I hear and read so much these days about young people (in particular)binge drinking and can't help wondering why? What for? I am sure older people do it as well but it seems to be the young ones we hear most about.
In my teen years in particular I don't think any of my female friends actually were drinkers of alcohol. Maybe if we were heading down to the Embassy Ballroom to attend a ball we would pop into the Palace Hotel for a Pims or similar and that would be it. I can't even remember us drinking alcohol at the ball and our tables usually had large jugs of lemonade squash for all and sundry.
We used to dance a lot....usually twice a week at different tennis clubs and as mentioned above the occasional ball when we dressed up in long dresses with quite often a flower in our hair or on our gown. We also played tennis, walked a lot, went yachting and simply were so busy being busy I feel alcohol wasn't required to keep us happy and contented. We had far less money than most young people today; if they could afford to do so some of the young fellows would perhaps have a beer or two at the local on a Friday night. Remember also that the drinking age back then was 21 although those that looked older than they really were would still sneak in. I think the publicans were more inclined to ask for proof of age and there were no photos on driving licences so am not sure how people would prove how old they were. I think you even had to be 21 to be in an hotel in those days. I remember a friend being asked her age and she was only drinking lemon squash. I was actually under age on that occasion (also drinking lemon squash) but I wasn't asked my age as I always did look older than I was. Can't remember how Mary proved she was 21 .. did we vouch for her and he believe us. (she really was 21 and I was 18).
Very few young people owned cars back then so if we went out on special occasions the boyfriends would borrow their father's cars and then wouldn't dare to drink and drive for fear of what would happen if something went wrong and dad found out.
I am not saying we were goody-goodies...we weren't ... but our lives were so full of wonderful things to do that we didn't need the stimulation of alcohol.
One confession I must make though......a lot of us smoked but remember we had never been told it was bad for us. I don't think many of my girlfriends smoked but I think nearly all the fellows I knew certainly did. I asked my dad when I was 17 if he minded if I smoked and he said "It's your money" and that was that. Back in the 1960s my husband used to get bad bronchitis and was quite a heavy smoker. I had the opportunity to stop smoking when I developed a rare migraine headache so I decided to stop in the hope he would stop as well. It worked and he hasn't smoked since 1970. I relapsed for a year or two but I haven't smoked now for over 30 years. No problem giving up....you just STOP!!! It's not all that easy but you just need to do so and you will succeed.
Not sure any of the above makes sense but I still find it difficult to understand why all this binge drinking is happening. Can somebody out there please explain it to me? I am really interested to know what makes them do it.
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