The perils of budget beer.

While the drinking age was 19 in North Carolina, beer was still legally off limits to freshman. Did this stop us? It did not. We were traipsing through the aisles of Big Bertha (the walk-in cooler at Fowler's Supermarket, Franklin Street's only grocery store) alongside sophomores, juniors and seniors. And what did we reach for more often than not? Goebel, a product of the Stroh's Brewing Co. since 1964, and mockingly pronounced "jo-BELL," as if it were a fine French lager. At roughly $3 a six-pack, it suited even the emptiest of wallets. Problem was, it didn't sit well in the G.I. tract. I don't think they used Artesian water.