Whatever happened to cocktail hour?

When I was a kid back in the 1950s, parents used to set aside a time at the end of the day, usually about 5 p.m., for what they called "cocktail hour."  It meant the end of the work day, when the men came home from their jobs, exhausted from a day at the factory or the office, and the wives, who had been home all day tending to kids and cleaning and cooking, had a cocktail ready, which they shared with their husbands.  It was the end of the work day for both, a time to relax, with the help of gin or whiskey or whatever.  A short period of down time before supper and the onslaught of kid problems and, once again, reality.

As I imagine it, this must have been a nice time when men and women let down their hair for an hour or so and just remembered who they used to be.  The day's work was done, the evening meal was yet to be served.  Adult time.  A drink or two for both mom and dad at the end of a trying day and before the problems of children and night descended, blotting out the day.

But was that how it was?  Did the wives get to share in the cocktails?  I don't know.  Do you?

I think we might want to re-visit and re-imagine that special hour and re-imagine it, so that this time men and women, husbands and wives, husbands and husbands, wives and wives, lovers and lovers, whoever and whovever, all set aside an hour or so at the end of the day to relax.  Just relax.  Enjoy a drink or two that let's you, at least for a short while, remember who you were before all this mayhem set in.

After all, our parents, those who enjoyed or should have enjoyed, the cocktail hour, were once just like us: kids who grew up and wanted nothing more than to love life, to dance and go crazy and forget their jobs, if just for a while.  But then they had kids.

Us.

Aren't we sort of like that again?  Aren't we all stressed by our jobs, if we have one, and looking for relief at the end of the day?  Let's bring back the cocktail hour.

But what is a cocktail?

It's not wine and beer.  Oh please.  Those are for sissies.

A cocktail is a blending of different alcoholic beverages to make something that tastes good and gets you pleasantly high if you have one or two and zonked if you have one too many.

The cocktail hour, to repeat myself, is a time at the end of the day when we mix ourselves strong drinks -- martinis, old-fashioneds, Manhattans on the rocks -- and try to tune out the day and get back into touch with our old selves, the young ones who had so many dreams and so much ambition.  If just for an hour or so.

I think most humans need some down time at the end of a work day, whether at the office or the factory or just at home with unruly kids.  And it's up to each of us to figure out what that down time is.  Maybe some of us just unwind with family, playing with the kids, spending time with a spouse.

But some of us -- most of us? -- need something extra to help us let go of all that work and relapse into our natural/comfortable selves.  Some of us can't just let go of the job and all that it implies without something that helps us relax -- in a hurry.  Life doesn't do it, but a stiff drink will.  Or two.

Cocktail hour used to be a real thing, a real event -- booze at the end of a work day -- but nowadays it may just mean an hour when we loosen the tie, kick off the dress shoes, and zone out in front of the TV.  Still, I'm thinking a generous shot of vodka in a Tom Collins might help the process.

We humans work and work and work and then die.  Isn't that depressing?  Of course it is, but in the meantime we love and lose and grow up and get smart and maybe have children and -- whoa!  It all goes by so fast!  Let's slow it down.

Remember when you first fell in love?  Remember when you got your first job?  Remember when you landed that job you really liked?  Remember when you got the job you did the rest of your life?  Remember when you got married?  Remember how that worked out?  Or not?

Life is at times really hard and really fun, misery and ecstasy, boredom and inspiration.  If we're smart, we take it as it comes and try to make the best of our talents.  But we all get tired by the end of the day and just want to zonk out, not be bothered, not be talked to.  Of course we rally and do what we have to do, but it's not easy.  A drink or two of something strong helps

Cocktail hour is for those who can handle their booze but want a quick fix, however temporary, to alleviate the ills of the day.  It is not for those who really need it, who crave just one more opportunity to drink.  Cocktail hour was and is a civilized way to let responsible adults indulge at the end of a work day.  No drunks allowed.

Let's bring back cocktail hour. We deserve it.

I always liked manhattans and old-fashioneds.  I have friends who swear by martinis.  A Tom Collins, by the way, is not technically a cocktail, as it involves juices mixed with alcohol.  A true cocktail is just booze in all sorts of combinations.

Enjoy!  But be careful.  We're all grown-ups now, right?