Denver Dicks,
While growing up in Baker County during the thirties and forties, little did I dream I would one day look back and say, Well, that wasn't so bad after all.
This was hard times, not only for Baker County, but for our whole country as well. This is our history, never to be repeated.
Some of this back ground goes back beyond my time but it helps me to understand these wonderful people who took the bull by the horns and did what was necessary to survive. And survive they did.
Many reached the end of the hard times with land they could have never paid the taxes on had it not been for the only cash crop available, Moonshine!
Invariably, upon learning you were from Baker County, outsiders would say, That's a bad place, Not to me it wasn't.
The ones I knew were kind, generous (the shirt-off-their-back generous) and for the most part, truthful.
You could even buy load of shine on credit. I'll pay you when I get back if I don't get caught. In that case it may take a little longer.
Few of us can say our lives were not touched in some way by moonshiners. OK! Enough justification. It was against the law and we did take some hair- raising chances evading the consequences.
I was not very brave or smart either, It was your civic duty to notify your neighbor immediately if you saw the men (revenuers). The men's out grapevine worked very well.
Many a jug of shine disappeared and many a still was running right along, all by itself, the shiner already home with that Who me? look on his face by the time the law arrived.
Another story I liked, also supposedly true, was about a shiner who was running his still with his old mule parked nearby for a quick get away. Sure nuf, that old mule was fixing to earn his keep, for upon the first evidence of the law, that old mule headed for the bar, the stiller hanging on for dear life.
The revenue men had no problem following the tracks of the fleeing mule. When they arrived at the home, the mule was in the lot and the shiner was hoeing his garden.
The revenuers explained to the shiner that the mule's tracks were followed straight from the still to his house. The shiner, with a look of surprise on his face, said, Well, sir, if that old mule done it, just git him and take him on in!
If we were lucky enough to get the shine made, jugged and loaded without getting caught, the fun was just beginning.
The law liked to win also, and could be right sneaky about it. There wasn't much they wouldn't do to catch us, and not much we wouldn't do to get by.
Some of those Georgia sheriffs got down-right greedy. They probably didn't have to buy deputy patrol cars, just use moonshiner's abandoned vehicles, and abandon they did, if and when the law got too close.
Hopefully, you had a buddy watching your rear to pick you up, if not, Woe is me. Long night for sure!
I always, well most of the time had a legitimate job and moonshined on the side.
It would be hard to say if I profited from moonshine or not. Probably not much, but I thought I did at the time.
In 1949, shining was getting a little more dangerous, more criminal (it was now a felony), and less necessary, for jobs were more available than in years past.
As many others, I was reluctant to give up my night job, for moonshine had served us well, but it was time to move on. This period in our history is like the Old West, is never to return.
I guess we expect a certain degree of integrity in most people, but certainly not a law-breaker who makes and sells a product that makes you drunk, sick and all the other things we associate with drunkenness. The law required you to pay taxes on this product and observe the rules regarding it.
That was the law the shiners violated. Less I leave the impression that shiners were extra special, let me say right here there were some good people in Baker County who didn't shine.
There were grocers, Cecil Day and 'Rooster' Thompson. And Dr. Brinson and Dr. Watson. I'm sure they never got rich, but tried hard to keep us healthy.
Finding employment that offered a future took me away from Baker County. Both my wife and I still have family there and visit often.
For the record, I'm retired now and just sit around reminiscing and waiting for the Social Security check. I can remember thirty or forty years ago but please don't ask me what I had for breakfast!
I loaned some money to a moonshiner who had a run of bad luck that resulted, some years late, his spending some time in prison.
Upon getting out of prison, he came by my house in Lake city a few days later, and gave my wife the amount of the loan. When we all get to heaven, I'm sure the Lord won't let us run moonshine, but maybe He will let us talk about it.
Denver Dicks,