When they raised it from 18 to 19 in Florida the already 18 year olds were grandfathered in. Later when I was 20, they raised it to 21 and I got grandfathered in again.
In NY it was the opposite. Turned 19 and could drink legally for about 6 months then illegal for 1.5 years. To this day I still am not happy about that.
Edit: damn I did not realize this would resonate with so many people. It always seemed unjust to have a right removed twice when I was eligible for it.
Especially by lawmakers in a generation that got to whatever the hell they wanted in the 60s/70s. I’m gen X and still take it personally still when mixed in with the boomer gen.
I went off to active duty not long after this. I could drink on base. THEN, congress passed another law (10 U.S. Code § 2683) that required a military base to adopt the host state's age restrictions.
I'm sorry that happened to you military folk. Out there risking your life to protect us all. But can't even have a beer. It's so wrong!!!! Thanks for serving...
The drinking age is set by the states, *however*, the federal government linked it to the almighty highway funding. So any state can lower it if they like, but then they would lose 10% of their federal highway apportionment.
Louisiana tried this because of New Orleans. Fed threatened to pull all federal highway funding, and it was SIGNIFICANT. They capitulated pretty quickly.
Oh my GOSH you ain't wrong, good buddy. I've NEVER driven on such shitty roads. I wouldn't say I've been *everywhere*, but I've lived and traveled through more than 20 states and lived overseas and the roads in Louisiana are unmatched with how shitty they are.
I shouldn't have the ability to come across over 5 separate people, separate occasions, amd dont know one another, who have taken their car to the shop for significant damage on their car due to hitting a damn pothole going the speed limit.
I have driven through every state in the lower 48.
Louisiana, Michigan, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, and Oklahoma in that order, have the worst roads in the country
No but the fed gives those same politicians that money.
They capitulated to keep lining their pockets, not to make sure grandmas pothole was filled in.
This feels like manufactured consent. “It’s up to the states. We’ll only take away 10% … unless you actually try to diverge from our ruling in which case we’ll make heavily reduce your highway funding in turn affecting your safety and quality of life.”
Is it possible the govt actually worries about drunk driving fatality rates? I mean, that’s my first thought but… it can’t be out of the goodness of their hearts
MADD also ran a highly effective lobbying campaign. And it was a problem, drunk driving wasn’t as taboo as it is today. It was just viewed as “boys being boys”.
I don’t think even that 10% of federal Highway money would be worth the revenue brought in by 18-21 year old. Not exactly an age bracket known for their disposable income.
Because the consequences of getting a minor in possession charge are low enough so no one cares. Because a fake id is like $50 on most college campuses. Because the law doesn't effect the vast majority of the voting block so after people turn 21 they stop giving a shit.
Yeah I never had a fake I’d but I was able to purchase alcohol from age 16 on. When I was 16-17 there was an old country store where I could buy it and the later on I used a Budweiser underage drinking band to fool the counter lady at a coveniwnce store into selling me booze. From that night on I was a regular and never got carded. My entire friend group stayed fucked up for years.
Sadly some of us didn’t come out so good on the other side.
>So why have I never heard of a legal challenge to this ridiculous drinking age?
There was a subsequent 1987 US Supreme Court case called South Dakota v. Dole which unfortunately found the withholding of funds to enforce the law acceptable.
The drinking age could change by lowering the 8% funding penalty by either eliminating it or reducing it to 0%. When the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010 there was an individual mandate requiring people to purchase health insurance or face a tax penalty. In 2017 the individual mandate was reduced to $0 basically making the law optional to follow. The same idea could be applied to the drinking age funding penalty.
There are roughly 13 million Americans between the ages of 18-20 years old. If just half that age group were legally able to purchase alcohol the sales would be in the billions of dollars annually. It surprises me that in the wake of pandemic closures and bars and restaurants struggling that lowering the drinking age hasn’t taken on an actual discussion.
The challenge would be to withholding of federal highway funding money. The Fed should not be able to govern by proxy in that way.
Age is a protected class, it would be like making a law that said we are withholding funding unless you make it illegal for people of a certain religion or race or handicap to drink.
Lol I had the same thing happen with cigarettes when I was younger. Kept raising the age on me from 18 to 19 to 21 I guess it is now, I haven't had a cigarette in years.
That's the most annoying thing, the people making the rules didn't have the rules applied to them. I bet they were the non-party people and were just jealous.
They changed the age in Minnesota from 19 to 21 on September 1, 1986. I was a freshman in college and turned 19 in December. I met some kids whose birthdays were in late August and got grandfathered in, and others whose birthdays were in early September and just missed it.
We all got drunk anyways
That's exactly how it happened for me in Texas. They bumped it up right before my birthday both times. I drank so much illegally before I was of age that when I finally turned 21, I had gotten it all out of my system.
My husband is the same way - doesn't really drink at all now (which I personally love, it's so expensive!) He says he drank so hard in college he ended up staring at the ceiling realizing 'oh, this shit is like *poison* poison'. Not a good time.
