Moonshine Women

Moments in the Flow…When Life Imitates Art

Poinsett Bridge

Hello Again,

It’s been a difficult, technology-filled week for me but I’m getting used to all the new ways the sites work and passwords I’ve had to deal with after the transfer to my new Vivobook. At lunch, I was taking a break from all this and reading a book I picked up at the library. Moonshine Women is the title. It made me curious as we generally imagine the Moonshine Makers to be men.

I had just finished a scene where a girl is with her father at their still, hidden somewhere in the Ozark Mountains. As it ends, there is the surprise appearance of a full-antlered buck and the daughter is grateful that her father didn’t have his rifle.

At that moment I looked up and through my kitchen window I saw a small deer, standing on my front lawn in the blazing sun, just looking around. Of course, I tried to get my phone camera open (shooting photos and shooting with a gun) but by that time, it was gone. Still, I felt that wonderful ‘alteration of reality’ when this connection from book to life was made. But there is more.

I have written about visiting my Southern family in Souls That Cry for Water, mentioned in Wednesday’s post about water, too. And I think the deer might have been looking for a way to reach the Enoree River. The creek in the woods might be low on water again. And the way it was going, the deer would need to cross a few roads that aren’t the safest way to get there.

The title Moonshine Women attracted me because I have never explored this Southern lineage. I know they come from England and I have an affinity with the UK. But growing up in NYC, I don’t have a background or affinity with country ways. And I had no idea when I moved here that I would be on ancestral ground. This was revealed a few years after by a cousin who got into genealogy.

Without knowing this, the friend I visited and later stayed with while I looked for a house was walking distance to the road that bears that ancestral name. On my first visit I did notice that road and the name of the tombstones at the nearby church. But my cousin also told me the story he got from his mother about what the family was doing, other than farming.

It appears that some of our relatives were in the Moonshine trade in the Dark Corners area of South Carolina. I found this article today that is chronicling the names of places I have travelled regularly since I moved here. I also learned that this moonshine trade became a way for farmers to make money during the economic downturn from the Civil War.

More than a century later, I had my first and only taste of moonshine near the Cherokee Highway, one of the roads mentioned in the article. I was at a wonderful house party the first year I was here. There was a small group of friends (all southern but me) and 3 of them were musicians. I got to hear the fiddle, banjo and guitar in the living room. That music is in my lineage for sure. And at one point, a mason jar came out of the freezer. It had a clear liquid inside and I was warned not to drink but just let it touch my lips. I understand that, too, because there was a definite and long-lasting buzz just from doing so.

Now it’s legal and you can go into downtown Greenville and find a place you can taste and buy Moonshine. But I have never done so. The person who warned me is still in my life and became a very good friend.

But it appears that my mother’s grandfather rebelled against this moonshine-making and drinking in general. He left for Georgia and became a Lay Preacher (healing hands). And that I relate to, as I still practice hands-on healing with Jin Shin Jyutsu and Reiki.

I’m interested to see if there’s any more magic and connection for me in this book (by Michelle Collins Anderson), even if it is set in a place far west of the Blue Ridge. Despite Great Grandfather leaving, there are men and women on that line that have their stories in my bones.

Adding a note to tell you that the Moondays Report arriving on Sunday will have information about Venus entering Leo and the Gemini New Moon along with the week’s moon phases and signs and a daily forecast.

See you next time!

As always, I welcome your comments and questions and feel free to share or restack. I will appreciate it if you tap the heart icon to let me know if you liked the post. Thank you!