Clay's Corner - a throwback to a different day
By Dwight Otwell

Clay Logan relaxes in his rocker.

From first glance, Clay's Corner, straddling the Cherokee/Clay County line, is an ordinary rural convenience store.

However, it is obvious from the two signs that greet customers that there may be something extraordinary about this business.

The sign states, "Welcome to Clay's Corner - opossum capital of the world - located in Beautiful Downtown Brasstown". Of course, Clay's Corner is home to the nowworld famous Opossum Drop that brings in the new year in this extreme far western fringe of North Carolina.

Inside the store, the eyes are immediately drawn to a circle of chairs backed up by a pot-bellied stove - a throwback to the old days when men loitered in the local country store to tell tall tales and pass the time.

"Long conversations are held there," Judy Logan said.

"You have to have a little socializing and solve the world's problems," Clay Logan said. Friends are more important than money."

Judy and Clay Logan have owned the store for about 20 years.

Clay's Corner looks like a typical country storre until you look a little closer.

Inside the store, a supply of bright tee-shirts devoted to the opossum are displayed in prominence. The shirts have statements such as "The other white meat" and most have a caricature of a opossum.

Down two cement steps are a "You have to have a little socializing and solve

the world's problems,"

Clay Logan said.

video department and the scene of Friday night musical jam sessions that draw 20 to 80 people. A sign states "Clay's Possum Pit". An old piano and bass fiddle wait in a corner for the next musician to try to entice sweet music out of their keys and strings.

All of this almost causes the wanderer to forget that the store has a variety of products, including cold drinks, ice cream, chewing tobacco and snuff, cold sandwiches, eggs, milk, bread, candy, fuses cleaning supplies, fishing supplies and canned goods. The store still sells gasoline.

"We have everything a person needs to survive," Clay said.

Before it was Clay's Corner, a fruit stand showcased its wares at the location in the 1940s. The stand slowly evolved into a service station. Clay, who grew up about a mile from the store, said the Caldwells owned the store and one of the sons, Kenneth Caldwell, started a billfold manufacturing operation in the back of the store. People from Brasstown and beyond would stop by after work and stich billfolds to be paid $1 a dozen. Clay spent some time stitching billfolds, as did many locals. The billfolds were sent all over the Southeast.

"It was a dream of mine to own this store," Clay said.

People from out of town obtained the store but the locals didn't support them so Clay and Judy purchased the store in 1987.

"We had 14 different notes on this store," Clay said.

Clay worked fulltime for the U.S. Forest Service and is now about a year and a half from retirement. He worked the store after work - his wife worked the store and his sons, ages 12, 13 and 14 worked after school most evenings until 10 p.m.

They pumped gas, plugged tires, added anti-freeze to cars and did anything needed at the store seven days a week.

"We did that for 11 years and then we began closing on Sundays and at 7 p.m. in the evening," Clay said.

Opossum tee-shirts are the best selling item in he store.This year's big hit is a glow in the dark opossum tee shirt.

"But you have to be careful or people will run over you, thinking you are a big opossum," Clay said.

The idea of a opossum being dropped to count down the New Year began to blossom 15 to 16 years ago when Clay saw a "can of opossum" for sale in a store. The can said that the contents were run over by a logging truck.

Clay began to sell canned opossum that stated that it was run over by Brasstown Mayor Mercer Scroggs. (Of course there is no mayor of Brasstown since it is not an unincorporated town.) Jim Carringer suggested to Clay that he should drop a opossum like they drop an apple in New York.

About 20 people attended the initial Opossum Drop about 1991.

"It grew from there until we now have a couple thousand people come out," Clay said.

When the New York Times wrote a store about the Opossum Drop a few years ago, Clay almost didn't have time to prepare for the upcoming Opossum Drop because he gave so many radio interviews, to people from San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Canada, England and other faraway places.

After the New York Times story, P.E.T.E. tried to stop the Opossum Drop, worrying that it was cruel to the opossum.

"I had to get a federal permit and three state Wildlife permits," Clay said. "I didn't know the feds were into opossums. We had to get a cage to keep him (opossum) in, a cage to transport him and a cage to hang him up for a couple of hours."

But before there was the Opossum Drop there was bluegrass music.

"We've always had bluegrass music here, either on Friday or Saturday nights," Clay said. "Now it is every Friday night."

Clay even keeps various instruments on hand to loan a musician if he says he forgot his. He sometimes has a fiddle or a mandolin. Many very accomplished musicians have played at Clay's Corner, including a champion banjo player from Georgia and a champion fiddler player from Florida.

But the musicians are invited or featured - they just show up.

"Anyone can come and play," Clay said. "We've had all kinds. We had a 90-year-old man who tried to play bluegrass music with a trumpet."

Clay had to keep his job with the Forest Service to get his three boys through school. It has been a lot of work keeping up with Clay's Corner.

"Enjoyment wise, I wouldn't trade it," he said. "We aren't here for the money, just the business."