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Drunkerds

My grandfather was a tipplerand from what l can gather with stories off my mother had quite a history of being drunk and disorderly, ending up in jail many many times ....but the family was saved by pawning his suit and shoes so he could get out to go to work, l wonder if his name on the list......l only remember him as a kindly old granddad but l've heard of some wild stories all related to booze.....he had red hair and a temper to go with it so it would'nt have taken much tipple to get him going...brenda
 
Hard times, Hard Living. These people lived in a world we would find difficult to comprehend. Perhaps many of them were " socially inadequate ", a class of people still with us and to be seen in pubs because they have no where else to go.Apart from drink there was little else for the lower classes to indulge in. It was cheap ( not taxed to the hilt ) and most of it of dubious quality, whether it be backyard beer or bathtub gin. Not all of it came from reputable brewers or distillers. No Elf and Safety, no NHS, no Nanny State. You were on your own apart from a philanthropic minority in the middle classes.
So I ask you not to judge these sad cases to harshly,each one has a story that will probably never be told. The saying " Walk a mile in my shoes " comes to mind.
 
Astonite it was safer as the fermentation killed the bugs. Children even drank a weak beer known as small beer.

Arkrite I totally agree I have a saying when doing my family history.....I can't judge as I wasn't there!
 
JohnO said:
Somewhat off-topic but, an old colleague of mine once showed me an ancient newspaper report of the death of her great grandfather.....he was a renowned 'tippler'. He was eventually convinced by his doctor to give up the booze and live a more abstemious life, if he was to survive. However, the drink got him in the end....as he was run-over by a brewer's dray wagon!
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Wasnt Jeans husband Pete was it??
 
I remember waiting outside the pub door as a kid too. Back then not many had a car so getting home on the tram was ok. or walking. Mix booze with driving though and you have a recipe for disaster and hardship. Not something to be proud about.
With a pub on every corner almost, Brum might well have been up there in the swilling stakes. Perhaps the dreary living and working conditions for many in the old days were reason enough to seek solace. Not everything was wonderful in times gone by.
 
I have just found my Great grandmothers sister on the list,In one way a shock but it makes people real.When researching family tree its just names on birth and death certificates,but to see a face starring back at you from photo is really touching. Barry
 
hi guys ;
yes its sounds daft ; and unapplausable but you will find that tere was more women than the male population whom have been banned and charged with drunkeness and banned from pubs beleive me; i have banned loads of women whom have got drunk and caused big bother in the pubs with fighting and its also there have been many charged with being drunk in charge of pushing a baby child in a push chair and you still can be chargd with his offence today drunk whilst in charge of a push chair astonian ;;
 
Although it does initially appear to be quite funny, it also makes me quite angry. These people almost certainly had other problems that made them get drunk, times were hard then and the bottom of a glass rt bottle almost certainly provided the short term solution to their probelms.

However there is always a publican and of course a brewery who is quite happy to profit from these people and its little different from today. The licencing laws were put in place for good reason and I could never see any decent reason for having them relaxed as we have today.

So now with these relaxed laws we see the return of unsocial behavior on a far larger scale that takes up police time and creates damage to innocent peoples property ect. The last goverment relaxed the laws with the excuse that it would bring the UK into line with europe, this present government would have done exactly the same, but the cynic in me tends to think that the real reason is to encourage more drinking as its a rather nice tax earner for the government coffers aided and abetted by the simple fact that for some unknown reason the British cannot seen to treat alcohol in the same way as other europeans seem to do.

I am quite sure their are many publicans who do act in a responsible manner both now and in times past and there is no proof that these people obtained thie drink from a pub when they were already clearly inebriated but I still hold the drinks industry responsible!

BTW I am typing this sipping a rather nice cheap red fron Aldi and I await someone to respond to my opinions with an argument suggesting that I am quite wrong! CHEERS!!
 
When we lived in Ohio the owner of our local bar was always very firm with anyone who appeared sloshed, for two reasons: 1) if a cop came in he, the bar-owner, could be fined for serving liquor sufficient to render a person inebriated and 2) if someone who got drunk in his bar was then involved in a car-accident that caused injury or death, then the owner could be prosecuted as an accessory. Not a bad idea.

I worked for a British company in Ohio, and the owners of the local bars couldn't believe how much the Brits could put away compared with most Americans. Of course, it was a big macho thing to have one over the Yanks, but I still shudder to think of the number of times I drove home when I'd had too much.

Bill, how on earth can you drink during the day? A sniff of a damp cork at lunch-time and I'm out like a light...good health.

Big Gee
 
Big Gee said:
When we lived in Ohio the owner of our local bar was always very firm with anyone who appeared sloshed, for two reasons: 1) if a cop came in he, the bar-owner, could be fined for serving liquor sufficient to render a person inebriated and 2) if someone who got drunk in his bar was then involved in a car-accident that caused injury or death, then the owner could be prosecuted as an accessory. Not a bad idea.

I worked for a British company in Ohio, and the owners of the local bars couldn't believe how much the Brits could put away compared with most Americans. Of course, it was a big macho thing to have one over the Yanks, but I still shudder to think of the number of times I drove home when I'd had too much.

Bill, how on earth can you drink during the day? A sniff of a damp cork at lunch-time and I'm out like a light...good health.

Big Gee
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Big,

I only embibe purely for health reasons, to be honest it can become quite a chore :) Best Wishes and Cheers:)
 
There are plenty of reasons for drinking,
And another's just entered my head.
If you can't have a drink when you're living,
You bloody-well can't when you're dead.

BG
 
24 beers in case, 24 hours in a day. coincidence. i'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal labotamy.
 
I completed 25 years on Ambulance service,the first 10 years were in Birmingham,I know what friday and satureday night was like around the city, we used to return to station via Varna road.Balsall Heath,got to know lot of the Pub Landlords and they were really good people.
 
Just add to my last post,decided quieter live and moved to Dorset Ambulance,My God Friday and Satureday night around Weymouth just the same
 
The worst place I ever saw in my life for drunkenness and violence was Brighton in the 1960's. It made Brum seem like a church-school.

Big Gee
 
Yes you are right,In Weymouth it was concentrated around the esplanade and when the navy ships in Portland it was really Hell,Better quality of drunks in Brum
 
In Brighton it was the twerps ("Mods" and "Rockers") who came down from London most weekends to slug it out on the beach and the surrounding roads. My brother lived in Brighton at the time, and he reckoned that even before the Mods and Rockers it was a hell-hole at weekends, most of the trouble being caused by day-trippers from London. I recall travelling on a train from Brighton up to London, and the compartment had been ripped apart and not even cleaned - however, British Rail still felt it worthy of occupation, as they would. And of course it was an old Southern Region corridor-less coach, so I was stuck with it.

Big Gee
 
Talking of the mods and rockers ,brighton and southend ,easter week-end 64, based at winsor and issued with nightsticks and pickelfs, as back up to the constablary but it never materialised, lots of squaddies were really gutted,
paul
 
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