I didn't quite start drinking as early as the late great Shane McGowan, but I started pretty early. And in the UK you could get away drinking at fifteen in a bar. This spirit and the cameradie you mentioned, continued until I moved away from the city in 2013 when I was 39. Twenty or so years of good honest drinking in bars and meeting people I miss today. Some of whom, like my dear Dutch friend Stan, who stayed too long in the bar, are no longer with us. But I still have those memories. Fuck A as an American would say. Thanks for the memories.