Now I must preface this with the statement that my father in no way was trying to push alcohol and tobacco on his daughter. I have never seen my parents drink or smoke, and they have chose that abstinence as their lifelong commitment which I have utmost respect for. But I believe my daddy was wanting to expose his daughter to these things under his watchful eye and maybe since I was young, I would hate it, and learn my lesson to never want to try it again! He hadn't done this with my brother, and my brother sampled these things with his friends, and without supervision and so dad wanted to try a different approach with me.
Both instances were memorable.
The first time I had a cigarette, 6th grade:
We were building fence at my grandpa's farm. This is a chore that I rarely had to help out with, but hated just the same. For some reason, we took my grandpa's truck to the nearby pasture. As I sat in his truck, I glanced at the pack of cigarettes on the dashboard. Dad saw me looking and asked "Would you like to try one, Summer?'' Now of course I thought this was a trick question. So I said 'uh, what do you mean?' He explained to me that it was ok, and that he'd rather me try it in his presence, and to not tell my mom. So as soon as we parked the truck in the pasture, he lit me up:) He obviously didn't teach me how to inhale, and just let me suck in and out. He kept staring at me with a disgusted look in his face and asked me if I liked it. I replied "yeah I kind of do!'' That is obviously probably the worst response he was hoping to get. I just remember being hunched over awkwardly because I didn't know what I was doing, and I didn't want to get 'ashes' on me. He just kept staring with the most disgusted look on his face and then I remember him telling me in a joking, disgusted voice that I 'looked like a prostitute' and then he walked over and took it out of my mouth.
The first time I had alcohol did not strike me as funny until years later when I look back. We were having a family vacation in Colorado. Dad was sick with cancer at the time. He was drinking so much carrot juice, that the bottoms of his feet turned orange. While we were swimming in Colorado, he would wear those Aqua Socks as he was embarrassed of the orange. Everyone else was just embarrassed that he was wearing aqua socks;)
Mom and Adam were in the cabin probably watching tv or eating snacks:) Dad and I were at the pool swimming laps. It was early evening and there was a social going on in a white tent in the grass by the pool. It looked very high end. Everyone was in suits, and the women were all in black dresses and everyone had on nametags and they were drinking wine and eating hor'deurvs (sp?). At this point, we were done swimming laps, and just relaxing in the hot tub as we people watched at the party. Sometimes I swear my dad could read my mind. Because I was sitting there thinking how fun it looked to dress up in a classy setting and drink some wine. I was 14. As I was staring, he again looked over at me and asked 'Summer, would you like to try some wine?' Again, thinking it might be a trick question, I was vague. He again said "I will let you try some, but you can't tell your mother." I remember asking him if I could drink it from a wine glass and he said no. Well, the next moments leave a picture in my adult mind that will make me laugh forever. He walked over to the tent in his red Nike swimtrunks, soaking wet with his aquasocks on, no shirt...just wet, hairy, bare chest. He entered the tent, grabbed some wine and poured it into a plastic cup, and took it to a teenage girl in a hot tub!! Can you picture this?? I would love to know what the people at the social were thinking when this uninvited man in wet swim trunks comes in and steals their wine to take to an underager:)
I wonder if I will let my child try these same things with me?
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