Posted on 06/05/2017 1:01:07 PM PDT by heterosupremacist
Every June 5 National Moonshine Day is observed. This beverage has a notorious record of blurring the lines of history and the law, turning ordinary men (and women) into criminals and common criminals into legends.
Moonshine traditionally is an illegally distilled spirit. Mostly made from a corn mash, moonshine is a distilled whiskey that is typically produced by an individual illegally without a permit. Also known as white lightning, mountain dew, homebrew, hillbilly pop, rotgut and too many more to list here.
•Shepherd was Uncle Jesse’s CB handle on the Dukes of Hazzard. Sweet Tillie was the name of his Ford LTD/Galaxie in the first episode – his moonshine runner. •The X’s on the moonshine jugs symbol represents the number of times a batch was run through the still. If marked XXX, the moonshine is pure alcohol. •What do Esther Clark, Edna Giard, Stella Beloumant, Mary Wazeniak all have in common? They were all bootleggers. Bootlegging was an equal opportunity profession.
•Lavinia Gilman was a bootlegger, too. At 80 years old she ran a 300 gallon still in Montana.
The judge suspected her son was the true culprit, though.
•During prohibition, there were many ways to transport bootlegged moonshine.
Faking a funeral was a convenient ruse to move the product. Out of respect for the dead, of course, those with the badge were reluctant to stop a funeral procession.
(Excerpt) Read more at nationaldaycalendar.com ...
From the article: “Distilling skills first came to the United States during the 1830s with the Scotch-Irish as they settled in Virginia.”
I guess they never heard of the Whiskey Rebellion in the 1790’s, where distillers in Western Pennsylvania were protesting taxes on whiskey to pay down the Revolutionary War debt.
When I was a kid in the 1950s and 60s we would regularly run across destroyed moonshine stills while hunting in Walton County, FL. They were always old. I think the reason there were no recent ones was all the branches in that area had dried up.
My grandfather had a still. my brother in Louisiana has it now. He distills the whiskey and then colors it with roasted white oak chips. It’s a lot like Southern Comfort. He makes a 30 or 40 gallons about once every 6 or 7 years for family only.
RIP Popcorn.
When I was stationed at Fort Gordon, GA in ‘69, I partied with the southern boys. They’d mix a pint of Everclear with a gallon of Hi-C. Tasted fine but man, what a hangover the next day!
The regulators done him wrong.
When I was stationed at Fort Gordon, GA in ‘69, I partied with the southern boys. They’d mix a pint of Everclear with a gallon of Hi-C. Tasted fine but man, what a hangover the next day!
We did about the same thing once or twice at Fort Benning in the early ‘70’s. Lol. Once or twice was enough.
Moonshine is now made legit in Tennessee and north Georgia maybe some other places too. It is swrved in upscale bars and taps bars.
What once was the only cash crop available to mountain folk has niw become a respectable way to make money
Amusing how many state parks in GA have actual stills on display.
I guess they don’t know the history of the Scots and Irish who came to the north Georgia woods in the 1700s
Some ones pr firm forgot to do fact checking
Thunder Road runs down highway 9 from the Appalacias to Atlanta
A big factor in moonshine history is that transporting corn was a whole lot easier per $1 profit in the form of distilled spirits in gallons than raw corn in bushels.
“Thunder Road” was filmed on old U.S. 70 between Old Fort and Ridgecrest and also in Asheville.
I used to recognize many of the scenes as I worked there for many Summers. Old 70 has been closed for many years and my memory has declined.
Perhaps it is a typo, and they meant 1730’s. So, then it is just the proofreader that is uninformed ...
Thunder Road runs down highway 9 from the Appalacias to Atlanta
I didn’t know that. thanks.
Robert Mitchum starred in a really good movie about running moonshine and I think it was called “Thunder Road”.
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