I got drunk the first time doing popper shots of Sauza white tequila and Wink mix. I thought it was the greatest feeling ever, I felt like a completely different person who was no longer shy and inhibited. Then I thought I was so awesome I wouldn't feel the pain from butting a cigarette out on the back of my hand. I was wrong. Booze is both important and necessary, and should be enjoyed by all. However... moderation. That getting drunk six nights a week era seems awesome but you also think you're invincible when you're that age and...you're not.
I was anti-drinking for a long time, but my now ex-best friend finally convinced me to get drunk with him during Thanksgiving break of our sophomore year of college. My first time getting drunk consisted of drinking Heineken and strawberry flavored Smirnoff vodka. I don't think that I need to say how it turned out. Even after I started drinking it took me awhile to learn to like the taste of beer. I would usually do shots and then chase them or drink Mike's Hard (as others have mentioned), just because that was the easiest thing for someone who didn't like the taste of alcohol. When I did drink beer it had to be something expensive like Heineken or Newcastle; I couldn't get Bud Light or Miller Lite down even with a gun to my head. Once I did develop a taste for more expensive beer and drank it regularly I gave the cheaper beer another look, and I'll never forget what my first Miller Lite at that point tasted like: it was like water going down. For the remainder of my college years from the time I turned 21, Beast was usually my go to drink. How I miss being able to polish off a 12 pack of Beast in one night and feel like a champ the next day.
High school was Banker's Club. I distinctly remember laughing at two handles of Bankers Rum, labeled exactly the same, one dark ("spiced") and one clear. We would have gotten a better buzz and probably less bodily harm from shotgunning gasoline. College started out with the best of expectations - Jack, Bud, and Captain but we quickly outpaced our budget. Coors Jr - Keystone, still holds a piece of my heart. Natty, Busch, etc all tastes like rat piss to me, but for some reason, I can pound Keystone Lights all day with no problem. My day drinking beer of choice is still Coors Light. Thankfully I've graduated to hard liquor that isn't recognized by the state of California to cause cancer.
In high school, what I drank was largely dictated by who I was hanging out with. The punk kids? 40s. The hipster kids? PBR and Sparks. My best girlfriends? Vodka cranberry. And they were all dreadful choices.
Wow, I can't believe there are this many posts about drinking in high school and no one has mentioned flaming drinks. The summer before my senior year one of our friends introduced us to the flaming Dr. Pepper, which is a shot of equal parts amaretto and Kahlua topped with Bacardi 151. You light the Bacardi, which is on top of the shot on fire, drop it into a glass of beer, and chug. I don't know if it actually tastes like Dr. Pepper but it's sweet and goes down pretty smooth. Amazingly I never saw someone's hand catch on fire from it until we had a bartender make them for us in college. The bar banned flaming drinks after that. So that's what we drank that summer. Fortunately we were well-connected in that we knew enough kids whose parents went out of town to keep us flush in houses at which to have parties. I'm quite surprised in retrospect that no one ended up dead or maimed that summer.
Correction: the flaming Dr. Pepper is 3/4 oz amaretto and 1/4 oz Bacardi 151. Light it, and drop it into a glass of ice cold beer. The cheapest beer I've tried that has produced the desired results is Coors light. It tastes exactly like Dr. Pepper. I mean fucking identical. Don't dare go cheaper than silver bullet, but fat tire makes for a delicious drink. Same with Warsteiner and Newcastle.
Flaming drinks were a bit high end for some kids who considered Heineken exciting and weed with seeds in it good. I use to hide my vodka in cleaned out anti-freeze bottles. Clean them out well then mix vodka and blue gatorade, worked very well, minus the fact that if you were in a hotel room chugging anti-freeze people thought you were stupid and going to die.
Not that I smoke anymore but the first year or so before a friend's older brother hooked us up with some chronic was filled with smoking the shittiest brick weed out of retardly stupid homemade Mcguyver bongs when I was 16 or so. Too cheap to invest in decent glass we'd just poke holes in coke cans. It's been so long I'm not even sure that mexican shit is even sold anymore? Remember "dry spells" when weed was scarce?
Everyone writes off "Girly" beverages, but you know what? When wine coolers first came out (Specifically California Coolers) they were a God send for me. That's when I was playing music and basically shit house drunk every night. By 3 or 4 in the afternoon when I was just starting to stir and had to be amped up for "Work" by 9, even the thought of a beer would send my spirit into revolt, but a couple of wine coolers? I could deal with that. A couple of 4 packs of coolers and a line or two and I was ready to go at 9. Which is probably exactly why my heart tried to escape my body when I was 32.
And it's funny... whenever a bunch of us went off skiing at Whistler or camping or something with a bunch of friends and friends of friends, I'd always make a point of packing the "girly drink" ingredients. Mostly blender stuff. There's a reason that the electrical outlet I put in the side of my Jeep is called the Blender Port. Nothing better than pulling into a campsite in the middle of the BC mountains, and while some guys go and get a fire going, you hear the awesome high-pitched whir of a blender. Go ahead, be all manly and drink your rye on the rocks, or beer, or whatever... I'll gladly whip up a bunch of sangria or blend some killer fresh/frozen fruit slushy thing with enough vodka and Malibu in it that you can set it on fire... and share it with all the girls. (The key is to get them the first night... day 2 or three with no showers is time for HARD drinking, not fucking). It's never steered me wrong. Now, just because I happen to enjoy a nice "girly drink" now and then... well, don't judge. Or do, I don't give a fuck. Hell, I've even been known to fire up the blender while in a ferry lineup. Some people look at me like I'm nuts, but most look at me (well, the blender, anyway) with desire.
Yep, first thing in the morning with a hateful hangover, everyone is reaching into the cooler for a wine cooler or a Zima.
In my circle of friends, the cooler on the morning after has 80% water, 10% beer, 5% girly drinks, and 5% soggy hot dogs.
Folks that want me to make them mixed drinks first thing in the morning? With a hang over? It's much easier to just point at the cooler, tell them to fuck off, leave me alone, and pull the sleeping bag back over my head.