I loved his hair and thought he was so cute when I was a tween.

David Cassidy Covered This Massive Hit by The Association In The 70s & Made It His Own ~ This Is For All The Loyal David Fans Out There ~ One Of His Best! The Lyrics To Terry Kirkman's "Cherish" Are Still Just As Vibrant Today As They Were Over 50 Years Ago.

They just showed this episode in fact. I love the Mondrian-style painted bus they travel in.

So cute when he was young, before the booze & drugs did a number on him.

His father was an alcoholic. I don't understand going down the same path, when you've seen what it does and know you're susceptible to it.

let me say that it was the lifestyle I learned.
In my case I learned that a 'man' drank and smoked, gambled and chased women.
You learn so much from your parent's example and you never realize that you have become them.
And all their friends all did the same - drinking, smoking, gambling etc.

I slowly started pulling myself out of that lifestyle @age 25, finally quitting alcohol @ 40. But it wasn't easy because all of that was central to my life.
I see myself as somewaht lucky. Many of my friends have paid for the same lifestyle already.

I don't know if I'd be able to do that.

One of my old friends became an alcoholic. I haven't seen her in maybe 15 years. I no longer had anything in common with her, since she was an alcoholic. She looks really old and wasted, skin & bones. Booze will do that. So sad. (I did ask her how she ended up being an alcoholic, since she drink any more than the rest of us in our party days; she said that she also did drugs, so when she quit that, she doubled down on the alcholic. She also reminded me her father had been an alcoholic, which I had forgotten.)

My mother's father, my grandpa, was an alcoholic. So was one of her sisters. Now, her daughter, 59, has died from poorly treated breast cancer and alcoholism.

My mother and her surviving sister barely drink. None of my other cousins drink very often. I have been drinking a little more since Trump, but I am hardly an alcoholic. I may have a few drinks a week, or a few a month. Any more corrodes my stomach. It is hardly central to my life.

I am glad you found your way out of this. I, too, am rural. There are too many rural alcoholics out and about. There can be a lot of hopelessness out here in red America.