About me, what happened, and

Briefly, I am 63. Hi, I'm Robin and I am a drunk. Silence. I hated those meetings so I am a drunk, not an alcoholic.

The first time I got drunk I almost died. My buddy Duke got booze and two girls. We were on the way to a party.

We were all 17 or maybe 19, I don't recall. Duke was huge and no one refused him service, ever. He was smoking 2 packs of Picayunes a day. Yes, we lived in Louisiana.

I told Duke I didn't know how to drink. He said, you get your favorite soft drink and pour in the booze, so we stopped at a local dairy bar. The others got Coke, I got a very large Dr. Pepper. The booze was Old Crow.

Silly me. I was off to a VERY bad start.

[ Hmm. I wonder if any sort of liquor / liquer goes well or good? with Dr. Pepper? Do any recipes come to mind?

An aside. I finished the Bartending School of Dallas in 1971 and tended bar for a while. I didn't like the band at the bar. They "covered" the band Chicago's songs exclusively. I got headaches from the noise.

Recipes are part of my life so I will imagine a recipe here. Just for fun, how about Tia Maria and Dr. Pepper? I actually had a recipe published in a Southern Comfort brochure about that time. ]

The party was probably fun. We all left and visited a local restaurant in Hammond for coffee, which I still did not drink.

I told Duke I was feeling poorly. We walked around the block and I sat on the steps of a local dentist. I was paralyzed, alcohol poisoning.

Duke said he was going to call my grandfather. I moaned, NOOOOOOO. We sat there long enough for feeling to return to my limbs. I got home somehow and never saw any of them again.

I remember other early troubles with alcohol. One night I was with so-called friends. We were drinking wine. It turned out I was the only one drinking this gallon of Gallo rotgut. Most of it was gone. I was still in college, around 1972. I "left" the wine outside in front of my car and don't recall how I got home.

Around that time, I visited a local bar, alone. I was slipped a Mickey / Mickey Finn for those of you old enough, and this was long before today's silly drugs.

I have a homing instinct and got to my car, weaved my way home and crawled into the house. My grandpa called the doc. He pronounced me drugged. I slept a while. No one ever mentioned this again.

Not much drinking since these episodes till about 9 years ago when the slide began. Beer a six pack at a time. Then a case. Then a bottle of vodka, then a case, then a case of the 1.75 liter size. Now both vodka and beer.

I am very poor. I buy the cheapest vodka and Natural Ice, the very best dollar value, alcohol wise, of beer I know of.

That is me, now. A poor drunk.

About a quart of alcohol a day or more is too much but I exceed this amount several times a week. I have slightly more focused days at around 22 oz. of booze.

Less than this amount I cannot sustain more than a day or two in a row.

So, that is my alcohol story in brief. Feel free to post your story. No one judges here.