I was very pleased to find that some of the "cowboy" bars around Austin, Texas not only encouraged someone in the group being a designated driver but actually let that designee have all the soft drinks they wanted, FREE!

I totally quit from 1958 until 1975 (it's a long story) and no one ever reacted negatively when I said "I don't drink." So much for peer pressure, which I never experienced when I was a teenager in highschool either. I drank and smoked on my own hook! We had friends who didn't do either and none of us ever gave them more than a light ribbing the first time and we shut up about it after that.

But we were very lucky, none of my friends were ever injured or killed in a car crash even though a few of us managed to total a car or two with minor cuts and bruises.

Four years ago a good friend was killed in a single car accident after having spent the evening eating and drinking but the ME said he didn't have a "significant" quantity of alcolhol in his blood. He had unfastened his seat belt to reach a laptop computer which was about to hit the floor just as his car went out of control entering a curve and when he hit the tree broadside he recieved massive head trauma and died immediately. Everytime I pass the crash site I beep the horn or wave. I have the feeling that he is still there.

CB