AA History Lovers 2004 Messages 1575-2117 moderated by Nancy Olson September 18, 1929 – March 25, 2005 Glenn F. Chesnut June 28, 1939 – IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1575. . . . . . . . . . . . Significant January Dates in A.A. History From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/1/2004 4:07:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Happy New Year to all 795 AA History Lovers. By popular demand, I am resuming sending the monthly significant dates in A.A. history. Nancy January 1: 1946: The A.A. Grapevine increased the cost of a year's subscription to $2.50. 1948: "Columbus Dispatch" reported first anniversary of Central Ohio A.A. Group. 1948: First A.A. meeting was held in Japan, English speaking. 1988: West Virginia A.A. began first statewide toll-free telephone hotline. January 2: 1889: Bridget Della Mary Gavin (Sister Ignatia) was born in Ireland. 2003: Mid-Southern California Archives moved to new location in Riverside. January 3: 1939: First sale of Works Publishing Co. stock was recorded. 1941: Jack Alexander told Bill Wilson the Oxford Group would be in his Saturday Evening Post article on A.A. January 4: 1939: Dr. Bob stated in a letter to Ruth Hock that A.A. had to get away from the Oxford Group atmosphere. 1940: First A.A. group was founded in Detroit, Michigan. 1941: Bill and Lois Wilson drove to Bedford Hills, NY, to see Stepping Stones and broke in through an unlocked window. January 5: 1941: Bill and Lois visited Bedford Hills again. 1941: Bill Wilson told Jack Alexander that Jack was "the toast of A.A. -- in Coca Cola, of course." January 6: 2000: Stephen Poe, compiler of the Concordance to Alcoholics Anonymous, died. January 8: 1938: New York A.A. split from the Oxford Group. January 12: 1943: Press reported the first A.A. group in Pontiac, Michigan. January 13: 1988: Jack Norris, M.D., Chairman/Trustees of A.A. for 27 yrs. died. 2003: Dr. Earle Marsh, author of "Physician Heal Thyself," sober 49 years, died January 15: 1941: A.A. Bulletin No. 2 reported St. Louis group had ten members. 1941: Bill Wilson asked Ruth Hock to get him "spook book," "The Unobstructed Universe." 1945: First A.A. meeting held in Springfield, Missouri. 1948: Polk Health Center Alcoholic Clinic for Negroes started operations with 14 willing subjects. The Washington Black Group of A.A. cooperated with the clinic. January 17: 1919: 18th amendment, "Prohibition," became law. January 19: 1940: First A.A. group met in Detroit, Mich. 1943: Canadian newspaper reported eight men met at "Little Denmark," a Toronto restaurant, to discuss starting Canada's first A.A. group. 1999: Frank M., A.A. Archivist since 1983, died. January 20: 1954: Hank Parkhurst, author of "The Unbeliever" in the first edition of the Big Book, died in Pennington, NJ. January 21: 1951: A.A. Grapevine published memorial issue on Dr. Bob. January 23: 1961: Bill W. sent an appreciation letter, which he considered long-overdue, to Dr. Carl Jung for his contribution to A.A. January 24: 1918: Bill Wilson and Lois Burnham were married, days before he was sent to Europe in WW I. 1971: Bill Wilson died in Miami, Florida, only weeks after sending a postcard to Senator Harold Hughes of Iowa, saying he wanted to live long enough to see Hughes become President. January 25: 1915: Dr. Bob Smith married Anne Ripley. January 26: 1971: New York Times published Bill's obituary on page 1. January 27: 1971: The Washington Post published an obituary of Bill Wilson written by Donald Graham, son of the owner of the Washington Post. January 30: 1961: Dr. Carl Jung answers Bill's letter with "Spiritus Contra Spiritum." Other significant things that happened in January (no specific date available): 1938: Jim Burwell, author of "The Vicious Cycle," a former atheist, gave A.A. "God as we understand Him." 1940: First AA meeting not in a home meets at Kings School, Akron, Ohio. 1942: "Drunks are Square Pegs" was published. 1951: The A.A. Grapevine published a memorial issue on Dr. Bob. 1984: "Pass It On," the story of Bill W. and how the A.A. message reached the world, was published. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1576. . . . . . . . . . . . Wynn L. Freedom From Bondage From: jeffrey4200 . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/1/2004 2:42:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII She married and divorced four times before finding A.A. The first time she married for financial security; her second husband was a prominent bandleader and she sang with his band; I wanted to know if anyone know the name of the band she sang with or the bandleaders name. If you have any information please let me know. Thank you Jeffrey Nilsen IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1577. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Question On When Districts Started From: gratitude . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/1/2004 6:34:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hello AAHLs, Just so happens there's an article in BOX 459 that speaks about the district and how it relates to the DCM (the DCMC in larger districts). Please see quote below: "The term 'district'' was mentioned during early General Service Conferences, and both 'district'' and 'district committee member' were used informally in the 1950s. The term 'district' was included in the 1955 draft of The Third Legacy Manual of World Service (now titled The A.A. Service Manual) and 20 years later was formalized in a 1975 supplement to The Service Manual. "In today's Service Manual a district is clearly defined as 'a geographical unit containing the right number of groups -- right in terms of the D.C.M.'s ability to keep in frequent touch with them, to learn their problems, and to find ways to contribute to their growth. In most areas a district includes six to 20 groups. In metropolitan districts the number is generally 15 to 20, while in rural or suburban districts it can be as small as five.' (To encourage maximum group participation, some areas have incorporated linguistic districts. These usually have a bilingual D.C.M. or liaison, and their boundaries may be independent of the conventional geographic district boundaries.)" Phil L. Outgoing DCMC Distric 4 - Long Beach Singleness of Purpose Workshop - March 21 gratitude@linkline.com Arthur wrote: Hi History Lovers Can anyone help me pin down the year that Districts started and the General Service Structure position of District Committee Member (DCM) was established? I would dearly like to find out in what year the Third Legacy Manual defined Districts and DCMs. My guess is the early 1960's but that is only a guess. The earliest reference to 'district'' I can find in Conference advisory actions is a 1966 action for a glossary to be added to the Service Manual. There is a 1956 advisory action that uses the term 'district'' but it seems more in the context of what would make up an Area rather than a District. Any help or citations from written references would be most appreciated. Cheers Arthur IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1578. . . . . . . . . . . . Grapevine Clip Sheet, Feb. ''48 From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/2/2004 4:35:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Grapevine, Feb. '48 [Note: There was no clip sheet column for Dec. '47 or Jan. '48.] The Clip Sheet Excerpts from the Public Press Boston, Mass., "Post": "Guernsey Island in the English Channel has an effective way of handling topers. It still retains its ancient custom of blacklisting alcoholics, in the hope of reforming them. A member of the tippler's family applies to the court, which issues an official order that no one is to sell him liquor thereafter, and to put teeth into the ruling the court orders a police photo of the offender to be posted in every bar. In England in the days of Oliver Cromwell drunkards were punished by being forced to walk around in a barrel with their heads protruding from the top and their arms dangling on the sides through holes. It has been suggested that this custom may be the origin of the term 'pickled.' "The ancient Romans used an 'aversion therapy' that is not unlike certain modern methods in use. Chronic alcoholics had to drink wine in which live eels were swimming, on the theory that this would create excessive disgust. "The word teetotaler, by the way, stems from the French 'the-a-toute a 1'heure,' which means literally 'tea in a little while.' "Alexander the Great would have lived longer if he had squeezed less grapes. He was a prodigious drinker, one of the mightiest, in fact, of his era. But he carried the crock to the spigot once too often. After two nights of guzzling he drained the so-called Hercules cup, which was the equivalent of six bottles of wine. He never awoke." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1579. . . . . . . . . . . . Grapevine Clip Shee, March ''48 From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/3/2004 6:04:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Grapevine, March '48 Clip Sheet - - Items of Interest from the Public Press "Pittsburgh Post-Gazette": "Vicious Den of Pinochle Players Unmasked: VICE RAIDERS CRASH A.A. PARTY -- Police Snoopers Smash into Roomful of Ex-Drinkers Quietly Whooping It Up for Abstinence -- It was the members of a police squad who wanted to be anonymous and not the Alcoholics, after an incident Saturday night which left the four raiders red-faced and sputtering. As you might or might not know, Alcoholics Anonymous is a group of persons whose purpose is to rehabilitate tipplers. Saturday night is usually the thirstiest night of the week for a drinker and, in an effort to get him 'over the knuckle,' as they say, the A.A.s sponsor a little social every Saturday eve for members and wives. This social consists of card games such as bridge, pinochle, '500' and other amusements such as bingo. Everyone pitches in for the sandwiches and coffee, and a good, dry time is had by all. Such was the situation Saturday night on the second floor at 3701 Fifth Avenue where the A.A.s were laughing it up to the tune of 'nine under the B' and 'four no trump' when there came a knocking at the door. It was the kind of bold, hard knock that settled silence over the 100 or so persons gathered in the recreation room. An anonymous member opened the door, and a broad-shouldered man shouldered his way into the room, flashed a badge, and blustered: 'What's going on in here? We've had a complaint about this place.' Three other policemany-looking men followed him and surveyed the soiree with steely eyes. It was explained that this was a harmless Alcoholics Anonymous social and they were welcome to join in the card games if they didn't mind not playing for stakes. The four men clutched their hats, muttered something about 'we must have made a mistake,' slowly backed out of the door and tiptoed away. Some of the A.A. members claimed at least two of the raiders were members of Lieutenant Lawrence Maloney's vice squad. This, however, the lieutenant denied, declaring that all members of his squad were with him on other business Saturday night." Sydney (Australia) "Sun," January 1: "Sydney Women Alcoholics in New Group. Inaugural meeting of a women's group of Alcoholics Anonymous, first of its kind in Australia, will be held in Sydney on January 14. The meeting is open to any woman with an alcoholic problem and no other visitors will be permitted. ... This society of mutual aid is expanding rapidly in Australia. Alcoholics Anonymous is nonsectarian and non-political. A.A. is so busy applying its principles to alcoholic sufferers that it has no place for arguments about creeds or politics." Sydney "Sun." January 16: "Women Alcoholics Urge Special Clinic. 'Many women have experienced mental hospital treatment when recognition of their malady as a public health problem would have been more humane,' said a spokesman of Alcoholics Anonymous Inter-Group today. 'We know alcoholism as a disease. In most cases, proper place for treatment is in a public hospital or alcoholic clinic. ... Because no hospital or clinic exists, many alcoholics are forced into institutions and gaols where no treatment for their disease is given.'" Santa Rosa (Calif.) "Press Democrat": "There was a contribution to Santa Rosa's Memorial Hospital Fund last week that is, perhaps, one of the most unusual to date. It was a $1,600 donation. There have been others larger, others smaller, but none with a more dramatic story behind it. The contribution is money that might have been wasted, and came from men whose lives, too, might have been wasted. It came from the Santa Rosa Chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous. It is the grateful contribution of former alcoholics now devoting their efforts to aid other victims of alcoholism, including some now successful businessmen for whom A.A. provided a turning point in life. ... The substantial hospital contribution is too significant to pass unnoticed, and calls for some recognition of the role A.A. has been playing in rebuilding lives right here in our community, lives that faced ruin as a result of the disease of alcoholism. The local group was established October 9, 1945, with six members. ... There is now a membership of 75, but over 100 have been benefited during the past two years. ... The need for hospitalization and medical attention is critical in a great many cases. Since alcoholism is recognized as a disease, the medical profession, the psychiatrists, courts and the hospitals are cooperating with A.A. in every way possible. But the A.A. here recognizes the need for an adequate hospital in Santa Rosa, and is doing its share to get one -- doing it with money that cured alcoholics might have wasted had it not been for Alcoholics Anonymous." Elmira (N. Y.) "Advertiser": "It is a great privilege to attend a meeting of this wonderful group which has found the way to bring peace and sobriety to so many hundreds of sick and troubled folks. Its method is simple and direct. It works for the proud and the humble, the rich and the poor -- works because an alcoholic of any estate is the suffering blood brother of every other man or woman who has passed beyond the border into the land where drinking is a thief that steals away family and friends and respect and money and health and mind and finally life itself -- does all that and more unless by some miracle he can find the way not to take the drink that numbs and dooms him." New York "Herald Tribune": "TOWN'S 80 TOPERS EXILED FROM BARS. Five Women in Group Facing 90-Day Discipline -- Bedford, Pa. (UP) Drinks were shut off today for five women and 75 men of "known intemperate habits" in this mountain community of 3,500. The ban was put into effect through resurrection of a nearly forgotten state law forbidding sale of liquor to persons of such habits. Proprietors of each of the 11 bars in the town were ordered to post in a prominent place lists containing the names of the 80 drinkers in the police department's 'doghouse.' The lists will be brought up to date every 90 days. If any of the wayward drinkers shows improved habits their names will be removed. Assistant Police Chief H. A. Clark said: 'We just decided we'd put up with these people long enough. If we had to help them home every night, it was a nuisance. If we brought them in and fined them, we were taking bread out of their wives' and children's mouths. This will work better.' " Brewton (Ala.) Standard": "If there were any who might have gone to the meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous which was held here recently in order to scoff, we are quite sure that they remained to offer prayerful thanks for an organization that is doing such a wonderful piece of work. Most of us are inclined to look on a man or women who is a victim of the alcohol habit as just another sot. But the A.A.s will soon convince you otherwise. While the disease is incurable, it can be arrested through the own efforts of the victim and with the help of his friends, so the A.A.s say. And they not only say it, they demonstrate it by their own experience. One remarkable thing about Alcoholics Anonymous is that it is not a crusading organization. It solicits no members and does not impose itself on any alcoholic who does not first request help. And therein, in our judgment, lies its greatest strength. It does not presume to interfere with the personal rights, and liberties of any person to consume as much alcohol as he chooses. But it does offer to that person who seeks aid in his problem what seems to be the greatest 'cure' for drinking that has ever been devised. The word 'cure' as we have used it here is ours -- not that of the A.A.s. They make no claim that their philosophy can cure alcoholism. ... The inspiring thing about the organization is the spiritual rebirth that appears to take place in those who adopt the philosophy which it teaches." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1580. . . . . . . . . . . . Grapevine Clip Sheet, April ''48 From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/4/2004 2:03:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Grapevine, April '48 THE CLIPSHEET -Excerpts from the Public Press Alliance, Neb., "Times & Herald": "Worn and haggard police officers who wonder what will happen next on Saturday nights will be very much interested in a classification of drunks as outlined by a New Jersey police chief some time ago. "Police have met most of the following engaging characters and if not, they will be glad to be on the lookout for the types they haven't yet had the displeasure to meet. "Here are the different classifications of persons who have swilled too much C2-H5-OH in one form or another: "Alias Joe Louis "1. The fighting drunk -- gets nasty after a few drinks and wants to fight anyone he sees, male or female. "2. The religious drunk -- heads for the nearest church and drops off to sleep. (This species is comparatively rare in Alliance.) "3. The leaning drunk -- is reluctant to move and wants to lean on the nearest upright solid substance, whether it is the policeman, a fellow pedestrian, lamp post or a plain wall. "4. The crying drunk -- this obnoxious person carries a good part of the community's alcohol in his system and a large part of the woes of the world on his heaving shoulders. "Unsweet Adeline" "5. The singing drunk -- here's the person who after a few bottles or drinks is convinced he can make Tibbett look and sound like a chump. Flats where he should sharp. "6. The suspicious drunk -- he's convinced that the police or his companions or both, are trying to railroad him into some asylum or jail, where he rightly should be, by the way. "7. The wife-beating drunk -- this character is usually a small man mentally and physically and would not engage in a fight with a 7-year-old boy without the false courage of a bottle. When he drinks he wants to lambaste somebody, usually his ever-suffering wife. "8. The running drunk -- this guy is always in a hurry. He goes crabwise down the street, usually in search of another shot. "The Big Gesture "9. The generous drunk -- this slaphappy person is tighter than Jack Benny with a nickel until he drinks too much and then he makes a fool of himself by going around waving fistfulls of bills at everybody. It's usually the money to pay off an old telephone bill. "10. The loving drunk -- he always wants to kiss every woman in sight except his own wife. "11. The talking drunk -- tells interminable stories, invariably about himself. None of the yarns has any point or interest. "12. The important drunk -- this is the person who wants to dominate everybody around him and who is filled with yarns about all the big shots he knows. "This unsavory crew are all well known to most policemen. The average citizen meets them once in a while. They make up 12 good arguments for Alcoholics Anonymous. Because they aren't. "VA Recommends A.A. "Newsweek": Even the harassed doctors, long used to sobering up lost-week-end revelers, had never seen anything like it. From Friday to Monday, drunken veterans reeled into Veterans Administration hospitals demanding the cure. "Of the thousands who applied, about 10,000 veterans were treated for alcoholism in 1947, as compared with 6,459 in 1946 and 3,529 in 1945. "Although tests showed that almost none of the alcoholics had service-connected disabilities or appeared to be suffering from alcoholism because of service connections, alarmed relatives, energetic local politicians, and veterans' organizations insisted that they be cared for in the already overcrowded VA hospitals. "Boozers: In exasperation, authorities finally made a nationwide survey among the VA hospitals. Last week Dr. Harvey Tompkins, assistant chief of the neuro-psychiatric division, gave Newsweek these facts: "Two-thirds of the veteran cases are 'pure, uncomplicated alcoholism,' with no evidence of mental illness. The others have accompanying mental or emotional ailments ranging from manic-depressive psychoses to less serious psychoneuroses. More than 10 per cent of all VA neuropsychiatric cases are alcoholics. (Inexplicably, the Southeast and Southwest account for more than half the alcoholic patients.) "The Veterans Administration has no specific treatment for alcoholism. In some instances it takes weeks, and in others months or years, to curb the craving for drink. VA doctors have tried insulin injections, forced vomiting to make the men "rum-sick," and group psychotherapy -- but with very little success. "In some hospitals, Dr. Tompkins said, 'as few as 10 per cent of the patients show themselves amenable to treatment at all.' The great majority entering the hospital with uncomplicated alcoholism merely stay long enough to sober up and then demand release. "A.A. Aid: For the veteran who wants to recover, VA doctors recommend Alcoholics Anonymous help as the best course. Nearly all VA institutions have made a working arrangement with this group, providing space in the hospitals for A.A. meetings and personal interviews with the patients. In turn, many cured veterans become A.A. crusaders and work in the wards on new cases. "Night Club Now A.A. Des Moines, Iowa, "Register": Babe's nightclub in downtown Des Moines, under padlock as a liquor nuisance since Oct. 29, was taken over Wednesday by the Des Moines chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous as a clubroom. "District Judge Loy Ladd, who had ordered the place padlocked, required the A.A. group to post a bond guaranteeing that no liquor will be brought on the premises. "'I am granting this application because I feel that this particular group (Alcoholics Anonymous) is one of the best organizations for suppression of intemperance in existence today,' Judge Ladd said. "'In Des Moines they have proven themselves successful in curbing and curing alcoholics,' he said. "Sentenced to A.A." Westport, Conn., "Herald": A sentence was imposed in Town Court this week by Judge Leo Nevas that deserves more than local attention. "A chronic alcoholic who is a solitary drinker was before the bench. Such cases have been there before, leaving the judge and prosecutor worried because the state has no hospital to which the habitual drunkard can be sent for treatment. Although medicine and jurisprudence are today looking upon these cases as sick people rather than as only inebriates, nothing official has been done to cure them. "The court cannot overlook the offenses when the drinkers become public nuisances, which the case of this week definitely is. But fines do no good and jail sentences too often aggravate the mental illness which makes a man or woman a drunkard. What can the court do? Judge Nevas decided. He imposed a jail sentence but suspended it on certain conditions. These conditions are what make his decision important. "The drunkard, he ordered, must once more become a member of Alcoholic Anonymous. She must report to the Yale Clinic for treatment. She must keep in close contact with her own physician. She must report to the probation officer weekly. Should she fail to do these things she must go to jail even though Judge Nevas knows well that a term there will do her no good unless it should frighten her to do the things he has ordered. "This sentence was imposed in the hope that the woman wants to help herself. If she doesn't, none of the suggestions will help. Alcoholics Anonymous, with its increasing record of aid to drinkers, can accomplish nothing without the determined cooperation of the patient. It is unlikely that the Yale Clinic can help those who refuse to help themselves. "Judge Nevas, however, was willing to believe the woman's insistence that she did not want to drink and would do anything to stop the habit. If she really means that, the clinic will probably turn her back to society completely cured. "This is a little court but into it can come problems of great importance, and this was one of them. Other courts might well emulate the example set by Judge Nevas. Other courts, too, might well watch how this case turns out. It should be of interest to everyone. "And the case plus the decision emphasizes anew the need for a state-operated clinic in Fairfield County set up properly for the treatment of habitual drunkards. There seems to be no other way to help them. "De-Smartize" Drink Boston, Mass., "Boston University News": "Our culture is too tolerant of drunkards of either sex," claims Dr. Herbert D. Lamson, Professor of Sociology. "Commenting on the proposed Massachusetts law to control the sale of alcoholics to women 'barflies,' Dr. Lamson argues that 'the alcoholic problem should be controlled for both sexes. A law which differentiates cannot be a far-reaching measure nor can it touch the basic problem. "'We must de-smartize the drink. We have been sold a bill of goods that it's smart to consume liquor by persons who have profit motive at stake. Profits in the industry are great,' continued the sociology expert. 