# Is there alcohol at your family gatherings? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 17, 2017, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-alcohol-at-your-family-gatherings/784661 "2017-04-17T19:57:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-alcohol-at-your-family-gatherings/784661/121 "2017-04-21T02:32:23Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > You don’t need alcohol in the glass for that. Yes a glass or food in the hand gives my hands something to hold while talking, or just standing. True, but see these posts… > [@bobot](#): > > (ETA snfaulkner: ) C) putting a good buzz on. > Although my last family get together was dry, they all aren’t. A few St. Patrick’s days ago my brother in law threw a party featuring an in-home breathalyzer. (It was assumed the drunks were in for the night,) He had a table full of prizes, and at periodic times the breathalyzer was put into action- highest reading wins a prize. We ended up breaking the thing, and the last thing I remember was my brother dragging me to my sleeping place by my feet. My sister put the nix on a repeat party the next year. > [@snfaulkner](#): > > RE C): That was the main reason for booze. My lettered list is for additional reasons. So C should really be Pre A. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-alcohol-at-your-family-gatherings/784661/122 "2017-04-21T13:15:44Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > Question - who pays for all this booze? Depends on the situation. In an informal family get-together, some people bring a dish to share, some people bring booze to share (and some people bring both). In a more formal situation say a wedding or funeral, whoever is hosting usually provides the basic alcohol. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-alcohol-at-your-family-gatherings/784661/123 "2017-04-21T13:51:58Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > True, but see these posts… Fair enough. And yes getting a good buzz (or just a slight one) is the main reason. Like you, my wife’s folks enjoy wine, and also beer (Dad) and mixed drinks. My folks almost never drank, the squares. But for example mom-in-law, at our daughter’s college graduation, we’re all sitting on plastic folding chairs, hundreds of spectators (a big Univ. of California school), we’re there early having gotten good seats, and we’re eaiting for the thing to start. Then from her oversized purse, she pulls out snacks, a chilled bottle of white, and plastic glasses – way to go, mom! Gotta love her. > [@Runs\_With\_Scissors](#): > > No. I don’t need a chemical “high” to enhance my life. I actually enjoy being around family, and I don’t need my mind altered. > > HA HA HA HA…Oh, man, I slay me. > > Thank you, I’m here all week! Tip your waitress. Try the pot roast. > > Good night, everyone! > > Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk And how many drinks did you have last night? > [@bobot](#): > > We ended up breaking the thing (breathalyzer), and the last thing I remember was my brother dragging me to my sleeping place by my feet. My sister put the nix on a repeat party the next year. I like your parties! In the days leading up to the party, know that you’re gonna get shitfaced, then at the party, get shitfaced. We drink, we fall down, no problem. But your sister, what’s up with her? But now when I think back on college days in the early 1980s, I was young and strong and fast, in great shape, I shake my head when I think back on how many drinks (usually beers) I could have before driving. With beer, I could calibrate my drinking. I kid you not, it was 12 beers in an evening (usually an hour or two, I’d slam them), and maybe up to 18 and I knew (or thought) I was still good to drive. After 18, I was done. But yeah I would drive with 14-16 beers in me. I’d drive extra cautiously, but not super slow so as to attract undue attention from any cops, and I was always fine. Never got a ticket or cite or warning or arrest. I didn’t do it a lot, maybe 4 or 5 times in my lifetime back then. I planned well and avoided driving, but I have done it. And I was fortunate nothing happened. :shakes head: The shit we’ve done in our younger days. And fortunately still be around to discuss them. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-alcohol-at-your-family-gatherings/784661/124 "2017-04-21T14:56:00Z")
> [@Bullitt](#): > > … We drink, we fall down, no problem. But your sister, what’s up with her? > > … Oh, she’s cool, she let a lot a lot slide that night. It was at her house and it got a little out of control. She just didn’t want the burden of caring for a bunch of adults who were behaving like teenagers. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-alcohol-at-your-family-gatherings/784661/125 "2017-04-21T15:08:52Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > Oh, she’s cool, she let a lot a lot slide that night. It was at her house and it got a little out of control. > She just didn’t want the burden of caring for a bunch of adults who were behaving like teenagers. > 😃 Yeah that’s not much fun, being the DSP – designated sober person. And it was her house, so she definitely has the definitive say as to what goes on. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-alcohol-at-your-family-gatherings/784661/126 "2017-04-21T22:53:51Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > Alcohol at social gatherings is common in North America. At the same time, absence of alcohol at social gatherings isn’t “odd and bizarre.” You’ve changed your goalposts from “family” to “social gatherings.” And you can believe whatever you want to believe about the appropriateness of alcohol, but In My Humble Opinion, a lack of alcohol at a family function would be odd and bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19adc/32.png) [@Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-alcohol-at-your-family-gatherings/784661/127 "2017-04-21T22:55:59Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > Marijuana was legal in the US until 1937 (so, much longer than 50 years) and in most of the rest of the world, but it never became a standard, normal thing to serve at family social gatherings the way alcohol is. I wouldn’t be surprised if a good number of people do enjoy legal pot, but I doubt that even 50 years from now it’s going to become as standard as alcohol. Legal, but I don’t believe it was anywhere near as easy to acquire as alcohol has been. There were never any large companies growing pot and shipping it between countries like we have with alcohol. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-alcohol-at-your-family-gatherings/784661/128 "2017-04-21T23:07:48Z")
Yes but not openly. Is that bad? Me, my dad and my brother all like to drink but we don’t put everything out in the open. We just drink in our rooms, then go socialize. Good times. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2017, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-alcohol-at-your-family-gatherings/784661/129 "2017-04-21T23:11:16Z")
The whole attitude in the US towards alcohol consumption is at odds with other so called western cultures. A drinking age of 21 is bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![drewder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/57b2e6/32.png) [@drewder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewder)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2017, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-alcohol-at-your-family-gatherings/784661/130 "2017-04-22T01:59:03Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > The whole attitude in the US towards alcohol consumption is at odds with other so called western cultures. A drinking age of 21 is bizarre. Yeah, since the human mind doesn’t fully develop the ability to avoid impulsive decisions and planning behavior to reach a goal until age 25, 21 is a bizarrely young age to begin drinking. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2017, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-alcohol-at-your-family-gatherings/784661/131 "2017-04-22T02:21:50Z")
> [@kopek](#): > > Mothers side – drunks and not very good ones at that – so yeah; lots of alcohol. And fights. And arrests. Long before Jeff Foxworthy made jokes about it I knew various cousins and uncles to pop a beer during the eulogy. > > Dads side – very light casual drinkers – most picnics and parties are dry for the most part but all of us being into black powder we usually manage some entertainment we probably shouldn’t through a combination of commercial and home-grown pyrotechnics. > > The first functions I rarely attend; the second I almost never miss. Firearms without alcohol…SAD!! 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2017, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-alcohol-at-your-family-gatherings/784661/132 "2017-04-22T02:44:54Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Heh. My dad, too. I wouldn’t leave him along until he let me have a sip of his Old Style. I don’t have any memories going back to when I was 3, but I’m guessing 4 or 5. Same here, except it was my grandfather. Whenever we were over at his house, he’d let me (and my siblings and cousins) have a little sip of his beer. In full view of our parents, who didn’t object in the least. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2017, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-alcohol-at-your-family-gatherings/784661/133 "2017-04-22T21:32:16Z")
In my family everyone drank my Nanny’s sweet iced tea. If you didn’t drink that you were given the eyeball. I mean, even water was weird. There were no sodas. Milk was maybe okay with dessert. No coffee unless it was breakfast event, and that was a cup of brewed Folgers with milk. Nothing fancy. I never saw booze of any sort until my teens and that was not in my family’s homes. I never thought of it as being a religious thing. I think if someone had brought over a bottle of wine maybe it would be opened but it just never happened. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2017, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-alcohol-at-your-family-gatherings/784661/134 "2017-04-23T00:46:24Z")
> [@drewder](#): > > Yeah, since the human mind doesn’t fully develop the ability to avoid impulsive decisions and planning behavior to reach a goal until age 25, 21 is a bizarrely young age to begin drinking. Yeah, and therefore no one in the US drinks at all before the age of 21. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2017, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-alcohol-at-your-family-gatherings/784661/135 "2017-04-23T00:58:59Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Yeah, and therefore no one in the US drinks at all before the age of 21. :rolleyes: Blame it on [MADD](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mothers_Against_Drunk_Driving). (Previously, drinking age varied from state to state) Yes, it’s retarded. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-alcohol-at-your-family-gatherings/784661.md?page=6)