Draciack

Around 13-14ish for my first beer. My father preferred what he called "the European way" of exposing kids to alcohol--start 'em young so it didn't seem like a big deal later on. However, the real drinking started when I first drank liquor at 17, and the memory is still fresh to me today. Straight vodka out of a water bottle. Something "clicked" and I was off to the races.

yeahgr8

I started drinking heavy at 17.

I first got drunk at 8...i was sneaking unfinished drinks at a dinner party, they put me to bed and i fell down the stairs with a pillow i had fallen in love with and proceeded to tell everyone that the pillow was a girl i had a crush on at school.

On the drive home, remember im 8, i said we should all go the pier arcade to play the machines, my mother said why on earth would they take me in that state so i called her a ****, got a smack and fell asleep in the back of the car with my pillow...

Rev

That's classic. LOL.

I discovered quarters when I was like 15 or so. 9th grade. I really loved it, and I think I started drinking alone (at least from time to time) not long after. Of course, when I got my first apartment, then I drank alone every weekend. In High School and college, I just tended to get drunker than average at parties, and made an arse of myself quite a few times. As I've gotten older, the quantity I drink at one sitting has lessened, but I drink more often (almost every day).

Rev

Sugah

First blackout drunk, age six. Have a friend who had hers at five.

Peace & Love,
Sugah

Mark75

11 years old. Other, more interesting things at 12 (it was the sixties)

yeahgr8

Substitute 8 for any other age, school for work and mother for girlfriend/wife...and you've got a pretty good picture of the last 30 years too!

Nevertheless

My first tastes of beer were with my dad, probably around 12. I didn't like it. But when I turned 16 and started driving we could cross the state line and buy beer (18 was the legal age then). The store owners never carded us. We were doing this several times a week. The taste didn't matter, I wanted to get drunk.
By about age 19 I got a job in a factory, and worked the night shift. Quittin time was beer oclock every night. I could get all kinds of people to buy beer. I was no doubt alcoholic by age 20. When I turned 21 and could just walk into any beer store, it was all over. We got off work at midnight to walk into bars where everyone had already been drinking all night. That was always fun.
The same thing happened every day at "quittin time" for about 30 years. (Give or take a few short sober stretches).
I was driving home from a Tea party tonight with the window down after dark experiencing how kool being sober really is.
This is the first summer in 30+ years (last year I was still afraid to do much for fear I might drink) that I have been sober after dark with the monkey completely off of my back. It's awesome.
Fred

CarolD

My Sunday afternoon date took me to the movies
followed by an early dinner in a fancy Chinese restaurant.
Wow! my first real dinner date!
I felt so grown up...I was 15 he was 16.

He ordered a Manhatten ...handed me the drink list.
????? The only thing I knew about drinking was
from the movies. My family were religious non drinkers..

His name was Tom....so I ordered a Tom Collins.
Tasted like lenonade...I felt nothing...they may have not
added the gin.....I sure wouldn't have known...

I was more interested in learning how to use Chopsticks.

Drinking or not drinking was not an issue for me for
many years. I consider I drank alcoholically for 5 years.

DayWalker

Chris I don't mean to hi-jack your post here, but looking at some of the replies of people saying they started when they were 12 or some even at 6yrs old I hope I'm not prying by asking anyone this... but I just have to ask because I can't hardly wrap my head around some of the ages....How in the world did some of you even have access to Alcohol at that young of an age?

Steve

Edit: And Carol....."His name was Tom....so I ordered a Tom Collins."

Now that's funny! lol

AlbaStar

Technically, the first time I drank I was two - apparently, I was drinking people's sherry at a party when they put their glasses down. Nobody realised till I was found unconscious.

Used to steal from the liquor cabinet when my parents were out during my teenage years, but it didn't really become a problem until I was twenty or so and learnt how to like beer.

SmileyKiwi

First got drunk at age 6 - drank a bottle of sherry. Dad used to give me peach wine cooler from about age 12. Was a heavy drinker in my 20's and full-blown by 30. Now 212 days sober.

Peter

First drink at 9.

First hangover at 13

Full time drinker at 16.

Sober at 34

shaun00

difficult to be exact.

i have vague memorys of sneaking dreggs on a ferry to jersey when i was a youngun.......maybe 11/12...and feeling woozy
i was drinking from a bottle in the park with mates around 15.....falling down drunk.

i like the taste of port and lemon when i was a kid and mum would water down the port and give me a glass.....5/6/7........not sure..

still a big problem here in the uk with children getting hold of booze and causing mischief....

zoomer

sips of beer very young,but first real drink at 12.

tsukiko

My father rubbed alcohol on my dummy when I was teething and put it in my bottle to soothe me to sleep. Got drunk after downing my first full pint when I was 3 years old. I can’t remember a Christmas I didn’t drink a bottle of wine, a BBQ without ‘fruit punch ‘ (rum, gin, sherry and fruit), a New Year’s without Irish cream or a footie match without beer...ever.

Wonder where it all went wrong

mikefreak

Frst time I got drunk, I was around 15. The trouble REALLY began when I had my first German beer. As the buzz came on, it was like "where have you been all of my life"?If I had not had so little time left in the service, They may have kicked me out- I was already being evaluated for possible drug/alcohol abuse. FORCED, even.

Lionne

First drink and first time really drunk on the same night at 13. 3/4 of a bottle of cheap white wine.

Walter

Dad gave me sips of beer when I was around 12. Started drinking at parties around 17...started binging on weekends at 19-20...I started drinking vodka to go to sleep at 22 and quit altogether at 24 after jail and hospital visits.

My entire drinking career only spanned 7 years and only 2 were heavy. I consider myself lucky. For some reason I fell into serious alcoholism the moment I began drinking to go to sleep. Soon after that I began drinking in the mornings and such. There was no incubation period. I was a very clean person one day and a full blown alcoholic a month later. It was very scary.

aqua4017

I was 20 when I started drinking. It was a weekend thing then but right after my 22nd birthday is when I began showing signs of alcoholism-drinking alone, lying about my drinking, etc. It went downhill really fast for me.

Zencat

I think I was about 14 when I was introduced to alcohol, weed and psychedelic drugs...all at the same time. I learned what it was to be loaded in fast order.