AA on Ice

I live in a small town of 8,500 in the snow-and-ice-belt of southwestern Massachusetts. For the past twenty-one years, I've been hosting a venison-burger, steamed-onions, and hot-dog roast on the ice of the lake where I live on New Year's Day. In the first nine of those years, there was a great deal of drinking. I was careful to have more than enough booze available. The bar was the very first and most important thing to be set up and stocked. Many of us used it as a good excuse to "get well" from our New Year's Eve partying. As the years progressed, this annual event grew and grew. It was fun skating, skiing, sliding, eating, and drinking. By 4:00 P.M., most people were gone, and I was usually drunk and in serious need of a nap.