Posted on 03/24/2012 8:56:57 AM PDT by DogByte6RER
These are the places in America where alcohol is still banned
The year was 1933. America's fourteen-year experiment in sobriety was over; the federally mandated ban on the sale and manufacture of alcohol had been lifted. All across the U.S., people welcomed the repeal of prohibition with open arms and flowing taps.
Or rather, most of them did. Meet the counties where America's "noble experiment" never died.
When prohibition lifted almost eighty years ago, many communities (particularly in the Bible Belt) voted to keep alcohol bans in place at the local level. Today, there are still more than 200 "dry" counties nationwide with what most would consider excessively stringent liquor laws. There are even more that remain partially dry (or "moist," to those familiar with the particulars of prohibition legislation).
It's interesting to compare the effects of early 20th century prohibition against those of 2012. America's first experiment with alcohol regulation was a failure on many fronts. Alcohol consumption remained rampant. Thousands died from poorly prepared bathtub liquor. But on the other hand, it also fueled a pretty badass culture of back-alley science and innovation. Smugglers looking to bootleg booze had to come up with innovative ways of eluding the law. Sometimes this involved coming up with creative ways to hide cargo; other times all it meant was being able to outrun whoever was chasing you.
In many ways, prohibition was the catalyst for the first (and arguably biggest) large-scale Do-It-Yourself science movement in the nation's history; home-brewing became extremely popular during prohibition, with magazines like Popular Science publishing how-to guides for assembling DIY distilleries, and measuring your alcohol to keep it within the ABV standards outlined by the eighteenth amendment.
Today, however, it seems like the only real benefit to prohibition is the sense of moral superiority that it instills in those who support it — and that's a reality many of the country's driest regions are having to face up to. According to the BBC, many communities that have been dry for decades have been forced to re-evaluate their non-alcoholic standards in light of hard economic times. If you look at the map, you'll notice that many of the dry and moist counties are interspersed with wet ones. With establishments in dry communities losing business to those in counties that permit alcohol, there are many who feel that the prohibition model cannot hold.
"I hope that we can move into the 21st Century and take advantage of a lot of the things that other communities have," explained Paul Croley, a local lawyer who recently led a campaign to change the status of Williamsburg Kentucky from dry to moist. (The tiny community voted on Tuesday — by a margin of just 14 votes — to finally allow the sale of alcohol in restaurants).
"It is time to wake up and realise that our standard of living can be as good as our neighbours."
Same here, and I loved those taverns!
Best chow around!
Probably not a coincidence that these are areas Rick Santorum seems to do best.
But Minnesota has a similar local option for towns to operate liquor stores and even bars (e.g. http://www.cityofsavage.com/how-it-started ) and Minnesota is all blue.
As a matter of fact, the town is still dry and everyone that lives there frequents the taverns in the next town.
http://www.thebluewolftavern.com/
It makes no sense.
That map is a little misleading, at least it is as far as the Carolinas are concerned.
NC is largely yellow because the ABC stores are all state run. You can’t buy a bottle of anything stronger than wine in a private store. Also, these state run ABC stores are closed on Sunday.
Then, you have SC, which from all appearances on the map is wide open “wet.”. Wrong. It’s a heavily tourist dependent state, but like most tourist areas there are traps designed to relieve you of money. SC requires all mixed drinks to be poured in precise measure, from those little airplane bottles. Last I knew, they were all you could get there, in a bar or a store.
So, it’s misleading, as I said.
So’s Virginia, really. They’re very law and order, and as favorably as i tend to look upon maintenance of public order, they’re a little too hardassed about it. I don’t understand the Commonwealth very well, and the county police forces are not something with which I’d want to tangle very often, over anything. A speeding ticket can leave you feeling as if you’ve just had a brush with a tad too much authoritarianism.
I live in a dry county in Kentucky. There are several bootleggers and clubs where alcohol is served. Word is the Bootleggers and Baptists keep the county dry.
“Eat, Drink and Be Merry....for tomorrow, ye may be in Utah.”
Funny ! places in ole kentucky are dry as a bone but you can get booze in just about any dance hall and state park brand name from the back of a pickup truck or the trunk of a car things aren’t as dry as you would think ....
Seems to me that the fact that the laws do appear to be very much up to the individual counties, indicates a great deal of freedom.
That’s what they do in Texas.
It’s a scam
Alaska has quite a few dry Indian villages - for good reason.
Then we had to pay $20 membership fee. Then drank two beers and left. Silly stuff.
No cover charge?
That’s a funny concept of freedom. Luckily the tyranny of the local majority is easier to escape than the tyranny of the national majority.
The unicard is dead here.
http://www.unicardsystems.com/
It used to be that we had to buy a unicard, buy a club membership AND pay a cover charge LOL
Its a scam.
Here is a list of places to avoid in Texas that participate in this Bull puckey.
http://www.unicardsystems.com/clublist.asp
Yet Utah isn't dry.
Go figure...
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