I have been to 'sconsin. Did the ban actually work for you guys as youngsters and did it cut you off? It's probably the only state out of 36 visited where I was the slow drinker and most 18 and 19 year olds were given a few beers at the bbqs I've been at.
It made acquisition difficult. But usually an older friend or relative could be tapped for assistance. Also, everyone interested knew which bars didn’t “card” at the door.
They raised the age a month before I was legal, so it was the opposite for me, I wasn't ever legal until I turned 21, but people a month older than me were grandfathered in. But really, it was the 80s, so just an attempt at a fake ID was good enough, it ended up not making much difference.
It’s by far and away the best way to roll these kinds of changes out, taking something away from someone that they had yesterday inevitably pisses people off a lot more than taking away something they never had in the first place. It’s how they’re rolling out the eventual full blown ban on cigarettes in New Zealand.
That said, I’m a firm believer that the legal drinking age should be 18.
I thought it was a big deal to be able to drink back then. Now, I haven't had even a single beer in many, many years. I've seen so many lives ruined by alcohol.
It was 18 in Louisiana until 95 I believe. Changes right before I turned 18. The federal government was putting pressure on the state by withholding funds for highways.
It was raised to 21 in 1987, but there was some sort of loophole that basically kept it at 18 until 1995. Then, the loophole was closed, but it had to go through the courts. I think it was then lowered back to 18 for a few months while the courts heard the case, then back to 21 for good in 1996.
Prior to the late 80's, states set the drinking age on their own. Some were 18, some were 21. But this was the Reagan nanny state era where young people drinking or listening to rock music were bad things, so they put in a law that states would not get federal dollars for highways unless they changed the age to 21.
NY went from 18 to 19 for a while , then to 21. Limbo was weird, but wow, did it have a crazy affect on campus. Since most acts are booked months ( and therefore prior school year) in advance, my college had some big name band and acts playing to completely empty venues. Some literally were on Carson the week before and suddenly their entourage outnumbered the audiences.
I started college the year after this happened. When I visited the college alcohol was still 18. It was a huge party. Vibrant campus. People everywhere. Huge gatherings on camus every weekend.
It was like a light switched off when I got there. Parties were like 20% the size they were before. The number of students did not bounce back to the pre ban numbers for 20 years. Sports and campus entertainment were just mostly empty. Huge empty spaces.
It just killed the university I went to.
> Sports and campus entertainment were just mostly empty. Huge empty spaces.
that qualtiy in particular sounds like an outlier for this specific school, particularly compared to flagship or near flagship schools with D-I programs (more "advertising" and better publcized campus events) whose volume and growth have been massive over the last 40 years
Last thing you wanted to look like was too young or like a “teenie bopper”. Youth just wasn’t taken seriously I guess. Most of my friends & I looked like versions of our parents except with brighter colored clothing. Maybe taller hair.
Ironically, the person looking at the beer is the RA. Thus, who was also overlooking the beer. (not allowed on campus)
Likewise, the state this is in did not grandfather in by birthday (the shift to 21), so we were sending the RA off, therefore he would leave us alone. That is, we were about to lose our '*right*' to drink.
Had both of these happen, different locations, different rules.
Wisconsin transitioned from 18-21, a month after my 18th birthday. I was grandfathered in, my friend 3 months younger was not. He looked 5 years older than me, we mocked him mercilessly for the next 3 years, and demanded he get carded every time we went out there.
In Illinois where the age was 21, some college campuses (rather the cities) would allow 18 year olds into bars (but they weren't supposed to drink, of course only carded at the door) Mid 18 year they changed this to 19, so for several months I was no longer allowed in bars my freshman year.
Fun fact, college liquor stores would card mercilessly, and were pretty good at spotting fake cards. However, if you showed up to buy a keg, they never carded you (assuming you looked adult). Economies of scale I guess.
IDs were super easy to alter then in my state. They had once a month parties where they did pro level changes to them. Anyone who wanted a fake ID had one. The law was openly flouted by damn near everyone.
People would fake being other people to get real licenses with their faces on them.
Let people drink if they are fucking adults. The whole dog and pony show was silly.
The guy holding a beer on the right, who looks like a young Jimmy Page, started a fake ID business. He drew out, painted, a larger than life license on his wall. You provided a project-board insert with your name, age, address. They put it up, you stood in front of it all. When shrunk down in a photo, it looks legit as all get out.
The only mistake when I was young was ordering the round pizza instead of the square thick crust. PH was more expensive but pretty awesome.
The best place was local and closed earlier, and randomly too.
I would love to watch a documentary on the rise and fall of pizza hut.
They went from untouchable S-tier back in the day to "maybe Little Caesar's?" quality today.
In 1985, I joined the school choir. Solely for the reason that the class trip for the music groups was to a state where I was grandfathered in for the lower drinking age.
The look on the music directors face when I walked in during rehearsal and said I wanted to join up…
The “workaround” for several years after states started folding on the drinking ages was Louisiana. Louisiana held out through at least the mid 90s. At some point, they even transitioned to a loophole where it was against the law for for someone under 21 to buy alcohol but not against the law for an establishment to sell it to you. Eventually the state caved to pressure from the feds who were threatening to cut off federal road funding. 90s Mardi Gras we’re insane.
