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For those of you who would have been say young teens in the 50s/60s/70s was it really easy for a young person to buy alcohol? With store keepers not caring? I also heard back then if a cop pulled you over you could be super drunk and there would be a good chance he'd drive you home, or let you walk home, is that true?
I don't think even today, that many "young teens" are into buying booze. Now, at the high school level maybe but even then they do not buy it as much as get friends to buy it for you. As for cops driving you home if you were smashed, that probably depended on your age and the situation.
What is probably the hardest for someone apparently young like yourself, to understand: we didn't get pulled over for drinking because we did not drink as often as the kids today and most kids didn't even have a car. Heck, when I was growing up most families only had one car and particularly girls didn't drive until they were out of high school or there abouts. If we did want a beer or something, we could always find an older person to buy it for us. Yes, there were some kids that had phony IDs. Now by college age, we were inclined to drink more, often too much and we were still under age. BTW I am referring to the kids in the 50s and 60s, not the 70s. By then, heck we had teens of our own.
Wow. Racist and wrong. However, you do bring up an excellent point. This thread is full of people (assuming whites) telling about how they committed illegal acts with seemingly no consequences. Yet, as demographics change, all of a sudden, these same acts are now major crimes. Hmmmm...
Because of racism in US society meaning that as America got less white, certain behaviors which were previously tolerated became a lot less tolerated.
Because of racism in US society meaning that as America got less white, certain behaviors which were previously tolerated became a lot less tolerated.
i don't think that's it at all. I think it was just a change in society that happens every so often. We went from free love, free-wheeling attitudes to more strict attitudes about many things in the 80's. MADD came along, we were moving from a blue collar economy to a Wall Street economy, AIDS came along (that was the big one that really ended the long party that lasted from the late 60's through the 70's).
These things got taken more seriously. MADD is the biggest reason though that laws, and thus bars and liquor stores got more strict. That came from a white woman who lost her son to a drunk driver, and I don't think the color of his skin had anything to do with her campaign. People also started suing, and that changed things, as bars now had consequences for looking the other way.
The way strangers would buy liquor for us when we stood outside the liquor store with $5.00 in our hand (or $1.00, as a quart of Miller was something like 69 cents, lol), that changed because people now could go to jail or get sued for doing it.
People in general got more uptight. There used to be a couple of nude beaches in my county back in the day, now if they tried to open one people's heads would explode. There used to be head shops all over, on major roads, in regular (white, middle class) neighborhoods. The one my friends and I went to most often was called "High Times" and had a giant pot leaf on their sign, and no one cared. Could you imagine the reaction now?
In any case, I don't think it's because there are more brown people now, or at least I can't see the connection.
i don't think that's it at all. I think it was just a change in society that happens every so often. We went from free love, free-wheeling attitudes to more strict attitudes about many things in the 80's. MADD came along, we were moving from a blue collar economy to a Wall Street economy, AIDS came along (that was the big one that really ended the long party that lasted from the late 60's through the 70's).
These things got taken more seriously. MADD is the biggest reason though that laws, and thus bars and liquor stores got more strict. That came from a white woman who lost her son to a drunk driver, and I don't think the color of his skin had anything to do with her campaign. People also started suing, and that changed things, as bars now had consequences for looking the other way.
The way strangers would buy liquor for us when we stood outside the liquor store with $5.00 in our hand (or $1.00, as a quart of Miller was something like 69 cents, lol), that changed because people now could go to jail or get sued for doing it.
People in general got more uptight. There used to be a couple of nude beaches in my county back in the day, now if they tried to open one people's heads would explode. There used to be head shops all over, on major roads, in regular (white, middle class) neighborhoods. The one my friends and I went to most often was called "High Times" and had a giant pot leaf on their sign, and no one cared. Could you imagine the reaction now?
In any case, I don't think it's because there are more brown people now, or at least I can't see the connection.
The changes in those attitudes in large part were directly correlated to thinking of those attitudes and behaviors as practiced by nonwhites, with not only large scale racial anxieties but also the return of immigration on a large scale in the background. Just like how the previous time that things got more strict in the early 20th century also accompanied large scale racial anxiety and high immigration. If the relatively low immigration of the mid 20th century had continued the more relaxed attitudes would have continued. White America tends to be less uptight when nonwhites are absent. James Morone explained it in HELLFIRE NATION
The changes in those attitudes in large part were directly correlated to thinking of those attitudes and behaviors as practiced by nonwhites, with not only large scale racial anxieties but also the return of immigration on a large scale in the background. Just like how the previous time that things got more strict in the early 20th century also accompanied large scale racial anxiety and high immigration. If the relatively low immigration of the mid 20th century had continued the more relaxed attitudes would have continued. White America tends to be less uptight when nonwhites are absent. James Morone explained it in HELLFIRE NATION
There still forty-five states where parents may allow their children to drink alcohol. For example, in Wyoming, a family may go out to dinner and the kids may drink. I'm sure that the prohibitionists from MADD are in a rage over this although I'm sure that they have their marijuana and heroin handy to lessen their emotional pain.
easy for me. lol I grew up in NYC. seemed like everything was easy to get. The most popular way was to simply get an "older" friend or cousin to score for you.
I always got my older cousin to buy me Boone's Farm. He'd buy a bottle for each of my friends and me and drive us around while we drank it. Then we'd get back in our cars and drive home!
My husband and his friends used to ride their BIKES out to a country bar and get served, at age 14.
He also says IF the cops pulled them over (later, in cars ) they'd just tell them to park it and they'd take them home. This was all in the mid 70's, in small town/rural Wisconsin.
Now, the laws for selling alcohol are ridiculous. All the grocery stores even card you, no matter your age. We were in a Red Robin (casual restaurant) a couple years ago, and they wouldn't serve my husband, who at the time was mid-50's, a beer 'cuz he didn't have a license on him.
My mother and I rode a bus up to Green Bay to a Packer game, and of course were out of beer by the time we got there. so we went to a convenience store across from Lambeau Field. Of course we didn't have an ID on us, our purses were in the bus. When the cashier asked for our ID, and we went...uh...A GUY behind us handed his to us and said "Here you go. Use mine." And the cashier TOOK IT! Another example of stupid laws being followed instead of a person using common sense.
But apparently it's not just Wisconsin, we were at Universal Studios in Hollywood on New Year's Eve for the turn of the century. Mom and I skipped the Jurassic Park ride and went for a beer instead. She offered to buy, but the server wouldn't let her, because she didn't have an ID on her.
In Florida, Wisconsin Badgers are playing at the Outback Bowl in Tampa, I go to the concession stand at Buccaneer Stadium. They don't LET you bring a purse or backpack in, so of course I don't have an ID on me. I DID however, have a button with my daughter's picture on it, in her Badger cheerleader outfit. The kid asked for an ID, I told him I didn't have one, and pointed at the button, and said "Look. This is obviously my daughter, we look just alike. If she's in college, I'm definitely over 21." And he sold me the beer!!
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) they'd just tell them to park it and they'd take them home. This was all in the mid 70's, in small town/rural Wisconsin. 
so we went to a convenience store across from Lambeau Field. Of course we didn't have an ID on us, our purses were in the bus. When the cashier asked for our ID, and we went...uh...A GUY behind us handed his to us and said "Here you go. Use mine." And the cashier TOOK IT! Another example of stupid laws being followed instead of a person using common sense. 
