Legal drinking turned 75 last week, but don’t thank our forefathers and foremothers in North Carolina for making it possible. If they’d had their way in 1933, you’d still be slinking into speakeasies for a glass of wine or shot of bourbon.

There was a small flurry of news reports in recent days about the 75th anniversary of the passage of the 21st Amendment, the only constitutional amendment whose sole purpose was to overturn a previous amendment — in this case the 18th, which established Prohibition. Most of those news reports focused on the monumental failure of Prohibition, which not only undermined respect for the law but also made large-scale organized crime possible. (The New York Times’ story from last week, for instance, called the repeal of Prohibition “the end of an error.”) But you had to read the fine print in those articles to learn that in 1933, North Carolina sought to place itself squarely between you and your glass of pinot noir.

As you may know, any constitutional amendment must be ratified by the legislatures of three-quarters of the states before it can take effect, a daunting hurdle that has doomed many other proposed amendments. Remember the Equal Rights Amendment? That one never got the required number of state approvals. Many other proposed amendments, such as the one banning the desecration of the American flag, died on the vine. The last amendment to be approved was in 1992. The one immediately before that passed in 1971. That’s two amendments in the past 37 years. In other words, amending the Constitution is an arduous undertaking.

In November 1933, as the 21st Amendment was gathering approval from other states — but was still short of the mark — North Carolina flatly refused to even consider the measure, with citizens voting down a convention that would have debated the amendment. A month later, on Dec. 4, 1933, South Carolina’s legislature rejected the amendment, becoming the only state to formally do so.

But here’s the weird thing: The very next day the 21st Amendment became law when another state became the 36th to approve it, thus breaking through the three-quarters barrier. (Before you argue with my math, remember that there were only 48 states back then.) The state which returned alcohol to American homes? Utah — where all those non-drinking Mormons live.

Boy, you know you’re a no-fun state when the Mormons look like party animals in contrast.

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