Moonshine Capital of the South

            Robenia Ledford pounced on her Ma during the spring of 1942 way back in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Clay County, North Carolina.

            “Ma, can I spend the night with Ida Mae?  You never let me do anything fun.”

            “I don’t know, Beanie,” said Ma.  “Ask your pa.”

            Robenia heel staved to the corncrib with red hair flying in the wind.  Breathless, she asked Pa if she could stay all night with her best friend.

            Pa looked up from shelling corn.  “Good help is hard to find.  You’re just in time to help feed the livestock.”

            “Ain’t got time for that.  I want to stay all night with Ida Mae.”

            Pa frowned and spat tobacco juice on the ground.  “Thunderations!  That family lives at Tusquittee.  It’s the moonshining capital of the south.  Ain’t safe to spend the night there.  Go help your ma churn buttermilk.”

            Robenia stomped her feet and headed to the house.  She wiped tears from her freckled face.

            Reba and Rena asked why she was crying.  They begged Ma to let Robenia spend the

night with Ida Mae.

            When Pa came to the house, Ma had a “chimney corner” meeting with him.  After a lengthy discussion, Robenia’s parents gave her permission to spend the night with her friend.

            Robenia took off like a racehorse to her friend’s house.  She stopped at Emma Dean Passmore’s home and her pa took them in his wagon to Tusquittee.  He let them off at the foot of Julie Knob.

            They cut through the woods to Ida Mae’s place.  Frogs croaked on Tusquittee Creek and shadows fell over the trail.  Emma Dean grabbed Robenia’s arm when the sky filled with a shower of sparks. 

            “My goodness!” yelled Emma Dean.  “The world’s coming to an end.”

            Robenia giggled.  “Don’t you remember our science lesson at school?  Mr. Penland told us the Lyrid meteor shower would come in April.”

            The girls tromped over the trail to Ida Mae’s house.  They jumped when they heard an explosion on the creek.  The girls didn’t stop running until they reached Ida Mae’s front porch.

            Later they learned that some moonshiners were making white lightning on the creek.  The still exploded, but they dove into the thickets and escaped injury.

            When Robenia returned to the Ledford’s house, she spun a tall tale.  Pa laughed and reminded her that she got fair warning about the “Moonshine Capital” of the South.