A Vintage Cocktail Book

A  Vintage Cocktail Book 

I picked up a vintage copy of The Bartender’s Guide; I will use it as a gift in the future.  I was so taken aback to see that the date on it/printed was 1965. But more surprisingly to me was that I found it is basically unused, in really good condition, and in the book is a handwritten recipe with no title.  It is a peculiar recipe, as it seems to be a wine-based punch but has beer as one of the ingredients; also on the list at the end you’ll notice is an aspirin.

It caused me to think about the person who owned this book. Was it a man? Was it a woman? How did they get the book?  A gift from someone?  Who has a book like that? Somewhat more intrigued I was by the list of ingredients for said recipe.

Noting the date of the book printing, my mind wandered about the time, the place, the person.  The mid ‘60s. Interesting  times in the world.  In Europe it had been only 15 years or so since the end of World War II; they must’ve been in the midst of a huge overhaul of Europe’s cities and population, struggling with many issues post war. The merger of East Germany and West Germany will wait. In a mere seven years the President of the United States would travel to Communist China and meet Mao Zedong. Unheard of! Radical! Treasonous.

For the Soviet Union and the United States, although some people might say we’re back there now, we were pretty much at the height of the Cold War of ideologies between communism and capitalism, between the far right and the liberal left.

For the people of China, they were in the midst of the Chinese “Cultural Revolution”, in the age of Mao; the Little Red Book; collective farms. Teachers and students sent to work on farms both for reasons of providing food to the population and to affect the beliefs of many.

One would think at that time set for many people, it was a time of abundance and security. Although I remember once even as late as the 70’s my aunt giving me a box of clothes to take to people in Europe, continuing to believe they were in need of money and necessities.  It’s very likely that people had a different perspective on their lives at that time, many feeling relieved to be alive.  Many with severe inflictions emotionally as well as physically. The world was not transient as it is now. There was no thought of travel from one continent to the next nevertheless across continents.

For many readers this is probably unfathomable to believe that there was no ease of transportation, such as now exists in the EuroZone, that the exchange of goods was far more restrictive.  To communicate with a loved one, you did it by post which could take weeks for a letter to go to go from one continent to another. Train travel even back then was an unusual occurrence. Many countries each had their own unique monetary system, not easily exchangeable from one country to the next – unlike today in much of Europe.

I live in a community that is a thriving university-retirement-resort community, so many people bring their books and periodicals to their library or the local bookstores as they downsize their personal library, that we are often provided the opportunity to purchase any of these used treasures.

To look back and think about those things that were taking place in the mid-60’s is a unique reflection on how the world has changed. So I wonder what the life is like for this person, no longer needing to have a bartender guide. What is he or she doing now? And what was their life like in the mid-60’s?

Good readings, mes mi.

Cocktail

Daiquiri

2 parts light rum

1 part plus a teaspoon of lime juice

½ part simple syrup

Appetizer – sliced cucumbers with out seeds, lightly salted

Music – LP album by ABBA