You probably think that I will give Biblical reasons or not drinking alcohol in any form and with no exceptions. There are certainly many good references – “Wine is a mocker”. Then there is your influence to be reckoned with. It is better that a millstone be tied around your neck and you to be cast into the sea , than lead one of the little ones astray. Then there is the reference of not is eating meat or drinking. if it causes someone else to stumble, I shall not do it. I think that this would be enough that I would never drink but add to that all the misery that you have known caused by alcohol. I have been asked “Do you not drink because you are a deacon?” My answer is “I never drank before I was a deacon”.
The big reason that I have never drank is I firmly believe that if I drank , I would become an alcoholic. My beloved grandpa which I have written about before was an alcoholic. He was the son of a Baptist minister and the richest and the most influential man in our community. He was not like the alcoholics that you hear about “down and out” but more of a “UP and in”. My grandma was a remarkable woman ( a solid rock) and kept everything running regardless of him. He had failed in business early in life so when he started back he put everything in Grandma’s name and that is why it was the A.D. Dodd Store until they died . ( Adeline Delilah). When Keel was born, Grandpa was at Keeley Institute getting a cure and Grandma named Keel after the Institute – her hopes were so high that he would be better. He had been of several times before but never in my lifetime. He would vow that he would never take another drink in his life, but slowly run back into old friends and drift back. It was definitely something that he could not control.
If we were over to their house and he would start drinking, Mamma would gather us up and take us home immediately. On election days, I was not allowed to go over there, as Mamma knew that he would be drinking. The election polls were in his store and he would stay up until ever vote in the county was counted. By that time, he would be very intoxicated. He was the man the politicians would get to carry the polls for them and he could do that because he had much influence . I never saw him drunk. On holidays, and when the relatives were down there, some of the son-in-laws would drink with him and it would usually start late in the afternoon when we would make our exits. Uncle Tom and my Daddy , of course, did not drink with them.
This was back in the days when the church censored what you did. Grandpa was a member of Bethlehem Baptist Church and a very heavy giver to church causes – In fact he just about supposed that church . They told him that he could either quit drinking or they would kick him out of the church. He asked for his letter and placed it in a trunk at home. He continued with his heavy support of that church as long as he lived. They never refused his money. This was a heartbreak for Mamma. I believe Grandpa is in Heaven – His one sin was he could not control his drinking.
I loved my grandpa very much and I have always felt I inherited a lot of his traits. He loved life as I love life. He knew how to take a dollar and turn it into money. I firmly believer that if I drank I would never be able to control my drinking like he was never able to control his drinking. I took a vow. I would never take that first drink to find out and I would protect my children in the same manner. They in turns are protecting my grandchildren
– “The Way It Was,” Chapter 29: “Why I oppose drinking alcohol in any form,” 1999
King Kitchen 