Member-only story
The First Time I got drunk, and I was
drinking Absinthe
It’s funny how memory works, last night I was watching a show about Adam
Lambert and Queen on Netflix. I always regretted never seeing Queen live in
concert. I remembered the first concert I went to. I was living on Yokota
Airforce Base in Japan, I was a freshman in high school. Myself and some
classmates took the train to the Budokon in Tokyo to see Ritchie Blackmore’s
Rainbow.
I started smoking as a kid in Japan, and in Japan was where I first got drunk.
I had issues with self-control as a teenager, I smoked over a pack a day, and
I ate too much, I was a mess.
This brings me to the night I went to a Dance at the high school Gym. Some
students went to the Dance to dance, but some of us went there to drink.
Somebody asked me if I wanted to drink some Absinthe, “ sure,” I said.
I pitched in some money and followed the guys outside.
We stood in a circle, the first guy took a sip, he passed it to the guy next
to him and he took a sip, and around the bottle went until it was in my
