I'll Be Home in Half-An-Hour

About the Book

This is not a "recovery" book.  It is not about "how to quit drinking" or "how I beat alcohol ." Although what might be called "overdrinking" is a common thread in most of them, the purpose of this volume of stories and essays is rather to entertain than to enlighten.  Should some peripheral illumination or insight occur, so much the better.

Regardless of the model, drinkers ultimately do or don't quit for their own reasons, and one size does not fit all.

As in my two books of Sea Stories, I've written here on a subject with which I have had significant, first-hand experience.  I did quit drinking, but I also quit fishing, another dangerous activity.  Both bore times of great sadness--but also of uproarious humor.

Some of the characters in these tales have been fictionalized, but all are real persons.  Most of them are or were decent pals and deserve to be remembered.

During my commercial ocean fishing exposure I lost many friends to the sea; so have I lost many to alcohol. This,   of course does not mean that either liquor seawater are inherently bad, only that they're both potentially hazardous, and that both inevitably demand a price for a lack of respect which is sometimes existence.

I wish I could have written a book which could help problem drinkers, but the problem is much too difficult for that.  I'll be happy if I only provoke a few laughs, and maybe even a little thought.

--Paul Barrett

   Astoria, 1995

About the Author

John Paul Barrett's first book, Sea Stories - Of Dolphins and Dead Sailors, about his true experiences as a commercial ocean fisherman out of the deadly Columbia River, quickly became a classic in the northwest. He is also author of Sea Stories - Book II - Seagods and Sundogs, How to Make a Book - an illustrated guide to making books by hand, and Crows - A True Account of Raising and Releasing a Series of Wild Crows. He and Tricia, his mate of 30 years, live on a couple of acres in rural Astoria, Oregon.