Underage Drinking

By kiki

How did you get your booze when you were underage? - In the early '50s, we used to drive to East L. A. where we knew a store owner on Eastern and Floral that sold beer to underage guys.

I didn't drink in my early or mid-teens. And that is because one day, my dad put the fear of God in me. When I was about 12-13 years old, we were hanging around our Simons Brickyard nightly lumbrita (small fire), and one older guy had a quart of beer. He started passing the quart around, and when it came around to me, I took the big bottle like an old pro, and I took a good chug of the brew. 

A few days later, after we had finished dinner, my dad asked me to step outside with him, I did. He told me that he had heard that I was drinking beer at the fire; I 'fessed up and said that what he had heard was true. He then got in my face and told me that if I did it again, he was going to, among other things, beat the living crap out of me. After that, I didn't drink any adult beverages until I was 19 years old, and by that time, I was already married and out of the house. By the way, my Pops never laid a hand on me in his life.