like most people, we all have a vice. some call it a bad habit, some call it a way of life and some just need something to get through the day. and like most people i have it all.
a vice, bad habit (ok lots of them), and i need something to get me through the day.
i live on coffee, pepsi, cigarettes, xanx, and some times chocolate. i know great diet.
the coffee started at 15, and has not stopped since. pepsi was always in my house growing up so i continued the tradition.
as for the cigarettes, well, that started at a very young age. and children reading this i say this : DO NOT START, DO NOT PICK ONE UP, DO NOT GIVE IN TO YOUR FRIENDS AND START SMOKING.
i wish every day i never started. my older cousin and cousin in law were smokers. my grandfather smoked cigars, my dad smoked a pipe and various other members of my family smoked too. granted a lot of the family stopped. but my cousin had not and i spent many family dinners with a ashtray in front of me.
when i was about 12 my grandfather passed away. we sat shiva at my grandmothers, jewish tradition when a family member dies, and well my cousin left his cigarettes out and i took the pack. i can still remember this as clear as if it was just a second ago. i grabbed other cousin who was my age and we went for a walk and lit up. where she got sick, i did not and continued with a habit that i have yet to get rid of. trust me i try to quit. i try once a month. and within a few days i start all over again.
back in the day when mothers were pregnant and we are talking 40 years plus ago, there was nothing about the surgeon general warning mothers not to smoke or anyone else for that matter. there were no warning on alcohol or cigarettes that it could be harmful to you or your child. doctors gave out drugs like candy. now if you see anyone smoking child services are at your door before you give birth, drinking automatically labels you for an A.A meeting and any drug not FDA approved gets you in the slammer for a few days to a year.
my drinking was never cause for a lot of concern, but starting at 9 1/2 is a little over the top.
it started at my cousin's wedding. the groom, same guy who left the smokes out, was making the rounds thanking everyone for coming and he was caring his ever present glass of scotch.
well i asked for a sip and proceeded to drink every last drop before he could stop me. no beer for this girl, i went for the hard stuff and then i proceeded to make the rounds in search of more. i found grandpa with his champagne, dad with a screwdriver, someone else with a rum and coke and finally another glass of scotch. note to anyone DO NOT MIX LIKE THAT!!
i was drunk and i mean really drunk. i had no clue what was going on. all i knew was that i was going to be sick any second. and i was. thankfully my mom, being too concerned that i was sick, did not notice the smell of alcohol on my breath. she just got me into the nearest ladies room and held me while i emptied the contents of my stomach. then of course came the first hangover. in the family picture we too at the end of the night, you could tell i was sick. drunk, no, just sick.
you would think that experience would have stopped me. no. for the next few years long before the legal drinking age of 21, i would sneak a drink. the worst part of this was the fact that i gave my baby cousin scotch too. i was babysitting for the same cousins that got married. the little one was only a few months old and teething. her father had said there was stuff in the bar and wine in the fridge and to help my self. i did. and that night the baby and i were both on the bottle. this is something to this day i feel bad about. and yeah we make jokes about what i did. but it still does not change the fact that i gave an innocent baby who was in pain from cutting teeth a few drops of scotch in her bottle.
if D.C.F.S ever read this i am sure i would be carted away in handcuffs.
i was 15 years old when this happened.
for years after that, my girlfriends and i would get drunk or buzzed on the weekends. we would lie and say we were going to some one's house and ended up in some hotel room drinking or bribing the bouncer downtown to let us in. by that time the law did change to 21 but being the master of deceit i was, i could make the best fake id's. no bouncer ever questioned us. that and slipping him/her a $20 helped too. so we would drink and of course drive home. yeah stupid and dangerous and something i do not recommend. and somehow by the grace of god never get killed or kill someone else.
back then we did not have a law about drinking and driving. that came many years later. when the law was passed it was not as tough as it is now. then it was a fine. pay it, do time in traffic school and bye bye have a nice day. now it's pay a fine, loose the driver's license, do time in jail and of course take some classes.
and of course i did the same thing to my younger cousins. i would help encourage this. they would ask for a sip and i gave them one. they would ask me to buy them a drink, and i did.
how my younger cousins grew up to be the wonderful, smart adults they are today has nothing to do with me. the only thing i can take credit for is that i stopped babysitting and left them to their parents.
so you see how times have changed. would i do any of this today? would i even think about doing any of this to my nephew? hell no!!!! i want him to realize that (if he ever reads this) be smarter than your aunt. learn from the mistakes i have made. if you can do it even a little better than me, you have won the battle. and for the record i do not drink hardly anything anymore. yes i still have coffee, but the rest, due to what this did to my health, not anymore.
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