Is abstaining from alcohol also not a solution?

Finally Friday afternoon, home, shower, eat, and then off to the village pub with my buddies. There we'd chat, play cards until the dice were smoking or the meager 245 DM from my first-year apprentice wages were blown. 245 DM might sound like a lot at first: my parents took 80 DM, put 80 DM aside for clothes and such, leaving about 80 DM for leisure. Spread over four weekends a month, and with a Kölsch costing 1 DM at Clemens'... well, I wasn't the one in our group who had the bright idea of ​​putting sugar in my beer to make it more potent...

Incidentally, Marion, the landlady and Clemens' wife, wasn't the one who encouraged us to drink. No, she just kept saying, whenever our glasses were empty again and we were calculating whether we could afford another beer: "This isn't a waiting room."

Well, none of us had a strict "old-school" upbringing, but we'd left it behind and always felt compelled to do what parents, teachers, adults, and especially landlords told us. So we'd pool our money or simply make a tab, which we'd pay off the next first of the month with a beer at Clemens's.

That's how the month started more than once already in the red.

So, week after week, the frustration we thought we'd built up through work was washed away once a week.

With our wages, our thirst grew, and the events where we could "celebrate" became more frequent. Yes, we lived from event to event.

Later, family came into the picture: wife and children. Eventually, Fridays were a thing of the past. I was never the type to get drunk alone and then take out my hangover on my family. Of course, I still went out with my wife, though not quite as often anymore. There were also plenty of other occasions where drinking was perfectly natural and happened without a second thought.

Later, pub visits became significantly less frequent. Initially, this was due to the general decline of pub culture as we knew it, but ultimately, it was due to the pandemic.

Looking back, it's still shocking how many events there were where people drank, perhaps not as much as before: Carnival, of course, family celebrations, and parties with acquaintances and friends, even more so. Naturally, a good wine goes perfectly with a good dinner, or perhaps two?

When eating out, a nightcap is obligatory: ouzo at a Greek restaurant, raki at a Turkish one, slivovitz at a Yugoslavian restaurant, and plum wine at a Chinese restaurant.

So, more or less unnoticed, a lot of alcohol consumption quickly becomes part of daily life, almost routine. After all, it doesn't hurt the next day. And anyway, everyone does it. Some more, some less.

A few years ago, after some heavy drinking during Carnival, Kerstin and I decided to actually use the Lenten season, from Ash Wednesday to Easter, to abstain from alcohol altogether. It was quite unusual, especially since a few celebrations still fell during this time. Overall, however, we noticed that this abstinence was actually quite good for us, and our minds were much clearer the next morning. So we decided to continue our abstinence indefinitely.

It's still a very exciting time. Most people, especially at lively parties, initially react with incomprehension: What? You don't drink alcohol? Why is that?

It seems that in our society, getting completely wasted at a party is the most natural thing in the world.

Thank goodness we have a nature that allows us to be cheerful and silly even when we're sober. For example, Kerstin was once approached by the DJ at a party and told that I must be totally drunk because I was dancing so wildly. Quite the opposite was true.

Some people just can't handle it. A good friend of ours told us a few years ago that nothing was happening with us anymore. But we knew that he had only used our drinking sessions back then to hide his alcoholism and his excessive drinking from his wife and the other guests.

We've had plenty of fun at parties without alcohol, up to a point. When we can no longer understand the mumbled speech of the heavily intoxicated guests, that's usually when we say our goodbyes. It's probably like two Bavarians trying to understand each other.

These days, we enjoy a glass of wine on truly special occasions, without intending to get drunk. But we do so with pleasure. As is so often the case, the old adage rings true:

Everything in moderation, not in excess.

Cheers!