In each city there are special places: there guys make dates, and old friends have time to see each other after a long separation. There, people rejoice and cry, wait for hours. There they meet and leave forever. And also, they meet there for a drink. No matter what, the main thing is to be with whom.
There is one remarkable crossroad in our town. No, if you think that there is something important next to it, or something special has happened on it, then you are mistaken. It is quite a normal intersection. The place of meetings and dates of all the locals who love to drink.
My path to the school ran through this intersection, there was no other road, and I watched him for 11 years. They stood on it almost daily and in any weather. Local alcoholics: sometimes by companies of 5-10 people, sometimes in couples, sometimes they were bored alone. It's like "under the clock" in a big city, only here - under a dim, rickety lantern.
From year to year I followed the development of their lives. Winter. Spring. Summer. Autumn. Winter ... all the same fuels brew, bought from the local samogony. Time passed: I studied, lived, did something, traveled somewhere, returned. And they continued to meet in their unchanged place "under the lantern at the intersection." Ragged. Dirty. Sometimes with shaking hands. Different ages: someone younger, someone older, but the essence is unchanged.
I even met some of them (I don’t see anything wrong with talking to someone who, according to public opinion, is "behind the line"). Some of them I knew even before their close acquaintance with a clear flammable liquid. And I know some just in the face. But more and more often come across new faces.
People who come to the crossroads mostly do not work anywhere, and if they work, then until the first salary, after which there always comes a period of universal joy and unlimited happiness - hard drinking. Still, as an additional source of income, they do not shun the use of pensions of their old parents. And sometimes they work: for a bottle or two of cheap vodka, they will build a barn, clean the hay, scatter the manure, etc. Clever local owners use them as cheap seasonal labor, which is not even necessary to feed.
In Russia, they always drank a lot. On occasion and without incident. But still for drinking, at least a little bit, but we need a reason. This is not tea that you can drink all day long, simply because the heating in the apartment was turned off and it was terribly cold.
But why do these men drink constantly? From day to day. Alcoholism? Is it boring There is no light to go to? Is everyone drinking? Comrades will not understand? The reasons for the drunkenness of some of them I know (or just guess). Someone went through Afghan and Chechnya, and when he returned, there were no funds for psychological assistance to former servicemen. And even more so in such a provincial town. They are not there now. But in the midst of these "gathering" there are also quite ordinary people - "unaffected". What is wrong with them? "My wife spree - go better get drunk!"? "There is no money forever, anyway you will not get out of this mud - will I go and drink better!"? "There is no sensible work, at the factory you work for 12 hours, and no one will say a good word to you - will I go and get drunk better!"? "There is nothing - I will go better drunk!"? "Mother saws:" people have children like children, and you, that I have one, my eyes would not see you. "Ai, listen to all this forever - will I go and get drunk!"? “I'm still an alcoholic anyway. I can't get out of it, if I try in vain - will I get better drunk!”? So they live. Sometimes with whole families.
One generation replaces another: a holy place is never empty. And the eternal lantern at the crossroads attracts younger lovers to “just drink something for no reason”. And they come there. Earlier, when I went to school through this intersection, I saw one "adult" company of drinkers. Now it has become a meeting place for two companies: the intersection is divided between the former group of old-timers and the group of newcomers - local high school students and young men. More often they occur at different times (hmm ... probably, they have a schedule - for each company their time), and sometimes they are integrated into each other (probably, for the transfer of experience). I like these massive meetings are alarming.
Still, I am not one of those who like to read the “morality” and I don’t worry too much about the morals of our younger generation, but ... Yes, as long as they didn’t switch to a booze, they’ve gotten cheap cheap beer. But! Their time will come (it sounds terrible, but it's like in surgery: it hurts, but you can't change anything). Sooner or later, one of them will still not find in himself more strength to cope with problems (and there are many of them in the provinces) and will come under the lantern at the intersection. With a bottle of vodka or moonshine hidden behind his bosom to wait for at least someone with whom you could drink and pour your bitter share.
PS: If you think that in our country the situation with general alcoholism is changing for the better, then you, excuse me for being rude, blind capital sluggishness.