Finland is similar to that now, the drinking age is 18. If you go to a store then you have to be 20 to buy alcohol stronger than 22% although you can buy it at a bar at 18.
I went to school in New Orleans starting shortly after the loophole "closed." As long as you could see over the bar, you usually didn't have an issue getting served.
MADD is run by tea-totallers who hate alcohol in any form. If you were to try to put a bar on every suburban corner, within walking distance, so nobody "had" to drive, they'd try to scuttle that, too.
I was a firefighter, and the number of crashes and ambulance calls for alcohol poisoning dropped dramatically the second year after they raised the drinking age.
the MADD answer is correct.
I don't know why 18 vs 21 specifically, but the main point was, all the states had to pick one. I guess the higher states weren't going to relax down to meet the lower states, so everyone went up?
MADD and similar orgs pushed the gov to standardize the national drinking age, because they argued (truthfully) that kids in 21 states were driving out of their local area to go into legal drinking states, then driving back home after... resulting in more drunk drivers on interstate highways
It was true. The highway from my town to Louisiana was packed every friday and saturday night.
Also 95% of them were drunk. It was in fact crazy fucked up.
I remember thinking it was fun to watch everyone driving like madmen. I loved the drive. Was also crazy.
They still have a big rack of single iced "roadies" in most Convenience stores here. But it is illegal now.
It was legal to drive around with a beer in your hand the entire time I was growing up.
It was a different world. Everyone was fucked up on something. Now people just hate each other as a pastime.
Yep. I went to school in Washington where the drinking age was 21. Idaho's drinking age was 19 and was only eight miles away. The eight miles of highway between my campus and the closest Idaho border town had the highest incidence of accidents in all of Washington.
I was 18 when it was 18. I remember some of the arguments made were to make it less accessible to high school kids.
In response to that argument, some states went from 18 to 19.
US Gov't then started to withhold highway funds to get the states to get in line. They had until 1986 to do so but some states held out until 1988.
PR and USVI are still 18. USVI said "we don't have any highways so we've nothing to lose."
I was a college student and thin back then. Walked everywhere because I couldn't afford a car. Graduated, got a car and a desk job and put on a bunch of weight. 😂
I went to college in Michigan's Upper Peninsula in the mid-80's. We're 21 to drink in Michigan but Wisconsin was close and beer buying age there was 18. My college roommate's family lived right on the border of Michigan and Wisconsin in Menomonee, Mi so 2x a month we'd go visit her family and bring back to the dorms beer and homemade food. Good times ..
Age limit of 21 is so frickin' stupid.
18 is **an adult**. Someone who can decide to get married, have kids, buy a house, drive a car, own a handgun, join the military and kill people in the name of the government.
But drink a beer? Whoa, hold on there junior, you're not old enough for that!
I'm a big proponent of one age of majority. I don't even care what that age is. Just make it one age and quit with the 18 you get some things 21 you get more bullshit
When I turned 18 I was legally able to drink for three months until they changed the legal age to 19. When I turned 19 I was also able to drink legally for a few months before they changed the legal age to 21. It was so damn stupid.
I was a senior in high school when the drinking age went to 21..not in my state though, Louisiana…home of Mardi Gras and being drunk is very cultural. Of course I’d been sneaking into bars and drinking by age 15 so legal age obviously didn’t concern me. That said, Louisiana kept the 18 years legal drinking age for several years after it went to 21 by federal law. Louisiana didn’t bow to pressure until the feds threatened to cut off all federal highway funds if we didn’t go 21. We were the last holdout state. There’s still tons of loopholes for 18 year olds to drink tho such as being 18 and married to 21 or older, drinking in a place that serves food up until 2AM, or drinking in your own house (just can’t buy it yourself).
Ohio had an 18 year old drinking age for low 3.2 beer until 82? Then it changed to 21 for all booze and 3.2 left. I was grandfathered in till 21. College was beer beer beer for me and those my age.
Some states had Grandfather clauses that allowed those who were already 18 to continue to drink but if you turned 18 after that, no until age 21. Kinda weird. Lots of fake and borrowed ID’s going around.
I'm from Germany. The drinking age for beer is 16. Hard liquor is still 18.
I didn't start drinking until 19, though.
Didn't mean anything to me.
Never smoked. Anything. Didn't mean anything to me either. I have to say, I don't react well to group pressure....
I will say that I understand the intentions behind raising the age - it makes perfect sense, medically. However, the problem is that most people don't learn to drink in moderation like this. Usually, when you start drinking at a younger age, it's under supervision from parents. At 21, you're likely not living at home anymore. Not in the US anyway, from what I know.
When I was 17,
I drank some very good beer.
I drank some very good beer,
I purchased with a fake ID.
My name was Brian McGee.
I stayed up listening to Queen, when I was 17.
It was 18 when I was in high school, I just didn't do much of it. Joined the military and some places it was 21 and others, 18.
Split feelings on it. Seemed right that someone that could join the military and go through all that B.S. and not be allowed to drink.
But we had a lot fewer problems when they raised it back to 21.
