1973

[November]

I came across this post, I wasnt really sure where to share it.

Because I am from the generation that normalized abnormal drinking.

I think she hits the nail right on the head.

Even though I am over a decade younger, I can see the chidren of the 80's having similar, if not higher, issues with alcohol and related deaths.

1973 - Veronica Valli

 

[brinkster130]

Interesting read.

I do wonder how specific alcohol bans and rules effect people's relationship with it. Like, if there are less rules about when one can partake and it's something that people grow up around will they consume it differently because it's a norm?

A few weeks ago I was listening to a podcast about wine and one of the topics discussed was how much more wine millennial women are consuming than they ever have before. So much more than there have been significant changes is how and what wine makers are producing (the rise in number of bottles that fall into the $10-15 range). Wine professionals credit it to wine become socially cool and it's seen as being more all-inclusive than it has in the past.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

Well I was 18 in 1973 and had been drinking for several years. But I wouldn't say that we normalized abnormal drinking, folk had been drinking nice warm ales for many hundred years by then, even drinking through the nose hadn't become normal then. Though I did Baptise people in pubs, with their beer.

 

[GwenRaiden]

I am the generation that embraced drinking as a national past time.
I am the generation of cheap, cheap booze.
I am the generation that embraced illegal narcotics so much that it launched the UK to the top of the charts in cocaine use.
I am the generation that grew up listening to Sara Cox and Zoe Ball on the radio droning on about how much they drank the night before and what a blinding night they had.
I am the generation that embraced the concept of the ‘ladette’, women who wanted to drink like men, as the truest demonstration of our equality.
I am the generation that believed that was something to aspire to.
I am the generation that discussed their hangovers as if they were medals to be displayed.

Yeah, a lot of that rings true for me around the 17-24 age.

When I was of drinking age, booze was still relatively cheap, a lot of things were actually; fags, drugs, club entry prices, etc. The smoking ban hadn't been put in place yet (it is so weird to think of smoking in pubs and clubs being the norm). Cocaine was mostly used to help you keep drinking. A few lines sobered you up enough to continue conversation and not get sloppy. In my early twenties, when I was working as a waitress in a five star hotel, I was making mega tips and spending about 200 quid a week on cocaine.

There's a massive drinking problem in this country. Scotland is riddled with generational alcoholics. I mean, every single person I know, they have at least one full blown alcoholic in their family. And many families with an alkay for each generation - the father, the son, the grandson. I mean, that's mental.

I think this recent generation and the whole binge drinking/cheap booze culture is going to cause so many problems in the future. Binge drinking being socially acceptable, and the binge drinkers not experiencing any health problems (yet) due to their age, will probably mean less people accepting that they are dependent on alcohol, and their age will probably deter them from seeking any sort of treatment until they are older too.

If someone asks me me to go to the pub with them nowadays, I pretty much laugh in their face. I can't afford to drink at pubs anymore. The prices are insane. I'll have a drink if I'm out for dinner or whatever, but actual nights out, pub crawls etc, no. I still don't think that's enough to deter binge drinkers though (and like brinkster pointed out, buying booze to drink at home has become noticeably cheaper), they work all week to spend that hard earned cash on a night out. It has to be an attitude change rather than a price change.

 

[The Bronze]

I can't afford to drink at pubs anymore. The prices are insane.

They are sneaking up all the time. I don't like doing it but Whetherspoons is always the choice if we are going out just for a pub trip, the prices are just that much better still. I remember years ago when I started going out on cheap Mondays we used to go bowling and then head onto Whetherspoons. You could have a couple of rounds and get drunk for less than £10.

 

[ILLYRIAN]

My daughter used to love going to the pub with me, when she was four years old, I would babysit for the barmaids two girls who were friends with my little one.
On one occasion she was asked what she was going to do at the week-end. She happily replied I'm going to the pub with my dad!
And she said that in front of her mum's friends.

 

[GwenRaiden]

When I was of drinking age

LOL, I'm clearly not of drinking age anymore. Past it and over the hill. Nothing to do with falling asleep as soon as an alcoholic drink touches my lips.

