About 35 miles from where I live, down in southwest Clay county, MS, is a place called Boogie Bottom. You won't find it on any maps, it isn't listed in phone books and isn't acknowledged by any politicians or the law, but it's there. It's not as wild, or nearly as dangerous, as it once was but it's still not a place to go after dark unless you know someone there.
During prohibition, and through the 1950's, making and bootlegging moonshine whiskey was a big business here. The woods are full of rusted out stills chopped up by the Revenuers, pronounced "revnooers" here, but they stayed out of Boogie Bottom as did local law. The Bottom was wide open as a butcher knife, and like the Freedom Hills northeast of here or Winston County, Alabama you could find just about anything you were looking for there, and a lot you weren't, if you had the nerve.
A lot of folks ventured into Boogie Bottom and were never seen again. Tales are told of Tibbee creek being used to dispose of bodies, and also about the size of the turtles and catfish caught on the creek. By the way, Tibbee is the same creek where Nathan Bedford Forrest and his Critter Company stopped General William "Sookey" Smith and his yankee troops when they were going to join with Sherman's troops in Meridian during the Civil War.
The moonshine from Boogie Bottom was potent, not for the weak of heart or anyone with stomach problems. It was said that in addition to drinking it could be used as a substitute for gasoline, paint thinner or mosquito and insect repellant. Legend has it that back in the mid 1900's it was bottled and sold under the name of Dr. Kozmo's Boogie Bottom Skeeter and Red Bug Perfume. One of the local papers wrote about it, and even had some testamonials. Here's some of what was said about it.
"That stuff sho be some fine Skeeter Perfume. I use it one night and woke up the next day and couldn't feel a thang"....76 year old Desmona Peugh when found by the sheriff after she went missing for several days.
"I don't know what the hell happened"!.....George Franks on being released from the Aberdeen holding tank after tanking up on Boogie Bottom "shine" and recovering from three days of apparent temporary insanity.
"Lawdy mercy, give me some more. That stuff be aged just right"... Preacher Kimble after his 30 minute Sunday morning radio show was shut down within the first five minutes due to a fight with a Pennecostal minister who was on next.
"I don't even hafta worry about no skeeters nor bugs, jus a lil dab behind each ear, and about 2 swigs every 30 minutes or so take care of'em"......"Shorty" Johnson after crawling from under Tibbee bridge, naked as the day he were born and without a clue where his clothes were.
<center><img src="http://www.imageuploading.com/ims/pic.php?u=2342rG1OJ&i=54990"></center><center><b>Supposedly a photo of Shorty Johnson.</b></center>
Whether the insect repellant story and testemonials are true is doubtful, at least open to speculation although the preachers fighting at the radio station actually did happen. That Boogie Bottom was a dangerous place for outsiders isn't. There were other places here that were bad, Blackcat Bottom just north of Amory, the above mentioned Freedom Hills, the Bolins south of Okolona and Eureka where Elvis Presley's cousins ran the roost but Boogie Bottom had, still has, a mystique and element of danger the others didn't. Boogie Bottom will be a legend for a long time, even though officially it has never existed.
During prohibition, and through the 1950's, making and bootlegging moonshine whiskey was a big business here. The woods are full of rusted out stills chopped up by the Revenuers, pronounced "revnooers" here, but they stayed out of Boogie Bottom as did local law. The Bottom was wide open as a butcher knife, and like the Freedom Hills northeast of here or Winston County, Alabama you could find just about anything you were looking for there, and a lot you weren't, if you had the nerve.
A lot of folks ventured into Boogie Bottom and were never seen again. Tales are told of Tibbee creek being used to dispose of bodies, and also about the size of the turtles and catfish caught on the creek. By the way, Tibbee is the same creek where Nathan Bedford Forrest and his Critter Company stopped General William "Sookey" Smith and his yankee troops when they were going to join with Sherman's troops in Meridian during the Civil War.
The moonshine from Boogie Bottom was potent, not for the weak of heart or anyone with stomach problems. It was said that in addition to drinking it could be used as a substitute for gasoline, paint thinner or mosquito and insect repellant. Legend has it that back in the mid 1900's it was bottled and sold under the name of Dr. Kozmo's Boogie Bottom Skeeter and Red Bug Perfume. One of the local papers wrote about it, and even had some testamonials. Here's some of what was said about it.
"That stuff sho be some fine Skeeter Perfume. I use it one night and woke up the next day and couldn't feel a thang"....76 year old Desmona Peugh when found by the sheriff after she went missing for several days.
"I don't know what the hell happened"!.....George Franks on being released from the Aberdeen holding tank after tanking up on Boogie Bottom "shine" and recovering from three days of apparent temporary insanity.
"Lawdy mercy, give me some more. That stuff be aged just right"... Preacher Kimble after his 30 minute Sunday morning radio show was shut down within the first five minutes due to a fight with a Pennecostal minister who was on next.
"I don't even hafta worry about no skeeters nor bugs, jus a lil dab behind each ear, and about 2 swigs every 30 minutes or so take care of'em"......"Shorty" Johnson after crawling from under Tibbee bridge, naked as the day he were born and without a clue where his clothes were.
<center><img src="http://www.imageuploading.com/ims/pic.php?u=2342rG1OJ&i=54990"></center><center><b>Supposedly a photo of Shorty Johnson.</b></center>
Whether the insect repellant story and testemonials are true is doubtful, at least open to speculation although the preachers fighting at the radio station actually did happen. That Boogie Bottom was a dangerous place for outsiders isn't. There were other places here that were bad, Blackcat Bottom just north of Amory, the above mentioned Freedom Hills, the Bolins south of Okolona and Eureka where Elvis Presley's cousins ran the roost but Boogie Bottom had, still has, a mystique and element of danger the others didn't. Boogie Bottom will be a legend for a long time, even though officially it has never existed.
.speaking of shorty,from looking at him setting there,i wouldn't have wanted to see him naked,was he charged with a felony