Wet, dry and "moist" counties?

[Rick Courtright]

Hi,

If there's a body of law that's even more convoluted and screwy than guns laws, it has to be those dealing with alcohol!

My great great grandparents on my mother's side were originally from either VA or NC (depends on who's telling the story), but lived most of their lives, and my great grandparents were born, in Montgomery County, KY. In looking for some info on either them, or at least the county, I learned a new term, "moist" county. As I understand it, this would be an otherwise "dry" county, which I understand, except that is allows alcohol sales in specific areas, in this case, the "wet" City of Mount Sterling. And apparently they're not that rare in KY.

Now the entire County of Montgomery appears to be about half the size of the very small city (by CA standards) where I live population wise, and about twice the area (I can ride my bicycle from one end of town to the other in 30 minutes or so going downhill, 45 minutes to an hour going up.) So it doesn't seem like any kind of serious hardship for someone anywhere in the County to jump in the car or pickup and be at a "legal" liquor store in no time.

Can anyone 'splain to me the logic of such laws? Best I can come up with is prominent "special interest groups" having affected legislation, in this case maybe Baptist ministers trying to keep sin under control, or moonshiners looking to squash competition.

Rick C

 

[CGDustDevil]

Someone is paying for the 'right' to sell liquor. Squashing competition with $$$.

 

[gramps]

Interesting Rick. I first ran into the term "moist" in Kotzebue, Alaska. You could order legally, wine from Anchorage, and have it flown in when I first arrived. The system didn't work so all alcohol sales went through the police Dept by the time I left. People would still fly to Anchorage, and bring in whiskey, vodka etc. though stiff fines if caught.
gramps

 

[Pat-inCO]

Well Rick . . . . don't know if I can give you a "reason" for that, but we had
something similar in Boulder County (CO) for years, only on a smaller
scale. The City of Boulder was dry for quite a while, EXCEPT for one
building (a restaurant naturally) that was wet. They sold liquor by the
drink with meals and IIRC even had a bar so you didn't need to buy
dinner. Think about that. An island in the city that included only ONE
building (and not very big at that).

That finally changed (once again IIRC) around 1970. The city went wet
and it became a non issue.

WHY would they do that? In my opinion, someone with a whole lot of
money wanted to make more. Just that simple.

 

[wizofwas]

Dry does not mean that you can't make alcohol, it just means that you can't sell it there. Just think of the dry county of Lynchburg, Tenn. They make a lot of Jack Daniels there. I think that most of the 'Blue Laws' are left over from the prohibition days and for whatever reason have never been changed.

 

[powder smoke]

There is no real logic to it, I believe it goes back to the days
when bible thumpers had a lot more say on what goes on.
Back in the day I can remember Dry Counties where I grew up in NH.
There all but gone now. ps

 

[Colonialgirl]

Oklahoma USE to be "DRY" except for 3.2 beer; But then the BIGGEST donors to the WCTU (Women's Christian Temperance Union) were the BOOTLEGGERS. The Sheriff in Washington County had a Liquor store just across the Kansas border, Guess where all the whiskey they "confiscated" from bootleggers went ( He drove a brand NEW Car every year with Red lights and Siren that was HIS and NOT the county's) I went to high school with the Bootlegger's son.

 

[blume357]

The reality is that alcohol has always been a problem for man... and we tend to try and fix problems... prohibition being the extreme example (not to change the subject, but our current 'war on drugs' reflects the same misdirected intent) with wet and dry you had one group who believe that eliminating alcohol would make the community better. The only problem is that folks in general don't like to be told how to live their personal lives.... once you 'outlaw' something like alcohol then the 'outlaws' show up to supply it. It has always been interesting that when you have a dry county and the option of becoming 'wet' comes up two groups fight it... the folks who believe alcohol is 'evil' as well as those that make a living bringing it in.

 

[Mega Twin]

The county that I grew up in,in Arkansas,was known as the wettest dry county in the state.
It has since been voted wet.

 

[Specs]

Although it may have changed by now, when I lived in very dry Crittenden Co. KY Christian Co. was wet, and Bourbon Co. was dry. I had to drive 45 miles for a cold beer. Now some of the collar counties around Crittenden have become at least damp, but not Crittenden. Bootlegging flourished in Crittenden.

The odd thing is that most of the places which became "moist" and also when new petitions to change were circulated the goal was to sell alcohol by the drink in country club & restaurants of a certain size. I always thought that one of the chief objections to alcohol sales was that it created drunk driver problems, but instead of package sales they always seemed to want to sell by the drink.

 

[kentucky yeti]

Although it may have changed by now, when I lived in very dry Crittenden Co. KY Christian Co. was wet, and Bourbon Co. was dry. I had to drive 45 miles for a cold beer. Now some of the collar counties around Crittenden have become at least damp, but not Crittenden. Bootlegging flourished in Crittenden.

You from around Marion? I hunt the old Westvaco Crayne and Shady Grove areas in Crittenden County. I'm from Graves County btw. We just went wet last year, as did Marshall County.

 

[Jeepnik]

I'd guess it all depended on how many hen pecked husbands were in any give location when the laws were voted on.

