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Running moonshine... any good stories?

Discussion in 'The Hokey Ass Message Board' started by 4t64rd, Jan 23, 2005.

  1. Blownolds
    Joined: Mar 31, 2001
    Posts: 2,335

    Blownolds
    Member
    from So Cal

    My dad said he remembered his uncle who used to run 'shine or whiskey in the OK area. He had a coupe of some sort, don't know what. One day the uncle was being let out of jail after yet another stint. My dad was with a family member when they went to go pick him up. The cops were releasing him, and said something like "Bye, Merle, see you next time"...
     
  2. TagMan
    Joined: Dec 12, 2002
    Posts: 6,294

    TagMan
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

    I heard a story about moonshine being sold in Mason jars -same ones as used for canning fruits & stuff (you younguns, ask your granny about canning [​IMG]). Anways, the bottom of the jars had a number cast in the glass and the 'shiners would bust any of the jars that had the number "13" cast in them because of stuperstitious customers that wouldn't drink the booze outta any jar with the number "13" on it. I also heard the jars with the "13" that survived are now collectibles. True or not, it sounds plausable.
     
  3. MIKE-3137
    Joined: Feb 19, 2003
    Posts: 1,578

    MIKE-3137
    Member

    Heres one for you, My Gramps was captain of a fishing boat, (this was probably in the 30s), and got word of a still hid on a small island near where he kept his boat. He motored over there in the night and found a few drums of shine ready to go. Got them loaded up, and on the way back his boat ran out of gas, So, he poured the moonshine in the tank and ran the boat all the way back on the moonshine, said it ran like crap but he made it. Must have been some rotgut stuff for sure..Bad news was he had very little left when he got there.
     
  4. CptStickfigure
    Joined: Feb 11, 2004
    Posts: 496

    CptStickfigure
    Member
    from Urbana, IL

    My girlfriend's mom's cousin used to run moonshine in North Carolina when they were younger. All my girlfriend remembers is that he drove either a 1953 or 1963 corvette and kept a pistol under the seat. I know her mom rode along a couple of times, so I'll ask next time we visit her parents.
     
  5. PONY
    Joined: Nov 8, 2004
    Posts: 143

    PONY
    Member

    I bought my first car in 1963 for $500 from my friends, dads car lot in Ocala Fl. He was an ex runner and drove dirt stock cars. It was a 1957 Ford Fairlane 500 with a 312 T-bird engine, 3/2s, 3 speed overdrive trans and a lot more. It looked like it just left the showroom floor and was a lot nicer than anything on his lot and he had got it just for me. It seemed to good to be true and I asked him what the catch was?? He told me No Catch, just don't go up north to the Fl/Ga border as it's an ex Tanker and it got retired because it was too well known. It really ran good and it took me six months to get escorted into the Army because of that car. I wish I had it back...
     
  6. [ QUOTE ]


    99% of the first generation NASCAR drivers were 'shine haulers.....Junior Johnson, the Flock Brothers, Lee Petty, Curtis Turner, etc.

    Jan

    [/ QUOTE ]

    I read a book a few years back called 'Moonshiners & Rum Runners' (I think) in it was an aerial photo of the biggest haul of shine ever captured by 'the man' I believe it still is the largest haul in history, from one supplier...who was it??

    Junior Johnson's father [​IMG]

    Dave
     
  7. oddrod
    Joined: Feb 24, 2002
    Posts: 79

    oddrod
    Member

     
  8. ABone312
    Joined: Aug 28, 2003
    Posts: 445

    ABone312
    Member

    I bought a '48 Ford club coupe that had come from Indiana for a parts car. The story was that the car belonged to a revenuer, and that some moonshiner had shot and killed his brother in the car. That supposedly happened in '52, and the license plates expired in '52. There was also a bullet hole in the driver's side of the windshield.
     
  9. manyolcars
    Joined: Mar 30, 2001
    Posts: 9,174

    manyolcars

    It is legal here to have a still and make liquor for your own consumption
     
  10. My grandfather was very old when he was caught moonshining in the mountains. They sent him to the "P" Farm for it. He took the rap for his sons who were running the shine at that time. Funny thing is, he was selling it in the middle of our small town to customers. Said that was how he always sold it..till his old age-then he got caught.
     
