Alabama To Tennessee State Line Clubs To Old Time Bootleggers

This isn't news.

Please do not forget to mention the infamous bootlegging Dawson Gang. The Robin Hood type of Colbert County. They helped so many people in this area when the kids had nothing to eat or clothes to wear to school. They all were just good ol country boys making a living and helping others in need who did not have the guts to do the necessary to survive. They are still missed to this day.

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This isn't news.

Then by god,don't click on it if you don't want to read it.Simple.

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They helped so many people in this area when the kids had nothing to eat or clothes to wear to school. They all were just good ol country boys making a living and helping others in need who did not have the guts to do the necessary to survive. They are still missed to this day.

Yes what the shoals is missing is a criminal gang. Way to point that out. The shoals NEEDS more thieves and murders as long as it helps the poor children.

Um, you better check your facts, Bud; I was a kid in the Dawson's heyday, and I was nothing but terrified of them. Robin Hood? Puhleeze!

Please also remember that it was more of those "good ole boys" with "the guts to do whatever was necessary to survive" who murdered the finest sheriff we've ever known in this county in cold blood.

You may have watched Smokey and the Bandit one too many times; I lived it, and it was far more like Walking Tall--not funny at all.

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Originally posted by Backwoods:

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This isn't news.

Then by god,don't click on it if you don't want to read it.Simple.

Right!! I don't care how many threads there are on this topic. I could read this stuff all day. I can remember being there when some of the fighting was happening...brings back a lot of memories some good, some not so good I could get in up there when I was (just before) 17. We would bar hop all the way over to the DOG HOUSE in Cypress Inn and wait to hook up with somebody going across the road to the BLACK CAT (private club). I would lock my kids in thier rooms for things like that.

Rustic Park, aka, Miss Annie's was in a different league from the "clubs." It was an old fashioned German style Biergarten, run by Miss Annie Evers, devout Roman Catholic who tolerated no fighting or cursing. Before I started school, I was sent there nearly day by my Grandfather who, with his cronies spent the day sipping beer and dissecting all the news from the Nashville, Lawrenceburg, Florence, and Birmingham and Huntsville papers with an eye towards not blasting either LBJ or FDR and wishing they were still active union members so they could bust some heads. They taught me to read by the age of 3.5. so by 5 I could read as well as most of them and did, reading the stories aloud. I drank Double Cola. I love it to this day. Bringing the "boys home" was one of the main topics as my Uncle Morris, whom I never knew was killed in Korea in 1953, 6 years before I was born and I looked amazingly like a younger version of him. My Papa could have put the fear of God into LBJ and Kissinger and Goldwater on Asian affairs were he to have ever met them.

It seems the apple does not fall far from the tree either.

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Originally posted by Backwoods:

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This isn't news.

Then by god,don't click on it if you don't want to read it.Simple.

I think he just meant that it was in the wrong category.

My granddad owned and operated the package store on the state line at Hwy 43. He died when I was young and our family later got out of the business.

Growing up I would stay at my grandmother's house and walk across the street, every day, to the package store to get a coke and candy bar. The folks who worked there missed my granddad a lot and they would only charge us kids a nickel or two for a dollar's worth of stuff just to be nice.

I've got a bunch of old Schlitz and Bud stuff from the store. Keep it for nostalgia's sake. Man, the stories my family has told me about the 50's and 60's around there...

I remember in high school going up Colbert Mountain to buy a six pack of Old Milwaukee from a lady named Blanche. It cost 6 bucks.

Jackie Bass got a few visits from us, too. He lived behind where Papa John's Pizza is now.

Good times...

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Originally posted by Henhouse Prowler:
My granddad owned and operated the package store on the state line at Hwy 43. He died when I was young and our family later got out of the business.

Growing up I would stay at my grandmother's house and walk across the street, every day, to the package store to get a coke and candy bar. The folks who worked there missed my granddad a lot and they would only charge us kids a nickel or two for a dollar's worth of stuff just to be nice.

I've got a bunch of old Schlitz and Bud stuff from the store. Keep it for nostalgia's sake. Man, the stories my family has told me about the 50's and 60's around there...

