MOONSHINERS

When my nephew Chris was about 12 years old, he was given a school assignment to interview his grandparents to learn how life was when they were his age. Among the stories my mother told him was one that when she was a girl her father made moonshine and that he had to be on alert all the time in case of a visit from the "Revenuers". One time Grandpa had to hide out for two weeks. During Grandpa's absence my mother--at age 12--knew where the bottles of corn liquor were buried and she dug them up and sold the liquor to Grandpa's regular customers.

She had seen a "butterfly skirt" she wanted in the Bellas-Hess catalog. She ordered the skirt C.O.D. (cash on delivery). When Grandpa returned from hiding out, he asked my mother where all the money was from the sale of the moonshine. She had to admit that she had spent the money on the "butterfly skirt". His reaction was, "Well, you shouldn't ort not done that, Abby." [correct spelling of Grandpa's speech, courtesy of my brother Norman] That was the extent of her punishment as she was "Pop's girl".

When Chris received his assignment back from the teacher she had given him "A++" and praised his use of my mother's vernacular in telling the story. Chris very proudly brought the paper for my mother to see and she said, "You shouldn't have written about that--people will think we're criminals!"