Daily Dose of Sultnpapper 04/29/18 > When did you have your first beer or drink?

Tuesday is a big day around the sultnpapper clan place; the younger of our two boys is turning sixteen. We did a surprise birthday party for him on Saturday, he never saw it coming, and that is how surprise parties are supposed to work. He thought he was carrying pizzas in to a girls scout party that his mother is a troop leader for; the look was priceless when he figured out what was up.

Him turning sixteen is the whole reason for the question, when did you have your first beer or drink?He has been after me for the last week or so to let him try one of my ice cold Corona’s that are in the fridge.

I am 62 years old, I had my first beer when I was twelve, so I have been drinking now right at 50 years. Right now a twelve pack will last me sometimes a month, I enjoy a beer very infrequently, but there were times when a twelve pack wouldn’t even get me through a half of an evening when I was a young buck.

My first beer was actually given to me by a neighbor of ours back then. Those neighbors were into oval track stock car racing at the time and I spent a lot of my free time in the summers helping them over in their garage working on their race car. Our house was on a portion of the road that had a very steep incline from the house to the street so our driveway came in from a side street and up to the back of the house and garage. This neighbor’s house was actually behind our property and so our backyards were adjacent each other.

Those neighbors liked to drink PBR, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer in long neck bottles, nothing like red necks with long necks. I understand now that PBR is the choice of the hipsters of today, so I was hip before hip was even a thing, because I grew up on PBR. That was also my Dad’s beer of choice as well. Once all the work on the race car was done the neighbors would break out some ice cold PBR’s and I was always allowed to drink a beer or two, well I was allowed by the neighbor anyway, my parents didn’t know I was drinking at the time.

One evening my Dad pulled in after work and happened to see me tipping up a cold one, I was busted big time. After he parked his car he walked over to the fence and luckily for me the neighbor took charge of the conversation. He told my Dad, “Mr. Papper before you get mad at Sulty, let me explain, and if there is anyone to be mad at that would be me.” So my Dad was always a reasonable man and he was willing to listen.

“Your son works pretty damn hard over here with us on the race car, even though he’s only twelve he works just like a man and so I didn’t believe it would be a problem for him to have a beer with us when we finished our work for the evening.” said the neighbor. My Dad responded with, “Really, he’s working like a man with ya’ll?”

“Yes, sir he is. He can take the rear ring and pinion gear out of the rear end of that race car and replace it all by himself. Honestly, that’s a pretty nasty job that you get really greasy and dirty doing but he doesn’t mind one bit doing it and he doesn’t complain even when it’s 100 degrees in the shade.” he continued on before my Dad could even say a word, “ I won’t let him come home tipsy, two beers is his limit with us and honestly, you wouldn’t even know he’d been drinking if you hadn’t seen him tip that bottle up.”

My Dad was reasonable like I said, he told the neighbor that as long as I earned the beer I was drinking with them and I didn’t come home tipsy I was good to go on the PBR. He warned the neighbor and me though that when I did come home a little lit that I was done with both the beer and helping on the race car. That was a more than fair deal for all of us in my opinion. So, I slowly worked my up and my tolerance for beers and I think that served me well, at least for my high school years.

By the time I turned sixteen it was nothing to have beers at the house with the family, watching the NFL on TV and sipping on a cold one or even having a beer with dinner. Even Mrs. Papper was good with it, she didn’t drink at all but she wasn’t opposed to me drinking responsibly. Mom would even pick me up beers to take with me when I was high school for parties that I was going too. I can remember a couple times when the milk had to sit on the kitchen table for an hour or so in order to make room in the fridge so the beer would be cold when my friends came by to pick me up when we were going out.

I waited until the oldest boy was eighteen before I gave him his first beer and I think that was a mistake on my part, luckily though he didn’t like the taste. That might be because he’s adopted, I can’t think of any red blooded Papper family male that doesn’t like a cold beer and that’s going back a couple generations, all the uncles and cousins are beer drinkers. I have a feeling that this youngster is going to have a natural liking for the flavor so I might as well get him on a program of drinking for taste rather than a buzz.

The “law” says twenty one to drink alcoholic beverages, yet the same people who write the laws say that eighteen is old enough to be possibly forced into the military to fight in some god forsaken part of the world so that the industrial military complex we call the USA can continue to screw with people in foreign countries. There is several things wrong with that picture but that is for another day to discuss.

Any number that is attached to anything having to do with age is an arbitrary number, so I don’t believe that age should be a part of the equation when it comes to drinking. If you are twelve and can drink responsibly I think that is okay, if you are a slobbering staggering drunk then you need to be locked up until you can sleep it off, and that goes for any age 12 or 102. The biggest problem is not facing the situation head on and taking the bull by the horns, Tuesday evening I think we will go out to eat like we normally do on family birthdays and I’ll stop and pick up the nastiest tasting beer I can think of on the way home.

I will tell him that special occasions call for “special beer” and his birthday is a special occasion, I hope to hell he doesn’t like the taste and decides he wants nothing to do with beer and drinking, otherwise I am going to have to keep a close eye on my Corona’s in the fridge.

So, what are some of your suggestions for a nasty tasting beer and when did you have your first beer or drink?
I look forward to your replies, thanks.

Until next time,
@sultnpapper

https://sola.ai/sultnpapper