When The Town Goes Dry

This book has been an idea of mine for over ten years. In 2010, I went to France to work as an English-language assistant in a high school in Dijon from October 2010 until April 2011. The school I was assigned to had another English-language assistant from England. In the first few weeks, we went from one class to another to introduce ourselves and talk about our home towns. As my fellow assistant was from England, the description of his home town was not very surprising. When one of the teachers asked me why my hometown was called Dry Ridge, I didn't have an answer for her. I have since learned that Dry Ridge is called Dry Ridge because there were no natural bodies of water at its founding. Since I didn't know that at the time, I told her that I lived in a ``dry'' county, which means that it's illegal to sell alcohol. Her eyes got really big and she exclaimed, ``Really?! I did not know that!'' After that, I explained to her and the class the alcohol laws in Grant County.

``There are no bars. No clubs. No liquor stores. No sale of alcohol in stores or in gas stations. The only legal way you can purchase alcohol is to buy it in a restaurant. However, the restaurant must have a 100-seating capacity and 70\% of the revenue must come from food receipts.''

This subject became an icebreaker for me during my travels in France and surrounding European countries. There were language assistants from various countries around the world and from various states in America, and they all found this topic fascinating. I happened upon a group of Irishmen in Brussels who were having a bachelor party. I had a beer with them and told them about the dry laws in my county. They found it mind-boggling that a country that prides itself on civil liberties and freedom of choice would still have such restrictions.

The primary audiences for this book are those who never knew that prohibition still existed in some capacity in America and those who live or have lived in such areas. As mentioned before, the word ``dry'' in the context of alcohol means that the sale of alcohol is illegal. The word ``wet'' in the context of alcohol means that it is legal. These two words have been used in this context in American English for decades. English speakers from other countries such as England and Australia are much less familiar with this application of these two words, and speakers of other languages are even less familiar, if at all.

While the words ``dry'' and ``wet'' are often used, in Kentucky we have another word in the context of alcohol laws: ``moist.'' The original definition of a ``moist'' county was a dry county that had a ``wet'' city or precinct in it. The modern definition of ``moist'' is a county, city, or precinct that allows the sale of alcohol in restaurants. Kentucky has some of the strictest and most complicated alcohol laws in the country, if not the world.

After years of having the idea for this book in the back of my mind, I finally decided to put it into action. I figured out that the best way to tell the story of prohibition in Grant County, Kentucky was to research articles in the local newspaper. This book contains every article regarding alcohol, bootlegging, and prohibition from The Grant County News and The Williamstown Courier from the 1890s until 2016. The Williamstown Courier was purchased by The Grant County News in the early 1910s and ceased operations shortly after.

The Digestif section of this book includes sheet music for Every Day Will Be Sunday When The Town Goes Dry, a prohibition-era song. It also includes the most current wet/dry map of Kentucky.