I AM still funny and laugh a lot at parties
by Stacy Leshner
My name is Stacy. I'm 33 years old. I'm American but have been living in France for nearly a decade. It's a strange cultural mix, and I have culture shock when I go back to the US and equally when I get back to France.
Americans have a strange relationship with alcohol. We love partying and drinking as fast as we can to get drunk, but the laws are quite stringent around alcohol, especially in Pennsylvania where I’m from. Beer and spirits can’t be sold in the same place, you can’t buy over a certain quantity of beer from a bottle shop, and from a national perspective, you must be 21 to buy or consume alcohol. Punishment for breaking that law ranges from fines to jail time. There are a lot of mixed messages. My parents aren’t drinkers, in fact, no one in my family was when I was growing up.
At holiday times I only have memories of my great aunt and uncle bringing vodka and a box of White Zinfindel for their own consumption, but everyone in the family whispered about Auntie and Uncle’s drinking problems. My mom had a small liquor cabinet in our dining room that had random bottles she was gifted over the years and a bottle of vodka for when that particular aunt and uncle came for dinner. It didn’t occur to her to lock it up or hide it- why would it? My sister and I were good kids, and why would we drink anyway?
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