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Alcohol Had a Seat at the Table
Long before I came along
The cocktail hour
Exclude the blue lighting, and the picture above was a nightly feature of my childhood.
When 5:30 pm hit, my parents started on their first gin and tonic. I have no idea how many they drank in an evening or even how strong they were. This alcoholic drink is clear and the lime and tonic can almost mask the odor of gin.
They switched to vodka and tonics when coworkers became concerned about their drinking. I’ve heard vodka isn’t as noticeable on the day after. It’s a lie. Alcohol seeps through a drinker’s pores like a fragrant but toxic bloom.
A child’s view of the morning after
On weekend mornings, I remember walking around the sitting room, going from glass to glass and smelling the contents. I learned the difference between, gin, vodka, bourbon, and whiskey. Sometimes, I’d eat an orange or maraschino cherry left in a glass. From the full ashtrays, I noticed how the lipstick got lighter and lighter on the Newport cigarettes that someone smoked.
My parents and their friends drank a lot on the weekends. In the early years, they tried to hide the excess by making sure the children stayed in our bedrooms by 7:00 pm.