......I have a real old "Sterling" Beer opener. The handle is marble with the Sterling brand name on it. How long ago was that..lol....Blues thanks for the thread.....interesting stuff!!!

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Originally posted by Backwoods:

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This isn't news.

Then by god,don't click on it if you don't want to read it.Simple.

Tell 'em about it!

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Originally posted by Henhouse Prowler:

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Originally posted by Backwoods:

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This isn't news.

Then by god,don't click on it if you don't want to read it.Simple.

I think he just meant that it was in the wrong category.

I'm sure he did,but he isn't forum police and he should have said it nicer.He's already shown great aptitude at being an arrogant smart ass.

Ahh, 150 is just a redneck, he don't know no difference.

unclegus, you're a mess!!

beeb, the sheriff that you were referring to was that Colbert County Sheriff Herman "Red" Cook who was shot down in 08/18/1963 when he and Littleville Police Chief James Pace and a few other officers was attempting to arrest a bootlegger in Colbert County.

Grady and his "red dogs" aka warm beer with tomato juice and Marie fussing at them at the State Line Package and the thought of BBQ coming in as "novel", Prowler, how I do miss those characters!

The action at the fireworks stand the Bicentennial Year, you and K. and Ken., were too young to remember that year and L. and N. not yet born!

"Little Debbie snack cakes! Little Debbie snack cakes! as Ken. did once say to us all.

p.s. Mr. F's silver dollars! And the pool! Great fun at your grandparents back in the 70s! L. does not know how to make Miss R.'s grape jello and pineapple, cottage cheese and walnut salad. What is wrong with our mutual cousin?

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Originally posted by Neal Hughes:
Grady and his "red dogs" aka warm beer with tomato juice and Marie fussing at them at the State Line Package and the thought of BBQ coming in as "novel", Prowler, how I do miss those characters!

The action at the fireworks stand the Bicentennial Year, you and K. and Ken., were too young to remember that year and L. and N. not yet born!

"Little Debbie snack cakes! Little Debbie snack cakes! as Ken. did once say to us all.

p.s. Mr. F's silver dollars! And the pool! Great fun at your grandparents back in the 70s! L. does not know how to make Miss R.'s grape jello and pineapple, cottage cheese and walnut salad. What is wrong with our mutual cousin?

Man I miss those folks at the store and the pool, fireworks stand, the whole shebang. I think I can speak for Ken to say that he still cries out for those Little Debbie snack cakes. On some level we all do :-)

FYI I may have that recipe - or to be more accurate MY WIFE may have that recipe. She has a bunch of them that were passed down.

Tell that cousin of ours to get busy -- her children and husband and church work and sick people can wait! I want Miss Ruby's salad and made by L.! I had to suffer through Sarah's birthday "party" last week, complete with 3 times singing "Happy Birthday" and her posing for the camera over and over again! I can never get a decent picture of her -- she always makes faces like she is on Broadway. Holly on the other hand, is a natural. I have some fantastic ones in B&W I just sent L. from her birthday last year.

You know we are all praying for your uncle and aunt, I hope, and your Mom, too. I am done with my chemo in 3 weeks!

youtube video, Link

I'm surprised nobody mentioned the old "57 Club" on Second St. in Muscle Shoals. There a fourteen year old could buy Pabst Blue Ribbon from a mysterous arm that came out of a small opening on the back side away from the street...little circular drive around back..

Blues
You left off Whit Myricks trailer at McFarland, Jones in North Florence, Moose Club, Turtle Point, Jide Iron's West College Club, VFW Club, and others that tend fade in my memory...

Watching for horse trailers, Air Shock Vehicles, checking out the vehicles at tourway or Carl's in Muscle Shoals, staking out the large barn on Darby, uncovering stashes just over the fence line of the property, laying in a dirt pit of Ice and covered with a tarp, finding stacks of schliz and pabst in woods covered with brush, J.W Dant bourbon, pints and gallon jugs of moonshine, etc...

trader,

Who was the blackman that ran the old VFW in Sheffield way back when I remember Papa Law that ran the one in Florence. Also forgot some of the old haulers, except for W.O. Also remember where some of the old hang outs were at, the old truck stop where Eastpoint's is now, the old Pitt Grill, the old Western Truck Stop in Tuscumbia. You remember that dummy that raided the Elks's club, the Moose Club and the Country Club, way back then, all in the same night, that was real dumb, lol. Some one should write a book about the old times.

