In the UK the legal age to buy alcohol is 18 but you will be aged checked for a few years just to be sure. Not getting age checked means your getting old so I'm sure shops check women longer just out of politeness.
Of course in some European countries the drinking age is lower e. g. Germany 16 and it's 21 in much of the USA.
But no matter where you are, buying your first alcohol drink and not being told to piss off is a big deal for many people because it signals your seen as an adult. So how did your first legal purchase go?
How did you feel when you legally bought your first alcoholic drink?
Legally. Before that I had been at certain bars, liquor stores, had a fake ID as I made and sold them, and went to parties of course.
On my 18th B-day I was working part-time as a janitor, my boss laughed when I asked for the night off and he said get used to it in work life, but afterwards a friend took me to a bar way out in a rural area where I think he had his first legal drink. We sat at the bar and it felt calming in that I was legal and no worries. I was bought my first but sometime afterwards I paid for my own.
I put on a record on a jukebox. It was Aerosmith, Sweet Emotion I think. One of the “Good ole boys” at the bar walked over to it and said “Airy O Smith” what the hell is that. I just smirked but it could have been a fight and I didn’t care. It was a fun evening. We got drunk and went home. I never went back to that bar but remember the town we were in and for a longtime remembered the bar name but I forget now.
So I just looked up bars in that town and it is still there. The exterior is very different. The interior is what I remember but cleaner and brighter now. It is a dive bar and they seem to be very proud of that today.
I can tell you when I bought my first alcoholic drink at all - because I was 15 and going to a party. So I bought a bottle of fairly strong fruit punch and was a bit nervous at the till. The lady at the till almost certainly knew I was too young to buy it, but she didn't say a word.
I used to buy alcohol at the pub in my school when I was 18, because they had cocktail mixes which tasted better than regular alcohol and I was too lazy to take a bus to an off campus bar for alcohol.
The first time I bought a bottle of alcohol and took it home, I was in my early 20s and I felt cared for, that I could buy an bottle of appetizing liquid for just $17.00 after taxes. It would take me 12 days to drink the whole bottle.
Then they increased the price to over $35 a bottle and I never bought from that brand again.
Years later, I heard Dr. Berg say alcohol makes you fat, and now I drink beer less than 4 times a year. Now, I have very thin friends who work out and eat high-end foods and they can drink alcohol without getting fat, because 99% of all the other foods they eat are extremely healthy.
But a normal person like me, does not feel safe consuming alcohol while trying to manage daily weight fluctuations.
It was 18 when I became legal here in the US. But it was never a big deal because I grew up in New Orleans where giving children some wine at special dinners or a sip of an adult drink was common.
I think when alcohol is treated as verboten is how young people abuse alcohol. If it's treated as a part of a meal and something you do, not to get drunk, but to enhance a meal or social occasion, it's no big deal to be allowed to buy or drink legally. You've always had access one way or another anyway.
My parents had alcohol in the pantry. I never sneaked drinks because it wasn't something forbidden or hidden. So my first legal drink/buy-- unimportant.
I remember buying my first legal drink in a tiny bar in Bologna 🇮🇹 It was a simple red wine, nothing fancy, but my hands were slightly shaking passing the cash.
The bartender barely glanced at my ID, just nodded and said “Buon divertimento.” I felt oddly proud, a bit nervous, and very grown-up, sipping that wine like it was a secret door to adulthood 🍷
Fun fact: i never got carded until i started buzz cutting my hair. By then i was plenty old enough to drink. I’m quite certain i was getting carded because i looked like i could be a cop. I always looked older and carried myself as more mature. If you do something with enough confidence, people just won’t question you on it. The biggest key, in my opinion, don’t act like an asshole. You could look twelve and nobody is going to question you having a drink until you start acting like a drunk twelve year old. Most people really don’t care. Some people are all uptight about drinking. Others think the best way to put babies to sleep is with a nip of whiskey in their bedtime bottle. No joke, my dad rubbed whiskey on my gums when i was teething. But most people don’t give a sh*t unless and until you act like an idiot.
