Of Moonshine and Memories
Posted by Bob Barcus on December 1st, 2014
Have you seen the video of people drinking moonshine for the first time? It come across my Facebook feed a couple of times over the Thanksgiving holiday, but I neglected to actually watch the video until I got to work on Monday morning. Yes, I have my priorities straight. There were several hilarious parts, but I’ll let you watch the video for yourself so you can get a little chuckle out of your Monday, too.
For whatever reason, I immediately thought of an incident in my seventh grade health class, or at least I’m pretty sure it was seventh grade. The health teacher began discussing the topic of alcohol and displayed in that particular section of our textbook was a mason jar filled with a dingy brown substance labeled “moonshine”. At that moment, she decided to point out the jar and began telling us how awful it must be to drink that dirty stuff.
I took offense.
You see, I have several family members from Kentucky. In our frequent journeys south of the Ohio River, I have, upon occasion, actually seen moonshine. My teacher, on the other hand, has obviously never seen moonshine or was otherwise trying to keep us from drinking liquor. Naturally, at such a young age, I was never permitted to abide the intoxicating beverage.
While it was completely out of character for me, I raised my hand in health class and waited. I believe my comment was something along the lines of, “I’m sorry, but that’s NOT moonshine.” To which the teacher responded, “And how do you know?”
Not trying to be a smartass, but we had just gotten back from a family trip to Kentucky and I’m fairly certain that I had observed multiple jars of clear, pristine moonshine being transported back to the Hoosier State. Not wishing to implicate any of my family members, I slightly sidestepped the issue and simply said, “It doesn’t matter, but I can guarantee that moonshine doesn’t look like dirty water.”
As I recall, the discussion ended there with a slightly perturbed educator. I understand that she was only trying to keep us from drinking. And I most certainly wasn’t advocating the consumption of moonshine. But, I’m not one who likes misinformation, especially in a classroom. Furthermore, I'm fairly certain the picture on the page didn't stop anyone in my class from drinking.
Bottoms up.