Yes. The Volstead Act enacted into law the provisions of the 18th Amendment.
Hah. In the fictional Massachusetts town of Potter’s Point, which I’ve been writing about since 1984, there’s a character named Lutefisk Larson who is the leader of the band The Midnight Sons.
I might have to give him an uncle who once served time for dealing in contraband moose meat.
You may proceed with your regularly scheduled thread.
There was no federal law against posession or consumption. It most states it remained perfectly legal to comsume alcohol in one’s own home or as a bona fide guest it someone elses. Before prohibition went into effect wealth people bought vast quantities of liquor for their personal wine cellers.
Actually the Voltead Act did prohibit the possession of alcohol except for medicinal purposes required a prescription, sacramental purposes, and and in the home. Consumption was not against federal law.
The provision allowing possession in the home was limited to the personal use of the home owner and guests. The onus was on the possessor to show that the liquor had been legally obtained and transported to the home.
I believe the possession provision was so authorities could summarily confiscate or destroy any illegal alcohol they found. Remember all those newsreel scenes showing Prohibition agents and police smashing stills and barrels of beer with axes? They couldn’t do that if the people arrested for making and selling the stuff could claim that they still had a right to own the alcohol. That said, I doubt in the extreme that many people were ever arrested for being caught with a flask on them; the cops would just confiscate the booze (probably for themselves).
Very possible. But my post was to correct the statement that there was no federal law against possession.
I remember prohibition and I also remember people being worried about being caught in possession of alcohol so it wasn’t just a hollow threat. I do agree that local police probably didn’t go out of their way to look for someone in possession.
On further thought, it’s quite possible that Iowa also had liquor prohibitions, such as a ban on possession, and that’s what the local police and sheriff would enforce. Local police usually don’t enforce federal laws.
That’s made quite likely by the fact that Iowa was painfully slow to modify its laws after the repeal of the 18th amendment and the Volstead Act. Up until about 1938 the only alcohol served legally in Iowa was 3.2% beer. Then the state opened state owned liquor stores. You bought a book of coupons and traded those in at the liquor store. You could only buy one book every so often. Finally, post WWII, in the late 1950’s I think, liquor could be served by the drink but the bar still bought its liquor from the state.
IIRC, you can still drink in public in Utah only if you join a “club” (called a “bar” anywhere else) for nominal dues. Your “membership” might last only the night you’re in town on a business trip. :rolleyes:
I have access to a digitized version of the LA Times from 1881-1985 through my work.
In Moab in November 2005 we drank plenty of micro-brew without having to join a club. Of course being Utah, it was strange. There was a restaurant side, and the bar side. On the restaurant side, there was no beer or any other booze served, but children were welcome. If you wanted a beer, you had to be on the bar side, but children weren’t allowed to enter.
When I was stationed in Texas in the Military in the mid 1990’s, there was this thing where the several counties managed their own liquor and beer regulations. There was a dry county on the western side of Ft. Hood, but to the east you could purchase retail beer and booze at most normally expected places. To drink at a restaurant or bar, you had to join their private club. Sometimes it was free, sometimes it was the price of cover, and sometimes it was just additional profit. There were no qualifications other than you money. Sometimes it was good for a week, and sometimes good for a year or life. It’s strange going into a Pizza Hut and having to join a private club in order to enjoy a pitcher of beer.
In Oklahoma I know they still sell near-beer – that 3.2% stuff. You can buy it virtually anywhere and cold. It’s the standard millwater like Bud and Miller. Or, you can go to the liquor store to get full strength beer, but by law it can only be sold warm.
In Ontario all of the Beer and Liquor are controlled through “The Beer Store” and the “LCBO”, both of which are government controlled (although it seems like in the case of The Beer Store it looks like there’s some private enterprise coalition thing between the manufactureres that may be at play). I kind of hate this arrangement per my libertarian principles, but on the other hand, you know that every beer store has dozens of beer varieties to choose from.
And in my home of Michigan, until recently the MLCC regulated the prices of liquor in all stores. It’s still the only place where retail outlets and the service industry can purchase hard liquor.
I believe it was Will Rogers who wrote that, “Oklahoma is dry and will vote to remain dry. At least all of those sober enough to stagger to the polls will.”
During the Seattle Worlds Fair I went into a bar there and they wouldn’t sell me a beer as long as I was standing at the bar. I had to sit down. And then I decided to move to a table, picked up my glass and started to carry it. A waitress rushed up, bawled me out and carried the beer to the table. In Virginia the last time I was there (26 or 27 years) a woman alone wouldn’t be served at the bar and you also weren’t allowed to carry your drink to a table. Virginia also had state owned liquor stores at that time.
The bizarre patchwork of alcohol laws in the U.S. should the topic of a thread all its own. Any takers?
In fact, here in the buckle of the Bible Belt, ALL bars, restaurants, liquor stores, grocery stores, etc… who wish to purchase any alcohol for sale must purchase it through the (edit: state owned) ABC: Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
To this day, in Mississippi.
Also many counties remain totally dry. Mine (Lee County), one of the “progressive” counties (they recently outlawed smoking in bars), still forbids alcohol sales on Sunday, liquor after 10pm, and beer after midnight.
So move. 
Seriously, while such laws are a pain, I often regret the slow erosion of difference from place to place in this country. Its sameness is quite boring. Patchwork laws were one of the more interesting aspects of being in a new area.
In Ohio, individual voting precincts can establish how they wish to handle alchohol sales, at least with respect to Sundays. Growing up in California, we were a 21 state at a time when others (including where I chose to go to college ) were 18. Nevada, next door, had near beer sales for 18-year-olds, as I recall from one summer of field school there.
I never have gotten used to Ohio allowing kids at the bar. Not just in a place that serves, but actually seated on the bar stools. Both progressive AND incredibly tolerant in one approach. 