​My youth and religion

Think of it: my grandparents were deeply religious and taught us, the kids, the values of Christian values. But the way they talked somewhat scared me: eternal punishment more than anything else. It was Romania in the ’60s and ’70s when the atheist government had all kinds of leverage to promote their agenda. My parents were silent, maybe because of fear (another kind of fear than mine), or they had doubts about the subject. But, as far as they could go, they taught us that the communist regime is wrong about many things. They spoke to us with care, outlining that we should not talk at school about anything we hear at home.
At school, religion was a taboo subject. So, all I heard was my grandparents’ voice.
And at a young age, there are a lot of temptations. There were no drugs in Romania, but parties and drinking were plenty. I was the best in my class; I always liked reading and could excel in conversations. I did not have problems being invited to parties.
But it all stopped here. All these teachings, like sex only after marriage (actually anything sex-related), avoiding drinking since you may lose your reasoning, dressing decently, talking nice, absorbing the bullies’ bad words by replying nice, make you a nice guy. Still, I tell you, you miss your youth big time.
I did not have a drink until my military service (mandatory back then, after high school). I had colleagues from the high class, like from the secret service families or high-ranking army officers. They had a room for parties (duh, communist egalitarism). One day, when they found out that I had never had a drink, they offered me a very special one: whiskey from America! I drank the whole glass in one shot. It was cooking oil.
Well, youth was the time when I started having questions about the stories in the Bible. I missed too much not to think something was wrong or the teachings based on the Bible were misinterpreted.