“Alphabetically Yours”: Series 20. (T) – By Des Kelly

It almost did. The bottle, that is. When I served my Country in the Royal Ceylon Navy from 1953 to 1961, give or take a few weeks, “bending the elbow” or “hitting the bottle”, call it what you like, was part and parcel of being a member of the “Senior Service”. If one did not “participate” in everything one should NOT participate in, one could not boast of being a Navy-Man. Yes, I have to say it, as it WAS.

I have to blame it on my “grandfather” Jack, who drank anything but water. In the Navy, it was quite common to drink. The only problem was, how MUCH we drank.Speaking for myself, at least my head never had to have a close look into the toilet bowl, after any lengthy boozing session, I could “hold” my liquor. Coming to Australia in 1962, did not stop my habit of drinking AND smoking either. I am certainly not proud of writing all this, but then, I finally realized (after my left kidney was “removed” because of my bad habits, due to Cancer), that I would not have recorded the fact that “THE BOTTLE LET ME DOWN”, in fact, I would not be writing for eLanka at all, so folks, please take my advice. Do not SMOKE !, at all, and if you like the odd drink, make sure that you restrict the number of drinks to no more than a couple, AT HOME. Never drink & then drive any vehicle. In Ceylon, the bottle did let me down (on several occasions), but I am proud of the fact that, for the last 15 years, at least, I neither smoke or drink any alcohol, at all.

“The bottle let me down” by ” your’s truly, is followed by a
“TRIBUTE” to Vince Gill, yet another favourite Country Singer of mine, whose “key” chosen for his beautiful rendition of “Look at us” was much too high for me (as I am getting on a bit, myself), so I decided to “cover” Vince Gill’s version of the song, singing a complete octave LOWER. eLanka readers, please listen to, and hopefully enjoy my version of the song in TRIBUTE to Vince. Thank you very much. Here I go.