The story I read, many years ago, was that Laura told W that she would leave him if he didn’t quit drinking. It was apparently affecting their lives. I don’t recall if it was specifically said that he was alcoholic. If he wasn’t, and just liked to drink beer with the guys on occasion, it seems a little extreme for Laura to make such a demand.
I was perusing the Bush drinking story this morning and found that Laura denied that line of thinking, that there was ever an ultimatum threatened between either one of them. I believe it was in the CBS interview that she denied that was ever said.
She said they never would have parted and loved one another very much. She also said they did often discuss his drinking to excess, however, and when he decided to stop, he stopped.
I’m pretty confident it was not “once in awhile with the boys”. The frequency was implied, for me anyway, because she said it was the Big Oil culture in Midland. Texas drank hard and still plays hard all the time, in lore and for real. It is not so in vogue today, maybe.
That generation is probably on bottled water today, which is more in vogue.