I learned that the hard way today. I haven't been that humiliated in quite awhile. I was trying to buy some for a pot roast recipe I'm going to try this week, and for Thanksgiving and you'd think I was Hester from the Scarlet Letter herself! Guess that's what I get for shopping while everyone else was in church to avoid the crowds since Kroger seems to be THE place to go all day everyday here.

Such a Lush...hehehe (o:

I got that trying to buy wine in NC last year, ---when you live out in the wild west, you forget about the blue laws and don't get me started about the dry counties!! Most recently, we were in Pennsylvania and trying to buy beer to take back to the hotel room and had trouble finding a place that would sell beer at all!! You could go to a restaurant or bar and buy and drink beer there, but no one could sell it to us to take away!!! My reasoning was I wanted NOT to drink and drive. I could drink at the restaurant, but then I would have to DRIVE to the hotel. DUH, just trying to avoid a DUI--but the state laws were FORCING us to drink and drive.
(unfortunately my designated driver (Ryan) was not with us on this trip)
-Amanda from Seattle

Don't try to buy beer (or any alcohol) in Indiana on Sunday no matter what time of the day it is. :) Or on Election Day before 6:00 PM. (I guess they don't want people voting drunk?) And of course, you can't buy a car on Sunday in Indiana either.

TG

Try living in Westerville, Ohio. Our main claim to fame is being the "Dry Capital of the World".

A little history...
An 1859 town ordinance forbade the sale of alcohol in Westerville. By the 1870s, a burgeoning conflict between pro- and anti-temperance forces boiled over into the so-called "Westerville Whiskey Wars". Twice, in 1875 and 1879, businessman Henry Corbin opened a saloon in Westerville, and each time the townspeople blew up his establishment with gunpowder. Westerville's reputation for temperance was so significant that in 1909 the Anti-Saloon League moved its national headquarters from Washington, D.C. to Westerville. The League, at the forefront of the Prohibition movement, gained its greatest triumph when the Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution was ratified in 1920. The League printed so many leaflets in support of temperance and prohibition—over 40 tons of mail per month—that Westerville, by now known as "The Dry Capital of the World", was the smallest town in the nation to have a first class post office. After Prohibition ended, Westerville remained dry for most of the twentieth century.

I remember it was a big deal when the city annexed several hundred acres from the neighboring county (that wasn't dry.) The talk of the town was whether or not the city council was going to allow alcohol sales in that area. They did and little by little other permits in the city limits were granted. That was less than 10 years ago.

Holy Moley, TG - I didn't realize you lived in CP!! I lived in Merrillville for 7 years, went to school in Schererville. Wow. I take it the college is still there. Oh, the stories...

Wow, just seeing that took me on a trip down memory lane...

I'm not far from Boston where you would think anyone could but alcohol at anytime. Wrong!
It was three weeks after my fortieth birthday and I hadn't slept in a week and I don't know why. I don’t drink often, but decided to get a bottle of wine in a large well know liquor store.
I got to the register and they asked for an ID. Are you kidding? Did I mention I just turned 40.
They made me go out to get my license, guess what, it had expired three weeks earlier. They wouldn't except it. No sleep for a week, not a happy camper. So my response to the manager was, so are you telling me that this license was never any good or I'm no longer 40?
I left and went to another store where I pulled out my new ID. I had it before, but refused to make another trip out to my truck.

When I first moved to Missouri, they had a law that alcohol could not be sold on Sundays. They chained off the liquor department in the groceries. That law went away about 15 years ago.

When Cyclonic & I visited California, we went to the supermarket with Wassa after dinner the night before the event. The cashier wouldn't let Cyclonic buy beer because he didn't have a CA driver's license. We tried to explain that of course he didn't, because he was from Pennsylvania. The cashier then asked if I had a CA driver's license. No, I said, I'm from Delaware. We had to holler over to Wassa to get him to come buy Cy's beer... and then after all that, the cashier didn't even ask for Wassa's ID!

