Libation limitation
Monday, November 3, 2008 at 10:22AM Last night I went to my monthly book club at a friend’s house. We usually do a pretty good job of staying on topic, but last night there were only four of us in attendance. We were discussing A Thousand Splendid Suns which we all really enjoyed, but after about 40 minutes of good conversation somehow the discussion turned to beer. I casually said, "I could really go for a beer right now" and two of the others concurred. Within minutes we were in our shoes and coats and headed out the door.
Our first stop was a bar and grill right down the road. We walked in and the place was completely empty. After the host gave us a strange look and said he’d be right back, we figured out they were closing. At 8pm. So we left and tried an Applebee’s, figuring they could at least supply us with a decent beverage. Robin asked if they had any drink specials, and our server admitted, "Actually we don’t serve any alcohol on Sundays."
What. the. hell. I live in conservative west Michigan, and there are whole counties that ban the sale of alcohol on Sundays. But the county we were in doesn’t have any such ban that we knew of. Turns out these things can be decided on a township level, and that particular township thinks that it’s morally damning to even think about alcohol on the blessed holy day. Even for those of us who don’t buy into that.
We apologized to our server – it’s not his fault he works in an alcohol-banning township – grabbed our stuff and left for home.
I’m not even a big drinker, but it’s very frustrating to be told that I can’t have a beer on Sunday just because a majority of voters in that township don’t want to have one. That’s fine, don’t drink on Sunday, don’t buy alcohol on Sunday, don’t even think about it on Sunday. But why can’t I? It’s not like I’m asking to buy cocaine or kill someone or do something else illegal. I’m over 21 and I want a drink. I don’t care what day it is!
I’m pretty sure my township doesn’t have this kind of Sunday ban though, so maybe next time it's my turn to host book club we’ll have to try again.
Friends, So Annoyed
Reader Comments (5)
The first time I went to Boulder I ran into this problem too. We dont have any laws like that in Madison, so I was pretty shocked and annoyed. Especially for me and people like me, who are not religious, to have to be inconvenienced by this.
Would you believe that Seattle used to be like that, right up until we moved here? I'm not sure if this was the case in restaurants, but you most certainly could not buy beer or wine in stores on Sunday. The law changed shortly after we moved here, but I do remember seeing the beer and wine aisle blocked off by carts on a Sunday and thinking WTF? Where did we move? The one thing I still cannot get used to is that all hard alcohol is sold in separate liquor stores, mandated and monitored by the state government, so if you want some sort of special liqueur for making a dessert, you have to make a special trip. LAME.
I ended up having a couple beers at home while I watched the game!!!
oh man, i know. no liquor here on sundays--liquor stores aren't open. but restaurants can serve it. lame, i say!
I have never understood this. Why do people feel the need to press their morals up against my back. It's like censorship. If you don't want to read the book, fine, but why do you try and take the book off the shelf for everyone else. This pisses me off so much. Sorry for my ranting....