How else has beverage alcohol affected the South?

[DemoTex]

Literature? Politics? Entertainers? Any more?

I am moving to a road in the back mountains of North Carolina called White Whiskey Way. How appropriate for some of the sons and daughters of the South I know. Appropiate for many sons and daughters of the North, too, as I know them. But back to the South, the raging subject du jour.

Consider:

William Faulkner
Sens. John Tower and Herman Talmadge
Hank Williams

Add more, if you wish. I'm treating the dogs to a walk in posh Highland Park tonight (1 block away). I'll be back shortly. The old dog is constipated. I need to take him by Dick Cheney's old house. That always works. He loves to crap there.

[short bus president]

1. I actually think

that up in the hills where you're gonna be, the only real significance of alcohol historically has been moonshining and the various local legends it spawned. But I also imagine that's not limited to the Carolina hills, or the South, or the US. Moonshining was and is a fairly universal thing.

[SayitAintSo]

9. Yeah ... ask the Kennedys....

Wasn't old Joe a rum runner ?

[short bus president]

12. bootleggers

and moonshiners are two wholly distinct things. Kennedy was a bootlegger (smuggler). Moonshiners have a craft. There's pride in moonshine. And sometimes some blindness.

[SayitAintSo]

13. Thanks Short Bus for making that distinction....

you are correct .... And we can't forget that bootlegging was the genesis of our beloved Nascar fetish down here ....

[DemoTex]

14. Oh, yes! I've spotted stills all over the south. From the air.

In Army flight school in south Alabama, the little plumes of smoke gave them away. The Yankee I/P in the OV-1 would say, "forrest fires starting." I, the student, would say, "Likker cooking." End of that discussion.

I did get shot at once, when I was in high school (1965). I was low-flying in an Aeronca 7AC and saw a plume of smoke. I flashed by, heard the shots, looked down and saw a big still. I was so pissed, I dropped my "live and let live" attitude and reported the still. The ATF guys paid me $6000 for that little find. Tax-free, anonomymously. Hated to bust the guys, but shooting is shooting.

[fishnfla]

2. did you ever read the book..

"Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy O'Toole. The only book he ever wrote before he blew his brains out. Wrote it while he was in the US army with a bottle a whiskey in a quonset hut. Awesome book.

Then again theres Hunter s. Thompson who is from Kentucky, all kinds of chemicals in his system.

[DemoTex]

15. "Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy O'Toole

Yes, I read it. Twice. O'Toole's mother gave the manuscript to Walker Percy and the rest is history. I did not know he was ever in the Army. Are you sure? I've heard rumors of a second John Kennedy O'Toole manuscript. Anyone else heard that?

[fishnfla]

18. 1963 while in the army in Puerto Rico

he wrote the book. despaired when it didn't get published. died.

[Lars39]

3. In many rural areas, it kept families going.

My dad ran whiskey for a while back during WWII 'cause there were NO jobs to be had where he lived. He joined the army at 17. After he got out, there still weren't jobs. He migrated north.

[DemoTex]

16. The woman I am buying from walked the property with me last week.

She (a great, highly-educated, college professor) pointed out a rusted 1939 (or so) Chevy sedan way down in White Whiskey Creek. "Revernoor's car," she explained. "Shot up in the '40s."

Maybe, maybe not. Great lore, though, to go with the miles and miles of "Indian" trails around my new mountain habitat (I'm buying it, but I realize I don't really own it --- land "ownership" is ephemeral at best).

[TheBigGuy]

21. cue Steve Earle...Copperhead Road....

...ran liquor in a big black Dodge/bought at an auction at the Masons lodge...etc etc....

Good tune!

[SayitAintSo]

4. It has preserved the relative virginity statistics of 'Southern Belles...'

'Cause everone down heah knows that if yah 'did it' while you wah knee walkin' drunk, why it doesn't really count, now does it ?

[TheBigGuy]

5. are we talking moonshine here?

the story behind this is that it was a way for marginal farming folk to stay on the land...take a commodity, like corn, and distill it into a higher value product...whiskey.

In Kentucky alot of the areas that used to do moonshine have moved into growing pot...same economic logic.

[arwalden]

6. How About Lester Maddox... Anyone Remember Him?

-- Allen

[SayitAintSo]

8. I do .... Old ax handle himself !

He had a restaurant in Underground Atlanta. Sold souvineer ax handles ... he died not too long ago I think ....

[inthecorneroverhere]

11. LOL!

I don't even remember if ol' Lester was Dry or wet?

I figure he was 'dry...' but don't know for sure?

[DemoTex]

20. Lester Maddox has nothing whatsoever to do with the original question!

Here is why. Lester was a teetotler. His restaurant, The Pickrick, never served an ounce of alcohol. He was not a drunken Georgia politician like Herman Talmadge (D-Ga.). Even former Sen. Sam Nunn (D-Ga) had an alcohol bust on his otherwise spotless record (DUI at age 17 or so). I saw Lester days before he fell and broke the ribs that lead to the pneumonia that killed him. Remember my posts from Atlanta about searching for a rehab facility for my dad (5/03)? That's where my M.D. brother and I ran in to Lester. I am here to defend Lester Maddox against charges of alcoholism. Not much else, though. Certainly not a defense against his racism and all his other crap.

Mac

[KCDem]

7. a lot more ugly people procreated!

But then, that's true in the north as well.

[inthecorneroverhere]

10. Moonshinin'

There's still dry counties in some places.

:loveya: my beer but don't want it to be available everywhere. It's better that some folks (hmmm, maybe myself, even...) drive to the next county to git it. I don't want all the corporate chain restaurants and crowds moving in some places.

I'm in favor of the 'blue laws' for green reasons. LOL.

I know Earth First! has never adopted a Blue-Baptist programme, but there are certain reasons connected with suburban development trends that they should. n'uff said.

[TheBigGuy]

17. Alot in Kentucky...."liquor by the drink" "package sales", etc...

....the peculiaritys of liquor laws in Kentucky....wet citys in dry countys...wet citys that permit package sales only, wet precincts that permit "liquor by the drink" in dry countys and citys (like downtown Ashland).

[Skittles]

19. lol.........................Demo

"he loves to crap there" - I laughed out LOUD! :D