Ginger said:
My dad was hard to figgure. He was a WWI Navy vet w/ permanently short hair and extreme right wing leanings. Never in a million years would he ever admit that rock-n-roll was anything but a bad influence, brainwashing, etc.
However, he did used to call Art a "professional alcoholic" and compared him to the Bible thumpers who used to breeze through town leaving pregnant teenagers behind.
Thom said:
Why would the thumpers drop off pregnant teenagers? (a Mom-type question)
Dad was WWII, his dad was WWI infantry. they both came home damaged, so we decided to skip a generation or two.
I think it fits Dad's conservative mindset to distrust recovery types. He was a will power, pull yourself up by your bootstraps kind of guy who didn't do well with the powerlessness concept. The 'professional drunk' thinking probably developed out of his bad relationship with his Father-in-Law, an early AA member, and arrogant know-it-all type snob who belittled Dad because he came from 'the wrong side of the tracks'. Based on his feelings for Grandpa, he saw AA as some kind of elitest country club. Dad didn't care for people who use their addiction, race, gender, etc. as an excuse for not acheiving. I think that made it hard for him to sit through those open meetings at The Seed and Straight. One time when his car wasn't doing well, he had to suffer the indignity of borrowing my Toyota to make his weekly trip from Pompano to Sarasota for an open meeting. (He fought the Japanese in the Pacific Theatre during the war, and hated anything Japanese or German). When he got back from Straight, I asked him how he liked the car, he said, "Oh, it rides OK...it's just that when I was getting out of it, I wasn't sure if I was climbing out, or it was giving birth to me" (Dad's way of saying it was a bit cramped) :roll:
