The Civil War News & Views Open Discussion Forum

Re: 150 Years Ago Today...Houston Quits

Pam, I like your word pictures. My wife attended Carson Newman College in Kingsport, TN. She told me of bringing a Northern girl home with her one break period. When they got out of the mountains in North Georgia, they began seeing cotton fields. Georgianne's friend was so impressed by the blooming fields she had them stop the car and she picked herself a branch filled with ripe bolls to keep for a souveneir.

When I was stationed at the Naval Photographic Center in Washington, one of our electricians knew a girl who kept horses several miles south of the Capitol. He and I had been down there riding her horses; on the way home we took an interesting looking dirt road, thinking there might be some photo opportunities. The road became a pair of ruts in the woods, which got thicker and darker the further we went. Finally we came to a clearing, where a still was working. We stopped my 1956 white Crown Victoria convertible, and started backing around to get out of there. A man appeared out of the woods, cradling a double barreled shotgun. He asked what we were doing there. We said we had missed a turn and gotten lost, and were just going to retrace our steps. He didn't threaten us, but told us in no uncertain terms not to come back that way! We assured him that was very agreeable to us and took off the way we had come! I did not like D.C. much, but that time was glad to get back to the city!

Many years later, while working as a cameraman, I accompanied an ATF raid on a still in a dug out space under the back deck of a suburban Atlanta house. The still was located when the mash got into a creek and made some cattle downstream "sick". Drunk is more like it. No one was there, but there was a lot of mash fermenting under the deck. I saw a couple of frogs and a rat floating in some of the barrels. There were about three hundred gallon jugs of finished whiskey. The agents had a good time bursting all but a few kept for evidence. Stan

Messages In This Thread

150 Years Ago Today...Houston Quits
Re: 150 Years Ago Today...Houston Quits
Re: 150 Years Ago Today...Houston Quits
Re: 150 Years Ago Today...Houston Quits
Re: 150 Years Ago Today...Houston Quits
Re: 150 Years Ago Today...Houston Quits
Re: 150 Years Ago Today...Houston Quits
Re: 150 Years Ago Today...Houston Quits
Re: 150 Years Ago Today...Houston Quits
Re: 150 Years Ago Today...Houston Quits
Re: 150 Years Ago Today...Houston Quits
Re: 150 Years Ago Today...Houston Quits
Re: 150 Years Ago Today...Houston Quits
Re: 150 Years Ago Today...Houston Quits
Re: 150 Years Ago Today...Houston Quits
Re: 150 Years Ago Today...Houston Quits
Re: 150 Years Ago Today...Houston Quits
Re: 150 Years Ago Today...Houston Quits