Grandpa will have a screwdriver (orange juice with liquor added) once in a while, and Grandma never imbibes.
They do, though, keep a few bottles of wine in the house, and have a few bottles of beer in the second refrigerator. They like to have these around to offer guests.
Since they don't have parties much any more, and the only people who stay over regularly are their grandchildren, there's not much call for alcohol in their house.
Thus, this past Christmas, while we were there and i was making gravy and #2 Son was picking oranges off of the orange trees in the back yard and Little Girl was mashing potatoes and Bigger Girl was setting the table and Bryn and Dre were playing with their new puppies, Grandpa asked #1 Son, the only grandchild there who was over the age of 21, to go look through the beers in the fridge, and get rid of any that were expired.
He went and pulled them out, and found this:
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| No, not photoshopped; i barely know how to take pics, much less alter them! |
Yes, really, he found that while most of it was more recently expired, at least a few cans were 16 years old. He opened each, poured it down the drain, and recycled the cans and bottles.
Only one beer in the house was still drinkable, so Grandpa told him to go ahead if he wanted to, and he did.
And he is now assigned to look over the beer annually, just to make sure, as Grandpa still plans to buy a few to have on hand to offer guests.
Some habits just die hard, i guess.
Today is:
Anniversary of the Founding of Lima -- Lima, Peru
Bald Eagle Appreciation Days -- Keokuk, IA, US (through tomorrow)
Confession of St. Peter -- Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran, and Anglican Christian
Feast of the Chair of St. Peter -- Roman Catholic Church (celebrated as the founding of the papacy)
Feast of Neith -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (goddess of war and hunting)
Four an' Twenty Day -- Scotland (24 days after Christmas)
Gasparilla Extravaganza -- Tampa, FL, US (the rum free version of the Pirate Festival celebration, with a kid's parade and lots of fun; the adult version is next Saturday)
Guru Gobind Singh Jayanti -- Sikh
Hair Dryer Appreciation Day -- no history on this, but if you love your hair dryer, more power to you
Jazz Day -- Jazz gets recognized, it plays the Met!
Learn to Ski Day -- always the 3rd Saturday of January, and you go right ahead
National Lay Awake and Whisper in the Dark Night -- another one i can't fathom or find out why it even exists
National Peking Duck Day
Polar Bear Festival/Polar Bear Jump -- Seward, AK, US (lots of fun, if you want to freeze!)
Revolution Day -- Tunisia
Royal Thai Armed Forces Day -- Thailand
Santa Prisca Day -- Taxco, Mexico
Sight-Saving Sabbath Weekend -- to alert synagogue and church members to the importance of regular eye exams
Sounkyo Ice Festival -- Hokkaido, Japan (snow and ice sculptures, through March 30)
Thesaurus Day -- birth anniversary of Peter Roget
UFO Day -- see the history section, 1644
Unsliced Bread Day -- from this day in 1943, until the war ended, US bakers sold only unsliced bread loaves so no steel had to be diverted from the war effort for slicing machine blades
Week of Prayer for Christian Unity -- Christian (from the celebration of the Confession of St. Peter to the celebration of the Conversion of St. Paul, Jan. 25)
Winnie the Pooh Day -- birth anniversary of Winnie's author A.A. Milne
Anniversaries Today:
Wesley College, Melbourne is established, 1866
Henry VII of England weds Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV, 1486
Birthdays Today:
Jason Segal, 1980
Dave Batista, 1969
Jesse L. Martin, 1969
Jane Horrocks, 1964
Kevin Costner, 1955
Bobby Goldsboro, 1941
Davis Eli "David" Ruffin, 1941
Curtis Charles (Curt) Flood, 1938
Ray Dolby, 1933
Evelyn Lear, 1931
John Boorman, 1930
Constance Moore, 1920
Danny Kaye, 1913
Cary Grant, 1904
Oliver Hardy, 1892
A.A. Milne, 1882
Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, 1856 (The African-American doctor who performed the first open heart surgery.)
