Here is an interesting article.

http://www.mccookgazette.com/story/1485803.html

Yes, interesting, thanks. Coincidentally, we stayed overnight in McCook last August, while on our way home from Ill.

rdr

Good story. The Minneapolis Star-Tribune ran an article about some former moonshiners out in Hamel, MN who told how it was a common practice to burn old tires downwind of the still to cover up the tell-tale odor of a still in operation.

My maternal grandfather moved his family onto a rented farm in Fridley,MN in the 1920's and couldn't understand why strangers would stop by and offer to pay his rent if he'd let them operate a still on the property. No woods to hide a still in. Then one day, he was mucking out the horse stalls and as he scraped his shovel along the wood floor behind the horses, he discovered a steel ring under the old layer of stable "dirt".

He pulled on the ring and opened a trap door only to discover that at some point in time, someone had buried an old boxcar under the barn. Climbing down inside, he found that the boxcar contained a still and a stovepipe had been installed that came up under some bushes by the barn. This explained everything. He contacted the proper authorities who came out and removed the still. Grandpa later went to the effort of removing the boxcar from under the the barn (think of the boxcar as a tuck-under garage) and converted it to a chicken house.

Interestingly enough, engine oil must be thicker than blood. If my brother hired a lawyer for his car and not me, I'd never speak to him again!

My grandfather on two occasions spent a year and a day for the transportation of illegal hooch, in the federal pen. Once in Atlanta, and once in Chillicothe, as late as 1969. He was never caught making it, just moving it. The feds would sit in their cars in the woods just across the creek (which was the property line), and wait. No still of his was ever found by the government, although my dad and I did find several still carcasses on his 96 acres of mountain land in Wilkes County, NC; when my grandfather was in his 80's.

Let's see, he was born in 1904, and died in 1985 or so. So in that length of time, he only was caught twice.

My Great Grandfather actually had a license to make it for the Government, but that's another story.

AND, a friend of mine's dad, had a Model T that they rode in to fetch a gallon of likker deep in the woods in NC. He (my friend) said his dad was driving away and got maybe ten minutes from the still, when all of the sudden, the Flivver ran out of gas. He quoted his dad to have said: "Goddam, I hate to do this!", and proceeded to watch his dad empty the gallon jug of likker into the gas tank and drive home on it. They never bought any more.

Let's hear what Uncle Dave Macon had to say back in 1926 about using the Ford car for buying some booze:
http://honkingduck.com/mc/node/710

Hello, folks, it won't do to be without hope. Now, I never had hoped to get another good drink of good red liquor, but yesterday evening I played a few pieces and two gentlemen invited me up to their room, opened up a box, said, "Uncle Dave, here's water and glasses and sugar and lemon and everything. Now, what'll you have first?"
I said, "Give me that largest glass." I poured her out half full and begin to stir it with a spoon.
He said, "Now, what next?"
I said, "A little water to make her weak."
"What next?"
I says, "A little sugar to make her sweet."
He said, "What next?"
I says, "Put in a little lemon, now, to make her sour."
"Now, what next?"
"Now," I says, "pour her up brim full to give her the power."

1. Some folks says that a Ford won't run,
Just let me tell you what a Henry done:
She left Louisville about half past one,
Oh, she got into Nashville at the settin' of the sun.

CHORUS:
On the Dixie, on the Dixie Bee Line,
Going to rise and shine, I'm going to stay up to time,
Rise and shine, I'm gwine to keep up to time,
When I ride in that Henry of mine.

2. Henry Ford wants a Muscle Shoals
To bring to the people of the South pure gold.
"Let him have it," says, "Oh, my Lord,
We'll all ride to heaven in a Henry Ford." CHO.

3. That old Buick, said she treated me mean,
Took all my money for to buy gasoline,
She may be warm, but I don't know,
But a Buick won't come where a Henry will go. CHO.

4. Went to the mountain for to get some booze,
A Henry Ford car was the one I choose,
The officers got right on me, I say,
I pulled her wide open and made my getaway. CHO.

5. Everybody knows the Henry Ford car,
Everybody knows they's the best they are,
You wanta take a ride, just get in a Ford,
And set the lever down, say "Oh, my Lord." CHO.

According to a rumour in this article: http://www.lizlyle.lofgrens.org/RmOlSngs/RTOS-DixieBeeLine.html Uncle Dave was given a new Ford car after Henry himself had heard the recording..

Then their was wise and witty Will Rogers who said, "Those people in Oklahoma will vote Dry, as long as they can stagger to the poles!"