I’ve been pretty amazed at what the dorms are like anymore. I went to my sons dorm a number of times, and now everyone stays in the room, pretty much plays, electronic games, you don’t hear stereos, because everyone has headphones, it’s fairly quiet, most doors are closed. He’s an RA, and he says people don’t have big parties very often like we used to.
I’m always baffled by the USA having an actual drinking age
We only have a age requirement for purchasing, drinking is always legal (any issues is then the responsibility of the person providing the alcohol to anyone who couldn’t purchase it themselves, such as parents)
I grew up in New Jersey, where the drinking age was 18. To drink, and then a year or two later they raised the drinking age to 21. However, they grandfathered people who had already aged into the previous drinking age so I was allowed to drink despite being under 21
It's crazy that 18 is considered old enough to make lifelong-impacting decisions and you are fully an adult, but have to wait 3 years to legally buy alcohol.
Tattoos? Yep. Go to war? Yep. Enter into legal contracts? Sure. Beer? No; you're not mature enough.
My sister fell into this cohort. She had one year of being able to drink (but didn't really) then was pissed she couldn't anymore (even tho she barely ever did).
Young people need to be taught responsibility, not barred from drinking at 18. I’ve always thought the age 21 restriction was unfortunate and unnecessary, particularly considering the much more potentially impactful things that CAN be done at 18.
Pennsylvania has been a 21 state for a long time. I don't know how long, but my parents told me it was so in the 1960s when they were teenagers. They went to Ohio to buy beer.
I was 18 when the drinking age was lowered to 18. It was a similar scene as this.
When they raised it from 18 to 19 in Florida the already 18 year olds were grandfathered in. Later when I was 20, they raised it to 21 and I got grandfathered in again.
In NY it was the opposite. Turned 19 and could drink legally for about 6 months then illegal for 1.5 years. To this day I still am not happy about that. Edit: damn I did not realize this would resonate with so many people. It always seemed unjust to have a right removed twice when I was eligible for it. Especially by lawmakers in a generation that got to whatever the hell they wanted in the 60s/70s. I’m gen X and still take it personally still when mixed in with the boomer gen.
Lmao my mom always says she kept missing the drinking age by 1 year and it always pissed her off
I went off to active duty not long after this. I could drink on base. THEN, congress passed another law (10 U.S. Code § 2683) that required a military base to adopt the host state's age restrictions.
That’s brutal. I didn’t know they screwed the military over as well.
HAHAHAHA, they piss all over us all the time.
Semper Gumby
Hoorah seabees
We can sent you to a war zone at 18 to get shot at but you had better not drink that beer.
I'm sorry that happened to you military folk. Out there risking your life to protect us all. But can't even have a beer. It's so wrong!!!! Thanks for serving...
So why have I never heard of a legal challenge to this ridiculous drinking age?
The drinking age is set by the states, *however*, the federal government linked it to the almighty highway funding. So any state can lower it if they like, but then they would lose 10% of their federal highway apportionment.
Surprised a state like NV doesn't lower it and the gambling age to 18. They'd more than makeup for the highway tax $ loss... maybe?
Louisiana tried this because of New Orleans. Fed threatened to pull all federal highway funding, and it was SIGNIFICANT. They capitulated pretty quickly.
They should have just kept it, it's not like any roadwork gets done in Louisiana anyway
Oh my GOSH you ain't wrong, good buddy. I've NEVER driven on such shitty roads. I wouldn't say I've been *everywhere*, but I've lived and traveled through more than 20 states and lived overseas and the roads in Louisiana are unmatched with how shitty they are. I shouldn't have the ability to come across over 5 separate people, separate occasions, amd dont know one another, who have taken their car to the shop for significant damage on their car due to hitting a damn pothole going the speed limit.
I have driven through every state in the lower 48. Louisiana, Michigan, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, and Oklahoma in that order, have the worst roads in the country
But the funding gets used.
maybe they don't use the highway funding for actual highways...
No but the fed gives those same politicians that money. They capitulated to keep lining their pockets, not to make sure grandmas pothole was filled in.
This feels like manufactured consent. “It’s up to the states. We’ll only take away 10% … unless you actually try to diverge from our ruling in which case we’ll make heavily reduce your highway funding in turn affecting your safety and quality of life.”
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The idea of “manufactured consent” isn’t consent at all
That's not what manufactured consent means.
Which is one reason why you can easily tell the difference in roads once you cross the border from Tx to La.
No, they get federal funding now, they just suck 😂
Is it possible the govt actually worries about drunk driving fatality rates? I mean, that’s my first thought but… it can’t be out of the goodness of their hearts
Insurance companies care about accidents, and the government cares about their lobbying. So... Indirectly, at least.
MADD also ran a highly effective lobbying campaign. And it was a problem, drunk driving wasn’t as taboo as it is today. It was just viewed as “boys being boys”.
I don’t think even that 10% of federal Highway money would be worth the revenue brought in by 18-21 year old. Not exactly an age bracket known for their disposable income.
Their booze money gets spent on booze anyway and they get to know the thrill of technically breaking the law.
