A STAPLE (in the scrotum) OF MANLINESS.

I, being twenty-four, have yet to do something that nearly all men do, or have done, by my age. I never really thought about it, but tonight it sort of dawned on me.

I've never had a beer with my dad.

When I was about seventeen/eighteen, my mother emerged as an alcoholic, and for the years after, I completely gave up alcohol. Only on the rarest of occations, such as special events or my twenty-first, would I imbibe. I told the world I was being strong and supportive... but in truth, I was scared.

I remember my mother as one of the strongest people in the world, part of the reason I enjoy strong female characters, to see something break her, terrified me. So, under the guise of helping, I swore off drinking.

In the recent years, I'd come to realize that fear, and since then have come to enjoy a drink now and then. I still hate being drunk, but I always have. Bad stomach, doesn't play well with excess. So, on nights I will pour myself a drink into my Medieval Manor tall glass, and have a sit, sipping away on my beer and watching something. Tonight is Doctor Who.

Now, before I ramble off again, know that my mother is at around three years sober, a good achievement I'm proud of her for.

But, I've never sat down in a bar, next to my dad, and had a beer. We've never played pool, loser paying for the drinks. I'm married, a responsible adult looking towards life as a long road I ride down, and I've yet to start off in that way.

My brother was the one to take me out on my twenty-first, bought me drinks, played pool with me, explained about bar fights. I don't even like bars, but I listened.

I suppose I'll have to ask my father to go sometime, me, him, my brother, all of us. The Hart boys off to the bar, for possibly the first and last time. We're Irish, we might end up singing, but that's a risk we'll just have to take.