Prohibition was one of the best examples of a minority telling the majority what to do. Sadly it's no common place.

 

[Specs]

Although it may have changed by now, when I lived in very dry Crittenden Co. KY Christian Co. was wet, and Bourbon Co. was dry. I had to drive 45 miles for a cold beer. Now some of the collar counties around Crittenden have become at least damp, but not Crittenden. Bootlegging flourished in Crittenden.

You from around Marion? I hunt the old Westvaco Crayne and Shady Grove areas in Crittenden County. I'm from Graves County btw. We just went wet last year, as did Marshall County.

Yep, lived near Caldwell Springs and then later out S.R.506.

 

[DeletedMember275]

Reminds me of Killeeen, Texas (Fort Hood) when I arrived there in 1980. The city of Killeen was dry, except for "private clubs." No 'bars' there, just "private clubs." Of course, you had to pay to belong to the private clubs. Fort Hood sold liquor to all the GIs and their families, and the first building in Harker Heights, once you exited the Killeen city limits was a drive-thru liquor store! Back in those days, at least in certain areas, you could also drink while you were driving, but you couldn't drive drunk. That makes sense, right?

 

[blume357]

Way back in the woods off of my families land... really don"t know who owes this area there is the remains of an old still that got found by the revenuers ..... I go down there every once and a while and collect some old mason jars...

This is in S.C. in lower Edgefield County almost into Aiken County.

 

[contender]

Due to prohibition,,, locally,,,, the Baptists & the bootleggers kept places "dry" for a LONG time.
It comes down to money & religious beliefs.
Many folks believe that any alcohol is evil and should not be available at all. Generally, in my area,, it's the Baptists. It's in the covenants of many churches. However,,, I know a LOT of locals who identify as Baptists,,, yet drink heavily. Growing up, there was a spot,,, out in the country, away from everybody,,, where the younger men would gather on Sunday mornings,,, to recover from their Saturday night hangovers, usually by drinking a bit more. It became known as "The Preaching Trees," & you could find MANY a proclaimed Baptist there.
Bootleggers make more money when their product is harder to get,,, so they would help fund the anti-drinking crowd.
So, we'd have "wet" or "dry" counties or cities. Over time, the lawful crackdown upon bootleggers, as well as citizens fighting for the right to have a drink in a restaurant, got many areas changed. But there are STILL many local places that do not allow legal sales of any forms of alcohol.

Old habits, traditions, and beliefs die hard.

I do NOT condemn ANY Baptist who lives by his beliefs. But I also do not have any respect for those who CLAIM to be believers,, yet are often heavy drinkers, and fight against legal sales, all while driving to an area where they are not "known" to buy their booze.
Lake Lure once had a Mayor, who fought hard against any alcohol sales,,, yet I personally caught him coming out of a liquor store with 2 big shopping bags of booze. As my family owned a convenience store,,, we were trying to get legal sales allowed. When I caught him, I first greeted him to let him KNOW I had caught him. I then called a buddy in Alcohol Law Enforcement, as well as the local TV station. I got interviewed by the TV station, and my buddy provided video footage of the LL Mayor buying alcohol. Hypocrites like that pizz me off. He dropped his opposition, gave up his Deacon seat at the local church, didn't run for Mayor again, and soon moved away.

 

[Number9]

Graham County, NC, just across the state line is the only county in NC that's dry. I think about 4 places sell alcohol, a couple of lodges and restaurants but they can only sell certain types of alcohol within a given time frame.

The counties around, and in Graham County, probably has had more moonshiners than any other section of the country!
Popcorn Sutton was born next to Graham County in Maggie Valley(Haywood County), but lived in Cocke County, Tennessee. He knew the Snowbird Mountain in Graham County... real well!

 

[blume357]

I can't ever remember dry counties here in S.C. but we did have blue laws for years... in fact for a long time only certain businesses could be open on Sunday... a grocery store could be open during the day but could only have something like two employees. Alcohol could not be sold or served on Sunday in anyway. Powers that be started pointing out that this was effecting the tourist trade in two places... Myrtle Beach and Charleston.. and so our leaders in their infinite logic figures out that it was okay for foreigners (out of state residents) to drink on Sunday and created an accommodation (hotel) tax and if a county brought in a certain amount then a business could buy a special license to sell alcohol on Sunday. (Yep, two more taxes) The thing the legislature did not see was they gave a certain amount to this accommodation tax and did not see that other parts of the state would eventually reach this amount due to inflation. And so now, as far as I know, you can buy or be served alcohol on Sunday anywhere here in the S.C. The whole reasoning for the Sunday Blue laws was so that someone could not go out and buy liquor on Sunday instead of going to church...

Speaking of 'shine': it has gotten totally silly here in the upstate of S.C. in the last couple of years, places have popped up all over the place selling 'moonshine'... which I find totally ludacrist since true shine is grain alcohol that has had no tax paid on it... and of course all these legitiment distilleries are paying taxes on their product. It is not hard at all to make grain alcohol and is really cheap to make. Grain alcohol is vastly different from the high end liquor that is available in ABC stores and such. yes, bootleggers these days will flavor their shine with apple juice or some other kind of fruit to make it tolerable... but it still is pretty raw in my opinion.