Speak Up Saturday
Introducing Bev’s Tall Tales by Bev
Last winter we had a group called, “Ten Minutes Stories,” where we each picked a word and wrote about it spontaneously for ten minutes. This short piece came from Bev, a woman who had experience with family members’ drinking. It is from her point of view, but I know many people who have loved ones, and have lost loved ones in the same deep hole. May this small writing help express the pain and frustration of loving (and despairing of ) people in our lives who are addicted to dangerous, unhealthy substances such as drugs and alcohol. DiVoran
Bev’s Tall Tales
About Booze
Booze, whiskey, toddy, cocktails, drinks…the list goes on; the word defines who we are. Cocktails? That’s a social elitist word for drink. Old fashioned terms for a drinker are: boozer, down and out drunk, wino, AA candidate, but won’t admit it yet and many others. (See, The Definitive Drinker’s Dictionary, which contains 2,964 other terms to describe the condition.
Alone? What better place to strike up a conversation than at a bar. Even if you never utter a word there’s always comfort in hearing the din, the bartender taking an order, the jukebox bellowing out smooth and swaying music or hard rock and roll. My brother always found the bars to be a place of comfort; a place where everybody knew his name.
Unfortunately, booze can rob you of your soul, a perfectly sweet, gentle, kind woman becomes a foul-mouthed, vicious rampaging madwoman, a kind, and caring man becomes a belt swinging hitter and beater of the tiniest child. Booze becomes cocktails in a civilized living room setting; voices get softer, quieter in a bar until the third drink then it equals out–ALL BOOZERS.
Proverbs 23:35
Old Things R New 