Darling Little Pills

IN MY early life, pills were things that grown-ups swallowed for various disorders. In fact, pills were a source of amusement in my family, that is, among the non-pin-takers, for my grandmother and my father were always gulping down some kind of pill. Upon occasion, should one of them run out of his own pills, he would borrow from the other, whether the medication was pertinent or not. These nostrums were presumably harmless (unless one got hooked on Lydia Smasher's tonic, or Blaster's liver pills). These nonprescriptive drugs, however, were not of the mind-altering or mood-changing variety. Therein, for me as an alcoholic, lies the difference between one kind and another.