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I keep a DVD of Robert Mitchum in 'Thunder Road' - it reminds me of my youth in the mtns before TVA and televison... all changed now. Wars and television has changed everything.

Of course the 'runners' like Thunder Road became NASCAR - something most people do not realize. Some early NASCAR winners collected their race trophy and then went to jail for 'other' activities.

Also few people know that the Appalachian moonshine trade actually started in Pennsylvania right after the American Revolution; it was called the Whiskey Rebellion. The new United States needed to pay war debts and taxed consumable alcohol; many private distillers resisted and finally George Washington went west to quell the rebellion.

Private distillers slowly moved south into the mountains to escape the government and 'moonshine' was born. As they say in Thunder Road, they had been doing it for generations, knew it was against somebody's laws, but felt they had a right to do it on their own property.

As in Thunder Road, organized crime moved in and changed the whole enterprise. But still there are good 'copper' moonshiners with good potent product!

Bob, I knew about Nascar getting it’s start from moonshine runners but didn’t organized crime get involved during Prohibition when so many made poison whiskey?

My dad and my husband (I found out) used to buy shine for local doctors back in the 70’s and 80’s. It was the late 70’s when I lived back in the mountains near the still.

As in Thunder Road, organized crime moved in and changed the whole enterprise. But still there are good 'copper' moonshiners with good potent product!

Two quick stories about my great uncle, Mitchell. He lived just down the road from my grandfather in the hills of Kentucky. When I was a kid during the 1960s, my relatives called him by his nickname, "Marshall." I knew he was a soldier in WWII, so I thought that was a rank and was kinda proud of that. I found out years later it was not, "Marshall" but "Martial" as in "Court Martial." It seems he decided to take a bit longer than was allowed during his leave.

The second story pertains to this thread. It was said that Uncle Mitchell measured his annual corn crop in terms of gallons rather than bushels. By the way, my grandfather, Mitchel's older brother, swore off alcohol as a young man,