Alcoholism and gambling run in my family.
Some people inherit country estates and others inherit fortunes but the only thing I have to look forward in my dotage is finding a propensity for drinking very heavily while kissing my liver goodbye or discovering an almost clairvoyant ability to spunk large amounts of money on horses, cards and slot machines.
Piles also run in the family but as they haven’t gone there yet I’m likewise not going there either.
Fortunately I rarely gamble and just the thought of walking into a betting shop still makes me feel very ill. The sight of living cadavers smoking roll-ups and watching the last of their bets go down is one very unpleasant image.
And while it’s true I have a history of enjoying a pint or ten I am now close to curbing my wilder excesses as hangovers are not the to-be-proudly-displayed badges of fast living they once were.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries people who drank were said to be ‘in drink’ which suggests the act of drinking had changed them or affected them. It was seen as a transitory state while these days we refer to people as drunk or as drunks which carries with it a whole weight of moral baggage.
So should my genes ever kick in please think of me ‘in drink’ rather than as a drunk. It’ll make me happier…
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