 A few days ago, some of us were over at Pat's house, watching our basketball team playing out-of-town game on TV. With a long pass to Martin, uh-oh, it's intercepted by Brian of Union. He passes to Bob Brock, he dribbles up a layup, shoots and scores! Ah, there's no doubt about it. Today is Union's day. This will be Willard High's first defeat. The lawyers will really be hard for them to take. Well, that's the game. Final score, 91-88. Too bad Ted Brown wasn't in there playing today for Willard High. Boy, I'll say it's too bad Ted wasn't in there today. How come? 91-88. What a pity. What a pity? Maybe that's what's known as a massacre, a shellacking. We really had it. Are you speaking English by any remote chance? He's still in the bebop stage. It'll pass when he grows up. When I grow up, it's just too bad that Ted Brown hasn't grown up. Then maybe we wouldn't have lost the game. What do you mean Ted Brown hasn't grown up? Haven't you heard? Heard what? Just two days before the game, the coach found a bottle in Ted's car. A bottle? A bottle of what? Well, it wasn't soda pot. Ted? A bottle? I can't believe it. I had no idea that Ted drank. Wait a second. Who said anything about drinking? Bill merely said that the coach found a bottle in Ted's car. Anyone could have put it there. I for would have never seen Ted take a drink. Sounds like a case of circumstantial evidence to me. Oh boy, now we've got a real sea lawyer in our midst. But you know, you may be right. We all know how Coach Edward feels about alcohol. He probably found the bottle and that was enough for him. I agree that finding a bottle in Ted's car is a serious thing in itself. But just don't forget that the coach is an all right guy. He wouldn't take Ted off the team unless he had some pretty solid reasons to. I think all this mumbo jumbo was beside the point. The point seems to be, what's wrong with drinking? You know, it's funny we never got off on that topic before. Well, that's because it's never entered into any of our activities. But now it looks like it has. It seems to have crossed us a basketball game. The facts are simple enough. Ted is our best man. A bottle is found in his car by the coach who says the athletics and alcohol don't mix. There's no argument about that. I think we all agree there. So Ted's out of the game and we lose. And that's that. I think I know another reason why Coach Edward feels the way he does. Did you ever hear about his older brother Jim? No, what's the scoop? What about the coach's brother? He's an alcoholic. He is? Why, I see him at the campus bookstore almost every day and he looks okay to me. Sure. He looks okay now, but Dad said he used to hit it up pretty heavy. He's a patient of Dad's, you know. Say, Pete, maybe you shouldn't discuss one of your Dad's patients. Oh, I think it's all right. It's pretty common now that at one time Jim Edwards was a pretty heavy drinker. Just about everyone around the high school and college knows Dad. He quit a few years ago at Dad's insistence. It was quite a struggle at first, but he finally won out. And I certainly give him credit for that. Comes the dawn. So Coach Edward knows the danger of alcohol and is reminded what it might do whenever he sees a bottle. So when he saw the bottle in Ted's car, that was the straw that broke the camel's back. He put his foot down and we lost the game. If you think about it, maybe we've gained something more important. Even if we did lose the basketball game. I think that game is pretty important. Of course it is. But don't you see, because we lost the game, we're discussing a very important topic. Alcohol. I agree with you up to a point. And I understand about the coach's brother. He's an alcoholic and one drink might start him right back to where he was a few years ago, practically in the gutter. It might be dangerous for him, but what about me? I figure that, well, if I want a drink or two, I'll take him and then I'll quit. I have enough good sense to know when to quit. That's what you think. You don't know if you can quit. We all know that alcohol makes people think clearly and do some pretty crazy things. Anyway, since when have you been drinking? Well, um, well, so what if I don't drink? I know how I would handle it. But you don't know. Would you want to run the risk of becoming an alcoholic by taking that first drink? No, I think you're all talking about special cases. My dad has never told me one way or the other what I should do about alcohol. Well, that's simple. He's probably had no cause, too. Yeah, that's so. But I like to think I'm one of the gang. Maybe I'll want to be a good fella and take a drink like some other guys I know. Then you think you have to take a drink to be one of the gang. I think that's rather silly. I might just as well say