Oklahoma and the Booze Beat
Photo taken in an Oklahoma City nightclub, 1950, during bring-your-own-bottle days.
****
For the third time in 58 years Oklahomans are considering a constitutional amendment involving drinkable spirits. In 1959 Prohibition was repealed. In 1984 selling liquor by the drink was voted in. This time the proposed amendment addresses wine sales in grocery stores.
If the ballot language is approved by the state Supreme Court, a group called Oklahomans for Modern Laws will have to collect 155,216 signatures and must have them submitted 60 days before November’s general election.
For those who haven’t been weirded out by something else this weekend — I’m passing along a joke sent to me earlier by my Cuzzin John Mac. Just don’t tell anyone where you read it. My apologies to WalMart. It’s the 900-pound gorilla and makes an easy target. Personally, I love it. Don’t know what us poor folks would do without it.
****
Here’s the joke, probably making the rounds of the Internet as we speak.
WalMart announced that they will soon be offering customers a new discount item … WalMart’s own brand of wine. The world’s largest retail chain is teaming up with E & J Gallo Winery of California, to produce the spirits at an affordable price, in the $2-5 range.
Wine connoisseurs may not be inclined to throw a bottle of WalMart brand into their shopping carts, but “there is a market for cheap wine,” said Kathy Micken, professor of marketing. She added, “But the right name is important.”
Customer surveys were conducted to determine the most attractive name for the WalMart brand. The top surveyed names in order of popularity are:
10. Chateau Traileur Parc
09. White Trashfindel
08. Big Red Gulp
07. World Championship Riesling
06. NASCARbernet
05. Chef Boyardeaux
04. Peanut Noir
03. I Can’t Believe It’s Not Vinegar!
02. Grape Expectations
And the number 1 name for WalMart Wine:
01. Nasti Spumante
The beauty of Wal-Mart wine is that it can be served with either white meat (Possum) or red meat (Squirrel).
****
Posted on June 23, 2012, in Uncategorized and tagged Bring your own bottle, Oklahoma liquor laws. Bookmark the permalink. 11 Comments.
PRICELESS, Pat! And I absolutely love the picture of you guys in a bar in 1950. I remember 1950. Sigh. The problem as I see it (regarding the serious nature of your blog) is that prohibition never works. People are going to drink and/or take drugs if they want to. I have a theory about how to stop the drug wars/murders, but I won’t write it here
Great photo and fun post. You were so young!
Hi, Alice and Marilyn:
Those were the days, huh? Marilyn, we WERE young. I just looked up my timeline from the day I was born and the photo must have been snapped in 1953, just before we moved from Oklahoma to Louisiana.
I don’t know what the age was for admittance to a nightclub in OKC, but we were too young in 1950 I am sure.
Speaking of my timeline — I still have a faded photocopy of my 1956 application for a job at North American Aviation in Fresno and my application for security clearance. The Feds wanted to know everything in detail — and believe it or not, they checked every single item I wrote down and made handwritten corrections if I got a date wrong or spelled somebody’s name wrong. My clearance was for “secret” although if I ever heard any secrets I don’t remember them. LOL
I held so many different jobs after that and always had to fill out a detailed application. Consequently, all these years, if I need to know where I was and what I was doing on a certain date, I just drag out an old application.
More than you wanted to know, I’m sure! (-:
Pat
Great story and great joke! Thanks for sharing.
Amanda
Hi, Amanda! Thanks for stopping by. You just reminded me that I need to review your wonderful book!
All the best,
Pat Browning
Loved the picture and memories.
Hi, Jackie:
So glad to hear from you! Thanks for stopping by!
All the best,
Pat
Great post, Pat! Are you the young lady on the left?
Hi, Theresa! No, I’m the one on the right. That’s my husband looking away from the camera. To be honest, I don’t even remember the couple on the left or why we were even there. It’s been too long ago! I remember my dress, though — it was a beautiful shade of blue. Crazy, huh, the things you remember. (-:
Well, you’re a fine looking couple, indeed!
Thanks, Theresa! Oh, to be that young again! Pat
ABSINTHE OF MALICE (Krill Press 2008) http://browningpat.wordpress.com/ “It’s not true that life is one damn thing after another; it is one damn thing over and over.” Edna St. Vincent Millay