[Sca-cooks] South Carolina Laws

[The Sheltons]

> From: Daniel Myers <doc at medievalcookery.com>

Having lived in both Ohio and South Carolina, I can tell you that South
Carolina's liquor laws make Ohio's look positively permissive.>

Yes, the laws here in South Carolina are pretty restrictive.  You can buy
beer and wine in grocery stores, liquor has to be bought in a liquor store.
Liquor stores have to close at 7:00 pm.  You can't buy any kind of alcohol
in a store on Sunday.  Liquor stores are also closed on election days {I
guess to keep you from using a bottle of Jack to buy someone's vote}.

They have liberalized the rules for bars on Sundays.  Back when I was an
undergrad in the late '70s, bars had to close at 2 am Sunday morning and
then stay closed until Monday.  The only way around this was a provision for
private clubs that were open to members only.  They could open on Sunday and
provide alcohol to their members, as long as they weren't actually selling
the drinks.  I still have my Silver Fox card from the Tally Ho Club that got
me in the door for "Member Appreciation Sundays."

Now, SC has a more pragmatic approach ... let's make money off of it!  Bars
can get Sunday permits from the State ABC.  However, they're one-day
permits.  You have to get a new one each week; they started out at $150 per
week, but they may have gone up since then.

The blue laws are unfortunately still with us, with their convoluted list of
things you can and can't buy before 1:30 on Sunday.  It's always fun to hit
the local Wal-Mart on Sunday morning.  They've probably got 1,000 yards of
police tape winding through the store, to restrict access to illicit
materials.  You can buy groceries, but, by God, you can't try on those Levis
until the appointed hour!

To make things even more fun, there is a local county option to open an hour
earlier, at 12:30 on Sunday.  The urban metropolis of Irmo, where I live, is
divided between Richland and Lexington Counties, with the line meandering
through town.  Richland has approved the option and allows 12:30 opening;
Lexington refuses to and they're stuck with 1:30 opening.  So, you have
businesses several blocks apart in the same town playing by different sets
of rules.

As our local alternative newspaper curmugeon likes to say "South
Carolina.... Our Headlines are the World's Punchlines."

John le Burguillun