We mentioned in our last story that we didn't go to Christmas parties and gave an example why. We also mentioned in another story that sometimes when I got extremly angry I'd have no recollection of what I'd done. This is a combination of two of those factors.
I'd been working off and on that summer as a gopher for a construction company and was invited to their Christmas party. I really didn't want to go but the boss' daughter, who was in her early teens, had quite a crush on me and wanted me to come. So I dropped by.
At that time I still drank and had started on a beer, but hadn't finished it yet, so was still aware of what was going on.
The boss' daughter came up and began talking to me. Another young man came over, who also worked for the company. Over the years I had had many altercations with him and, his brothers. He was already considerably drunk, and all of a sudden said something so disgusting to me about the young lady I was with, that she ran off sobbing heavily. The young man then stood there glaring at me with a big grin on his face. That was the last thing I remembered until a few minutes later I recovered my wits and found myself being held down in a chair by two of the construction crew.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Well," one of them explained, "I guess you took quite a bit of offense to what James said to you. All of a sudden you turned around and belted him so hard he went clean over the table! You then walked around the table and proceeded to start stomping on his face! Charlie tried to stop you and you just picked him up and threw him into the corner. It took four of us to drag you off the poor guy!"
At that moment the boss arrived, looking for the man who had so offended his daughter. But seeing what I'd done to him, he figured he couldn't improve on it much, and sent him packing. He offered to pay my legal expenses if it proved necessary. But the offending party figured it was better not to press charges, and the incident was forgotten.
My temper's been bad enough when I'm sober, I think you can see why I don't drink any more, or get around other people that are drinking. Drunks seem to have no common sense whatsoever, or at least I'VE never met any that did!