I was only 17 when I discovered that life in the "big city" was not all I had envisioned it to be while I was growing up on our farm in Saskatchewan. Granted life was exciting during Monday through Saturday. But come Sunday it seemed that the city literally shut down.It was at this same time that I learned about the "blue laws"!
These were provincial or municipal(read city) laws which prohibited certain activities, particularly entertainment, sports, shopping, or drinking alcohol on Sunday. They were originally enacted across Canada to encourage church attendance and to restrict activity only to that worthy (at least according to some)of observation on the Sabbath. These laws transformed over time from a religious proscription to simply reflecting the values of a given community.
Winnipeg had its fair share of blue laws. Now you can argue that they did do a lot of good for the family person if he or she could not work on Sunday. It made for a family day. But when you are a young adult you feel the restriction of these laws as they limited the range of exciting things to do, exciting for a young person. You could do many outdoor things on Sunday but parks and the zoo soon lost their glamor. In summer you could head to the beach or go cycling or hang out in a friend's yard. In winter you could, if the weather was decent, go skating outdoors. You could swim in the one indoor pool but that only permitted a small amount of people at any one time. You could watch the one channel of television, CBWT, the CBC affiliate, or the French version of CBC, which was CBWFT. So one's options were limited.
On long weekends in the warm months, there were massive lineups at the drive-in theatres on Sunday night for the quadruple features that started at one minute past midnight, or on Monday morning. These would run for about 5 hours and were to us young people a real "hoot" or hit! Occasional an epic film like Ben Hur or The Ten Commandments would be shown at one of the downtown theatres on Sunday at midnight. Drive-ins were popular places for "under-age" adults to be able to imbibe in some illicit drinks - legal drinking age was 21 - as well for some serious necking. As emigres from small towns across Manitoba and Saskatchewan, few of us owned any kind of vehicle and all of us lived mostly in rented one - room bachelor suites in private houses. Groups of noisy teenagers were not made very welcome by the landlords. A fortunate few got decent jobs and were able to share the rent of an two or three bedroom apartment. These could accommodate larger groups of kids but noise restrictions were severely enforced.Thus we had few places to congregate - pre-7/11 stores days!
Some other blue laws in passing:
- a trip to the liquor store: just 40 years ago, buying liquor meant lining up at a counter so a clerk could retrieve the bottles from the back room. Every time you ordered, you had to fill out a form with all sorts of personal information so your purchases could be tracked. Plus they had limited hours and were closed on Sundays and holidays.
- all male beer parlors. Women and aboriginals were not allowed entry.
- want a cocktail at a restaurant? You need to order some food first.
- eventually movies and some sporting events were allowed on Sunday provided they started in the afternoon.
- no businesses were allowed to open on a Sunday and only businesses that were self-owned or essential such as a pharmacy or a gas station could open with the owners providing the labor.e.g. Mom And Pop corner stores.
- only essential workers like police, fire-fighters, hospital employees, and transportation workers were exempt from Sunday laws prohibiting labor.
Again some of these laws did force people to slow down and actually relax on Sunday with family and/or friends. But it sure made for "Dog Day Sunday Afternoons"!
These were provincial or municipal(read city) laws which prohibited certain activities, particularly entertainment, sports, shopping, or drinking alcohol on Sunday. They were originally enacted across Canada to encourage church attendance and to restrict activity only to that worthy (at least according to some)of observation on the Sabbath. These laws transformed over time from a religious proscription to simply reflecting the values of a given community.
Winnipeg had its fair share of blue laws. Now you can argue that they did do a lot of good for the family person if he or she could not work on Sunday. It made for a family day. But when you are a young adult you feel the restriction of these laws as they limited the range of exciting things to do, exciting for a young person. You could do many outdoor things on Sunday but parks and the zoo soon lost their glamor. In summer you could head to the beach or go cycling or hang out in a friend's yard. In winter you could, if the weather was decent, go skating outdoors. You could swim in the one indoor pool but that only permitted a small amount of people at any one time. You could watch the one channel of television, CBWT, the CBC affiliate, or the French version of CBC, which was CBWFT. So one's options were limited.
On long weekends in the warm months, there were massive lineups at the drive-in theatres on Sunday night for the quadruple features that started at one minute past midnight, or on Monday morning. These would run for about 5 hours and were to us young people a real "hoot" or hit! Occasional an epic film like Ben Hur or The Ten Commandments would be shown at one of the downtown theatres on Sunday at midnight. Drive-ins were popular places for "under-age" adults to be able to imbibe in some illicit drinks - legal drinking age was 21 - as well for some serious necking. As emigres from small towns across Manitoba and Saskatchewan, few of us owned any kind of vehicle and all of us lived mostly in rented one - room bachelor suites in private houses. Groups of noisy teenagers were not made very welcome by the landlords. A fortunate few got decent jobs and were able to share the rent of an two or three bedroom apartment. These could accommodate larger groups of kids but noise restrictions were severely enforced.Thus we had few places to congregate - pre-7/11 stores days!
Some other blue laws in passing:
- a trip to the liquor store: just 40 years ago, buying liquor meant lining up at a counter so a clerk could retrieve the bottles from the back room. Every time you ordered, you had to fill out a form with all sorts of personal information so your purchases could be tracked. Plus they had limited hours and were closed on Sundays and holidays.
- all male beer parlors. Women and aboriginals were not allowed entry.
- want a cocktail at a restaurant? You need to order some food first.
- eventually movies and some sporting events were allowed on Sunday provided they started in the afternoon.
- no businesses were allowed to open on a Sunday and only businesses that were self-owned or essential such as a pharmacy or a gas station could open with the owners providing the labor.e.g. Mom And Pop corner stores.
- only essential workers like police, fire-fighters, hospital employees, and transportation workers were exempt from Sunday laws prohibiting labor.
Again some of these laws did force people to slow down and actually relax on Sunday with family and/or friends. But it sure made for "Dog Day Sunday Afternoons"!
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