Atlanta
Bootleggers
I was working on the Cristiani Wallace Circus in the early sixties and we were playing around North
Georgia. It was a Saturday night in Newnan and we were headed to Mableton that
night after we tore down the bigtop. My
pal Howard had a TBird on the show,which was unusual as the owner of the show
didn’t like for anyone except the performers to have personal vehicles. He
figured if a working hand had a car it would be too easy for him to escape. But
he allowed Howards Tbird if he would let the purchasing agent to borrow it to
pick up supplies once in awhile.
But this night orders from headquarters came
down that they were short handed for truck drivers so Howard would have to
drive the Grease Joint (Hot Dog Stand) to the next town. He came to me and
said, his brother Doug was going to drive it but he would like for me to go
with him to make sure he didn’t get lost. So we tore the Show down and I went
over to the TBird and doug was there but also Clem the HotDog Operater was there
also, he said I’m going to ride over with you guys. Right away I smelled a plot
going on. Sure enough we hadn’t been on the road 15 minutes when Clem said, “We
need to find a bar and get a drink”. Doug was a pretty heavy drinker but Clem
was hardcore alcoholic.
Now back in the
old days They had “Blue Laws”, so called because they were in a special book
written on blue paper and they were only enforced on Sundays. Circuses weren’t
allowed to work, many businesses had to close especially if they were considered
‘immoral’, for Instance bars had to be closed at midnight Saturday night and
couldn’t reopen until Monday.
I told them,
“You’re not going to find a bar open in Georgia now.
Clem said,
“We’ll find a bootlegger”.
I thought, “Good
Luck, it’s 1;30 AM” So we kept moving along and we were at the outskirts of
Atlanta and I saw a truck stop and told Doug to pull into it and get some
coffee. We ordered coffee and the place was just about empty. There was a
skinny looking Redneck sitting at the counter and Clem went to talk to him.
Clem came back
and said, “This guy’s a boot legger but he doesn’t have booze here, he wants us
to follow him to his house to get the merchandise.”
So we go out and start trailing this guy and
we went way out into the countryside and I told Doug , “I don’t like the looks
of this”.
Finally we
arrived at a dirt road that went up a hill to an old shack and there was a
handpainted card board sign at the entrance that said “Private Properrty… Keep
Out !” I told Doug, “Park here Doug,
don’t go up that driveway… If you go up there it will be very hard to turn
around in case this guy pulls a gun on you. He can walk back down with the
booze. He sees this TBird and he probably thinks we got lots of money.” Doug
& Clem agreed. The Redneck yelled, “You guys come on up”…. Clem yelled,
“You come on down”.
“No” he said,
“Come up here”.
Clem yelled
back, “Fu** You”, we don’t want yer fuggin likker!” and Doug floored it and we
left in a cloud of dust with gravel flying.
I told Doug,
“Just keep going straight till we get off this dirt road and we’ll hit the main
Highway in five minutes. We got to the Highway and I looked behind and saw
headlights on a car coming up a quarter of a mile back and when it went under a
street light I saw it was the Redneck and he was hauling ass trying to catch
us.
I told Doug to
take the next left and go two streets over and take a parallel street and cut
his lights off. We did and I looked down the side street and saw the Rednecks
car going in the opposite direction.
We got back on
the highway and I kept watching but we had lost the redneck. We went through
Atlanta and arrived at the Circus lot in Mableton. On the way in I spotted a
Motel a block away, so we parked the TBird next to the owners Cadilac, I went
over and woke Howard and gave him his car keys and we walked down to the Motel
and got a room. Since the show didn’t open the next day, I took my time getting
up , went to the Restaurant , ate breakfast and Clem & Doug came in and we
decided to go see if any showgirls were interested in going to a movie in town.
When I got to
the lot the owner was helping the layout man prepare the lot to put the trucks
in position to be ready to put up the tent the next morning.
I walked up and
he turned to me and said, “See you guys want to watch TV at the Motel and you
miss all the excitement.”
“What
excitement”, I asked?
He said, “About
8:30 this morning some crazy bastard came up and started beating on my trailer
door and yelling …Yer gonna buy this moonshine muthaf*****, or I’m gonna kick
yer ass”. So I jumped out and slugged
him and broke his jaw, the cops came and took him away.
I gave Clem a
sidelong glance and told him in a whisper, “I think we’d better keep quiet
about this”. And this is the first time
I’ve told this story in fifty years.
Law of limitations is up amigos !!
