A Most Significant Occurance


pocahontas arkansas wet or dry

Pocahontas and Randolph County have endured prohibition for over 60 years, since after World War II the county voted itself “dry,” banning all sales of alcohol in the county. During this time, millions of dollars have left the county as people have had to drive long distances to southern Missouri and “wet” counties in Arkansas to buy alcoholic beverages.

This week a committee of ten people, lead by my great friend and almost-sister Linda Bowlin, began their many months of work to obtain 4000 signatures to put the wet/dry issue on our county’s November 2014 ballot. Linda, recently retired from her career as a lawyer, and now dedicated fully to her business of vacation rental cottages on our beautiful Eleven Point River, sees, as many of us see, that our county’s dry status has hurt us, and continues to hurt us, in this 21st century, when most people in the world take it for granted that they can order a glass of beer or wine with their restaurant meals.

I look forward to working hard the next year to help my county, and Lesmeister Guesthouse, finally enter the modern world! For a TV story on this issue, see the link below:

http://www.kait8.com/story/23664225/group-in-randolph-county-working-to-end-countys-dry-status

3 Replies to “A Most Significant Occurance”

  1. BC

    It’s awfully embarrassing to have to tell visitors here when they ask where they can get a bottle of wine that they have to drive to another state or county. They look at you in disbelief. There are very few dry counties in the nation.

    The ‘dry” policy is a joke–it only means one must drive to drink. It also implies that Randolh countians aren’t mature enough to consume adult beverages as they do almost everywhere else in the world. It’s “the nanny state” at its worst.

  2. Joyce

    This is GREAT. So many reasons to make this happen. There will be preachers against it, but wonder if there will be organized resistence.

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