My late business partner in Folk-Legacy, Lee Haggerty, told of spending a night drinking 'shine with Hamper McBee, an old pro at the game, in East Tennessee. They finally gave it up and Lee sacked out on the floor in a sleeping bag. Early in the morning, Hamper came into the room, leaned over, and offered Lee another pull from the jug. "Jesus, Hamper," Lee moaned. "Not before breakfast!" Hamper shook the Mason jar a bit and said, "Aw shit, Lee! Don't you see that pork chop in there?"

When I was recording folks on Beech Mountain, North Carolina, one of my "informants" offered me some home-made peach brandy. Pure fire! I asked him where he got it and was told, "One of my best friends is a deputy sheriff. Whenever he takes in some of the really good stuff, he always saves a little for me." My informant kept it in the hayloft of his barn, firmly convinced that his wife didn't know about it. Wrong, of course. She just chose to go along with the pretense when it seemed he had to go out to check on the heifer several times every evening.

Sandy