[Reno89519]

Exactly. And that goes for all laws that are not constitutionally mandated for age. I remember turning 18 in Alaska, being able to drink, then joined the Navy at 19 and after boot camp in San Diego I couldn’t drink because the 21 year old minimum age law was being implemented and of course California was apparently an early adopter.

[Gene Eric]

definitely mixed messages regarding one’s willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice to the Country.

+1

[unclebankster]

Exactly. And that goes for all laws that are not constitutionally mandated for age. I remember turning 18 in Alaska, being able to drink, then joined the Navy at 19 and after boot camp in San Diego I couldn’t drink because the 21 year old minimum age law was being implemented and of course California was apparently an early adopter.

************

It was a bunch of nanny state BS.

“Go die for country” but you can’t have a beer?

Doesn’t seem right from my civilian perspective.

[MortMan]

In NYS, I was legalized three times: 18 (4 months before they changed the age to 19), 19 (4 months before it shifted to 21), and then 21.

Completely ridiculous.

[hanamizu]

“...California was apparently an early adopter.”

---

Twenty-one was the legal age to drink and to vote in California when I was growing up. Some states had lower ages, but 21 was the standard. When they lowered the voting age to 18 many states lowered the drinking age as well. Don’t know if California did. Then Congress strong-armed the states to raise the drinking age to 21, kind of like they did for the 55 mph speed limit. Do it or we withhold highway money.

[Hot Tabasco]

Same here. I had been overseas a year and a half and when I came home on my first 30 day leave, I was only 20 and Michigan's drinking age was 21. Fortunately, a friend took me to a bar owned by a vet who served me.

5 months later when I was discharged and I was then 21, they lowered the age to 18.

They raised it to 21 again back in 1978.