From as far back as I can really remember, beer has always been a constant in my life, not the fact I've always drank it, just the fact it's always been in there in some form or another either in good ways or bad ways. My earliest memories are going down to the pub with my grandparents on my mothers side, they held forth in a pub down the road called the 'Brown Cow' in the town where I used to live. They used to babysit me at weekends so my parents could have some time on their own, my grandparents would take me along to the pub with them. It was never late night stuff and neither at that point in their lives did they consume large quantities of alcohol but they were hard working people that liked to socialise, smoke and have a beer. This would be back in the mid 1970s and I'd be about 7 years old for a rough guess.
It was at that tender age, sat in the passage way of the pub (as kids weren't allowed in the pub proper) that I caught my first glimpses of pub life and thus began unwittingly my education in the arts of being sociable and the myriad of skills that came with it. Peeking into the pub from the passageway I got to study adults imbibing beer and the resulting behaviour, I witnessed jest and heated debates, I soaked up many things. When the pub was quiet I was even let into the back room and had my own tiny glass that would have a drop of beer in it, I felt like an adult, and more importantly among the throng of people I felt accepted into group dynamics, that's what makes socialising an important thing I guess.
Years dropped off the calendar, my grandparents decamped to another nearby pub for some reason or another and of course they took me along. In summer my parents would take me to a pub called the Ravensdale and we'd sit outside as a family, usually with friends and I'd drink fizzy cola and eat too many packets of crisp than was probably wise. My parents never let me touch any beer really, that was mine and my grandparents little secret.
Early teenage years passed and I recall being indifferent about beer, there were more exciting things to do and it was the dawn of computers in the early 80s, this was the era I transcended into Geekdom! My dad did home brew from time to time and on occasion I'd be allowed a small glass and of course at weekends I'd be at my grandparents, though not as much and by this stage they often had a drink at home, of course I was in on the act.
Around this time I fell ill, I nearly lost my sight aged 12 and it was a very traumatic time for my parents. They were working class, dad worked shifts and my mum often travelled with me to hospitals whilst I had numerous operations to save my sight. I recall one time they were due to operate and needed her to sign forms but couldn't find her. A nurse told me she was in the hospital accommodation block, they could see her lay on the bed through the keyhole but even after hard knocking at the door couldn't rouse her. I had to sign the forms myself as I recall and then the operation took place, I had eye patches on and spent several days in darkness wondering if I'd be able to see the world again. Unbeknown to me, my mum had begun her descent into alcoholism and when the nurses had tried to wake her she'd actually been unconscious from drink, I never realised back then but I see it clearly now.
I recall going on weekend trips with my mum and gran and often my mum would remain in the hotel room in the evenings whilst me and gran would go and do something, again my mother would have passed out when we returned, usually to some strong bottle of spirits she had stashed away and consumed. At a young age I never really had any conception of being that drunk or what alcoholism was.
As the later teen years crept in and I left school, I'd try beer with friends, usually on parks or other secluded adult free places, I never really took to it, sure I felt a rebel doing it but I never drank that much that I got drunk, I just wasn't crazy about the taste, it was the same with cigarettes too. On reaching 17 I probably had the odd can of beer in the house with my dad, though he never drank much at all, mainly after work or at weekends, though on occasion he did make a very heady home brew that made you feel drunk after a pint, I remember the beer kit being called 'Blockbuster' and it was a totally leveller, a barley wine kind of beer but souped up, you knew you'd had it, and a headache would follow the next day. I still called in to see my grandparents at their local, I'd have the odd beer and we'd catch up on gossip, I loved to go and see them in the pub.
On reaching 18, my brother (not real brother but a boy my parents had informally adopted when I was 6 and he was 7) took me on my first night out on the town. He was a year older than me and I marvelled at his stories of night life and girls. I recall when we did weekends away with the charity my mother was involved with we'd share a room in the hotel with some older lads that would go out into places like Blackpool and return drunk wearing silly straw 'kiss me quick' hats singing songs by the Human League. On seeing what fun they had when we were say 15/16 we decided we'd have some of that when we reached 18. That time came and my brother took me out on my first night out. My first pint was 'Mansfield Mild' and was 68p, my brother deemed this was the safest introductory session beer for me to have. It didn't really matter, I got so drunk he carried me home and I was sick down his back, an old man gave us a handkerchief as I remember and my mother was fuming at him. I was beguiled by pretty girls, fashions, the music and the bright lights, it was infectious but the next day hangover ensured I didn't rush back to going out in a hurry. Of course I did go back out again and began to really enjoy it, I was a social creature after all. It was in these early years I learned the real art of socialising and of course chatting the opposite sex up with varying results ranging from disaster to the odd success. They were halcyon years filled with beer and laughter and lots of fun but also on occasion tinged with sadness as beer could make me emotional too, I was very naive then and still trying to come to terms with my place in the big wide world and work out who I really was or what I wanted. These were the 80s, the town where I lived seemed almost magical at weekends, they were good times indeed.
