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**Guest** · August 24, 2006, 11:38 PM

When I was young...

looking at my kids

Reminds me that when I was young I didn't need alcohol to have fun, relax etc, etc. And that you can really have great fun and laughs just splashing in a mud puddle until the water is splashed out.

I watch my son so bravely tredge towards kindergarten. That has to be stressfull for a 5 year old--yet all he needs is a hug and he is good to go.

Kim

**cv1** · August 25, 2006, 06:53 AM

When I was young...

Becca, great relief...my first thought with drinking is at about 17 or 18. I was waterskiing, it was very hot and there was nothing but ice cold beer on the boat when I was finished..It tasted wonderful, even though I still don't like beer, but that is my earliest good memory of alcohol. The earliest bad memory, my grandmothers new husband who loved wine and garlic and stank to high heaven! Yikes!:l

**lushy** · August 25, 2006, 09:50 AM

When I was young...

Ugh, I think about this subject quite often actually. One that really sticks out for me is when I was in college. I went to a big party school but I could take or leave drinking then. I dated a boy for three years and he was a complete, raging, sloppy alcoholic. I used to get so disgusted with him because for me there is nothing worse than a sloppy man drunk. I would actually try and be a good role model and would go days and days and days without drinking and never think about it. Ironically he has been sober for 10+ years now and I am the one who is an alcoholic, or problem drinker I like to say because it sounds better. I, too, envy my 8-year-old daughter who does not have a care in the world and sometimes wish I could go back to her age and go down different non-alcohol paths so I would not end up where I am now.

I turn 40 in October and I just cannot seem to break out of this stupid habit I have set up for myself. I am going to start exercising this week which I have not done in years, as the 10 pounds that just shows up for no reason other than the fact you are a woman and getting older have somehow attached themselves to my belly. Maybe that will help motivate me to change my routine. Interesting thread. Look forward to more stories.

**happycamper68** · August 25, 2006, 10:40 AM

When I was young...

In my Irish Catholic neighborhood it was socially acceptable to bring your children to the bar. Parents would bring their children to the bar and the kids would drink Shirley Temples and play pool and drunks would slip them dollar bills. My dad would get plastered on rye and my mom would drink Manhattans and Tom Collins with her best girlfriends. The wives would always leave early to brings the kids home. I never really liked going there but I didn't have much of a choice, and at least all my friends were there. I don't even know when my dad would get home but we were always be on eggshells the next day because of his hangover and his horrible temper.

Like Becca I always swore I would never drink and when I see people bring their kids to the bar now I want to call child welfare.

My daughter is very young and I want to break this disgusting habit, but it has already started. She grabbed my glass of wine one day off the table and spilled it all over herself (it was red) and I was so horrified by the sight of her that I started crying. All this blood red wine all over my little girl, and a glass in her hand that she could have broken and cut herself with if I had left the room for even a minute. That is one of the reasons I am here.
Camper

**Guest** · August 25, 2006, 11:35 AM

When I was young...

Sorry that happened to baby girl, Camper:no:
These are interesting stories. Fuel to keep our children as far away from turning into "us" as possible. We can try!
Happy early birthday, Lush! (I feel bad calling you that:H ) The exercise helps! Makes you feel GOOD about yourself and what you are doing. Good luck!

**cjback** · August 25, 2006, 11:45 AM

When I was young...

For me, I started with "substances" at age 13. 1st pot, then other chemicals along with alcohol. It's so sad to think all those yrs were "numbed", but, guess we all ran from the fear of sobriety. I'm just realizing, even prior to abusing I was not a happy camper. It is hard for me to think of a time when I felt calm and secure when I was young? Guess that's what brought on this madness. Hey, Camper, me too with the Shirley Temples! Becca, I can relate to the family parties also, my parents were very "social" and mother was dominant, trying to be "perfect" , always worried what everyone thought of me. That loneliness and scared feeling of the lost child wanting love is the base of my illness. So the best you can do for your children is let them know they are loved, not material, not conditional love but just a hug, a smile, and really listening to them. I was never taught that and passed it on to my own children and trying so hard to make it up now. Good thread Becca!

**I Like Brandy** · August 25, 2006, 12:38 PM

When I was young...

Becca;

You hit a home run with this thread! When my parents(father usually) threw parties we had to go to a babysitter or stay in our room. One night after a party my younger sister got out of bed. Back in the
1960's the liquor stores would sell what was then called a spout that you twisted on the top of any bottle of alcohol and it had a connected straw that the alcohol would come out through. Anyway, my sister was found passed out in front of the minibar that was in our living room. Mom, (not a nurse yet at that time) called 911 and she was rushed to the hospital. Later to find out she was WAY OVER whatever the drinking limit was at that time. She stayed in the hospital for a few days to make sure she didn't do any brain damage. Scary, but my DUMB ASS father never stopped drinking. But in 2002 he didn't have a choice his health got so bad, liver was destroyed, stomache was destroyed and COLON! Never the less he is now only a memory!

:h Brandy

**Quiescent** · August 25, 2006, 12:59 PM

When I was young...