Blues...
Yea! I don't know what that guy was thinking when he and one of the best group of cops who ever wore badges raided those places that were known as the "Untouchables" before then. I remember one Police Captain saying, "Holy S...", when the load was brought in and he was told where it had come from.

The fire storm afterward set Chief Danley's phone on fire. I know Chief called that guy in and told him "****'t Son, my phone has not stopped ringing this morning!" You men did your job...keep doing it, I'll handle the interference.
Remember the hundreds of cases of beer and whiskey that were stacked 6 feet high in the back rooms and lobby of the Police Department.

I remember the City Judge and City Prosecuter sitting at the bar at Turtle Point when the raid happen. Their eyes were like a deer caught in headlights when the guys walked through that door with the search warrant.
They were given 2 minutes to get out the door and run for their cars before the paper was served.
I watched when it went to court the same judge render a guilty verdict, after the same prosecutor prosecuted the case. All knew,the judge, the prosecutor,the Turtle Point members in the court room and officers who raided what went on that day because all were present when it went down.
For your information, I talked to the Manager of Turtle Point years later and he told me the largest stash was missed as it was hidden in a secret room with a false wall. We both had a laugh about the judge and prosecutor running for the door.
Go to the entertainment section...type in "The Run" it lays out some things you just may remember...
I have not finished it yet as I have not made up my mind about whether to continue it on or stop it at chapter 16..
Blues I have worked with a lot of officers in Birmingham and several counties in Alabama over the years...
Those men still stand out as they knew there was a possibility they were putting their jobs on the line because those places had members who were the movers and shakers of the Shoals community.
But they did it any way, because it was the right thing to do. To enforce the laws equally regardless of social economic issues and those men had the balls to take the heat and continued to do their job long after those noted raids.
My respect for Chief Danley jumped a thousand fold when he protected those men from any inside or outside threats because of those raids.
As I look back on it now...it was a useless law and a waste of law enforcement personnel. No! Body wanted it enforced as it was a law that was based on an idea that did not match the attitude of the masses. That is why the Tenn Line Clubs were so busy. The Alabama Citizens went up there to spend their money and the Club owners made all good living off of the North Alabama Citizen. Bootlegging was simply a way to provide a product that was much in demand by most of the North Alabama citizens.
The Community spent thousands of dollars to enforce this law. When it became legal, 95% of the bootlegging stopped because the amount of money to be made went away. Thus, making alcohol legal did what dozens of men who attempted to enforce the law could not do. It made those men who were at one time considered criminals, now legitimate businessmen.
It was a law about taxiation nothing more.

The Run was posted under the Title
"Remember?" I'll bump it up again.

i remember those days too, if your grandfather was who i think you talking about he was one generous person, as a kid i remember him very well, he let me learn to swim in his pool and always had a sack of fireworks for me on the 4th, even fished with him once, mr and mrs fox will always be remembered by me

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Originally posted by Henhouse Prowler:
My granddad owned and operated the package store on the state line at Hwy 43. He died when I was young and our family later got out of the business.

Growing up I would stay at my grandmother's house and walk across the street, every day, to the package store to get a coke and candy bar. The folks who worked there missed my granddad a lot and they would only charge us kids a nickel or two for a dollar's worth of stuff just to be nice.

I've got a bunch of old Schlitz and Bud stuff from the store. Keep it for nostalgia's sake. Man, the stories my family has told me about the 50's and 60's around there...

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Originally posted by kusineddy:
i remember those days too, if your grandfather was who i think you talking about he was one generous person, as a kid i remember him very well, he let me learn to swim in his pool and always had a sack of fireworks for me on the 4th, even fished with him once, mr and mrs fox will always be remembered by me

Yep, that was him. He passed away in '73 and then my grandmother passed away last year, so she lived another 35 years after he died.

The four-laning of hwy 43 got the house and the pool plus the fireworks stand. Just not the same up there anymore.

Thanks for the comments about them. Everywhere I go I run into people who knew him and the stories they tell always involve generosity and kindness. Hope I can live up to that bar one day.