When I was growing up in Kentucky, one of the great curiosities was that Christian County was “wet” while Bourbon County was “dry.”
Both counties allow alcohol sales now, but according to USA Today, 44 counties in Kentucky are still dry. The state has the second highest percentage of dry counties, trailing Tennessee, which has 91 dry counties.
More and more, dry counties are becoming wet or “moist” counties. A county that has one or more wet cities is generally considered to be moist.
USA Today reported on the decrease in dry counties nationwide:
“Today, 1 in 9 counties is still dry. But drys are losing ground on all levels, from the state — since 2002, 14 states have ended bans on Sunday alcohol sales — to the very local. In April, a 19-block section of western Louisville (the M-107 precinct) voted 89-41 to go wet.
“The number of Tennessee communities that allow sales of liquor by the drink (in bars and restaurants) has increased 56% since 2003. In the same period, 22 of Texas’ 254 counties and more than 235 of its municipalities have gone wet (or ‘moist,’ a nebulous category in which beer and wine might be legal, but not liquor).
“Even in Kansas — the state that produced the ax-wielding saloon-wrecker Carry Nation; that passed the first state prohibition law in 1881; and that did not repeal it until 1948 — 16 counties have gone wet since 2002.
“Is this the end of the prohibition movement?
” ‘It’s moving in that direction,’ says Joe Godfrey of the pro-dry Alabama Council on Alcohol Problems. ‘Our numbers are growing fewer and fewer.’ “
The story goes on to give more specifics about why the number of dry counties is shrinking.