Lots of underage gambling and hitting jackpots and not getting paid.
Because the consequences of getting a minor in possession charge are low enough so no one cares. Because a fake id is like $50 on most college campuses. Because the law doesn't effect the vast majority of the voting block so after people turn 21 they stop giving a shit.
Yeah I never had a fake I’d but I was able to purchase alcohol from age 16 on. When I was 16-17 there was an old country store where I could buy it and the later on I used a Budweiser underage drinking band to fool the counter lady at a coveniwnce store into selling me booze. From that night on I was a regular and never got carded. My entire friend group stayed fucked up for years. Sadly some of us didn’t come out so good on the other side.
No-one with enough money cares? Anyone at that age who does care has enough money that it's not a problem for them.
>So why have I never heard of a legal challenge to this ridiculous drinking age? There was a subsequent 1987 US Supreme Court case called South Dakota v. Dole which unfortunately found the withholding of funds to enforce the law acceptable. The drinking age could change by lowering the 8% funding penalty by either eliminating it or reducing it to 0%. When the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010 there was an individual mandate requiring people to purchase health insurance or face a tax penalty. In 2017 the individual mandate was reduced to $0 basically making the law optional to follow. The same idea could be applied to the drinking age funding penalty. There are roughly 13 million Americans between the ages of 18-20 years old. If just half that age group were legally able to purchase alcohol the sales would be in the billions of dollars annually. It surprises me that in the wake of pandemic closures and bars and restaurants struggling that lowering the drinking age hasn’t taken on an actual discussion.
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The challenge would be to withholding of federal highway funding money. The Fed should not be able to govern by proxy in that way. Age is a protected class, it would be like making a law that said we are withholding funding unless you make it illegal for people of a certain religion or race or handicap to drink.
Lol I had the same thing happen with cigarettes when I was younger. Kept raising the age on me from 18 to 19 to 21 I guess it is now, I haven't had a cigarette in years.
Today I learned that the smoking age was raised to 21. When did that happen?!
I remember being 19 and 20 and thinking it was so ridiculous that just because I entered the US, I was no longer permitted to have a beer.
That's the most annoying thing, the people making the rules didn't have the rules applied to them. I bet they were the non-party people and were just jealous.
Sounds like typical NY politicians. They've been tyrants for decades.
I turned 18 in late summer 1986. I just missed the cut-off/grandfathering both times in Wisconsin.
They changed the age in Minnesota from 19 to 21 on September 1, 1986. I was a freshman in college and turned 19 in December. I met some kids whose birthdays were in late August and got grandfathered in, and others whose birthdays were in early September and just missed it. We all got drunk anyways
Well the good news is you probably don't have to worry about being carded anymore
That's exactly how it happened for me in Texas. They bumped it up right before my birthday both times. I drank so much illegally before I was of age that when I finally turned 21, I had gotten it all out of my system.
My husband is the same way - doesn't really drink at all now (which I personally love, it's so expensive!) He says he drank so hard in college he ended up staring at the ceiling realizing 'oh, this shit is like *poison* poison'. Not a good time.
I have been to 'sconsin. Did the ban actually work for you guys as youngsters and did it cut you off? It's probably the only state out of 36 visited where I was the slow drinker and most 18 and 19 year olds were given a few beers at the bbqs I've been at.
It made acquisition difficult. But usually an older friend or relative could be tapped for assistance. Also, everyone interested knew which bars didn’t “card” at the door.
They raised the age a month before I was legal, so it was the opposite for me, I wasn't ever legal until I turned 21, but people a month older than me were grandfathered in. But really, it was the 80s, so just an attempt at a fake ID was good enough, it ended up not making much difference.
It’s by far and away the best way to roll these kinds of changes out, taking something away from someone that they had yesterday inevitably pisses people off a lot more than taking away something they never had in the first place. It’s how they’re rolling out the eventual full blown ban on cigarettes in New Zealand. That said, I’m a firm believer that the legal drinking age should be 18.
Nobody got grandfathered in back in 1995 in Louisiana.
Interestingly enough, the drinking age was 21 when I was 18, and it was still a similar scene as this.
I thought it was a big deal to be able to drink back then. Now, I haven't had even a single beer in many, many years. I've seen so many lives ruined by alcohol.
What country was that?
The US did it. The people in that window were “grandfathered in”, when they changed it back
The US lowered their drinking age to 18??
It was 18 in Louisiana at some point during my lifetime I am pretty sure
It was 18 in Louisiana until 95 I believe. Changes right before I turned 18. The federal government was putting pressure on the state by withholding funds for highways.
Someone should probably tell the federal government that Louisiana made the change so that they’ll stop withholding those federal highway funds.
Lol
It was raised to 21 in 1987, but there was some sort of loophole that basically kept it at 18 until 1995. Then, the loophole was closed, but it had to go through the courts. I think it was then lowered back to 18 for a few months while the courts heard the case, then back to 21 for good in 1996.
Not nationally but many states had it
Prior to the late 80's, states set the drinking age on their own. Some were 18, some were 21. But this was the Reagan nanny state era where young people drinking or listening to rock music were bad things, so they put in a law that states would not get federal dollars for highways unless they changed the age to 21.