Australia should raise the age to 21 , there is way too much of a drinking culture , dangerous drug / poison.
A technical alcoholic being 37 genuine standard drinks per week , measured.
My first legal time pissed me off big time , they didn't ask me ( they always asked , I looked 15 max - not 18 , a little skeg ) had my ID ready and all.
These days I've got it back 28 standard drinks per week and the plan is to get it lower , very hard addiction to break and it creeps up..18 is far too young , and frankly popping an e , or taking dope in liquid form is safer.
Shit the Australian cricket team was sponsored by a booze manufacturer, after they win a test match " we are having a few quiet beets " - What does that mean? Getting shtfaced and lucky if u even get to bed.
When I was young, in the field of alcoholic drinks, I don't remember having seen anyone being aged checked, neither did it ever happen to me. Anyway, in my family, and even at the border school, now and then during particular events, teens were allowed some wine or beer.
I must also admit having sometimes visited my parent's fridge to take a sip of some stronger stuff :0P
No idea when it was, but I didn't feel anything when buying "legally" a first alcoholic drink, because I never came accross that notion at the time.
Most of the little drinking I ever did was before turning 21. By then, I'd already decided it wasn't for me. Today when I buy alcohol, it's for other people. I buy my parents a few bottles of wine and I buy a few 6-packs of beer for BBQs when I have people over, but that's about it. My girlfriend almost never drinks so there's little reason for me to buy booze.
At least in my 50s, I finally have enough gray hair that I don't get asked for ID anymore. In my 40s, I was still getting ID'd to buy a bottle of wine. Some people thought I was possibly 25 when I was 47...
Well I felt really bad because I was getting in clubs when I was 17 18 19 and 20 and drinking all the time and when it was my 21st birthday and we walked into a club by then you get to know the bartenders and what are you guys doing celebrating Steve's birthday oh really how old are you Steve 21. WTF. GET OUT GET OUT NOW LOL you've been coming in here all these years and I've been selling you beers and alcohol for all these years and now you're just turning 21
No no no no no no we got it all wrong here I turned 21 when I first walked in the doors here but my parents got pissed off at me last week so they're making me do a redo
You know how parents are trying to teach you a lesson all the time
Steve get out get out now Lol Happy Birthday Steve
That was so long ago, I don't remember when I bought my first drink or what it was.
I do remember working with a crew of guys older than me when I was in college. One day, we finished work early, and they took me to a bar. They bought me several rounds of whiskey shots. I ended up going to the men's room and puking my guts out before we left.
At that time 18 was the age (now 21) but honestly I was in high school partying with a bunch of people over at UTA, so it was never an issue from about 16 years. Even had a very convincing ID that never once failed to get me into a club, besides I was a musician with a lot of acquaintances so it was often known but ignored... just another day.
I went to college in upstate New York. The drinking age was 18 and the state where I lived it was 21. I remember it was weird buying a case of beer and seeing a cop walk by and he just smiled at me.
I had been drinking occasionally for 6 years already by that point, so it didn't mean much.
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Anonymous
(25-29)
1 mo
Haha I dont recall. TBH I looked a lot older when I was younger. My parents and I would go out, when we would visit the States, I would be 16 and I could buy drinks at bars and they didn't question my age. So I think when I finally could buy a drink legally, it wasn't a huge thing.
My first legal purchase was a handle of Wild Turkey 101 proof. When I handed the guy my ID he said “hell, I thought you were 40". I had already been buying alcohol at gas stations and liquor stores since I was 17, I just grew out my beard
When I turned 21 (the legal age here) it was several months before anyone checked my ID. I thought, wow, I could have been doing this for a year or more.
It was a pretty cool feeling. I had 3 jack and coke's at Pappadeaux, a pretty nice seafood restaurant. I can't believe that an AI is speaking about its first legal drink. What is the world coming to? 🤦♂️
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