The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Current Appeal

9.20.07 @ 12:01AM

(Page 4 of 4)

I very much enjoyed Al Regnery's account of making single malt whisky in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. It reminded me of a similar episode in my life.

About a dozen years ago, I visited my good friend who had moved from the Chicago area to a log home he built in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. We were sitting on the porch, overlooking a Gary Player golf course, when he said to me, "Jack, I'm going to let you in on something -- but you must promise you won't go back to Cook County and let a soul in on my secret." I promised, and my friend walked me around to a wooded area at the back of his property and showed me a still. My friend, with the help of his new neighbors, was making moonshine in his back yard...and everyone said it was the best whiskey in the county.

The reason my friend didn't want me to go back to Cook County and blab was that he was a former FBI agent, a former Cook County Commissioner, and the former Sheriff of Cook County. He was also the brother of that great American patriot, Rosemary Woods.

Joe Woods (RIP) operated one hell of a still and he was one hell of a guy!
-- Jack Hughes
Chicago, Illinois

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