Clip from an interview with R.E. Nightingale
Description
Nightingale describes a distillery fire that emptied into the Kentucky River and caused the catfish to become intoxicated. Click here to hear the complete interview.
Source
William H. Berge Oral History Center
Date
29 Jan 1988
Rights
Contact Special Collections and Archives, Crabbe Library, Eastern Kentucky University for reproductions, rights and permission to publish.
Format
audio cassette
Language
eng
Type
oral history
Identifier
1988oh034
Interviewer
William E. Ellis
Interviewee
R.E. Nightingale
Transcription
[Partial transcript]
[00:24:27] R.E. Nightingale (RN): Back in ’51 or ’52, Bill, I was living in Jessamine County. And 7 miles south of Nicholasville, down on the river at Camp Nelson there was a big distillery. Then one evening, ah, it was just getting dusky dark and Dad come in from work. I was a junior, sophomore or junior in high school and I said, “Dad, somebody’s barn is on fire. Look at that glow over there.” He said “let’s get in and go see where it’s at.” We started down 27 going south, and we drove and we drove and we drove and he said “Bob, see that’s bound to be on the river.” Well we got out to the river cliffs, the palisades there at Camp Nelson. We went over towards Court Town where it would look over about, a 150 foot cliff, and one of those warehouse that belonged to the distillery was on fire. Well, there were about eight stories, eight bricks high where they would put the barrels in. And, hard telling how many 1000s of gallons of whiskey was going into that river.
Well, it was burning, it was burning going down over the bank, and when it hit the river the current would take it down the river and there was about an 8 inch blaze, blue flame right in the middle of that river, going down the river. It would burn and then go down the river so far and then go out, but what I’m getting at, we was talking about, there at Dick’s River…
Bill Ellis (BE): Yea, and that alcohol would burn hot.
Nightingale: It burns hot. [laughter] Let me tell you this, Bill. Down at, uh, High Bridge, down there at, uh, the next lock down the river from, uh, Camp Nelson, they dipped up tons of catfish down there. The catfish, they weren’t fed, but they were the drunkest catfish [laughter] that you ever saw in your life. They come up, roll up and they would take and dip ‘em up and put ‘em in fresh water, and they would come right back to their natural selves. [laughter] But here was tons of catfish dipped up outa that river. Literally, tons of ‘em.
Ellis: And what year was that?
RN: That was about ‘51 or ‘52. And, uh, I told that story several times. And, uh, it can be verified by the people who lived on that river. Because it did happen. But the amount of the whiskey that went into that river, it was, it was a sight. And it didn’t affect the scaly fish, but the catfish they really got on a toot. [laughter]
[End partial transcript]
[00:24:27] R.E. Nightingale (RN): Back in ’51 or ’52, Bill, I was living in Jessamine County. And 7 miles south of Nicholasville, down on the river at Camp Nelson there was a big distillery. Then one evening, ah, it was just getting dusky dark and Dad come in from work. I was a junior, sophomore or junior in high school and I said, “Dad, somebody’s barn is on fire. Look at that glow over there.” He said “let’s get in and go see where it’s at.” We started down 27 going south, and we drove and we drove and we drove and he said “Bob, see that’s bound to be on the river.” Well we got out to the river cliffs, the palisades there at Camp Nelson. We went over towards Court Town where it would look over about, a 150 foot cliff, and one of those warehouse that belonged to the distillery was on fire. Well, there were about eight stories, eight bricks high where they would put the barrels in. And, hard telling how many 1000s of gallons of whiskey was going into that river.
Well, it was burning, it was burning going down over the bank, and when it hit the river the current would take it down the river and there was about an 8 inch blaze, blue flame right in the middle of that river, going down the river. It would burn and then go down the river so far and then go out, but what I’m getting at, we was talking about, there at Dick’s River…
Bill Ellis (BE): Yea, and that alcohol would burn hot.
Nightingale: It burns hot. [laughter] Let me tell you this, Bill. Down at, uh, High Bridge, down there at, uh, the next lock down the river from, uh, Camp Nelson, they dipped up tons of catfish down there. The catfish, they weren’t fed, but they were the drunkest catfish [laughter] that you ever saw in your life. They come up, roll up and they would take and dip ‘em up and put ‘em in fresh water, and they would come right back to their natural selves. [laughter] But here was tons of catfish dipped up outa that river. Literally, tons of ‘em.
Ellis: And what year was that?
RN: That was about ‘51 or ‘52. And, uh, I told that story several times. And, uh, it can be verified by the people who lived on that river. Because it did happen. But the amount of the whiskey that went into that river, it was, it was a sight. And it didn’t affect the scaly fish, but the catfish they really got on a toot. [laughter]
[End partial transcript]
Tags
Citation
“Clip from an interview with R.E. Nightingale,” Digital Collections, accessed January 25, 2022, https://digitalcollections.eku.edu/items/show/34918.