| Although neither my twin brother, sister, or I drink, we were raised with 4 alcoholics. The worst offender was without doubt our Uncle Ned, who lived with us. We were always sure his drinking was a result of his wartime experiences as a tank commander in the Marines serving in the Pacific in WW II. I'm also sure this was the reason why my mother always said she'd sign for me to join the Navy, but NEVER the Marines. In later years, that turned out to be good advice since Navy boot camp darned near killed me! I can't imagine Marine boot camp! Uncle Ned was hooked on Dark Port Wine and always had a bottle "hidden away" in his pants pocket. He always smelled like the showroom at Ernest & Julio Gallo's Distillery. In fact, he probably kept them in business during the 50's and 60's! Since he certainly wasn't proud of his wine addiction, he took great care in trying not to drink in front of us and tried to conceal the "evidence" by stashing the empty wine bottles most anywhere. Through the years, Tim and I were STILL finding old dusty hidden empty wine bottles stashed in various "out of the way" places in the barn some 30 plus years later! He died at age 49 in 1969 from liver failure. I'll bet that the funeral home didn't even bother to embalm him! About 5 years ago Tim found an old empty dust covered wine bottle hidden between a beam and the under side of the upper barn floor! We just left it there to serve as a lasting memorial to Uncle Ned... |
