The lessons of my mentor

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Hugh
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The lessons of my mentor

Post by Hugh »

Back when I was 24 years old in 1990, I moved into a shitty cheap little apartment that cost $450 a month. Next door was an old man who retired on his 62nd birthday to get the fuck out of the workplace and sit in front of his television and drink. For the first little while I lived there, we never said anything more than, "How's it going?" to each other. However, one day when I needed a new battery for my car, he gave me a ride to the auto parts store so that I would not have to carry a car battery for a mile - and he also lent me the $50 I needed to buy it. He could see what an idiot I was - always broke, always working on my junk car, using credit cards to get by. He gently offered little bits of advice to me over the years, things like don't use credit cards, stop going out to bars, stop shorting stocks during the internet boom. I ignored most of what he told me except one thing - drink boxed wine. Boxed wine is so much cheaper than any other booze - even someone who retired on a small pension and Social Security could drink it every day.

I ended up living next door to him for 19 years. I moved out of there in 2009, but I continued to see him because he was alone and had no one to take him to doctor appointments and so forth. He died in 2012. I eventually learned the lessons he tried to teach me, but it was the hard way. The bars got me a DUI arrest. The credit cards bankrupted me. I no longer use credit cards, and I moved into a neighborhood that has bars within walking distance. And for many years, I drank only boxed wine at home.

But I've discovered how much I love the beer/whiskey combo. It gives a better buzz. It seems to go better with writing. I like the look of the bottle and the can on my desk. But it makes me feel as if I'm betraying my mentor. As if I'm that 24-year-old moron out there losing his tools in the parking lot working on his junk car and can never do anything right. If I imagine us having a conversation today, I'm sure he'd say, "Well that's all right if you want to drink it, buy you'll save money with the wine." And then he'd laugh that loud jolly laugh that he had.

He was a drinker's drinker. He needed nothing but his box of wine and a television set. he started drinking first thing in the morning and drank all day while sitting there in dirty flannel pajamas watching an HBO movie for the tenth time. If he were here today, I'd nominate him as grand poo-bah of the Modern Drunkard forum. He burned a hole in his esophagus by drinking wine, something you only hear of in hard liquor drinkers.

There's nobody I admire more than Robert Lee Plummer. I hope he can forgive me for getting hammered on beer and whiskey. I'm sure he would.

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TheDrunkardAnglo
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Re: The lessons of my mentor

Post by TheDrunkardAnglo »

This is wholesome content!

Wine to one side, how would he feel about you getting rid of that television?
Major Strasser: What is your nationality?
Rick: I'm a drunkard.
Captain Renault: That makes Rick a citizen of the world.

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Re: The lessons of my mentor

Post by scream ale »

Seriously. You ditched the TV then Alex Trebek dies. Hope you're real proud.

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Re: The lessons of my mentor

Post by oettinger »

Cheap whisky is the best buzz for the buck. Was your Obi Wan also somewhat demented?
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Hugh
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Re: The lessons of my mentor

Post by Hugh »

TheDrunkardAnglo wrote:
Sun Nov 29, 2020 7:35 am
This is wholesome content!

Wine to one side, how would he feel about you getting rid of that television?
Been thinking about this question ever since you posted it, and I can't come up with a sure answer.

Probably because he wouldn't care. I always watched free over-the-air television - he paid for ever-increasing cable television. During all those years we lived next to each other he never once talked about some movie that he'd watched. Even though he spent all day in front of that goddamb thing, he knew it was just a trivial indulgence. Our conversation was always about things substantive. I don't think he regarded television as substantive.

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benitobeast69
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Re: The lessons of my mentor

Post by benitobeast69 »

Hugh wrote:
Sat Nov 28, 2020 9:18 pm
Back when I was 24 years old in 1990, I moved into a shitty cheap little apartment that cost $450 a month. Next door was an old man who retired on his 62nd birthday to get the fuck out of the workplace and sit in front of his television and drink. For the first little while I lived there, we never said anything more than, "How's it going?" to each other. However, one day when I needed a new battery for my car, he gave me a ride to the auto parts store so that I would not have to carry a car battery for a mile - and he also lent me the $50 I needed to buy it. He could see what an idiot I was - always broke, always working on my junk car, using credit cards to get by. He gently offered little bits of advice to me over the years, things like don't use credit cards, stop going out to bars, stop shorting stocks during the internet boom. I ignored most of what he told me except one thing - drink boxed wine. Boxed wine is so much cheaper than any other booze - even someone who retired on a small pension and Social Security could drink it every day.

I ended up living next door to him for 19 years. I moved out of there in 2009, but I continued to see him because he was alone and had no one to take him to doctor appointments and so forth. He died in 2012. I eventually learned the lessons he tried to teach me, but it was the hard way. The bars got me a DUI arrest. The credit cards bankrupted me. I no longer use credit cards, and I moved into a neighborhood that has bars within walking distance. And for many years, I drank only boxed wine at home.

But I've discovered how much I love the beer/whiskey combo. It gives a better buzz. It seems to go better with writing. I like the look of the bottle and the can on my desk. But it makes me feel as if I'm betraying my mentor. As if I'm that 24-year-old moron out there losing his tools in the parking lot working on his junk car and can never do anything right. If I imagine us having a conversation today, I'm sure he'd say, "Well that's all right if you want to drink it, buy you'll save money with the wine." And then he'd laugh that loud jolly laugh that he had.

He was a drinker's drinker. He needed nothing but his box of wine and a television set. he started drinking first thing in the morning and drank all day while sitting there in dirty flannel pajamas watching an HBO movie for the tenth time. If he were here today, I'd nominate him as grand poo-bah of the Modern Drunkard forum. He burned a hole in his esophagus by drinking wine, something you only hear of in hard liquor drinkers.

There's nobody I admire more than Robert Lee Plummer. I hope he can forgive me for getting hammered on beer and whiskey. I'm sure he would.

this is fucking lovely mate!!! a pleasure to read.


I've never been a big wine guy...let alone a boxed wine guy.. It's not that I don't like wine...I love it.. but it doesn't love me back I'm afraid.
I can have a worse hangover on a litre of wine than i would on a litre of cheap whiskey...so hangover wise it isn't bang for my buck.

I used to chat to this old drunk at a dirty rundown ale pub i used to frequent....knew him for 10-12 years and all that time i never saw him drink anything but the house ale.... this stuff was shite.. pure sewer water....but...

IT WAS CHEAP AS FUCK

like a pint was 1/2 the price of everything else....he told me he used to love drinking "the fancy stuff" but after he retired he realized he wouldn't be able to carry on drinking all day at the rates he was paying...he basically conditioned himself to enjoy this piss beer so he could carry on drinking the amount he was accustomed to...if not exactly in the manner.

Unlike you I didn't take any immediate life lessons from it...I'm still working and can afford (by a midge's dick) to carry on as i am....

When I retire though...who knows?
Hangover cure: Rigorous sex, hydration, hot bath, then "go up for half an hour in an open aeroplane." - Kinglsey Amis

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Savage
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Re: The lessons of my mentor

Post by Savage »

Hugh wrote:
Sat Nov 28, 2020 9:18 pm
Back when I was 24 years old in 1990, I moved into a shitty cheap little apartment that cost $450 a month. Next door was an old man who retired on his 62nd birthday
That was a beautiful tribute.
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Re: The lessons of my mentor

Post by Merchant Seaman »

I've had several mentors, one offered the sage wisdom: "There is no such thing as one beer"

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