The Dark Side of the Moon(shine)

Children mimic what they see.

That could be wonderful. That could be tragic. It all depends on what they see.

Being the child of a moonshining bootlegger had little of a wonderful side to mimic. Sure, these children had wads of money in their pockets to buy their friends a coke at the store or a ticket to get into the movie. Their fathers worked hard for their money and provided well, as long as they stayed off the liquor themselves, or stayed out of federal prison.

One boy couldn’t wait to drop out of school. On his sixteenth birthday he came to school in the morning, cleaned out his desk, stacked his books and gave them to his eighth grade teacher. The teacher asked him what he was going to do after he dropped out. The student very honestly said, “Make liquor.” And he did. And one month later he was picked up by the law and sent off to prison.

A father caught his seventh grade son sampling the product and gave him a good beating and a reprimand, “Don’t you know we make this to sell, not to use.” That wasn’t a question. That was a statement.

A fifth grade teacher was having class one day, normal day, nothing out of kilter. A student asked to go to the restroom. She gave him permission. He walked to the back and took his jacket off the hook and left the room. He returned a few minutes later, hung his jacket up and sat down. A few minutes later, a different boy raised his hand, asked to go to the restroom. She gave him permission. He walked to the back and took the same jacket off the hook, left the room and returned a few minutes later, put the jacket back. When a third boy raised his hand and asked to go to the restroom and picked up the same jacket, she knew something was not right. She confiscated the jacket and found a glass vial of moonshine tucked in the pocket.

She contacted the principal who took all three boys home, beginning with the owner of said jacket. When they arrived at the house, the father was in a drunken stupor, head down on the kitchen table with a gallon jar of moonshine beside him.

Children mimic.

Catch of the day,

Gretchen