...as a society concerning our handling of alcohol. I can remember back 30-35 yrs ago when my parents and our neighbors and relatives would hold "block" parties that would last the whole weekend! And this was considered normal! Plus, it wasn't just our little neighborhood, my wife grew up in a city about 60 miles from me, and she has similar tales, too. If you tried that today, there would be very little tolerance of it today in the larger general public.
I guess a real vivid example of that is the Disney movie Dumbo. I'm referring to the scene in which the mouse character accidentally imbibes alcohol, falls asleep and has a drunken dream featuring PINK ELEPHANTS among other things. He woke up the next morning in a tree with Dumbo and a hangover.
Can you imagine Disney or someone else releasing a children's movie depicting alcohol in this way today? There would be outrage among the child development folks that would be palpable!
But we probably have needed the attitude adjustment that happened in the last 20+ yrs. Far too many people have endured the hell that is alcoholism, and with a society that does not regard drunkenness as a laughing matter, they can make an attempt at getting clean.
If you've lost a person through drunken driving there's a whole different hell that those folks go through. Again, with an enlightened attitude, needless deaths like those can be reduced.
Maybe it's a good thing that the pink elephants have retired...