Those thorns will rip clothes and flesh if given the opportunity and as they say, "been there, done that!"

I will do an internet search and see if I can't find the name of the bush/tree.  I have seen some of the trees about 4 or more inches in diameter with runners going everywhere and inch or more in diameter. 

THORNY-OLIVE

I believe the above is a Thorny-Olive (Elaeagnus Pungens)  Appearance: Elaeagnus pungens is a dense evergreen shrub that invades natural areas throughout the southeastern United States.  The shrub is often multi-stemmed..

Above pix of some of the thorn bushes/trees that have been severed at the trunk near ground level and the leaves turning brown.

PIXS OF THE "FRUIT" BLOOMS & SEEDS

While cutting back more of the Thorny Olive shrubs, I noticed the above "fruit" on many of the shrubs and came back with the ole camera and took a few pixs to add to this page.

I brought a branch of the Thorny Olive shrub back home and took a close up pix of it.

Web page updated by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 03-26-2024.

REMNANTS OF A MOONSHINE STILL

With the above said, it brought back to my memory the remains of a 55 gallon steel drum moonshine still that was on the wet weather drainage ditch that runs into a branch aka small creek called Culpepper Creek that is on our property.  I first saw the moonshine still barrel sometime in 1989 when we purchased our home and during one of my scouting for deer sign..

The above is a pix of the rusted our barrel with most of it rotted away over time.  The moonshiner would use a mixture of flour and water to seal base of the cap that would fit into the above rough chisel cut hole in the barrel, followed by a thumper keg and then attached to the condenser coil.

The barrel is too far from easy access and the wet weather branch has running water and steep banks making it easy to dam up for supplying water to make the beer mash and if necessary getting water onto the evaporator coils to condense the steam back to a liquid aka Moonshine!   

It could be argued that someone used the barrel to burn trash, but I don't think anyone would cut a round hole in the barrel for such a purpose in my humble opinion and go to the trouble to remove it so far from an access road!

GOING BACK IN TIME

As a teenager in the late 1950s, I was allowed to roam the creeks, hills, countryside, etc. and my range went to about five (5) miles from our ole home place on Maple Lane here in Wadesboro, NC.

One of my first encounters with a moonshine still was beyond "Carl's Mountain" 464 feet above sea level about a mile or more on a small branch aka Grindstone Branch between Carl's Mountain and the Airport Road.  There was a swimming hole beyond where I found the moonshine still the locals called "The Sid Hare Hole."

TOPO VIEW OF CARL'S MOUNTAIN

Grindstone Branch is where I spotted the first moonshine still and the same branch forks to the left and the same branch where the second moonshine still was located.  The pinkish arrow in the above pix is pointing to the crest of Carl's Mountain.

I spotted the 55 gallon steel drum that had earlier made a batch of moonshine as evidenced by the burnt wood embers underneath it, however the condenser copper coil was not attached to the still.  Upon further inspection, I located two (2) 55 gallon steel drums that were concealed pretty good that contained the mash or beer that was working off (fermenting).  I looked around and didn't see anyone, turned the two mash barrels over empting the contents and shot holes in the moonshine still with my .22 caliber rifle and made fast tracks out of there.  I don't remember if I shot holes into the mash barrels or not, but probably did.

I don't think I went back into that area for a good while, because I did some serious damage to the moonshine's small operation.

A few years later, I found another 55 gallon drum moonshine still fairly close to a persons residence close to the 52 Highway North underpass adjacent a small branch aka Grindstone Branch, of which the property was originally called the Brown Stone Quarry. That particular still was fully functional with the condenser coil in place and since it was close to a home, I decided not to mess with it for fear of being seen.  Many of the older "rum heads" in the area knew that home sold moonshine.

BROTHER ALLEN'S ORDEAL WITH MOONSHINE

My brother Allen Porter in the early to mid 1960s, was hunting squirrels close to the Airport Road, near the ole Moose Lodge Building and spotted a person unloading moonshine and placing the jars in the creek.  Allen went back later with the family car and brought the moonshine home which was a good amount and stored the jars in the trunk of an old junk car in the field behind our home.

Brother Allen would take some of the moonshine to school with him and share it with his buddies, whereas eventually he passed out in school one day and our parents were notified and it was determined that he was intoxicated.

Pop interrogated him and Allen told Pop where the moonshine was hid and Pop poured it out.

