Legal Drinking Age

Legal drinking age and Me

In 1983, in NC and most of the US, the legal age for drinking beer and wine was 18 years old. You still needed to be 21 to drink hard liquor.

An exception:  Before 1982, active duty military personnel could consume alcohol on military bases regardless of the legal drinking age off base. Following the national concerns with the risks of adolescent drinking in 1982, Congress enacted a law which required military recruits to adhere to the same drinking age as the state in which the military base was located. Thereafter, between 1982 and 1988, all military bases on U.S. soil transitioned to the 21-year minimum legal drinking age (MLDA). Now, if stationed overseas, a soldier had to abide by the legal drinking age of the country they were in, even if that age was under 21.

I turned 18 in July, 1983. I was in the NC Army National Guard as well which I joined at 17 in Sept 1982. Ft Bragg had beer vending machines which had the coldest beer imaginable for a buck each.
I went through OSUT(One Station Unit Training) at Ft Benning, GA, Jun-Oct 1984. I was 18, and turned 19 while there. On base, I was able to buy mixed drinks at the NCO club and do the same at clubs in nearby Columbus, GA. During our Basic Training phase, the DIs would have a group reward which consisted of a cold beer for each person when hitting a milestone was the best thing imaginable. 

At one such milestone, I had gotten an Article 15(disciplinary action/non-judicial hearing) for fighting, and had to sit to the side with other folks with Article 15s while everyone else got to have a cold one. Missing out on that icy beer was enough motivation to induce us to behave. Imagine a jeep trailer full of ice and beer. This was a fond memory of my 6 1/2 years in the military as it was always something that happened after we completed a successful annual training episode. 

The reward of that icy beer was comparable to the scene in the movie "Shawshank Redemption" when Andy asked for and got cold beers for the roofing crew as a reward for his financial help to Captain Hadley.

On 1 Oct 1983, the legal drinking age in NC was raised to 19 years old. 

Anyone who was of legal age prior to 1 Oct was not "grandfathered" in under the new law. 

So it was legal to do it one minute, and illegal to do so, and minute later. 

The local bar that had a "college night" for the kids from my university had a "$1 pitcher" beer special the night the law changed(actually it ran that special many Wednesday nights.).

Most of the freshman class who would be affected by the new law were there to party one last time as legal drinkers. 

And party we did! 

Now, the local city cops came and sat outside of the bar, and at midnight, they fricking ticketed anyone who was was 18 and had been drinking. 

The tickets were for "underage drinking", a complete dick move by the cops! 

Now when the law change went into effect, I had been of legal drinking age for about three months.

Now in July of 1984, I turned 19 and was of legal age again. 

Then three months later, the legal age was raised to 20, I was no longer of legal drinking age.

In July of 1985, I turned 20 and was of legal age again. 

Then three months later, the legal age was raised to 21, I was no longer of legal drinking age.

In July 1986, I turned 21 and was finally legal to drink beer, wine, and hard liquor. 

There were no more age increases to the NC drinking laws.

It struck me as ludicrous that due to the arbitrariness of my state legislature, I could be legal one minute, then not legal the next.

What a difference a day makes. 

I lost respect for the concept of legalities of things in Oct 1983. This is one reason that I stopped feeling guilty about consuming cannabis. 

Even more so when I learned of the propaganda campaign through which it became illegal throughout the US.

I remember when the Operation Desert Shield began and it hit me that US soldiers could go to war and die without ever having the chance to enjoy a "cold one" before they died. 

This was especially sad since most soldiers were in Saudi Arabia, in which any consumption of alcohol was illegal.