Nico Adie wrote:That review mentions the legal drinking age in Chicago being lowered from 21 to 19.
Is that still the case in Chicago?
No. I don't remember exactly when it went from 21 to 19 (for beer and wine only), but it reverted back to 21 for everything 2 months or so after I turned 19 in 1979. This was in March, I believe, when it reverted back. Thank god I had already started going to clubs by then, I was already well known at that point and the owners would let me slide.
I think the reason it went back to 21 was because that period of time was the start of the push to make the drinking age uniform across the U.S. at 21 years of age. Also, I think the bars, and, by extension, the police, were having difficulty managing a two-tiered drinking age system, one for beer and wine, and one for hard liquor. If a bar really wanted to enforce it, they really needed to either card you every time you got a drink, or establish, through hand stamps or some other system, who was over 21 and who was under. I'm sure it was a pain in the ass for anyone who owned a bar.