When I was young I remeber my Mom having the BIIIIIGGGG jugs of wine. I hated the way it smelled:yuk:

I remember when I was about 17, her purse had been stolen and the police called to tell her they had found it. I knew she was waaaayyy to drunk to drive so I asked if she would allow me to drive to go pick it up. She was so incensed at the very suggestion. I was petrified the whole way over there (why did I get in the car with her?)

She was sloppy drunk on far too many holidays. I never thought she was an alcoholic though. I thought that "label" was reserved for people who drank when they got out of bed in the morning.

I was wrong and here I am loving that very wine that I hated so much then.......go figure?

**Mackeral** · August 25, 2006, 01:25 PM

When I was young...

I remember when i was a kid my dad used to give me and my brothers a cap full of his rum and then crack up at the faces we would pull...Then we would run around the living room pretending to be drunk....
This usually happened when we were having a James Bond night.We would pull the couch right up to the telly and get loads of sweets and pop from the shop.
I do it now with my kids ,but dont subject them to the rum,and i think they'd laugh if i suggested Jimmy Bond.

**peaches** · August 25, 2006, 01:31 PM

When I was young...

I don't remember my parents drinking much. My first experience was in high school my friends & I would go buy a quart of beer a piece & drink it with a straw. You were suppose to get drunker that way. We would laugh and have so much fun. It's no wonder I kept it up!
Pea

**YoungAtHeart** · August 25, 2006, 05:54 PM

When I was young...

I was fortunate that my early life didn't contain any alcohol traumas. My parents were very much social drinkers when I was young. I remember a funny time though, when I was about 8 or 9 and we were visiting my aunt and uncle. My cousin and I were supposed to be in her room "sleeping":H, but we were listening the the grownups, who were downstairs drinking Manhattens and getting pretty rowdy. All of a sudden, my dad came running up the stairs and into the bathroom and GUESS WHAT?? Yep! He barfed his guts out! He couldn't keep up with my aunt and uncle, who drank their two Manhattens daily (my aunt still does, bless her soul, no more no less!) My cousin and I thought that this curious grown up behavior was hysterically funny, although we had to keep our laughter down, because the grown ups retired shortly thereafter! We knew they'd be angry if they knew we were listening to all of that!

My dad's brother was the classic "alcoholic" in the family. He kept a job, but the rest of the time he was drinking. And he could get mean! I think that my dad also had a problem in his later years, after about 55. After work he would always have two glasses of wine, but after he was retired, he would start after about 3, and have 3 or 4 glasses. He would put ice cubes in them to make them last longer. But he was always civilized and never a slob. I have only thought of him as having a problem as I have learned more about alcholism.

Funnily enough, my mom was never a drinker, but she was the one with the temper, and she could be more mean spirited than my dad. Although her own father didn't drink, all of his siblings were alcoholics. So I definitely have it from both sides of my family.

I have talked with my daughter about this. Fortunately, she only gets her alkie genes from my side of the family! Despite my gripes about my ex, there's no alcoholism there, thank goodness!

**Allie** · August 25, 2006, 11:26 PM

When I was young...

This makes me sad to read these stories, but I know this is a healthy thing! My very first time I had alcohol, I liked it. It was at a homecoming game and I was in 11th grade. My date was on the football team, and he told me and some of my girlfriends that he had a bottle of Jack Daniels under his car seat and his car was unlocked. Well, we got ourselves a Coke at the concession and we poured our very first drink. My friend said after about ten minutes (I'll never forget this) "Turn your head back and forth really fast!" When I did... that was when I realized I was officially "buzzed." My brain could not keep up with what my eyes were seeing. How cool. So I I did that off and on, but never really thought much about it. Fast forward six years later, I was married, two kids and going through a divorce. Never thought about drinking much, but I knew it was the one thing I could turn to that would make me feel better. Amazing how you never know how one teen's little drinking episode can be a one time thing, or a lifetime thing. But to encouarge anyone, things are SO much better! (Okay, SO doesnt qualify... I need a better word!)

Allie

**Sooo*over it** · August 26, 2006, 12:18 AM

When I was young...

When I was young... It's funny I bet my mother could count the number of times she drank. It was just never really an issue with her. I remember in my high school years she went to a christmas party and must of had a drink and when she came home she was just really talkative. My best friend and I knew right a way something wasn't right because she was generally not so giggly. I guess now that I think of it she would have a wine cooler from time to time. My father on the other hand drank but stayed away from home.. sometimes for days... I don't know how it became an issue for me. My mother knew I was drinking at 16 there was never a real punishment. She always warned me though because Alcohol abuse runs on my fathers side of the family that one day I could have a problem. But it was never enough to make me stop.
I remember being 12 and spending the night at a friends house and pitching in to have her brother by wine coolers and beer and purple passion. I hated it.. but at 12 you do a lot of things to keep friends..

**Lou** · August 26, 2006, 01:03 AM

When I was young...

Mackers an Bambs...SOS!!!

Mackers an Bambs!!

Needing some serious support from you guys today as i
have fallen mightily from my throne.............i feel poo!

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