A guy I know was on a weekend outing with old time school chums a month or so back. There were around twenty of them, five of them female. He says for much of the time, until early afternoon, they had a wonderful time at a place on the outskirts of the city dining and wining and talking about the old times which are loaded with sweet and sour memories. As the afternoon progressed they decided to return to the city and go to a fairly large bar and restaurant. Some three or four of them decide to call it a day and leave for him.
It was at this time my friend witnessed the other selves of his old chums. They keep on drinking with behaviors slowly changing from good to not so good. Words which could come out only from undisciplined folk start infecting their measured and disciplined language. Suddenly most of them looked complete strangers to this friend of mine. The way they were gulping bottle after bottle, glass after glass looked like they’ll never be drinking again. And also being a father of two and a committed family guy the words and terms he was hearing disturbs him to the point of searching for excuses to make an early exit.
Then one female says they should make cocktail, the name of which my friend couldn’t catch and most agree. So they mix five or six of alcoholic spirits and downed them fast all the time boisterously laughing, giggling, shouting at the top of their voices and saying all sorts of the most despicable things. My friend and a couple of them chose to stick to their draught beer. It was suddenly Armageddon! No one especially the other beer guys didn’t see it coming. Chaos was in the making as most members of the group left their chairs and there were all sorts of pushing, jostling and a few punches thrown. Even the females were part of the brawl. The staff of the bar come in numbers and after much quite difficult efforts managed to stop all the chaos. Then the bar owner comes and tells the group that they will be served no more. He in fact asks them to “…please, leave!” My friend didn’t need to hear a second reminder as he sprang and made it out of the bar. It was days later he heard that some of his chums had cuts and bruises.
Now the question he raised was “Is our drinking problem so severe?” His chums are all in their latter middle age and also most were heads of families. How can they go so low? Especially about that special cocktail drink, he heard that it was common. Why so popular? Well the talk is that the mix works on ones nerves faster and make you drunk in no time. Wait a minute here; do people really drink with getting drunk as the main goal. “Yes!” That was what my friend said. Not only the adults, he says, more and more underage kids are drinking sometimes openly and getting drunk seems to have become some sort of ‘fashion.’ Scary! My friend asks if mixing drinks really gets someone drunk faster. “Hey, are you asking me?” he smiles. It could have been anywhere between a year and a year and half since I had my last beer! Now I’m not sure if that’s something to ‘boast’ about.
Talking of being drunk how about this piece of joke!
A guy was in a bar drinking beer.
He would finish his beer, pull out his wallet, and look at a picture of his wife. He did this several times. Finally the bartender asks; “Why after you finish a beer you take your wallet and look at the picture of your wife?”
The guy says, “As soon as she starts looking good to me I go home.” Ha! At least he doesn’t forget he has a home and a spouse to go to. Believe me, though only for a few hours, there are many who do forget they have a place and a family to go to.
Just for the sake of not being left behind I browse the net to get an idea or two about the logic and effect of mixing drinks and here is what I came across.
“No matter how much we might convince ourselves that mixing different type of booth makes us drunker or more hangover it simply isn’t the case. The existing evidence suggests hangovers can’t be blamed on mixing drinks. Most experts say what makes you drunk is the amount of alcohol you consume, not the order or form in which you consume it.” How about that!
It astounds me to hear that there are people who drink just to get drunk! I thought drunk came without one’s consent maybe as nature’s yellow card warning saying, “If you go past this round you’ll end up drunk!” people are so determined that they create cocktails like the one raised earlier not because of taste or anything like that but just for the simple reason of getting drunk! There were times when you felt sorry and gave yourself a dressing down for being drunk. After all, people watch and any talk like, “So and so was dead drunk last night,” seldom win you any medals. Now things seem to have changed and it seems getting drunk has become a matter of choice.
“Hey, how about us going on the town Saturday night and getting drunk!”
“Of course! You wouldn’t believe how I crave to get myself drunk! It’s almost a month since I last was drunk; and that’s a hell lot of time.”
So the next time a drunk slams into you in the middle of the road the slamming might be some coincidence but his drunkenness might be a goal achieved. He’d be calling a few friends and breaking the news, “Would you believe it! I got myself drunk as I’ve never experienced before.”
“You don’t say! I hope you’ll tell me how you managed to do it.”
“I’ve a better idea. We’ll make it on the spot training and you’re paying.”
“Agreed!”
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD SUNDAY EDITION 25 FEBRUARY 2024