Up until pretty recently (three/five years ago?), it was still legal in the state of Texas to drive around with open containers of alcohol in the vehicle.
As in, you’re driving, and your passengers are drinking, and it’s all groovy.
I would assume the fact that all you had to do as the driver was hand your drink to your passenger, in the event that you got pulled over, is the reason this was eventually outlawed.
What I find intriguing is how long it took this liberty to be revoked. (Called the “open container” law.) It seems pretty obvious that an open beer anywhere in a vehicle is probably not a good idea.
What is still baffling to me is that if you buy a single bottle/can of beer from a convenience store, they still put it in those tiny brown bags that barely cover the lip of the can or bottle. I see it all the time.
You know, b/c if it’s got a brown bag around it, and you’re driving around with it, of course it’s probably Diet Coke. :rolleyes:
I was going to mention fireworks in some states, but NDP beat me to it.
There were far more lenient anti-smoking laws, so I’d say “being able to light up wherever and whenever you want.” Non-smoking sections in restaurants and bars were rare, smoking was permitted in public places (malls, movie theaters, and so on), and sometimes permitted in confined spaces such as elevators. I’ve seen many an old elevator with an ashtray built into one of the cab walls.
U.S. passports were issued as far back as 1795. For the National Archives:
Passports were required from August 19, 1861, to March 17, 1862, during the Civil War.
Passports were recommended, but not required, by President Woodrow Wilson’s Executive Order of December 15, 1915, which stated that all persons leaving the U.S. should have passports.
Passports were required from May 22, 1918, until the formal termination of World War I in 1921 by treaties.
Passports have been required since the passage of the act of June 21, 1941, and subsequent legislation.
I would not challenge that. My reference was to the speed limits prior to the Federally imposed 55 mph limit from the mid-70s. (There might have been eastern states with limits higher than 70 in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but I never encountered them. I’ll see if I can find an ancient Rand-McNally Road Atlas from that period.)
Throughout the 1970s, there was a growing sense among some people that lowering the drinking age had been a mistake and toward the end of the 70s a number of states began raising their drinking ages again until the Feds stepped in once more in the mid-80s to use fuel tax allocations to compel all the states to hike it to 21.
Coca Cola was so named because its chief ingredient was cocaine.
Tilden’s Extract was an OTC drug which was basically extract of cannabis.
Vibrators were initially developed so that doctors could treat female patients suffering from hysteria quickly and efficiently, instead of having to bring them to orgasm by hand.
Of course, all such drugs were freely available over the counter way back when. With regard to Coca-Cola, I’ve more than once seen writers mistakenly substitute “cocoa” for “coca” when discussing the early history of the drink. It’s as if they can’t accept the fact that the origins of such a squeaky clean symbol of Americana is bound up with a dreaded illegal drug.
