In the 1969 the United States Congress enacted legisdlation making it legal for 18 year olds to buy, possess, and drink alcohol. This legislation would be in effect until the Reagan Administration's The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 was passed. for more information about what the Alcohol laws were before 1969, please go to a university law library and look at those statutes or if you live in a state capitol, go to the capitol law library. Even Wikipedia says that in the Reagan administration the law was passed declaring 21 to be the minimum drinking age. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Minimum_Drinking_Age_Act.
For those who say otherwise have got to be too young to remember what it was like. In the movie that takes place mostly in 1955, you will see where the assistant principal accused the town bully of smelling of alcohol. The bully "Biff" replied, "I wouldn't know because I'm too young to drink it." The bully "Biff" was 18.
My stories are mostly from my memory, but I will reseach that memory just to make sure I am correct. Others who comment on stories should do the same. I won't mention any names, because they may be too young to either know or remember.
Love & hugs,
Barbara
Comments
From context
I'm guessing you're talking about Back to the Future and I remember the scene you mention -- however, when did they specifically state that Biff Tannen was 18? Most people in school in the United States are under 18. Even those in their Senior (final) year of high school are most usually 17 years of age, not 18.
Now, they may have said something about his age that I don't recall, but the general age of a high school student in the United States is under 18.
Age 18 circa 1979
I turned 18 when I was a senior in high school. Also maybe about a month before I graduated(June 6 1979), we had a voter registration drive for students who were 18 or older.
Writing is painful, it's lonely and you suffer and there's no immediate feedback.- Actor, writer, playwright Robert Shaw
Daniel, author of maid, whore, bimbo, and sissy free TG fiction since 2000
What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.- Oscar Levant
18 after January 1; and able to drink
RAMI
Actually, about half of the seniors in High School are over 18. Those born after January 1, of their senior year
would likely turn 18 before graduating.
I have no idea where Barbara Lynn Terry lived, or that states law, but the legal drinking age in N.Y was 18, for many years. When it became 18, I do not know and it changed as others have discussed during the Reagan years. As, Ms Terry likes to argue, I was there, I turned 18 in 1969, I did some drinking and worked in a Liquor Store, so I needed to check I.D.s and knew the law.
Rami
RAMI
Rami, That would go along
Rami,
That would go along with what Barbara said, that the drinking age was set to 18 in 1969, which was done in part because it was ludicrous to say that you could be drafted to go fight in a war, but were not old enough to drink.
During the Regan years this was changed, though it was not a hard rule, as states were able to set their own rules. I don't have any thing to back it up, but my memories are that it was similar to the speed limit changes, where the states would not get federal funding for roads unless they capitulated. That was how the speed limit got forced to 55. (At least until some of the states with long straight roads, found that was causing more accidents and sued, and won.)
Hugs,
Kristy
18 since the repeal of prohibition.
RAMI
Dear Kristy.
Actually, what I said does NOT go along with what Barbara said. The drinking age in NY was 18 before 1969. I just did not know when it became 18.
So, because of your reply, I did a search and you can check the Wikipedia article below.
It appears from it, that at least 10 states had an 18 (or under) drinking age before the trend to lower drinking ages began in the late 60' and 70's. New York's drinking age was 18 since the repeal of Prohibition.
RAMI
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._history_of_alcohol_minimum...
RAMI
Actually what she said was
Actually what she said was that prior to the law in 69, states had a myriad of different laws, so it still fits with what she did say. She did not say that there were not states prior to 69 that had drinking ages down to 18.
What she did say was that the law in 69 made it 18 across the board.
Kristy
A lot of people do turn 18
A lot of people do turn 18 in grade 12, one of the reasons I heard they bumped the legal drinking age to 19 here in Ontario was because of high school students going out and getting drunk before graduation. I have no idea if that's a factual reason or not but it seems reasonable, otherwise 19 seems like a rather arbitrary number.
I'm not sure there's a connection...
Don't forget, that Ontario used to have a Grade 13, too, which would have been full of 19 year olds.
This is completely off the top of my head, but pretty sure the drinking age was raised around the time of the graduated driver's licenses, so that a teen couldn't legally drink until they'd had a full license for a year.
The kids at my school used to frequent a local pub on Fridays and Saturdays so much we referred to it as the Southwest Campus.
