The Drinking Life
I was just thinking this morning about how I was exposed to alcohol in utero and consistently thereafter. My mom drank (not heavy) through all of her pregnancies. It was the 40s and 50s so I don't think they understood the danger then.
Alcohol was present in our home all the time. And when people came over, they drank. My first drink was behind the jr. high school at age 13. Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill. We drank under the bleachers at football games in high school and then in college (legal age was 18 then). Binge drinking at frat parties, etc.
Stopped when I was in my 20s... and drank very rarely until I was 44. Then all hell broke lose. But the time from college until 44 drinking was always part of the social scene. No matter what type of event, booze was present. Dinners, parties, BBQs, golf games, etc.
I have lived a drinking life, even if I didn't always drink. It is endemic to our society.