The Bootlegger by bmac62
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Description
If memory serves me correctly, the first time we saw the shiny new 1958 Chevy sedan, we were going south on the New Jersey Turnpike. The four-door sedan was being driven by a man about the same age as our fathers. It was Easter vacation, 1958, and Dick Search was driving. Dick, me, and two other members of our high school's Five Fathoms Club were heading south for our annual SCUBA diving trip in Marathon, Florida in Dick's bright red 1949 Ford convertible. We were four high school seniors off on our first great adventure without adult supervision. As the Chevy passed us on the left we all gawked, each secretly wishing we could get a crack behind the wheel.
Hours quietly slipped by and night fell. My turn to drive came on a hilly, two lane road in Maryland heading for the recently completed Chesapeake Bay Bridge. This was to be a non-stop drive from New York to Florida because we were both tight on money and had four eager young drivers to share the wheel. There had been little or no traffic for the past half hour, so when I looked in the rearview mirror and saw a pair of bright headlights rising and falling over the rolling hills and getting closer by the minute, my first thought was, "Hope that isn't a cop." I slowed slightly to make sure I wasn't speeding and let the pursuing car catch up. When the car was right behind us the driver flashed his headlights and pulled up beside us. We all let out our collective breaths and almost shouted, "Hey, it's that guy we saw earlier with the new Chevy!" He tooted his horn, gave us a friendly wave and motioned for us to pull over to the side of the road. We decided that since he appeared harmless and we outnumbered him four to one, there wasn't anything to lose by pulling over and seeing what he wanted.
The driver got out of his car and came back to my driver's-side window. He was bleary eyed and wearing a rumpled grey suit. He leaned tiredly on the door and said, "Hey, I saw you boys back on the Jersey Turnpike this afternoon. I am tired and need to get back to Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Would one of you fellas mind driving the car for me?" We looked around at each other and said, "Sure, two of us would be glad to come with you." I turned Dick's car back over to him, and Paul and I eagerly went forward and climbed into the shiny new car. We figured while one of us drove the other could be in the back seat providing security if needed. My friend Paul got in the driver's seat, the Chevy owner got in the front passenger seat, and I slid into the back. With a turn of the key we were once again on our way south.
Sitting in the back seat, I noticed a Mason jar box on the floor. The Chevy owner quickly revived now that he was out from behind the wheel. Without batting an eye he said he was on his way home after delivering a trunk-load of moonshine to a buyer in Brooklyn. He said there were a few Mason jars of moonshine in the box on the back floor, and if we'd like a couple of jars we could go ahead and take them. He told us that driving a new sedan and wearing a suit made him appear inconspicuous. He never carried a spare tire in order to get more cases of moonshine into the trunk. Since the man appeared to be thankful for our help and open in his communication, both Paul and I just marveled at what we were hearing. We had both seen Robert Mitchum's movie, Thunder Road, about running moonshine in a souped-up Ford with a secret tank in the back and his misadventures out-running the ever vigilant "government revenuers." It dawned on me that we were assisting a guy doing exactly the same thing. The thought went through my mind that if we got pulled over and the police figured out what this guy was up to, we'd probably get dragged off to jail with him. The good news is we made it to Rocky Mount as the sun came up, the man thanked us, we stopped and jumped back in Dick's red Ford to continue on our way, just a little bit wiser than we had been 5-6 hours before. And no, we didn't take any of his incriminating Mason jars with us!
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This is the second in a series of stories I am writing as memories for my family and friends. I will continue to add story by story here over time, but my list is long. I hope you'll enjoy them at least half as much as I am remembering and assembling the details.
Bill
Comments (18)
Cyve
Marvelous old car !!!
jendellas
Loving the memory stories, great car. Xx
goodoleboy
A friend named Dick SEARCH, and moonshine in Mason jars? What a strange experience! Excellent capture of the gorgeous 1958 Chevrolet, Bill.
MrsRatbag
Fascinating story, Bill; life was simpler back then! And adventures like that tended not to be as fraught with danger as today...
jocko500
I like that movie Thunder Road. real cool story and image
Faemike55
Love the movie and song and now we know someone who actually drove some! Very cool image and story thank you for sharing your interesting past with us
durleybeachbum
I was right there with you! Most exciting!
debbielove
Love you're idea here, a story and a photo you've shot or found.. Excellent once more, love the car here.. Thanks once more.. Rob
jayfar
Lovely car and a super misty backdrop.
helanker
OH GOSH! I am glad you got out of it without being stopped by the cops. Nice huge car. Glad it isnt mine :-) I am looking forward to the next story :-)
RodS Online Now!
