From Pine View Farm

American Taliban 4

When I was growing up, Virginia did not permit “liquor by the drink.” Restaurants could not serve cocktails (I’m not sure about the laws on beer and wine, but no decent eatery out in the country, where I grew up, served them). You could buy whiskey and other liquors at ABC (“Alcoholic Beverage Control”) stores, where the clerks wore uniforms and fetched the bottles from the shelves behind the counter.

The local still was located in the woods across a field behind the courthouse . . . .

Afterthought:

Virginia still has ABC stores, but the clerks no longer wear uniforms and customers can browse the shelves. The prices, though, compared to Delware prices which I have observed on my trips to Philadelphia, are somewhat–er–elevated. A monopoly will act like a monopoly whenever given the chance.

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4 comments

  1. George Smith

    September 26, 2015 at 4:48 pm

    Didn’t really need a scientific study from Louisville to understand this. Prohibition led to nationwide crime wave, gangsters, and more people drinking than ever before. Outlawing drugs, including alcohol, is not a policy the works, simply because you can’t outlaw the human condition. Although it’s fairly obvious Americans always try.

     
  2. Frank

    September 26, 2015 at 10:03 pm

    In some cases, scientific studies don’t serve to prove new facts. They give proof to the old facts, the ones that fanatics will continue to deny because their Jesus told them to.

    They worship no Jesus I know, but one of their own creation.

    You do know that we are doomed. The Secesh are in the ascendant until and unless sane persons realize that all elections, not just Presidential elections, matter.

     
  3. George Smith

    September 27, 2015 at 3:00 am

    Boy, I thought you were more upbeat than me by an order of magnitude. Apparently, a mistake. There’s a little reassurance that I’m not nuts in reading that but there’s the message that we both seem to share the same bleak view.

     
  4. Frank

    September 28, 2015 at 10:58 pm

    I am not optimistic, not at all. I see this “noble experiment” approaching failure in a storm of hatred, greed, and bigotry before we all drown in rising tides of global warming. Other than that, I guess things are okay . . . .

    I’m just too pissed off to give up.