Selling Moonshine

My father’s father was a moonshiner from the hills of North Georgia. Mind you, I do not consider this a bad thing for the times that they lived in. Times were hard for the family, which was a large one consisting of Granddaddy, grandmother and 10 children.   One of the ways that they earned extra money was to make moonshine from the sugar cane and corn that they grew.

Daddy with 3 of his sisters and 2 of his cousins

Unfortunately, many of my aunts and uncles were alcoholics as adults, having grown up drinking shine all of their lives. I must admit though that I do not remember any of them ever missing a day of work or not taking care of their families because of their drinking.

As a child, I remember Daddy having mason jars with “water” in them that I was not allowed to touch, and it never occurred to me that it was anything but water. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized it was moonshine. I’m not even sure that I would have known what liquor was when I was a child.  My father was also an alcoholic but until I was in high school, he kept it hidden from me. 

Long after my grandfather was dead, I remember that sometimes on the weekends, daddy would drive to Cabbage Town in Atlanta and would get out of the car, open the trunk and then lots of people would come to the car to talk to him. He always made me stay in the car so I could never see exactly what they were doing. As an adult, when the memory came back, I realized that he was selling moonshine out of the trunk.

It’s funny to me now to think that I helped my Daddy run moonshine (I guess it gave more credibility to him – after all, what kind of man would take his little girl with him to sell moonshine?).

Lucky for me I had a mother who was a “teetotaler” and taught me to never become addicted to alcohol. Not that I was an angel growing up…. I had my “younger, more stupid” days just like most of us have had. I just figured out at an early age that I enjoyed watching drunks rather than being one.