MOONSHINING IN THE HILLS

 

I've been told that if you stood on top of the cliff you could see upwards to 30 or 40 smoke stacks coming out of the gorge. There's a mystique about making moonshine that sparks intrigue with strangers to the hills. But to the elders of the community, it stirs emotions.

             Verdie's lifelong home has been on top of Laurel Gorge in Elliott County. he is 94 years old now and doesn't get about much. It was a different story when he was a young man growing up in his beloved hills.
           
            Verdie dropped his head and his fiery brown eyes looked to the floor when I asked him to tell me about his days of moonshining.

            He slowly raised his brow, looked me straight in the eye and said with a snap in his voice. "I'm not proud of what I did. But times were hard and people had to feed their families. My daddy was a good man, a hard working honest man. He did what he had to do".

             "Nowadays when people go into that gorge, it's to see the beauty and play.  It's fun to slide and crawl down the cliffs and climb the giant rocks, wade and swim in the cool clear waters. Down there you don't hear  cars and people talking. It's almost like a different world.  But when I was young it was a different tale".

            Verdie was quiet as he pushed himself up from his worn recliner. He stood tall and squared his shoulders. His eyes grew distant as he raised his hand and pointed to the top of the hill. He went back to a different time.

            "Yeah, I helped pappy make the product. We made the best around. People came from miles, as far as Washington DC to buy from my pappy. Our little place of business was right close to the creek so we could get fresh water to use. It wasn't easy and It wasn't safe. I carried every thing we needed for the product  down over that cliff to our spot. I carried it on my back.  Corn and sugar in 50 pound bags. "I was fifteen years old", just a boy."

            Verdie's words were carefully chosen and the dashes of his stern brown eyes were from another time.

            "We knowed the revenuers were in the county. Word had spread among the workers. they were bustin up equipment all up and down the creeks and were making their way into the gorges.

            "I'll never forget that day. I had carried everything we had down there. It was sunset when I made my last trip. Everything was green and the flowers blooming. Waterfalls pouring off the cliffs. Spring is a beatiful time here. I was just planning on taking a dip in the creek. I laid down the last bag of corn when I heard something rustling the leaves up on the cliff. Thought it might be a bear, or a deer so  I got real quiet. Then I heard 'em talking. I knowed there wasn't nothing in that gorge that talked to each other like that. Then I saw them, they were really close. They were laughing and talking. the trees had me hid from them. Now, there was a grove of Hemlocks standing nearby our business with limbs all the way to the ground. I grabbed the worm from the still and I ran as fast and quiet as I could go and hid in those hemlocks. I was trembling from my toes to the top of my head. The word was that the revenuers were mean and had shot some people. I was just fifteen. I stood there in those trees as quiet as a mouse. I didn't breathe and I didn't move. Through those trees, I watched them destroy everything we had. They were laughing, it was a game to them, they had no feelings for the people.

            Verdie sat back down in his recliner, his eyes focused straight ahead, his voice softened. He came back to the present. He looked straight in my eyes and said, "My daddy didn't make any more product after that day. Said it was too dangerous".

            Verdie kicked back in his recliner and lit his pipe. I felt he had let me enter a world that almost always has locked doors.

             I told Verdie's story to my father, he leaned back in his recliner, much like Verdie did. He  grinned, looked out the window and said "Yep, your Paw Huff was pretty good at making the product too".

            My eyes got big and my mouth fell open. I had always heard my mom talk about making shine with her father but had no idea that Paw Huff was a moonshiner.

            "He had heard that the revenuers were working their way cross the county so he shut down for a few days. Hid his worm in a pile of shelled corn in the crib".

            Not being a scholar of making moonshine, I asked my father to tell me exactly what is a worm"  It was mom who spoke up and explained the purpose of the worm in a moonshine still.

            "They were made from copper and it was hard to come by. They took a long tube, filled it full of sand, then wrapped the tube around a tree. Then they cut the tree and got it out of the spiral of copper", she said.

            Sure enough, the revenuers came to my grandfathers farm. He was sitting on the front porch waiting for them. They saw the still, Paw left it for them to find so they wouldn't stay so long. then they asked

            "Mr. Huff where's the worm to this still"

 

            "Don't rightfully know", my grandfather told them

            "Mr. Huff, we will search until we find it".

            "Help yourself", Paw told them

            The whole time my grandfather was talking to the revenuers, he was glancing toward the well. When the revenuers started to the well he told them "now if you want to find that worm, 'bout as well go search the corn crib."

            Those revenuers, convinced that no one would tell the truth about where they hid a worm, proceeded to search and dig in the well. Drawing water, dropping in metal objects hoping to bump into it. One actually was lowered into the well to take a look. Thought he could get in there as far as my grandfather could. They didn't find the worm.

            My grandmother was a clever woman. See, Paw would bring the product to the house and store it in the kitchen in gallon jugs. When she heard the revenuers were coming Granny built a bench over the product. She pleated a skirt from a flowered feed sacks from the edge of the bench to the floor. She made pillows to match and put them on the bench.

            "Why don't you all come in have some lunch. I made some fried chicken. You been here most of the evenin', so I know you must be hungry. Now I'll fill your plate and you sit right there on that bench".

            Those revenuers ate the best meal of their lives while sitting on top of my grandfathers product and wondering where that worm might be.