Have you ever wondered where the term GENERAL DRINK comes from?
Well ….
Once upon
a time, long long ago and far far away, there was this Prince. Just so happens, he was the Prince of
Wales. He had this BIG party. Back then they called it a Festival. Just so happens it was held in December. Well he called all of his friends and
neighbors to his house for a really good time.
Everyone was having a blast, drinking beer, dancing, mingling as friends
and neighbors can do. Well along about
dark thirty, the Prince finds out that his wife has been discovered being too
friendly with one of the guest. Being the
gracious host that he is, he rounds up all of the guest into the great
ballroom. He asks them to form a big
circle so everyone can see each other and be seen by each other. By this time the guest are wonderin what’s
going on, the rumors are beginning to swirl.
The Prince proceeds to tell them about his wife being caught in a tryst
with one of the guest. The crowd is
shocked! Who would do such a dastardly
deed? Well the Prince wasn’t really
sure who did it but he wanted to find out.
Remember,
some of the guest, actually, most of the guest had been drinkin. He explained his problem and that he wanted
to get to the bottom of it. He told
them he wanted to ask them some questions.
He described a few rules of the inquiry like this. When you mess up, you have to take a
drink. You can’t drink unless you mess
up. If you get caught drinkin out of
turn, you have to take a drink. You
can’t point at anyone with anything but your elbow. If you get caught pointing with anything but your elbow, you have
to take a drink. If you feel you have
been falsely accused of an infraction you may request a vote. If a vote is requested, you will have a
chance to state your case to the entire group.
When you are finished, the Prince will ask all those that agree with you
to raise their thumb. All those that don’t vote by pointing their thumb down. Fair enough? Well there is one thing to know about voting. If you ask for a vote on an infraction, and
you lose the vote, happens most all the time, everyone that voted with you has
to also take a drink. The drink has to be of some alcoholic nature, beer, wine,
or sprits of some sort. Tequila is to
be avoided for reasons that will become evident as the night progresses.
So with everyone in the
ballroom in a big circle, he decided to give each guest a number. The numbers would start clockwise left of
him. He would be the last number of the
group and could also be called Prince.
The reason for this wasn’t clear at the time but would be soon enough. The Prince explained the situation like
this. “The Prince of Wales, lost his
tales, and tips his hat to number” Five.
The number can be picked at random, but can’t be a number greater than
in the group. Well number Five damn
sure didn’t want to admit to anything that would piss off the Prince, so they
said “NA”. The Prince asked “WHO”? Number Five said Two. Number Two didn’t want the wrath of the
Prince so they said NA. Since number
five blamed number two, when two said “NA”, number five asked, “WHO”. Number two said four, Four said “NA”, Two
asked “Who”, and this went on, around the room until low and behold someone in
the group messed up. It was number
five. Messing up can be several things
including but not limited to the following; saying no, saying Who instead of
Na, nope, not saying anything in a timely manner, not asking “WHO” in a timely
manner, etc. FYI. The Prince determines a “timely
manner”.
Now the
Prince was watchin everyone Real close and wasn’t really sure that the person
that stumbled first was the culprit. So
he suggested they start again. This
time to make things a little more challenging, he wanted the person that messed
up first to start the questioning. He
told his guest whoever messed up first would become the new Prince. But to keep
everyone honest, he made each person recount his or her number, starting
clockwise left of the new Prince. So
number five started by saying, “The
Prince of Wales, lost his tales, and tips his hat to number” one. By now everyone had it figured out. If you hear your number called, say
“NA”. When the person that blamed you
ask “WHO”, you blame someone else. And
you pay real close attention, and don’t mess up. Oh yea, one more thing I forgot to mention. Real important. “Don’t mess up”
So everyone was paying real close attention,
making damn sure they didn’t mess up.
Well, as most group activities where there is drinkin and
blame goin on, it doesn’t take long for the weak or slightly guilty to
appear. You can tell them pretty quick,
they are the ones that tend to mess up early and often. Now as the questioning went on, some of the
guest saw a chance to end this and get on with the party. All they had to do was pick on the people
that were weak or slightly guilty.
Whenever they could, they would call their number. Soon the guest that weren’t as drunk or
innocent, keep blaming the weak and slightly drunk. The weak and slightly drunk kept getting more drunk and more
guilty. The Prince was Happy. He knew any minute, someone would really
mess up and admit to the dastardly deed.
But he
also saw some of the guest were not happy sitting around watching this kangaroo
court. Some of his guests were getting real thirsty. Why, some of his guest never had to drink, never messed up, never
lost a vote. They worked really hard at
trying to have fun. They worked, and
worked, paying real close attention to every detail. They wanted the Prince to be Happy. They wanted to be invited back to his parties. So he decided to speed things up a bit. He let everyone know that, if you were
REALLY thirsty, and you just couldn’t wait for the chance to mess up, anyone
could drink ANY time they wanted. All
they had to do was YELL………. GENERAL
DRINK.
So
whenever you hear those magic words, to keep the Prince happy and to toast all
those that help make the party a smashing success, you have
to take a drink. The drink has to be of
some alcoholic nature, beer, wine, or sprits of some sort. Tequila may be your drink of choice, but
there is no limit on how many times General Drink is called. Anyone can call a GENERAL DRINK, As long as
the Prince hasn’t started the fun by saying,
“The Prince of Wales, lost his tales, and tips his hat to number”?
And the
Prince was happy that his guests were happy, he let the party continue….
GENERAL
DRINK