  11. fur biscuit
    Joined: Jul 22, 2005
    Posts: 7,828

    fur biscuit
    ALLIANCE MEMBER

     
  12. dixiedog
    Joined: Mar 20, 2002
    Posts: 1,204

    dixiedog
    Member

    Grand-dad made it in hills of West Virginia - Ritchie County, grandma would never tell me the recipe other than sugar and corn. Certain family members hauled mainly old fords with flatheads, some with jeeps and just take off up a washed out holler & mountain side to loose them.

    Buddy of mine gets some from Georgia and puts peaches or strawberries in it, not much to taste but a definite party pick me up:rolleyes:

    "Burn a little first - if it burns blue then it's good stuff" uncle jimmy 1993

    Being from West Virginia my uncle & his wife went to the family farm on top of a mountain for Sunday dinner in his 46 Ford, the road was bouncy and rocky, he knocked the plug loose from the pan and lost the oil, got in a argument with the wife and she shot him the leg with her .25, bullet went thru and grandma patched him up, his wife was a firey red head grand-daughter of Devil Anse Hatfield, lived happily ever after
     
  13. gas4blood
    Joined: Nov 19, 2005
    Posts: 787

    gas4blood
    Member
    from Kansas

    No runners in my family, but my wife's family.......That is another story! Alabama folks from the hills, I can still remember my first visit to meet some of them. We drove down a winding road with not much traffic, and pulled into a driveway with an old abandoned house. I figured we were stopping to regroup or something, then folks started coming out of the house and from around back. Ever seen the old Burt Reynold's movie Deliverance? These folks looked like that, or worse!:eek: Asking directions? I hope? Nope, "Here we are, Grandma's house!" :eek: :eek: I got out of the car, and was the object of much staring, glaring, and whispered comments. I was a touch nervous. :eek: These 8 folks were grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, etc. They had about 16 teeth between all of 'em. Dressed rough as hell, the yard was bare dirt, the outhouse was the sanitary plumbing, etc. I am introduced to Grandma after she hugs everyone else. She eyeballs me hard. She spits a wad of chew onto the ground. (true!) Then she smiles (1 tooth) and says that anyone her grandaughter would choose was OK by her, and welcome to the family! I got a hug from her that mighty near collapsed a lung. We went into the house, all wiring was tacked to the walls. Must have been 10 rooms, each one added on roughly, and each at a different height. But it was clean, I'll say that. We ate, then went to the front porch. They all sat back in home made chairs with bark webbing on the back and sides. We have one in our house now. All of got out there chew, women included, and started spitting for distance. Then they started spitting at a couple of chickens in the yard. It was actually a lot of fun, and they were real nice folks. I think it helped that I was now family. I'm not sure what welcome I'd have if I pulled in by myself.....These folks were moonshiners for sure. Quart jars in the kitchen, etc. They moved it around in ordinary looking cars. Nothing special or particulary nasty looking. "Cain't outrun no godam radio, son. Just gotta slip on through quiet like. Shave an' put on yer' best Sunday shirt. Don't 'rouse no 'spicion, an' yer'll be OK." The other side of the family was involved too, but more upright looking. But that's yet another story.
     
  14. My dad's great uncle, George Dennis, used to haul the shine that was made in a barn somewhere around Bartlesville, I can use that name now, because he's deceased. I really would have liked to have met the man, my older brother says he always had stories of some sort...

    My ex-wife (who, incidentally, got mad one night because I stayed up to watch "thunder road", and it started a downward spiral...) was always telling me about her mother hauling moonshine back in the 60s in North Central Arkansas...the woman worked on her own cars, built them to RUN...was friendly enough with the local law enforcement that they wouldnt say too much to her, they would chase her just enough to make it look good to whomever needed to think it was at least an effort, but she still had to out-drive the feds once in a while. I guess she never got caught, because she eventually married a guy who owned a bar...
    -----------------------------------------------------------
    ok, got the story on Uncle George straight now...

