The Gimp Generation

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Several times I’ve had conversations with men and women of my parent’s generation (older than 50), and like my parents, they tell drinking stories that shame me. My father’s a social worker, my mother’s a nurse. The gentlemen with whom I was speaking last night is a VP of Finance. Everyone is solidly middle class pencil pushers, and exactly the kind you’d think didn’t do much. But they all tell stories about emptying a keg while on a cross-country drive or throwing up on their bosses at the Christmas party. My father even used to keep speed on hand to hit his friends with when they started to pass out. Every one tells a story about being pulled over by the police while seeing triple, and told to find a parking lot or motel and sleep it off.

I was in the army for three years, and I can’t top their stories.

Are we the gimpy generation?

2

No. We are sane. And , perhaps, not as self-destructive.[Don’t beleive the doom & gloom from the media! They only report the bad news.]

We have met the enemy, and He is Us.–Walt Kelly

3

I think the DWI and DUI laws have changed the recklessness of drinking in that respect.

If you have ever watched the Thin Man series, a popular detective movie in the 30’s with William Powell and Myra Loy, in nearly every scene they are drinking or having a cocktail. It was the height of the depression and people needed escapism. Now, we hopefully realize the consequences of our actions.

I know my mom has never puked on the boss or had stories like that and neither did my grandparents.I come from a long line of respectable stick up the ass people. I might be boring after the bottles start to empty, but I’ll drive you home in one peice. (Actually, I love to be around drunks, I can get most of them to laugh so hard that Jack Daniels comes out their noses. I’m cruel.)

I had my party phase and compared to most, it was more like a party minute. Getting drunk is fun, although I’ve never had a hang over, eventually the novelty wears off and you realize just how much money you flushed down the toilet for a buzz when you can get drunk at home alot cheaper. And if you get drunk at home, well, that’s pathetic after the first couple of times. Before you know it you will be in a ratty tank top and starring on COPS for pissing on the neighbors cockapoo.

The thing is is I use to enjoy my drinks, like anybody else. A nice glass of wine or two with dinner. Then I married, got a mortgage and moved to the sticks. It wasn’t marriage that made me stop drinking, hubby enjoys a few as well. It was the mortgage and having to drive 30-45 minutes home with a buzz that I will not do. If I get pulled over and arrested for my stupidity, and lose my liscense, I will lose my job. I lose my job, then how do I pay my mortgage? Where will I live if I lose my house? My moms. Dear God, for all the reasons to move back home again, by virtue of my own stupidity, it AINT worth it. If mom doesn’t let me in the door, then it’s the InLAWS. A fate worse than jail. Staying sober is much easier and cheaper too.

One of our neighbors is a big partier. They throw great parties and have some pretty colorful friends. When she was pregnant, she kept on saying, " I can’t wait until I have this kid and can drink again. " I kept my mouth shut ( it was hard) and hubby finally chipped in, " You can drink all you want and get as drunk as you want, but the baby will be the fussiest and crabbiest its ever been, even if its never been crabby a day in its life, the morning you have a hangover. it’s not like the baby is going to say, ‘gee mom and dad tied one on, I’ll just lay here in a poopy diaper until noon with nothing to eat.’
Did they listen?
Nope.
They got drunk at one of their Mom’s houses ( with other siblings, all over 30 in age) and expected their mom to watch the baby while they recovered. The mom just plopped the baby down in the middle of their bed and said, " Uh huh, my baby raising days are over. You had your fun last night, now you go back to parenting." Heh and double heh.

So you see how my mind works on this entire issue.

4

I’m sure I’ve been a ton more socially active than my mom, but I’m not much about getting ripped and sleeping on my face for twelve hours.

My body just doesn’t let me drink a whole lot of alcohol. The last time I drank a bunch was at a bar with my husband a few of his buddies. It just so happened that DST was that night, as well, so the bar stayed open an hour longer. I did a crapload of LemonDrops, had some beer, shot a Snakebite, shot some Cactus Juice… I probably would have been OK if I hadn’t topped it off with a Kahlua/cream. After we left the bar, I conned Byron into taking me to Village Inn for some food and ended up vomiting all over the bathroom the instant we got there. Dozed in the booth while he ate, puked again just outside the door as we were leaving, and again once we got home.

Never again will I drink that much.

At my recent birthday party, (we had a kegger here at our house) I did two or three LemonDrops, but stuck with wine the rest of the night. The great thing about wine is that it makes you sleepy before it makes you drunk.

I have a great time at parties, I just don’t think I have to drink a great deal, if anything, to enjoy myself. If I’m bored with the company, I’ll jet, or I’ll try to liven things up.

Veni, Vidi, Visa … I came, I saw, I bought.

5

Cops are a lot less likely to give you any type of slack nowadays (which is fine with me, I lost a cousin to DWI)
I drank a little in college but nowadays I might have alcohol once a month. It’s simply wat too much of a pain in the a$$ to get drunk then have that alarm going off at 2:45am and going to milk.
As for the gimp generation, frankly I think most of the middle class is working harder nowadays then they did 30 years ago, but not as much as they did 50 years ago.