When you were growing up, did your parents routinely have "before dinner drinks"?

My parents did not. But my in laws practice that. There are drinks before meals, during meals and after meals. 😂 This usually happens during lunches that lasted 3hrs.

wine was usually served with dinner in our house. Grandpa had a press and bought grapes and made his own. now we still enjoy wine and before bed sometimes have a brandy downstairs at our bar

My dad was a purveyor of fine wines and liquors to the movie colony of Palm Springs so he was required to be well-informed on the finest wines in order to assist them on a quality wine and beverage cellar.

Apéritif. Not routinely for sure. Only at bigger family gatherings or sometimes on vacations with herbal liqueur...and it was before lunch, not dinner.

Before dinner, my parents had (and still have, I think) a "Sanbittèr", a soda which tastes very similar to Campari, with a bold bitter orange flavor and notes of grapefruit. A key distinction is that Sanbittèr contains no alcohol. The drink was originally called "Bitter Sanpellegrino" and was renamed at some point in time. Here are some beautiful ads:

I usually buy a pack of ten, it's a nice non-alcoholic alternative to a Garibaldi:

Nope. Mom drank tea before, during, and after supper. Daddy had water. I had tea, water, and gatorade.

No. My parents only drank alcoholic beverages when they were entertaining friends who drank. They served drinks with hors d'oeuvres, and made sure there was plenty to eat.

ANY American over 40 or so? maybe 50? would say yes to that
our parednts gernatsion especaiiy the War years people
drank what NOW would be seen as exsessive
that said? many of the were pretty good at handling it

my mother never drank and my father would always work extremely long hours so he was hardly around for dinner. He would normally get home around 10pm and back to work at 6am.

We would have nice big dinners and pitch in to help and wash our own dishes afterward. It's one of my favorite memories.

No there was rarely any alcohol in the House. We just had water or cordials with our meal

Yes, my dad would often have a gin and tonic, and my mom would have a glass of wine.

Mine used to start drinking at 11am and finish at 11pm.

My mom rarely drNk, bud dad enjoyed a nitecap drink every night or two. Usually burbon

no. mom was a pretty good cook and they didn't have to get wasted to eat her cooking :)

I didn’t pay attention to their drinking.. but yes.. my dad would drink 3 minis picking me up from school and toss them out the window

Nah, we had "Before dinner insults, snide remarks or emotional emptiness"

Nope. Only when they had visitors.

They ain't/weren't into drinking.

No. Neither of my parents drink at all.

They had after dinner drinks

@DrWatson
I think much of the alchol culture of that generation has changed
watch a few epsodes of Mad Men. I can attest the drinking and smoking of adults of that era
matched what you saw there
the 3 Martini Lunch. ( thats 6 ounces of gin/vodka!)
was a stapel of much of business even into the early 8o's



@LordShadowfire

They rarely drank at all.

My mother didn’t drink. Pop would occasionally have a beer, but generally only one. When they had parties there would be a bar, but Mom would still have Martinelli’s. When my youngest sister became an alcoholic, they stopped allowing alcohol in their home. Dad stopped drinking, my brother and niece never started.

No, but my father was pretty well juiced up by dinner time the few years we had to live with him.

Not mine

In my family, before dinner drinks was a holiday thing.