    Uncle George didnt haul it, he made it. His step-son was the one that would deliver the stuff...one day some undercover feds came to the farm disguised as normal folks wantin' to buy some, and the step-son,who was already half drunk that time of day, gave them some of it...

    The neighbor across the road managed to get to town and inform George of what was going on back at the farm, he went to his brother's house in town and signed the farm over to them on the spot, took off for New Mexico and wasn't seen for years...

    When he did come back, nothing was said, nothing ever came of it.

    I wish I had his recipe, lol!
     
  15. Hyfire
    Joined: Jun 18, 2004
    Posts: 1,232

    Hyfire
    Member

    Sounds a little fishey to me... 300C was a very rare and $$$ car.

    Hyfire
     
  16. While I was in the Marine Corps, I served with a guy named David Hart. Hart was from Corbin, Ky (home of KFC). His family used to make 'shine, and he'd tell us stories. One story that he had was about how the law had captured one of their stills, and it was the biggest one they'd ever found. But it was one of the Hart families "small" ones!:D
     
  17. gofast62
    Joined: Jun 20, 2002
    Posts: 311

    gofast62
    Member

    we ran shine in 40 sedans with the braces cut out of the back seat, 12 five gallon squire metal cans, we would pour off into glass mason jars for resale. have loaded more and bent the frame, after plastic jugs came along we switched to them, on a rough run sometimes one would leak and you could smell up your runner, (a lot of pine tree air freshners) later on we switch to 50s mercurys because you could load them to the window an you couldn't see inside. later on we used 60s buicks real fast but looked like family cars. have peddled apples an peaches off of an old chevy truck with shine under the fruit in a peck basket delevered to your door! franklin county va. moonshine capital of the world or so the sign at the city limit sez. for real!
     
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  18. leon renaud
    Joined: Nov 12, 2005
    Posts: 1,937

    leon renaud
    Member
    from N.E. Ct.

    check out travelermovie.com it's the Biography of of a moonshiner from monroe county North Carolina one of his runners was/is a Chrysler 300 he still has it ! Do the names Hazzard ,Uncle Jessy The Boars head Ring a bell well their all real! and you'll see them in his bio video He is who the dukes of hazzard tv show was based on also I think Thunder road.There was a movie made first then several years later he was approached about the tv show I have the autographed video but a friend has it right now just loaned it to him a little while ago as in while this thread was begun! we were talking about the fact I had a relative here in Ct. that also ran illegal alcohol while you did occasionaly have to outrun the cops you mostly had to blend in look like everyone else on the road.folks didn't only run shine up here because good regular booze could be smuggled in from the coast or Canada. most of the small stills up here made rotgut there was more junk than good stuff.Fritz Kennedy made the Kennedy fortune by being a rumrunner and yes I mean THOSE Kennedys!I know a little about the buisness of running up here from being told directly by a still operator and a family member who deliveries I'll share what little I know withn anyone who contacts me directly
     
