Drunk

My father had odd ways of teaching.  My father did not want his daughters to drink alcohol so he decided to teach me that lesson in his own special way.  My sister Vickie was graduating high school in 1973 in Houston, Texas.  Vickie’s best friends’ mother was giving a huge graduation party for Vickie and Dotsy her friend so we, of course, were all invited to attend.  After graduation we all headed to Dotsy’s house.  There was alcohol being served to the parents in attendance while the youth were drinking virgin drinks and sodas of all sorts.  My father decided to ask me if I wanted a strawberry daiquiri to drink non-virgin.  I of course was very agreeable I couldn’t believe I was going to get to try it out.  I was 16 and my dad was sitting there so what harm was there?  I do not remember anything past that first drink but apparently I had more than one of those drinks and fell asleep on the sofa next to my parents and slept through the entire evening.   I knew nothing about anything until the next morning.

I was awakened nice and early the next morning, about 6:00am by my parents.  My mother had made a generous and full breakfast of eggs, bacon, pancakes and I was required to eat the entire meal while my parents kept up a constant and may I add loud chatter.  I repeatedly begged them not to talk, not to make me eat and to let me go back to bed, I was hung over and boy was I sick.  My parents instead not only chattered at me and made me eat every bite on my plate but continued even after I threw up multiple times.  Then, they made me clean house.  I was sure I was going to die!  Yet, I did what I was asked.  My torture continued.  After I finished cleaning and my stomach and head seemed to return to some semblance of normal my parents said they wanted to talk to me.  So now I figured the lecture would come, it didn’t really, just a series of questions.  #1 was who was I dancing with the night before?  Well, I didn’t know.  #2 was who had I kissed the night before?  Panic… I had a boyfriend, he wasn’t at the party, had I kissed someone?  #3 was how much had I had to drink?  I didn’t have any idea.  #4 was what had I done?  I didn’t have a clue.  Then my parents let me know after a while, after I had panicked long enough that in fact I hadn’t danced with any strange people, kissed anyone or done anything else with anyone, hadn’t gotten out of order in anyway but I hadn’t known; I hadn’t been in control of my thoughts or actions and they wanted to know how comfortable I was knowing that.  Now some people may be comfortable with that but my parents knew me well enough to know that I would not be able to deal with that so my father came up with this plan to teach me to not drink.  It worked.  It was my first and last time to drink and to be drunk.  Lesson taught, message received.