At The Liquor Store

St. Mary's Liquors, U.S. 17, Nassau County [FL]

This abandoned liquor store sits on U.S. 17, adjacent to the equally abandoned Riverside Motel, in Nassau County, Florida. With the Georgia state line less than a mile down the road, we can safely assume that this was a hopping place on Sundays - to this date, alcohol sales are generally prohibited in Georgia on Sundays, with some exceptions made at the discretion of local governments. Cities and counties of sufficiently large populations may authorize Sunday alcohol sales by the drink at festivals, large events, and licensed establishments in which most revenue is generated through sales of prepared food.

Georgia is one of only three states that prohibit stores to sell alcohol on Sunday (Connecticut and Indiana are the other two). Legislators have been pushing for several years to have the ban lifted, to no avail. The Sunday sales measure will be reintroduced in early 2009 and is expected to again be vigorously debated.

When I moved to Georgia 20 years ago, the concept of not being able to purchase a bottle of wine on a Sunday was quite new to me. When out in a bar or club on a Saturday night, I found the custom of "last call" at 11:45 pm strange and somewhat amusing. Another law that took some getting used to was the "open container law". Interestingly, Georgia is one of seven states that have no state law against general public possession and/or consumption of an open container by a person of legal drinking age, however, nearly all local jurisdictions in Georgia do prohibit public open containers, and Athens, GA is one of them. In another ironic twist, the open container law does not apply on the University of Georgia's football game days, when the town turns into one big tailgating party where plenty of booze flows in plain view.