Dry Town

“You’d have better chances of putting in a house of ill repute.”

Mike Hill, former mayor of Murchison, Texas

Photo from Marion Doss (Creative Commons)

It sure is dry in Murchison, Texas (population 620). This time the cause isn’t the drought. Murchison is a “dry” town—that is, no liquor sales allowed—but the owners of the town’s general store want to change that. They’re not alone.

Last year Ray and Jean Smith rounded up enough signatures to put alcohol sales to a vote. These parents of a Baptist preacher say they don’t want to corrupt their neighbors. They simply want to increase sales at their store, which would boost tax revenues for the town.

Confident the measure would pass, Mr. and Mrs. Smith cleared an area in back of their store to install beer coolers. But the town’s mayor and its Baptist preacher saw the sale of drink as nothing but trouble. They corralled enough votes to defeat the measure.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith aren’t giving up. They’ll try to get the measure passed again this year. They say the town’s aging sewer system is ready to blow, and when the pipes burst, “sin” taxes will look good, even to the Baptists.

Mr. and Mrs. Smith have nothing to lose. After all, they’ve got a spot ready and waiting for those beer coolers.

Read more → Molly Hennessy-Fiske, Alcohol sales fuel spirited debates in East Texas, Los Angeles Times, February 23, 2012.