Moonshine

In June, 2015, I published an Ocracoke Newsletter article about "Rum Running on the Outer Banks." Apparently a few readers missed that article. Here is the link: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news062115.htm.

A reader [gsmith (outsideofapex)] who read the article recently posted this short Ocracoke story in a comment:

"My wife is from Appalachia. Her cousin told me a story about how his parents and another couple visited Ocracoke in the early 1950s. Seems once they got to the island and found a place to lodge in the upstairs of someone's home, the wives, while unpacking, to their dismay, found one of the trunks full of Appalachia's finest moonshine. Being God-fearing women they gave their menfolk an earful. However, after a day or two of observing how their husbands used that bounty to get the best meals, sunset boat rides, tours of the beach and so on, they grudgingly admitted that it was a brilliant idea!"

In the 1950s Ocracoke was a dry township, but locals frequently partook of homemade fermented "meal wine." Distilled beverages were much rarer. It was said that if someone laid a hundred dollar bill on the hood of their car, and weighted it down with a fifth of liquor, on the next morning they would find the hundred dollar bill still there, weighted down with a big conch shell.

Follow this link to listen to Ocracoke Island native, Jule Garrish, perform the "The Booze Yacht" ,
the song mentioned in the Newsletter article about rum running: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xpeeJwR8k0.

Our latest Ocracoke Newsletter is the story of Beatrice Wells, child evangelist, who preached at Ocracoke in the late 1930s/early 1940s. You can read it here: http://www.villagecraftsmen.com/news022116.htm.