The mission to procure alcohol prior to the age of 21 is one I’d wager is familiar to most of my American countrymen, though those in most other nations may be scratching their heads.
Nate and co. are lucky this isn’t a Sunday, because the Blue Laws in many states prevent alcohol sales at all on that day.
Nate: I don’t even know where a liquor store is.
Rose: ABC Package on the corner of 85 and Spring Hill.
Nate: Don’t they keep track of those places? What if they have people in the parking lot looking out for that sort of thing?
Rose: Nah, we’ll be fine. If nothing else, I know a guy there.
Nate: We could just go to Food Baron. We have a pretty good deal on Franzia right now.
Steve: Box wine? What, are we inviting Larry the Cable Guy?
Haha … silly Nate. I grew up near a bridge to Quebec where the legal age was 18 for drinking, strip clubs, murder …
Is it weird that I know of at least twelve liquor stores near my house, yet I don’t drink?
Geez, they’re being rather particular. I hope this doesn’t end up with prison buttsecks. Unless it’s a Women in Prison deal. Then I don’t know. ^_^
Steve is such a snob; I suppose he’ll reject Mad Dog 20/20 and Wild Irish Rose, as well? :)
http://www.bumwine.com/
I never had this much trouble, I just asked my dad, until I turned 18, and then i could ask either one of my parents. They hated that I couldn’t legally drink until I was 21. But then again, they were the ones that took me out for my 21st birthday, and got me wasted enough to remember participating in a “booty contest” judged by Southside Steve. I won 3rd!
Bull!
You just went to the N9 house, where anything was available
When I visited friends in the US some years back I was the only one of us at the time who was over 21. Being from Canada I kept adamantly telling myself that if anything bad happend when I was buying the alcohol, I would claim diplomatic immunity as much as possible. I knew it was bullshit, but it gave me the courage I needed to procure the booze.
I was in California in May and I have never been ID’d so much in my LIFE! Whereas back in Canada you never get that sorta shit unless you look like you’re 12 (in my experience, ymmv).
Of course, that might be a good thing – in the UK you have to circumnavigate drunk, violent 14 year olds outside most convenience stores…
True, we don’t yet have a chav problem…
@metalangel,
they id so much because if you’re caught selling to a minor it’s an automatic fire and negated liquor license, and the manager on duty gets jail time of 6 months and is forbidden from selling liquor in state ever again. It’s a pretty big deal to get caught.
@Rae,
I don’t deny it’s a big deal (other countries have similar penalties), but maybe if the age wasn’t so high they wouldn’t have such a problem? I mean, I was refused the sale of some Advil Cold & Sinus in Walgreens because the guy wouldn’t accept any non-US ID that wasn’t my freakin’ passport! Which I totally carry around with me all the time to maximise my chances of losing it in a foreign country. And it was only California, as I said, never such a fuss in Nevada or New York or anywhere else.
(I’m 30 btw)
I live in SoCal. I was carded quite often well into my 30s. Until I started going gray in the beard. Now I can’t remember the last time I was carded. It’s certainly been a couple of years at least.
I love the look of terror on his face.
I am old enough to drink(even in the states though I live in canada) but I look like I’m still in my teens, my ex and I used to go to this one liquor store every other night, and I never got i.d.ed cause he was normally buying and now if even one of the same guys is working who normally did I can bring my friends who are 16 in and they can buy without getting i.d.ed. Non-government liquor stores just don’t care ^^
Yeah, this is weird to me, but not because I’m from another country. New Orleans just doesn’t have most of these laws. We don’t even really have liquor stores, We just go to groceries or gas stations.
Interesting, you can get hard liquor in grocery stores there? Most of the places I’ve lived, you can only buy wine and beer in a place that doesn’t have a liquor license.
Well, they keep the hard liquor (in most stores) behind the customer service desk and you have to get them there. Wal-Marts are the same way. The first time I went to another state and I couldn’t buy liquor from a grocery store (or after midnight) I was BAFFLED.
In my state (Peace Garden State), beer and wine are sold in liquor stores. No exception. In the western half of the state, liquor stores are adjacent are in supermarket complexes, but in a different room.
As far as I know, they are the only state that is truly consistent in their alcohol sales ordinances. Go southward or westward and you can buy beer and wine in grocery stores and gas stations.
In my state, they changed the law a few years back to allow grocery stores to sell liquor. Before that, they could only sell beer and wine. This year they even allowed carry-out sales on Sundays. But you still have to go to a liquor store if you want cold beer. Groceries and convenience stores are only allowed to sell it at room temperature. I used to think our blue laws were pretty bizarre, but then I heard about other states that were far weirder.
This comic is officially written in New England. New England doesn’t have liquor stores because they’re too prudish for liquor. No, they’re ‘packaged goods’ stores, or ‘the packie’ for short. I wish I was still living in CT.
… and having grown up in Maine, I can tell you with absolute truth that you can buy Jack Daniels in plenty of gas stations in New England.
(Of course, if you’re really from New England you’ll eschew that stuff ‘from away’ and buy Allen’s Coffee Brandy instead.)
I was the reluctant driver for a beer run at 17, so not only were my friends breaking the law by buying the beer, i was breaking the law by driving them. Almost getting into two accidents with two stoned people didnt help my nerves.