War veterans and hard times was mentioned and I’d like to write a little about that. When I came back from Nam, everything and I mean everything was on the counter for me. If it numbed the brain, it was good......for a time. Somewhere down the line I started to think of the memories I had and how they were kind of like a school bully. No matter what, the bully was still going to exist no matter how many times a person ran from him. It’s easier said than done, but at some point the bully has to be faced or mentally die from self pity and self pity isn’t a very good image to look at when one views the mirror. So, long story short, I did indeed have to face him and behold, he ran. Slowly yes but the memories faded and are not so ominous as they used to be. The walls that surrounded my very existance, dropped and no longer serve as some excuse for not living a life that I now know was made just for me. I’m a real human with limitations but those limitations are only those which would prevent me from being who I am really supposed to be and meant to be. For me, it took faith not only in my creator, but in myself..................
Every one of my friends who were drafted and sent to Nam came back totally messed up from that experience and they never were the same after that. Hippies were about peace and love, not war and killing. I watched every one of them drown their sorrows in the drug of their choice and I wonder to this day if they were able to ever rise above their nightmares. I'm glad you were able to @Bobby Cole
I learned to drink and smoke in my teenage years as many young'uns did. I did my share of drinking while in military service. Later in a job that required excessive entertaining, I drink the same way. When I became a family man my drinking subsided to special occasions, a toddy on Christmas Eve or birthdays. The last time I felt light headed was on my fortieth birthday, We threw a party, invited friends from my work place and friends from my wife's work, plus a few friends not associated with either of our jobs, a good mixture, some twenty couples. We had a keg of beer donated by the Coors distributer and enough bottles of different whiskeys, gins, vodkas, and a few other miscellaneous drinks, enouigh so we did look like a small liquor store when our cubbards and pantries were bared. That's is the last serious drinking I did. During the last ten years I've had three beers, three vodka tonics, and a couple of gin tonics. For eight years there has been a quart of vodka in my garage, unopened, in case I find myself in need or just wanting to ease some burden in my mind. The matching bottles of tonic I threw out years ago. I suppose the only thing I am addicted to is my supporting oxygen and the love and care of a good wife. Some things a man can't live without. As for writing and drinking, some people handle the two okay but I no longer handle drink and the ability to write well, I never acquired. As far as your question, "Are They Drunkards?" All I can say is I have not the experience to make a judgement.
I think you write just fine Bill and I enjoy reading your posts very much. What I don't like is your deleting them before I finish reading them.
It was not a deletion, I wouldn't do that to you @Babs Hunt, but an edit. I'm a poor speller now days. You can read it now.
Thanks Bill. I will do just that. And since I haven't been around for awhile I sure hope you and your Mrs. are doing well.
Bobby, I went through a period in life when I couldn't drink measurable alcohol for some time, and I found there were some good non-alcoholic beers around--at least I found them so. Most of them were of European origin, but a couple were made here. Non-alcoholic wines, however, I found to be abhorrent and never found one I could tolerate.
I remember Iron City. I was never a fan, but some of my older relatives drank it as a chaser for a shot of something. Do they still make Iron City? I preferred Genesee when I lived in the Eastern U.S. "Jenny" in 16-oz. bottles was my preferred beverage after getting off work at the lumber mill.
I have several drinks of bourbon every night, totaling 3 or 4 ounces, mixed with Diet Coke or Sprite Zero. My DH and I did for as far back as I can remember. Not when we first got married because I wasn't old enough to drink then. And not while I was pregnant because, even back then, I didn't need the government to tell me that what went into my body went into my baby's body. But we enjoyed our drinks other times. We drank them while I was cooking supper. Or, if he was cooking on the charcoal grill, I would go outside and join him. I have only been drunk one time in my life. And it wasn't my fault then.
@Babs Hunt ....." but drinks until he either falls asleep or there is no beer left." Babs, generally I think most drinkers take extra care, as do smokers, to not run out of their intoxicants. Every smoker I have ever known, would never leave the house, say to attend a picnic or other gathering, without first being absolutely certain they were taking along enough smokes, or that such would be available for purchase later. The same must be true for drinkers. Thus, your guy is either unusual, or capable of consuming every bit on hand, no matter how much that is, and that is how my cousin, 3 years older than I, died, of alcohol poisoning. Frank
@Babs Hunt Now, having finished reading through your entire post, I must ask: do you truly feel your guy cares about YOU as much as you care about HIM? What if your "boundary" condition imposed far stricter conditions? Would he likely comply, or rebel? I ask these personal questions not to be prying into another's personal affairs, but rather seeking answers for another. You need not feel any obligation to answer. Your heart decides. Frank
@Gloria Mitchell Your ability to squeeze facts out of a seemingly incompressible rock are to be greatly congratulated! Frank
@Shirley Martin I hope you don't take my consideration of your post to heart! Bourbon is usually about 40% alcohol, call it 50 to make easier figuring. Thus, 4 ounces of bourbon would contain nearly 2 ounces of alcohol. Average adult healthy liver (I'm told) can remove about 1/2 ounce from the bloodstream per hour. It takes about 20-30 minutes for swallowed alcohol to reach the bloodstream; it happens gradually. So, if you "gulped down" all 4 ounces of bourbon quickly, about 2 ounces of alcohol, less actually, because the liver immediately begins removing it as it appears, about 4 hours would be needed to clear it all out. I know you don't drink that way, and none of my business if you do, anyway! Just want all to know I've researched this drinking "phenomenon" to the utmost. @Babs Hunt your guy ingests alcohol faster than the liver can remove it; thus, eventually, he will reach inebriation (if that's the word for passing out), harsh wording, I know, but you used it, so............ My BIL could drink all weekend long, reaching very nearly the point of "no return", but none of us EVER saw it happen. He drank to the point of extreme obnoxiousness, but never further. How his mind allowed that is one of my unsolved "imponderables". Frank