Should Thelma Have Gotten Into Trouble?

[Janice Johnson]

In Sometimes There's No Botom To The Bottle, Thelma knew that her teenage cousin Naomi was drinking alcohol,but said nothing to her parents or Naomi's parents about Naomi's drinking problem(though she slightly implied the alcohlism), until Naomi passed out. Then Thelma told their family that Naomi was tore up(I was kind of surprised that they used the term tore up to describe someone who was messed up even back in the 70's) and drunk.

I got into trouble with my parents when I was in my very early 20's and knew that my younger 12 year old sister was doing bad stuff, like being unchaperoned with a boy around her age in his house and didn't tell our parents what she did, because I didn't want her to get mad at me. Our parents cussed me out for knowing what she did and keeping quiet. I was an immature idiot back then, thank God I have grown up and matured drastically since then.