In some of my earlier post, I mention how prevalent booze was (and still is in my life). Now, the only thing this has to do with JW's, is, that, at the time, both my parents were (still are active JW's). A quick rehash, at one yr. old, my parents become JW's. At 5th grade (1975) I think about getting baptized and pioneering/missionary service, I think that lasted a few days to a few weeks(hey, it was a long time, and many beers ago). By middle school, 7th grade, I am smoking weed, drinking hard liquor, and just generally being a punk.
I was actually a pretty good student, mostly A's and B's(but sucked at algebra and calculus). I guess the point is, I could have done much better in middle school, if my parents had encouraged doing well in school, and encouraged being competitive in sports. But no such luck (fortune as the JW"s would say). My pops used to say, I only made it to ninth grade, and I turned out ok.Now I never went hungry, or with out shoes and decent clothes, but sports and college was not an option, (doing anything JW would have made them happy beyond belief).
Anyway, getting to the meat of the story, I was anything but a JW after the 7th grade. I was forced to go to meetings until high school, I would mainly check out the sisters in their dresses, fantasize about (things) and go to the bathroom and um, spend some time there, if you know what I mean.
So 9th grade, I have procured a bottle of vodka, and being a budding business man, drink about half the bottle with a couple buddies, and sell the rest to some smuck. The gym teacher, actually a pretty cool guy, comes up to me and says, Olongapo Joe, I smell booze on you, you need to go to the office and tell them you are sick and go home. Being the highly intelligent youth that I am, I of course ignore the advice. So later that day I am called to the principles office, seems the smuck, has been caught with the booze, and ratted me out. So the principle ask me where I came by the liquor ( not wanting to rat out my 30 yr old brother in law who bought the booze for me) I say, some older guy who hangs around the school is selling to us kiddies. Of course the principle wants to know who this knucklehead is, I aint saying, cause he is a figment of my imagination. So I am expelled, until I give up who bought me the booze, I am not gonna give up my bil, as luck (fortune haha) would have it my older brother returned that week from a construction job, and went and told the principle that he got the booze for me. That was all the principle wanted to know, so I am back in school ,and still a punk.
This is going to long, so to speed things up a bit.
I graduated high school 1983.
!st DUI 1983.
2nd DUI 1984
Hit and run 1984 (should have been a 3rd DUI, as I was drunk).
Too many to count black out drunken escapades( I do not count these as a badge of honor, I could have many times killed or injured innocents) many with my alcoholic JW father, and an elder also a hardcore alcoholic, I had been to the state liquor store in our town (Piqua Ohio) so many times with my pops and the elder (he did not drive, so asked us to take him to the store weekly) that at 15 yrs old I often bought hard liquor at the state store and was never once asked for I.D..
So that's a condensed version of the middle years, next, the later years Booze Boy (locked up abroad, Philippines).