Recently I went to New Orleans for a girls’ weekend, and geek that I am, I took a few hours for myself to sneak over to the New Orleans library to research my family in the Times-Picayune. My grandfather was a real estate developer in the area, so I knew there would be plenty of articles, and there were. Some I was expecting, like announcement of housing development openings; some were fun surprises, such as random society page announcements about the travels of my grandparents.

My parents’ wedding announcement was also in the paper. I had seen it before, but scanned a copy just to have on hand. My eagle-eyed sister, though, noticed an interesting Ann Landers letter next to the announcement. My grandfather was a heavy drinker. We always had a bottle of Black Label Jack Daniels in the house for him. To this day, I can’t see a bottle without thinking of him and my first forays into whiskey (my grandfather disliked drinking alone and was always happy to pour a glass for someone to join him, legal drinking ages be damned!).

So, the question, is this a coincidence? Or was my mom hedging her bets? (And let’s not even mention that hair flip.)
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