Our Georgia Mountain Cabin

First off let me get a picture for you of downtown Morganton when I was growing up there.
Quite simply, it was nothing fancy…. we had a post office, a feed store, a barber shop (more about this one later), a full service gas station…and I do mean full service. for those who don’t understand what a full service gas station is, well, here it is - you pull up and an attendant puts the gas in your car; then, while this is going on you get your windows washed, tires checked, oil checked…… all this while you sat in the convenience of your automobile.
Well, there were other businesses too. There was a shoe repair shop so you could keep wearing the same pair of shoes forever. There was also another shop which would be close to today’s thrift store, but this stuff was piled up so high you would dig and dig until maybe you found something.
Also we had what would be called “a one- stop store”,  if you needed gas you could get it there or you could get a few groceries as well.
One hot summer day, as our house was only maybe 50 or 60 yards from downtown,  there was a loud explosion that came from down the street. We were all really shocked as this was something that was not common in Morganton. My brother, Larry, and I, of course, wanted to get the first look on this strange happening in town, but our mother had other ideas.

She told us to stay where we were and she would go out later and see what was wrong. …little did we know that when she said she would go out later she really meant later, like 3 or 4 hours.
Can you imagine what goes through a young lad’s mind, and what ideas his big brother is feeding his mind  during this outrageously long period of time??
Well, at last mom returned, she said that Pete, the gas station owner, (that was not his real name, but I will protect the innocent) somehow had gas from his tanks leak into his well in the back of the store. When the well pump came on, it made a spark that caused the explosion.
That made sense to us as it did with everyone else in town. But I would find out the real truth a few weeks later, as my dad let it leak out.
Seems Pete and his friend were in the process of making a little shine. In the back of the store there were fumes, but not gas fumes. There was a spark from the well pump and when it all came together we had an explosion in downtown Morganton.
And if you wonder the outcome of Pete and his friend… well they were ok. They were outside on the bench that everyone in town sat on. So they were not harmed and neither was the store. Since there was not structural damage and no human  damage, a lesson was learned. The moonshine would continue to run in the back of the store.