Crazy Liquor Laws

It's Enough to Drive You to Drink!

by Leave a Comment

Oklahoma’s “Liquor by the wink”

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

 

by 1 Comment

Welcome to Crazy Liquor Laws!

It’s been an interesting journey…

I didn’t realize it until relatively recently, but I have been preparing for this day for most of my adult life.

Spring break 1977 (my Freshman year):

I drove from Little Rock, Arkansas to Emporia, Kansas to visit my good friend Lynnette. Her spring break was a different week so she was in classes, but we still had the evenings for her to initiate me into the wonderful world of legal drinking. You see, at that time, the legal drinking age in Kansas was 18… for “Three-Two Beer”; beer with an alcohol content of 3.2% by volume or lower. In Arkansas, the drinking age was already 21 for everything. So I learned the fine art of playing drinking games… and projectile vomiting and not eating for 24 hours. Also, I could buy Coors! (3.2 Coors, but still…) In 1977, Coors was not available west of a line along Kansas/Oklahoma/Texas. This wasn’t the “law” per se, just marketing.

1984:

My wife, Tracy, and I lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma from the time of our marriage in 1980 until 1984. We were accustomed to some of the strange Oklahoma liquor laws (much more to come on these pages over the coming weeks) but some of the craziest goings on accomanied the fight in 1984 over so-called “liquor by the drink”. The hypocrisy prior to 1984 effectionatly known as “liquor by the wink” was highlighted by a local restaurant being closed down on a regular basis and finally resulting in a public relations disaster when patrons of another Tulsa restaurant arrested for having a glass of wine with their meal were found to be out of state guests… in town for a funeral.

1988:

I was on an IT consulting assignment (my first) in Marion, Indiana when we discovered that we could not buy beer at a convenience store between 3:00 and 6:00 am. (Don’t ask.)

2002 or 2003:

On another consulting assignment in the Seattle, Washington area, I visited a brew pub and decided to purchase a growler to take with me back to my apartment. Instead of just dropping the growler off at my table with my check as I was accustomed to, the waitress informed me that, due to local liquor laws, when I was ready to leave, she would have to meet me in the vestibule and hand the growler to me there. This was one of the first times I thought, “I need to write a book!” about strange liquor laws around the country.

2015:

I was listening to a comedian on XM radio talk about his experiences with drive through daiquiri bars in Louisiana. As long as the straw hasn’t punctured the plastic lid, or if the straw is inserted into the lid but the paper still covers the top end of the straw, the cup is not considered an “open container”. I need to write a book!

2016:

While enduring an extended period of unemployment (or “bench time” as we euphemistically call it in the consulting world) I have been looking for an online business involving some combination of blog, podcast, and/or newsletter. CrazyLiquorLaws.com is born!

And here we are…

I still need to write a book. The plan is for CrazyLiquorLaws.com to be my research tool for Crazy Liquor Laws – The Book.

Those of you who travel a lot or those of you who live in mostly southern states (or Utah) know that there are some strange laws out there pertaining to the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages. And they vary from state to state, county to county, sometimes city to city and even precinct to precinct within a city. This can be confusing even in your own home area. But if you travel a lot or move frequently it can make your head spin. It leaves you asking ” Where (and when) can I get a drink?”. Whether it be a beer or a glass of wine with dinner or a bottle of wine or a six pack to take to your hotel room or apartment.

For years I’ve been saying, “I need to write a book about this stuff!” Well, I think it’s time to get started. “The book” will probably be a while in coming, but in the meantime I want to start with a blog and maybe a podcast on the subject. This could lead to special localized eBooks and maybe an app. Then when I have all of the information compiled for all 50 states I could publish the book. I kind of see it as an entertaining travel guide.

Let’s do this together

Here’s where I need your help now. I need material fodder. What are some of the stranger laws that you have come across? I plan to actually catalog all information pertaining to liquor laws by jurisdiction including hours, types (beer, wine, “hard” liquor) and venue (liquor store, grocery store, club/restaurant, etc.) to be used as a reference. But I will highlight the more unusual as I come across them. I will also continue to share my own anecdotes gathered from my years of traveling around the country as a consultant.

I should probably also address DUI/”open container” laws. This could be a real issue for some of my consultant friends who travel a lot. The law’s definition of an “open container can vary from an empty, bone dry, obviously been in the back seat for a week beer can being considered an “open container” to being able to drive through and pick up a margarita and take it home with you as long as the straw hasn’t punctured the plastic lid.

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