Holidays abroad came and went, so did girlfriends and many adventures were had. On the home front my mothers drinking had manifested itself more and my parents argued quite a lot, in some ways for them it was the beginning of the end as my mothers problem began to spiral out of control. It had a knock on effect and things could often be uncomfortable at home but come the weekend, and despite my brother and I being in fairly low paid jobs we'd escape to the bright lights in town every weekend to forget things I guess.
It was one cold rainy night, not long after splitting with a girlfriend that I returned once again to the Ravensdale pub as an adult this time, alone and feeling sad at my loss, I went to escape problems at home and drown my sorrows but the lesson is drinking never really solves anything. In a bizarre turn of events instead of sitting there staring into a pint and feeling bad I was welcome by the locals, in no time I was shooting pool with them and had made new friends, from that day on I became a regular there and so began the Ravensdale years. I went into town less and went to my new found local more (I still did town though). I made lots of new friends, some of them were legends and are no longer with us and some thankfully still are. I can't describe what an amazing social time it was, year filled with laughter, outings to other pubs with the pool team, after hours lock ins and general moments of pure unplanned hilarious chaos. When things became so bad at home I always had the Ravensdale pub and friends there as a retreat, and would often stay at friends houses after. I also worked at the towns brewery too, great working years and fond memories there but I was perhaps drinking more than was good for me, both at work, and out of it!
By this time my drinking was considerably more, I wouldn't say out of control by any means but I could certainly down a few pints. I was a character and never short of a joke or story but sometimes when things were bad at home beer and emotions weren't a good combination, there's times I deeply regret due to making silly mistakes through drinking beer. My parents divorced due to my mums alcoholism and both moved on with new partners, though my mums condition steadily got worse regardless. My brother and I moved out, I spent some time out of work which is just as well because if I'd had money then it would have been spent on beer. Eventually I went back to live with my mum after a really unhappy couple of years but by then she was really beyond help despite efforts to seek it.
The Ravensdale closed for a refurbishment on 13th May 2002, it was a sad day to an epic era and when it opened later that year it just didn't feel the same anymore and many of the locals moved on.
Years passed by, I had a stint in Hong Kong, holidays to Thailand etc and my eyes opened (perhaps too late) to a big wide world out there. I still loved socialising and often went out but I guess when my mother finally succumbed to her alcohol addiction and died it changed my perspective on alcohol somewhat and I think in some respects I passed my bell curve on drinking. My health began to fail dramatically at this time and moved to the town where I live now, underwent surgery and began to recover slowly.
Fate smiled upon me, at the top of the road I discovered a new local, the Fox & Crown and made a whole set of great new friends (that's not to say I forget the old friends and still miss them). So began a new love affair with the Fox & Crown, it's dangerously close to my place and many great nights have been had in there, as well as other locals nearby. I had my 40th birthday bash in the Fox & Crown and it was a memorable night with friends and family.
So, here we are in the present. To be honest though I still love to socialise though I'm pretty rubbish when it comes to drinking these days. I invariably suffer with hangovers the next day, and not good ones either, and the recovery time takes just too long. In my 20's I was never a great drinker, I probably peaked around 30 in the capacity I could take and then it all went downhill apart from odd nights thereafter. Last year on my friends stag night was one I recall drinking lots and handling it pretty well (though I was still very drunk!). Nowadays I drink less than I ever did and feel better for it. Beer is expensive now, it's not an easily social commodity it once was, pubs are dying a death as people buy copious amounts of beer from supermarkets very cheaply. The truth is, if takeaway beer was more expensive and beer in pubs was cheaper it would be regulated better, because people wouldn't drink silly amounts at home or on street corners. My own local seemingly has gone into decline of late, there seems less people in there than ever. I could say this is endemic of the town but some pubs seem to be flourishing whilst other fall by the wayside. I'm not sure what the problem is at my local, it feels tired in there of late, despite recent efforts there's certainly some apathy in there on the management part and I suspect the senior management are blissfully unaware that the pub as a whole needs changes in order to move forward.
I guess these days with what I do I see first hand the detrimental effects of what alcohol can do and it's not pretty, although that would never influence the fact I love to socialise it is a great leveller in many ways. I'm never going to stop socialising or enjoying a drink but these days apart from the odd blow out I'm guessing moderation is the way forward for me personally. The good old days of pubs may be passing by and the new era of pubs seem uncertain, many breweries have closed and the new super breweries have no character, it's all geared to evident profits now, perhaps it always was but never so apparently as it is nowadays.
