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It's all her fault. |
As I mentioned before, I had Hillfolk as kin in Kentucky. Iâm gonna have to explain a few things to help yâall to understand what that was like. Most of us had nicknames or abbreviated names. If you went and asked where my dad, Glen, was, they wouldnât have known who you were talking about. Yet if you asked them where Shoodhe (pronounced should-he) was, they could tell you where at that exact moment. Well, this is about my cousin, Cec (Cecil). Cec had polio as a child and ended up wearing leg braces on both legs. âPoor Cec,â some would say, others knew him as one of the finest Shine makers around. You see, in that part of Kentucky it was still dry. If you wanted liquor, you either went to Ohio or you went to find Cec. He drove around in an old â53 Ford pickup. It was painted (at one time) a primer rust color to match the rust. It had controls on the steering wheel for Cec and nobody else could drive it. In the back, he kept a case of Ballâs mason jars filled with Shine â except for the one he kept between his legs. Medicinal purposes, ya know. The Sheriff couldnât say nothing if you only had enough for yourself and you werenât selling it. But we knew the jars in the back were his samples. Everybody liked Cec, even church people would look the other way, figuring he needed the extra income. That was, except for Sheriff Howell, who swore he would catch him with more than he should have, or catch him making one of his famous disposable stills. Now these fellows (Cec and his friends) worked hard to make the Shine. Let me give you a tour of one of their stills. First thereâs the location. It has to be near a creek or some other water resource. Theyâd bring up barrels to soak in the creek so they swelled up nice and tight, and this took about a week. The coil youâve seen on TV â this is how it was really made: theyâd find a tree about eight inches in diameter, take copper pipe, one fellow would hold it at the bottom of the tree, the other fellow starts bending the pipe around it. Theyâd cut the top off the tree and there theyâd have it. Theyâd save the top and use it for firewood too. The still was made of sheet metal and two-by-fours, with an extra sheet for the bottom so they didnât burn their two-by-fours. A steam pipe came off the top and went into the first barrel called the thumper barrel. This barrel has a piece of wood inside that stops half way up the barrel and can move up and down inside. The steam comes inside this barrel, lifts this piece of wood, and the weight of the wood pushes it back down and into the next barrel. When the steam gets-a-going, that piece of wood thumps against the top, drops back down and thumps against the bottom. Thump-thump-thump. Guess thatâs why they called it the thumper barrel. The next barrel is where the coil tube is, the vapor is transferred into a third (empty) barrel, and this resulting condensation is Moonshine. They let it age for about five minutes or until it cooled down enough to drink or sell. Okay, okay, Iâll give you the ingredients (just in case ccstring wants to try it out ![]() Youâre all probably wondering how I know so much about this. Thanks to my Uncle Haze (Cat Horse) and my cousin Cec for inviting me. Itâs kinda funny, I know it, seen it, but donât drink alcohol at all. They made 500 gallons at a time and sold it for 5 dollars a gallon. Remember I said it was a disposable still? After they were done, theyâd blow the still up. Sheriff Howell couldnât stand that sound because it meant no evidence. They had that dynamite so well-timed that they were miles away before she blew. |