Responsibilities

     Turning eighteen was a big step for me, I was coming of age, no longer a teenager not yet a man. I couldn't vote or drink beer but I could be charged as an adult for any crimes I might commit and more importantly I could be drafted and sent off to some foreign war and die for my country. If I didn't hurry up and make a decision I would be drafted into the Army and that just wouldn't do, so I joined the Navy like my father before me.
     They say that the military makes men out of boys and I think they might be right, mom was not there to pick up after me so I had to do for myself. There were a lot of things involved in turning boys into men and I must say that a lot of the schooling was not taught by the Navy, it was taught by older sailors who at times took some strange pleasure in walking young boys down the path of manhood. Such was the case of learning the arts of drinking and gambling. The lessons were hard and some times painful but you eventually figured out the basics, never draw to an inside straight and don't mix beer with liquor.
     My first year in the Navy found me rooming with two older guys in their early twenties, they were both from Boston. Leo was the younger one and we became good friends, he took me under his wing and guided me along in the ways of manhood.
     My first lesson was in the art of drinking and I must say that I was not really looking forward to this as my father was an alcoholic and I never really liked the smell of beer much less the the taste but being called a chicken in front of your peers was frowned on so I thought, awe what the heck, one beer won't hurt. Well the first beer didn't hurt and by number six or seven I felt no pain and somewhere around number fifteen I didn't feel anything at all.
     It all started one Friday night when several of us went to what was called the gee-dunk (don't ask why), it was a sorta restaurant / bar where enlisted personnel could go and have a burger and beer and sit around shooting the breeze, it was the only place those of us who were under twenty one could legally be served beer. So there we were, about six or eight of us guys sitting around and one of the older guys bought everyone a beer which at first I turned down until someone said something about no hair on my rear end ( I am trying to watch my language ), the gauntlet had been laid down, the line was drawn in the sand and for the honor of all the sailors who came before me I had to step over it. I grabbed a cold can and took a sip, it didn't taste any better than it smelled and the guys could see by the expression on my face that I needed to be encouraged so they told me it would be better if I just turned it up and chugged it down, in other words turn it up and drink the whole can real fast, so I did, my eyes watered and I started to feel a numbness spread thru out my whole body starting in my brain. They say beer is an acquired taste and they were right, after you acquired the first one the rest didn't taste as bad.
     There was another boy in the group from Chattanooga, Tn., he was what we called a mama's boy and he was teased about it often. After my first beer the guys started teasing him and finally talked him into his first beer, the next thing I knew he and I were pitted against each other in a beer drinking contest. Bets were made as to which of us could drink the most beer, there was cheering, slaps on the back and the popping sound the beer tabs made when a fresh beer was opened, the race was on.
     I can't remember how long it took for me to chug-a-lug those eighteen beers but I won the contest sitting down because I was a little unsteady on my feet. My good friend Leo again took me under his wing and walked me back to the barracks, it took time because I couldn't feel my feet touch the ground and I thought it was funny. Once back in my room I fell into my bed and closed my eyes. I was at peace with the world until Leo came in and woke me up to take a couple of aspirins to ward off tomorrows hangover. As I opened my eyes the whole known world started spiraling off its axis and I was about to fall off if I didn't make it to the head (bathroom) on time. I spent a good fifteen minutes with my head buried in a commode puking my guts out. Once I determined there could not be anything left inside me I crawled over to the wall and pulled myself up to a standing position, fortunately the hallway in the barracks was not very wide and that made it easier to brace myself with a supporting hand on either wall as I made my way back to my room. I laid back down and hoped the worse was over but it wasn't as what is called the dry heaves came along and I started trying to puke into a waste basket beside my bed, there I was stretched out on the bed with my head hanging over the edge trying to puke into a waste basket but there was nothing left inside me. At some point I think I might have passed out.
     So ended my first step into manhood. I did continue to drink on into my early thirties but never again did I have a night like that one and when Danny was born I quit all together. I have an occasional drink now and then but I learned a long time ago that life is more fun and beautiful with a clear head.
     My first stab at gambling came when I stood my first watch as a duty driver, it was a Saturday and things were slow so the duty petty officer ask if  I wanted to play some cards, "sure I said what kind of cards". He suggested that we play 500 Rummy for a penny a point, little did he know that I had been playing rummy since I was about ten years old, some twenty minutes later he handed over ten dollars.
 Most of the guys played Poker - draw, stud, seven card and baseball to name a few of the variations. We played in one of the rooms with the door closed, the room was small and quickly filled with blue smoke from the long green cigars we purchased for just the occasion. The bets were nickle, dime and quarter with a maximum of three raises that way nobody could lose too much.
     When I got to my outfit in Vietnam a whole new world opened up as those guys would bet on anything and they took their gambling seriously. I walked in on an Acey Ducey game on the ship one night, there were about eight guys playing with another half dozen backers. Acey Ducey is a card game where each player is dealt two cards after putting an ante into the pot, let's say five dollars. Both cards are dealt face up and the object of the game was to bet that the next card dealt to you would fall between the two you had, in other words if you had a five and a ten you had to get a six, seven, eight, or nine, any other card and you would lose your bet. You could bet any portion of the pot or all of it. This particular game was hot, when I walked in there was $2500 in cash and the title to a two year old Mustang in the pot. The betting was frantic, several players had all of their money in the pot and had to work a deal with the backers to remain in the game.
     Once we were on board ship we kept a running poker game which we played at lunch and at night, rather than have money laid out on the table we used poker chips. All winnings and losses were recorded in a book and all players had to settle up every pay day or they couldn't play until they did. Poker was not the only game we bet on, there was also Blackjack and when the monotony set in we adapted other card games into games of chance.
     I played my share of Poker and Blackjack even long after I left the Navy, once I won over eight hundred dollars playing Blackjack in Lake Tahoe but generally I probably broke even at best. Years later when I worked for the SBA, my boss invited me to join a small group of four guys who had been playing poker every Tuesday night for some thirty five plus years, one of the guys had to drop out for health reasons and they were looking for new blood. There was a special bond these guys had, I was honored that they asked and I did play with them a few times. I am sure they continued on but I wonder if they ever replaced their friend, I think this was one of those times where the last hand was played when the last man drew his last breath.
      I was a little slow to grow up even though I did finally become old enough to vote there was still enough of the boy that wanted to play. When the pressures of responsibilities finally overwhelmed me I achieved my manhood, drinking and gambling as it turned out had very little to do with a boys right of passage into manhood, it is how he handles his responsibilities, and yes the world is a more beautiful place when you are not looking at it thru bloodshot eyes.