In the Land of Cocktails

The World In My Living Room – On TV & Otherwise

Posted by Ti Adelaide Martin on January 16th, 2009

I remem­ber being kept home from school to watch the men walk on the moon.  I remem­ber so much footage in New Orleans of Kennedy being shot – over and over – par­tic­u­larly when I was older and local DA Jim Gar­ri­son accused Clay Shaw of killing Pres­i­dent John F. Kennedy. Yes, Uncle Clay to me – a big bear of a man – teddy bear – who would roll on the floor wrestling and tick­ling me.  Uncle Clay on TV in hand cuffs – bunch of Phooey!  It still makes me angry.

Then Hale Boggs our rep­re­sen­ta­tive in the US House who was in line to be the next Speaker of the House was lost in a plane in Alaska.  Lost … in Alaska … the world seemed very scary.  Then – some­thing thrilling hap­pened.  Hale’s wife Lindy (one of my mom’s dear­est friends) decided to run for her husband’s seat.  And she won.  Women didn’t do that then.  Wow – Lindy went on to qui­etly, almost imper­cep­ti­bly, change the laws that dis­crim­i­nated against women.

Lindy and Ella

She did this with no show­boat­ing.  Unlike today she says mem­bers of oppos­ing par­ties would debate sub­jects by day and have din­ner together by night.  Lindy went on to be cho­sen by Pres­i­dent Clin­ton (she says she changed Al Gore’s dia­pers) to be the Ambas­sador to the Vatican.

Next thing you know one of Lindy’s daugh­ters – Cokie, started pop­ping up all over the TV as a respected polit­i­cal com­men­ta­tor.  Things had cer­tainly taken a turn for the bet­ter.  Cokie was liv­ing in Wash­ing­ton but she came home often to visit her mom.  I got to eaves­drop as they traded sto­ries of Wash­ing­ton goings on with the always enter­tain­ing local machi­na­tions, each hun­gry to hear the oth­ers sto­ries.  Great food and drink were always a part of the lineup.  Lindy always started with a Saz­erac, which she didn’t have as much luck with in Wash­ing­ton.  Mom seemed to always order bot­tles of cham­pagne for the end of the evening.  If Lindy and Cokie were home it was a cel­e­bra­tion.  But sprin­kled through the night were cock­tails pop­u­lar from a dif­fer­ent era.  Vis­it­ing politi­cos and back room deal mak­ers ordered Old Fash­ioneds, Man­hat­tans and Gimlets.

Old Fash­ioned, Man­hat­tan, Gimlet

Being able to be a part of these con­ver­sa­tions has always been a thrill of mine.  Great food, salty con­ver­sa­tions, strong per­son­al­i­ties and seri­ous cock­tails.  Always seri­ous cocktails.

- Ti