'Alcoholism plays a great role in family disintegration, and society must face its abuses.' "As an alternative program to laws, Prof. Lamson suggests preventive methods. Alcoholics Anonymous is now in the first stages of the curative method, but a preventive approach must be begun in schools with health and alcoholic education, commencing in the grade school and varying at different school levels. "'We must have institutions for alcoholics, and not throw them in jail. Jail isn't helping them solve their problem,' says the doctor. 'Provide recreational facilities, hobby centers, and athletic contests as outlets for escape,' concludes Dr. Lamson, 'and it will do more than any patch-work laws can possibly do.'" IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1581. . . . . . . . . . . . Grapevine, June ''44, Mail Call for the Armed Forces From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/5/2004 4:33:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII This new series comes to us courtesy of Tony C. Grapevine, June '44 Mail Call for All A.A.'s in the Armed Forces When the idea of bringing out a New York Metropolitan A. A. paper was conceived, one of the first thoughts was that it might prove particularly helpful to our members in the Service. If anyone doubts what such a paper can mean to these men, here, we think, is the answer. Corporal Hugh B., now in England, had no knowledge of our project when he wrote one to us recently: "Your letter of ten days ago was much appreciated and was one of the most newsy A.A. letters I have received. Certainly was interesting to hear about the boys and gals all over the world. Made me think that we should have a monthly publication. Think it over!" The records kept by our Central Office show approximately 300 A.A. members now in Service, with some 40 coming from the New York area and belonging to various Metropolitan Groups. These figures, due to constant changes, are probably not complete. Of the New York crowd, the files indicate 26 are in the Army, 9 in the Navy, and 5 scattered between the Merchant Marine and other auxiliary services. Eleven are known to be commissioned officers and the remainder are serving in the ranks. These men, and in a few cases women, are as a rule cut off rather abruptly from any direct contacts with the Groups and are often subject to disturbing new influences and unusual temptations to take that fatal first drink. They, it would seem, face a harder battle in their recovery than most of us, benefiting, as many of us do, from almost daily association with our fellow members. Yet frequently they come through unscathed! We would like to give you a few examples of their clear thinking along A. A. principles: A Navy lieutenant (j.g), who joined A.A. over two years ago, wrote us recently from a South Pacific Island: "Your mention of John N. [an A.A. of even longer standing, now a lieutenant in the Army. Ed.] caused me to investigate. He was evacuated for stomach trouble two days before I looked him up and for four months he had been only half a mile from my camp. Such is life!" [Both these men have had fine records of sobriety with A.A. and have now seen considerable service at an advanced base. What an A.A. meeting that would have been. Ed.] In December, John N., the Army lieutenant, had written: "We have arrived at a New Island and are set up in a coconut grove. Your letter was most welcome. How often these days I think of the fine times I had in A.A. and the wonderful people I have met. The whole thing means an awful lot to me and I thank God for being allowed to be a part of it. My work is interesting but hectic but I have really improved on the 'Easy Does It' department. I know who to thank for that too. So Flushing has a separate group now. That is wonderful!" Again we quote our naval correspondent: "I should like to address an A.A. gathering now, as I have a perspective that few get the opportunity to enjoy, having been completely apart from the Group for nearly a year, and it is easy to see the fundamentals closely, and determine the main factors -- I think even more closely than when one is steeped in A. A. work with daily contact. It is easier to see how the program works into every day normal life too." Once more, from Bob H., now an Army sergeant overseas, written last Thanksgiving Day: "When I think of myself just eighteen months ago, I realize, too, just how much I have to be thankful for. I've been more fortunate than most -- maybe someday I'll feel I've earned my breaks. I should hate to have anything happen to me now, before I have a chance to do something, however small, worth-while with my life." [This man had worried about not getting the spiritual side of the program. Ed.] THE WORDS OF A DANGLING MAN "'Off Again, On Again Finnegan' has a new lot of loyal rooters: the 'You're In--You're Out' Selective Service inductees, aged twenty-six to thirty-eight. "For the past six months, on alternate Tuesdays, the Home Editions of the paper you read had us in the Army or Navy 'within a month,' but by Seven Star Final time, one of the two Washington authorities (the one who hadn't had a press interview earlier in the day) was quoted as saying that men over twenty-six would probably not be called 'until later in the year.' And so it goes, and so we go -- crazy! "But wait: Easy Does It. How thankful I've been for having that little 'punch-line' pounded into my daily living. To me, that's a first 'first step.' It keeps me from jumping to conclusions, making snap judgments, becoming excited or irritated over the way things 'seem' to be. It cautions me to cut my pace, mentally, and make certain things are as they may seem. It permits, above all, the serenity that comes, with reflection, as I repeat the process of turning my will and my life over to the care of My Higher Power. Does that sound simple? Or do you think I'm putting down one little word after another here because that's what our program tells me I should do? Well, I'll tell you, if twelve months ago I had been riding the Selective Service Merry-go-round (without A.A.) two things would have happened: (1) My wife would have been relieved at the prospect of my being in service, preferably in Timbuktu (if that's at the other end of the world); and (2) I would have been a rip-roaring, hell-bent-for-another-drink, psychoneurotic alcoholic. Today, I'm sober and not in service. Tomorrow, I may be in service, I don't know. But I do know that tomorrow I'll be sober, through the Grace of God and Alcoholics Anonymous. David R." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1582. . . . . . . . . . . . Grapevine, July ''44, Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/6/2004 3:13:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Grapevine, July '44 Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces In our first issue we told of the near reunion on a South Pacific Island of two veteran A.A. members, one a Navy, the other an Army, lieutenant. Our Navy friend now writes: "Have been having a few A.A. reunions out here on my own. Finally ran into John N., who has returned to this isle after an absence of several months. We see each other frequently and reminisce about the real old days. In addition to Johnny, I had a reunion with the master of a Liberty ship which came in here a short while ago -- he was a member of the Frisco group and out on the ship we just left the South Pacific and were right back in the old atmosphere. Both of us agreed that without the Group, neither would be here. Such reunions as these do wonders for people who have been more or less completely cut off, and living in a world apart. Give my best to all the old gang, and tell them to start those letters coming!" [That closing sentence should give us pause for thought. Ed.] The South Pacific lads are, it seems, our most prolific correspondents, and the following recent letter from Navy Lieutenant Bob W. to a fellow-member of a New Jersey Group contains so much sound A.A. philosophy that we are quoting it, in as far as space permits, verbatim: "Dear Tom: Life has been very full and interesting for the past few months. I am still living the way you expect me to and if I was ever tempted I am sure the memory of those who mean so much to me would intervene and put a halt to such ideas. There are plenty of boys who aren't doing themselves any good out here but it is quite easy to get a 'don't give a damn' attitude when you're so far from any civilization. There will be more than ever for us to do when this is over, Tom. "News about the new groups is very interesting. Personally I think it is a healthy sign. Every great philosophy of living, Christianity, Mohammedanism, or what have you, has grown because the original leader has multiplied himself by creating other strong leaders who in turn did the same thing. Whether you conceive of A.A. in the category of a religion or not, it certainly is a plan of life for those of us who need it and it will spread only as fast as capable leaders develop to organize in such a way that it will be accessible to as many as possible. Some are more effective with certain types than others but there are all types who need the program. You say you prefer the 'bottle drunks' and the Salvation Army bums. Someone else wants to deal with 'dignified drunks,' whatever they are. The need for this thing is far beyond the question of personalities but we still have to remember that we and our prospects are human beings, so it behooves us to present our merchandise as attractively as possible. If you work more effectively with one kind, which is quite likely, and someone else does better with another, I say full steam ahead on that basis. The underlying need and the answer to it will remain the same and we will all be happier because we will be doing our best work. Some of the groups will probably die off if the leadership isn't there, but they will merge with stronger groups. "I didn't mean to get going on that subject but I am enthusiastic about the development. It seemed to me at times that the South Orange meetings were getting so large as to be somewhat awesome to new members who were naturally a little shy. One of the most important holds on the new man is making him feel that he has a real part in the scheme. "When you get a chance, please give me the late news. You can do a lot of good for your SOUTH SEAS BRANCH, you know. One of the extra dividends of A.A. is that you get to know such damned fine people. Sincerely, Bob." [We, too, wonder who the "dignified drunks" are and think it would be restful 12th Step work to contact a few. Ed.] ONCE AGAIN, EASY DOES IT "Dear Bud: I feel like a rat not having answered your letter long ago; I'm afraid I'm not a very good correspondent. At least I can now tell you where I am -- Maui is the spot, the Hawaiian Islands the locale. This must be almost anti-climactic for you to hear, as I'm sure by this time you have pictured me anywhere but here -- probably down under, in a jungle surrounded by Japs. However, I'm in no hurry; I'll probably get there soon enough. Meanwhile this is a grand spot, and I feel very lucky indeed to be here. This climate just suits me, the scenery, flowers, etc., are lovely, the swimming superb, and recreational facilities are excellent. As far as I'm concerned, these Islands are all they're cracked up to be and more. I've seen Pearl Harbor, done Honolulu, swum at Waikiki, and lolled around the Royal Hawaiian. Even so, I'll take Maui. "I've had several letters from Bob D., and these, together with yours, have kept me pretty well posted on doings in New York. Was sorry to learn that the new Club House fell thru; but no doubt this will be only a question of time. I was interested, too, to learn of the proposed -- shall I say 'Trade' publication. Sounds intriguing, if it can be worked out. Give my best to Ed C., Bob D., Chase, Bill C., John, and all the rest, including the gals. Best regards, Bob H." [On receipt of Bob's letter, we immediately got in touch with the Central Office which will send him by Air Mail the address of the Honolulu group (see story in this and previous issue). As a veteran A.A., "dry" for two years, we believe he can he of invaluable assistance to that fledgling group which is trying so hard to consolidate its beachhead, and that he, in turn, will be pleasantly surprised to find A.A. has now reached the Hawaiian Island's. Ed.] First reactions to The Grapevine received from A.A.s in Service are favorable. Accordingly, we urge all members to send in interesting data, especially from members overseas, expressing ideas dealing with the Program, methods of handling their special problems, or amusing incidents of Service life. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1584. . . . . . . . . . . . Grapevine, Aug ''44, Mail Call for All A. A.s in the Armed Forces From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/7/2004 3:21:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Grapevine, Aug. '44 Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces In answer to our D-day letter, that old raconteur, Warrant Officer Norman M., shot one back at us from the South Pacific in near record time. His letter, dated June 15, enclosed as an exchange copy for The Grapevine an amusing Picture Supplement to an Air Force paper. Norman writes: "The Grapevine! There's a sardonic double entendre masthead if I ever saw one. It, like the whole tone of the paper, is perfectly A.A. in spirit. The utter lack of finality in editorializing as well as its sense of humor about its mission is grand! And what a gem it is for an A.A. to get overseas. Alcoholics are such a peculiarly 'much-in-common' group that I sometimes doubt how I'd behave in the Tokyo chapter of the A.A.! Comes that day, I think we'd better start one. Talk of alibis! Whew! The very thought makes me jittery and I can't get to 24th Street soon enough." (The ideas expressed in the following letter are, according to the author, "the result of much meditation during tropical nights on a South Pacific Island." We hope other members in the Service, wherever stationed, will find time to meditate and pass on to us as helpful an analysis of their conclusions on the effectiveness of the Program.) "As an officer in the Navy, completely apart from active touch with the Group for 11 months, I have had considerable opportunity to reflect that certain phases of the overall picture have been the most important in the A.A. Program; a program which has proved to be the most powerful influence in shaping my life. At a distance, not clouded by too close a perspective resulting from very active participation in Group matters, one has occasion to get a clearer view of the problem as a whole. Two years ago I attended my first meeting. It impressed me terrifically--so much so, in fact, that for the first year I 'worked' the program every possible moment, i.e., meetings, calls, discussions, etc., as well as trying to practice the principles. This, combined with the fact that I reached the portals of A.A. fully 'ripe,' and anxious to do something about my problem, has made it easy for me to remain 'dry' since that first meeting. From my reflections on A.A., and what it has meant to me, three salient factors have impressed themselves on my mind: "1. The definite and final realization that I cannot take a drink and react like a normal person. This had been pointed out by others before A.A., but it took the understanding, and the 'decide for yourself' approach of A.A. to convince me. Now I realize the fatality of believing that 'this time will be different,' and know that, no matter how long sober, the same old pattern will start with the first drink, whenever taken. To my mind, no other method has been devised to convince the alcoholic as conclusively of this fact as the plan of A.A., of hearing and watching (on '12th step' work) other alcoholics and their experiences. "2. The gradual stirring and awakening of the Spiritual side of my personality: Before A.A. I had never given consideration to spiritual thought, or the power to be transmitted and released through contact with God, and the resultant influence in shaping one's life. Through the Program, an interest in Spiritual thought evolved, I know not exactly how, and this contact with a 'Higher Power' has resulted in the banishment of fear, a peace of mind which I never expected to enjoy, and a change in my whole method of living. In fact, it has reached into corners of my life far apart from the problem which led me to A.A. "3. The friendships which have resulted from being in the Group: These are truly real friendships in every sense of the word. While I feel that I have many friends outside of A.A., and also the ties that bind me and my brother officers. I know that in time of crisis of any kind, none would stand by with clearer understanding or a more sincere desire to help than each or all of my many friends in the Group. For from the teaching of A.A. as a program of living come richer friendships than any others. "To my mind, any one of the above three factors would, of itself, make the Program worthwhile. Combined, they have remolded my life, and provided it with its greatest experience. Y.G." FROM THE ATLANTIC FRONT On the eve of D-day, another good A.A. member, an Army officer in a responsible post, writing from England, gives his method of working out the problem of lack of A.A. contacts: "We are pretty tense wondering if and when the big show is going to start. I think often, with pleasure, of our small meetings. In fact, I believe I have an even deeper appreciation of them and the friendships made there than I did before. Being over here under present circumstances gives you a pretty sharp perception of values. A.A. has been working without a 'slip' for me. By reading and rereading the book and holding regular thought sessions with myself, I have been able to compensate in part for the lack of association and group therapy. Feel very confident but not cocky." ADDITIONAL OVERSEAS NOTES From one of our two-man Group on a South Pacific Island (see the last issue): "G. and myself have a wonderful time together. To meet one of the boys in a place like this is really out of the world. He has a jolt which is very harassing and he takes it right in his stride. His attitude is a fine example. ... I have met lots of people in my travels but give me the understanding, tolerant group of people I left at 24th Street. John" What locality is your guess on this one? "Both typewriters and ink are scarce in these parts. So are napkins, matches, good coffee, female legs with proper curves (all the ladies look like they're muscle-bound), streets that know where they're going, sunshine, and good plumbing." From an Island in the South Pacific: "It's so damned hot here that even a nonalcoholic would 'blow his top' on a drink. " A London oddity: "A cabbie from Brooklyn who'd been here since the last war." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1585. . . . . . . . . . . . Grapevine, Sept. ''44, Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/8/2004 3:20:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Grapevine, Sept. '44 Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces We received a letter from Bill X., who has been in Northern Ireland, which starts innocently enough with a pat on the hack for the Editors and winds up with the germ of a great idea for a new column for the paper: "Congratulations to the staff. Two copies have come along now and Grapevine has proved a 24th Street extension course for me [24th Street refers to the New York clubhouse]. It will be particularly helpful for isolated individuals sweating out the prologues to pub-crawling without the Group; and for new Johnny-come-latelys out in Jeeptown, Arizona, with the book only. Grapevine is a meeting by mail. "That new group in Honolulu will be aided no little by the publication of their tribulations in getting started because we are all rooting them on from all over the world. The house organ idea, with the chit-chat, lore and some party line thinking, establishes a newer sense of unity which projects the group therapy phase a step further. It's terrific. "Why not have a little 'Alibi Alley' or 'rationalization of the month' column, printing the phoniest excuses submitted. For example, 'Well it was like this, see, it was the night of the invasion, and here I am sitting back hundreds of miles from the action, squarely behind a typewriter, a chair-borne paragraph trooper. So, getting such lousy breaks, and being such an eventful day, how could a little drink or possibly two hurt anybody, and even if it did hurt a bit, how could it compare to the thousands of casualties on the beachhead, and how could such an insignificant taking of a drink or possibly two be noticed during such a catastrophic, world-shaking event. And, oh yes! I have just been promoted to sergeant, and that in itself calls for a little good-humored drink of celebration or possibly two, in itself.' "'That's right, you only get promoted to sergeant once. After showing up at noon the next day when I was on duty, and with the shakes no less, I damn near got busted. since that time I have taken some active steps including coming clean on the whole deal to my boss. And I have a date with one of the highest churchmen over here to pass the story on, etc. Grapevine (the first issue) had come a few days after the 'slip' and it was a real antidote to the fogs and fears. I simply sat down and had a meeting with the whole outfit. So you can understand my enthusiasm for Grapevine." Permission, accompanied by the encouraging comment, "More strength and success to you," was obtained to print this interesting official communication: "The Army War College Library would appreciate greatly being placed on your mailing list to receive future copies, and also to receive a copy of each back number. This is a subject which has a bearing upon the efficiency of military personnel." To the Librarian, our best Grapevine bow. LIEUTENANT RE-DISCOVERS BEAUTIES OF "EASY DOES IT" One of the strongest motives behind the starting of The Grapevine -- in fact the main thing that pushed the Editors from the talking to the acting stage -- was the need so often expressed in letters from A.A.s in the Service for more A.A. news. We felt that their deep desire for a feeling of contact with A.A. might be fulfilled at least in part by such a publication -- by us and for us. And, as the first issue emerged from the presses, a letter came to one of the Editors from a woman A.A., a Second Lieutenant stationed in an out-of-the-way place. It was a cry for help: "' . . . if things keep up the way they have been going I'm going to be in more trouble than I can handle. ... I've been recommended for promotion, but ... My work is more than satisfying, but off duty I'm a total loss. There isn't a single soul here that speaks the same language. ... The Army is a funny place. One is expected to drink, but not to get noisy or pass out or do any of the things drunks do. ... I've met a few A.A.s but we've only been in the same place for a short time. Several of them were in the same boat as I, skating on thin ice, but I don't know the outcome. Frankly, I'm scared. Has this problem been discussed at meetings? If so, has anyone offered any constructive suggestions? M.L." A copy of The Grapevine went off by return mail. And now comes this: "Dear Editors: The second copy of The Grapevine just arrived. Does that mean I'm to get it every month? It's proving no end of a help to me. Thanks so much for getting it started, anyhow. ... I guess there isn't much one can do about the sort of spot that I'm in. There isn't anything wrong but loneliness and boredom, and there's no way out of that, for now. ... Right after the first copy of the paper arrived I decided to try to take it a little easier (I'd forgotten all about 'Easy Does It'). ... I was working so very hard that the hectic on-duty and the static off-duty hours didn't mix. For some reason it doesn't seem as bad to be bored now. M.L. P.S. I got that promotion I wrote you about." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1586. . . . . . . . . . . . Which city is this they are referring to in this passage? From: alev101@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/8/2004 12:11:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Does anyone know which city they are referring to in this passage? page 163 We know of an A.A. member who was living in a large community. He had lived there but a few weeks when he found that the place probably contained more alcoholics per square mile than any city in the country. This was only a few days ago at this writing. (1939) the authorities were much concerned. Stumped in NYC Ava IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1587. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Which city is this they are referring to in this passage? From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/9/2004 8:42:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII According to my notes they are talking about Hank P. in Montclair N.J. -----Original Message----- From: alev101@aol.com [mailto:alev101@aol.com] Sent: Thursday, January 08, 2004 5:11 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Which city is this they are referring to in this passage? Does anyone know which city they are referring to in this passage? page 163 We know of an A.A. member who was living in a large community. He had lived there but a few weeks when he found that the place probably contained more alcoholics per square mile than any city in the country. This was only a few days ago at this writing. (1939) the authorities were much concerned. Stumped in NYC Ava IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1588. . . . . . . . . . . . Grapevine, October ''44, Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/9/2004 3:47:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Grapevine, October '44 Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces We are fortunate to have secured the following story for this issue of The Grapevine from an A.A. who participated in the preparations for D-Day and the actual invasion. We think his conclusions should he helpful to all A.A.s: When we sailed out of New York harbor bound for England I was riding a high swell of confidence that I would be able to keep on the A.A. beam without too much trouble. Several factors contributed to that comfortable feeling. We had just completed a period of training that was pretty tough for a 40-year-old, chair-borne officer, and I had survived the spells of low spirits that so often accompany physical exhaustion. "The Army had twisted, flexed and P.T.'d us into top condition. Among the officers traveling with me was a close friend who knew about A.A. and was wholeheartedly in favor of my membership. My foot-locker contained an elemental A.A. library: 'the' book, Screwtape Letters, Return to Religion, Lost Weekend, and Christian Behavior, to which I planned to turn for remindful reading. Finally, I was enroute to a C.O. who previously had been informed that I was not drinking, thus relieving me of prospects of any embarrassment, imagined or real, over the 'have-one-on-me' kind of comradeship with him. So, notwithstanding the thoughts of danger that occur to anyone moving into a combat zone, I had few misgivings about anything and particularly not about alcohol even though each hour took me farther from 24th Street and the revitalizing smaller meetings. "On the arrival in the ETO [European Theater of Operations] I quickly began to appreciate the difficulties that are likely to confront an A.A. away from other A.A.s unless the pattern of the new way of thinking has been carved very deep. England had already been overrun by Yanks and the British had decided, not without basis, that we liked to drink, knew how to drink and had the money to pay for our drinks. So, in their efforts to be hospitable, the Scotch, the Irish, the Welsh and the English doled out whiskey, gin, rum, and mild bitters from their limited stock. That was fine for non-alcoholic Yanks, and they went to no greater excesses than are inevitable for any nationality away from restraints of home and living under wartime pressure. For quite a time I went along all right with the aid of the various tools and tricks A.A. had taught. I re-read my books. Each morning I'd give a few minutes, whether in a flat in London or a Nissen hut at one of our bases in the country, to the 24-hour plan and A.A. principles in general. And I'd talk occasionally with my A.A.-minded friend. "Then, inspecting old churches and cathedrals and palaces on off-duty hours in the country began to pall. Presently I realized that the pubs are among the most interesting places in England. It is true that they offer an open door to an intimate knowledge of the British, and I was anxious to get to know the people as well as possible. Even after I began going to the pubs I managed to sidestep trouble for a long time, a fact which I now make a point of remembering because it supports a vital lesson that I hope I've learned too thoroughly to forget, ever. "D-Day came with an unforgettable air assignment followed soon by a transfer to France with a succession of hectic experiences on the ground. At least they were hectic for me and I hit emotional extremes I never had before. Yet, through it all I stayed on the beam. Although we naturally had to travel too light for me to he carrying books, I had an A.A. card in a case with my AGO identification card and I continued that brief contemplation in the morning. Liquor was available here and there. Where isn't it? Anyway, an alcoholic will find a bottle even on a Sahara if he puts his mind to it. But I had no urge. "Trouble did not develop until I began to get lazy about my way of thinking. Sometimes I felt in too much of a hurry to re-read my poem or even go through the premeditated thoughts that had proved so useful, I begun to slip back into the old pattern. Incredible as it seems, one of the hoariest of thoughts that bedevil an A.A. seeped into my mind. Perhaps things had been going too well. Maybe I was cocky. Maybe it was the tension. There always are plenty of excuses. Presently I was toying with the idea that I had "progressed" to the point where I could handle a few. Why not try? Mild and bitters were new drinks. Perhaps they wouldn't have the same effect as liquor at home. The climate was different, too. From there, of course, it was an easy step to nibbling. The fact that I did not get drunk the first few times helped to grease the way right into the hands of Uncle Screwtape. I even told my friend, who did not know all the wiles of an A.A. on the loose, that I had found a new system for drinking. Due to restricted stocks, the 'governor' of many an English pub would lead his customers from whiskey to gin to rum and finally to bitters during an evening. This switching from one kind of potion to another enabled me to avoid getting too much of any one, I said. Amazing, isn't it? "By blessed luck, no disaster occurred. No one noticed my drinking particularly. After all, getting mildly drunk was no sin in itself and I resorted to the old trick of going away by myself to have more after reaching that point where I knew I was on the edge. After a few hangovers with the old dreary miseries, I managed to pull up and do some thinking. A hangover in the comparative peace of your own home is bad enough. It's infinitely worse when punctuated by the noises and smells and sights of war. I went back to morning contemplation augmented by mental pauses during the day wherever I was -- bouncing in a jeep or lying in a foxhole. At first I didn't put much meaning into what I was saying to myself. But I was frightened by the picture of what I had sense enough to know would be the inevitable result if I kept on in the old way. I knew that in a combat zone they couldn't fool with drunks. "Back in the A.A. way of thinking, I continued on through more disturbing experiences in France, even that of the death of some men with whom I was assigned; I returned to London for a period when the buzz-bombs were at the worst, with terrifying and sickening effects at close hand; I resumed going to the pubs for pleasant comradeship; I sat around while other men were drinking whiskey -- I shared all of those experiences safely because I was thinking right again. "Contrasting to that fortunate outcome for me is the fact that months previous while still in New York, within easy traveling distance of 24th Street and within telephone reach of several good A.A. friends who were ready to come to my aid any time -- and did -- I had a couple of 'slips.' "All of this adds up in my book as proof that the crux is not in where you are or what you're doing, but how you're thinking. To be sure, an A.A. is more in danger the farther he is from other A.A.s. But separation is not necessarily disastrous, nor proximity a guarantee of safety. T.D.Y." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1589. . . . . . . . . . . . Grapevine, November ''44, Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/10/2004 2:44:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Grapevine, November '44 Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces On this page in the July issue, we printed a letter from Sergeant Bob H., then in Hawaii. Bob has recently returned from the Islands to attend Officer's Candidate School in the United States. While he was in New York on furlough, we asked him to contribute an article on how A.A. had helped him over the rough spots in an Army career of approximately two years. Emphasis should be placed, we think, on the fact that Bob entered the Service after only four months as an A.A. He had, however, so firm a grasp of the program that he has made an uninterrupted progress in a completely new field of endeavor. Bob's Story: "Two years ago, about to be inducted into the Army, I was secretly scared stiff. I had been in A.A. only four months, and while I had managed to stay 'dry,' it had been touch-and-go with me on a number of occasions. When I'd had the jitters I'd always been able to stave off that fatal first drink by getting in contact with one or more members of the local group. This, combined with frequent attendance at the various meetings, had sufficed to keep me in line so far, but what was I to do now? I knew I would have none of the physical contacts with A.A. upon which I had been relying; and I knew too that without something to fall back upon I would be a gone goose. "The solution to which I turned in desperation was the 11th step in the A.A. program --'prayer and meditation.' I knew nothing about prayer and very little about meditation, but I reckoned it was a case of start learning or else. It was very difficult for me at first (it still isn't easy), but by attending chapel whenever I could, I finally came to believe that I was discovering some of those spiritual values which in the past I had never even known existed. Anyway it worked; and it kept me 'dry.' And certainly it paid dividends from a more materialistic viewpoint -- I got my promotions with reasonable regularity, and finally received an appointment to an Officer's Candidate School, to which I am now on my way. Without A.A. I might now be in line for some bars, but they certainly wouldn't be shoulder bars." A BEGINNER IN THE WACS We are indebted to the Philadelphia Group for a letter from a comparative newcomer to A.A. The author of this letter, upon learning of A.A. through her doctor, wanted help so badly that she moved to Philadelphia from her home 125 miles distant and got a job so that she might attend meetings regularly: "The fact that I have not written before is no indication that I have forgotten you or any of the members of A.A. I think of you all quite often, remembering the few short weeks I spent in your midst. With that in mind I purposely chose today to write you. It may be just another day to you, but it marks an anniversary for me. It was just three months ago to date that I first entered your clubhouse in Philadelphia. Three months that I have remained 'dry' and maintained complete sobriety. How well I recall how far away that three-month period seemed then. Until that time had expired I could not feel as if I had accomplished anything, but now at least, my feet are on the first rung of the ladder. But I've learned my lesson well. My fingers are still crossed. I know I can never be sure. "Little did I think then that I would be a member of the Woman's Army Corps today. I led such a useless, wasteful life -- and now, though I am playing only a very small part -- I am, at least, a useful citizen. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to see if I am dreaming. In the beginning I used to envy you all so much. You seemed so light-hearted and gay, so thoroughly happy and at peace with the world. I used to ask myself, 'Will I ever be like that? Will my mind some day be free from worry and care?' I doubted it then, for I was still confused, my brain a tumult of conflicting emotions. The future loomed ahead as some hideous nightmare. I was convinced that nothing could ever make me enjoy life again. But you were all so kind, so tolerant, so helpful, so willing to listen to my tale of woe without censure, criticism or boredom, that gradually the cobwebs began to disappear, the weight was lifting from my heart, and I was learning to smile again. And then before I quite knew what had happened, I suddenly realized that my decision in coming to your group had not been in vain -- that I had at last found the contentment that I had been so long in searching for. Nothing that I could ever do or say could sufficiently show my gratitude. I regret very much that I was unable to do anything about the 12th Step, but this war won't last forever and the A.A.s will always be in existence, so perhaps, God willing, some time in the future I will have the opportunity to put that into effect. May God bless you all. K." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1590. . . . . . . . . . . . Grapevine, December ''44, Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/11/2004 2:28:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Grapevine, December '44 Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces Our mail from A.A.s in the armed forces comes from all corners of the globe and has been particularly gratifying. The Grapevine sends to all members in Service its Christmas greetings and the fervent wish that soon they may be with us again in person as they so obviously are in spirit. If we have helped one individual A.A., as the following letter seems to indicate, we feel that our efforts have been more than justified: "Dear Friend: And I do think of The Grapevine as a friend -- three cheers for it and the idea that brought it into being. After fourteen months in the E.T.O. and not another A.A. in sight, the old beam has not burned too brightly at times. Now with our own publication serving us as something of a link with you people back there and a friendly little get-together on paper, it is my belief that our thought processes won't be so sluggish and we A.A.s will have a better chance of taking up where we left off without passing through little Hell again. I could appreciate with ease the experience of the officer in the October issue. His arguments and alibis for a bit of pub crawling might have been lifted in full from recent activities of my own. As he said, a man can carry on alone and stay 'dry,' but it's not so easy as when you had your group all going in the same direction. You have to put more thought into your efforts or the first thing you know you'll be draped over a bar with only its early closing hour and shortage in spirits between you and a royal binge -- and that isn't just scuttle butt. So thanks a million for Grapevine. It will be a lift, and may hit on a date when you need it most. Maybe someday we can make it a weekly. Hugh P., SF 1/c--British Isles, October 20th" [A weekly? Sailor, you don't know what you're asking!] TENTING ON PELELIU ISLAND "Received your letter a couple of days back and I'll try to give you a little dope now. Our life is improving somewhat around here; when one stops to consider that everything has to come in by ship over thousands of miles of water, these guys certainly do a good job. We even have showers now in our area but most of the men are still living without tents. I managed to chisel a tent from a guy on about D+5 so I have been comparatively well off. The only complaint I have is the number of gents who cut themselves in as partners. Seven men sleeping and living in one tent reminds me of a 1 and ˝ room apartment with about ten drunks sleeping overnight! Guess you probably get the picture. Personally, I would much rather have a shower than a tent. You nearly go crazy being so dirty for so many days with absolutely no facilities. However, one manages, and lots of things that happen would be really very humorous if things were not quite so serious. I feel fine and missed getting the spell of malaria I rather expected. This is the hottest and wettest of the Islands, as far us I know. The only saving grace is the wonderful drainage, due to the coral formation. Under cruise ship conditions, these Islands would be interesting to visit, but see that you miss all D Days! They 'ain't' good! Thanks for your letters. It brings me some closer to the group to hear about it and maybe someday I can get back to pick up where I stopped. Remember me to everyone. Sincerely, John N., U.S. Army." Some weeks later, bound for a new destination, the same correspondent wrote us further of his adventures, stating: "I have often thought how much better I am prepared for all these mixups by having a little of the A.A. doctrine. This is strictly a business where one is able to change some things but, in the main, it is just a matter of standing whatever is passed out." SERVICE PAPER INTERESTED IN NATIONAL COMMITTEE Italy, October 6, 1944 "Dear Marty: I have enclosed a clipping from our Service Paper (Stars & Stripes, Mediterranean edition). I hope it's the first 'clipping service' from this part of the world with regard to your newest endeavor in the field of alcoholism. I know it won't be the last. "Your new work is something in which I absolutely believe, and of which I have thought constantly. I intend to spend as much of my time as I can possibly give, along those same lines, as soon as I am returned to civilian life. I intend to follow your 'lead' over here by contacting the Editor of the Stars Si Stripes and offering myself as a bona fide alcoholic, a three-star example of an ex-rummy, with the ultimate purpose of contacting alcoholics in this sector who may have read the article and would like to do something about it. I have some A.A. literature with me, and will be able to tell them whom to contact for added information, and where to go when they hit the States. If, in this way, I could help one man, I would consider the effort a success. "I wish to extend the greatest possible good luck to your new educational program. I know it will succeed and grow, and eventually prove that alcoholism and alcoholics are what we believe they are, and that therefore they should be given consideration in any public social problem work. Sincerely, Harold M." [A recent letter from Sergeant Hugh B., from England, also mentions that the Stars & Stripes, European edition, reported the move to organize the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism.] IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1592. . . . . . . . . . . . Grapevine, January 1945, Mail Call for All A.A. s in the Armed Forces From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/12/2004 4:15:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Grapevine, January 1945 Mail Call for All A.A. s in the Armed Forces The first A.A. Seamen's group ever organized was formed in Manhattan, June, 1944. Six months later, in December, the Seamen took over the first A.A. clubhouse ever opened anywhere (over 4˝ years ago), at 334˝ W. 24th St., New York, the clubhouse having been vacated by the New York A.A. s for larger quarters. That sounds like quick, easy going. Actually, the establishment of the A.A. Seamen's Club was preceded by many months of consistent work by A.A. and doctors along the Eastern seaboard. As hospitals became overcrowded, the War Shipping Administration and the United Seamen's Service opened 7 Rest Centers throughout the country, near the largest seaports, where for 3 weeks men of the Merchant Marine could recuperate from their nerve-racking trips at sea. In some of the Rest Centers, the doctors have taken particular interest in steering alcoholic seamen into the A.A. way of thinking. The A.A. Seamen's Club does not confine itself to the Merchant Marine but hopes to include the Navy and Coast Guard as well -- all types of seamen. Already the A.A. Seamen are looking toward the day when they'll have groups in San Pedro, San Francisco, Baltimore -- in all the ports of the United States and, eventually, in all the ports of the world. One of the dried up seamen among those making calls on the alcoholics in the seamen's hospitals at Staten Island and Ellis Island is a man who, until a few weeks ago, hadn't bought himself a suit of clothes in 20 years. John W., always penniless after the binge that invariably followed his reaching shore, got his clothes from charitable institutions. The other day John, who was accustomed to getting "a Hop at the doghouse at 60 cents a week," for the first time in 20 years bought himself a new suit, new shoes, new overcoat -- and put up at a big New York hotel at $6.50 a day. And he had one swell time. Sober. While formerly Drink was the only international language known to seamen when they got off their ships, an ever increasing number are learning the constructive language of the A.A. Seamen. Treasurer of the Club is the non-alcoholic Vice-President of the Bank of New York, James Carey. Seaman Joe F. is Secretary, and among those on the Policy Committee are Horace C., an A.A. of 6-years-dry standing, and his non-alcoholic lawyer brother, Alfred. (The Grapevine extends best wishes for 1945 to the new Seamen's Club. ) MORE ABOUT SEABORNE A.A.s We have noticed from the correspondence of A.A. s in Service that, without group contacts over long periods of time, these men and women frequently appear to be following the A.A. program, especially the spiritual side, more closely than many of the rest of us who live in almost daily association with our fellow members. In this connection, we quote, by courtesy of the Toledo group, several paragraphs of a letter from one of its Servicemen with an F.P.O. address: "You may think that I am making a very broad statement when I say I feel I know all of the benefits of A.A. I feel I am qualified to say I do, after a year and one-half without contact of the group. I have been able to do the same as you that have had constant contact. This is due to a supreme effort to live up to the teachings of A.A. and the guidance of 'The Supreme Power.' I was taught how to do this while with the group. Many of you were my teachers, and convincing ones at that. It , at times, has not been an easy job but, like yourselves, I am on the twenty-four hour basis, and continue to place my problems in 'His' hands. A personal inventory has always shown me a way for improvement. Honesty is a prime factor, and key to our future progress, and if we are honest with ourselves we will be with others. ... "To those of you that I know I hope you will continue on your present path to happiness and to those of you that I do not, I hope you will find as much happiness as I have found through A.A. W. M. L." (The Toledo group, numbering approximately 150, has 15 members who have served in this War and one who died in Service.) We have always had a profound curiosity to know more about those gallant lads known as Seabees. Now, most unexpectedly, we learn that A.A. is represented, and well, in that branch of Service also. The letter quoted above was from a Seabee and we are advised from Cleveland that another Ohio A.A. is not only with them but right in the midst of things in the Pacific: "N. R. is with The Seabees now in the Philippines and has done a bang up job staying completely well for over four years, one and one-half of which have been spent in the Pacific. An outstanding job by a real guy." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1593. . . . . . . . . . . . Bernard B. Smith AA Grapevine Obituary (1970) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/12/2004 12:41:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII October 1970 AA Grapevine Bernard B. Smith (1901 - 1970) The AA General Service Board was still called the Alcoholic Foundation when he joined it, in June 1944. His advice influenced the decision to hold the first General Service Conference, in 1951. Chairman of the Board and the Conference from January 1951 to April 1956, he was serving as first vice-chairman of the Board at the time of his death. He was an attorney, an author, and an advocate of Anglo-American understanding; for his efforts in that cause, Queen Elizabeth II awarded him a decoration. Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire, in October 1957. A tribute from Bill: I deeply regret that my health will not permit me to attend the services for my old friend Bern Smith. His death is a great personal loss to me, for I have leaned heavily upon him for many years. His wise counsel was always mine for the asking; the warmth of his friendship, mine from the beginning. From the very beginning, Bern Smith understood the spiritual basis upon which the Society of Alcoholics Anonymous rests. Such an understanding is rare among "outsiders." But Bern never was an outsider - not really. He not only understood our Fellowship, he believed in it as well. Just one month ago today, Bern made a remarkable and inspiring talk to some 11,000 of our members gathered in Miami Beach to celebrate our Fellowship's thirty-fifth anniversary. The subject of his talk was Unity - truly an apt subject, for no man did more than he to assure Unity within our Fellowship. For that matter, he did much to assure our very survival, for he was one of the principal architects of our General Service Conference. Bern Smith would not want, nor does he need, encomiums from me. What he has done for Alcoholics Anonymous speaks far louder than any words of mine could ever do. His wisdom and vision will be sorely missed by us all. I can only add that I have lost an old and valued friend; AA, a great and devoted servant. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1594. . . . . . . . . . . . Grapevine, February 1945 Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/13/2004 3:38:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Grapevine, February 1945 Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces "A rigid disciplinarian, a fine doctor, a good officer -- above all, a gentleman -- ordered me to sit down. 