Why It’s Hard To Have A No-Drinking Day In L.A’s South Bay

Blame It On The Happy Hours, Daily Bars Specials & Sunsets

By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Blogger

I’m a drinker who is a product of my environment.

When there’s no environment, I’m not a drinker. But when there is an environment, then I’m holding a beer, ordering a drink, toasting with wine or making or consuming margaritas or boat drinks.

And this is one of (few) problems of living in such a fun place as Hermosa Beach, CA, and the surrounding Los Angeles South Bay Beach Cities.  It’s simply difficult to go a day here without drinking. That’s because every single night, there’s a drinking environment.

If there’s not a daily Happy Hour or a Taco Tuesday or line dancing Wednesday or 30% off for locals at a local bar on Thursdays, then there’s great weather and sunsets.  Or somebody’s birthday (it seems you can’t go a week in the South Bay without someone you know having a birthday gathering).

And don’t get me even started on the events – Smackfest, Fiesta Hermosa, wine & beer festivals, Hometown Fair... Or the bottomless mimosas with weekend brunches.

It’s gotten to the point where I – and several friends – have designated at least one day a week as a “non-drinking day.” We resist the temptation to hit a Happy Hour, to pop open even a single beer or have a small glass of wine at sunset.

We’ll even go to extremes to achieve this, and that strategy involves avoiding, talking to or texting other friends whom we know can quickly influence us into a bar or some other drinking setting.

Now before you start thinking that we need to get some serious help and check ourselves into a clinic, let me state that this doesn’t mean we get bombed every night. Far from it; we may have two, three or four glasses of wine or beers, maybe a cocktail or two.

These are usually fairly early in the evening. It’s not as if we’re not closing the bars every night on Pier Ave.

And we don’t do drugs.

We also exercise a lot – running and biking along The Strand, playing beach volleyball and doing any number of outdoor activities are all a regular part of life along the coast in Southern California.

We also eat fairly well, and rarely (if ever) visit a fast food chain restaurant.

So it’s not as if we’re living life like we’re on a runaway freight train.

It’s just that we’re in an environment where having a couple – or a few – drinks enhances watching a sunset, being around good friends and in general living in a happy place where it’s warm and sunny 325 days a year.

So you see, it’s really far more about the setting than getting sauced.