There were unusual liquor laws in some places back then.
At one point, when Ernest Manning was premier 1940s to 1960s - yes, that's right. He was the premier who discontinued the use of proportional representation in 1955, Thanks for remembering that from my other blogs.
Like I was saying, when Manning was premier, liquor could not be served on planes flying over Alberta due to provincial law.
This was long after Prohibition had been thrown out in Alberta. Sale of hard liquor was banned from 1917 to 1923, except from pharmacist and for veterinarians. But maybe the airline company did not want to buy a special liquor licence for the time the planes were over Alberta.
On that theme, Strathcona history shows this.
Kitty corner from the McIntyre Park, there was a Temperance hotel in early 1900s, where non-drinkers could get rooms. They wanted this - there is recorded memory of local farmer and political activist Rice Shepard who got a bed in a regular hotel room. He was in one bed and a man came into room to go to sleep in the other bed, which was fine, but he sat down and then vomited all over everything! So non-drinkers preferred sleeping in a non-drinking hotel, a temperance hotel. The usual hotel was centre of drinking. Everyone had a tavern where beer was drank in vast quantities.
Here's a story - when I was a young 20-something, one evening I went into the Strathcona Hotel tavern. All the tables were full but there was one left so I grabbed one of the chairs.
Soon a trio of hard-working oilmen in their mid-20s came in. They spied my mostly-unoccupied table and joined me. They soon told me they were working at a rig in Drayton Valley.
Well, they drank like fishes. In those days draft beer came in little glasses - you know the ones with a line showing the legal requirement of a dose - I mean a serving.
And they ordered 12 at a time, whole waiters' trays full of them were brought to the table. Well, we chatted and laughed and drank - I paid my share by throwing money on to the pile in the middle of the table. Finally it was closing time. And sales stopped. The man next to me pushed his chair back, unzipped his fly and pissed a big puddle right on the floor.
True fact.
I learned later from one who knew that after closing time, bouncers don't want trouble and just want people to leave with as little trouble as possible. So that is why no one moved to stop him.
Then the three drank what was left on the table and bought a case of beer off-sales to drink on the way home and went out the door, to drive to Drayton Valley to work the next day.
You would scarcely believe the crazy things that happened during Alberta's booms and how some people spent their money.
Thanks for reading.
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