Age 17 in highschool grade 12
In canada and US you start grade 1 at 6 years of age.... UNLESS YOUR BIRTHDAY WILL MAKE YOU 6 BEFORE THE START OF THE NEW YEAR.
So if you are like me... born between start of school and dec 31... you started school at 5 and will be 16 when you graduate.
for me it didn't help that I failed kindergarten and grade 8. so I was 18 when I graduated.
Dayna.
ps. hehe a person like "Biff" would be at high risk of repeating at least one grade.
It depends...
The "cut off" date for starting 1st grade depends on the state/school district. In my current School District - Oct 1st is the cut off date. If you're 6 on, or before Oct 1 - you start 1st grade. Other districts in the area use Nov. 1, Dec 1 & Jan 1. I don't know of any other dates in our area - but I wouldn't be surprised to find them.
Anne
I think in CA
I think in CA it's now September 1 as cutoff date but when I started school it was December 2. Who knows why such an odd date but that's what I remember and I remember it because it was odd. December 2 wasn't even a Monday or a Sunday, it was a Thursday that year.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
have one on me
Drinking age is controlled state by state. The national drinking act only suggested twenty one. It had a penalty for non compliance but it was still just a suggestion if the states wanted federal monies. When i was a kid drinking age was 21. Then the kids said we can go to war (vietnam) and die but we can't vote or drink. Many states lowered the drinking age and voting age to 18. Louisiana had a age 18 law before Texas kids went there to drink others in deep south Texas went to Mexico and still do.
Love,
Paula
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.
The Coda
Chapterhouse: Dune
Paula
Seek freedom and become captive of your desires. Seek discipline and find your liberty.
The Coda
Chapterhouse: Dune
Whether Legal or not
Whether legal or not - it wasn't uncommon for kids in many southern states to have relatively easy access to alcohol EVEN during the years where it was constitutionally illegal for the entire country. Prohibition didn't seem to hit the Gulf Coast (or so I've been told). Back then, if you were "tall" enough to push your quarter across the bar, you were old enough to drink. (That's a quote from my folks.) Even today, there are places in the US where possession of alcohol (beverages) is illegal. Mississippi still has a law where each county decides. The county my parents live in is "legally" dry. The largest town in the county is big enough that they can vote to allow the sale of beer (& they do). It's crazier than just that. If the county is "wet" (allows sale) then all alcohol (including beer) is sold in state licensed stores (beer is warm). If the county is "dry" but the town allows beer - the beer is sold in grocery stores & convenience stores (including gas stations) where they are refrigerated. So, people drive up and while getting their car filled up with gas, they grab their six-pack of chilled beer - and drive off drinking. :-(
*sighs*
Anne
In 1969...
...my Freshman year in college, before my days of genograms, finally dealing with alcoholism, and co-dependent times of self-discovery, we would drive from Wilkes-Barre, PA to just across the border in New York up I81. The drinking age in PA was 21 and the age in NY was 18. Invariably, we'd get stopped by a Pennsylvania State Trooper who would confiscate the case of beer we had so misguidedly purchased. I used to cry myself to sleep at night, feeling safe (safe?) having one of only six single rooms in the dorm. It wasn't for want of alcohol, but for the big one of the many reasons why I sought alcohol in the first place.
Dio vi benedica tutti
Con grande amore e di affetto
Andrea Lena
Love, Andrea Lena
Oh Canada
In 1970 my family paid a visit to Quebec Canada. Along with my 4 siblings and my parents, a close friend of my sister Patty came on the trip with us.
We were staying in a hotel in Quebec City. Mom and Dad ordered a glass of wine and then the waiter said. "And for the children?"
"They can't drink."
"Monsieur, this is not Pennsylvania."
Those French Canadians, you got to love them. Oh and I haven't even mentioned the Bonneville Pontiac Station Wagon drag race. Boy, did Pontiac put a motor in those cars.
Writing is painful, it's lonely and you suffer and there's no immediate feedback.- Actor, writer, playwright Robert Shaw
Daniel, author of maid, whore, bimbo, and sissy free TG fiction since 2000
What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.- Oscar Levant
Drinking Age
RAMI
Like my dear friend Andrea, I started college in September 1969. I did not turn 18, until October 1969. My college was located just up the road from Andrea's just off I-81 in Binghamton, NY.