I'll always be partial to a good beer but in the here and now it will never be a constant as it perhaps once was.
It was at that tender age, sat in the passage way of the pub (as kids weren't allowed in the pub proper) that I caught my first glimpses of pub life and thus began unwittingly my education in the arts of being sociable and the myriad of skills that came with it. Peeking into the pub from the passageway I got to study adults imbibing beer and the resulting behaviour, I witnessed jest and heated debates, I soaked up many things. When the pub was quiet I was even let into the back room and had my own tiny glass that would have a drop of beer in it, I felt like an adult, and more importantly among the throng of people I felt accepted into group dynamics, that's what makes socialising an important thing I guess.
Years dropped off the calendar, my grandparents decamped to another nearby pub for some reason or another and of course they took me along. In summer my parents would take me to a pub called the Ravensdale and we'd sit outside as a family, usually with friends and I'd drink fizzy cola and eat too many packets of crisp than was probably wise. My parents never let me touch any beer really, that was mine and my grandparents little secret.
Early teenage years passed and I recall being indifferent about beer, there were more exciting things to do and it was the dawn of computers in the early 80s, this was the era I transcended into Geekdom! My dad did home brew from time to time and on occasion I'd be allowed a small glass and of course at weekends I'd be at my grandparents, though not as much and by this stage they often had a drink at home, of course I was in on the act.
Around this time I fell ill, I nearly lost my sight aged 12 and it was a very traumatic time for my parents. They were working class, dad worked shifts and my mum often travelled with me to hospitals whilst I had numerous operations to save my sight. I recall one time they were due to operate and needed her to sign forms but couldn't find her. A nurse told me she was in the hospital accommodation block, they could see her lay on the bed through the keyhole but even after hard knocking at the door couldn't rouse her. I had to sign the forms myself as I recall and then the operation took place, I had eye patches on and spent several days in darkness wondering if I'd be able to see the world again. Unbeknown to me, my mum had begun her descent into alcoholism and when the nurses had tried to wake her she'd actually been unconscious from drink, I never realised back then but I see it clearly now.
I recall going on weekend trips with my mum and gran and often my mum would remain in the hotel room in the evenings whilst me and gran would go and do something, again my mother would have passed out when we returned, usually to some strong bottle of spirits she had stashed away and consumed. At a young age I never really had any conception of being that drunk or what alcoholism was.
As the later teen years crept in and I left school, I'd try beer with friends, usually on parks or other secluded adult free places, I never really took to it, sure I felt a rebel doing it but I never drank that much that I got drunk, I just wasn't crazy about the taste, it was the same with cigarettes too. On reaching 17 I probably had the odd can of beer in the house with my dad, though he never drank much at all, mainly after work or at weekends, though on occasion he did make a very heady home brew that made you feel drunk after a pint, I remember the beer kit being called 'Blockbuster' and it was a totally leveller, a barley wine kind of beer but souped up, you knew you'd had it, and a headache would follow the next day. I still called in to see my grandparents at their local, I'd have the odd beer and we'd catch up on gossip, I loved to go and see them in the pub.
On reaching 18, my brother (not real brother but a boy my parents had informally adopted when I was 6 and he was 7) took me on my first night out on the town. He was a year older than me and I marvelled at his stories of night life and girls. I recall when we did weekends away with the charity my mother was involved with we'd share a room in the hotel with some older lads that would go out into places like Blackpool and return drunk wearing silly straw 'kiss me quick' hats singing songs by the Human League. On seeing what fun they had when we were say 15/16 we decided we'd have some of that when we reached 18. That time came and my brother took me out on my first night out. My first pint was 'Mansfield Mild' and was 68p, my brother deemed this was the safest introductory session beer for me to have. It didn't really matter, I got so drunk he carried me home and I was sick down his back, an old man gave us a handkerchief as I remember and my mother was fuming at him. I was beguiled by pretty girls, fashions, the music and the bright lights, it was infectious but the next day hangover ensured I didn't rush back to going out in a hurry. Of course I did go back out again and began to really enjoy it, I was a social creature after all. It was in these early years I learned the real art of socialising and of course chatting the opposite sex up with varying results ranging from disaster to the odd success. They were halcyon years filled with beer and laughter and lots of fun but also on occasion tinged with sadness as beer could make me emotional too, I was very naive then and still trying to come to terms with my place in the big wide world and work out who I really was or what I wanted. These were the 80s, the town where I lived seemed almost magical at weekends, they were good times indeed.
