Starting Early

[cimorene]

Sometimes you spend Sunday evening relaxing, and sometimes you spend it discussing drinking games with your mother.

My mother is teaching children's religious education at her Unitarian Universalist congregation this year because there are no other volunteers, and she was singing the praises of the new curriculum she's using which she thinks is the best one she's seen in CRE so far.

MOM: It has activities that are actually fun, not stupid! Like this one - [describes the rules of Never Have I Ever, except instead of taking a drink, you run to the center of a circle to exchange a group-high-five with the other people who have done whatever it is]
ME: Well, they're UUs, so I guess it's good that they start learning drinking games early.
MOM: Oh, is that a drinking game?

We established that my mom knows almost nothing of drinking games and has never played one, so this ignorance doesn't necessarily mean anything about the geographical distribution or age of the game itself.

I was all ready to mock her for never having played one, but then I realized that I haven't either. I mean, several times at parties we've talked about playing one with television or movies based on how badly-written or homoerotic they were, but I don't think I've ever been in on an attempt where we actually stuck to the rules.

I read so much slash that I forget that I've only read stuff and not actually done it. (Also earlier today I glimpsed the phrase 'clean the pipes' and it took me a solid minute to remember that the phrase can have a non-sexual meaning.)

Comments

[krait]

I remember playing Never Have I Ever at camps as a kid, except that, instead of drinks, we had a certain number of M&Ms, and instead of drinking you ate one (or put it in the middle of the table? I forget) and you were 'out' when you ran out. Last one with M&Ms in their possession wins.

[krait]

I should perhaps add: and that is the only time I have actually played a "drinking game", which may not count as there was no drinking going on.

I have a bunch of fannish ones stuck in my head, though! Especially the Pointing Out The Cliches type ("take a drink every time X does thing Y, A does thing Z, or anyone does Trope B"). :D For a teetotaller, I have sure drunk a lot in my head...

[cimorene]

I'm sort of disappointed I've never played an actual Pointing Out Clichés one. It really feels like you have after you've watched enough stuff at fangirl gatherings, but usually everybody giggles/squeaks instead of drinking in an organized fashion.

[msilverstar]

Oh snap, I've read it so many times it seems like a memory!