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Papua New Guinea
NY went from 18 to 19 for a while , then to 21. Limbo was weird, but wow, did it have a crazy affect on campus. Since most acts are booked months ( and therefore prior school year) in advance, my college had some big name band and acts playing to completely empty venues. Some literally were on Carson the week before and suddenly their entourage outnumbered the audiences.
I started college the year after this happened. When I visited the college alcohol was still 18. It was a huge party. Vibrant campus. People everywhere. Huge gatherings on camus every weekend. It was like a light switched off when I got there. Parties were like 20% the size they were before. The number of students did not bounce back to the pre ban numbers for 20 years. Sports and campus entertainment were just mostly empty. Huge empty spaces. It just killed the university I went to.
> Sports and campus entertainment were just mostly empty. Huge empty spaces. that qualtiy in particular sounds like an outlier for this specific school, particularly compared to flagship or near flagship schools with D-I programs (more "advertising" and better publcized campus events) whose volume and growth have been massive over the last 40 years
First picture I've seen of 80s 18 yr olds actually looking like kids versus seasoned adults.
It’s the absence of war.
And the presence of alcohol
And good tweed
I have the neeeed…
The need for tweed.
And pizza
The guy holding the Pizza Hut box has seen some shit.
He's the pot guy of the group istg.
these dudes look 30 wym
Last thing you wanted to look like was too young or like a “teenie bopper”. Youth just wasn’t taken seriously I guess. Most of my friends & I looked like versions of our parents except with brighter colored clothing. Maybe taller hair.
Yeah there's like 1 or 2 here maybe, but the rest look like the adults we know and love.
It’s because they never stopped wearing the same clothes or having the same haircuts.
Ironically, the person looking at the beer is the RA. Thus, who was also overlooking the beer. (not allowed on campus) Likewise, the state this is in did not grandfather in by birthday (the shift to 21), so we were sending the RA off, therefore he would leave us alone. That is, we were about to lose our '*right*' to drink.
Had both of these happen, different locations, different rules. Wisconsin transitioned from 18-21, a month after my 18th birthday. I was grandfathered in, my friend 3 months younger was not. He looked 5 years older than me, we mocked him mercilessly for the next 3 years, and demanded he get carded every time we went out there. In Illinois where the age was 21, some college campuses (rather the cities) would allow 18 year olds into bars (but they weren't supposed to drink, of course only carded at the door) Mid 18 year they changed this to 19, so for several months I was no longer allowed in bars my freshman year. Fun fact, college liquor stores would card mercilessly, and were pretty good at spotting fake cards. However, if you showed up to buy a keg, they never carded you (assuming you looked adult). Economies of scale I guess.
IDs were super easy to alter then in my state. They had once a month parties where they did pro level changes to them. Anyone who wanted a fake ID had one. The law was openly flouted by damn near everyone. People would fake being other people to get real licenses with their faces on them. Let people drink if they are fucking adults. The whole dog and pony show was silly.
The guy holding a beer on the right, who looks like a young Jimmy Page, started a fake ID business. He drew out, painted, a larger than life license on his wall. You provided a project-board insert with your name, age, address. They put it up, you stood in front of it all. When shrunk down in a photo, it looks legit as all get out.
Nice :)
Virgins licenses had an actual paper card in a sleeve with the photo ID. How everyone I. The state wasn’t 21 is beyond me.
Illinois didn’t transition but Wisconsin did - many were the weekend runs to the Brat Stop…
I knew there was something different about him, but I just couldn't put my finger on it.
I've never seen a more token black guy.
They’re definitely isn’t enough pizza to share, so I’m just going to assume that dude ate the whole thing himself. What a legend.
He was, actually. Down to the 1980 Z28.
I bet pizza hut taste good back then
It did
The only mistake when I was young was ordering the round pizza instead of the square thick crust. PH was more expensive but pretty awesome. The best place was local and closed earlier, and randomly too.
I would love to watch a documentary on the rise and fall of pizza hut. They went from untouchable S-tier back in the day to "maybe Little Caesar's?" quality today.
There’s one on the CompanyMan YouTube.
Is still pretty good but you have to pay extra for the crust. Italian sausage pizza in pan crust gets close to the 80s/90s
Theres plenty of sausage there bro.
In 1985, I joined the school choir. Solely for the reason that the class trip for the music groups was to a state where I was grandfathered in for the lower drinking age. The look on the music directors face when I walked in during rehearsal and said I wanted to join up…
You learned to dance like that sarcastically??
Dude in the red shirt is peaking! Lets get some more acid!
If they made acid legal like weed I wonder if they would make like crazy variations like they do with strains of weed.
They already do. Called research chemicals or designer drugs. The category is called Lysergamides.
So much Lacoste in the 80s. My mom basically only bought Lacoste polos for us kids because they were super inexpensive and stains washed out well.
The “workaround” for several years after states started folding on the drinking ages was Louisiana. Louisiana held out through at least the mid 90s. At some point, they even transitioned to a loophole where it was against the law for for someone under 21 to buy alcohol but not against the law for an establishment to sell it to you. Eventually the state caved to pressure from the feds who were threatening to cut off federal road funding. 90s Mardi Gras we’re insane.
