My Grandmother Used to Drink Miracle Multi-Vitamin

I don't drink alcohol at all, but I tell you some of my family do, and may be if you read my previous post about drinking on the trips - yeah drinking in Europe was and is very common. I still remember the martial law in Poland in early 80s, when we lived on food coupons and allowed only one bottle of vodka per household. And even better I remember those days when those who liked to drink, sat in front of the store drinking perfume and eating pickles. This being story for another day, let me then tell you this cute story about my grandmother.

The story goes - as kids my parents used to give us all kinds of vitamins. Mind you on top of that we used to eat out the garden - current, plums, apples, goose berries, strawberries - and some of them never got to the ripe state. Yes we loved sour. Yes, yes the vitamin story! Did we ever needed, never know - I guess my parents were on the mission to grow healthy kids, thus they finally got hold of this miracle multi-vitamin for us, them and my grandmother. In the liquid form, tasted just like very sweet sweet strawberry juice - and we liked it. It was hard to get this particular one, but my dad being very useful TV and radio repairman in the neighbourhood - he got all kinds of favors, and especially from the pharmacist.

You probably saying get to the point, so I will. In the late 80's we came to Canada, leaving my grandmother behind. One day my parents came across the same multi-vitamin here in Canada. Then they decided to send some to my grandmother, since our departure she wasn't able to get one. We send one bottle, then been asked for more - she loved it. She would ask, send me some more. 'I feel really really good every time I have a shot' - she would pass this message in the letters from my aunt. Yes, she loved it - so we sent more. Twenty years passed, my grandmother is now gone, resting in peace. I got married, got new home, and a bottle of the vitamin in my fridge - brand new, never opened, with label reading 12% alcohol.

We Used to Drink on the School Trips

Imagine this, twenty five kids on the bus going on the school trip, and once in the while some of them would take a bottle of Vodka from their knapsack and drink, including me. Yes, we used to drink, but it wasn't a Vodka, it was a tea or some kind of juice. Back then we didn't really have good drinking plastic bottles to bring our drink in, so we used whatever we had at home. Since the Vodka bottle was the only bottle with the screw top, that was the most popular bottle taken on the trip, some of them still with a label on it. So this is how we used to drink on the school trips in the elementary school. The scary part was that they actually let us drink on the bus while bus was in motion. Luckily we didn't damage our teeth. So one day here is me, drinking my Vodka from the bottle, suddenly I stand up on the bus and yelled out to my friend beside me - did you see this, wow? And suddenly my teacher gave me a look that I had to bury myself in the bus chair, turning red, and trying to drink my Vodka, and of course to pretend that nothing happened. Can you guess what I saw? I will give you some clues: it was in Europe, it was a big tree, parked bike on the side of the road.