It was not illegal or called "Moon shine running" before prohibition. It was a way people made a living, came from Scotland mostly and was a by product of the farming at the end of a season, that kicked it off. Much of the towns were involved in the industry, and prohibition opened up avenues for sale they never knew they had. There is a Movie called "Lawless" with Tom Hardy. The extras on the DVD is some very great history of industry at the time, and to today. Yes, the soft drink that swept the nation,. "Mt. Dew" was a brand of legal corn fed whiskey first. :)
If it is your shop. You can even wake up in the afternoon sometimes. :) I knew a older gentleman about about 25 years ago who built race engines out of rental garage space. I worked at a small fixture building shop, (for checking part dimensions for quality control), and also a guy with a EDM wire burning, (for stamping dies),business on our other side. That guy invented the swivel to pick up in the pan, that looked like a vacuum end attachment, and spun to the top of the pan to get the oil forced up there in the banked corners of oval tracks. He also developed multi disk clutch, that he tried with a racer. The racer claimed the clutch was slipping, to he privately removed it to see/smell there was no burning. It turned out the guy was breaking his tires loose out of the corners. His name was Mike, and a great guy to work next to.
Tom Wolfe was wrong. Richard Petty was a hero. David Pearson, Cale,and DW were heroes. AJ Foyt, Mario Andretti, Muhammed Ali, and Hank Aaron and Jeff Gordon were heroes.
