I'm in!!
BigSombrero!! Good to see you!
This is a fascinating opening post and shares. I have never been a big social drinker. From the very start, in my teens, my few friends were the "good kids" who never considered drinking underage...I stole and "borrowed" from adults from age 14 and then found the saddest little liquor store you ever saw, when I was 16. The miserable broken sick man who ran the till would sell to anyone who came in the door, including me. I did NOT resemble a 21-yo, and he never asked for an ID.
I got my act together around age 19 and drank normally for a few years..meaning for me only special occasion with my religious friends. Omg...stopping now...this would turn into a travelogue of my drinking life.
Let me abruptly stop with just this...I see how the "cult" of normalized drinking has changed for young people around me where I am (middle of US). The booze industry with "hand-crafted" and "ethnic/international" cocktails...has coat tailed on the gourmet concept and enticed people who wouldn't be as interested. I really see it in young 20-something children of friends and acquaintances. Having escaped the hellish party culture of high school and college, they now think they are doing the mature and sophisticated thing.
Gosh...chatty today I guess. Glad to be here.