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“No Booze For You!”
My Teetotalling Ways and No, I’m Not an Alcoholic
Ahhh…a martini. I used to simply love a chilled green apple martini. Simple in its elegance. Charming in its tart-sweet refreshing tang. I can practically taste it now.
Except I can’t.
Sigh.
A few years ago, I started taking a medication for migraine that conflicts with alcohol and whaddayaknow — no more for me.
I used to enjoy a smooth Merlot with a nice steak or a chilled Chablis on a warm summer evening. But, alas, I have joined the ranks of folks known as teetotalers.
The word, Teetotaler, came from Preston, England where the Preston Temperance Society was founded in 1833 by Joseph Livesey. There’s even a pledge for those who adhere to this practice willingly: “We agree to abstain from all liquors of an intoxicating quality whether ale, porter, wine or ardent spirits, except as medicine.” Cute, isn’t it?
I had heard of teetotalism when I was younger thanks to being in a family where my dad worked for Pennsylvania’s Liquor Control Board and my mom was a fairly well educated lady herself, and they told me about Lemonade Lucy, or Lucy Ware Webb Hayes, first-lady wife of Rutherford B. Hayes, who did not serve liquor in the White House, but offered lemonade instead. (I’m sure she served some other beverages…
