Beer with the Best of Intentions

I met my best friend for food cart Mexican fish tacos today, excellent btw, and we ended up engrossed in a talk about the massive perceptual gulf between “we” at the tail end of the Boomer Generation, and Millennials and Gen Z as representatives of the 21st century. It seems my friend was treated to prolonged exposure to this new breed of party animal at a wedding, among other social opportunities, allowing him to observe some of the significant differences fifty years can make. First, he found that Millennials are significant “Day Drinkers.” That is, over the duration of a weekend, the pair they spent time with revealed day drinking was a hallmark of their generation. They showed up with ice cold Coronas just before lunch, then carried on with another round after the meal. Once evening arrived, it was time to switch to hard alcohol. Now my friend and I both partied in college, sometimes even during the week, but I never recall establishing a ritual out of morning/afternoon/evening drinks. Secondly, during the wedding, Millennials and Gen Z-ers openly showed off their rock-hard abs and twerked their asses into their partner’s crotch on the dance floor. This was done free of any social concerns relating to their parents, grandparents, or great grandparents who were in attendance. In fact, many have Facebook pages loaded with sexual imagery. Late blooming Boomers appear to find sexuality a more private matter; something seen mostly in magazines or beer commercials. Third, during the wedding reception after the wedding, no one seemed to mind the openly misogynist lyric content contained in some of the tunes. I believe my friend said the opening line for one of the songs was….’you gotta slap that bitch M***** F*****! I recognize that complaining about generational differences is just part of the aging process, one probably extending back to Ancient Rome at that, but when you pass into the final third of your life, it’s an interesting anthropological foray to say the least.