i used to do the precise thing you seem to despise. i was one of the 'popular' guys at school, i was on the football team which pretty much guaranteed entry to the popular people, and all my mates were, and generally it was good times. i also started drinking at about 15, getting my mates who looked the oldest to go and buy booze, then cane it up at the local park. we didnt cause anybody any trouble, never had dealings with the police, and the park is also part of a huge field with about 10 footy pitches on it, so we'd go over to the far corner away from everybody and get nutted. i dont regret it, me and my mates still talk about the good times we had doing stuff like that, downing alcopops while spinning round on the spot
, and as we were young we were generally pretty drunk pretty quickly. by 16-17 though i was getting served in the pubs, drinking with my dad and the adult football team we played for, so the field thing didnt last long.
shock horror, im not an alcoholic waster. i can count on one hand the number of times i go down the pub in a month on average, and spend a lot of my time driving to mates houses so dont drink. once a month i'll splash out on a taxi and consume a bottle of whiskey with one of my mates round his, but thats a payday special.
i dont drink at home, purely because for me its a social thing, with mates or down the pub.
maybe its about what you drink ? by 16 i was drinking real ale thanks to my dad, and the awesome freehouse we used to go down that won regular awards for its ale. getting smashed on neat spirits, or strong lager/cider is not appealing to me - not because of the state it gets you in, but purely because of the taste of those drinks. an ice cold cider is nice when you;re having a bbq, and i'll drink lager if theres nothing else going. i drink my whiskey or brandy with coke, because thats how i like it. maybe if i spent the last 10 years drinking stella and scrumpy it'd be a different story.
its also very much about who you drink with. none of my mates are the club going, rave attending lager louts that usually inhabit the local seafront on a saturday night, we like sitting in a nice pub and ripping the p**s out of eachother while getting slowly more slurred and incoherent. ive had drinks with my fair share of idiots, and i generally just leave them to it and do my own thing. or make my excuses and go somewhere better.