Passport to Sobriety

I was born in a small Belgian village near Holland, with a population of about 600. In this village there were approximately thirty-three drinking places, one for every eighteen persons--so it is no surprise that I had my first drink by the time I was three years old. By the time I was eleven, I had been drunk for the first time, and during my school years, the war years, I still managed to get my regular "ration," even though the quality of the drinks was rather low.