that I couldn't be one of the bunch unless I liked the same kind of music that Pete likes. Or the same kind of heritage that Pat prefers. Or the same kind of movies that Bill likes. Or TV programs. Well, I could go on endlessly. Is your father an alcoholic around your house? Why, no. He belongs to a golf club and a bowling club. And, evidently, he doesn't feel he has to drink to be a regular fellow. I guess I never thought about it that way. Maybe you've got something there. Alcohol's no problem with me. I'm strictly a milk and fruits use man myself. Believe it or not, though, I have tasted a drink. Well, brother, you can have it. Isn't that one of the best and simplest reasons for not drinking? It tastes terrible. How can anyone in his right mind say that a glass of beer or a shot of whiskey is as good or refreshing as a chocolate soda? Or a lemonade. Or a big tumbler of cool milk. Or even just a glass of ice water when you're thirsty. Stop it, stop it, I'm drooling. Pat, how about some lemonade? Just give her a doll for a minute. I'll take care of it. You know, Bill brought up the point. Why do people drink alcoholic beverages when they taste so bad? Well, that says, and I think we all know, people drink to make themselves feel different. Sure, it peps them out. Oh, you're way wrong there. Alcohol may seem to stimulate, to pep the drinker out, but actually it's a sedative. Dad's even called it an narcotic. You sound like young Dr. Malone or something. Well, I guess I do. But when you have a doctor for a father and when you're expecting to take pre-med, you keep your eyes and ears open for any bit of scientific information you might latch onto. If you have any doubts about how alcohol affects the mind, just take a drive out to the automobile graveyard in Boulevard. What's the connection? You'll see. I drove out there a few days ago to see if I could pick up some second-hand parts from my jalopy. I asked Mr. Garibaldi, the owner, where did all these wrecked cars come from? And you know what he told me? A lot of them are towed away from accidents that were caused by drinking drivers. Now, that certainly shows alcohol affects the head. Right. Or to be more accurate, it affects the brain. Like I said, the brain. The alcohol in the drink goes directly to the brain. It slows up our judgment and it slows up our reflexes. Here you are. Oh, good. Good. Well, you're a big help. Oh, boy. Think of it here. Ah. Brad, Brad, you're so good to me. Mother will have a fit when she sees the grocery bill this month. I'll bet we've consumed ten pounds of cookies and just gallons of lemonade. We'll have our next TV party at my house. The media of the cost of food brings up a very important point. Did you ever stop to think how expensive it is to drink alcoholic beverages? Yeah, that's right. You know, you have to pay four or five dollars a bottle for this stuff. Pat, you could buy Joe a whole month's supply of cookies for that. Can I help him if I have an expensive taste? But I'm all kidding aside. You know what really rocks me? What? Just this. You ever hear those beer commercials of that outfit that offers premiums if you drink their beer? Sure. And boy, they're really sad. Do they think they're fooling anybody? What a gimmick. You get a coupon with each bottle. Good for merchandise. That's 24 coupons per case. Sure. And you can figure a case cost at least 350. How many coupons do you have to pay? Well, let's say you look through their catalog. There's a watch you can get for 4,000 coupons. 4,000? That's 4,000 bottles of beer for one watch. Or about $700 worth. Wouldn't it be better to just go out and buy the watch for $30 or $40 and use the rest of the money on something else? Something really worthwhile? Not only that. Just think of all the trouble that much alcohol is liable to cause. You know, now that we've talked about this alcohol problem, I feel that we've answered out loud a lot of the questions that each one of us has probably thought about. Yes, I think we have answered a lot of questions. Questions we've all thought about as individuals. When our group gets together, we talk about a lot of things. Mostly everyday things about school, sports, the latest records, dancing, movies and the like. But for the first time as a group, we asked ourselves about alcohol. And I think we arrived at some pretty important points. Alcohol and brain work certainly do not mix. You can't play the game to win if you use alcohol. Alcohol is not only dangerous, but very expensive. It's not smart to drink. Teenagers or anyone else for that matter can be good sports and belong without drinking. You don't have to drink to be one of the bunch. You don't have to drink to be a regular fellow. What does your group think about this problem? What about alcohol and you?