He said my reaction to it would tell him if I was going to be a lush or not. My reaction to it was, "I've been using NyQuil most of my life. Tastes about the same."
After I took advantage of the opportunity when it arose at my UofU fraternity, I made the conscious decision that not having full control of my body was not something I liked. And I was just a little tipsy.
I've been tipsy only twice since then, and both times it was drinking beer, and the intention was NOT to get tipsy. The last time was when, during league golf play, my playing partner got a hole-in-one and the beer was free... I had to hang out at the golf course for a couple of hours after that. ...I think I was posting here during that sobering couple of hours.
Now I am a full and complete follower of the Word of Wisdom, and I only wish I had a horse I could pamper with all the tobacco he or she wanted.
Just read an article about drinking that scared the crap out of me. So that's it! I quit reading.
I had my first drink on my 25th birthday two years after dumping Mormonism. Some friends were having Screw Drivers and only as a joke I said was going to have one. The reaction I got made me decide it was finally time to dump my goody two shoes image but no one would mix me one. So I did. 50/50 vodka and OJ,It was good. I never felt drunk. Maybe I didn't know how it was supposed to feel?
Then I had some friends who drank very expensive and exquisite wine. I couldn't drink it. Made me gag. As soon as I get a time machine that is the first stop. I love great wine now.
Another dumb joke:
Dear Alcohol, We had a deal. You were supposed to make me witty and fun and a great dancer. I finally saw the video. We need to talk.
On New Year's Eve 1972, my friend and I decided to show everybody what "great drinkers we were. It was 5 years before I drank orange juice and never touched vodka again. I only wish that being an idiot would have peaked in 1972...
I tried wine. The first sip was okay but the second was awful. I guess that's why it's an acquired taste. People just drink it till they get used to it.
I was at a party and offered a sugary alcoholic beverage. It was really good. I like sugar. I decided right there to never drink another because I knew it could be habit forming.
I had a Mormon friend who started drinking in his 30s after he divorced and left the Mormon church. It ruined his life. He ended up in jail with a couple of DUIs and died from alcohol poisoning.
I had my first beer at 16...not long after I'd been ordained a priest...I was not impressed. Subsequent beers tasted better. Flash forward 59 years to last night around a fire pit and those 3 German dark lagers were tasty.
I had a long layover at the international airport in Milan, Italy. I was in a hot Lufthansa gate, adjacent to a bog-standard Italian bar. No one was ordering coffee; most were ordering Peroni and Moretti beer on tap. It looked so good, so refreshing. So I ambled over and bought a tall, skinny glass of Peroni. I guess what followed is not often the case; as soon as the beer hit my tongue and pallet I was like,"Oh, mama! Where you been all my life?!" When I finished, there was an announcement that we'd finally be boarding in a half hour. So I ordered a second tall glass, and when I was finally on board, I was pretty mellow. I was flying business, where you get aot of courtesy drinks and stuff as you wait to push away. I asked for a can of Peroni, my third in short order. Thereafter, it was kind of the best flight ever.
I was an active non-believing church member, wondering for a couple of years how to get shot of this Mormon thing, but it was still a couple of years before I successfully jumped ship. From that moment on, now knowing what I had been missing, I found plenty of time to skirt the whole WoW thing. Today, my wife is still active, but is more or less okay with my drinking the occasional beer or wine with a meal, or going with one or more of my three ex-Mormon sons to a craft brewery for a night out.
Lessons learned -- Beer: good! Red wine: good! White wine: Meh. Generally too sweet and sets my teeth on edge. But a good northern Italy dry white wine is pretty good. Whisky: Great!, because it tastes of peat smoke and vanilla.