50 Things You Didn't Know About the Great Smoky Mountains

sechumlib <sechum...@liberal.net> wrote:
> -hh <recscuba_goo...@huntzinger.com> said:
>
> > Interestingly, this list conveniently fails to mention that Sevier is
> > a "Dry" county.
>
> As is (pretty much) Blount County, right next door, where the tourist
> town of Townsend is.
>
> We're scheduled to spend four days in Townsend this fall. I hope we can
> find a way to deal with its "dry" aspects!

The supermarket in Maryville sells beer, as do others. IIRC, wine
too. The Best Western Inn in Townsend has some rooms with 'fridges.
Or you can dunk your cans in the water up at the "Y" to chill off.

Enjoy the "quiet side".

-hh

"-hh" <recscuba_google@huntzinger.com> wrote in message
news:1176926519.407800.162080@b58g2000hsg. o...
> sechumlib <sechum...@liberal.net> wrote:
>> -hh <recscuba_goo...@huntzinger.com> said:
>>
>> > Interestingly, this list conveniently fails to mention that Sevier is
>> > a "Dry" county.
>>
>> As is (pretty much) Blount County, right next door, where the tourist
>> town of Townsend is.
>>
>> We're scheduled to spend four days in Townsend this fall. I hope we can
>> find a way to deal with its "dry" aspects!
>
> The supermarket in Maryville sells beer, as do others. IIRC, wine
> too. The Best Western Inn in Townsend has some rooms with 'fridges.
> Or you can dunk your cans in the water up at the "Y" to chill off.
>
> Enjoy the "quiet side".
>
>
> -hh
>

Tennessee alcohol laws don't allow wine in supermarkets. Beer only. Wine and
liquor must be bought in a separate store (which sometimes is only the other
side of the store, with a line in the middle).

Knox County, to the the immediate west of Blount, is not dry. And I would
double check on Blount -- Maryville and Alcoa are somewhat affluent towns,
it's hard to believe they still don't have liquor stores. (but I haven't
been there for a while) Oak Ridge, just west of Knox, where I grew up,
hasn't been dry since the late 60s-early 70s.

Also, Sevier County may be dry, but you can get beer, wine, and liquor by
the drink in Gatlinburg, and you can get wine and beer in Pigeon Forge.
Amazing how religious laws can be persuaded by economics :-) :-)

"Sarah Banick" <sban...@> wrote:
>
> Tennessee alcohol laws don't allow wine in supermarkets. Beer only.
> Wine and liquor must be bought in a separate store (which
> sometimes is only the other side of the store, with a line in the middle).

Thanks for that clarification (been too long for me too since I've
been down).


> Knox County, to the the immediate west of Blount, is not dry. And I would
> double check on Blount -- Maryville and Alcoa are somewhat affluent towns,
> it's hard to believe they still don't have liquor stores. (but I haven't
> been there for a while)

I'm trying to recall for Blount too. Sounds like a good enough excuse
to go visit friends still living there :-)


> Oak Ridge, just west of Knox, where I grew up,
> hasn't been dry since the late 60s-early 70s.

Oak Ridge has had 60 years of "outsiders" who came in to build
interesting things for the Government. As such, I would not expect
them to tolerate legislated temperence.

> Also, Sevier County may be dry, but you can get beer, wine, and liquor by
> the drink in Gatlinburg, and you can get wine and beer in Pigeon Forge.
> Amazing how religious laws can be persuaded by economics :-) :-) -

Its called "situational ethics", and it is amazing how flexibile
people's morals become when there's money involved.

We had a similarly interesting event occur years ago near where I
lived now: a local municipality banned all deer hunting ("Bambi"
effect), but after around 6 years, they discovered that their
automobile insurance rates shot up by around $200-$300 per car per
year. What happened was that the incidence of insurance claims due to
deer strikes had shot up by something like 1000%, so the insurance
companies were adjusting their rates based on the higher risk. In
the meantime, the local citizens when they realized that (gasp) they
now actually had to pay real money out of their own pockets to
"protect Bambi", decided that Bambi wasn't really worth that much to
them and that hunters weren't such a bad thing afterall. The old
saying "put your money where your mouth is" comes to line: they
recinded their ban on hunting and within a couple of years, the deer
overpopulation problem was reduced and their insurance rates came back
into line.

-hh