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Swiss Army Knife

Can't Leave
Jul 12, 2021
459
1,349
North Carolina
Very sad, what's worse: not uncommon.

I lived in Savannah, Georgia for a number of years. It's a phenomenal drinking town, the St. Patrick's day festivities can get pretty rowdy. However it's right on the river and every year at least one or two people drunkenly fall in and drown.

Be careful out there folks.
 

MattRVA

Lifer
Feb 6, 2019
4,614
40,871
Richmond Virginia
This scenario is so common that some even believe there’s a larger conspiracy of a group of individuals with some type of design to actually carry out these assaults, while making it seem accidental. I’ve heard it mentioned on urban legend podcasts. It’s very sad regardless and I feel for the family.
 
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greeneyes

Lifer
Jun 5, 2018
2,255
12,594
The common denominator with situations like this is always "a night out at several [Nashville] bars."

Drinking to the point of incapacitation makes proximity to water, an outing in sub-zero temperatures, or any number of everyday situations easily overcome with a conscious quick-reacting mind, a potentially lethal outcome.
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,960
14,330
Humansville Missouri
In Tennessee, as most of not all the other states, there is a “dram shop” liability act for the booze peddlers:

Xxxxx

Notwithstanding the provisions of § 57-10-101, no judge or jury may pronounce a judgment awarding damages to or on behalf of any party who has suffered personal injury or death against any person who has sold any alcoholic beverage or beer, unless such jury of twelve (12) persons has first ascertained beyond a reasonable doubt that the sale by such person of the alcoholic beverage or beer was the proximate cause of the personal injury or death sustained and that such person:

(1) Sold the alcoholic beverage or beer to a person known to be under the age of twenty-one (21) years and such person caused the personal injury or death as the direct result of the consumption of the alcoholic beverage or beer so sold; or

(2) Sold the alcoholic beverage or beer to a visibly intoxicated person and such person caused the personal injury or death as the direct result of the consumption of the alcoholic beverage or beer so sold.



[Acts 1986, ch. 519, § 2; 2009, ch. 492, § 1.]

xxxxx

Usually a dram shop case arises from a crash that kills a sober driver or passenger in the other vehicle.

They are difficult to prove if the drunk is of legal age.

But while kids ought not close up the beer joints and honky tonks, usually it’s some old man raking in a lot of money from the enterprise.

It never hurts for the bar owner to tell the waitress not to serve a drunken kid, you know?
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,960
14,330
Humansville Missouri
Christian preacher Guy Howard had one of the bestselling books of 1944, Walkin’ Preacher of the Ozarks.


The central event of the book is an actual real life story of a 15 year old Christian boy on his way to church in 1937, when he passed by a local moonshiner, and just one sip of bad whiskey caused J W Ray to go blind, and die in agony in a few days in his home.

Had Guy Howard not reached England before the night riders, and he wisely crossed over to Benton County, then there would have been two funerals for Howard to preach instead of only J W Ray’s.

IMG_6473.jpeg

Liquor was legal again to sell in 1937, but not to 15 year old boys.

Liquor store whiskey would not have poisoned JW Ray in 1937, but liquor store booze has put countless people in graveyards, broke up families; and ruined many lives of those who never drink a drop.

And selling it is profitable, if you can obtain and keep a license.

J W Ray was a shirtail relative of mine, on my father’s mother’s father’s side.

His is one of the graves we never neglect.

Because J W Ray died, I’ve never had a sip of moonshine in my life.

But my drunken adventures many years ago with factory booze turned out better than that poor boy in Tennessee, you know?
 

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anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
16,660
31,227
46
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
I wish college kids didn't have the urge to drink excessively. First time away from home triggers the 'I do what I want' mentality.
living in a college town I can confirm that the worst cases either come from really restrictive homes or super permissive. Either Pat Boone makes the devil music and 7:01 breaks curfew or parents that would help the kid bury a body no questions.
 

Old Smokey

Can't Leave
Feb 29, 2024
379
1,427
The Hollers of Kentucky in Appalachia
living in a college town I can confirm that the worst cases either come from really restrictive homes or super permissive. Either Pat Boone makes the devil music and 7:01 breaks curfew or parents that would help the kid bury a body no questions.
That's what scares me about taking in my nephew from my sister. She is super restrictive. My parents had him first after his parents were murdered, then my sister took him in when he was 10, now I have him at 14. My boys do great but my nephew likes to push things. I don't know if it's because of my sister (real see you next tuesday) or because he keeps getting moved around.
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
16,660
31,227
46
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
That's what scares me about taking in my nephew from my sister. She is super restrictive. My parents had him first after his parents were murdered, then my sister took him in when he was 10, now I have him at 14. My boys do great but my nephew likes to push things. I don't know if it's because of my sister (real see you next tuesday) or because he keeps getting moved around.
If I had to guess why it's all three things and maybe more. Your parents getting murdered is a pretty hard thing to process. Being overly restricted will cause those kinds of issues and getting moved around is super destabilizing.
It's like a lot of the messed up things in life it's normal but taken too far. Kids are supposed to test boundaries and find out what the limits are and what they can get away with.
Also not sure what a see you next tuesday means.
Another normal thing often doing the good thing isn't doing the easy thing. Good on you taken the kid in. I know it's not the same. I have a friend that took in his niece at a younger age under not quite as messed up but still messed up situation. She's doing great now but that took a long time and lot of stress.
If you ask me how these things turn out in these extreme situations fundamentally requires something essential in the person (essential as in just part of their nature) and an environment that nurtures that nature. Caveat I don't know what I am talking about per se.
 
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milk

Lifer
Sep 21, 2022
1,107
2,831
Japan
I live in Japan and here every year several children die of drowning in rivers. These stories are heartbreaking to read in the papers; sometimes, it’s siblings who die trying to rescue their younger brother or sister. The problem is a combination of poor swimming skills and general lack of understanding of the dangers of waterways. Sometimes kids dare each others to mess around in the water; sometimes kids are bullied into going in, and sometimes kids just go in without understanding how dangerous and treacherous undercurrents and conditions are. Japan has countless canals and there are often flash floods as well. Kids do just fall in.
All this is a bit of an aside but this tragedy reminds me of thesis parenthetical/tangential problem.
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,960
14,330
Humansville Missouri
In Missouri you must put a fence around a swimming pool. No worse toddler killer was ever created.

But if a kid drowns in a farm pond there’s no liability.

Every winter you read about kids on the ice on a farm pond and sometimes it kills two or even three, trying to rescue their friends.

I broke through ice and fell in a farm pond when I was about twelve. I didn’t drop my hachet and I was close to the bank or I’d not be here. I chopped my way out, and thawed out, and I’m lucky.
 

Buzz Saw

Might Stick Around
May 20, 2022
83
444
Southeast Indiana
Actions/choices have consequences, sometimes tragic. Youth, being "indestructible", rarely see past the moment. And, the family may suffer overly. sometime manufacturing blame for a lack of teaching/supervising/parenting. Kids often to stupid things. There but for the grace of God go I 60 some years ago.
Well said, Warren. Mine was 40 years ago, It scares the crap out of me recalling some of the things I got involved with. But by the grace of God...
 
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