Alcoholic Friendships

An unusual topic, but there you go! There will occasionally, perhaps always, be odd topics here.

I probably mentioned that V. took off with a guy he met in detox. It is likely he has been with the guy since Friday. It reminded me of my own drinking days and the friendships we formed during those times.

When I was drinking, I was a regular at a neighborhood bar. Every day, five or six of us would gather at the same time and start our serious drinking. It was usually around noon. New people would come in occasionally and we would adopt them immediately. They became "part of the crowd" within minutes. Didn't matter whether it was a local retired person or an ex-con. He or she became part of our social network. He or she would be expected to show up regularly, participate in our endlessly bizarre conversations about nothing and to come to our defense if needed. Drinking was, of course, required.

When I was finally arrested for drunk driving, oh so many years ago, I counted on my "social network" to defend me, stand by me and walk me through the entire court process.

Guess what?

They never showed a hair.

This is not surprising. Looking back, I can see how shallow those friendships were, even with all the intensity of the moment. Drunken declarations of lifelong friendship were standard in our world, even though we meant not one single word of it five minutes in the future. We thought we did. We meant it when we said it. In that moment. We just had the follow-up skills of an infant.

"yerr maiii bess frennn in the whole wrrrrrld. I loooooovvvvvv yoooooo."

Not uncommon by any means and we said with heartfelt sincerity.

Now I see V. carrying on in the same tradition and can almost predict the conversations that have taken place all weekend.

Oh, I raise my coffee cup to the adolescent intimacy of alcoholic friendships! Wouldn't it be nice if it was really so simple?


May all have a wonderful Monday, free to laugh at the absurdity of our pasts ~


Thailand Gal
~*~*~