Popcorn Sutton: The last one

Earlier today Pam Sutton, the widow of legendary moonshiner and American icon Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton, shared the following photograph on the official Facebook page for the annual Popcorn Sutton Jam.

This is the very last photograph that was taken of Popcorn.  It was made the morning before his passing...

 

Pam Sutton elaborates: "This is one of the pictures that I don't like to share very much. You see, this was taken the day he left this world. This was my last image of him. I loved him so. If you look at his feet, you will see the jars that would become his first legal run. He was the first moonshiner to go legal in East Tennessee."

I will forever be lamenting that I never got to meet Popcorn Sutton in person.  Having come to meet and know several people who were in his life, I can't help but feel that it would have been a true honor to have gotten to know him also.

But his legend endures.  Every time I see his face show up in a meme on social media, or occasionally spot someone wearing a Popcorn Sutton t-shirt, I have to smile.  He was larger than life when he was with us and he casts a seemingly bigger penumbra since his departure.

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The stranger tale of Blackbeard's skull

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides opened yesterday and I am hearing extremely disparate word about it. The descriptors being most bandied about this movie are that it's "bad" and "rotten", and only a few saying they were entertained... but even those are pretty lukewarm about it. I'm waiting to hear from one of the coolest cats I know, who's seen it and he's supposed to have a review soon. So I may or may not catch it this weekend.

But seeing as how Edward Teach aka Blackbeard the Pirate is a prominent character in this latest chapter of the saga of Captain Jack Sparrow, I thought it'd be fun to reflect on a bit of North Carolina lore about the legendary pirate. Namely: the long-enduring story that Blackbeard's skull is today being used as a wine goblet for a secret society's dark rituals! Yes folks, depending on you believe and who you can get in good with, there is a place here in the Tarheel State where you can swig a healthy-sized libation from the noggin of history's most infamous pirate captain!

Most versions have it that a fraternity or somesuch a few miles away at Chapel Hill is in custody of Blackbeard's silver-encrusted skull. Others say that it's being kept around the Outer Banks. Here is one account of drinking from the skull of Blackbeard, originating from no less an authority that Charles Whedbee: the late respected collector of North Carolina stories.

Drinking wine from Blackbeard's skull. Ehhhh... makes me all the more thankful that I'm pretty much a teetotaler :-P

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