Saturdays we got up even earlier so as to get the chores done before setting out. If Carl’d stayed sober Friday night, then the delivery would be ready. That hadn’t been the case for months.
It was just getting light when I got to the still. Jody was already there, wrapping the mason jars in burlap so they wouldn’t rub, packing them into them wooden case flats we got from Albany Peach Company and stacking these into the pull-wagon. We was always real careful at this part since the time the wagon got away from us and we’d busted half a load.
The Casino was the first stop, being full up with the gentry from Atlanta and Macon. Carl like to say “they come for the waters but they stay for the shine.”
I heard that Marie Curie come to Skywater once to test the springs for the radium, which is why they changed the name.
What Pegman Saw: Radium Spings
We all got us a bit of a drawl on this one… Nice write.
I love the way you start this story, and I like the detail. Excellent story, Josh!
The voice is perfect. Love the line “they come for the waters but they stay for the shine”. Without knowing the history, I’m wondering if the moonshine is made from water with radium?? And if so, the story is all the more intoxicating.
If it’s from the same spring, then yes indeed. That said, there’s little water left in 160 proof spirit. Radiation would be the least of your worries! Thanks for reading.
I didnt connect prohibition with the era of taking the waters, but there certainly was an overlap, and I can see how people may have derived medicinal benefit if not from the waters, then at least from the easy liqor and the gambling. Nice slice of the black market at the time.
Actually, bootlegging continued in the South long after the eighteenth amendment was repealed. Part of that was tradition, part of it was economy, and part of it was the sense of defying the United States federal government. Moonshine would go for $3 a jar, while bonded whiskey could sell as much as $10 a quart. The Moonshine was higher proof too. Interestingly, many of the pioneer drivers of NASCAR got their start running moonshine from the Hills into the cities and towns.
Wasnt there some connection between JFK and rum running? I figured youd know.
His father was a bootlegger and made an enormous Fortune bringing illegal liquor into the United States during prohibition. But Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s grandfather was an opium Trader, as were the forebears of the famous Forbes Family
I feel like the phrase don’t look a gifthorse in the mouth applies somehow, to some of the wealthiest families. Dont ask, dont tell.
Your story is shining with history, Josh. You cramped so much into it. And made a story too. An absolute gift.
I love the voice and the history in this.
Thanks!
Interesting and helpful details, well done.