ELICK GADDY AND THE HOT WIRE FENCE

While still reflecting on the past, I will relate an incident that I observed the aftermath of.  Mr. Coley during his years at Maple Lane used a young "hired hand" named Elick Gaddy (now deceased) who lived two streets over to do things for him like plowing the land, etc., per family members.  I remember that Grandma Coley also hired Elick to do various chores when I was a small boy as well.  Now, finally getting to my memory from the past,  Uncle Doug installed a single or double strand hot wire fence around the field behind Grandmas home encompassing the barn and hog lot which probably took in more than an acre of land which went right down beside the branch.  That branch flows behind the property and flows all the way to the Anson County Airport area and goes through a stone culvert underneath the Seaboard Coastline railroad tracks.  At some point in time many decades ago, there was a small brick/stone dam on the branch/creek about 200 yards from the railroad tracks that was gated to back the water up creating a small mill pond which supplied the water to some type of steam powered saw mill as evidenced by the concrete slabs and steel pipes that were located not to far from the dam structure mentioned.  The rumor was that Elick had himself a moonshine still on the branch since a good supply of running water is needed to supply water for making the mash and to cool down the condenser coils (if necessary) to turn the steam back into a liquid and the word quickly gets out as to who can supply illegal moonshine or bonded "bootleg" whiskey as Anson County was a dry county at the time.

One day I was going to the railroad tracks as young boys get out and about to explore things on a regular basis and when I got to the other side of the hog pasture that had the hot wires installed, I noticed a large brown paper bag that was left near the hot wire fence and several quart Mason jars were lying on the ground beside the paper bag and broken of which smelled of moonshine.  It appeared that Elick had come through there during the night on a well used path on his return trip from his alleged moonshine still not realizing that a hot wire had been recently installed, or had forgotten about it.  Elick must have thought the devil or something had gotten a hold of him because he certainly dropped his bag of moonshine; that would have been a Kodiak moment for sure and would probably take top spot on some of the best video shows of today.  We certainly got a humongous laugh from that and I am stilling grinning today when I think about it.  Whether or not Elick ever admitted to the "moonshine drop", I don't know.  I have personally found a moonshine still on that same branch/creek when I was a teenager that was probably a mile on the other side of the railroad tracks which had the mash (corn meal, sugar and yeast working off) in a couple 55 gallon metal drums, however the copper condenser coil and thump keg was not installed on the barrel mash cooker of which most were constructed from copper.  I turned over the mash barrels emptying their contents and put several .22 caliber rounds through all the components of the moonshine still after checking to see that no one was nearby and then ran like a scalded dog out of there.  I sure did cost some moonshines (could have been Elick's still) a good chunk of money that time and now realize how lucky I was because I could have gotten seriously hurt or killed for my actions.

The above two paragraphs is a copy and paste from my short story Memories From The Past and gives a recap of what I wrote earlier.  No, I haven't lost all my marbles yet, grin if you must!

MOONSHINE STILL SAGA WHILE WORKING WITH THE NCDOC

Sometime in the middle to late 1980s while working with the NC Department of Correction at the Anson Correctional Center in Polkton, NC, a fellow employee (now deceased) asked me if I would bend him a coil from copper tubing.  The individual knew that I bent tubing for my portable foot climber tree stands, whereas I asked him what he was going to use the copper coil for.  He replied with some kind of answer such as a radiator coil, of which I knew wasn't true.  I told him he was making a condenser coil for a moonshine still of which he denied, and therefore declined to make a coil of copper tubing for him.

Not too many months after that, an inmate on parole who was staying at the above mentioned individual's home, (highly against DOC policy) was caught by local law enforcement driving while intoxicated and had jars of moonshine in the vehicle as well.  To make a long story short, he gave up, OK ratted his landlord off concerning the moonshine and told them about the small moonshine still that was made from a large aluminum beer keg.  Also, someone from the Sheriff's Office called the individual and told him they were going to be on his property looking for the moonshine still, of which he quickly removed the still off his property onto adjacent unoccupied property.

The moonshine still was confiscated and on display at the community college for some time if I am not mistaken.

There is more to the story, but I am not going to reveal in print anymore information about this incident even though most of the participants involved are now deceased! 

NOTE:  The above short story is not a treatise on how to make moonshine, whereas there are plenty of available information via the internet to do so.  It is to my understanding, it is illegal to make moonshine in NC without a distillers permit.

Read my short story page introduction, "Who guards, the guards."

DRUNKENNESS

The Bible speaks plainly about drunkenness and check these Bible scripture references:

Galatians 5:19 - 5:21

 https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Bible-Verses-About-Drunkenness/

Web page published by Bill aka Mickey Porter on 04-29-2022 and updated on 04-30-2022.,