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America and "Drinking"

Just as towards sex, the averge American lives with a disturbed relationship towards alcoholic bevergages.
To him or her they are narcotics rather than part of culture, meant to waken the spirit of life in us.
From Hollywood films we all know the brown paper bags, in which a thus shown as unsteady person hides his bottle. His hand grasps the bottleneck, wrapped around the crumpled paper and leads if to his unshaven face. Et voila! An instant outsider of society.

In the early Sixties, I once bought a carton with six beer cans in the supermarket of a littler southern town.
Shopping for the ingredients of a European supper that I intended to cook for my host family, the idea was to avoid their drinking of Coke with my oeuvre.
At that time the useful "multipack" cartons had just been introduced. Clever engineers had developped a machine, capable of cutting, embossing and plying it all from a peace of cardboard, including a handle for carrying.
The cashier tucked the multipack including its carrying handle into one of those brown paper bags (see above).
A bit less comfortable to carry but: ".... so people can't see what you're carrying home with you", the helpful woman said.
Moderate drinking, especially the European custom of enjoying some wine with a meal are rare indeed here. The meaning of drinking in American parlance is neither slaking thirst, nor is it a glass of burgundy to go with the steak, it is synonymous with excessive drinking.
Other nations may have problems with moderation, too. Some Scandinavians, perhaps.
But people in the wine-producing countries of the Mediterranean hardly drink excessively. In Italy for example, the streets are never adorned by staggering men at night.

Of course, America with its skewed attitude towards alcoholic beverages is predisposed to alcoholics.
Alcoholic drinks were always considered a drug to get high on, never a hedonic addition io a fine meal. Moderate enjoyment of wine, beer or hard liquor has never been embraced by the masses of that country.
Mainly in America could you expect to see social ulcers such as prohibition, bottles hidden in brown paper bags or restaurant guests drinking Coca Cola or coffee with a steak dinner.

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