The Drinking Games

How old were you the first time you had a beer? I was 8. It was literally an accident, a misunderstanding, but I was 8 years old when I went into the minifridge in the family den and pulled out what I thought was a soda, but one in a silver can, or I guess you'd call it a Silver Bullet. My dad found out, not because he found me drunk, but because he found a half-drunk can of beer back in the fridge. Can you blame a guy, 8 or 38, for not liking Coors Light?

A news story tonight talks about actors Josh Hutcherson and Alexander Ludwig, apparently from a movie based on a book aimed at the 21- demographic called The Hunger Games. But the story focused not on being hungry, but on their, well, drinking games. Both actors are 19, and both are alleged to have imbibed alcohol. Hutcherson went on record (OK, he went on TMZ) and said, "I think the age to go to war is 18, so I think the drinking age should be 18 as well."

I agree. Do you?

I'm not saying I think Americans age 18-20 should break the law. I'm saying the law should be changed to allow them to drink legally. I'm not going to say I think they already do drink; we all KNOW they do. Dollars to d'oh, nut brown ales, we all had some beers in that age range ourselves. And not very good craft ones at that. (Although, in my defense, I got bit by the better-beer-bug when I was studying abroad where I was well above any legal drinking age, so it was hard to come back to school and A: not drink beer and B: not splurge on better beer even when my friends thought I was mental for spending more on bombers than they spent on 40s!

My son's 17 3/4 years away from turning 18. I seriously hope I don't have to wait 3 years longer to take him to a bar for his "first" real beer.