I'll make a few comments without attempting to weave a coherent monologue:
1. The drinking ages in the US were lowered in response to the Vietnam Wars -
the rationale was, "old enough to fight and die, old enough to drink."
2. Where I grew up, the state allowed "home rule" - i.e., each CITY made their
own drinking rules. Therefore, a college town might be 18 for beer and wine,
and the surrounding quiet suburbs might be 21. There is still a legacy of this
in Illinois and it is absolute hell as a bartender - the drinking age is now
universally 21, but if you walk across the street all the other silly rules
might change. (The toughest ones now are in court - it is rough when you
require servers to be 21 when all the cities around you only need to be
17-18.) Moreover, where I grew up it was 19 for beer and wine, 21 for the hard
stuff; but, across the border in Wisconsin, it was 18 for everything.
Therefore, as an older high school senior, I could legally drink in Wisconsin.
As a result, there were dozens of bars on the border with carry-out liquor
licenses. (all shut down or restricted in the 1980s. There was even a time
where they wouldn't serve anyone out of state because of an agreement with
MADD) I remember going to a place with quarter beers and sneaking a few of my
16 year old buddies in. We thought we were completely cool - the place was
hot, full of girls, and you could get a nice buzz and some pretzels for less
than $5. Then we found out the girls we were putting the moves on were 14.
3. Beer and bad wine was easy to get in my high school. The drivers ID in the
1970s had no picture; many fakes were floating around. For one, I would take
orders Friday nights for liquor, drive over the border, and deliver the beer
Monday morning in the parking lot. If you wanted something for the immediate
weekend, you either had to pay a premium or drink whatever I had leftover in
my trunk. Had to admit, it was odd shopping for booze in Wisconsin with a high
school letter jacket on.
4. Because there was always alcohol around, drugs never caught on with most of
my crowd. Most of the parents were pleased by this, believing that a few beers
on the weekends were better than the evils of pot. When I visited my old
friends in Missouri, where beer was rare - pot was very easy to find. Vices
will always be around.
5. I did a lot of stupid things in high school involving liquor. If I did the
same things today, I would be in jail for DUI, transporting liquor, underaged
drinking, and many things involving young women. Even then, transporting
minors across state lines and getting them drunk could be a problem. I drove
trashed, urinated in public, drank during high school lunch hours, and slept
through classes. I was really not "mature" enough to handle this stuff.
In the end, 25 years later, I am still torn by the issue. By the time I
reached college, I already had 3-4 years of drinking experience and as a
result, had far fewer problems with booze than a lot of other people did. But
the most important issue to remember is -- ALL the laws are different. To the
younger fellow who posted this, it is hard to keep this in context. When I
grew up and the cops pulled you over for drinking IN THE CAR, they just
laughed at you, took the beer away and followed you home. Today, depending on
the state, you would go to jail. 25 years ago, you ONLY got a DUI if you
angered the cops.
The only way it would even be possible to lower the drinking age would be when
all the laws were changed, and that is impossible today - even if all the
people from 18-21 got around to voting for it.