On Sunday, Jan. 21, the title of the program hosted by the Wake Forest Historical Association will be The Bootleg Economy: Surviving the ‘50s, an unusual slant on the illegal liquor produced in the Harricanes area outside Wake Forest. The moonshiners worked their stills to feed their families at a time when electricity – Wake Electric – and paved roads were beginning to change the landscape and the culture.
There will be a lot of information and stories, maybe some tall tales, about the men on both sides of the law – almost all of them long gone – told by men such as Ryan Keith, a photographer and cameraman at WRAL-TV who was called out frequently by local, state and federal officers who wanted publicity about their raids and the stills they destroyed.
The event at the Wake Forest Historical Museum in the 400 block of North Main Street is open to everyone and free. It will begin at 3 p.m. with the short annual membership meeting and the program will follow. There will be light refreshments afterward but the product described in the program will not be on the menu.
Free parking is available on the street, along East Juniper Avenue, behind the museum and Dr. Calvin Jones House and a limited number of spaces on East Walnut Avenue.
