Hot Diggidy-Damn

I have no question in my mind where my rebelliousness has come from. This has become glaringly apparent as I have grown older and realize that I am just like the rest of my family. Unfortunatley, their bad habits that got handed down over the generations finally took toll on the genetics that I inherited. The alcoholic trait finally cultivated into a huge ugly slobbering beast in my blood this past year.

My dad was a pin-striped bell-bottomed wearing bowl-haired cut hippie from the 70's. He wasn't quite a full blown hippie since he liked his alcoholic brew more than he liked the idea of taking hallucinogenic drugs. The best story I've ever heard about my dad is the "dirty bubbles" story. Back in the day drunk driving was a normal occurence and there weren't any official laws about it. Well, my dad downed a few too many brews in Nesco and set about his merry way home. He was swerving down the road when he finally saw that a cop was behind him with the lights flashing. He finally pulled over and the cop came up and asked him, "Brian, why didn't you pull over a mile back when I first turned on my lights?" My dad, the smooth talking genius that he is, got out of the car, walked up to the police car, and started wiping the bubbles with his hands. "Your bubbles were dirty so I couldn't see them flashing!" Needless to say, he spent the night in a drunk tank. Good ol' dad. Besides, he was from Marenisco, of course he was an alcoholic.

His parents were the dandies, too. My dad remembers when he was a kid the state cops would come to the house at least once a week to do a "search" of the house. What were they in search for? Why, home-made moonshine! My infamous Cox grandparents were makers of moonshine that was provided to the great community that is Marenisco for many years. All you really have to do is look up the word Cox in the dictionary and find that it means "drunkard" anyway, what more proof do I need from that side of the family?

My mom is an entirely different story. She was a real hippie, long straight hair, huge bell bottoms, massive drug consumption; yet she had a metal-head side to her too. Her favorite band was Black Sabbath and if I talk to any of her high school friends, they always talk about her black leather "Mickey Rat" jacket that she always wore with a huge smoking rat stitched on the back. My mom's favorite activity while in high school was to smoke a fat blunt to get the day started, throw back a six pack during lunch break, and then get the party started after school got out. That is, if she made it through an entire day of school. She was really wild when she met my dad and they really have some interesting drunk stories up until they became pregnant with me.

My mom's mother was quite wild in her days. She quit high school because of her partying ways, in fact she was thrown out of high school. According to my grandmother, she has many "frisky things I've never known about", which I get to find out next weekend.

I started thinking about all of this because I get to learn my grandmother's history next saturday. As part of an assignment for my woman's history class, we have to interview a woman over the age of 60 and write a paper about her life history. When I think of my grandparents, I always think of them as "Grandma" or "Grandpa". It is rare that I think of what they were like when they were my age. I called my Grandma today to set up an interview with her and she told me that I remind her so much of herself that I will find it quite amusing and interesting.

Yet it is sad in a way that the alcoholism came from both sides of the family and decided to manifest itself in me. I have by far been the most rebellious in comparison to my parents and grandparents. If I decide to procreate, what the heck will my kids be like?