…but I’m 99% sure tonight marks that milestone in my life.
The last time was during a visit to Chicago several years ago, and I actually didn’t have ID with me and had to plead with the guy to just look at me carefully and recognize that there was no way I was underage. He was a fortyish guy himself, but he was black and said he couldn’t tell how old white people were. (Is that a thing?)
This time, it was a white hipstery dude, 25 or so, and he was serious—he even made me take it out (the LICENSE! Jeez, get your minds out of the gutter). When he saw the birthdate, he chuckled a little sheepishly.
Given that last reaction especially, I don’t think it was a deal where they card everyone, or he was trying to be flattering or whatever. (Admittedly, it was not under bright light.)
I did think the last time was probably it, even at the time. But this is very likely to be it this time—something to savor. (If you are still in your twenties and just find getting carded a hassle, you don’t understand—but someday you will.)
I was carded in a Tokyo convenience store four years ago when I was buying some hooch. Well, not carded exactly, but I had to assert I was of age on a computer screen. The clerk said all alcohol buyers had to do it.
An Indiana acquaintance tells me it’s the law to card everyone there regardless of how old or young they are.
Ha, you get it. I’m not that far into my 40s, no grey (because I shave), and no wrinkles to speak of (I have been assiduously moisturizing for over a decade)…so maybe I do have more to come!
There’s one particular cashier who cards me all the time at the local grocery store. She is older than me, but is obviously so by-the-book, she must be carding everyone. Besides, she must know who I am by now! I’m 42 and bald. There is no mistaking me for under 21, I think. Plus I get carded at certain gas stations regularly, too, and some other grocery stores. Some places just have very strict policies is my guess (although at the local grocery store, nobody else cards me.)
Pennsylvania’s liquor laws are just beginning to modernize. You can now buy beer in a few grocery stores, although everyone has to show their driver’s license and have it scanned.
The first time I bought some beer at the grocery store I didn’t know about the ID thing. The cashier asked for my license, and I reflexively said, “Oh, for fucks sake”. She laughed and explained. I told her my DL was out in my car. She explained that the sale wouldn’t go through without scanning a license. Some eavesdropping dude handed over his DL for her to scan and all was well.
Back when I worked in a liquor, during college, I carded a woman. She happily dug in her purse, showed the license, and told me I’d made her day. She was thirty four.
Back in 1977, when I was 22, I got carded at the Kingdome in Seattle. I had no idea it would happen, and told the vendor in the stands “You’re kidding!” He said he wasn’t so I dug out my military ID.
There are a few places that always card to avoid upsetting the sensibilities of delicate customers or some nonsense like that. I was carded this summer and I was 50 already.
It’s about my 91 yr old father.
He asked me to accompany him to the grocery store to buy 5 bottles of wine, (for a celebration with guests)and he was worried they would be too heavy for him to carry.
Now,yeah…he’s 91… but doesn’t look a day over 89.
…and,yes… the cashier asked for his ID.
(and also apologized, but said it was company policy to card every customer who buys alcohol.)
Surprised by all these examples. I buy alcohol on the regular (not an alcoholic or anything—I go to bars a few times a month, and have a couple drinks at home three or four days a week), so it has to be literally hundreds of transactions since the last time I was carded, and probably hundreds before that one since the previous one (which, at that point, represented the tapering off of a more regular thing). So this is only the second time out of the last 500 or so transactions at least.
Several years ago I was out with friends. Four of us were “about fifty” - one was “near 40” (and looks his age) and the baby was firmly in his 30s - but did have a baby face. Still does.
All six of us walked in together. The baby faced 30 year old got carded. And I got carded.
At 47 I not only got carded, but called a liar and ordered out of the store. The lady was seriously convinced that I had shown her my Mother’s license. Since then the grey hair has sprouted more vigorously, so I’m betting that’ll be the last one.
Yeah there are some places that just card everyone as a matter of policy, no matter how old you look. A few years ago I took my wife to see one of the Hunger Games movies at the AMC Fork and Screen, and they carded us when we ordered drinks with our dinner. We’re both in our fifties and have grandkids, fer cryin’ out loud!
I’m not sure it’s state law, but I get carded a lot in New York and I’m 66. I get carded when I buy beer in the supermarket and at the baseball stadium. In fact, it prompted me to get a US passport wallet card so I would have a picture ID with my birth date on it since my Panama driver’s license doesn’t include it.
The last time I was carded because someone thought I might be underage was probably in my early 20s.
State law here that they have to scan your ID for alcohol purchases.
Last time before that, I just pointed to my greying beard and said ‘This is my ID’ and the guy accepted it.
But even going back, I almost never got carded. I remember going some place when I was under age. They asked both of my friends, who were 24 and 21 (I was still 20) and then they didn’t bother asking me.
When I started drinking, the legal age was 18. But I bought my first drink in a bar when I was 16. Some local bars didn’t care and didn’t card at all. I would just stand in the back of a group of friends and they would pass me my order from the bar.
Carding everyone is stupid. In my 20’s, I had to buy cigarettes for my 70 year old neighbor because she didn’t have an ID. Trust me, this woman has been smoking and drinking her entire life and looked every single one of her 70 plus years, yet the grocery store wouldn’t sell her a pack of smokes!
(If you are still in your twenties and just find getting carded a hassle, you don’t understand—but someday you will.)
