Thursday, April 18, 2013

I'll Drink To That...!

We all have heard that our founding fathers were hard working, hard drinking men. Just how hard drinking they were is illustrated in this story from Listverse!

Fact: The founding fathers of the US loved to drink.



While in France, Jefferson spent a great deal of time in the vineyards of Burgundy. John Adams is said to have drunk cider for breakfast every day to the day he died. In 1787, two days before they signed off on the Constitution, the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention partied at a tavern. According to the bill preserved from the evening, they drank 54 bottles of Madeira, 60 bottles of claret, eight of whiskey, 22 of porter, eight of hard cider, 12 of beer and seven bowls of alcoholic punch.

In their defense, we must mention that getting drunk and not losing control was socially acceptable and perfectly normal back in those times. Of course that would slowly change and become less acceptable, until the US had alcohol prohibition in the early 20th century.

Kinda makes you wonder how the guys ever managed to put together one of the most powerful and influential documents of our time, doesn't it? Those founding fathers sure had steel in their backbone, lead lined guts, and balls of pure brass!

We better have our coffee inside this morning, as we have a storm supposedly moving in. Rain, thunder, wind and hail! Nice, huh?

9 comments:

Gorges Smythe said...

For an eye-opener, read a little about the "PURE - tans!"

HermitJim said...

Hey Gorges...
Thanks for the heads up! I'll see what I can find on them.

Thanks for coming over this morning!

Anonymous said...

Hey, people who are drinking let down their normal bias and start talking sense. They listen more intently and are more apt to build upon the the thoughts, rather than tear down.

I'll bet more progress could be made in the Middle East between Isreal and their enemies if the parties got together, had a few drinks, and just spoke to each other without the cameras. You may not fully agree with what the other is saying, but you are likely to learn something.

Just be sure to have some sober around to write down what was said, lol.

Momlady said...

I think if I had lived back then I'd have drunk whatever was available. Times were tough!

Rob said...

"How Beer Saved The World" was on the Discovery Channel, you can find it on youtube/ It was interesting and fits in with this.

HermitJim said...

Hey Anon 5:15...
More times than not, the meetings and talks are all for show. Some honesty would certainly be in order!

Thanks for coming over today!



Hey Momlady...
Probably more healthy than drinking the water!

Hard times indeed! Probably the drinks were needed...and at least they got something done!

Thanks for coming over, my friend!



Hey Rob...
I'll have to watch that. Thanks for the information!

Thanks also, for dropping by today!



Caddie said...

Jefferson was quite a "partying" guy apparently; a quote from one of my posts: "Some of my finest hours have been spent on my back veranda smoking hemp and oserving as far as my eye can see." ~ Thomas Jefferson, 1781

JO said...

WOW but then that's all they pretty much had. Pure Party Animals they were.

Fast cup for me lots to do before tomorrow's departure.

HermitJim said...

Hey Sissy...
They did seem to party hard, but they did get a lot of things done, that's for sure!

I guess we all have to let off steam at some point!

Thanks for the visit today!



Hey Jo...
I know you are looking forward to getting on the road!

I'm glad you could come by for a visit before you left, sweetie!