Thomas A. Watson, 1854 ("Come here, Watson, I need you," said Bell)
Peter Mark Roget, 1779
Daniel Webster, 1782
Daigo, Emperor of Japan, 885
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"The Jeffersons"(TV), 1975
"Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour"(TV), 1948
"The Nose"(Shostakovich' opera), 1930
Today in History:
Emperor Huizong abdicates the Chinese throne in favour of his son Emperor Qinzong, 1126
Francisco Pizarro founds Lima, Peru, 1535
The first documented UFO sighting in America, by some very perplexed pilgrims in Boston, 1644
Pirate Henry Morgan defeats the Spanish defenders and captures Panama, 1670
San Jose, California is founded, 1777
Captain James Cook stumbles upon the Sandwich Islands (Hawai'i), 1778
The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrives at Botany Bay, 1788
Electro-Magnetic Intelligencer, the first US electrical journal, begins publication, 1840
Dr. William Price attempts to cremate the body of his infant son, J. C. Price, setting a legal precedent for cremation in the United Kingdom, 1884
Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England, 1886
The X-ray machine is exhibited for the first time, 1896
President Theodore Roosevelt sends a radio message to King Edward VII: the first transatlantic radio transmission originating in the United States, 1903
The first shipboard landing of a plane (Tanforan Park to USS Pennsylvania, flown by Eugene B. Ely), 1911
English explorer Robert F Scott & his expedition reach South Pole, only to discover that Roald Amundsen had gotten there before, 1912
Japan issues the "Twenty-One Demands" to the Republic of China in a bid to increase its power in East Asia, 1915
A 611 gram chondrite type meteorite strikes a house near the village of Baxter in Stone County, Missouri, 1916
The Metropolitan Opera House in New York City hosts a jazz concert for the first time. The performers were Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Artie Shaw, Roy Eldridge and Jack Teagarden, 1944
Willie O'Ree, the first African Canadian National Hockey League player, makes his NHL debut, 1958
A Disengagement of Forces agreement is signed between the Israeli and Egyptian governments, ending conflict on the Egyptian front of the Yom Kippur War, 1974
Scientists identify a previously unknown bacterium as the cause of the mysterious Legionnaires' disease, 1977
Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield parachute off a Houston skyscraper, becoming the first two people to BASE jump from objects in all four categories: buildings, antennae, spans (bridges), and earth (cliffs), 1981*
The International Olympic Committee restores Jim Thorpe's Olympic medals to his family, 1983
Boerge Ousland of Norway becomes the first person to cross Antarctica alone and unaided, 1997
The Tagish Lake meteorite impacts the Earth, 2000
Sierra Leone Civil War is finally declared over, 2002
A bushfire kills 4 people and destroys more than 500 homes in Canberra, Australia, 2003
The Airbus A380, the world's largest commercial jet, is unveiled at a ceremony in Toulouse, France, 2005
Hurricane Kyrill becomes one of Western Europe's deadliest storms, 2007
An amateur astronomer in Peterborough, England, discovers a new, Neptune-sized exoplanet, 2012
*Leading me to wonder why, and whether i am looking at the future of my own daredevil child!
1997!!! OMG!
ReplyDeleteYep, that's an old beer indeed. I'm glad your son took care of the one that was still good.
ReplyDeleteHave a terrific day. ☺
That's a lot of expense keeping beers chilled that aren't even enjoyed, except for that one.
ReplyDeleteI would have tried that old beer, just because. Meanwhile, I have no idea how to celebrate UFO Day, but I must. I simply must.
ReplyDeleteLoved this story, it reminded me of my Dad who also had a second refrigerator that was stocked with assorted cans and bottles of beer. As he grew older, he and his friends drank more seldom and I'm quite certain that when he moved to a small apartment, there were some expired cans that had to be poured out. Now I would love to see him smiling with a cold can of beer in his hand while grilling steaks out back on the grill. Sweet memories!
ReplyDelete