One of our neighbor’s sons and his girlfriend are getting married soon. Of course they’re busy preparing for all the festivities and a few days ago, they went to Costco in Washington, D.C. to purchase all the things they needed to stock the “bar” for the reception. They went there because Costco doesn’t sell booze in Maryland or Virginia, and the prices were much cheaper.
That got me to thinking about when I first moved to the Washington area — I lived in Virginia and at the time ( the 1960s) the state had “blue laws.” You couldn’t go to a restaurant and order a drink and any alcohol, or “spirits” had to be purchased at a store owned and operated by the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Authority. These ABC stores were closed on Sundays and election days, operated on fairly restricted hours and were generally not a particularly friendly place to do business.
So because of that, most everyone I knew bought their liquor in the district (Washington, D.C.) If you were having a Christmas party, or any kind of a party for that matter, a trip to D.C. was a must. Most everyone that I knew usually went to Calvert Liquors, located on Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown. It was easy to get to — just go across the Key Bridge and you were practically there, and their selections and prices couldn’t be beat.
I mentioned about going to Calvert’s “back in the day” and, not surprisingly, they had never heard of it. Of course that’s the way life and the world is — it changes.
If Austin and Abby were getting married 50 years ago, they’d have gone to Calvert Liquors.
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