ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 2, 1996 TAG: 9606030084
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: SCHUYLER
SOURCE: Associated Press|
On the television series ``The Waltons,'' it was referred to as ``the recipe'' - the illegal beverage that slaked the community's thirst.
A new exhibit at the Walton's Mountain Museum, ``The Still and the Influence That Moonshining Had on the Rural Area,'' traces the illegal activity that was a way of life for the show's Mamie and Emily Baldwin and for other mountain folk.
During the Depression years, white lightning sometimes was the only cash crop a family had.
``It wasn't just something that was evil and destructive,'' said Becky Fogg-Cummings, who spent three years researching the exhibit. ``It was a way of living, even though the government said it was illegal.''
Earl Hamner Jr. based the television series on his own Nelson County boyhood. The Baldwins' genteel moonshining operation was purportedly lifted from a mother-and-daughter team who lived nearby.
``He never would give us their names,'' Fogg-Cummings said.
Much of the information in the exhibit came from local people, who often make their liquor with apples and peaches, she said.
``Moonshining fell into the same category as faith healing, planting by the signs and all the other vanishing customs that were part of a rugged, self-sufficient culture,'' according to the exhibit.
The tradition is still alive, especially in Southside Virginia, according to the state Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. On average, ABC agents destroy 20 to 25 stills a year, which carry a production potential of 400,000 gallons, ABC spokesman Robert Chapman said.
LENGTH: Short : 39 linesby CNB