There was a time when Barrington was cartoonishly hypocritical. For many years, it was Rhode Island’s only “dry” town, meaning you could not buy booze here in town.

Of course, that label did not apply to the private clubs in Barrington. You could always get a drink at the country club, and if you knew someone (or even if you didn’t), you could probably get a few at the Democratic Club.

And no, you could not buy a six-pack of beer or a bottle of wine here in town, but you could trip over the town line and hit a liquor store in every direction.

And you could not drive down the road for dinner and a cocktail — there were no restaurants in those days — but you could find the beer and booze flowing in every basement, backyard, empty lot or secluded beach spot. The kids in this town (and often the adults) had no trouble finding alcohol and places to consume it.

Many of us grew up in an era of keg parties every weekend, with carloads of kids circling the town trying to find the best spots to let loose, away from the cops.

The hypocrisy is that Rhode Island’s only “dry” town was anything but. Barrington kids were born and raised into a drinking culture that lasted for decades. Until it came crashing to a halt — literally.

A series of horrific incidents, including a multiple-fatality car crash, a drunken boating death on the Barrington River, and a car slamming into a tree, all involving alcohol, all involving high school kids, finally became too much. Things needed to change, and slowly they did.

Many forces together led to change. A new police chief made it his mission. A series of new laws — keg registration, social host, etc. — ramped up the repercussions. A generation of parents grew tired of watching their kids die. And the onward march of development chewed up most of the empty lots and secluded beach spots, cutting down the places kids could hide.

The Barrington of today is vastly different from its former self. No longer “dry,” it is home to two excellent, responsible liquor stores. There are a dozen fantastic restaurants bringing culture, great food, atmosphere and quality of life to this town. And the large teen drinking parties are, mostly, a thing of the past.

Which is why two items in this week’s paper deserve mention. First, we support the Economic Development Commission’s suggestion that the town remove the requirement that all those serving alcohol in town receive annual training from the town. All the servers in town are already subject to state training requirements. They do not need a superfluous training here in Barrington. We do not believe that any of the liquor license holders in town, places like Tong D or Spaghetti Lane or Bluewater, ever have had, or ever will have, anything to do with the young people in this town consuming, or over-consuming, alcohol.

Secondly, we draw attention to an Op-Ed sent to us this week. Written by a prominent and well-respected Bristol resident, it describes the wild scene when a group of recent Barrington High School graduates rolled into town and parked in front of her house. Acting inebriated and irreverent, throwing up on her front lawn, they careened down to a private “graduation” party aboard a Bristol ferry boat with more than a hundred of their classmates and their parents. She said the party boat looked like a floating Fort Lauderdale spring break scene as it looped around Bristol Harbor and the bay.

So perhaps the effort, energy and resources devoted to over-training the town’s bartenders could instead be directed toward training its parents and older siblings. They are the biggest threat to revive this town’s drinking culture. Parents who look the other way, excuse, or worse, join their kids in partying — paying for spring-break-like trips to countries where the kids can openly drink — undermine the responsible efforts from every other parent.

Let the BAY Team turn its attention from the small businesses who responsibly contribute to the community, and focus instead on those who believe enabling is a gentle form of parenting.