Holidays abroad came and went, so did girlfriends and many adventures were had. On the home front my mothers drinking had manifested itself more and my parents argued quite a lot, in some ways for them it was the beginning of the end as my mothers problem began to spiral out of control. It had a knock on effect and things could often be uncomfortable at home but come the weekend, and despite my brother and I being in fairly low paid jobs we'd escape to the bright lights in town every weekend to forget things I guess.
It was one cold rainy night, not long after splitting with a girlfriend that I returned once again to the Ravensdale pub as an adult this time, alone and feeling sad at my loss, I went to escape problems at home and drown my sorrows but the lesson is drinking never really solves anything. In a bizarre turn of events instead of sitting there staring into a pint and feeling bad I was welcome by the locals, in no time I was shooting pool with them and had made new friends, from that day on I became a regular there and so began the Ravensdale years. I went into town less and went to my new found local more (I still did town though). I made lots of new friends, some of them were legends and are no longer with us and some thankfully still are. I can't describe what an amazing social time it was, year filled with laughter, outings to other pubs with the pool team, after hours lock ins and general moments of pure unplanned hilarious chaos. When things became so bad at home I always had the Ravensdale pub and friends there as a retreat, and would often stay at friends houses after. I also worked at the towns brewery too, great working years and fond memories there but I was perhaps drinking more than was good for me, both at work, and out of it!
By this time my drinking was considerably more, I wouldn't say out of control by any means but I could certainly down a few pints. I was a character and never short of a joke or story but sometimes when things were bad at home beer and emotions weren't a good combination, there's times I deeply regret due to making silly mistakes through drinking beer. My parents divorced due to my mums alcoholism and both moved on with new partners, though my mums condition steadily got worse regardless. My brother and I moved out, I spent some time out of work which is just as well because if I'd had money then it would have been spent on beer. Eventually I went back to live with my mum after a really unhappy couple of years but by then she was really beyond help despite efforts to seek it.
The Ravensdale closed for a refurbishment on 13th May 2002, it was a sad day to an epic era and when it opened later that year it just didn't feel the same anymore and many of the locals moved on.
Years passed by, I had a stint in Hong Kong, holidays to Thailand etc and my eyes opened (perhaps too late) to a big wide world out there. I still loved socialising and often went out but I guess when my mother finally succumbed to her alcohol addiction and died it changed my perspective on alcohol somewhat and I think in some respects I passed my bell curve on drinking. My health began to fail dramatically at this time and moved to the town where I live now, underwent surgery and began to recover slowly.
Fate smiled upon me, at the top of the road I discovered a new local, the Fox & Crown and made a whole set of great new friends (that's not to say I forget the old friends and still miss them). So began a new love affair with the Fox & Crown, it's dangerously close to my place and many great nights have been had in there, as well as other locals nearby. I had my 40th birthday bash in the Fox & Crown and it was a memorable night with friends and family.
So, here we are in the present. To be honest though I still love to socialise though I'm pretty rubbish when it comes to drinking these days. I invariably suffer with hangovers the next day, and not good ones either, and the recovery time takes just too long. In my 20's I was never a great drinker, I probably peaked around 30 in the capacity I could take and then it all went downhill apart from odd nights thereafter. Last year on my friends stag night was one I recall drinking lots and handling it pretty well (though I was still very drunk!). Nowadays I drink less than I ever did and feel better for it. Beer is expensive now, it's not an easily social commodity it once was, pubs are dying a death as people buy copious amounts of beer from supermarkets very cheaply. The truth is, if takeaway beer was more expensive and beer in pubs was cheaper it would be regulated better, because people wouldn't drink silly amounts at home or on street corners. My own local seemingly has gone into decline of late, there seems less people in there than ever. I could say this is endemic of the town but some pubs seem to be flourishing whilst other fall by the wayside. I'm not sure what the problem is at my local, it feels tired in there of late, despite recent efforts there's certainly some apathy in there on the management part and I suspect the senior management are blissfully unaware that the pub as a whole needs changes in order to move forward.
I guess these days with what I do I see first hand the detrimental effects of what alcohol can do and it's not pretty, although that would never influence the fact I love to socialise it is a great leveller in many ways. I'm never going to stop socialising or enjoying a drink but these days apart from the odd blow out I'm guessing moderation is the way forward for me personally. The good old days of pubs may be passing by and the new era of pubs seem uncertain, many breweries have closed and the new super breweries have no character, it's all geared to evident profits now, perhaps it always was but never so apparently as it is nowadays.
I'll always be partial to a good beer but in the here and now it will never be a constant as it perhaps once was.
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