A BOY WALKS INTO A BAR

In one year’s time, two events in the author’s life herald a future of turmoil and tragedy, the aftermath of which he continues to deal with today. At the age of twelve, he had his first drink—a can of beer—in a church parking lot. That summer, he took a job in a bar around the corner from the house he grew up in. He was thirteen. And so began his love affair with alcohol and with bartending. The book traces his descent into alcoholic oblivion as he moved from one bartending job to another. Ironically, he knew he was an alcoholic but failed to understand the meaning of the concept “It’s the first drink that gets you drunk.” As a consequence, it took him twenty-seven years to face the reality of his disease, but then after almost twenty years of sobriety, he once again