Private Clubs
My wife, Tracy, and I lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma from the time of our marriage in 1980 until 1984. Some of the craziest goings on accompanied the fight in 1984 over so-called “liquor by the drink” or sometimes known as “liquor by the wink”. Prior to 1984, the only legal method to enjoy a mixed drink in a restaurant, club or bar in Oklahoma is if said restaurant, club or bar was a private “bottle club”. The way a bottle club was supposed to work legally was:
“Each member shall be served only from the member’s individually owned bottle of alcoholic beverage which shall be marked with the owner’s full name or code number.”
In other words, if my wife and I went to Chi Chi’s for Mexican food and we each wanted to have a margarita with our fajitas, we would each be required to have our own “individually owned bottle” of tequila. In actuality, the walls of a private club would be lined with hundreds of bottles of liquor, each with a number. When you joined the private club, you athorized the club to purchase a bottle for you. So theoretically, one of those bottles was “your” bottle. (Wink, wink!)
Hypocrisy on tap
After the repeal of the 18th amendment and prohibition in 1933, almost two-thirds of all states (including Oklahoma) adopted some form of local option which enabled residents in political subdivisions to vote for or against local prohibition. Famous Oklahoma son Will Rogers’s expounded the adage that Bible Belt Oklahomans would “vote dry as long as they could stagger to the polls.” Even with the repeal of prohibition and institution of “local option” in 1959, a majority continued to stagger to the polls and defeat local option measures for liquor by the drink or mixed drinks served in restaurants and bars. As long as long as folks could still effectively have their liquor by the drink and still portray “family values” to the world, they saw no need to “fix” the system. Besides, legalizing liquor by the drink would mean taxing liquor by the drink. (Wink, wink!)
Our long national nightmare is over
But in 1984, there was a new effort by law enforcement to put an end to this charade. With a constitutional amendment on the ballot for the fall, officials were no longer winking. The push was highlighted by a local Tulsa outlet of a chain Mexican restaurant by the name of Chi Chi’s being closed down on a regular basis. This resulted in servers and managers being arrested, all liquor being confiscated… and the liquor being restocked and operations returning to normal within an hour or so. Arrests were generally limited to staff with the offending server and manager being arrested. When Tulsa officials made the decision to turn up the heat and start arresting customers (for drinking in public) the result was a public relations disaster. Patrons of another Tulsa restaurant were arrested for having a glass of wine with their meal. The offenders were found to be out of state guests… in town for a funeral. On September 18, 1984, voters elected to repeal the Oklahoma Constitution’s “anti-saloon” provision by about 52%, clearing the way for county option votes to allow liquor by the drink in 22 counties, including Tulsa and Oklahoma (Oklahoma City) counties in May of the following year. However, as late as 2013, there were still 26 counties in Oklahoma that had not approved liquor by the drink.
What do you think?
So let me know what you think. Do you have a Crazy Liquor Law story? We want to hear about it. Leave a comment below. Or email me at Mark@CrazyLiquorLaws.com. You will need to register to comment and at that time I will need your email address; but don’t worry; I won’t be spamming you and will never sell your information.
Cheers!
Mark