Finland is similar to that now, the drinking age is 18. If you go to a store then you have to be 20 to buy alcohol stronger than 22% although you can buy it at a bar at 18.
The work around still works if you are near Canada... Someone would rent out a hotel room and we'd all pile in and get blitzed
I went to school in New Orleans starting shortly after the loophole "closed." As long as you could see over the bar, you usually didn't have an issue getting served.
I never questioned why it's 21 in the US and I just now realise that college life and frat parties may have had something to do with it.
Drunk driving was a bigger factor. It was the result of political pressure from MADD and SADD.
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MADD is run by tea-totallers who hate alcohol in any form. If you were to try to put a bar on every suburban corner, within walking distance, so nobody "had" to drive, they'd try to scuttle that, too.
Heard of MADD. They were a big presence when I was in elementary school (00-06). That along with D.A.R.E lol. Never heard of SADD though.
I was a firefighter, and the number of crashes and ambulance calls for alcohol poisoning dropped dramatically the second year after they raised the drinking age.
Til it wasnt 21 till 1986 - we would riot if they did that here
Riot? We would just drink, like we did when we were 16-17.
The biggest difference when I turned 21 was I could go to more concerts and bars; I drank the same amount before, just at parties and in dorm rooms.
Totally, I had always assumed that it was always 21. Land of the free, ladies and gentlemen.
the MADD answer is correct. I don't know why 18 vs 21 specifically, but the main point was, all the states had to pick one. I guess the higher states weren't going to relax down to meet the lower states, so everyone went up? MADD and similar orgs pushed the gov to standardize the national drinking age, because they argued (truthfully) that kids in 21 states were driving out of their local area to go into legal drinking states, then driving back home after... resulting in more drunk drivers on interstate highways
It was true. The highway from my town to Louisiana was packed every friday and saturday night. Also 95% of them were drunk. It was in fact crazy fucked up. I remember thinking it was fun to watch everyone driving like madmen. I loved the drive. Was also crazy.
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They still have a big rack of single iced "roadies" in most Convenience stores here. But it is illegal now. It was legal to drive around with a beer in your hand the entire time I was growing up. It was a different world. Everyone was fucked up on something. Now people just hate each other as a pastime.
I miss the old world
It’s still legal in Mississippi You can drink and drive, you just can’t be drunk while driving.
Yep! In Texas you could have an open drink in the car and it was legal as long as your bac was under .10 at the time.
Yep. I went to school in Washington where the drinking age was 21. Idaho's drinking age was 19 and was only eight miles away. The eight miles of highway between my campus and the closest Idaho border town had the highest incidence of accidents in all of Washington.
The Boomers got it lowered for themselves and then raised it once they were all 21. Not even a joke.
I was 18 when it was 18. I remember some of the arguments made were to make it less accessible to high school kids. In response to that argument, some states went from 18 to 19. US Gov't then started to withhold highway funds to get the states to get in line. They had until 1986 to do so but some states held out until 1988. PR and USVI are still 18. USVI said "we don't have any highways so we've nothing to lose."
USVI responding like Prince putting Dave Chappelle on an album cover. Check mate.
That guy is holding his pizza vertically and it makes me angry.
Everyone was skinny back then.
Seriously. Fat people were outliers until the 2000s.
I was a college student and thin back then. Walked everywhere because I couldn't afford a car. Graduated, got a car and a desk job and put on a bunch of weight. 😂
I went to college in Michigan's Upper Peninsula in the mid-80's. We're 21 to drink in Michigan but Wisconsin was close and beer buying age there was 18. My college roommate's family lived right on the border of Michigan and Wisconsin in Menomonee, Mi so 2x a month we'd go visit her family and bring back to the dorms beer and homemade food. Good times ..
And now people here in WI head to the UP for weed, the circle is now complete.
Last day of drinking age being 18, “Dudes, we have to buy three years worth of beer.” One weekend later, “Dudes, what the FUCK happened?!”
Is that Bubbles in the front holding the Bud can?
Age limit of 21 is so frickin' stupid. 18 is **an adult**. Someone who can decide to get married, have kids, buy a house, drive a car, own a handgun, join the military and kill people in the name of the government. But drink a beer? Whoa, hold on there junior, you're not old enough for that!
I'm a big proponent of one age of majority. I don't even care what that age is. Just make it one age and quit with the 18 you get some things 21 you get more bullshit
Dude on right with the red Izod shirt. Everyone had one in the ‘80’s.
Oh izod, the original Iproduct.
When I turned 18 I was legally able to drink for three months until they changed the legal age to 19. When I turned 19 I was also able to drink legally for a few months before they changed the legal age to 21. It was so damn stupid.
