Creating Fiction from History: 9/28/2022

Carlene Switzer, possibly pictured here, might have grown up to become one of the most infamous rum-runners in the South. Now, you might be thinking that should be 'moonshiner', but no, Carlene, better known as Tipsey, dealt in rum.

Born on August 27th, in the year 1907, Tipsey grew up in the land of her nativity, deep in the Everglades region of Florida. Her parents were second-generation German immigrants who were instrumental in bringing back into commercialization sugarcane production in the early 20th century. Growers had figured out sugarcane freezes easily and so moved operations furthe...