This is the beginning of the story of how my life changed. You could call it, From Beer to Eternity. There could be 15-20 or so of these to make up the whole story.
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I turn 21 and Dad takes me to "The Cozy" in the strip mall behind our house for my first celebratory drink as a legal-age real person. I guess that's how it started with him when he turned 21. I've never drank alcohol before and it's no big deal. Eight months later I get married. Right after that, I occasionally buy a quart of beer and enjoy it. Then several quarts. This quickly becomes a daily habit. Every day I'm under the influence, legally drunk (every day -- but never at work). I don't stop until I'm 35.
During the next fifteen years I'm layed-off from jobs 4-5 times, sometimes for a year or more at a time. Then we live off unemployment (this does not stop me from buying beer). One time unemployment runs out and we're on food stamps (this doesn't stop me, either). Years later, when things have changed, when we have glass coke bottles to turn in for deposit, Brenda will say, "Why? We don't need the money..." It becomes ingrained in her that you only turn bottles in for deposit if you're poor.
I have no college, no training, no ambition. I don't think about the future, other than having a vague sense that of course it will be better, although I do nothing to make it better. But hey, the present isn't so bad (insert smiley face).
In my 20's and 30's I have all the usual drives and passions and lusts and mindsets that a person apart from God has. We all have our own specialties, our own mix of sin that makes us us. But I don't have ALL the sins, of course, that way I can say, "Well at least I don't do THAT -- I'm not THAT bad..."
I do learn one big thing during those years -- no money, and no job, will not kill you.
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