Celebrating Positives (offset of the Gripes Thread)

[nomadpete]

Looks like we'll miss you.

 

Driving to Brisvegas  in June.

 

Tonight, got a couple of fires going, music and cheap wine & better cheese.

 

Maybe catch up next tine.

 

 

[Jerry_Atrick]

Mmmmm.. Cheese... Will be sampling the local stuff while out in Aus... It has some competition. 

[onetrack]

I must say I'm very fortunate to have never taken up smoking or drinking in excessive amounts, from even pre-teen years. I can remember finding a packet of Turf cigarettes on the road whilst riding my bike when I was about 10 - tried one, and after coughing and spluttering for a while, thought, "Why the hell would anyone want to do this??" I threw the rest of the packet away.

I guess having bad asthma for many years as a child, made me very wary about doing anything adverse, that would affect my breathing ability or lung capacity.

 

The same went for alcohol. Neither of my parents drank much alcohol at all. They would buy a bottle of Rose or Vermouth and have a little with meals. I never saw them in the bars of pubs, knocking back constant glasses of beer, wine or spirits. My teenage mates were never big on booze, and when I went to parties where beer was offered, I decided I hated the taste of it. So I became a very moderate wine and spirits drinker. A bottle of Whisky lasts me 12 to 18 months, and even longer in recent times.

 

I used have a few glasses every month, of mostly white wine, in the 70's and 80's, but mostly when dining out. I was never a big party-goer anyway, I was always working, trying to build up a business, and operating and repairing machines and dealing with clients. Funnily enough, I worked in industries (earthmoving/trucking/mining) where heavy boozing was just a daily habit. A "carton a day" was common amongst compatriots.

Even in the Army, I drank very little, while at least half of the other blokes in the Army were borderline alcoholics, and the lager culture ruled in the military.

 

The more I learn as I get older, is just how much many diseases and body organ failures, are linked back to excessive alcohol consumption and smoking. I have never seen a centenarian who was a heavy drinker, but I've watched a lot of business and work associates, and a few friends, die too young, with alcohol or smoking-related complaints.

And of course, quite a few died in alcohol-related car accidents, often self-inflicted. But my elder brother was killed by a drunk in a 5 ton Ford truck when I was 15, and he was 25 and newly married, so I guess that affected me for life, too.

 

Good on you Jerry, for going almost alcohol-free, it has major advantages as you age. I found that as I aged, the adverse effects of alcohol on the day after drinking a few, became harder to shake off.

[red750]

Like you, OT, I was turned off alcohol and smokes at an early age. My grandfather was responsible. When I was a youngster, my family shared the farmhouse with my paternal grandparents. I can clearly recall my grandfather on the back verandah of the farmhouse giving me a puff of a roll-your-own and making me sick, and at another time giving me a sip of scotch, which I hated.We left the farm when I was seven, so it was before that age. I was never tempted again. My father didn't drink or smoke either. When he went to a hotel, he would drink sarsaparilla.