General Chat

The day I turned 13 I enjoyed a glass of Kir in Paris to celebrate my birthday. From around 14 if my parents opened a bottle of wine in the house I’d be allowed a glass. At 16 my parents regularly allowed me to drink wine and beer in the house. At 17 I started going to night clubs and would drink vodka and coke as all clubs would have it and now I drink either lemon or orange gin with diet lemonade. I also love a whisky either Knockando, Highland Park, Dalwhinnie Winters Gold, Laphroaig or Bunnahabhain.

In my misspent youth I tried Merrydown cider, Jugs of Old Rosie and MD20/20.

Mr Owls great grandparents were signatories to the temperance movement so as a result there was no alcohol in the house. When his granny Rosemary and her sister were getting to an age that they might bring a young man home their father bought a bottle of whisky so he could offer the young men a drink. Rosemary brought John back to meet her parents. Knowing John was used to drinking whisky was offered. After accepting the offer of a drink John was given a whole glass of whisky as Rosemary’s parents had no idea what measure to serve.

Unfortunately I had a misspent youth Joan so was often found drinking under age. I remember the landlord asking whose birthday we were celebrating and I was pointed out. He asked me my age, and then said not to bother telling him as he realised I had been drinking in the pub for some time while under age.

Tawny the tale about the whisky made me smile. My brother in law came home from abroad and had a bottle of Drambuie. I think I expected it to be like Dubonnet and was surprised that he only gave me a small measure. Got a shock when I took a mouthful, not pleasant,

Tawny only the best malt whiskeys for you then I do like Dalwhinnie and Highlands Park but find Laphroig a little too harsh for my throat. A few Christmases ago my OH bought me (he didn't drink whisky) a box of the whole classic collection - I can't think of its name but it includes. Dalwhinnie, Lavulin, Talisker, Glenkinchie, Oban and Cragganmore the box full lasted a long time. :-D

Talking of whisky, we were on holiday once and hubby went off to settle our son and asked me to order him a Glemorangie , he had seen it behind the bar. The waitress went off with the order, a few minutes later the barman came over and said 'sorry madam we don't have lemon meringue' , the girl had obviously misheard me

:-D :-D :-D :-D

:-D :-D :-D :-D@ kentish maid
When i first came here, i was in the local social club and asked for a dry white wine and soda. They mixed a glass of wine and cider..lol They didnt understand my posh southern accent! neither had they heard of a spritzer.

Florence in the hebrides

In my misspent youth, I went through babycham, cherry B, then Whisky Mac's.
I drank Whisky Mac in Shetland.
A funny thing happened there.
As my then boyfriend (now ex) only got one weekend off in four, I would quite often go into pubs in Lerwick alone - I'd moved there from Portsmouth - it wasn't uncommon in Pompey, and gay bars were good fun!
I appeared to be of novel interest to visiting fishermen, from Iceland, Sweden, Norway etc. and quite often a couple would challenge me to drinking competitons.
They would buy my drink, but they would be drinking their local (as in Icelandic, Norwegian equivalent) of vodka, that they'd brought/sneaked into the pub.
I won every time!
Why? The barman, who could see what was going on, gave me extremely weak Whisky Macs. I wasn't paying, and the fishermen weren't buying his beer!
I got a bit of a reputation for being a 'hard' drinker!! :-D :-D

Just like to say, when I bought my own drink, I got the real deal!

Now, I drink red wine at home, and porter, if available when out.
If there's no porter, I drink real ale.

Well done that barman.

Reminds me of when I went in a pub with a friend early one evening. We usually went there with our boyfriends and a huge gang of others to celebrate something nearly every week. Two guys came over and sat at our table and started to talk to us, they asked the landlord to top up our drinks. Thought it strange when he bought his dog with him when he came from behind the bar with the drinks He sat down and joined us and started chatting. The guys finished their drinks and left. Was later told that the pub was frequented by 'ladies of the night' and the guys had thought we were on the game !!!!! The landlord realised what was going on

We didn’t have alcohol in the house all year

Think mum bought a bottle of port or Sherry at Christmas

They married Christmas Day 1929 and every Christmas Eve about half hour before closing time they went to the pub to have a celebration drink

Mum would get tiddly on half a pint of beer and would be all silly when they came home

Only us older kids were still up and I remember the laughing as she sat down too hard on a chair and almost fall over

I didn’t really have alcohol till I met hubby when I was 18 and we went to the pub for a late drink too after being at the pictures on a sat night

I started on gin and orange and then the occasional baby Cham

He was the one who led me astray !

