UP FRONT: Was ‘Puff’ a reference to drugs? Sorry, irrelevant

I’m going along, feeling pretty good about myself and then all of a sudden I read about the death of Peter Yarrow, of Peter, Paul and Mary fame, at age 86.

What the heck? Nothing makes you feel old like someone who was an icon of your youth dying of old age.

Aging usually doesn’t bother me much. In fact, I have to remind myself that I’m 70 years old now, which is nearly a decade older than both of my parents at their deaths and more than most of my other ancestors. The only grandparent I had who lived beyond her 80s was my great-grandma, Stella, who lived to be 93 and who said it was because she drank a gin and tonic every afternoon.

This was an embarrassment to my teetotaler grandma, but Great-Grandma Stella lived through Prohibition when folks had to make gin in a bathtub that tasted like kerosene and she just never got over it. She was so surprised when she discovered gin that was actually palatable that she decided to make it a priority in her life.

I heard later on that GG Stella’s cocktail actually contained only about a thimbleful of gin and a full cup of tonic water. But it was potent enough to put her to sleep in front of the television at night.

I’m not sure U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, who has advised putting warning labels on alcohol, would agree but there are people who think moderate consumption of alcoholic beverages might actually be good for your health. I once interviewed a 100-year-old woman who attributed her long life (“I come from a family of long-livers,” she said) to the fact that she drank a beer every single day. She had grown up in Germany where, she told me, whole families would gather on Sunday afternoons to picnic and visit and children as young as 6 years old drank beer. It was quite watered down, she said, but it was the custom and nobody ever got drunk.

These days when alcoholism and substance abuse are serious problems in the U.S. we may be dubious of that claim. But you can always find exceptions to the rule. I nearly fell over dead when I read that Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were 80 years old — now 81. Still going strong although they both look like snuffed-out cigarette butts.

Back in the day those rockers were famous for poisoning their bodies with all kinds of chemicals and other bad behavior. You would think they would have destroyed their livers long ago. But maybe it pickled them, or, as in the case of the 100-year-old woman, they come from lines of long-livers.

Then there’s Peter Yarrow. I never heard much about overindulgent behavior among Peter, Paul and Mary, although Yarrow did once serve a prison sentence for taking “indecent liberties” with a 14-year-old girl.

Mostly that group portrayed a wholesome image in an era of sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll. But there was a persistent rumor that the much-beloved song, “Puff the Magic Dragon,” was actually about marijuana, although I never heard Peter, Paul or Mary say so. The song was based on a children’s poem but the pot rumor remains. The other day, when I posted a video of the group singing “Puff, the Magic Dragon” on my Facebook page, a friend made a crack about loving those old drug songs.

To me, it’s neither here nor there. It’s a song that brings back happy memories and whether Peter, Paul and Mary were part of the drug culture it didn’t seem to do much for their physical longevity. It’s their artistic longevity that will outlast all of us.

Hedberg may be contacted at khedberg@lmtribune.com.