Many of you might not believe this, but I was once a young man. When I was about 19, still two years away from legally drinking alcohol, I worked for a summer in an ice plant which sold beer.
It was about that time that Southern Select, one of Howard Hughes' companies, introduced a beer called "Superlight". It was low calorie specifically designed to be appealing to women. You may find this hard to believe, but women were not often seen drinking beer back in those days. My dad's Aunt Berta impressed the hell out of me at Grandma Moore's 92nd birthday party, when she was drinking beer right along with the men! I've spent my life thinking of Aunt Berta as an avant-garde, adventure-loving chick, without ever knowing any of the real facts of her life.
Many jokes were made about "women's beer" when Southern Select Superlight began to be advertised. If Jay Leno had been around then, I'm sure he would have had much to say about it.
Today, it seems that the flavorless low calorie beer is the beer of choice for most young people. Whenever I visit my children's homes (they all live nearby now), I'm offered "light" beer. They hardly ever seem to ever have the other kind.
Last evening, we gave a family dinner party in honor of the second birthday of our youngest granddaughter, in combination with a "rehearsal dinner" for her parents' wedding. It was not to be a drinking party, but as part of the liquid refreshments, my wife had brought home two six-packs of Lone Star. One was the red-labeled "real" beer, and the other was the blue-labeled "lo-cal".
I had two of the red-label, and did not notice what anyone else was drinking. It seems that most were drinking soft drinks or iced tea, but I was not keeping tabs.
This morning, I noticed that, of the six, there were three red-labels left, and of the six, there was one blue-label! That meant that only one red-label was drunk besides the two that I had. I'm willing to bet that the other was drunk by my wife.
This evening, we're going to the home of the newlyweds, and they'll have a keg of Guinness! I wonder if it will be "light"? Anybody want to bet?
Footnote:
Google does not seem to know Southern Select Superlight. Light beer seems to have gotten its debut in 1967, when a new brewing process was discovered. I will stick to my story, and if anyone should, in the future, I'd appreciate any input. Southern Select was apparently made by the Galveston-Houston Breweries, and Superlight does not seem to be mentioned. We all know that Howard Hughes was ahead of his time, and quite eccentric, and producing light beer twelve years before its invention would not have been beyond him.
Epilogue to the footnote:
The party's over, or whether or not it's really over for all concerned, it's over for me. I've come home, and am happy to announce that a good time was had by all, and the beer was real. None of the metalic tasting low-cal beer. This was the real thing, dark and rich, and very tasty.
2 comments:
Raise a glass of Guiness for me! (Though I wouldn't be drinking it myself if I was there...) I don't drink beer either way...light or dark.
Light or dark? Ah, I recall the dark beer at Sholtz Garten where I drank 2 pitchers on my 21st birthday. The light beer to which I refer, of course you know, is the oddly flavored low calorie stuff that the younger generation seems to prefer.
Thanks for stopping by, Rie!
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