Maybe the cashier knew wassa because he was a regular there?

romana

I don't think so--we weren't local to San Jose. My guess was the cashier was just trying to get rid of us & wishing he hadn't started the whole thing in the first place :)

Let's be fair, TG. You can get it at Lucas Oil Stadium when the Colts play. You can get it in bars and restaurants, just not in bottle shops and grocery stores. I think the Election Day restriction came into play when big city politicians would round up any and all voters and get them to the polls. I imagine a few "rounds for all" followed.

What I found highly ironic when I first moved to Wisconsin was the "drive-thru liquor store."

At my local Target, and I suppose all of them, you have to show an ID now when buying wine. I complained about certainly looking old enough, but everyone have to do it. They swipe it and heaven knows what they do with the information. It is enough to make me not buy wine there. And they have problems reading my license so I always, 2 times, hold up the line.
Guess I should go on a day with really long lines to show them how stupid this rule is.

Bokmal

At my local Target, and I suppose all of them, you have to show an ID now when buying wine.

I went to a Target when I was visiting a friend recently and we bought a bottle of wine and a cheesecake (dinner!) and they didn't card either of us. Either your Target is paranoid or her Target is not following company protocol.

I really don't mind when they card me....most places have a sign up that if you are 25 or younger that they will card you, so if they want to card me, I am happy to oblige. I so rarely get carded these days.....

by the by we are supposed to card folks on the airplane, but I use the rule that if they look older than my 21 year old cousins then I don't card them--it is especially cute because the younger folks (just turned 21) will have their id's out already, ready for us to card them.

amanda from seattle

Either your Target is paranoid or her Target is not following company protocol.

Or the applicable laws are different for the two different Targets. =) Even individual cities could have their own strange liquor laws, but different counties and different states will certainly have different laws in effect.

But honestly--sheeze--most of the liquor laws in place are just plain antiquated and nonsensical. For a free country, there are a heck of a lot of stupid liquor laws in place.

-- Ryan

What's interesting to me is that liquor has caused a lot more problems, illnessess and heartache than tobacco and yet it's tobacco products that are almost illegal. Not advocating prohibition, just it's odd what we demonize.

I remember "blue laws" here in the deep south, you couldn't hardly do anything on Sunday. It was always nice and quiet. Again, not advocating a return to the blue laws, just a comment.

I really don't mind when they card me....most places have a sign up that if you are 25 or younger that they will card you, so if they want to card me, I am happy to oblige.

I don't mind being carded either. Around here, most places have a sign up that say if you are 39-1/2 or younger, they will card you. I've still only been carded 3 times in my life and one of those times was because after hitting the 4th bar on my 21st birthday, I still hadn't been carded so I put up a fit till they did. Either I look old or I'm mature. Let's go with mature.

I don't usually get upset about being carded. Around here, we have a prominent supermarket chain (Wegman's shoutout!) that enacted a policy about 6 years ago that everyone had to be carded, regardless of how old they looked. I remember my boss at the time was in her 60's, and got kinda pissy the first time it happened to her, but really, I think it's a good policy. It takes the pressure off the cashier trying to guess someone's age, and treats everybody equally.

I miss Wegman's (used to live near Syracuse). Their produce and bakery were the best!
Anyway, a little TN trivia... The Jack Daniels distillery in Lynchburg, TN is located in a dry county.

...there are a heck of a lot of stupid liquor laws in place.

There are a lot of stupid laws, period.

What's interesting to me is that liquor has caused a lot more problems, illnessess and heartache than tobacco and yet it's tobacco products that are almost illegal.

Allow me to amend this statement. The ABUSE of alcohol has caused problems.

It's been proven that wine especially reds and craft brewed beer actually have some health benefits.

I know of no health benefits of tobacco.

Shiloh

tobacco, wet and mashed into a paste, is good for a poultice for bruises. I have also heard it is good for sick cattle, but do not know the application of it for that.

I have not heard of any beneficial uses for tobacco for internal use on humans.

romana

tobacco, wet and mashed into a paste, is good for a poultice for bruises

I have used it for wasp stings. I forgot about that. I stand corrected.

Shiloh

wine especially reds and craft brewed beer

All good stuff and in our household we treat them as a delicacy.

I stand corrected.

Oh, by all means, please sit corrected. It's much more comfy ;-)

R