'Your offense against the Navy is a serious one. For it, you could be shot. I know you're a sick man, but the Navy cannot afford to recognize you as such. My suggestion to you is simply this. You can't stop drinking by yourself. When you learn that, you have started back. I would recommend A.A.; it might work.' "I thanked him, walked back to the locked ward in a large Naval hospital, and wrote to A.A. Ten days later two men, two fine-looking, happy men, two strangers, came to see me. They cared not what my type of discharge, nor what my offense was. They were interested in whether or not I wanted to do something about my drinking. Such was my introduction to A.A. Since then I have found a new -- a sober and happy -- way to live. I have found my answer, the solution to my problems. My yellow, undesirable discharge brought with it the first understanding of my own condition; the first freedom from fear; the first shouldering of my just responsibilities. I have been fortunate in having the opportunity granted me to work with men in this same Naval hospital. The doctors, the psychiatrists, the Chaplain, have been frequent visitors to our meetings; not merely once, out of curiosity, but as repeated visitors and friends, because they were amazed to find that A.A. worked. These men -- and for them I have the warmest respect and admiration -- can and do, and will, pass on what they've learned. In my heart I know some man will be saved from standing mast, the brig, court martial, and disgrace, because of the advice and help these officers will, and can now, give him. Especially to you men out there -- many of us who aren't with you because we didn't make the grade are now carrying on for the things you're fighting for. "The Skipper stands bridge, always alert and willing and eager to heave a line, so stand to. Here's luck and a happy voyage home. Page D." Members of the A.A. Seamen's group are making good progress. On January 18th they extended their activities to include an open meeting within the portals of the Seamen's Church Institute, attended by more than fifty interested seamen. As a result the 24th Street group has four new members spreading the news of the A.A. program along the water front. Officials of the Institute were so pleased with the outcome that they assigned the main auditorium of the Institute for a second meeting held January 25th. It is unfortunate that frequently the seamen are only able to attend a few meetings at their Club before shipping out again on other hazardous voyages. A.A. FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE We have had several interesting letters recently from our most faithful A.A. correspondent in the Pacific War Zone, an Army lieutenant, who wrote after coming out of a tough landing operation: "I am well rested now and have regained my lost weight -- all the other officers have gained too. It is a funny thing but when it was really rough, very few of us could eat and one didn't feel hungry. Sort of like getting off a bat -- you know you should eat but the stuff sticks in your throat. Well, that in one deal I got by and I consider myself a very lucky person. (Over twenty-six years ago, in the Champaign country of France, others experienced a similar reaction to food when the going was tough -- the bats came later.)" Our correspondent then added the following reflections about A.A.: "I am not sure in my mind whether so much publicity is good for A.A. Would like your views. I'm a liberal on all subjects except A.A." Again, we quote from a very recent letter from the same officer: "In my case, you should always look on the envelope in see what address I am currently working under. I have only been here a short time and immediately contacted Y. [Reference is to another good A.A. naval officer]. He (Y.) is impatiently awaiting official word to take off. He has done an excellent job and deserves a rest -- I hope he can keep out of this area when his leave is terminated. "I just finished reading October issue of Grapevine. I enjoy everything printed therein and I do get set before me some of the things one is liable to forget over a period of time. We don't care, do we, whether they call them D days or Zero hours -- but we know that is the time that you can really get it. If you are a part of it, you understand -- if you have never experienced it, you don't and can't understand. I have sixteen months overseas now. It hasn't all been bad and I've had lots of fun in spots. As a matter of fact, if it weren't so serious, it would be funny. "A.A. seems to be growing by leaps and bounds. It is only natural. I, for one, will be everlastingly grateful for it. I have a long road to travel but, at least, I know I'm on the right road. Write when you can. The new quarters for A.A. on 41st Street sound fine. As ever. John" IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1595. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Serenity Prayer 1/2 from Grapevine From: t . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/13/2004 11:26:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Grapevine, November 1964 The Serenity Prayer God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. THERE'S nothing new under the sun? Well, perhaps there is in the area of material things. Telstar and moon probes are new. As a matter of fact, so is AA, which celebrated a young twenty-ninth birthday this year. But in the spiritual life, when we make a discovery, we're usually waking up to an old truth. When the Grapevine last reported on the origin of the Serenity Prayer (January, 1950, issue), we had traced it to Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr, who set it down in 1932 in very much the form given above. AA first used it on printed cards and at meetings in 1939. Dr. Niebuhr said at the time that he thought it "might have been spooking around for years, even centuries...." Now an alert AA has sent us a clipping from the Paris 'Herald Tribune' of an article written by its special Koblenz (West Germany) correspondent: "In the rather dreary hall of a converted hotel, overlooking the Rhine at Koblenz, framed by the flags of famous Prussian regiments rescued from the Tannenberg memorial, is a tablet inscribed with the following words: 'God give me the detachment to accept those things I cannot alter; the courage to alter those things which I can alter; and the wisdom to distinguish the ones from the others.' These words [are] by Friedrich Otinger, an evangelical pietist of the eighteenth century--" We don't have the original German of the Koblenz tablet. And we have somewhere a printed card stating that the prayer is a "soldier's prayer from the fourteenth century." So there may be more news on the origins of it to write about in the future. But let us not get carried away by antiquarian research; it is the praying that is going to help me, an alcoholic. Anon. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1596. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Serenity Prayer 2/2 from Grapevine From: t . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/13/2004 11:27:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Grapevine, January 1950 The Serenity Prayer ...it's origin is traced... AT long last the mystery of the Serenity Prayer has been solved! We have learned who wrote it, when it was written and how it came to the attention of the early members of AA. We have learned, too, how it was originally written, a bit of information which should lay to rest all arguments as to which is the correct quotation. The timeless little prayer has been credited to almost every theologian, philosopher and saint known to man. The most popular opinion on its authorship favors St. Francis of Assisi. It was actually written by Dr. Reinhold Niebuhr, of the Union Theological Seminary, New York City, in about 1932 as the ending to a longer prayer. In 1934 the doctor's friend and neighbor, Dr. Howard Robbins asked permission to use that part of the longer prayer in a compilation he was making at the time. It was published in that year in Dr. Robbins' book of prayers. Dr. Niebuhr says, "Of course, it may have been spooking around for years, even centuries, but I don't think so. I honestly do believe that I wrote it myself." It came to the attention of an early member of AA in 1939. He read it in an obituary appearing in the New York Times. He liked it so much he brought it in to the little office on Vesey St. for Bill W. to read. When Bill and the staff read the little prayer, they felt that it particularly suited the needs of AA. Cards were printed and passed around. Thus the simple little prayer became an integral part of the AA movement. Today it is in the pockets of thousands of AAs; it is framed and placed on the wall of AA meeting rooms throughout the world; it appears monthly on the back cover of your magazine and every now and then someone tells us that we have quoted it incorrectly. We have. As it appears in The A. A. Grapevine, it reads: God grant me the serenity To accept things I cannot change, Courage to change things I can, And wisdom to know the difference. Many tell us that it should read: God grant me the serenity To accept the things I cannot change; The courage to change the things I can; And the wisdom to know the difference. The way it was originally written by Dr. Niebuhr is as follows: God give me the serenity to accept things which cannot be changed; Give me courage to change things which must be changed; And the wisdom to distinguish one from the other. Dr. Niebuhr doesn't seem to mind that his prayer is incorrectly quoted. . .a comma. . .a preposition . . .even several verbs. . .the meaning and the message remain intact. "In fact," says the good doctor, "in some respects, I believe your way is better." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1597. . . . . . . . . . . . Grapevine, March 1945, Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/14/2004 3:05:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Grapevine, March 1945 Mail Call for All A.A. s in the Armed Forces It is becoming increasingly apparent that A.A. is going to be called upon to perform a real job in aiding many veterans of this War during or, more particularly, some time after their re-entry into civilian life. We believe, therefore, that the following piece, written for The Grapevine by an A.A. who is himself in the process of undergoing this readjustment, following Army experiences that included participation in the invasion of Normandy, is extremely timely. "Becoming acclimated to a tail-less shirt assuming you can find any at all--is a small but symbolic problem that every veteran of the military forces encounters in making the transition to civilian ways of life. "The tail-less shirt is not the only reason for feeling shorn. The veteran also feels that a number of other things besides the tail of his shirt are missing. The Army--or the Navy, or whatever his branch of the service --is no longer taking care of him. The privileges and protection that the uniform provides, along with the responsibilities, have come to an end. Your assignment, whatever it may have been, has been finished. There's no longer somebody on hand to tell you, whether you were officer, soldier or sailor, what to do next. You can't even get cigarets when you want them. You're just another short-tailed civilian, mister! "The dischargee not only misses the things he found enjoyable while wearing a uniform. Strangely, he also misses some of the things he disliked the most. He may yearn for the very things that used to draw his loudest and longest gripes. If he happens to be a veteran from a combat zone, he may even miss some of the gadgets and conditions that scared him silly while he was in the middle of them. When, for instance, in New York he hears the weekly Saturday noon air raid sirens and, after an involuntary tightening of nerves, he remembers that they're only practice, he may wish momentarily (only momentarily) that they were the real thing. It's not that he ever liked robots or enemy raiders; it's that his nerves are still attuned to the excitement and tension that a combat zone produces in generous quantities as a daily, and nightly fare. War in one phase or another has been reality to him. That has now been removed and what's left seems, at times, unreal and even empty. "Another void becomes apparent in topics of conversation in normal circles. What the veteran has been talking about morning, noon and night for however long he has been in uniform is scarcely suitable now. People just aren't interested in what Sgt. Doakes said to Capt. Whoozit. And you certainly can't blame them for that. Even when they are genuinely interested in hearing something of his experiences, the dischargee discovers that there's a great deal he can't express in a way that is understandable to someone who has not felt what he has. So he tends to avoid the subject--and he certainly does avoid it after one or two encounters with the occasional person who reacts to war anecdotes with a look in his eye that says, 'What a line this guy's got!' In such cases, the dischargee learns that what may be commonplace in theaters of war may sound fantastic and unbelievable elsewhere. "All of these factors add up to an emotional disturbance involving lonesomeness, injured vanity, loss of poise and direction, fear of the future and resentments. For many persons, of course, relief at being permitted to return to normal pursuits offsets the other factors. But reconversion from the military to the civilian world calls for considerable readjustments for anyone. For an A.A. member, the readjustment may be especially difficult--and dangerous. "Paradoxically, an A.A. who has had no or little trouble during his enforced separation from the group may be in greater danger during this period of readjustment than the one who has had an up and down fight all the way from enlistment or induction to discharge, if he has gone through military service without any slips or near-slips he has scored a real achievement. The military life imposes severe handicaps on an A.A. It usually prevents him from practicing many of the steps on which he normally depends. It divorces him from group therapy, 12th step work and inspirational talks. It precipitates him into circumstances that are upsetting and that tend to unbalance anyone's sense of values. "If the A.A. has survived all of that successfully, he's likely to feel pretty strong when he returns to normal life. Certainly he feels that now, once again within his home orbit, among A.A. friends and within reach of all the help he could ask, he is in much less danger, alcoholically, than he was in the service away from home. So he may very easily let down. He may drop his guard. He may become 'too tired' to attend any meetings or do any 12th step work. He may slack off in doing some of the little things that help to keep an A.A. growing along A.A. lines. "If he begins to slide off in any of these ways, he's heading for a tailspin and a tight inside loop. Whatever hazardous tendencies he may develop will be aggravated by the emotional disturbances which his military-to-civilian readjustment is bound to create for him even if he remains squarely on the beam. The fact is, he has need to double his guard and keep his defenses on the alert during this period. "Those are facts which this A.A. had to learn the painful way. But, in learning those, he also learned that application of the A.A. way of thinking will ease the transition for the veteran in many ways. Again I have seen how A.A. not only helps to overcome Personal Enemy No. 1, but how infinitely effective it is on many other human problems. "Again, too, I have been reminded forcefully that in A.A. one cannot stand still for long he either goes backwards or he grows, and he grows only by using a gradually increasing amount of A.A. T.D.Y." IT'S FREE FOR SERVICEMEN "India, January 27 "Dear Grapevine: Was pleasantly surprised to receive two issues of The Grapevine in the past few days, as I didn't know that our organization had such a swell publication. "I don't know whether one of my friends in the Tucson group has paid for a subscription to The Grapevine for me or if these were sample copies, so will appreciate receiving that information from you, and will forward the subscription if such has not been paid. Hoping that I will continue to keep in contact with all of you through The Grapevine, "I am, gratefully yours, "John F.M., Sgt. Air Force" IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1598. . . . . . . . . . . . Grapevine, April 1945, Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/15/2004 3:28:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Grapevine, April 1945 Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces "I have just returned to the States after 20 months overseas, during which time my only contact with the group has been The Grapevine (but what a refreshing contact that was!). And, as in most other things these days, remarkable changes have taken place, and much progress. After a lapse of so many months, of course the first thing that strikes one is the tremendous expansion in all groups everywhere. Many have been obliged to take on new quarters, and the ones which I have seen have all been an improvement over the old. As we had all hoped, the A.A. program has been made available to thousands more people who have been struggling with the problem, and it is a fine thing to meet so many new and happy A.A.s who have embarked on the wonderful adventure afforded by the program. An outstanding feature to be noticed today is the large number of 'high-bottom members,' those who have gained an early understanding of their problem through A.A. Perhaps because of the fact that A.A. is becoming so well known nationally, they have not had to bounce all the way down the hard road, losing everything, before realizing that something must be done about it, and, what is more important, learning how to do it. "It is evident, too, to one who has been away, that present-day conditions are putting a pressure on the civilian population which has caused day to day existence to be speeded up in a manner reminiscent of the 'terrific twenties.' As a result, there is necessarily more drinking going on generally, I should say, than before the war. During my 17 days on leave in the New York area, friends have brought me into contact with three people who have gone beyond the 'safety line' of normal drinking. So the group is needed more than ever before, in all areas of the country. "Most satisfactory of all, however, is the fact that in spite of the great nation-wide expansion in A.A., the same warm, friendly, and happy spirit prevails everywhere--just as it always has. So, it's great to be home again, with the grandest bunch of people in the land! Y. G." "[Attached is a very precious letter written by a young bomber pilot in Italy, this son of a Springfield A.A., who has been a member since November, 1944. It is addressed to the. A.A.s everywhere in appreciation for what A.A. has done for him through his mother. C. W.] "Ten years ago my mother recovered miraculously after almost losing her life in a Chicago hospital. It was God, and her love for her family, that pulled her through. It was following this recovery that I first remember her drinking to excess. Not too much at first, but as years went on, things grew worse. I'd come home from high school in the afternoon to find her in a drunken stupor, and inside I'd be boiling mad, and sick at heart. I never said anything particularly unkind to her while she was like this, as the words would have been forgotten in the morning, and I'd only get as a reply to anything I said, that 'everything was o.k.--everything o. k.' But I'd lie awake half the night planning what I would tactfully say in the morning. "Morning came and mother would be her bright, very beautiful and very gracious self again, and I could never get up enough courage to say anything that might hurt her. "So things went on. I'd be afraid to bring a friend home from school because I didn't want him to see my mother like that. I hadn't cried from pain in many years, but at night I'd lie in bed, tears rolling down my cheeks, praying to God to help. God had answered in saving her life the only other time I asked Him to help. "At intervals in the last two or three years my mother told my sister and me that she would give it up. She tried, I know, but never was successful. There was one way left that I thought would do a lot of good, but it was a very hard thing for me to do. I wrote a long letter appealing to my mother's love for her family. It hurt her deeply, as I knew it would, but with her great love she fought all the pent-up emotional disturbances within her to a great degree of success. To help reduce the great strain on her mind and to insure a rapid comeback to a happy life, my sister and a member of A.A. induced her to join your organization. You don't know how extremely happy and proud a person I am today. To be fighting 3,000 miles from home and know that your family is back on the road to complete happiness after ten years of discouraging disappointments is a wonderful thing and it's even more wonderful to be able to love every little thing about your mother with all your heart, and with all your soul. "I am extremely grateful to you for the way in which you have helped. A heartful of thanks and sincere good wishes from--a son of one of you. W.A.L MEDICINE FOR SELF PITY "I've wanted to write for a long time, but my days are long and full. We all are too much in this work to really observe it. If I were on a schedule like this back in the States I'd have blown my top regularly just like the noon whistle at the biscuit factory. "Of course, I often think of A.A. It's one of the things we have to do. But when you see men who have been through the real hell of war, and you hear from them what it's like (you can't know unless you've been there), or you see them laugh with tears in their eyes as they tell you how their comrades were killed all around them, you wonder how you could ever have taken yourself so damned seriously. "I'm very well in every way, and living only for the day we can all take up where we left off. Pvt. John D., BUSH Hospital, France" IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1599. . . . . . . . . . . . Grapevine, May 1945, Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/16/2004 3:08:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Grapevine, May 1945 Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces This is a quotation from a personal letter received by the editor of the "Mail Call" page, himself an overseas veteran of World War I. It was written by a fellow A.A., a sergeant who has been, taking part in the recent activities on the unquiet Western front: "About a year ago you sent me a letter concerning a particular attack you made in the last war, and as I was really in a tight spot recently that description among many other thoughts came to mind. I remember you wrote that with all the artillery, mortars and general hell flying you didn't know how you could survive, but did! That gave me a certain hope and fortified me in my thinking. Prayer for my other buddies was easy and some Power brought me through. Slightly wounded, I am practically well now and will be re-joining my outfit by the time you receive this. Our push looks successful, with plenty of hard fighting ahead. " As this issue of The Grapevine deals primarily with the feminine viewpoint on A.A., we ask indulgence for printing the description of the "particular attack" referred to in the sergeant's letter above. The letter-writer was then a young second lieutenant of Infantry and he describes for his father his initiation into the art of war. His alcoholic problem had not developed at that time: "Somewhere in France. "September 17, 1918 "On the morning of the 12th, I had the greatest experience that comes to any soldier during his service in this war. I went over the top and, incidentally, it was the first time I had ever been under fire. One is, I know, supposed to think of many things during those hours in the trenches before daylight, and perhaps some may pray a bit and make good resolutions provided they come through, but my only sensation, that I can recall, was that I was colder than I had ever been in my life and that anything requiring motion would be a relief. We were in the trenches four hours before zero and during that time a terrific artillery barrage went over from our guns. You would imagine that the noise would be terrible, but it did not seem to worry me, and as Fritz did not reply we were perfectly safe at that time. Fritz, I imagine, thought all Hell was loose and God for once far from being with him. At daylight we rushed up a trench into another, parallel to Fritz's line, and over we went. I suppose it is nearly impossible to imagine the confusion of an attack--it is barely light enough to see, shells are bursting with a crash and a flash all about, and every now and then an enemy machine gun starts popping. To keep your men together and in place is nearly impossible. I got up with the company ahead before we reached the German line, but when I got there I had the platoon together and in proper place, where I kept most of the men for the remainder of the day. I had men from many another company and regiment with me during the day. In the trench, we found only a few machine gunners who had caused us to lie flat at times. We passed on through a thick woods and advanced about nine kilometers before the German artillery got our range. Then we caught a little Hell ourselves. I saw a man killed and my runner wounded not ten feet from me--where I had been lying only two seconds before. I hadn't had sense enough to be scared before that, but from then on I didn't enjoy the German artillery. We got out of that spot by advancing, but late that day, or rather all afternoon, while we were dug in at our captured objective, they shelled us with remarkable accuracy. It was unpleasant and unhealthy for more than one. As for me, I dug with my mess kit and dug fast. An Austrian 88 would make anyone dig fast, and he would not have to be paid $5.00 per day either! I would be interrupted occasionally and flatten out till things quieted a bit. "Next evening we were relieved; now we are well behind the lines. I understand that St. Mihiel on our left was taken and the line is straight. Our casualties and worries all came. from artillery. Men of the company say we were very lucky, as the regiment has been up against tougher propositions. Be that as it may, we did what we set out to do and I did not see a single man hesitate to do his part. As for me, another time I will know what everything is like. I am now recognized by the old hands as belonging to the company, having gone under fire with proper behavior--not hard when the rest all do. Really I believe my big Texas runner (not the one who was hit) kept me cool. He wasn't fazed by anything--delivered his messages quickly, and was at other times constantly at my side as a sort of personal bodyguard. Later when we were all cold and hungry and worn out (I slept only three or four hours in about 84) he was always cheerful and joked about things when others grumbled. He too was having his first experience under fire, but little he cared. My sergeant, an old-timer, did his part well. I have looked on dead and wounded now, and I know what a poor devil suffers when he is hit, but I am principally impressed by the fact that with shells falling all around one has miraculous escapes. The Americans do not halt for a shelling--they go through and win. It is all over for the present for us. We are still a bit tired and very dirty but we are happy. This is certainly a fine outfit--they know they have a good reputation as fighters and they would go anywhere to keep it. The cold has been our greatest enemy, that is at night. I am in A1 shape but unrecognizably dirty. Soon I shall wash. Cooties are not with me as yet. Abbot T., New York" NAVY SYMPATHETIC TO A.A. Capt. Forrest M. Harrison of the U. S. Naval Hospital, Bethesda, Maryland, recently reported to the press that the alcoholic in the Navy gets separate barracks, well equipped with magazines, books and special literature "such as that issued by Alcoholics Anonymous." Meetings are held, and every effort is made to get the men straightened out through education, physical rehabilitation, et cetera. