I never knew any. Of course, I'm not in regular contact with anyone I knew before about 1998 either, with the exception of one college friend.

I had one close friend whose crew embraced and discarded punk ideologies in incredibly rapid succession. One minute they're flirting with white power nonsense (before I knew them), the next minute they're self-styled oi, then refashioning themselves as apolitical skaters with enormous pants, then it's on to various straight edge bandwagons. They'd write "FxSxUx" ("fuck shit up", of course, an acronym not incidentally bolstered by Florida State merchandise) and "go vegetarian!" on any handy surface.

My pal was the Krishna of the bunch. Our hanging out consisted of driving around as he chainsmoked Camels (a sorely regretted vice for which he berated himself), and when we were dancing at all-ages "alternative night" events (ah, 1990) he'd ostentatiously pray and chant in the middle of the crowd as other people flipped their bangs and lamely pogoed to the Cure.

The summer ends and we drifted apart; I saw him nine months later at a rave, decked out from head to toe in baggy Carhartt gear, his pupils wide with acid.

All of them got into drink and drugs at some point. Not one stuck with it, a few stuck with the vegetarianism. Nobody I know attempted to resist fucking whatsoever.
I didn't do drink or drugs till I turned 21. Not as part of any kind of movement, I just wanted to see if I could do it and I thought I'd appreciate them more if I waited till I had a little more life experience under my belt. I always planned on getting into them for a few years at least.
I did. I'm glad I waited, they would have been wasted on the high school me and I would have fucked up some of the decent things I had going on at that point for sure.
All my friends did them and I had a real good time watching them do them, never felt left out. I was crazy enough without them, I fit right in.

One of them is an FBI agent... he was always a nice guy, it was great to have a DD around, and he wasn't preachy about it at all...

I have one pal who is 35(ish) and still straight edge. (Am I supposed to capitalize that? Really?) Vegan, the whole deal. I've known him for 14 years.

The only thing weird to me about it is his need to still identify his choices with a movement. I know plenty of people that abstain from alcohol and the whole bit. They simply say "I'll have a ginger ale." I get needing the joiner badge at 13- 22. I do not get it at 35 with around 20 years of these choices under your belt. It's not a big deal to me. Probably at the level of "hmm, I've never seen so-and-so without his Snap-On tool cap on".

Anyway, most everyone else I knew (and I knew lots of them cause I love shitty 80's hardcore and sober kids who are bored play lots of fun pranks) drinks and spent plenty got into other flag-waving joiner type things. Ironic metal. Rockabilly. Phish caravans.

itchy mcgoo wrote: other flag-waving joiner type things. .

I think it's called Personality Deficit Disorder.

I'd say at least 80 percent of the SXE's I knew (probably about 15 of them) as a teen, party now. Fortunately none of them are drug addicts. The rest keep off the booze and have really lame X's tattooed on their body.

Let's face it. A 36 year old with straight edge tattoos is freaking hilarious. Life seems to be filled with much grander things when you get older than politicizing your choices relating to drugs. The older I get, the more I think about what a truly mediocre and banal movement it was. Especially when it went militant. It was like drinking Sunny D and following what mom and your pastor said..... is now a movement! Until death!

To complicate things, some of the straight edgers I have know have been really great people, and their edge has been the least relevant thing about them in my eyes. Most of them respect the idea of personal integrity- in regards to life choices, needn't be a fashion statement or a calling card. This makes them less of a straight edge and more of a reasonable person who chooses not to partake in drugs (at least in my eyes.)

Straight edge is a totally American thing isn't it?

Never even heard about it growing up in the UK.

madmanmunt wrote:Straight edge is a totally American thing isn't it?

Never even heard about it growing up in the UK.

That's because your women's enormous tits are brimming with ale. Lucky babies wouldn't dream of it.