As much as I try, I just can't seem to get drunk anymore. Not like I used to anyway. Maybe I need to wait until the anti-depressants are completely out of my system. Codeine doesn't help either.

 

[Nix]

LOL, I'm clearly not of drinking age anymore. Past it and over the hill. Nothing to do with falling asleep as soon as an alcoholic drink touches my lips.

As much as I try, I just can't seem to get drunk anymore. Not like I used to anyway. Maybe I need to wait until the anti-depressants are completely out of my system. Codeine doesn't help either.

I hear you totally. I hardly drink anymore but I remember "doing the bar" on a regular basis... (this meant doing a shot of every spirit and liqueur the bar had from left to right). I remember being so paralytic that I slid down the bar itself to the floor and had to be carried to someones car and driven home at 5mph as I thought it was too fast!! Naturally I spent a good few hours bringing everything back up again lol.... long gone are those days (thankfully - although it was fun at the time). I can handle 1 pint of baileys now instead of a litre bottle for starters! Oh well... by that time I'm alseep.

 

[HowiMetdaSlayer]

shakedown 1973...

 

[Last Watcher]

1973 was a little early for me.....but by the late 70's, yeah, my whole social life revolved around the Pub.
I remember the outrage when a pint of bitter went over the 'one Pound' mark... 🙁

Can't do that now though. Go to my local once or twice a month (instead of a day).....still like a beer or two though 😛

 

[November]

Interesting read.

I do wonder how specific alcohol bans and rules effect people's relationship with it. Like, if there are less rules about when one can partake and it's something that people grow up around will they consume it differently because it's a norm?

A few weeks ago I was listening to a podcast about wine and one of the topics discussed was how much more wine millennial women are consuming than they ever have before. So much more than there have been significant changes is how and what wine makers are producing (the rise in number of bottles that fall into the $10-15 range). Wine professionals credit it to wine become socially cool and it's seen as being more all-inclusive than it has in the past.

I have been hearing this lately also. They run advertisements on tv every so often warning parents that teaching kids to fetch beer is encouraging alcoholism. I wonder if children have more respect for alcohol when taught to consume "correctly"? When I was 15, my dad would buy entire bottles of bourbon and tell us to have fun. Neither of my parents are/were big drinkers (sporty types), I think he thought he was being the cool dad.

My daughter used to love going to the pub with me, when she was four years old, I would babysit for the barmaids two girls who were friends with my little one.
On one occasion she was asked what she was going to do at the week-end. She happily replied I'm going to the pub with my dad!
And she said that in front of her mum's friends.

Haha - my mum taught a fitness class when I was very young, I would sit in the pub til she finished. Developed a taste for beer while teething.

@GwenRaiden scots and aussies sound so similar that I start to wonder if "convicts" was actually another word for "scots the poms want deported". I can relate to working all week to blow the money in one night clubbing. Then when that got too expensive, buying a carton of beer, 8ball and going to campfire parties/raves. Sometimes the only socialisation I would get was at these massive alcohol fuelled events. Because in between was work and sleep.

@Nix I remember seeing a few drunk birds on tv, and thinking, I'd never do that! Then getting smashed and doing exactly that, and likely more... Thank goodness CCTV isnt so big here. When I think of my big drinking days I think back to clubbing - when that was affordable. In that setting free drinks were easy and I couldnt count the empties. God knows what was consumed in those "free" drinks and I am so lucky bathroom taps in Aust are safe for drinking out of.

Speaking of affordable, We had an alco pop tax brought in the 2000's. I dont think that deterred any. Wine and mothers go hand in hand in this city. It is largely promoted that mummy needs her wine. A bit like mummy needs her Valium before it was socially accepted for white middle class women to drink in excess. But no one shows the bottles - its all in a glass. Looks more classy. (cos its really from a box)


I am also far too old for drinking to be worth the pain now too - wore out the good hangovers young. Now it takes 3 days minimum to clear the head (and stomach). But I could say the same about christmas