Anyone from East Texas isn't worth their salt unless they have a few ridiculous stories to tell. Since this blog pertains to country wine, it needs a good wine story. This one comes from my friend Jackie Hales, from Willis, Texas. It's not East Texas, but it'll do for my purposes.
My brother-in-law pointed out that he bought some muscadine wine once and was told that he needed to let the bottle breathe so that it wouldn't explode. That's with good reason.
Jackie had a brother and the two of them together usually spelled trouble. They were 10 and 11 (though I don't know who was the eldest). The story goes that they came across some ripe plums in their barn. Jackie had an idea to make plum wine. So he and his brother cut them and removed the pits, mashed them and made their wine and put it in a big jug with a cork as the seal. Their father was very strict and was known for disciplining the boys firmly. They didn't want their dad to find out what they had done with the freshly picked plums, so they buried their jug in the ground behind the barn.
It was a warm fall day. Shortly after burying the jug, they went in for supper and forgot about it. Midway through dinner there was an explosion. It had enough concussion that it shook their pier and beam house. Of course, their father was out of the house like a flash to find out what happened. Jackie and his brother were right behind him. They noticed some faint white smoke coming from behind the barn and ran in that direction. When they rounded the barn, there was a gigantic (remember the boys were 10 and 11) hole in ground and everything within 50 feet was the color purple.
Jackie and his brother eventually got a whippin', but not for making wine. It was because they had busted their mother's only big jug.
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