Lauren is the queen of Throwback Thursday this week, and she has chosen as her theme "Suds, Buds, and Vino"…
Depending on when and where you grew up, the common consumption of beer, marijuana, and wine may or may not have been a part of your teen life. I was in high school in the late 60s and early 70s. Marijuana and beer were a common factor in most high schooler’s lives. For the majority of people I knew, it didn’t become a problem. For a few, it negatively altered their lives.
Everyone knows, the marijuana of the 70s was far less potent than what is available today. Yet today, in many parts of my country, it is legal. Times change how people feel about controlled substances.
Did you grow up in a family that had beer or wine at family meals? Were either beverages part of your parent’s “relaxation” time? Beer, no, wine, sometimes. We would have a cocktail hour where (primarily) Manhattans (2 oz. bourbon, 1 oz. sweet vermouth, dash Angoustura bitters, on the rocks with a Maraschino cherry) were consumed.
Was wine consumed as part of religious or family celebrations? If so, when? We’re Catholics, and believe that bread and wine are transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of Christ during the Mass. We then receive the bread and wine during Communion.
We typically would have wine on special holidays (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter). Cash (Mom’s aunt) was a clerk at a high school, and one of the janitors, Tony, made wine around Thanksgiving, keeping most of it for himself and selling the rest of it. Cash would get a bottle of it, which we would then have with dinner on Thanksgiving. I hear it was rather strong…
Were you allowed to have a “sip” of the adult beverages? I would imagine that we could if we asked, we just never did…
When you were a teenager did it bother you that your parents had one set of behaviors, yet you were expected to have another? No.
When you were in high school, did you or your friends drink alcohol? If you were underaged, how did you acquire the booze? I didn’t, and neither did my friends.
Were you offered marijuana or other drugs while in high school? If you chose to partake, did it get you into trouble, or were you never caught? Only once that I can remember: I smoked some dope with a couple of friends after blowing it on a physics exam (actually, I did all right; I just wasn’t sure after I finished). If my mother could tell, she never said anything.
Did you ever get too drunk or too high to function? How did your body react to that? In high school? No.
Have your opinions about taking drugs and drinking alcohol changed over time? I drank pretty heavily at one time, and quit completely when I learned I had enough blood pressure for two people. I look back at those days and wonder sometimes how I survived. I’ve learned that they’re called "adult beverages" for a reason. Are you more conservative or more liberal than you were in your youth? Much more conservative.
If applicable, did you raise your children with the same beliefs that you grew up with? Not applicable!
If you had any input over alcohol or marijuana laws would you change them? No. There are too many laws, and, as Frank Zappa said, they’re poorly written and randomly enforced.
See you next week with a brand new show!
The Sound of One Hand Typing 
The first question is hard to answer with my scattered childhood in the system.
The second, again, hard to say. But definitely not in the most memorable religious area.
Allowed to have a sip… Oh boy, the word “allowed” here isn’t quite right, as it implies someone knowing or caring, and sip… ha ha ha… sip….
It bothered me that everyone else had a different set of rules and behaviors.
Moonshine, more or less, at certain encampments.
The number of people who assumed I had drugs… I was suspended for selling dandelion that kids believed was pot or peyote. In my defense, they wanted weed, and they were buying weed. 🤣
Drank myself into oblivion, without question.
My opinions have changed. I was more opposed, and now I care significantly less. But it still isn’t something I really do.
Liberal.
Yes, I’d change the laws, because they’re being used for oppression and to reduce the representation of some groups.
“I write to give myself strength. I write to be the characters that I am not. I write to explore all the things I’m afraid of.” —Joss Whedon
J Lenni Dorner (he/him 👨🏽 or 🧑🏽 they/them) ~ Reference& Speculative Fiction Author, OperationAwesome6 Debut Author Interviewer, and Co-host of the #AtoZchallenge
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Pot was all over my high school, but hardly any wine. There was some beer around, but I don’t remember anyone, as in parents, being concerned about it. Just a rite of passage.
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We took communion in our church, too, but it was always grape juice.
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I know a lot of Protestant denominations do that. I knew a priest who was a recovering alcoholic (and there are a lot of them) who used grape juice as well.
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Recovering alcohlic priests is something I never considered.
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Yep, Frank Zappa made a lot of sense. I never was into Marijuana and am not much of a hard liquor drinker. I prefer red wine.
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I liked beer and Jadck Daniel’s, myself. I don’t drink at all now.
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I love your Frank Zappa quote but I would ban Marijuana, I have seen too many lives ruined by drugs 💜💜
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Here we leave it up to the states to decide, and a few have essentially legalized it. I think a couple of states are having second thoughts. I know that it has been shown to have some palliative benefits, particularly with cancer patients, and I would want to keep it available to them, but that was what we had before…
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It’s a thorny question, I think the oil helps cancer patients and people with sever pain and children with epelepsy I would not wish to deprive them…
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I have lots of similar answers. I still drink Manhattans except I prefer brandy to bourbon. They are actually getting harder and harder to come by. Guess it’s an older adult beverage – LOL
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Never heard of a brandy Manhattan. Brown liquor has been on its way out for a while, but it’s still around, thank heaven…
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Thanks for joining in
I agree very much with the “poorly written and randomly enforced” statement.
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The older I get, the more sense what Zappa said makes…
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