When you grow up relatively poor there are two types of fridges; drunk and sober. If you have beer in the fridge you are a drunk, because anyone who is genuinely poor and chooses to spend money on alcohol rather than saving it for something like the dentist, school uniforms or christmas presents is a drunk, robbing their family every time they sink a tinny.
I grew up in a loving a responsible family home, and in the early days we were relatively poor. Therefore we never had beer or wine in the house, and certainly never spirits. Eventually when I started going out with my mates on North Sydney Thursdays, CBD Fridays and Saturdays it was always to have the cheapest possible JD+coke or fire engines - Beer and Wine had not yet made it to the agenda, sophistication had yet to come calling at my door.
This had never mattered one way or another, until in one of the first weeks of my first 'proper' job as a Receptionist. Some advertising types had arrived for a meeting and asked for Beer. No problem; I went to the kitchen selected a variety of beers of different colours and whisked them back to the waiting guests. I proffered the tray, complete with bottle opener to the first shabbily (chic) dressed executive. He looked up at me surprised, asking "Aren't you going to open it?"
The room fell silent. "Um, I don't know how."
There was a significant pause as he digested this information, looking at me to check if I was been sarcastic, or lazy. I looked back unabashed with a frank gaze, "Nobody drinks it at home."
He smiled, and said "Well time to learn then."
Taking the first beer and demonstrating the simple procedure, he then handed the bottle opener to me. The producer who was running the session looked at me somewhat bemused, as the whole group stopped what they were doing, watching and waiting for me to complete my training.
I eventually, and sloppily, opened the requisite number of bottles; and collected the tray. As I turned to leave the producer looked around the room, and then pointedly at me, asking "Would anyone like a glass with their drink?"
The execs all politely declined, and ignored the deepening red of my face, as I blushed and left.
Based on all the ads and soaps I'd ever seen people didn't use glasses for beer, they drank straight out of the bottle. How the hell was I supposed to know all this. Having responsible parents was clearly a professional disadvantage.