How I Got That Name

Back in the days... When I was 14...
I met a group of "winos" under a bridge. 
I don't remember how I ended up there.
It might have been the day I almost got stuck in the parking thing. 
I went in there, to find a spot to crash, but I wasn't feeling it there.

Anyway, the old guy... They called him RIP.
His name was actually Rupert. 
They called him RIP because he ripped the grate open
with his bare hands...

So Rip and I would drink, a lot. 
Rip and Faye came from B.C.
They hitchhiked all the way to Ottawa.
Why they came here of all places, I don't think I asked them.

On that day, Rip and I had those big Old English bottles.
We were chugging and of course he beat me.
He was 50 when I was 14 and drinking pretty much his whole life.
He told me his parents put alcohol in his baby bottle to get him to sleep.

Well, he beat me and I couldn't even stand up to even go hurl. 
Chugging... You get drunk. I was 14.

They called me Roughcutt because I could "rough it"
But I couldn't cut it.

They laughed at me for wanting to use the washroom at the hotel.
Because I didn't want to use their "washroom" which was a bucket.

It's weird, but even if I have to "go" really bad...
I have a hard time "going" outside. 

So that's the story of how I got that name. 
Rip used to call me RoughieCutt. 

But considering that he was 50 when I was 14...
And that was 26 years ago... He'd be 76 if he's still kicking.

So that's a part of my life I rarely talk about.

Back then, the DOD had vents that had a grate.
So hot air would be released out the vent. 
So a bunch of us lay sleeping bags on top of it, in the winter.
Someone even dragged a couch down there, once.

A security guard would come by and check on us.
There was a camera there, pretty sure. It's the DOD.
But it got closed up with concrete so nobody can go there, now.
Like completely sealed up.

One time, I was there, drinking.
A film crew was filming us, without us knowing.
And we were on the news. My grandparents saw me.
I had to try to say it wasn't me, but it was.

Started drinking at 12. 
I took alcohol from my Grandparents' cabinet. 
I'd also give people money to buy it for me. 
There was a LCBO across from a shelter
and I used to ask people to go in there to buy it for me, 
because I was 14/15 at the time. 
It's 18 to drink in Quebec. 19 in Ontario.

I'm glad I quit drinking, though. 
Just wish I had quit sooner.

I'd drink when I got angry. 
Didn't make me feel any better. 
Didn't help anything. 

Actually, it's a depressant, which I didn't know.
So drinking to try to feel "better"
often end up feeling worse.