  19. k9racer
    Joined: Jan 20, 2003
    Posts: 3,091

    k9racer
    Member

    A few terms for Moonshine. Sorry I am a puter tard and cannot do margnes.. Backins. when the proof drops below 70............................................ Bead the bubbles that appear when you shake the shine................... Beading oil. A cooking oil used to put beads on low grade shine. ...............................................................................................Beer the first stage of making shine also called mash or slop..................................................................................................Branch a sorce of water also used for cooling the worm.................................................................................................Case 6 gallons of shine in gallon glass jugs or 12 half gallon jars...................................................................................................Cap the cap catches the alchol vapors that come out of the still,, ................................................................................................Cape the part the cap fits in.....................................................................................................Condenser does the same thing a worm does it turns steam into liquid...... Core the core goes through the lower 2/3 of the pot to put the burning iron and the generator thru.................................................................. Burner iron made of iron pipe 2 inch with slots cut 1 inch apart to let the flames come out and make a circle inside the core.. Blue flames best..................................................................................................Fents left over liquid must be disposed of ... ....................................................................................................Flake stand or cooling tub it had cold water piped into the bottom to push off the hot water to keep the worm cool............................................. The best product is called HIGH SHOTS the first shine that comes out of the worm 180 proof.............................................................................. Malt made out of corn,barley,or rye that is sprouted dried and ground that breaks down the carbohydrates in the grain and turns them into sugar........ A lot of folks dont like to go the trouble and throw yeast to it. very unprofessional,,............................................................................... Pot the main part of the still............................................................ Proof the amount of alcohol ............................................................ Tempering liquor when you cut the proof by using water or backins. Thump keg a extra of final filter it catches water or fusel oil { oil present in the grain mainly composed of amil achols} this keeps it out of your shine................................................................................................Worm a copper coil vairy in length as to size of still. this is the correct way some folks use a car radiator bad shine.. the last I can think of is a reporter [aka snitch] the lowest life sob their is. .. I hope you have enjoyed reading... Bobby..
     
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  20. k9racer
    Joined: Jan 20, 2003
    Posts: 3,091

    k9racer
    Member

    A few more things. Most of the still owners did not drink shine. This was drinkin up the profits. Nor would the let the still hands drink as stills are very dangerous to be around. the could blow up or you could burn yopurself as every thing is hot. stills also move around when they are working.....................one other trick was making fake Brandy....You would take your High proof shine put into a 1/2 gallon jar add dried peaches or dried apples and shake it every dat for about 3 weeks.. You could also use apricots and sweet burch bark to flavor.. a lot of people have been fooled with this mixture.................................................................................................The reason I know a little about shine is that my dad owned a construction company and he would hire a lot of men who had just been released from federal jail.They always liked my dad and would let me watch.. I liked the fast cars better than the mfg.....................................................................................................As to the comment on the 300 chryslers and other high price cars... Yes the bigger bosses bought these cars they could afford them this business was not all Snuffy Smith running a small still.Some BIG MONEY was made doing this.... I have helped spend some of it in the past.... I hope you have enjoyed me telling about this....Bobby
     
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  21. repoguy
    Joined: Jul 27, 2002
    Posts: 2,085

    repoguy
    Member

    Great thread.

    I don't know any good stories, but a few family members have told me that my mom's dad was involved in the moonshine trade (as well as several other less than legal things). All I know is that he never had a job, always drove a new caddy, and always lived with his mom and had EVERYTHING in her name. Mom says he was a "professional gambler". I also know that when my dad got my mom pregnant in college and they eloped, he sent some dude to kill my dad. Luckily my great grandmother called my parents to warn them, and my dad ambushed the guy with a basball bat. Apparently that incident somehow endeared my dad to my grandfather because after that they quickly became best friends. The truth is always stranger than fiction.

    Hot Rod magazine ran a really interesting story about the trade several months ago. Great article. And the guy interviewed (I forget his name) said he started with flatty powered 40 fords, then started putting caddy motors in them in the early 50's. He said they would scour the junkyards and auctions for caddy ambulances because they had the best motors. He then said he got a 59? 60? or 61? 300C or New Yorker with a max wedge or a hemi (my memory is foggy), then a 66 Hemi coronet. Apparently he bought 2 of the coronets & and immediately lost one in a chase, and went back to the 4 door new yorker or 300C or whatever is was because it was a lot more stealthy. The hemi coronet attracted too much attention. It also said that some of the shine running cars had superchargers AND turbochargers, and would run circles around early NASCAR stock cars, as they had actually taken them out to the track and had done so. He still had all of the runners he'd retired.

    Honestly, this is some of America's culture and history that interests me most.
     
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  22. Thumper
    Joined: Mar 7, 2005
    Posts: 1,610

    Thumper
    Member

    That would be none other than Willie Clay Call.:)
     
  23. rbroadster
    Joined: Mar 23, 2005
    Posts: 396

    rbroadster
    Member

    I don't jump in on many threads, but I couldn't pass this one up.

