Sugarhead: Tales of Moonshine and a Vanished Mountain Culture

Sugarhead was what my father always called moonshine, illicit whiskey. He was in jail for selling it at the same time as his brother who was caught at the still place making it. Sugarhead documents a way of life of farmers first and moonshiners/bootleggers second in a forgotten time and in a forgotten place. From Hewed Log Gap, up Nohead Branch and West Pine Swamp untold thousands of gallons of liquor were made, sold and drank. The law wasn't crooked they just wanted their share. Marrying your cousin was a matter of course and so sometimes were the facial ticks. It was a way of life that existed just fifty short years ago in the rural North Carolina mountains.