My Dad was an alcoholic for as long as I can remember. A pretty serious one, but functional. But he held down a white-color job at a shipping company for which

My Dad was an alcoholic for as long as I can remember. A pretty serious one, but functional. But he held down a white-color job at a shipping company for which he was paid pretty well, and we lived a pretty comfortable lifestyle. He always had a temper - he gave us lots of spankings. By some measures, maybe he was abusive, but he never hit us or left bruises with his belt. He just tending to give out those "whooping" at the drop of a hat if he'd had too much to drink. Then he lost his job when the major job provider in town closed. He kept trying to find a new one, but it was never a good one. For someone that had spent 15 years making good money at something he was apparently pretty good at, working menial low-paying jobs was devastating to him. His alcoholism got worse, and pretty soon he wasn't able to hold down even the menial jobs. Needless to say, my parents marriage fell apart.