Bootlegged Chores

Moonshine making was still a very profitable business in the 50’s, especially in The South. Mr. Washtub (affectionately named by his customers because he made his stills out of #2 washtubs) has long been gone to the distillery in the sky, but his memory and maybe even some of his fire water….lives on.

Now children of farmers, like myself, help on the farm.  Naturally or unnaturally as it may be, children of moonshiners often helped with the family business of making shine. Most of the chores were limited to buying sugar or maybe hauling in the wood used to keep the cooker burning.

Mr. Washtub was either a very smart business man or a very bad parent, but who am I to judge? One of Mr. Washtub’s sons, Bud, was delegated to be the delivery boy. At the young age of seven, Bud often ventured out to do his chores in the wee morning hours. “Boy you get that money before you hand them the package,” was Mr. Washtub’s primary rule when it came to Bud’s primary chore.

As far as I know, no deep psychological issues were developed due to Bud’s childhood chores. Actually, his experiences developed him into a unique, loving and fully southern character.  He is definitely worthy of the common southern title, “one of the best men I know.”

I’ll close with a quick tale that is too short to stand alone.

Mr. Washtub and a cousin of his were on the way home from a dance in the Springhill Community. There had been a big rain while they were at the dance and the bridge at Mt. Ida had washed out. The bridge itself had dropped down about five feet. Mr. Washtub always carried around a Beretta gun in his back pocket. When he jumped down to the bridge, his gun went off. Luckily, Mr. Washtub escaped with only a hole in his britches.