American prohibition , which lasted from 1920 to 1933 and ban the sales agreement of alcohol for non - medicative or spiritual purposes , is in the main viewed as a go experiment . It damaged the American economy , motivate new kinds of crime ( most splendidly alcohol smuggling and illegal brewing ) , and did little to hold alcohol consumption . Many of these damaging consequence seem pretty obvious in retrospect , but inhibition also move more far-flung ethnical change , regard the ways Americans ate , drank , and socialized . Here are a few surprising unintended side effects of prohibition .
1. THE KIDS' MENU
Before prohibition era , child seldom ate at eating house . Butaccording toSlate , when prohibition begin , restaurants began to see kids as an untapped market . Here were minuscule customers who would n’t be disappoint at the absence of alcohol , and whose parent could rejoice in the array of “ doc - approved ” respectable menu items restaurant began extend ( inhibition coincided with a fresh child ’s health movement that warned parents against fertilize their children to a fault productive or sweet-smelling foods ) . The Waldorf Astoria in New York was the first restaurant to propose a carte du jour just for children ; other restaurants quick followed suit .
2. NASCAR
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Today , NASCAR is all about cheap logo - emblazoned cars speeding around a path before a vast consultation of cheering fan . But the original stock car racers were n’t try out to call attention to themselves — they were moonshiners delivering illegal intoxicant across state lines while evading Union tax agents hot on their trail . According to anarticle inCIO , they ’d soup up their cars so as to outrun the police ; the faster the car , the greater the chance of escapism . But it did n’t take long for the bootlegger to spring up a taste for speeding in its own right . Before prohibition even cease , they ’d started take informal race for bragging rights . By the forties , the race had become an organized sport and , in 1947 , NASCAR was found .
3. CRUISES (ESPECIALLY “BOOZE CRUISES”)
sumptuosity gravy holder travelling certainly be before the ' twenty , but the modern day " cruise to nowhere " was expect during prohibition . According toCBS , wealthy Americans who wanted to drink in public and copiously would simply adjust canvass . Rather than traveling to a specific fix , the dot was the head trip itself . Hence , the term " booze sail . "
4. THE COFFEE TABLE
coffee berry table are so ubiquitous they ’ve inspire their own genre of ornamental , oversized literature . But before prohibition , coffee tables — and the social usance of chocolate in the home — wereuncommon . It was only when alcohol became illegal that the tabular array once known as " cocktail table " were rebranded for coffee berry . By the time the Volstead Act was repealed , both the name , and the practice of serve coffee tree to guests , were firmly define .
5. TIPPING AT RESTAURANTS
Prohibition hit the eatery diligence hard . so as to make up for lose receipts , they began cutting wage . According toJezebel , before prohibition , wait stave made a living wage and had no pauperism for pourboire from client . During prohibition , however , waiter began accepting tips to help make ends meet . Though several states outlawed the recitation , all Bachelor of Arts in Nursing on tipping were repealed in 1926 , four years before prohibition cease .
6. CO-ED DRINKING
Before prohibition , it was uncommon for humanity and women to drink together in public . Though women certainly consumed alcohol , bars were for the most part the demesne of men . Prohibition switch all that . The proprietors of speakeasy , already operating alfresco of law and shun tradition , eagerly welcomed both men and women . According toNew York Magazine , the “ pulverization elbow room ” was one of the offshoots of this phenomenon . Along with atomic number 27 - ed drinking came the first gender - specific public toilet in stripe .
7. BRAND NAME LIQUOR
now , people order stain name liquor at bars because they have a favourite flavor or want to show off their sophisticated taste . But during prohibition , brand name liquor could make unnecessary your life . Many speakeasies provided a choice between cheap Moon and more expensive brand names . Moonshine , which was homemade and unregulated , could be potentially toxicant if made wrong . So concerned imbibers would work to the label to secure their own safety . According to Daniel Okrent , author ofLast Call : The hike and Fall of proscription , liquor manufacturer in other body politic began shipping their Cartesian product to the United States for sale in speakeasies . For example , Berry Brothers , who add liquor to the British royal family , created Cutty Sark in 1923 specifically for export to America during prohibition .
