My Life Story with Alcohol

Alcohol

I don’t have much history with drugs or Alcohol.  In fact I have never drunk, and never used drugs.  The closest I ever gotten was smoking a weed—not marijuana but an actual weed.  There was a weed that was hollow, and we were told you could smoke them and keep the thing burning.  That was my only experience on the wild side, and it wasn’t very pleasurable, so I only did this once with a group of friends, when I was 9 or 10 years old.

When I was in high school, I wanted to go to a basketball game but didn’t have a ride to get there.  I called around to some friends, and finally got a ride with James Salvesen and Terril Morgan.  I can’t remember for sure who was driving.  I lived in Hyrum, Southern Cache County, and the high school, Sky View, a county school, was in the Northern part of the county.  It was about 10 miles away, and you had to go through Logan to get there.

On this particular night, the people I was riding with decided they needed to get some alcohol to make the trip more enjoyable.  There is a small market close to the University, and my friends ventured there.  I think it was James who ventured to ask men as they entered the store, if they would buy some beer for him.  We were too young to make the purchase.  It was the second or third time he asked that someone agreed to purchase the beer.  He came back to the car with a six-pack in a paper bag.

We were still a few miles away from the school.  Instead of going the traditional way to get there, we took the back roads.  My friends proceeded to drink the beer.  They offered me, but I declined.  We hadn’t gotten very far when we were hit with a dilemma.  They needed to relieve themselves.  I think we were only in North Logan where we found a quiet street for this process to take place.  I hadn’t realized that beer would go so quickly to your bladder.  I was so naïve. 

With the beer ingested, we made it to the school.  I don’t remember noticing any impairment with driving abilities.  I didn’t drive even though I wasn’t drinking. 

I sort of wandered and found a different crowd to hang with during the game.  I found a different ride home.

My next closest run in was when I turned 19.  I happened to be in Idaho for this birthday, where the drinking age is 19 instead of 21 like in Utah.  I decided I would venture to a bar and check out the scene.  I walked in proudly, and was asked to show identification, which I did and was then cleared to pass.  I took a couple steps further into the bar, looked around, decided I'd seen enough, and exited.  That was in Burley.

The only other times I have been in a bar was once on my mission, because that is where they had a pay phone, and in Nevada when we lived there for the same reason.  In Nevada on the desert you had to use what amenities were available.

Needless to say alcohol and drugs have not been an issue for me.  I have seen its destruction however through being a foster parent and through my employment.  Drugs are often a contributing factor to mental illness.