Story From Down Under

MY NAME IS JIMMIE, fifty-one years old, one of a family of six--five boys and one girl--and the only alcoholic in the family. I had my first drink in 1918 at the Peace Day celebrations after the First World War. From then on I lived for nothing else. I was a boot-maker by trade and worked fairly well at it until 1927 when my Mother died and then things got worse. I had a row with the family and went bush.