An accessory to bootlegging, huh?? Why you wild rascal, you! LOL Aw, come on... You didn't even take a sniff? :-D A wonderful shot, Bill, and wow - I love your writing, too! More adventures, please! :-D
T.Rex
Oh, my. Since nobody was on to him, you fellows were quite safe. But it was a lesson learned. Thanks for sharing, Bill. I greatly appreciate it. Brings back old memories, among others the film I'd heard a bit about, but never saw. Keep up the good work! :-)
kgb224
Thank you for sharing your stories and fond memories my friend Superb capture and wonderful writing. God bless.
auntietk
I like the way this story turned out. Well written, and lots of fun to read! :)
danapommet
I loved the story Bill - as much as I loved the photo - of the old 1958 Chevy!
Chipka
Oh, I'm on this history kick, because of a book I'm about to read, once I finish the other book I'm reading. it's a quasi-historical novel about the shooting-death of Lazarus Averbuch (he's kinda famous in these here Chicago-parts, as that guy who was in the wrong place [Chicago] at the wrong time [any day of the week] and was killed in what is now recognized as a case of mistaken identity.) Anyway...there is no moonshine in the story I'm about to read, nor are there any nice cars. And what an image! Corey is more into cars than I am, but I know a sexy automobile when I see one. But what I want to know, now, is...how good is moonshine if shipped and consumed in a mason jar? If one could vouch for the quality, I'd give it a try, but that's just me, living dangerously and on the edge of...um...something. I like your sense of pacing and the way you don't rush through this; it's a short piece: perfect for a recollection, and in a sense, it reads more like fiction than non-fiction, which is generally a mark of being well done. And it's well done. More of these are most welcome, and it looks like you've posted another one. I'm so far behind, but I plan on catching up. Meanwhile, I thoroughly, totally, completely enjoyed this. You're good at this writing thing. Feel free to do more.
FredNunes
Very cool Bill. Love these cars. Well captured!
anahata.c
Delightful choice of things to share. It's really a vignette, and the fact that nothing bad happened doesn't diminish your tale one iota, because you told it with this gentle inviting way that erases any letdown that you didn't wind up in a major high-speed chase or anything like that. The wild "what if's" are present as possibility, here; and they're all caressed with the love and gentility of a sweet teenage memory, and a sweet soul telling that memroy. That's what comes across. Everything else is contained within that embrace. It's lovely. You mentioned "Thunder Road": You know what film I thought of? If you know the film, you'll laugh: "Wages of Fear". Lol---if you didn't see it, good! Because you might be insulted that it came to mind. But when you take us into the tale, making us wonder what will happen to you as you continue with this small-time moonshine dude, I thought of that truck driving up horrid roads, carrying explosives, and nearly falling off cliffs, crashing, banging, etc: It's a lovely film, lots of laughs (I'm being ironic, in case you never saw it)---and believe me, it doesn't apply. But you did do a fine job of building the tension: It's contained in the moment you got into the guy's car. That very moment. (I'm thinking---you actually took over the wheel, of a guy you don't know and never met? Brave souls, you two.) And when I first read this, I was all a-wonder about whether you'd take the moonshine---or, for that matter, if it really 'was' moonshine. So the tensions were all there. Also, it's amazing how moonshine was really 'contraband' back then: It seems so tame by today's standards. (Though I once drank some, and I gotta say, it could've taken the chrome off that chevy in under 2 seconds: Maybe it really is contraband. It was rough. Major rough...) I love the gentle way you wind the story down: There's nothing lost, no disappointment that the big arrest never happened, or that the guy didn't turn out to be a soviet spy with secret formulas in the backseat: We feared it, thought about it, experienced the "what if"---and then it was over. Not easy to make such a tale feel so complete. But that's one of the things I got from your earlier writing: You made a small tale feel complete, all was in it that ever had to be in it. It's very sweet, and if you want to present these to your family as loving pieces of your life, the loving part comes across beautifully. Very sweetly felt and written; and again kudos to Tara for her editing help. Oh, and I like the photo too: Yours? Now to the last one (of the 3 you've posted so far)...