#1 - It killed my mother
But here are the facts in detail. My mother was an alcoholic. When I was really young, I didn't understand
why my mother went through periods of being weepy and out of it. It got really bad when I was about 8, when
I made that promise after spending three hours with my passed-out mother, trying to prevent her naked and
snoring body from rolling over into a huge pile of broken glass. She had passed out onto a table, which
caused it to fall over, shattering a large decorative hurricane lamp that served as a centerpiece. The fall
also ripped her house dress apart, and I had to muster all of my 8-year-old strength to keep her from rolling
over unto the shattered lamp. This was before I really knew about 911, and I should have called it, but
I feared that if I left her, she'd roll over into the glass and die. I knew by this time that her affection
for wine was to blame for this, since a spilled jug of some white wine was next to her left hand. I can still
smell that wine, feel the texture of the area rug piercing my knees through my pajamas, forcing with all my
might to keep a 250 lb body from rolling over while at the same time avoiding the broken glass myself. I kept
screaming for her to wake up, and didn't stop until she started snoring and relaxed her body. I don't recall
what happened after that. This was to be my first taste of the next ten years of taking care of my mother.
During those ten years I must have replayed those moments in various ways. My mother didn't have bruises because
my father beat her (to my knowledge, as terrible as he was, I never saw or had evidence he ever beat her), she
had them because I wasn't there to get her to bed before she fell into something. Countless occasional tables,
plant stands, chairs, and pieces of art were set upright, fixed, or simply tossed away during this period. And
each time I fixed a wooden leg, vacuumed up potted soil, cleaned up vomit or urine, or had to push her to bed,
I repeated to myself the same mantra over and over. "I swear, I will never drink when I am grown up." Later,
when she commited suicide, she had already upgraded herself from wine to vodka. I discovered her dead one winter
morning, slouched on the edge of the bed with a quart bottle of vodka and two empty tranquilzer pill bottles.
#2 - It made my friends stupid
Being an upper-middle class teen in the Reagan era didn't help matters much, either. I had a lot of friends who also had problems
at home, and even those that didn't were under pressure to drink to look mature. I saw people whom I personally
knew as wonderful human beings become monsters while drunk. My mother, to her credit, only got weepy and chatty
when drunk. She never did more violence than the occasional sissy slaps to get my hands off of her while
pushing her to bed, and when she yelled, she wasn't more abusive than an occasional accusation that was
probably at least partially obvious or true. But among fellow peers, I saw demure girls become raging
machines of anger, ready to draw blood from random strangers. I saw otherwise rational young men turn into
dumbass daredevils. I saw that drinking affected everyone differently, unlike other drugs, which were fairly
predictable. Mary might be a mean drunk while Susan just passed out. Bob would flirt heavily and expose himself a lot,
but Kyle just sobbed uncontrollably. Some could hold their liquor. Some couldn't. Some could drink like
a fish and look completely sober and in control when they needed to be. But most became immune to self-discipline
after just a few drinks. I recall many a night on cold bathroom floors with some friend, holding their hair back
while they "prayed to the Earl of Ralph on the porcelain altar." Sometimes I was the judge player during the
"should we call an ambulance?" game. Did I get peer pressure? A little. But among my friends, we had a mutual
respect, and besides, the illegal stuff was not plentiful most of the time, so what I didn't drink, someone else
could. Here is an example of what I was told would happen when I was offered a beer:
[porno-style music playing]
Girl: Hey, dude. Why not be groovy and drink this alcohol?
Guy1: No thanks, drinking is wrong. Not my bag, dig?
Girl: Don't be a party-pooper. Come on, everyone is doing it...
Guy2: Yeah, what's your problem. I invited you to this party to be cool.
Girl: You *are* cool, aren't you?
Crowd at party: Drink! Drink! Drink! Drink! DRINK! DRINK! DRINK! [fades to echoes]
Our friends used to laugh at these films. This was peer pressure for me:
[Echo and the Bunnymen music playing]
Girl: Want a beer?
Punk: No thanks.
Girl: Okay.
Most were offering me drinks to be polite, and the response, "Woo-hoo, more for me!" with a happy grin was not uncommon. I never understood why they drank, though. It was a bonding thing, I think. But many times, it went too far. Not among my friends, but among others who drank, they actually bragged about "how wasted" they got. "Oh mean, I got so wasted, I thought my van was Jesus Christ, and when my girlfriend came over, I ripped off her skirt and threw up on her face. Oh, man, what fun!" Yeah. Sounds great.
#3 - It ruined the fun on convention security
When I got older, and was working at sci-fi conventions on security, I saw some ugly, ugly stuff. I had one
detail where some guy drank wood alcohol, and went blind. I saw a 14-year old kid get alcohol poisoning,
and his girlfriend, afraid of what the police would do, lied about everything, and almost got two innocent
adults arrested until the cops got wise to what was going on. Just last year, someone who had confused sexuality
issues got tossed into the paddy wagon after nearly starting two fights. I hate drunks. There may only be
one or two incidences for a 2000 person convention, but boy, do they make up for the slow "uneventful" periods.