We have been married to each other for 49 years. When we started dating, I was younger than the drinking age. I had had many opportunities with my parents and grandparents to try beer and wine and smell martinis. I could never see the mystical attraction of alcohol. It did not taste or smell that good. Among my scholarly all-male high school classmates, there was no talk of the joys of drink. I was very interested in girls but I never connected the joys of their company to booze.
Over the years I have found that there are at least two paths to drinking among the young I’ve met. One is sex: if I drink enough and she drinks enough, we will lose our fears and inhibitions at last. The other is exuberance: if I am happy, I can know that by drinking. If I am drinking, I must be having a really great time. Heeya!
I remember my college friend telling me during a beach party that he had drunk 13 beers. He was a big guy but I doubted that he could hold that much liquid. I suspected from what he said and did that by knowing he had drunk those beers, he knew had a license to flirt and charm, etc.
As a young married couple, we used to split a beer 50-50 as part of snack. We sometimes had a little wine but we knew little about wine and only liked the sweetest wine we could afford. We didn’t know anything about liquor until later. As a young professor, we would go to parties and there was often a pitcher of manhattans and another of martinis. Gin martinis once had the reputation among some as especially powerful and romantic but I knew how they tasted. Manhattans tasted good and I began to make them at home. For about 40 years, a manhattan a day has been our standard.
My doctor says that a drink a day is healthy although critics of the research have noted that the health benefits of the practice are statistically quite small and do not justify drinking just for some medicinal effect.
We have gotten a little bored with manhattans. I found that I liked black russians and gave my mother one when she was visiting us. From then on, she and I had the practice of talking on the phone on Sundays while each sipping one. The Scrubs series got me interested in apple-tinis and we have those as alternatives, too. I like a measured margarita of tequila and cheap triple-sec.
I am the sort of person who falls asleep with too much alcohol. I don’t enjoy being dizzy or sleepy. I also don’t enjoy being fat and I am. So, I am more interested in tiny drinks these days to avoid calories and the stimulation toward nuts and cheese that overpowers me with a drink.
