Clay Logan runs the annual New Year’s Eve Possum Drop at Clay’s Corner in Brasstown, N.C.Question: Whatever happened to the New Year’s Eve Possum Drop in Brasstown, N.C., after the practice of lowering a live opossum at midnight was banned by a judge?
Answer: For 19 years, the New Year didn’t arrive in Brasstown until a Plexiglass box holding a live opossum was lowered to the ground at Clay’s Corner gas station.
After People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sued store owner Clay Logan for animal cruelty, a judge banned the practice. But hundreds still turned out in Brasstown — about 100 miles from Chattanooga — on New Year’s Eve to see whether Logan would flout the judge’s ruling or comply with it.
Logan kept them guessing. At midnight, an opaque box obscured with opossum photos was lowered to the ground. Was an opossum inside? Logan says he’ll never tell.
“Can you keep a secret?” he asks. “Well, so can I.”