Remember a social event called "A Cocktail Party"?

I do, but I think patio/backyard pool  parties/barbecues have replaced them for a variety  of reasons.  

Off  subject I've been digging through the contents of an old yellow suitcase that contains all kinds of old letters, paper souvenirs - several press passes and other memoirs of my past and came across the following an essay on the very subject of cocktail parties!

DEBATABLE:  Cocktail parties are more enjoyable than they used to be. To a hostess or a guest, the words "For cocktails." means to flinch in dread.  Smoky, noisy rooms  - carpets and chair arms smoldering  with cigarette butts, and horrid little bits of food.  It's very, very difficult to do a balancing act with a filled glass, cocktail napkin (too small for any real use) either a plate or another napkin with slidy, quarter-sized little goodies and a lit cigarette.  That's still true now in the 90s.  

A cocktail party is still a shot at free booze, but people aren't gulping down martinis and young Scotches anymore.    They' re sipping wine. And those fools that smoke are instantly banished to the Great Outdoors.  I smoked and spent many an interlude out on a balcony, porch, sidewalk and it is now my dream to throw a gathering for and make the non-smokers  stay only on the balcony etc. for Valentine's Day cocktails.