard only David Carradine and Kate Jackson in a shackled up '57 Chevy 4-door hardtop, and Roger C. Carmel (possibly best known as Harvey Mudd in the original Star Trek) as the Boss Hogg type. Even more amusing given it turned out Carmel prefered the men.

The stunts are ridiculous - at one point they jump the car from a parking garage onto the roof of a car dealership, where the car gently falls through the roof to the showroom floor - and they then proceed to start the car, crash out through the window and drive away. In another scene they supposedly roll the car completely over trying to make a sharp turn (I kind of suspect this was a spur of the moment thing after accidentally rolling a car doing the stunt).

Fox Movie Channel runs it once in a while, and it's no prize winner but it's not too bad of a movie.

 

Here is my boring moonshine story:
My great grandfather ran shine right up until about a week before his death in 1981. His car of choice from 1965 until 1981 was a 1963 Falcon Futura. 4door 170 I6 2speed. Grandpa always found it easier to pay off the police rather that out run them.
In 1990 I found his car in a junk yard, bought it, got it running and keep it until 2006 when a tree fell and crushed it.

Here is my weird moonshine story:
Mt step-dad's grandfather ran shine from the 1930's until 1990. And always sold it out of the back of a Ice cream and snow cone truck. He would set up at Race tracks, Baseball games, Town fairs, whatever and sell snow cones to the kids and liquior to the dads.
He had no plans of retirement either. He accually died while converting an UPS truck into his new Ice cream truck.

Roscoe Clyde.

 

Man, there's some great stories in this thread. It's all a part of our history and should be preserved.

I don't have any moonshine running stories but here's a story from the west coast. My family came to Los Angeles in 1908 and lived in and around the city. When I was young my Dad told me that he remembered during prohibition when his uncle Wendell and his "buddies" would make "fine whiskey" at his house in the LA suburbs. They would buy large amounts of grain alcohol, which they would pour in the bathtub. They would mix in coloring and flavoring and bottle it with fancy paper labels. The bottles were all wrapped in straw.

Oh yeah, Uncle Wendell's buddies were officers of the Los Angeles police department. It's funny, they never had an trouble with the law.

 

Actually, the guy I hauled for would not allow me to run Moon because it would have been in the Fed pin of caught, but bonded booze was only a local county problem. Most likely every cop in the country was paid off so they never bother us. That '51 Ford appeared like a normal Mom & Pop, Sunday go to meeting car. Of course, it sounded like it needed a tune up