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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 25, 1982)
Tne Battalion August 25, 1982 Page 1B ootlegging one an’s way of life United Press International TEXARKANA — Johnnie Gentry says he has been in jail ; more times than many folks have been in church — but that’s just the price he has paid for his 43-year career as a bootlegger and moonshiner. I Sitting in his living room f vfhere pictures of his 17 children and their families cover the walls, Gentry, 65, is now retired |and is content to shell peas and Meet on the past. ■ Gentry said moonshining was away of survival during the De gression. He said he began his career when he was 16 and his llamily moved from West Texas to Titus County. Soon after, he diegan assisting older whiskey Bakers. ■ "I worked for 50 cents a day land was glad to get it,” he said. ■ Outside his home is a collection ol trucks and cars — old time getaway vehicles. T “I have outrun every officer in this county,” Gentry says, pointing to a Ford pickup parked in a dirt driveway. I Gentry got his first still when he was 17 or 18 and “I’d make whiskey all day long.” I The night before he married his wife, Mildred, he sold a man tyvo 10-gallon kegs of whiskey for $25 each. I “It was more than most peo ple in the county had,” Gentry ‘said. “I had a young horse, a brand new saddle and hogs run ning in the bottom.” I The preacher who married ■entry and his wife carried a | bottle of moonshine in his pock et all the time, he said. “After he married us, he ached in his coat pocket and me out with a half pint. He iys, John, you’re going to need i drink.’” ■ Gentry described his life as a cycle of distilling moonshine and being chased by federal agents. One incident in 1936 stands out vividly in his memory — the day 17 agents raided his still. Gentry was in a Model A car driven by a companion with 21 gallons of whiskey in itn he said. The driver steered the Model A straight at the agents to get away. He said: “They began shoot ing,” hitting the car at least nine times. He said one agent grabbed him by the shirt as he fled, but he ... The preacher who married Gentry and his wife carried a bottle of moonshine in his pocket all the time, he said. “Af ter he married us, he reached in his coat pocket and came out with a half pint. He says, John, you’re going to need a drink.”’—John nie Gentry, retired bootlegger kept going. The shirt was left in the agent’s hands. “They was shooting in every direction,” he said. “We had three rigs (stills) going that night that got raided.” Another moonshiner that night hid from the agents in a hog pen with a sow and six pigs, he said. Gentry said how often they were raided depended on how often somebody got mad at them and turned them in. Stills were set up on somebody else’s property so the moonshiner couldn’t be traced. “We’d hide it as best we could. We also looked for a place they (lawmen) couldn’t hem us in.” By 1953, when Gentry had his last still, bonded liquor was easier and cheaper to get. But his illicit activities merely shifted more to bootlegging. Gentry, who has one artificial eye as the result of a childhood accident, did try his hand at law ful employment but it didn’t work out. He hauled dirt, drove a bulldozer and worked on an oil r 'g- Oil drilling proved as treacherous as moonshining. In one rig accident, he cut a nerve in his leg, broke his back and fractured his hip. “I quit then,” he said. “That was in ’59. I went back on in ’61 and worked nearly two years. “Then I went intb straight bootlegging. I had three braces I had to wear. I wasn’t able to get a job at anything else. I already had a reputation. I had a family to keep up.” But even while he was em- ^ed at other jobs, he bootleg ged on the side, retailing the moonshine of others. He was last raided in 1975, he said, and quit bootlegging in 1977. By the 19/0s, he bought moonshine and bonded whiskey from others to sell in dry Titus County. “I bought lots of whiskey in Oklahoma,” he said. “It got to be where it was hard to get across the Red River. You never knew when (lawmen) were going to block it.” He finally quit bootlegging in 1977 when he began driving an oil truck. “1 got tired of it,” Gentry said. “(Bootlegging) was too much worry. ” Welcome, Class of ’86! staff photo by David Fisher Becoming a freshman means learning to tit in. Part of that process includes learning the yells so as not to become an object of general derision at yell practices. Here some incoming freshmen at Fish Camp “hump it” during a mid-afternoon yell practice. ploye Red Collector blasts neighbors United Press International PHOENIX, Ariz. — Why would anyone want to collect cannons? “Well,” says Dale Sandige, “they don’t rust and they don’t eat anything and there’s nothing to wear out.” Also, he said, they’re too heavy to steal. Callers step through San- dige’s front door to find them selves staring into the muzzle of a 4-foot cannon. Three cannons point off his back porch toward the neigh bors. The neighbors hear the “BOOMS.” They feel their win dows rattle. Clouds of black smoke bearing the smell of rot ten eggs waft over their lawns and hedges. “They’ve never called the police,” he said. “They say ‘Oh, that’s that crazy Sandige. He only does it once a year so let him do it.’ I don’t know if they’re deaf or intimidated.” Sandige started collecting cannons in 1977. “I didn’t have a cannon to play with when I was a kid,” he said. “I can’t remember why my folks wouldn’t buy me one.” So he put an ad for cannons in a hobby magazine. Now he has 70 to 80 cannons. Some are like the 500-pounder from the War of 1812 standing guard inside his front door. Some look out from mounts on the tip of his baby finger. A model of a Gatling gun and a cannon he says once guarded the German passenger liner Prince Rupert sit in his living room. A toy cannon, the first he collected, is in front of his fire place. A shiny, brass, 200-pound poopdeck cannon once used by the French to repel pirates points toward the kitchen. Under the television set: A sun dial cannon. “You set it at a certain angle and it’ll go off at noon.” All those come before enter ing the Cannon Room. There, on shelves and on the floor, are his toy cannons, like the one which uses a firecracker to propel rubber balls. Poised on the floor are signal cannons from the 1860s and 1880s, similar to ones used today to start yacht races. Sandige has been named unit chief for Arizona in a tongue-in- cheek cannon club known as CHAOS, Cannon Hunters Association of Seattle. CHAOS “canonizes” members who save cannons from destruction. ^iiimimiiiiiiimiiimmiimiiiiiiiiiimiimiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiii[imiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit|| University Book Stores northgate 409 UNIVERSITY DR “OPEN 8 A.M. CULPEPPER PLAZA ’TIL LATE P.M.” NEXT TO 3C-BBQ i [||| „inn l| || > .iiiiiiiii>i | i ||| H |||||||>|||||||||||| »» ||>| » | » llllllllli>111 Hie Corps of Cadets Shop at University Bookstore... oMf stop Day Students Shop at University Book Store . . store rr ^ The football team shops »t University Book Store . . " EW AND USED Books, GIFTS! S! "lUTAtnrsuppugs, • TEXTBOOKS • WORKBOOKS • REFERENCE MATERIALS AGGIES WE HAVE EVERYTHING YOU WILL NEED TO : START THE SEMESTER ag . gi | h ^ts e • SHORTS • IRON-ON£ECALS SUPPLIES • CALCULATORS OFF RIGHT! SOUVENIRS BUMPER STICKERS GLASSWARE JEWELRY AGGIE BAND RECORDS • notebooks • DRAWING EQUIPMENT The Band shops at University Book Store . 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