FOOTNOTE: Everyone was on something
AMERICA LOVED BOOZE
When World War 2 ended there was no awareness of post stress disorder. Soldiers who secretly sought psychiatric advice (so as not to jeopardize getting a job) discovered science had nothing for them. A pat on the back, the words "put it behind you", and a fee.
Booze became the crutch, the self medication for the nation. The IRS allowed businessmen to take two martini's off each lunch. Martini's weren't fruit cocktails as they are today, that was a full glass of gin or vodka with a whisper of vermouth. Two. For lunch!
Alcohol became the fuel of the nation. Our economy soared, people kept well stocked bars in their homes. A pitcher of martinis for when dad got home for work? Hey, teach the kids to do it!
As society separated between the straights and freaks, straights got bombed on booze. Being drunk was fun. Comedians, singers, TV shows incorporated drunks into the entertainment field. In Chicago a ten or 20 dollar bill behind your driver's license could keep you from being arrested on a DUI. $10.
Because everyone drank.
When an Andy Griffith reunion show appeared, Otis the town drunk had to be shown as sober. This was not the case in the original show!
STOP AND DRINK was a cop bar I went to when I first came to Chicago. Off Chicago Avenue (it is now a yuppie bar) I walked in just in time to see a drunk cop fire his gun into the ceiling, egged on by his also drunk pals. It was 2 in the afternoon. They were all working.
But at least they weren't smoking pot!
Foster Brooks lived long enough to see his appearances dry up when making drunk jokes became politically incorrect.
Whenever we heard that the YAF group (the conservative version of SDS) or Young Republicans were meeting we would wait until the party had been going on at least two hours and show up. They had loads of free booze, and the first time I did this I walked into the lobby of a hotel to see a guy projectile vomit into a planter. There were already people passed out on furniture in the lobby. We were never quizzed doing this, because even these groups security were wasted.
So we hippies weren't the only ones getting high. The whole country was using booze.
Frankie Fontaine was a huge hit playing a drunk on The Jackie Gleason Show
When work was over, bars filled up every night of the week as people drank their way through rush hour. To go home and have a drink, and then watch people pretending to be drunk. Our greatest period of economic growth, of the creation of the suburbs and two car garages, was squeezed out of a bar rag.
Dean Martin made drinking in public and onstage cool- though often it was a gag and there was often no booze in the glass.
Hippies had booze too. God awful wines like Boone's Farm, purchased because they were so cheap.
I had some friends who were jocks who had heard I was starting to go hang out with hippies and they decided to try and rescue me, with a 1960's version of an intervention.
They invited me over when they were trying to make New York (aka Long Island) Iced Teas, made out of about 5 to 7 kinds of booze, but they had no recipe for and were playing hit and miss.
As one told me how stupid pot was he threw up on himself, staring at the string of spittle from his lips to his shirt. One of his pals chimed in that pot was stupid. That was pretty much the argument they all had, as they searched for the real Iced Tea.
None of those gathered could even walk.
I quietly left and headed home, looking forward to a joint.