I am an advocate for an 18 year old drinking age. I was not a big drinker back then or now, but at Harpur College, at that time, we had a pub on campus. You could go get a beer most any night. The pub had well trained bar tenders who did make sure that no one got so drunk as to be in serious danger. They had the right to cut you off and send you back to your dorm. They could even get you an escort.
We were able to have open and supervised keg parties in the dorms.
There was less sneaking around, and at least some supervision.
My kids are both "Gators" and while I had some idea of what they did, I would have perferred an atmosphere, where drinking if it occurred did not have to be done in secret.
RAMI
RAMI
For what it's worth...
Despite the "national drinking age" being twenty-one (21)... It doesn't apply to the entire country. The drinking age is eighteen (18) in Puerto Rico... So, US citizens can travel there (and still be in the US) and drink before they turn twenty-one (21)... And, return to the mainland and no longer be able to drink (legally mind you).
From personal experience - and based on news I've read... There were far fewer "problems" with drinking on Uni campuses back before the drinking age was raised... Drinking STILL happens on campus (I've a daughter there...) It happens off campus too. Before the '84 law, it was common for there to be at least one bar on campus... Students could spend their money there - and not have far to go to get back to their dorms. Now, they go off campus - commonly driving - to drink... With the expected results.
Responsible drinking is NOT taught in this country (unless on a case by case/family by family basis). For whatever reason, talking about drinking is almost as taboo as talking about sex. And we're surprised at the number of people that have problems - with both? Go figure.
Anne
The Drinking Age law makes
The Drinking Age law makes sure that we do not teach responsible drinking.
Drinking Age laws promotes that many people on their 21st or sooner birthday where applicable, will go out and party... often with negative results.
Prohibition laws never work, but we haven't learned that lesson.
BTW, When I was a college freshman in 1984 in West Virginia, WV decided to keep the drinking age 18. However, they did not want neighboring young adults hopping the border to drink, so they kept it 18 for in state residents, and 21 for out of state residents. They allowed college students to get an non-drivers identification from the state, indicating that they were attending a college, for which they charged $10. They made quite a bit of money off of this.
Kristy
I don't know about other
I don't know about other states, but in NJ the smoking age is now 19. Not that it has had any effect on teenage smoking, because it has not. I see kids smoking every morning when I drop off my son, as the police cars drive right on by them.
These kinds of laws do not actually stop people from doing them... They just up the cost.
Kristy
Differing standards
Tell a European (any West European) they have to wait until they're 21 and you could get yourself lynched.
Tell a 17 year old that they have to wait until they're 18 and you might get a reaction from them, after they've put the beer (or alcopop) down. In some countries it can be legal at 16.
Topsy
Mostly Harmless
Freedom
I did not grow up here, where I was there was no drinking age. I and my friends were permitted to drink wine at home and the occasional beer. In my very early teens we hung out in outdoor cafes and bars, sometimes indoors shooting billiards. I do not remember anyone abusing alcohol because most of us drove motorcycles. Even those who did not drive still drank responsibly.
I do not remember my parents ever giving us "the talk", it was not necessary.
Permissiveness and real freedom leads to responsible behavior.
Europe
Fifteen in many, lass.
Germany
In Germany the law only prohibits selling/offering alcohol to someone below 16 or allowing them to drink alcohol in the public. What happens at home is not legislated.
Martina
Jimmy Breslin On the Drinking Age
I'm from/in New York. My understanding is, that from the end of Prohibition to the Reagan-era law, the drinking age here was 18. And, of course, the voting age was 21 until early in the 1970's.
Jimmy Breslin, the irascible sage newspaper reporter for the Daily News, commented on the reversal that it was absolutely inhuman to force people who are going into the voting booths to choose between scoundrels, to do so without a drink.
___________________
If a picture is worth 1000 words, this is at least part of my story.
Back to the Future
The movie is set in California, and their drinking age has been 21 since prohibition ended.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._history_of_alcohol_minimum...
I found this interesting, after prohibition Illinois had an interesting drinking age.
Drinking age set at the age of majority, which was 21 for men, 18 for women.[13] Raised to 21 for all in 1961.[14]
Ah, sexism at its best.