Possum capital of the South

The Possum drop officially began when a fire engine driving along State Road 64 turned on its sirens and red lights. Mike Logan, Clay's son, followed closely in his red semi. The attendees stood at attention and watched the procession. When the vehicles were directly in front of the gas station, the semi's doors swung open and about six hillbillies -- Clay's friends wearing straw hats, Billy Bob fake teeth and overalls -- jumped out and ran around crazily.

Then, from out of a small door in the semi, one hillbilly passed something to another. It was a Plexiglas pyramid, about a foot square at its base, adorned with gold tinsel. Inside, an opossum, alive but playing dead, lay surrounded by its own feces.

The crowd parted to let the hillbillies and their opossum through. Camera bulbs flashed as the hillbillies tied the cage to a string dangling beneath the metal Citgo canopy. They attached a glass disco ball to the bottom of the cage and hoisted the whole thing about three feet above the crowd. They tied the connecting string to a nearby post.

It was 19 degrees outside, and attendees stayed warm with hot chocolate and cigarettes. No one seemed concerned over the close proximity of fire and gasoline -- smokers puffed and flicked ashes by the pumps. Children huddled under three blazing kerosene heaters, resting above tanks of gasoline.

The first show, the annual Ms. Possum contest, featured seven local men dressed as women. First, Logan introduced last year's queen, Silas Brown. The young man stepped onto the stage with confidence. He wore earrings, a beaded necklace, a full-length fur coat and a cowboy hat. He walked across the stage, giving only coy glances to the screaming crowd.

The next contestant, Sheriff's Deputy Cantrell, emerged in a black vinyl miniskirt, wielding a police baton. As the next six contestants appeared on the stage, Logan incited the crowd: "Keep your clothes on," he yelled. He mimicked dancing with the men.

After the Ms. Possum contest, and a gospel choir's rendition of "The Road to Heaven," many of the celebrants wandered inside to warm themselves and peruse the tables of opossum merchandise. A bluegrass band had set up in the backroom, beside a wall of videos. One man, leaning against a life-size cardboard cutout of racecar driver Dale Earnhardt, nodded to the music so forcefully that he made the cutout's head bob back and forth.

At 15 minutes until midnight, the bluegrass band finished its last song, "I'm a Man of Constant Sorrow," and filed out of the store with the others. Outside, over loudspeakers, a record of John Wayne reading the Pledge of Allegiance became audible, while the patriotic text scrolled on a nearby movie screen. The Duke followed the speech with definitions for all of the pledge's important words. The crowd stood rapt and attentive. When Wayne's pledge was over, they all yelled, clapped and hollered.

As the end of 2001 approached, people moved toward the pumps and encircled the opossum's cage. The dead-still animal spun in its pyramid as the final seconds flashed on the distant movie screen. Someone took the string and dropped the opossum about six inches per second. At zero, it fell to its final position, seven feet off the ground: It was New Year's in Brasstown.

On top of the hill across the road from Clay's store, Jamie Logan and some others began setting off fireworks. Crowds, walking toward their cars, began ducking as purple sparks shot toward them. Then an unintended fire started on the hilltop. It grew to about the size of three chimney fires. The celebrants stared. Finally someone on the hill walked toward the fire and began stomping around its perimeter.

With the fire out, those still present could turn back to the movie screen, which bore the image of Robert E. Lee. The Confederate general sat in a regal pose on top of a gray horse, surrounded by his men. The image was replaced by a picture of an American flag and Confederate flag, lying across one another, with gold tassels at their tops.

The image was followed by a home movie depicting Logan and his friends dressed as hillbillies, strumming instruments in a barn. Playing as background to the strange scene was the song "I'm a Man of Constant Sorrow," excerpted from the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" movie soundtrack. Clay and his friends appeared to be lip-synching to the lyrics.

The party was now breaking up. Clay stood near one of the kerosene heaters beside the store's front door. He was laughing with some folks when someone approached and asked, "What happens to the opossum?"

He said, "We let him out when the crowd goes away."

At about noon the following day, Dr. Mitchell stood in his kitchen as he watched a procession of cars pull into his driveway. It was the Brasstown Brigade, coming to shoot him in. Bryan greeted them and requested a change in the ceremony: He wanted to shoot something symbolic out of the cannon. He fetched his old catheter and loaded it into the iron barrel.

A few seconds later Stroup lit the cannon's short fuse. The catheter fired out of the barrel in a barrage of flames and landed in the branches of a nearby pine tree.

"I like that spot," Bryan said, looking into the branches. "I hope it stays there."

• View blog reactions