    I'm from central / Eastern Kentucky and ALL of my Dad's family made / ran shine.

    I've heard dozens of stories:

    1. Mom and Dad's first date. He was running some to the bootlegger before they went to the drive-in. Just a few gallons so it was on the passenger floorboard around Mom's feet. She was riding holding a hammer to break the jars in case they were pulled over.

    2. My cousin, having gotten too old to climb the hill to the still, decided to try and run a batch in his barn. Long story short, no one hurt but two tractors and still lost after the barn burnt to the ground.

    3. My own story. I travel to Japan frequently and enjoy the Sake. Those of you who have tried both know that it's, basically rice whiskey and a weaker version of shine. Anyway, I decided to sneak some "american sake" into Nagoya on one of my trips. You should have seen their faces when they tried it! They just kept yelling "too strong!" "too strong"

    Oh, one last thing for K9racer. Around these parts "backins" is the bit of mash that's held back to start the next run with. That way, the recipe is carried on. They still do it the exact same way making bourbon is this region. Nothing like good corn and pure limestone water!!

    Man, this thread rocks!
     
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  24. repoguy
    Joined: Jul 27, 2002
    Posts: 2,085

    repoguy
    Member


    Yep! That's the guy!

    Another interesting part of the story was that local law enforcement trusted these guys so much that after they were sentenced to years in prison they would release them on their own recognizance and basically expected them to be waiting for the jail bus at a certain date & time, and they always showed.

    These were honest guys.

    One of the things in the HOT ROD article that surprised me was that they were running shine all the way through the 80's and into the 90's, because of all the dry counties that exist in the south. Up until then I always thought that the whole thing ended way before then.

    It also said that there is a moonshine museum in the NC county where it all happened. Anyone been there?
     
  25. Orange54
    Joined: Mar 6, 2004
    Posts: 795

    Orange54
    Member
    from Missouri

    Can't add much but I can tell you this...........

    My Grandpa Petty was a Missouri State Highway Patrolman. I'm not exactly sure when he started but I think late 30's early 40's. He was stationed in Southeast Missouri in the Kennett, Missouri area. He told me a lot of stories about being on patrol. The one thing that I do remember is how he and his buddies always complained to HQ about ditching the Chevrolets for Fords as patrol cars. Why....cause the Fords always outran them. I'd imagine a bunch may have been full of moonshine. Later on they took their advice and bought the Fords. I sure wish I'd listened more as a youngster.

    Tim
     
  26. KustomLincolnLady
    Joined: Oct 17, 2003
    Posts: 1,030

    KustomLincolnLady
    Member

    I don't have any stories but a great movie is "Moonshine Highway" it has a 54 Lincoln:D , some mercs, 55 chevy. Good Movie, but hard to find. I did hear it came on on DVD last yr also. :p
     
  27. tristansdaz
    Joined: Jan 8, 2006
    Posts: 24

    tristansdaz
    Member

    My dad used to tell tales of his dad running the still in North Carolina, down in the Holden Beach NC/Myrtle Beach SC area, back in the woods. He would never drink his own shine and if any of the boys got into it (dad had 8 brothers), the tanning got really serious! My grandad never ran the shine and most of his customers came to him but my Uncle Rosell ran a 1954 Ford with a 312 on it. One of his first runs was in a 1951 Hudson Hornet though and he said the cop cars could never keep up with it, especially on the dirt roads and in the corners as the Hudson really outhandled everything else of the time. Of course, that was proven when NASCAR got rolling and Hudson ruled the roost in 1952,53 and 1954 with Herb Thomas, the Flock brothers and others.:D
     
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  28. Thumper
    Joined: Mar 7, 2005
    Posts: 1,610

    Thumper
    Member

    A really good book on the subject is "Return to Thunder Road by Alex Grabbard". Stories by the guys that were there and what really happened.
     
  29. I find it funny how many say the south is full of hicks and rednecks and moonshine...when like someone said here-it was everywhere.:confused:
     
  30. No moonshine stories, is running other controlled substances acceptable?

    So sorry, '60s kid.:eek:
     

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