the Chanticleer with its beautiful neon sign on State Street - - - a place that was scary for my parents who could not tell me Were the Cuylers Senior teetotalers, or embarrassed to tell you what went on? In that conservative Upstate NY squeaky clean Dr Spock and Betty Proctor era of the 50s, the forbidden topics of family discussion were health, money and politics (sex and religion went unsaid as undiscussably linked with the first three). I'm sorry, but I fail to see where alcohol consumption by other people fits in with those topics.I got vaguely similar messages from my parents, and still find bars to be very foreign places. You should come to BC. I was there, and found the presence of apparently able-bodied young people begging to be very odd. The lingering concept of British Pubs now carries on in the form of innumerable craftsman breweries with an absolutely amazing variety of fine beers and picturesquely comfortable social settings (of course including large TVs and projection screens to watch hockey) As I told the glaziers whose work I've been inspecting lately, I'd rather watch them caulk than watch hockey. And that goes for all other sports as well. Recently, I finally emerged from the family paranoia about pubs when starting to play chamber music with retired military bandsmen. They even schedule rehearsals early so as to hit the pubs sooner, making for great evenings of refined music and socializing. The music part sounds just fine. Who needs socializing when you can email the pinheads?""The government sought more control over the system and wanted to legitimize social drinking establishments.Why did the govt want to legitimize them? Just like today with the local and illegal Marijuana business, said to now be BC's first or second largest cash industry, some folks saw an opportunity for the government to make money through licencing of what was already going on illegally. THIS makes sense to me.The solution was thought to be a "beer by the glass" plebiscite under which licensed drinking establishments would return.Was there prohibition in Canada, too? You bet, and here on the Pacific Coast the trade with rum-running vessels and secret tunnels from beaches to the oceanside homes of the wealthy provides many a tale to be sold today to guided tourists. I didn't know that anybody other than these great United States was foolish enough to fall for prohibition, and somehow got the impression that our mutual border was an entry point for illegal beverages. But maybe that explains the origin of the Canada Dry name.