A discussion of night life in Clinton County has to include Static.
Not static, as in an argument, but Static as in Tennessee.
That’s because Clinton County is dry, and Static, the first town south of the Kentucky border, is not. Static has two dozen residents, three package beer stores and a bar on facing street comers.
During the hottest days of summer, local Miller salesman Greg Loftis says he delivers 1,200 cases of beer a day to Static, where Miller and Budweiser are the best-selling beers.
Billy ‘Bear’ Huff owns the bar, named the Lower Place because it’s downhill from the rest of town. Huff says more than 90 percent of his customers are from Kentucky.
On a typical afternoon customers included bricklayers, farmers and a prominent Albany attorney. Many of them drive more than 40 miles for a cold brew.
“People are gonna go get beer someplace,” Huff says. “if it wasn’t in Static, it would be someplace else. So it might as well be at my place.”
He bought the bar in 1984 and runs it with sons Bill, Danny and “Cotton.”
Three nights a week the bar features live music from one-man-band Jeff Crouch of Jamestown, Tenn. Crouch plays the guitar and sings tunes by Lynyrd Skynyrd and Hank Williams Jr.
“I’m good for business,” Crouch jokes, “because people have to be drunk to tolerate me.”
Dancers fill the floor when Couch plays rock ‘n roll. If things get a little rowdy, he just switches to a country and western ballad until the place quiets down.
But Static can get rough, living up to its name. Billy Evans says he speaks from experience when he says that when trouble erupts in Static, it usually comes from outside the family of regulars.
Evans used to be a bouncer at the Gold Dust bar in Static. One Friday night, he tried to eject some rowdy patrons.
“They were strangers. I’d never seen ’em before,” he says.
One of them stabbed Evans. The knife lacerated his liver and he lost four pints of blood, Evans says his assailants got the worst of the fight. The Gold Dust was destroyed by arson the next day.
Despite the occasional danger, people from Clinton County keep coming back to Static. Evans says he was back at the Lower Place to drink beers with friends six days after he was stabbed.
Lisa Trisdale, who passed retirement age “several” years ago, makes the trip from Albany to Static by taxi cab.
At the Lower Place she likes to fire up the juke box and dance for patrons. If it’s a slow afternoon, the dance will include a PG-rated strip-tease.
“I put on a little show for ’em sometimes. I like music, and I like dancing,” she says.
“Static is a wonderful place. I like it because you can carry on.”
