Happy Hour

My Happy Hour – 4 o’clock, low tide, solo Guana walk…

The term “Happy Hour” comes from American Naval slang in the 1920s following the First World War. According to Mental Floss Magazine, it was an allotted period of time on a ship where sailors engaged in various forms of entertainment to relieve the monotonies of the seafaring life.

Now it comes to represent the time of day (usually between 4 and 8 p.m.) when folks gather after work, drink two-for-one, booze laced drinks on empty stomachs, and then drive home.

I was thinking yesterday about those times of day that become drinking triggers to the alcoholic. For many, it is the happy hours of 5 o’clock, when the sun is over the yardarm, or nightfall. As you know, I drank when my eyes were open and I didn’t have the intestinal flu, so my triggers are all day long…

Yesterday it was low tide at 3:30. Walking or running on the beach in Jacksonville is either a wonderful experience or the equivalent of slogging through wet cement, depending on the tides. I almost never start anything in the late afternoon. I am a dawn energetic, but I felt the need to go to the beach…

Tide pools and solitude – heaven…

And I’ve decided I need to do this more often. Start doing things during Happy Hour that replace the wine, relieve the monotony of the dry, dry, dry, dry life…