Elizabeth Platt ([email protected])
Thu, 17 Dec 1998 17:10:15 -0800 (PST)
On Fri, 04 Dec 1998, "Sharon Winsatt" <[email protected]> wrote:
> Since someone has brought up the topic of the way things are in Ireland
> there is something I would like to ask those of you 'in the know'...I
> read in the book 'Angela's ashes' by Frank McCourt (who grew up in dire
> poverty in Limerick..he was an American btw..but you have to read the
> book to learn how that happened) anyway he said that when a boy reached
> a certain age his father or some other man in the family would take a
> boy to the locale pub for his 'first pint'...I realize this story took
> place a long time ago and customs change but is this true???
Well, better a pub than a whorehouse... =:|
> Was it a
> locale custom or something they used to do?? Don't flame me for being
> merely curious and I would think people who know me would tell you I'm
> commenting on the rightness of wrongness of it...and it may have just
> been a family thing for all I know.
Certainly, the McCourt fella was a major lush, so I wouldn't be surprised
if he would drag his sons down to the pub as soon as he could! And yes,
drinking in the local is very much a part of Irish social life, but the
same could be said of people in England, Scotland, or even in place like
France and Italy! Europeans in general tend to be a lot less puritanical
about alcohol than Americans, and drinking and socializing over a pint or
glass of wine, etc., is very much seen as one of the perks of adult life.
Kind of the way American kids look foward to getting their driver's
license...
Of course, a lot of American kids regard drinking as some rite-of-passage
thing, too--except in my high school, it always seemed to focus on
guzzling Boone's Farm wine or cheap beer until you puked in the back seat
of the car. Drinking for the sake of drinking seemed to be the norm. On
the other hand, my own upbringing was more "European" than that of my
peers, in that consumption of alcohol wasn't forbidden, though that could
well be why I never had any craving for the "forbidden fruit". We would
be offered "sips" of wine or beer as kids, and, once we were in our teens,
we knew it would be OK to have a (small) glass of wine with dinner, so
long as we asked. I never cared for it, though sometimes I wonder: If my
mother drank a better grade of wine, would my palette not have rejected
it? ;-) Curiously enough, I'm pretty much a teetotaler--perhaps in large
part because alcohol was de-mystified for me, along with the fact that my
parents were model "responsible drinkers".
But I digress--you can see plenty of "problem drinking" in a city like
Dublin, but this is also the case in any major urban area, in any country,
these days (sorry to say). And I'm sure that there are a good
number of fathers (and mothers!) who'll take their kid to the local
when they're old enough. Drinking outside of the home seems to be a more
"social" affair than it is in the States, and pubs in Ireland are more
family-oriented (!) than bars in the US. Even in some of the Irish bars
here in San Francisco, in the afternoon, you can find the place full of
women and kids, taking a break from shopping! The moms will be having a
pint and some pub grub, or talking with their friends, the kids will be
drinking soda and eating chips, etc. You couldn't even *think* about
doing that in the non-Irish bars just a few blocks away--any woman who
dared to peek into such a place would be harassed or assaulted by the
serial drunks who patronize those sort of places....And you'd have to have
your head examined if you tried to bring any child through the doors...
> As far as intervening on Bono's behalf...I would rather we try and get
> him to stop smoking because I very selfishly want to perserve that
> beautiful voice for as long as possible...and I do care about him...of
> course :)
Aside from the effect it can have on a person's voice--hello, Marianne
Faithful!--smoking also stains teeth and prematurely wrinkles skin. Then
there's that cancer business--very attractive, huh?. Bono should also
catch himself on about his drinking, though, even if he _can_ afford the
cost of a liver transplant... :\
Slan,
Elizabeth Platt
[email protected]
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