NewSouth

Moonshine Memories
Thomas R. Allison
NewSouth Books, 2001
392pp

The chapters of Thomas Allison's Moonshine Memories are stories strung together in the rambling oral traditon of a southern "good ole boy." Arriving at his office in Anniston, Alabama, in 1955, he found a note on the locked door reading, "New man, go downstairs to the concession stand and tell Bob to let you in."

In the office another note read, "New man, have on green clothes and running boots, will pick you up in front of Post Office at 3:00 a.m.."

Thus the new man, Allison, began his career as a U.S. revenue agent.

This book is full of real life characters and adventures as remembered by Allison: he tells of moonshiners and revenuers, late night vigils and midnight chases through dark woods and swift rivers. He reminisces, "I always enjoyed telling about the time I ran a moonshiner from an Alabama still all the way into Georgia before I caught him." From the big stills in St. Clair County and Cleburne to the small stills in Clay and Talladega and undercover work in Atlanta, this story is in the people as Allison remembers them.

He remembers that 1958 Autauga County sheriff, George Grant, had once been a ball player who struck out Babe Ruth, but he doesn't remember if he played for the Tigers or the Cardinals. What comes through this personal history is a picture of a man who did his job and enjoyed it, lives his life and enjoys it, and wants to share it with others. Most of us are, after all, our own historians.