AN OLD INDIVIDUAL LIQUOR PERMIT FROM THE 1930s

In the 30's you needed a permit to buy booze!

Way back in the 1930s you could not go out to the corner store and buy a bottle of something [insert poison of choice], no, no, it was very regulated. There was no push by the province's Premier to make beer cheap (FORD and his buck a beer!). No it was a different time when alcohol was the devils juice. Prohibition was on in the States and up here in Canada we were almost as strict. There were many 'dry' places out there.
What I found out was that during this era you had to have a permit to buy liquor. Apparently, it was $2 to buy it and you had to show it everytime you bought booze. You took it with you to the liquor store and they would sign, date, and write what you bought. It sounds like you even had to have it when you bought a beer at a hotel bar. It was a method of tracking drinking habits, and allowed store employees or even police to see how much a person has been drinking and put a stop to it!

I ran across an old liquor permit by chance. I bought a book from a yard sale - A James Bond book, DR. NO (the inspiration for Austin Powers' Dr. Evil) - and this permit was in the book being used as a book mark. 

 The cover feels like a passport - like hard fabric. It was made to last, and it has.

The first page has some interesting personal information. Apparently, the permit was owned by a local resident, Michael McCormick, who was a chauffeur with the City Coach Company.

He did not buy a lot of liquor.
But, very interesting to see how things have changed. The perception of alcohol and the methods used to help alcoholics are vastly different.