Not particularly hunting related, but I graduated 8th grade with about 20 other boys. I graduated high school with about the same. Of guys in my class who I went to K-12th grade with, which were all mostly the same folks, 5 are dead. When I think about all the ones who came and went, it really pans out to be about 15-20% of the boys I went to grade/high school with, are gone. 4 of the 5 of those deaths related to alcohol. Other's I grew up with are still here, but have had relationships collapse due to the drug. I am not even 40.
Got the news today that another one of my friends who I hadn’t seen in a few years is in the ICU with organ failure.
Alcohol is strange. For many, me included, it is part of the lighter times in my life. It’s absolutely a part of fishing and hunting camp. It’s never been a problem beyond self-induced misery. But for others, it tears worlds apart, and even ends worlds, and 20 years ago I would’ve never predicted for whom this would be the case.
Obviously, society has seen that prohibition causes more harm than good, and I wouldn’t want it. But I could see myself 100 years ago in the 19-teens, without the foreknowledge of what prohibition would bring, thinking that the world would be a better place without alcohol.
I know it’s not really hunting related, but venues to anonymously muse on things with likeminded people are lacking, and HuntTalk is that place for me.