First of all, as long as I’ve lived here, which is some 20 years now…. I’ll never get used to these river drownings. I understand that there are some inherent dangers that come with living in a river town, but most of these are absolutely preventable. So what do we do? I wanted to weigh in on this really important topic because as a community member, mom and someone who covers these stories it’s important that we look for some real answers to protect our kids.
I didn’t grow up here and in this case it gives me a different perspective on this topic. I grew up in Columbus, Ohio. I graduated from Ohio State University when the drinking age was still 18. Columbus and the OSU campus are on the Scioto River and the Olentangy River. A very popular brewery district is right nearby, plus we have a street full of bars right on campus. Not to mention a very popular “Oktoberfest” and German Village which is the largest privately funded historic district on the National Register of Historic Places. The two cities have a lot in common.
However, the issue of young adults falling in the river and drowning after a night out isn’t a problem. Which begs the question why?
I don’t want to oversimplify this, because it could be a combination of things. However, I do believe the way alcohol is used in La Crosse is different than where I grew up… a difference in cultures.
For instance, on the radio in La Crosse earlier this week callers were talking about this very problem. One listener even called in to say that the results of alcohol analysis would show a 160 pound man would have “only” had to have had 10 drinks to get to a .28 level. The listener actually talked about these ten drinks as not being an uncommon amount to have in one evening or during an event. When I was going to college in Ohio this would have been an extreme amount to drink. When we’d go out 2 or 3 drinks would be considered the norm. And you would usually spread them out between non-alcoholic drinks. And even way back when I was in college we already used designated drivers, even though they weren’t called that then. The person not drinking and driving was in charge of making sure everyone else in the group got home safely.
Safety Measure: Why not try spacing out drinks with non-alcoholic ones and designate that one sober person in advance on a regular basis.
There are other differences in alcohol use I’ve noticed too. Bartenders in the La Crosse area tend to be a “heavy pour”. In fact, it almost seems like the bartenders feel like they are doing you a favor or being more gracious if they put two or three shots in a drink versus just the one that’s called for. I was a bartender from 18-23 years-old and we were taught to specifically be one shot pours so people knew what they were getting and because it cuts into profits. It was considered “burning” the drink if it was too heavy of a pour because you couldn’t taste the other parts that make the drink.
Safety Measure: As a consumer, really stress to your bartender or waitress that you want a “lighter pour” so you aren’t getting more than you bargained for and can keep an accurate accounting of how much you’ve had to drink.
Let’s change our thinking about alcohol. When I was 7 months pregnant (obviously pregnant) with my first child I sat at the bar at a local restaurant while we waited for our table. Keep in mind this is 13 years ago… but when I ordered a soda the bartender told me they save the bar for their “drinking” customers. When I told him I was pregnant and couldn’t order alcohol, he just said “One drink never hurt anybody.” It’s almost as if there is an intolerance for non-drinkers!
Now obviously, not every bartender would do this. However, it’s important to note that some people don’t seem to know that no alcohol use is recommended during pregnancy.
Safety measure: Treat non-alcoholic drinkers well, they could be pregnant, recovering alcoholics, already had their limit of alcoholic drinks for the night or a designated driver!
I have lived in four different states and many cities in those states and this is the first place where I experienced drinking by adults at kids parties too. Where I grew up you didn’t serve adults alcohol at kid’s birthday parties, it’s just unheard of and not done, not considered appropriate. Right or wrong it was a difference in culture for me.
Safety Measure: Let’s show kids that alcohol does not have to be part of every get together in order for it to be a party.
On this same note, this is the only community I’ve lived in where it’s typical for wedding parties to go bar hopping in between the wedding and the reception, sometimes for hours!
Safety Measure: Schedule the reception directly following the wedding, it could be a lot safer for you and your guests. No one wants their wedding day highlighted by tragedy.
Now keep in mind, in the community where I grew up there were other factors at play too. We had state liquor stores and “dry areas” that the local communities could vote on. So if a community decided that there could be no alcohol sold within so many blocks of a school or neighborhood that’s the way it was. There were still plenty of taverns and bars, but the combination of alcohol flowing and having a river flowing through town wasn’t this deadly combination.
I wanted to point out these differences not because I think one city is better than the other, but because it may take a combination of behavior changes and a sweeping deemphasis of alcohol in our socializing.
One last observation, La Crosse has the “Tapping of the Golden Keg” to begin its Oktoberfest, the Columbus Oktoberfest begins with the official “Breaking of the Pretzel”.