Buttermilk. :-D

My parents didn't have much alcohol in the house. A medicinal bottle of whisky was kept in the sideboard and went down by 3 or 4 teaspoonfuls a year. At Christmas there was a bottle of sherry. I have memories of sips of my grandmother's Guinness or milk stout when I was a child but I was nearly 17 before my father offered me a sherry on Christmas Day.

When I left school and acquired a boyfriend or two my tipple was gin and lime. These days I mostly stick to wine but then you couldn't buy a glass of wine at a pub or club. We only had wine at a celebration meal or a special restaurant dinner and they were few and far between.

Does anyone remember spiders on Sunday afternoons?

That’s ice cream in lemonade which we used to love. Also on Sunday afternoons, Richmond Selection and Chocolate Eclairs …

I went into ‘drinking establishments’ from the age of 16 and I remember that in a certain village pub, I was allowed to choose any drink but the others were not allowed to have alcohol. I must have looked ancient even then,

When I began work at 17 everyone was older than me so I just went along everywhere with them, I remember stumbling out of a taxi when I was 21 and the others (all older, two married) falling out on top of me. The taxi driver never missed a beat. He simply said, ‘it’s not the same set of girls I brought here.’

My, we had some great times. :-D

Shirley, it was my husband who led me astray too, as far as pub drinking went.

Christmas lunch Mum and Dad did agree to having wine once I was married, and my husband always got them a bottle of Mateus Rose, in the lovely shaped bottle. They were very impressed

Joy, I don't remember Richmond selection but there was a selection called Lucky Numbers that we quite liked

I remember that lovely shaped bottle, Kentish.

I used to like Gin & Orange, Gin & Tonic and Vodka & Tonic. Stuck with Vodka & Tonic for years then onto Pimms which is my favourite of all time.

I remember the phases of popular drinks.

Babycham, Snowballs, Bloody Mary, Margarita, Cuba Libre - just some that I can remedmber my Mum and aunts enhoying.

I did like snowballs which I still occasionally make for myself.

There is a huge variety of gins available now. I've tried one or two but if I were young and going out with the girls I worked and went out with, I think we'd have tried many of them! :-D

I remember that shaped bottle too. Lots of people made them into lampshades. Mateus Rose and Blue Nun Liebfraumilch were the in drinks at one time. In fact I think we had Liebfraumilch as a table wine at our wedding breakfast as we thought it would please nearly everyone.

That brings back memories, Blue Nun, wonder if it is still available?

Not had a Pimms in a long time. Someone was saying the other day that you can get it tinned, but I doubt it is as good as 'home made'

Just reminded me.,
When my sister and I went by train to Skye, via Glasgow on the way up, and Edinburgh on the way down, a few years ago, we both took a couple of bottles of wine. Well, you're ot meant to drink your own alcohol on trains, so, on the train we bought one of those single serve glasses of wine, drank that, and refilled it with our own.
The glory of screw top wine bottles :-D

Nice one Maggie :-)

Kentishmaid, Similar thing to me, was drinking in one of the pubs well before 18th birthday, and on 18th birthday someone whished me happy 18th :-D

In my youth I used to love gin and orange til i got so drunk - cant stand smell of gin now.
Pernod (with coke or black)
vodka and lime
snakebites
the odd port and brandy
snowballs with vodka in ... lovely
Harvey wallbangers

and have tried cocktails in later years


Anyone remember Crocodillo, that came out around 1979///1980, similar to babycham

God thats a list
:-D :-D :-D

A friend used to drink Pernod and black, never appealed to me though.

Not heard of Crocodillo

I went into an English pub once with a girl who had just come over from Ireland (no, it isn't the start of a joke) . She asked for a Jameson's and white. Guy behind the bar had no idea what she meant. Seems they have white lemonade and red lemonade in Ireland and the white is used as a mixer