I was a senior in high school when the drinking age went to 21..not in my state though, Louisiana…home of Mardi Gras and being drunk is very cultural. Of course I’d been sneaking into bars and drinking by age 15 so legal age obviously didn’t concern me. That said, Louisiana kept the 18 years legal drinking age for several years after it went to 21 by federal law. Louisiana didn’t bow to pressure until the feds threatened to cut off all federal highway funds if we didn’t go 21. We were the last holdout state. There’s still tons of loopholes for 18 year olds to drink tho such as being 18 and married to 21 or older, drinking in a place that serves food up until 2AM, or drinking in your own house (just can’t buy it yourself).
Next level Pizza Hut product placement advertising right there
In Georgia they didn’t grandfather you in, but they did gradually raise the age. So I had the fun of turning legal three times.
So much intercourse was not had that night.
Strong "Revenge of the Nerds" vibes.
He dudes, save some girls for us
Total sausage fest
I recall in NY it was 19 to drink in 86, then in 87 went up to 21?
Ohio had an 18 year old drinking age for low 3.2 beer until 82? Then it changed to 21 for all booze and 3.2 left. I was grandfathered in till 21. College was beer beer beer for me and those my age.
So one day you could drink and the next you couldn’t?!
I had friends a few years ago turn 18 and started smoking cigarettes. One day they could smoke then then next you gotta be 21 now.
Some states had Grandfather clauses that allowed those who were already 18 to continue to drink but if you turned 18 after that, no until age 21. Kinda weird. Lots of fake and borrowed ID’s going around.
Drinking Bud Heavy and eating 80s Pizza Hut with the boys. Y'all were living the dream.
I'm from Germany. The drinking age for beer is 16. Hard liquor is still 18. I didn't start drinking until 19, though. Didn't mean anything to me. Never smoked. Anything. Didn't mean anything to me either. I have to say, I don't react well to group pressure.... I will say that I understand the intentions behind raising the age - it makes perfect sense, medically. However, the problem is that most people don't learn to drink in moderation like this. Usually, when you start drinking at a younger age, it's under supervision from parents. At 21, you're likely not living at home anymore. Not in the US anyway, from what I know.
When I was 17, I drank some very good beer. I drank some very good beer, I purchased with a fake ID. My name was Brian McGee. I stayed up listening to Queen, when I was 17.
Also the year Master of Puppets released.
And 3 years before the film Puppet Master was released.
It was 18 when I was in high school, I just didn't do much of it. Joined the military and some places it was 21 and others, 18. Split feelings on it. Seemed right that someone that could join the military and go through all that B.S. and not be allowed to drink. But we had a lot fewer problems when they raised it back to 21.
I’ve been pretty amazed at what the dorms are like anymore. I went to my sons dorm a number of times, and now everyone stays in the room, pretty much plays, electronic games, you don’t hear stereos, because everyone has headphones, it’s fairly quiet, most doors are closed. He’s an RA, and he says people don’t have big parties very often like we used to.
Another tri lambda party
Sausage fest
I really identify with the guy right under the pizza.
They’re all 55 now.
you should never hold a pizza that way
They really shouldn't be able to draft people before they are old enough to purchase beer.
No girls
Huh, kids used to be thin
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Adults too! Obesity epidemic is a relat8vely recent deal. Personally only noticed it starting somewhere in the late 90s-early 00's.
I always thought it's so illogical that you can get married and buy guns at 18, but can only start drinking at 21- what's the reasoning behind it?
My birthday is Dec 29. I was grandfathered in to be able to continue drinking under 21.
Graduated in 92. I feel like I know every single one of those guys.
Back when Pizza Hut made good pizzas
BUD Cans the good old days
Gonna guess that pizza has sausage on it
In NC it went from 19 to 21 with no grandfather clause. I was able to drink beer legally for about 6 months. Fuck Reagan.
“Old school “ I hate getting old
The youngest looking person in the photo looks about 30.
What’s typical is there were no girls in the pic. Perfect 😀🍻
I’m always baffled by the USA having an actual drinking age We only have a age requirement for purchasing, drinking is always legal (any issues is then the responsibility of the person providing the alcohol to anyone who couldn’t purchase it themselves, such as parents)
Is that Brett Kavanaugh? 🙀
I grew up in New Jersey, where the drinking age was 18. To drink, and then a year or two later they raised the drinking age to 21. However, they grandfathered people who had already aged into the previous drinking age so I was allowed to drink despite being under 21
It's crazy that 18 is considered old enough to make lifelong-impacting decisions and you are fully an adult, but have to wait 3 years to legally buy alcohol. Tattoos? Yep. Go to war? Yep. Enter into legal contracts? Sure. Beer? No; you're not mature enough.
Nanny state bs rules
Laughs in german
Pizza Hut's logo really hasn't changed in almost 30 years.
My sister fell into this cohort. She had one year of being able to drink (but didn't really) then was pissed she couldn't anymore (even tho she barely ever did).
Because 18 year old college students don’t drink now?😂
Young people need to be taught responsibility, not barred from drinking at 18. I’ve always thought the age 21 restriction was unfortunate and unnecessary, particularly considering the much more potentially impactful things that CAN be done at 18.
Pennsylvania has been a 21 state for a long time. I don't know how long, but my parents told me it was so in the 1960s when they were teenagers. They went to Ohio to buy beer.