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1600. . . . . . . . . . . . re: Lasker Award From: dgrant004 . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/16/2004 8:36:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi All, Does anyone know if the Lasker Award is currently being kept at AAWS in NYC? Much thanks! David IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1601. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: re: Lasker Award From: Al Welch . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/16/2004 5:09:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Yep, saw it last Friday in the Archives section IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1602. . . . . . . . . . . . Grapevine, June 1945, Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/17/2004 3:23:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Grapevine, June 1945 Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces We are fortunate in having received from an A.A. participant, a sergeant of Infantry, a vivid account of the battle for Germany and his reactions: "Somewhere, in Europe "7th Army, April 10 "Dear Elliot: Your marvelous New Year's Day letter, and also The Soul's Sincere Desire, the book you so thoughtfully sent to me, caught up just yesterday. Both meant much more to me than if they had been received earlier in the year. At the first of the year I was called up for combat duty in the general ground forces reinforcement program after our serious losses in the December Ardennes set back. "After a one-month 'get-rich-quick' course in Infantry I left England and subsequently joined the veteran 3rd Division and participated in the final stages of the Colmar Pocket campaign. About a month ago we went into the big campaign as a 'spearhead' unit in cracking the Siegfried Line on the 7th Army front below Saarbrucken, which with General Patton's swing from the North came to be known as the Saar-Moselle-Rhine Triangle bagging 125, 000 Krauts--salting away the Saar, as you have been reading in screaming headlines, no doubt. I am most fortunate to be alive! We fought and beat crack Waffen SS units, broke the thickest part of the Siegfried (but as you know you have to spend lots of men to do it) and so I am back here at a General Hospital rapidly recovering from a comparatively slight wound, and enjoying the finest Springtime season of my life and the fragrance of the earth is something to be truly grateful for, to say the least. "During a counter attack on a fortified Jerry village we had previously taken and lost the night before, I had so many close calls it went beyond any ordinary or extraordinary luck factor, and as you suggested in your letter I felt something, a factor of divine protection. I didn't expect to live through that almost overwhelming maelstrom of utter chaos. Tanks entered the town and ran wild battering down houses and our rubble positions at fifty yards point blank range. We were cut off without artillery or armor support and were nearly up against an impossible tactical setup, i.e., trying to fight Tiger Tanks with your bare fists. An 88 shell tore the air so close to me the suction of it spun me off balance. Bullets tore my combat jacket. Shoe mines exploded nearby as we caught mine fields, shells demolished rooms I had occupied minutes before; mortars, rockets, screaming Meemies (neberwerfel rockets) pounded us night and day. Caught inside Jerry lines and enveloped, we later were subjected to our own artillery barrages and strafing and dive bombing by our Air Force, etc., etc. "The point being I felt something soon after the big floor show started. After our jump-off we were caught and pinned down and Jerry's stuff started to fly as if he thought he was fighting his last battle. I prayed but I couldn't quite see why I should have the gall to ask for personal favors or protection. Someone was going to get it and there were too many fine, clean, happy twenty-year olds with a fresh future ahead in my outfit. Why should God be interested in sparing my rum soaked bones? It didn't make sense and it became practically impossible, but it was easy to pray for the others and a great happiness and inner calm (as you mention) welled up within me in doing so. I know that prayer for all of us was answered! Most of my company were finally captured and are POWs today which approaches the miraculous in view of the severity of the heavy fire power thrown against us, and compared to the general casualty percentages of the overall campaign. "I felt a nearness to understanding I can't quite explain but I know you know what I am talking about. "You told me three years ago on a hot summer day standing at 42nd Street and Madison. Your waking in the middle of the night with a great sense of gratitude and merely saying 'Thank you, God,' is the most eloquent prayer I have ever heard. "You see, Elliot, how much I appreciate and treasure your letter and book. The author suggested in the first chapter something I liked very much. Write up or think up some of your own psalms and prayers, don't be a slave to set forms. You can't beat the 23rd Psalm or the Lord's Prayer as great literature but maybe something you can express your own way will have more of that essence of sincerity, for you at least. Likewise I like to sing hymns and work in some barber shop harmonies with my rather dubious baritone. Why can't people really enjoy their religion? That's why I have trouble sitting in church as they seem to want you to, with a puss this long. People are supposed to be happy and not fearful I am sure. And as you say, 'kicking against the traces.' Best regards. Hugh B." ACCEPT THOSE THINGS WE CANNOT CHANGE One of our A.A. correspondents who has been actively engaged in the Pacific War writes us about a subject that probably applies to servicemen especially but seems to have significance for all A.A.s: "Waiting is one of the biggest problems in the service. And at certain times, a five-minute wait can be a real torture. Ernest Hemingway said the same in one of his books, and when I read it, I thought the concept foolish. But waiting (or rather patience) is one of the hardest traits to develop and one of the most necessary. At one of those times of stress I believe it would be extremely easy to completely lose one's outlook and perspective. And it doesn't seem to make any difference whether or not the thing for which you are waiting is dangerous. There is no question that at times the hold of A.A. over one is lessened. It can't be otherwise, but I do think that experience teaches one certain danger signals and only a fool would ignore them. For instance, when a person is rotated and goes home, he is in a very dangerous period because we know that one can be so happy that, all of a sudden one may be caught very, very drunk. I know that there must be people in A.A. who would raise their hands in horror at the idea that an A.A. doesn't have complete control at all times. They may be right, but it hasn't been my experience. The reason may well be because I have been able to attend only one meeting in the last three years. And I do heartily approve of meeting attendance as insurance against possible slips. But for the person who does not have the advantages that meetings give, these blind spots must be recognized, understood and controlled. "I guess I have been trying to say that the course is not always smooth and a person new to A.A. might very well become discouraged. When a blank period arrives there is only one possible course of 'inaction'--just don't drink. Sometimes in the space of a very few minutes the upset has passed and all is serene again. John N., Lt. U. S. Army" Copies of The Grapevine are sent free to all A.A. servicemen and women. If you know of any member of the Armed Forces who is not on the mailing list, please send his or her name to the Editors. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1603. . . . . . . . . . . . big book index From: judicrochet . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/17/2004 7:14:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII i have an index for the big book copyright 1975 by Alcoholics Anonymous World Service, Inc. it's A.A. General Service Conference approved literature. does any one know how long this was in print and why it was discontinued. thanks judi IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1604. . . . . . . . . . . . Grapevine, July 1945, Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/18/2004 1:51:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Grapevine, July 1945 Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces Some months ago we suggested on this page that perhaps A.A.s in service often worked out their not inconsiderable problems more realistically than their civilian brethren and that, almost certainly, they had to place greater dependence on the spiritual aspects of the program. The quotation below is part of a recent letter from a soldier stationed in France: "In the old days (and it's a wonderful thing to think of them as 'old days') most of us didn't face these conflicts, but they must be faced now, and faced squarely. So for me there's only one answer and that is our 3rd Step. That is the answer to so many things if we only be mindful of it. However, like everything else, now and then we forget. I was feeling particularly low and in need of help. I got just the lift I needed from my old friend Chet through his piece on the 3rd Step in the March Grapevine. "This has been a very personal letter. However, isn't that what this is all about--getting the right slant on the things that bother us?" A Marine Tells Us The following is our first letter from an A.A. who is also a member of the Marine Corps. It is from a sergeant with a Marine fighter squadron now in the Pacific, and was written to a friend in the Buffalo group. We think it bears out our comment at the beginning of this page. "It was pretty rough most of the way over, but after leaving Honolulu most of us were pretty good sailors but our only wish was to set foot on terra firma once again. Had my fill of the deep blue sea--it really is blue and at night when there is no moon one would think that there was some sort of indirect lighting due to the phosphorus in the water glowing as the prow of the boat would churn it up. "We were able to pitch a one-day liberty in Honolulu and I really took in the sights--saw the famous beach at Waikiki and also stopped in a quaint little church and thanked Him for keeping me 'dry' and asked Him to help all of us in our struggle with alcohol. He has been very good to me, John. "We finally arrived on this little rock of coral and sand where the Navy and Marines left a tree or two standing when they knocked the little monkeys out of here some time back. "Each day gets hotter and, although the nights cool off, even they are starting to get a bit warmer. We used to have our choice of either two bottles of cold brew or two cokes every other night but now they are out of cokes so I'm drinking warm water out of Lyster bags. Yes, I know just what two beers would do to me--even out here--and I don't care to experiment. I'll wait until medical science can find a remedy. This is all I'm allowed to write. It is lonesome here and I'd sure enjoy hearing from some of the boys." Dick F. M., Sgt. V. S. Marines, April 8 Our most faithful correspondent in the Pacific seems to have gotten into the thick of things again, but is still calling on his A.A. philosophy whenever the going gets tough: "I have really been busy. Am receiving Grapevine and enjoy it so much. M is sending September Remember which I look forward to enthusiastically. Y. (a naval lieutenant) wrote from Boston. He must have been very active. He is a grand fellow and the new A.A. member should be helped by people like him. We are getting well set up now. Had my first shower in six weeks yesterday and you would be surprised how one gets used to taking a bath in a helmet. We spend considerable time in foxholes but as yet I haven't caught cold. The snakes around here have me worried--especially when I spend the night on the ground. We have killed a couple of them and they were deadly. Oh well, it's just like a lot of other things--bad, but not too bad. My spirits are well up these days and now I'm happy with a little less. Thank God, it has ended in Europe." John N., Lt. U. S. Army A Soldier Avoids That Fatal First Drink "I have had several pleasant visits with a family I met in Rheims. There was, at first, a rather awkward situation created by my not taking a glass of wine at dinner. I'm sure my friends consider it very queer, but the matter is settled and they have accepted the fact of my not drinking. Later on, I should like to tell them about A.A. They are intelligent, alert people, and I might be able to convey the general idea to them." John D., U. S. Army, France, May 25 Copies of The Grapevine are sent free to all A.A. servicemen and women. If you know of any member of the Armed Forces' who is not on the mailing list, please send his or her name to the Editors. TIME ON YOUR HANDS "The term 'hobby' not only refers to an occupation pursued as a pastime but also means 'a slow and steady horse.' To me, the latter definition is more important to an alcoholic because it's so patently the reverse of the kind of animal he used to be. One of our most potent slogans is 'easy does it' ... and I think that philosophy should be especially followed when it comes to picking hobbies. "The reason we're looking for hobbies is because we know that too much loose time on our hands represents the most frightening saboteur we have to face in our aim toward continued sobriety. But for an alcoholic, too much intensity toward any objective is equally dangerous, because should circumstances deprive us of our "hobby crutch" we're ripe for a slip. "So, in my very humble and still inexperienced opinion, we should take our hobbies where we find them and have as many as possible that fit into everyday living instead of concentrating on one or two important ones. For example, you'd hardly call your family a hobby but it can function very well as such with priority--and more satisfyingly so than any I have found. The time I spend planning and executing for my wife and son the many ordinary pastimes and associations which they missed during my drinking days has proven to be the happiest heritage which A.A. has given me. There is no need to expand on that statement--every alcoholic will recognize immediately what I'm trying to say. "The only other important hobby I have (excepting of course my A.A. group) is to associate as much as possible with friends who are not alcoholics, but who are fully aware of my status as one and my desire to stay dry. It's been amazing to me how much help I can get from these friends who, although they may not fully understand why a guy can't take a drink now and then, respect and encourage my aims. I guess you'd call that being something of an "alcoholic hero" to the folks outside of A.A. who are important to me, but if that be treason, I still feel that I can make the most of it as a hobby--and you'll agree that results are what count." Jim D. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1605. . . . . . . . . . . . Grapevine, August 1945, Mail Call for All A.A.s in the Armed Forces From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/19/2004 3:20:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Grapevine, August 1945 Mail Call for All A.As in the Armed Forces "As a very new A.A.--less than two months--I can find only one gripe. In the best illogical tradition of the Army it is that I didn't find A.A. soon enough, specifically, before I went overseas. I had 18 months of the Middle East and I'm firmly convinced that the toughest job for a soldier who is trying to get away from alcohol is to be stuck in a non-combat overseas post in a command the chiefest ingredient of which is boredom. "I drew Persia and any other GI who has served there can explain to strangers that the combination of camels, loneliness and free hours with nothing to fill them leads to an almost immediate discovery of the wines of the country--vodka, zorovka (a vodka derivative which borrows a faint brownish color from the stalk of buffalo grass stuck in every bottle) and mastique (otherwise known as arak, raki and zibib, a cousin of the absinthe family one gulp of which starts a three alarm fire in your vitals, several gulps of which puts out both the fire and you). "The soldier-alcoholic, whether in a rear echelon, in combat or on garrison duty in the U. S., has a different set of problems than his civilian brother-in-allergy. Even a line outfit has its fill of blank hours and nothing can be blanker than spare time in uniform. Between this boredom and the occasional hard work or swift action which gives you an excuse and almost a necessity for emotional relief of some sort, the GI is usually in a mood where he wants and thinks he needs a short one. "I found it possible, for short spells of time, to go on the wagon overseas. But it was never a satisfactory solution. It is too easy, in the Army, to find an alibi to go off. Maybe you have just come into town from a long truck convoy over days of dusty roads with no more sustenance than C-rations and lukewarm canteen water. Maybe you are on a three-day pass from combat. Maybe you have had a fight with the Old Man and, according to the rigidity of Army discipline, have no other way of getting back at him than to tie one on for your own satisfaction. At any rate, when you do hit the town, when you do get the pass, when you have that fight, you don't lack for friends to help you drown your sorrows. And you have assisting you liquorwards also a long and strong, if not entirely accurate, tradition that a good soldier is a two-fisted drinker and that you're not an honest-to-goodness soldier until you've been busted a couple of times for drunkenness. "These invitations to drink apply equally to the A.A. alcoholic in uniform as they do to his unenlightened brother, but I honestly believe the A.A. has a good chance of beating them while the non-A.A. doesn't have better than 100-to-one odds in his favor. Even a fledgling A.A. realizes that the organization and its philosophy give him something to cushion the shock of not drinking, something to fill the open space left in his social life when be puts away the bottle. "When I went on the wagon in the Army--not as an A.A.--I was acutely miserable. I haunted the Special Service clubhouse or tent because I knew I wouldn't get a drink there, but the inanities of most Army entertainments loomed as even more inane to my still alcoholically critical eyes. I was constantly aware, every waking hour, that I was engaged in doing something I didn't like. A.A. hasn't deadened my critical faculties, but today I feel sure I could get amusement (sometimes perhaps snide), if not full enjoyment, out of a service club, and I am not a little suspicious that I might find myself participating in and enjoying the goings on after a while. "Needless to say, there should be any amount of 12th Step opportunities in the service, but I'm inclined to think that 12th Step work should be approached even more carefully than ordinarily when dealing with GIs. All of us in the Army are living in a close community full of community prejudices sharper and more quickly applied than in civilian life. The first thing to convince any alcoholic in uniform should be that by joining A.A. he is not making himself ridiculous and not abandoning his right to be one of the boys. If you can convince the boys, too, so much the better. From there on in you should have relatively clear sailing. "In my own overseas drinking experience I have had many amusing and diverting adventures, so amusing and diverting that I get the dry heaves recalling them. There was the time I got tramped on by the camel, and the time I passed out on the Avenue Chah Reza in Teheran and had my pants stolen, and the time I fell head first into a lime-pit and had to take off my field jacket with a mason's chip hammer, and the endless times I had to weave back to camp one alley ahead of the MPs. Diverting as hell. "Whatsa matter with this A.A. they didn't get me sooner? That's my only kick." Sgt. A. H. The Seed Was Planted "I tried to follow the A.A. principles three years ago in my home town of Anderson, S.C., and it was too much for me all alone, and after a few weeks I slipped, but several months ago I was able to affiliate with the Oklahoma City Group and I see now that the Higher Power intended things to work out this way. I have met some of the finest people in the world and only hope that after I'm discharged from the Service I will be able to partly repay them by carrying the A.A. message to Anderson, S. C. Had it not been for A.A., I'm afraid I would have gotten the little yellow discharge from the Navy long ago." Jack G. C., Jr., H A I / c, U.S. Navy Letters Look Good at Front "I enjoyed your letter tremendously and am rather ashamed that I haven't written sooner. Ever since the day we hit this Oriental rock the time has flown--our hours are long and the nights are sleepless--we have had over one hundred alerts and a goodly number of raids in the short time I've been here. You see I left my old base in the Pacific in the latter part of April and now am right in the thick of it. I am writing this during an alert but haven't as yet heard any ack! ack! which is the signal for this ex-drunk to dive into his foxhole." Sgt. Richard J. F. M., U.S.M.C.R. Navy Chaplain Lauds Work "Dear Editor: "I have never needed A.A. help myself, but have had some very fine acquaintances whom it could have assisted long ago and might have kept them from sailing their ships on the rocks of alcoholic despair and destruction. "During the past month it has been my great privilege to watch from outside and also inside observation by attending meetings of A.A. in this city. I have seen its work and as a minister and chaplain in the Navy, I marvel at the results it seems to get from its application to alcoholics. "I have read all the literature at hand and hope to read more to get an insight into the very fine results and remarkable record that make for the conversion of alcoholics to most decent and reputable citizens. "I am enclosing herewith a check for $1.50 for which you will please put me on as a yearly subscriber to The Grapevine. Would be glad to have any old copies and any other literature that you may see fit to send." H.G.G., Captain, Ch. C, U.S.N. Copies of The Grapevine are sent free to all A.A. servicemen and women. If you know of any member of the Armed Forces who is not on the mailing list, please send his or her name to the Editors. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1606. . . . . . . . . . . . Grapevine, September 1945, Mail Call for All A.A.s at Home or Abroad From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/20/2004 2:25:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Grapevine, September 1945 Mail Call for All A.A.s at Home or Abroad (Editor's Note: With the cessation of hostilities, Mail Call is thrown open to all A.A.s, those still far away with the victorious armed forces, those returning to civil life, and those on the home front who face the same fight. ) From a U. S. Marine In the July 1945 issue we published a letter from an A.A., a sergeant of Marines in the Pacific, with whom we have since had the good fortune to carry on an active correspondence. We think part of his most recent letter should appear here: "I received your last letter and answered it immediately, but because we were moving I was unable to mail it. In the meantime, we had some terrific rainfalls with the result that your letter and others were waterlogged and had to be destroyed. Now I am at my new base. "The little rock I was on was called Ie Shima and was the place where Ernie Pyle was killed. Being a small rock and just off the west coast of Okinawa, it was a fairly easy target and as a result was pretty hot with air raids and alerts. I am in Okinawa now. It's much nicer here--much like our own country with hills and ravines, mountains and valleys and plenty of foliage and pine trees. We have lots of new equipment, including a new mess hall with all its accessories, ice cream machine and all. There are still a number of enemy stragglers around which hinders me from doing the exploring I'd like to do--such as into the mountains and down the valleys and along the rocky coast line. Besides I have enough work to do to take up most of my time." Our friend goes on to discuss some of his thoughts about A.A., the probable reasons for "slips" and the danger of uncontrolled temper. His remarks on this last subject seem very much to the point: "Ever since I attended my first meeting I knew that I would have to curb my temper if I wanted success (sobriety) and since I want that more than anything else in the world I pray daily that God will grant me patience and help me control my temper. I've been quite successful along this line and have, gained twofold results--first, I've removed another obstacle to a life of complete contentment and second I get along with my family, as well as my fellow men; 100% better. I believe a temper is an asset when it is well bridled. No, I'm not cocky--either over my controlled temper or over two years of sobriety--if I were, I would not be praying daily for help. I need it. "Just recently A.A. saved my life--someday I'll tell you about it. Thanks once again to A.A. that I'm here." D. F. M., Sgt., USMCR [This was the only letter this month from a member of the Services.] IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1607. . . . . . . . . . . . ...officers from Plattsburg From: pennington2 . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/20/2004 12:50:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII As part of an online Big Book study group, the participants are encouraged to read with a dictionary and encyclopedia handy . . . . . . I have also found that the WWW is handy! Reading the first few pages of Bill's story this week, I was Intrigued by the statement "officers from Plattsburg" and did a search. I found this reference on the web that others may find of interest: p2 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1608. . . . . . . . . . . . Periodical Literature, The Amarillo, October 22, 1944 From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/22/2004 3:35:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII THE LOST WEEKEND Charles Jackson gives us five days out of a man's life while in the flamboyant arms of alcohol; this type of a book might have been burdensome or highly sensational--instead the author has given as clear a picture of what goes on in the mind of an alcoholic as is probably possible. William Seabrook treated the matter completely in his ASYLUM, but this is the meticulous and factual account of a good mind holding its own throughout the flattering of the ego and the anti-social aspects produced by excessive drinking. To the layman, alcoholism is merely a state of being drunk, of intoxication; but to those who have studied psychopathic trends, alcoholism is a release of all that man has within him, it is the highest and at once the lowest. Within the confines of the bonds of this stimulant, man achieves his loftiest ambitions in thought, experiences and aberrations to do with everything from theft to possible murder, which the true alcoholic shuns. As the book and serious writers on the subject point out, it is only the drug addict who will kill to satisfy his appetite. Alcoholics may beg, steal, borrow or pawn to satisfy that thirst, but murder as a general rule is foreign to such a disturbed mind. Mr. Jackson has contributed what is possibly the finest study in print of true alcoholism from the standpoint of the afflicted; his book is a priceless primer toward understanding of that great number who find escape for such a short time down the drinkers' road. After so much trash has been written on this and kindred subjects, concerning the 'escapist' side of man, this book should prove invaluable to mankind to understanding not only alcoholics, but his own reactions based upon whole or part intoxication. Mr. Jackson is not the type of writer to soft-pedal his ideas, but the sex angle of this book is well into the background and hardly raises its inquiring head; of course this might be different in relation to the subject--assuredly women alcoholics react differently than the males, but in all people of this type, the sex-life plays a dominant part and this author has given full scope to the possibility if not elaborating upon it. To those who have seen patients of this type by the dozens, confined behind institution walls, this book will find a welcome world of avid readers; to those whose lives are touched with the "fiery fumes" of this line of escape, let them read and analyze for themselves, forgetting that dreams are all necessary to escape the realities of life. No human being should miss this book, moreover, no human being can afford to. Source: The Amarillo, October 22, 1944 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1610. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: re: clapboard factory explosion From: Jim Blair . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/22/2004 3:40:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII DAvid wrote Does anyone know if the Wombleys clapboard factory explosion ( referenced in Tradition 4 in the 12&12 ) was an actual event, or just a figure of speech. I had a discussion with Ozzie Lepper who runs the Wison House in East Dorset and he claims that the foundations of the clapboard factory can still be seen. Jim IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1611. . . . . . . . . . . . Origin of Rule #62 From: timwarner1990 . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/22/2004 3:19:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi everybody, First of all, please forgive me if this subject has been addressed previously. I did use the search function in both the AAHISTORYLOVERS and the AAHISTORYBUFFS groups, to no avail. Could someone please point me to a description of the origin of our beloved Rule #62? I'm almost positive that I heard Bill W. describe the origins of this term on a speaker tape, but I can't for the life of me remember which speech it was. The more detail you could provide, the better. Thanks so much. Yours, Tim W. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1612. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Origin of Rule #62 From: Arthur Sheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/23/2004 12:12:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Tim - Following are some published sources: Not God, pg 107: This reference suggests that the 'super-promoter" sobered up in early 1940. He first wrote to the Alcoholic Foundation outlining his ideas and applying for a "super-charter." The letter on "rule #62" came later after the ideas collapsed. AA Grapevine, August 1952 on Tradition Four: This reference is the initial version of the essay material later incorporated into the 12&12 and AA Comes of Age. Bill's first editorial on (the long form of) Tradition Four, in the March 1948 Grapevine, makes no mention of the rule #62 story. Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, pgs 147-149: Published in 1953, this is the generally accepted source of the story. AA Comes of Age, pgs 103-104: Published in 1957, this version of the story just mentions a "clapboard factory" and not "Wombley's Clapboard Factory" to describe the collapse of the grandiose plan. This was part of Bill W's Second Legacy talk at the historic 20th Anniversary Convention in St Louis, MO. The rule #62 story is an endearing one and I believe it sometimes overshadows the central notion of Tradition Four that "every group has the right to be wrong." One other thing, is that sometimes this Tradition unfortunately gets interpreted as an all-too-convenient loophole to arbitrarily ignore the principles embedded in the Traditions. Cheers Arthur ----- Original Message ----- From: timwarner1990 Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2004 2:19 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Origin of Rule #62 Hi everybody, First of all, please forgive me if this subject has been addressed previously. I did use the search function in both the AAHISTORYLOVERS and the AAHISTORYBUFFS groups, to no avail. Could someone please point me to a description of the origin of our beloved Rule #62? I'm almost positive that I heard Bill W. describe the origins of this term on a speaker tape, but I can't for the life of me remember which speech it was. The more detail you could provide, the better. Thanks so much. Yours, Tim W. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1613. . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. Bob''s Last Drink From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/24/2004 3:21:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The following question was received recently from Ted C. in Australia: Subject: Dr Bob's Last Drink Can anyone ascertain the EXACT date of Dr Bob's last drink. Assuming the medical convention that he attended in June actually started on the 10th, as reported on this forum, and given the travelling time back from Atlantic City. Add to that the blackout that he had.(pp73-74 Dr Bob & the GOT) etc., and considering that surgeons only operated on perhaps one day a week, an exact date could be ascertained. TedC I sent him this response, but I do not think it has been previously posted: This article is written by nationally recognized historian and oft-quoted Alcoholics Anonymous archivist Mitchell K. Dr. Bob's Last Drink Bill W. had met a kindred spirit in Dr. Bob. Both men were born in Vermont, both were intelligent and both were alcoholics. They somehow knew that fateful evening in Henrietta Seiberling's Gatehouse home both of them were going to be okay. Dr. Bob kept his promise to Anne. That is, until he boarded the train to Atlantic City. After a few weeks of working with each other and attempting to deliver the message of recovery to other alcoholics Bill and Dr. Bob did not appear to be discouraged. Despite their not being able to bring another rummy into the fold -- they were staying sober. Quite a feat for Dr. Bob who had been attending Oxford Group meetings even prior to getting together with Bill. Dr. Bob was feeling so secure that he decided to attend a convention of the American Medical Association. He had not missed a convention in 20 years and did not plan on missing this one. Bob's wife, Anne was set against him attending the convention. She remembered previous ones where he had gotten drunk. Dr. Bob assured her that he would not drink. He said that alcoholics, even those who had stopped drinking, would have to begin to learn how to live in the real world. She finally agreed and off he went. Dr. Bob kept his promise to Anne. That is, until he boarded the train to Atlantic City. Once on the train Dr. Bob began to drink in earnest. He drank all the way to Atlantic City, purchased more bottles prior to checking in to the hotel. That was on a Sunday evening. Dr. Bob stayed sober on Monday until after dinner. He then resumed his drinking. Upon awakening Tuesday morning his drinking continued until noon. He then realized that he was about to disgrace himself by showing up at the convention drunk. 24-Hour Blackout He decided to check out of the hotel and return home. He purchased more alcohol on the way to the train depot. He waited for the train for a long time and continued to drink. That was all he remembered until waking up in the home of his office nurse and her husband back in Ohio. In order to insure the steadiness of Dr. Bob's hands during the operation Bill gave him a bottle of beer. Dr. Bob's blackout lasted over 24 hours. There was a five-day period from when Dr. Bob left for the convention to when the nurse called Anne and Bill. They took Dr. Bob home and put him to bed. The detoxification process began once again. That process usually lasted three days according to Bill. They tapered Dr. Bob off of alcohol and fed him a diet of sauerkraut, tomato juice and Karo Syrup. Bill had remembered that in three days, Dr. Bob was scheduled to perform surgery. On the day of the surgery, Dr. Bob had recovered sufficiently to go to work. In order to insure the steadiness of Dr. Bob's hands during the operation Bill gave him a bottle of beer. That was to be Dr. Bob's last drink and the "official" Founding date of Alcoholics Anonymous. The operation was a success and Dr. Bob did not return home right after it. Both Bill and Anne were concerned to say the least. They later found out, after Dr. Bob had returned, that he was out making amends. Not drunk as they may have surmised, but happy and sober. That date according to the AA literature was June 10, 1935. June 10, 1935, has been considered as AA's Founding Date for many years. After all, it was the date Dr. Bob had his last drink -- or was it? Recently discovered evidence appears to differ with the "official" literature. The "Official" Date The Archives of the American Medical Association reportedly show that their convention in Atlantic City, in the year 1935 did not start until June 10th. How could Dr. Bob have gone to the convention, by train -- check into a hotel -- attend the convention on Monday -- check out on Tuesday -- be in a blackout for 24 hours -- go through a three-day detoxification -- perform surgery on the day of his last drink -- June 10, 1935? It now appears that the date of Dr. Bob's last drink was probably on, or about, June 17, 1935. Five days had passed since Dr. Bob left for the convention and returned to Akron. There was the three-day detoxification process and then there was the day of the surgery. Approximately nine days had passed from when he left and the date of his last drink. If the records of the American Medical Association are in error as to the date of their convention it is possible that June 10, 1935, was the date of Dr. Bob's last drink. If the records are in error, the 1935 convention would have been the only one in the history of the American Medical Association that was listed with the wrong date. It now appears that the date of Dr. Bob's last drink was probably on, or about, June 17, 1935. Maybe AA should keep the June 10th date as a symbolic Founding Date rather than claim it as the actual one? Maybe the date should be changed to reflect historical accuracy? Either way, Dr. Bob never drank again until his death, November 16, 1950. Dr. Bob sponsored more than 5,000 AA members and left the legacy of his life as an example. Dr. Bob told those he sponsored that there were three things one had to do to keep sober: TRUST GOD, CLEAN HOUSE, HELP OTHERS. More will be revealed… IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1614. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Dr. Bob''s Last Drink From: Arthur . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/24/2004 6:57:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Ted The date of June 17 looks pretty compelling as Dr Bob's dry date. Barefoot Bill obtained confirmation from the AMA Archives in Chicago, IL that the 1935 Atlantic City, NJ Convention was held from Mon to Fri, June 10-14, 1935. Also, there is a graphic of the AMA convention program circulating on the web and it clearly indicates June 10-14. There are also good clues in the literature for a deduction. *In AA Comes of Age (pgs 70-71*) Bill writes "So he [Dr Bob] went to the Atlantic City Medical Convention and nothing was heard of him for several days." *In Dr Bob and the Good Oldtimers (pgs 72-75)* it cites (with my editing for brevity) Dr Bob ... began drinking … as he boarded the train to Atlantic City. On his arrival he bought several quarts on his way to the hotel. That was Sunday night. He stayed sober on Monday until after dinner... On Tuesday, Bob started drinking in the morning and … [checked out of the hotel]… The next thing he knew … he was … in the … home of his office nurse... The blackout was certainly more than 24 hours long … Bill and Anne had waited for five days from the time Bob left before they heard from the nurse... She had picked him up that morning at the Akron railroad station... As Bill and Sue remembered, there was a 3-day sobering up period... Upon Dr Bob's return, they had discovered that he was due to perform surgery 3 days later... At 4 o'clock on the morning of the operation [Bob] … said "I am going through with this...'' On the way to City Hospital ... Bill … gave him a beer… *In the video Bill's Own Story,* Bill says he gave Dr Bob a beer and a "goofball" [a barbiturate] on the morning of the surgery. The same information is repeated in *Pass It On, pgs 147-149*. See also *Not God, pgs 32-33.* Estimate on the turn of events: *June** Dr Bob* 09 Sunday Checked into Atlantic City Hotel (started drinking on the train on the way in) 10 Monday Stayed sober until after dinner 11 Tuesday Began drinking in the morning - later checked out of the hotel. 12 Wednesday Went into blackout (likely greater than 24 hours) 13 Thursday Blackout continues (may have arrived at Akron train station) 14 Friday Picked up by nurse in the morning at the train station Then picked up by Bill at nurse's house (5 days after leaving) Day 1 of 3-day dry out period 15 Saturday Day 2 of 3-day dry out period 16 Sunday Day 3 of 3-day dry out period 17 Monday Day of surgery - Bill gives Bob a beer and a goofball (3 days after Bob's return) Cheers Arthur ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: NMOlson@aol.com Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2004 7:21 AM Subject: Dr. Bob's Last Drink The following question was received recently from Ted C. in Australia: Subject: Dr Bob's Last Drink Can anyone ascertain the *EXACT* date of Dr Bob's last drink. Assuming the medical convention that he attended in June actually started on the 10th, as reported on this forum, and given the travelling time back from Atlantic City. Add to that the blackout that he had.(pp73-74 Dr Bob & the GOT) etc., and considering that surgeons only operated on perhaps one day a week, an exact date could be ascertained. TedC I sent him this response, but I do not think it has been previously posted: This article is written by nationally recognized historian and oft-quoted Alcoholics Anonymous archivist Mitchell K. Dr. Bob's Last Drink Bill W. had met a kindred spirit in Dr. Bob. Both men were born in Vermont, both were intelligent and both were alcoholics. They somehow knew that fateful evening in Henrietta Seiberling's Gatehouse home both of them were going to be okay. Dr. Bob kept his promise to Anne. That is, until he boarded the train to Atlantic City. After a few weeks of working with each other and attempting to deliver the message of recovery to other alcoholics Bill and Dr. Bob did not appear to be discouraged. Despite their not being able to bring another rummy into the fold -- they were staying sober. Quite a feat for Dr. Bob who had been attending Oxford Group meetings even prior to getting together with Bill. Dr. Bob was feeling so secure that he decided to attend a convention of the American Medical Association. He had not missed a convention in 20 years and did not plan on missing this one. Bob's wife, Anne was set against him attending the convention. She remembered previous ones where he had gotten drunk. Dr. Bob assured her that he would not drink. He said that alcoholics, even those who had stopped drinking, would have to begin to learn how to live in the real world. She finally agreed and off he went. Dr. Bob kept his promise to Anne. That is, until he boarded the train to Atlantic City. Once on the train Dr. Bob began to drink in earnest. He drank all the way to Atlantic City, purchased more bottles prior to checking in to the hotel. That was on a Sunday evening. Dr. Bob stayed sober on Monday until after dinner. He then resumed his drinking. Upon awakening Tuesday morning his drinking continued until noon. He then realized that he was about to disgrace himself by showing up at the convention drunk. 24-Hour Blackout He decided to check out of the hotel and return home. He purchased more alcohol on the way to the train depot. He waited for the train for a long time and continued to drink. That was all he remembered until waking up in the home of his office nurse and her husband back in Ohio. In order to insure the steadiness of Dr. Bob's hands during the operation Bill gave him a bottle of beer. Dr. Bob's blackout lasted over 24 hours. There was a five-day period from when Dr. Bob left for the convention to when the nurse called Anne and Bill. They took Dr. Bob home and put him to bed. The detoxification process began once again. That process usually lasted three days according to Bill. They tapered Dr. Bob off of alcohol and fed him a diet of sauerkraut, tomato juice and Karo Syrup. Bill had remembered that in three days, Dr. Bob was scheduled to perform surgery. On the day of the surgery, Dr. Bob had recovered sufficiently to go to work. In order to insure the steadiness of Dr. Bob's hands during the operation Bill gave him a bottle of beer. That was to be Dr. Bob's last drink and the "official" Founding date of Alcoholics Anonymous. The operation was a success and Dr. Bob did not return home right after it. Both Bill and Anne were concerned to say the least. They later found out, after Dr. Bob had returned, that he was out making amends. Not drunk as they may have surmised, but happy and sober. That date according to the AA literature was June 10, 1935. June 10, 1935, has been considered as AA's Founding Date for many years. After all, it was the date Dr. Bob had his last drink -- or was it? Recently discovered evidence appears to differ with the "official" literature. The "Official" Date The Archives of the American Medical Association reportedly show that their convention in Atlantic City, in the year 1935 did not start until June 10th. How could Dr. Bob have gone to the convention, by train -- check into a hotel -- attend the convention on Monday -- check out on Tuesday -- be in a blackout for 24 hours -- go through a three-day detoxification -- perform surgery on the day of his last drink -- June 10, 1935? It now appears that the date of Dr. Bob's last drink was probably on, or about, June 17, 1935. Five days had passed since Dr. Bob left for the convention and returned to Akron. There was the three-day detoxification process and then there was the day of the surgery. Approximately nine days had passed from when he left and the date of his last drink. If the records of the American Medical Association are in error as to the date of their convention it is possible that June 10, 1935, was the date of Dr. Bob's last drink. If the records are in error, the 1935 convention would have been the only one in the history of the American Medical Association that was listed with the wrong date. It now appears that the date of Dr. Bob's last drink was probably on, or about, June 17, 1935. Maybe AA should keep the June 10th date as a symbolic Founding Date rather than claim it as the actual one? Maybe the date should be changed to reflect historical accuracy? Either way, Dr. Bob never drank again until his death, November 16, 1950. Dr. Bob sponsored more than 5,000 AA members and left the legacy of his life as an example. Dr. Bob told those he sponsored that there were three things one had to do to keep sober: TRUST GOD, CLEAN HOUSE, HELP OTHERS. More will be revealed… IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1615. . . . . . . . . . . . Closing statement From: friendofbillw89 . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/25/2004 10:01:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IN my area we have a closing statement that reads in part...*let there be no gossip or criticism of another, Instead let the love of the fellowship grow inside you one day at a time.* I cannot remember the whole closing statement offhand and could not find anything in the archives. Where did that closing originate and can I find a copy or link online? Nisa IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1616. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Closing statement From: Judi . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/26/2004 8:15:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII check with al-anon, thats the closing they use here. judi friendofbillw89 wrote: IN my area we have a closing statement tha reads in part...*let there be no gossip or criticsm of another, Instead let the love of the fellowship grow inside you one day at a time.* I cannot remember the whole closing statement offhand and could not find anything in the archives. Where did that closing originate and can I find a copy or link online? Nisa IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1617. . . . . . . . . . . . When did the break from Oxford Groups take place From: soomedrunk . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/24/2004 11:50:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi all, When and how did the break from the Oxford Group take place. Was there a specific meeting that occured? How did it happen? Does that mean there is a meeting that can be said to be the 1st actual AA meeting? Was there a problem or a fight that caused the break? Please help with this. Most respectfully, Eric IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1618. . . . . . . . . . . . serenity prayer From: NORMANSOBRIETY@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/24/2004 10:49:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Dear All, I have just read the SERENITY PRAYER BY ELISABETH SIFTON. Does anyone know if it was a AA member that changed the Serenity prayer as we know it today. The original Serenity Prayer is: GOD GIVE US GRACE, TO ACCEPT WITH SERENITY THE THINGS THAT CANNOT BE CHANGED, COURAGE TO CHANGE THE THINGS THAT SHOULD BE CHANGED, AND THE WISDOM TO DISTINGUISH THE ONE FROM THE OTHER. Does anyone know where the second part of the serenity prayer came from as it is not mentioned in the book. Yours in the fellowship Norrie F. Oban Sunday Scotland UK IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1619. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: When did the break from Oxford Groups take place From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/26/2004 12:21:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII This message came from Richard K. It had a typo in it which would have been misleading, so I have corrected the typo and forward it to the group. Nancy The break came in stages. The first break came in New York, in 1937. Bill Wilson oftentimes gave several reasons for the split, as I've heard in countless tapes during the 1940s and 1950s. However, his wife Lois was more to the point: " (the) Oxford Group kind of kicked us out." (Pass It On, p. 174) The break in Akron came in two phases. Cleveland pioneer Clarence Snyder was vying to get his Catholic prospects into the group. But these folks were receiving some static from their churches. Chief among the problems was the Oxford Group practice of (open) group confession. They were facing quite the dilemma: either leave the Akron alcoholic group and remain in their parishes, or continue with the group and face excommunication. Clarence had a meeting with Dr. Bob on May 10, 1939, and announced that his Cleveland contingent were longer to be coming down to Akron, and that they would begin a group in Cleveland "for alcoholics and their families only." (Mitchell K, "How It Worked: The Stroy of Clarence H. Snyder") The date of this first meeting was May 11, 1935 [correction, 1939] at 2345 Stillman Road, Cleveland Heights. Clarence stated that this group would be called Alcoholics Anonymous, after the title of the newly-released book. This has been recognized in some quarters as the first "AA meeting." Dr. Bob was intensely loyal to the Akron Oxford Groupers who had helped them in AA's formative years (T. Henry and Clarace Williams, Henrietta Seiberling, et al.). Exactly when the final split occurred is open to debate. Most historians point to late 1939 - January 1940. Dr. Bob never elaborated on the actual facts pertaining to the split, and not much had been recorded. Letters do exist that confirm 74 members meeting at Dr. Bob's home at Ardmore Avenue on the last Wednesday of 1939, and by 1940 they were gathering at the King School. Regards, Richard K. Haverhill, MA IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1620. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: When did the break from Oxford Groups take place From: Mel Barger . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/26/2004 4:39:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi, I actually discussed the Oxford Group break with Bill. He gave 1937 as the time of the break in New York and 1939 as the time in Akron. But he quickly said that the Akron people stayed with the Oxford Group only because of the help they were getting from T. Henry and Clarace Williams, nonalcoholic Oxford Groupers who had provided the use of their fine home for Wednesday night meetings of alcoholics. I think the New York break came because the O.G. people had become critical of Bill, and Sam Shoemaker's assistant pastor had gone out of his way to knock them. The Akron people began finding the Oxford Group connection unsatisfactory, and some of this may have been due to the Oxford Group's growing public relations problems. (Frank Buchman, the O.G. founder, had committed a terrible P.R. blunder in a 1936 newspaper interview.) When the Akron people finally did break, in late 1939, Dr. Bob described it to Bill as getting out from under their yoke, which suggests that the alcoholics had become unhappy with the arrangement. They then met in Dr. Bob's house for a short time before going to King's School. Bob told Bill they had 75 in his house for a meeting. If you ever visit the house in Akron, you'll be amazed that they could squeeze 75 in there! I explain much of this in my book "New Wine," which is published by Hazelden (if it's permissible to say so!). Mel Barger ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger melb@accesstoledo.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "soomedrunk" Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2004 11:50 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] When did the break from Oxford Groups take place > Hi all, > > When and how did the break from the Oxford Group take place. > > Was there a specific meeting that occured? How did it happen? > > Does that mean there is a meeting that can be said to be the 1st > actual AA meeting? Was there a problem or a fight that caused the > break? > > Please help with this. > > Most respectfully, > Eric IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1621. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Closing statement From: CBBB164@AOL.COM . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/26/2004 10:25:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The subject phrase can be found in the suggested closing for Al-Anon meetings. http://home.bham.rr.com/therealmuddy/Meeting%20closing.txt In God's love and service, Cliff Bishop - IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1622. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: When did the break from Oxford Groups take place From: Arthur . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/26/2004 8:57:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Eric The short answer is: NY broke away in Aug 1937 and Cleveland/Akron broke away in May/Oct 1939. A much longer answer follows (it turned into an essay). I got the impression you are looking for all the info you can get on the Oxford Group. *Sources (with page number references)* AABB _Alcoholics Anonymous_, the Big Book, AAWS AACOA _AA Comes of Age_, AAWS AGAA _The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous_, by Dick B (soft cover) BW-RT _Bill W_ by Robert Thompson (soft cover) BW-FH _Bill W_ by Francis Hartigan (hard cover) BW-40 _Bill W_ *My First 40 Years*, autobiography (hard cover) DBGO _Dr Bob and the Good Old-timers_, AAWS EBBY _Ebby the Man Who Sponsored Bill W_ by Mel B (soft cover) GB _Getting Better Inside Alcoholics Anonymous_ by Nan Robertson (soft cover) GTBT _Grateful to Have Been There_by Nell Wing (soft cover) LOH _The Language of the Heart_, AA Grapevine Inc. LR _Lois Remembers_, by Lois Wilson NG _Not God_, by Ernest Kurtz (expanded edition, soft cover) NW _New Wine_, by Mel B (soft cover) PIO _Pass It On_, AAWS RAA _The Roots of Alcoholics Anonymous_,by Bill Pittman, nee _AA the Way It Began_ (soft cover) SI _Sister Ignatia_, by Mary C Darrah (soft cover) www Web search (typically using Google search engine) *1908* Jul., Frank N D Buchman arrived in England to attend the Keswick Convention of evangelicals. After hearing a sermon by a woman evangelist, Jessie Penn-Lewis, he experienced a profound spiritual surrender and later helped another attendee to go through the same experience. His experiences became the key to the rest of his life's work. Returning to the US, he started his 'laboratory years'' working out the principles he would later apply on a global scale. (NG 9, NW 32-45, PIO 130) *1918* Jan., Frank Buchman met Sam Shoemaker in Peking (now Beijing) China. Shoemaker had a spiritual conversion experience and became a devoted member of Buchman's _First Century Christian Fellowship_. (NW 29, 47-52, RAA 117-118, AGAA 209) *1921* Frank Buchman was invited to visit Cambridge, England. His movement _The First Century Christian Fellowship_ would later become the _Oxford Group_ and receive wide publicity during the 1920's and 1930's. Core principles consisted of the 'four absolutes'' (of honesty, unselfishness, purity and love - believed to be derived from scripture in the Sermon on the Mount). Additionally the OG advocated the 'five C's'' (confidence, confession, conviction, conversion and continuance) and 'five procedures'' (1. Give in to God, 2. Listen to God's direction, 3. Check guidance, 4. Restitution and 5. Sharing - for witness and confession). (DBGO 53-55, CH 3) (GB 45 states Buchman dated the founding and name of the OG when he met with undergraduates from Christ Church College of Oxford U). *1922* Frank Buchman resigned his job at the Hartford Theological Seminary to pursue a wider calling. Over the next few years, he worked mostly in universities (Princeton, Oxford and Cambridge). During the economic depression, students (particularly in Oxford) responded to his approach and were ordained ministers. Others gave all their time to working with him. (www) *1928* Summer, a group of Rhodes Scholars returned home to S. Africa, from Oxford U, England to tell how their lives changed through meeting Frank Buchman. A railway employee labeled their train compartment _The Oxford Group_. The press took it up and the name stuck (the name _First Century Christian Fellowship_ faded). (RAA 120, www) *1931* Rowland H (age 50) was treated by Dr. Carl Gustav Jung in Zurich, Switzerland. It is believed that he was a patient for about a year, sobered up and then returned to drinking. Treated a second time by Jung, Rowland was told that there was no medical or psychological hope for an alcoholic of his type; that his only hope was a vital spiritual or religious experience - in short a genuine conversion experience. Bill W later wrote that this was 'the first in the chain of events that led to the founding of AA.'' (NW 11-19, NG 8-9, EBBY 59, LOH 277) Dec., Russell (Bud) Firestone (alcoholic son of Akron, OH business magnate Harvey Firestone Sr.) was introduced to Sam Shoemaker by James Newton on a train returning from an Episcopal conference in Denver, CO. Newton was a prominent Oxford Group member and an executive at Firestone. Bud, who was drinking a fifth or more of whiskey a day, spiritually surrendered with Shoemaker and was released from his alcohol obsession. Bud joined the OG and became an active member (but later returned to drinking). (NW 15, 65, AGAA 8-9, 32-36) *1932* Rowland H found sobriety through the spiritual practices of the Oxford Group (it is not clear whether this occurred in Europe or the US - and it could have occurred in 1931). Rowland was a dedicated OG member in NY, VT and upper MA and a prominent member of the Calvary Episcopal Church in NYC. He later moved to Shaftsbury, VT. (NW 10-19, NG 8-9, PIO 113-114, AGAA 28, 141-144, LOH 277-278, www) *1933* Jan., Harvey Firestone Sr. (grateful for help given his son Bud) sponsored an Oxford Group conference weekend (DBGO says 10-day house party) headquartered at the Mayflower Hotel in Akron, OH. Frank Buchman and 30 members (DBGO says 60) of his team were met at the train station by the Firestones and Rev Walter Tunks (Firestone's minister and rector of St Paul's Episcopal Church). The event included 300 overseas members of the OG and received widespread news coverage. The event attracted Henrietta Sieberling, T Henry and Clarace Williams and Anne Smith. (NW 65-67, CH 2, DBGO 55, AGAA 9, 37-51, 71) Early, Anne Smith attended meetings of the Oxford Group with her friend Henrietta Sieberling (whose marriage to J Frederick Sieberling was crumbling). Anne later persuaded Dr Bob to attend. The meetings were held on Thursday nights at the West Hill group. (NW 67-68, SI 32, 34, DBGO 53-60, CH 2-3, 28-29) Beer had become legal and Dr Bob previously went through a beer-drinking phase ('the beer experiment''). It was not long before he was drinking a case and a half a day fortifying the beer with straight alcohol. In his Big Book story, Bob says that this was around the time when he was introduced to the OG. He participated in the OG for 2 ˝ years before meeting Bill. (DBGO 42, AABB 177-178, NW 62) *1934* Jul., Ebby T was approached in Manchester, VT by his friends Cebra G (an attorney) and F Sheppard (Shep) C (a NY stockbroker). Both were Oxford Group members who had done considerable drinking with Ebby and were abstaining from drinking. They informed Ebby of the OG in VT but he was not quite ready yet to stop drinking. (EBBY 51-55, PIO 113) Aug, Cebra G and Shep C vacationed at Rowland H's house in Bennington, VT. Cebra learned that Ebby T was about to be committed to Brattleboro Asylum. Cebra, Shep and Rowland decided to make Ebby 'a project.'' (NG 309) Aug., Rowland H and Cebra G persuaded a VT court judge (who happened to be Cebra's father Collins) to parole Ebby T into their custody. Ebby had first met Rowland only shortly before. In the fall, Rowland took Ebby to NYC where he sobered up with the help of the Oxford Group at the Calvary Mission. (RAA 151, AACOA vii, NW 20-21, 26, EBBY 52-59, NG 9-10, PIO 115, AGAA 155-156) Nov (late), Ebby T, while staying at the Calvary Mission and working with the Oxford Group, heard about Bill W's problems with drinking. He phoned Lois who invited him over for dinner. (EBBY 66) Nov. (late), Ebby visited Bill W at 182 Clinton St and shared his recovery experience "one alcoholic talking to another.'' (AACOA vii, 58-59) A few days later, Ebby returned with Shep C. They spoke to Bill about the Oxford Group. Bill did not think too highly of Shep. Lois recalled that Ebby visited several times, once even staying for dinner. (AACOA vii, NG 17-18, 31`, BW-FH 57-58, NW 22-23, PIO 111-116, BW-RT 187-192) Dec. 7, Bill W decided to investigate the Calvary Mission on 23rd St. He showed up drunk with a drinking companion found along the way (Alec the Finn). Bill kept interrupting the service wanting to speak. On the verge of being ejected, Ebby came by and fed Bill a plate of beans. Bill later joined the penitents and drunkenly 'testified'' at the meeting. (AACOA 59-60, BW-40 136-137, NG 18-19, BW-FH 60, NW 23, PIO 116-119, BW-RT 193-196, AGAA 156-159, EBBY 66-69) Dec. 11, Bill W (age 39) decided to go back to Towns Hospital and had his last drink (four bottles of beer purchased on the way). He got financial help from his mother, Emily, for the hospital bill. (AACOA 61-62, LOH 197, RAA 152, NG 19, 311, NW 23, PIO 119-120, GB 31). Dec. 14, Ebby visited Bill W at Towns Hospital and told him about the Oxford Group principles. After Ebby left, Bill fell into a deep depression (his 'deflation at depth'') and had a profound spiritual experience after crying out 'If there be a God, will he show himself.'' Dr. Silkworth later assured Bill he was not crazy and told him to hang on to what he had found. In a lighter vein, Bill and others would later refer to this as his 'white flash'' or 'hot flash'' experience. (AABB 13-14, AACOA vii, 13, BW-40 141-148, NG 19-20, NW 23-24, PIO 120-124, GTBT 111, LOH 278-279) Dec 15, Ebby brought Bill W a copy of William James' book _The Varieties of Religious Experience_. Some references indicate that it may have been Rowland H who gave Bill the book. (AGAA 142) Bill was deeply inspired by the book. It revealed three key points for recovery: [1] calamity or complete defeat in some vital area of life (hitting bottom), [2] admission of defeat (acceptance) and [3] appeal to a higher power for help (surrender). The book strongly influenced early AAs and is cited in the Big Book. (AACOA 62-64, LOH 279, EBBY 70, SI 26, BW-40 150-152, NG 20-24, 312-313, NW 24-25, PIO 124-125, GTBT 111-112, AABB 28) Dec. 18, Bill W left Towns Hospital and began working with drunks. He and Lois attended Oxford Group meetings with Ebby T and Shep C at Calvary House. The Rev Sam Shoemaker was the rector at the Calvary Church (the OG's US headquarters). The church was on 4th Ave (now Park Ave) and 21st St. Calvary House (where OG meetings were usually held) was at 61 Gramercy Park. Calvary Mission was located at 346 E 23rd St. (AABB 14-16, AACOA vii, LR 197, BW-40 155-160, NG 24-25, PIO 127, GB 32-33, AGAA 144) Dec (late), after Oxford Group meetings, Bill W and other OG alcoholics met at Stewart's Cafeteria near the Calvary Mission. Attendees included Rowland H and Ebby T. (BW-RT 207, BW-40 160, AAGA 141-142, NG 314) *1935* Early, Bill W worked with alcoholics at the Calvary Mission and Towns Hospital, emphasizing his "hot flash" spiritual experience. Alcoholic Oxford Group members began meeting at his home on Clinton St. Bill had no success sobering up others. (AACOA vii, AABB, BW-FH 69, PIO 131-133) Mar./Apr., Henrietta Sieberling encouraged by her friend Delphine Weber, organized a Wednesday-night Oxford Group meeting at T Henry and Clarace Williams' house on 676 Palisades Dr. The meeting was started specifically to help Dr Bob who later confessed openly about his drinking problem. OG meetings continued at the William's house until 1954. (DBGO Apr., Bill W returned to Wall St and was introduced to Howard Tompkins of the firm Baer and Co. Tompkins was involved in a proxy fight to take over control of the National Rubber Machinery Co. based in Akron, OH. (BW-RT 211, NG 26, BW-FH 74, PIO 133-134, GB 33) May, Bill W went to Akron but the proxy fight was quickly lost. He remained behind at the Mayflower Hotel very discouraged. (BW-RT 212, PIO 134-135) May 11, (AGAA says May 10) Bill W, in poor spirits, and tempted to enter the Mayflower Hotel bar, realized he needed another alcoholic. He telephoned members of the clergy listed on the lobby directory. He reached the Rev. Walter Tunks who referred him to Norman Sheppard who then referred him to Henrietta Sieberling (47 years old and an Oxford Group adherent). Bill introduced himself as 'a member of the OG and a rum hound from NY.'' Henrietta met with Bill at her gatehouse (Stan Hywet Hall) on the Sieberling estate. She arranged a dinner meeting the next day with Dr Bob and Anne. (AACOA 65-67, SI 21, BW-RT 212-213, DBGO 60, 63-67, NG 26-28, PIO 134-138, GB 19) Note: some stories say that when Henrietta called Anne, Dr Bob was passed out under the kitchen table. He was upstairs in bed. May 12, Mother's Day - Bill W (age 39) met Dr Bob (age 55) Anne and their young son Bob (age 17) at Henrietta Sieberling's gatehouse at 5PM. Dr Bob, too hung over to eat dinner, planned to stay only 15 minutes. Privately, in the library, Bill told Bob of his alcoholism experience in the manner suggested by Dr Silkworth. Bob opened up and he and Bill talked until after 11PM. (AACOA vii, 67-70, BW-RT 214-215, DBGO 66-69, NG 28-32, BW-FH 4, GB 21) May, Bill W wrote a letter to Lois saying that he and Dr Bob tried in vain to sober up a 'once prominent surgeon'' who developed into a 'terrific rake and drunk.'' Henrietta Sieberling arranged for Bill to stay at the Portage Country Club. (DBGO 70, 77) Jun., Bill W moved to Dr Bob's house at the request of Anne Smith. Bill insisted on keeping two bottles of liquor in the kitchen to prove that he and Bob could live in the presence of liquor. Both worked with alcoholics and went to Oxford Group meetings on Wednesday nights at the home of T Henry and Clarace Williams. T Henry lost his job due to the proxy fight that brought Bill to Akron. (AACOA 141, NW 68-69, 73, DBGO 70-71, 99-102, PIO 145-147, AGAA 186, NG 317) Favored Scripture readings at meetings were _The Sermon on the Mount, First_ _Corinthians Chapter 13 and the Book of James_. (AAGA 193, 208-209, 253) (GTBT 95-96 says that meetings were held at Dr Bob's house and moved to the Williams' house in late 1936 or early 1937) Aug. 26, Bill W returned to NYC. Meetings were held at his house at 182 Clinton St on Tues. nights. His home also became a halfway house, of sorts, for drunks. (AACOA 74, BW-RT 225, PIO 160-162, GTBT 96, GB 51, AGAA 145) *1936* Bill W's efforts in working only with alcoholics were criticized by NY Oxford Group members. Similarly, in Akron, T Henry and Clarace Williams were criticized as well by OG members who were not supportive of their efforts being extended primarily to alcoholics. (NG 44-45, NW 73, AGAA 76) Aug. 26, Frank Buchman and the Oxford Group experienced an international public relations disaster. A _NY World Telegram_ article by William H Birnie, quoted Buchman as saying, 'I thank heaven for a man like Adolph Hitler, who built a front-line of defense against the anti-Christ of Communism.'' Although the remark was taken out of context in its reporting, it would plague Buchman's reputation for many years. It marked the beginning of the decline of the OG. (NW 30, 96, DBGO 155, BW-FH 96, PIO 170-171, GB 53, AGAA 161) *1937* Early, Bill W and Lois attended a major Oxford Group house party at the Hotel Thayer in West Point, NY. For the previous 2 ˝ years they had been attending two OG meetings a week. (NW 89) Late spring, leaders of the Oxford Group at the Calvary Mission ordered alcoholics staying there not to attend meetings at Clinton St. Bill W and Lois were criticized by OG members for having 'drunks only'' meetings at their home. The Wilson's were described as 'not maximum'' (an OG term for those believed to be lagging in their devotion to OG principles). (EBBY 75, LR 103, BW-RT 231, NG 45, NW 89-91) Aug., Bill and Lois stopped attending Oxford Group meetings. The NY AAs separated from the OG. (LR 197, AACOA vii, 74-76) *1938* Nations of the world armed for World War II and Frank Buchman called for a 'moral and spiritual re-armament'' to address the root causes of the conflict. He renamed the _Oxford Group_ to _Moral Re-Armament_. (www, NW 44) *1939* May 10, Led by pioneer member Clarence S (whose Big Book story is _Home Brewmeister_) the Cleveland, OH group met separately from Akron and the Oxford Group at the home of Albert (Abby) G (whose Big Book story is _He Thought He Could Drink Like a Gentleman_). This was the first group to call itself _Alcoholics Anonymous_. The Clevelanders still sent their most difficult cases to Dr Bob in Akron for treatment. (AACOA 19-21, NW 94, SI 35, DBGO 161-168, NG 78-79, PIO 224, AGAA 4, 201, 242). Oct. late, (AACOA viii says summer) Akron members of the 'alcoholic squad'' withdrew from the Oxford Group and held meetings at Dr Bob's house. It was a painful separation due to the great affection the alcoholic members had toward T Henry and Clarace Williams. (NW 93-94, SI 35, DBGO 212-219, NG 81, GTBT 123, AGAA 8-10, 188, 243) *1941* Nov., Dr. Sam Shoemaker left the Oxford Group (then called _ italic;">Moral Re-Armament_) and formed a fellowship named _Faith at Work._ MRA was asked to completely vacate the premises at Calvary House. Shoemaker's dispute with Buchman was amplified in the press. (EBBY 75-76, AAGA 161, 244) *1949* Jul. 14, in a letter to the Rev Sam Shoemaker Bill W wrote 'So far as I am concerned, and Dr Smith too, the Oxford Group seeded AA. It was our spiritual wellspring at the beginning.'' (AGAA 137) *1961* Frank N D Buchman died. _Moral Re-Armament_ had declined significantly in numbers and influence and became headquartered in Caux, Switzerland. (NW 45, 97-98) A month after Buchman's death Bill W wrote to a friend regretting that he did not write to Buchman acknowledging his contributions to the AA movement. (PIO 386-387) *2002* Apr., MRA changed its name to _Initiatives of Change_. (www) The role of the Oxford Group is an interesting and significant one. I get a sense that the underlying tension occurred because the Oxford Group was out to save the world and Bill was primarily focused on saving drunks. The OG influence in Akron appeared much stronger and orthodox even though the Calvary Church in NY was the OG US headquarters. Dick B has written books that are very informative in providing insight on the OG's influence on AA. One of the books, _Anne Smith's Journal 1933-1939_, is a particularly interesting read. Cheers Arthur *From:* soomedrunk *Sent:* Saturday, January 24, 2004 10:51 PM *Subject:* When did the break from Oxford Groups take place Hi all, When and how did the break from the Oxford Group take place. Was there a specific meeting that occured? How did it happen? Does that mean there is a meeting that can be said to be the 1st actual AA meeting? Was there a problem or a fight that caused the break? Please help with this. Most respectfully, Eric IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1623. . . . . . . . . . . . Oxford Groups -> Initiatives of Change From: ny-aa@att.net . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/27/2004 11:28:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Where did our ancestor the Oxford Groups go? They became Moral Rearmament which was also called MRA. They're still around today trying to "remake the world." As of 2001, MRA became Initiatives of Change. I quote: NAME CHANGE 2001 With the approach of the new millennium, there is world-wide recognition that the words 'moral re-armament' no longer hold the same resonance as they did in 1938. In 2001 the new name Initiatives of Change (IC) is announced to the world's media by the Caux President, Dr Cornelia Sommaruga (former President of the international Red Cross), and Professor Rajmohan Gandhi, grandson of the Mahatma. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1624. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: serenity prayer From: J. Lobdell . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/27/2004 8:59:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The book is inaccurate (and perhaps tendentious) in its dating the prayer 1943 as it was already in existence by 1941 and (by Dr. Niebuhr's testimony) in the 1930s. Nor can Mrs Sifton's 1943 revision be counted as the original wording. >From: NORMANSOBRIETY@aol.com >Reply-To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com >To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com >Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] serenity prayer >Date: Sun, 25 Jan 2004 03:49:49 EST > >Dear All, > > I have just read the SERENITY PRAYER BY ELISABETH SIFTON. >Does anyone know if it was a AA member that changed the Serenity prayer as we >know it today. The original Serenity Prayer is: >GOD GIVE US GRACE, TO ACCEPT WITH SERENITY THE THINGS THAT CANNOT BE CHANGED, >COURAGE TO CHANGE THE THINGS THAT SHOULD BE CHANGED, AND THE WISDOM TO >DISTINGUISH THE ONE FROM THE OTHER. >Does anyone know where the second part of the serenity prayer came from as it >is not mentioned in the book. > > Yours in the fellowship > > Norrie F. Oban Sunday >Scotland UK IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1627. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Back to Basics From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/29/2004 11:44:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII AA's Forgotten Beginning - The Alcoholics Anonymous "Beginners' Classes" (Facts and thoughts transcribed from a talk given by Wally P. on 11/23/96 in Mesa, Arizona. Wally is the author of the book "Back To Basics: The Alcoholics Anonymous Beginners' Meetings, 'Here are the steps we took...' in Four One-Hour Sessions".) Initial growth in Alcoholics Anonymous took place in Cleveland, Ohio. Clarence S. and the guys went out actively pursuing drunks and brought them off bar stools and street corners. We don't do that today, but we were doing it back then [late 1930's and 1940's]. And it worked! In early 1940, when there were about 1,000 members of AA, more than half were from Cleveland. The book 'AA Comes of Age' talks about it on pages 20 and 21: "It was soon evident that a scheme of personal sponsorship would have to be devised for the new people. Each prospect was assigned an older AA, who visited him at his home or in the hospital, instructed him on AA principles, and conducted him to his first meeting." So even back in the early days the sponsor was taking the sponsee to meetings and getting together with him, rather than having the sponsee track the sponsor down. 'AA Comes of Age' continues by saying, "But in the face of many hundreds of pleas for help, the supply of elders could not possibly match the demand. Brand-new AA's, sober only a month or even a week, had to sponsor alcoholics still drying up in hospitals." Because of this rapid growth in Cleveland, the idea of formalized classes started. In the book 'Dr. Bob and the Good Old-timers' it states on page 261, "Yes, Cleveland's results were the best. Their results were in fact so good that many a Clevelander really though AA had started there in the first place." Over half of the fellowship was from Cleveland up and through the mid-1940s. During the winter of 1941 the Crawford Group (founded in February 1941) organized a separate group to help newcomers through the Steps. By the first issue of the Cleveland Central Bulletin, October 1942, the Crawford "Beginners' Class" was listed as a separate meeting. And in the second issue, in November 1942, there was an article entitled "Crawford Men's Training". This refers to possibly the first "Beginners' Class". "The Crawford Men's Training System has been highly acclaimed to many. Old AA's are asked to come to these meetings with or without new prospects, where new prospects will be given individual attention just as though they were in a hospital. Visiting a prospect in his home has always been handicapped by interruptions. But the prospect not daring to unburden himself completely for fear of being overheard by his relatives and by the AA's reticence for the same reason. Hospitalization without question is the ideal answer to where the message will be most effective; but the Crawford training plan strikes us as being the next best." In the early days they weren't sure if you could get sober if you didn't go to treatment. That was one of the early questions - could a person get sober without going to a three or five-day detox. Because it was during that detox that sometimes ten and twenty AA members came to visit the new person. And each hour the prospect was awake he would hear someone's story - over and over again. And something gelled during these hospital stays. But they were trying to do it outside of the hospital and this is where the first of the classes came from. These classes continued at Euclid Avenue Meeting Hall through June 1943 and at that time the Central Bulletin announced a second session - "The Miles Training Meeting". The bulletin read, "The Miles Group reports they have enjoyed unusual success with their training meetings. The newcomer is not permitted to attend a regular AA meeting until he has been given a thorough knowledge of the work." The newcomer couldn't go to a meeting until he completed the training session. A lot of places didn't allow you to go to AA meetings until you had taken the four classes. You didn't just sit there - you had already completed the steps when you went to your first AA meeting. "From 15 to 20 participate at each training meeting and new members are thoroughly indoctrinated." These meetings grew and spread and visitors came from out of town and out of state. In 1943 the Northwest Group in Detroit, Michigan standardized the classes into four sessions. "In June 1943 a group of members proposed the idea of a separate discussion meeting to more advantageously present the Twelve Steps of the recovery program to the new affiliates. The decision was made to hold a Closed Meeting for alcoholics only for this purpose. The first discussion meeting of the Northwest Group was held on Monday night June 14, 1943 and has been held every Monday night without exception thereafter (as of 1948). A plan of presentation of the Twelve Steps of the recovery program was developed at this meeting. The plan consisted of dividing the Twelve Steps into four categories for easier study." The divisions were: 1. The Admission 2. Spiritual 3. Restitution and Inventory 4. Working and the message "Each division came to be discussed on each succeeding Monday night in rotation. This method was so successful that it was adopted first by other groups in Detroit and then throughout the United States. Finally the format was published in it's entirety by the Washington, DC Group in a pamphlet entitled 'An Interpretation of our Twelve Steps." The first pamphlet was published in 1944 and contains the following introduction: "Meetings are held for the purpose of aquatinting both the old and new members with the Twelve Steps on which our Program is based. So that all Twelve Steps may be covered in a minimum of time they are divided into four classifications. One evening each week will be devoted to each of the four subdivisions. Thus, in one month a new man can get the bases of our Twelve Suggested Steps." This pamphlet was reproduced many times in Washington, DC and then throughout the country and is even still being printed in some areas today. In the Fall of 1944, a copy of the Washington, DC pamphlet reached Barry C. - one of the AA pioneers in Minneapolis. He wrote a letter to the New York headquarters requesting permission to distribute the pamphlet. We talk about "Conference Approved Literature" today; but this is the way the Fellowship operated back then. This is a letter from Bobby B., Bill W.'s secretary, printed on "Alcoholic Foundation" stationary. This is what she says: "The Washington pamphlet, like the new Cleveland one, and a host of others, are all local projects. We do not actually approve or disapprove these local pieces. By that I mean the Foundation feels that each group is entitled to write up their own 'can opener' and to let it stand on it's own merits. All of them have their good points and very few have caused any controversy. But in all things of a local nature we keep hands off - either pro or con. Frankly, I haven't had the time to more than glance at the Washington booklet, but I've heard some favorable comments about it. I think there must be at least 25 local pamphlets now being used and I've yet to see one that hasn't some good points." And then in 1945 the AA Grapevine printed three articles on the "Beginners' Classes". The first one was published in June and it described how the classes were conducted in St. Louis, Missouri. This has to do with the "education plan" and they called it the Wilson Club. "One of the four St. Louis AA groups is now using a very satisfactory method of educating prospects and new members. It has done much to reduce the number of 'slippers' among new members. In brief it is somewhat as follows: Each new prospect is asked to attend four successive Thursday night meetings. Each one of which is devoted to helping the new man learn something about Alcoholics Anonymous, it's founding and the way it works. The new man is told something about the book and how this particular group functions. Wilson Club members are not considered full active members of AA until they've attended these four educational meetings." In the September 1945 issue of the Grapevine the Geniuses Group in Rochester, NY explained their format for taking newcomers through the Steps. The title of the article was "Rochester Prepares Novices for Group Participation". This is how they perceived the recovery process to operate most efficiently: "It has been our observation that bringing men [and woman] into the group indiscriminately and without adequate preliminary training and information can be a source of considerable grief and a cause of great harm to the general moral of the group itself. We feel that unless a man, after a course of instruction and an intelligent presentation of the case for the AA life, has accepted it without any reservation he should not be included in group membership. When the sponsors feel that a novice has a fair working knowledge of AA's objectives and sufficient grasp of it's fundamentals then he is brought to his first group meeting. Then he listens to four successive talks based on the Twelve Steps and Four Absolutes. They are twenty-minute talks given by the older members of the group and the Steps for convenience and brevity are divided into four sections. The first three Steps constitute the text of the first talk; the next four the second; the next four the third; and the last Step is considered to be entitled a full evening's discussion by itself." This group taught the Steps in order rather than in segments. In December 1945, the St. Paul, Minnesota Group wrote a full-page description of the "Beginners' Meetings". The description of their four one-hour classes was: "New members are urged to attend all the sessions in the proper order. At every meeting the three objectives of AA are kept before the group: to obtain and to recover from those things which caused us to drink and to help others who want what we have." In 1945 Barry C., of Minneapolis, received a letter from one of the members from the Peoria, Illinois Group. In the letter, the writer, Bud, describes the efforts of Peoria, Illinois in regarding the "Beginners' Classes". "In my usual slow and cautious matter I proceeded to sell the Peoria Group on the Nicollet Group. Tomorrow night we all meet to vote the adoption of our bylaws slightly altered to fit local conditions". (No one taught the classes the same way. They were taught based on a group conscience.) "Sunday afternoon at 4:30 our first class in the Twelve Steps begins. We're all attending the first series of classes so we'll all be on an even footing. We anticipate on losing some fair-weather AA hangers-on in the elimination automatically imposed by the rule that these classes must be attended. This elimination we anticipate with a "we" feeling of suppressed pleasure. It is much as we are all extremely fed up with running a free drunk taxi and sobering-up service." Then sometime prior to 1946 in Akron, Ohio the Akron Group started publishing four pamphlets on the AA Program. They were written by Ed W. at the direction of Dr. Bob, one of the co-founders of AA. Dr. Bob wanted some "blue-collar" pamphlets for the Fellowship. In one of the pamphlets, "A Guide to the Twelve Steps", it reads: "A Guide to the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous is intended to be a simple, short and concise interpretation of the rules for sober living as compiled by the earliest members of the organization. The writers and editors are members of the Akron, Ohio Group where Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in 1935. Most of the ideas and explanations were brought out in a series of instruction classes conducted by veteran members of the group." So this proves the classes were being taught in Akron, Ohio. There are a lot of places they were being taught. Then the classes were actually formalized into a book called "The Little Red Book" in 1946. The inscription on the inside cover says, "The material in this Little Red Book is an outgrowth of a series of notes originally prepared for Twelve Step instruction to AA beginners." So we know the "Little Red Book" came out of these four one-hour classes also. "Few books have had greater record for humble service than the Little Red Book upon which so many members have cut their AA teeth." A manuscript drawn up from these notes was sent to Dr. Bob at the request of USA and Canadian members. He approved the manuscript and the book was published in 1946. Dr. Bob approved of "The Little Red Book". So Dr. Bob not only authorized the publication of the Akron pamphlets, he also endorsed "The Little Red Book", both of which were products of the "Beginners' Classes". Even our first AA group handbook, originally entitled "A Handbook for the Secretary", published by the Alcoholic Foundation in 1950, had a section on the "Beginners' Classes". At the time there were only three types of meetings: Open Speaker Meetings, Closed Discussion Meetings, and Beginners' Meetings. There was no such thing as an Open Discussion Meeting in the early days of Alcoholics Anonymous. In the Beginners' Meetings, which are described in the Meeting section, the handbook states: "In larger metropolitan areas a special type of meeting for newcomers to AA is proved extremely successful. Usually staged for a half-hour prior to an open meeting, this meeting features an interpretation of AA usually by an older member presented in terms designed to make the program clear to the new member. (Note: The Chicago Group held their "Beginners' Classes" a half-hour prior to their Open Meeting. When publishing the group handbook, the New York office only described Chicago's format.) After the speaker's presentation the meeting is thrown open to questions." In each of the four one-hour classes there was always a session for questions afterwards. "Occasionally, the AA story is presented by more than one speaker. The emphasis remains exclusively on the newcomer and his problem." The four one-hour classes were taught all over the country. Some other cities include Oklahoma City, Miami Florida, and Phoenix Arizona. If these classes were so important, then what happened to them? Most of the people who have joined AA in the last twenty-five years or so have never even heard of them. Ruth R., an old-timer in Miami Florida, who came into AA in 1953, gave some insight into the demise of the "Beginners' Classes". "At that time the classes were being conducted at the Alana Club in Miami - two books were used: "Alcoholics Anonymous" (Big Book) and the "Little Red Book". Jim and Dora H., Florida AA pioneers, were enthusiastic supporters and they helped organize several of the classes and served as instructors." (Note: Dora was a Panel 7 Delegate to the General Service Office.) Ruth recalled that the classes were discontinued in the mid-1950s as the result of the publication of the book "Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions" by Alcoholics Anonymous Publishing Inc. In the Miami area the "Twelve and Twelve" replaced both the "Big Book" and the "Little Red Book" and "Step Studies" replaced the "Beginners' Classes". In the process, the period for taking the Steps was expanded and modified from 4 weeks to somewhere in between 12 and 16 weeks. The Fourth Step inventory was modified and became a much more laborious and detailed procedure. What was originally conceived as a very simple program, which took a few hours to complete, evolved into a complicated and confusing undertaking requiring several months. Studying the Steps is not the same as taking the Steps. In the "Beginners' Classes" you take the steps. The Big Book says, "Here are the steps we took" not "here are the steps we read and talked about." The AA pioneers proved that action, not knowledge, produced the spiritual awakening that resulted in recovery from alcoholism. On page 88, the authors of the Big Book wrote, "It works-it really does. We alcoholics are undisciplined. So we let God discipline us in the simple way we have just outlined. But this is not all. There is action and more action. Faith without works is dead." (This concludes the description of the "Beginners' Classes" during Wally P.'s talk in Masa, Arizona on November 23, 1996. Wally P. is an AA Archivist from Tucson, Arizona. For two years he researched and studied areas of the country that held "Beginners' Classes" back in the 40's and '50's. He then started teaching the classes under the guidance of his sponsor who took the classes in 1953 and never drank again. In March of 1996 Wally mentioned the "Beginners' Classes" as part of his historical presentation at the Wilson House in East Dorset, Vermont. Wally then wrote and published a book entitled "Back to Basics: The Alcoholics Anonymous Beginners' Classes - Take all 12 Steps in Four One-Hour Sessions." Since then, there have been over 1000 "Back to Basics" meetings and groups started all over the world. Now, almost 60 years since the classes were first originated, newcomers are once again being taken through the Twelve Steps in four one-hour "Beginners' Classes". On Saturday 4/11/98, members of the "Into Action Big Book Group" of Berkeley Heights, N.J. went to see Wally give a presentation of the "Beginners' Classes" in Philadelphia. Members went through the Steps in the four one-hour classes, all in one day. This group then began facilitating the classes in June 1998 in various locations throughout New Jersey and has taken thousands of AA members through the Steps since. They have expanded the classes to be five, one-and-one-half hour sessions, to include more of the material for each Step in the Big Book. The Cherry Hill Group of Southern New Jersey has taught Beginners' Classes every Sunday evening since May 1997. The Woodlands Group in Texas have been conducting the "Beginners' Classes" since April 1998. Within one year, about ten "Back to Basics" meetings resulted from the Woodland group and approximately 1,650 alcoholics were taken through the Steps that year! The Woodlands and subsequent groups in Texas are enjoying a 75-93% success rate like the Cleveland groups had in the 1940's. Wally P. has a website containing much information on the AA "Beginners' Classes" at www.aabacktobasics.com on the World Wide Web.) -----Original Message----- From: friendofbillw89 [mailto:friendofbillw89@yahoo.com] Sent: Tuesday, January 27, 2004 5:16 PM Subject: Back to Basics I have attended a few *cycles* of the Back to Basics meetings in my area. It is where we do all 12 steps in 4 one-hour sessions. What is the history of working the steps in this method? I was told this was the way it was done in the early days in Akron. Nisa IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1628. . . . . . . . . . . . Periodical literature, Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 21, 2004 From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/30/2004 2:30:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII This was sent to me by John B., but without a proper subject line, so I have copied it and am sending it for him. Nancy From the Christian Science Monitor, January 21, 2004, edition How far can 12 steps go? Thousands attest to the power of 12-step programs in breaking the hold of addiction. But might the popular programs be wrong for some? By Jane Lampman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor Americans have a penchant for 12-step programs. The original beacon for a path out of addiction - Alcoholics Anonymous - has grown past 50,000 groups in the US (and twice that worldwide). And its message is being reincarnated in self-help fellowships to fight drugs, gambling, overeating, sexual addictions, smoking, and even indebtedness. Conventional wisdom has it that the 12-step approach -- in which an individual acknowledges his or her powerlessness before the addiction, turns to a higher power, and takes specific steps to change -- is the most effective route out of addiction. Its popularity seems to support that. Some 90 percent of residential and outpatient treatment programs draw directly on its principles. Yet there are many who question not that it helps thousands, but whether its predominance may get in the way of some people finding their freedom. There are issues, some critics say, related to its quasi-religious nature, its definition of addiction as an incurable disease, the creation of long-term dependence on the program, and the way courts and other agencies mandate addicts' participation. Are some with alcohol or drug problems being coerced to follow a path that may not be suited to their needs and beliefs? "The problem is that people think AA is the only correct treatment," says Lance Dodes, assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "That's true only for a subset of the population, and many people are harmed by it." An AA representative declined to respond, saying it is the group's tradition to refrain from controversy and not comment on what others say about alcoholism or about AA. Over the past 70 years, AA has helped huge numbers to find sobriety and a new lease on life. "If you look at the number of groups and 2,000,000 members worldwide, it's clearly got longevity and appeal," says Barbara McCrady, clinical director of Rutgers University's Center of Alcohol Studies. Yet AA's own surveys show that of the people who attend a meeting, 9 out of 10 drop out within the first year. Research hasn't yet been done on its siblings, Narcotics Anonymous (NA) and others, she says. For many who stay with it, the benefits can't be overestimated. A big-time drinker who turned to drugs after a family tragedy, "Alan" was in denial about his situation. Near the end of college, though, he was weary and tried unsuccessfully to quit. It was only when he tagged along with a friend to an NA meeting that his turnaround began. "Listening to people's stories, I knew I was an addict and these were people I could relate to," he says. "Going to meetings, I'd stay clean for a while and then use. It took six months 'til I got clean for the last time." He's been free for six years but attends meetings several times a week. "Once you stay clean for a while you realize drugs were only the tip of the iceberg," adds Alan who asked that his real name not be used. "You also need to change your compulsive behaviors and how you react to situations. There's a wealth of knowledge in that room." Keith Humphreys at Stanford University's School of Medicine sees this kind of "instillation of hope" as a crucial factor in changing addicts' lives. "Most people feel defeated and have a frightening sense they can't control their own behavior," he says. "They go to a group and see others who've had the same problem now doing well, and that instills a lot of hope." Twelve-step groups provide a valuable public health benefit, says Dr. Humphreys. Not only are they widely available, but one cost study showed that people going to the groups require $5,000 less per person from the healthcare system annually. "Multiply that by more than a million people getting treatment each year, and they are taking an extraordinary burden off the system," he adds. At the same time, the very limited research done so far doesn't back up the conventional wisdom. Comparisons of professional treatment based on 12-step with other professional treatment modes show no superior outcomes. Longitudinal studies of self-help groups in treatment showed them comparable on most dimensions with any other kind of treatment except in the area of abstinence, where they had better results. Given the limited evidence and quasi-religious nature of 12-step plans, some object to the way courts and other agencies mandate addicts' participation. "Several aspects of AA don't work for everyone -- such as its spiritual or religious nature, or the emphasis on powerlessness, or its group approach," says Stanton Peele, a psychologist and lawyer who has written several books on addiction, including "Resisting 12-Step Coercion." Some courts have ruled it unconstitutional to require participation because they deem the program religious, while others have ruled it is not. AA literature emphasizes that its message is spiritual but not religious -- that people decide on their own what the higher power is, and for some it is simply the group itself. The only membership requirement is the desire to stop drinking. Other issues some find troubling relate to theories of addiction. The 12-step message is that addiction is an incurable disease, that while alcoholics can become sober, they remain alcoholics, and should stay in the program to maintain that sobriety. In each meeting, people introduce themselves: "I'm [name], and I'm an alcoholic," no matter how long they've been clean. The disease model isn't helpful, Dr. Peele says. "If you had an 18-year-old drinking way too much on weekends, would the best approach be to take him to AA and convince him he has a lifelong disease?" he asks. Dr. Dodes, who has treated various forms of addiction, says the disease idea takes the moralizing out of it, which is good, but discourages people from understanding the problem. "They think it's a physical problem, which it's not, or a genetic problem, which it's not, or a biological or chemical problem, which it's not," he says. In his book "The Heart of Addiction," he describes it as psychological. "All addictions are an attempt to treat a sense of overwhelming helplessness," which is accompanied by rage over that helplessness, he says. He helps people identify the kind of helplessness that's troubling them and address it, "not by white-knuckling it but because they understand what is happening." While AA requires you to make "a fearless moral inventory" and make amends to those you have hurt, Dodes adds, that sometimes leaves people feeling something is very wrong with them while not getting to the root of their emotional trouble. While many talk of a genetic element to alcoholism, Dodes reviewed the genetic research and says there is no such gene, that there is at most the idea of a susceptibility gene, but it's not been discovered either. McCrady suggests addiction has psychological, genetic, and/or social components. Others object to what they see as the creation of a dependency on the program itself. An alternative program, Woman in Sobriety, for example, aims to help people take responsibility for themselves and then move on with their lives on their own. Yet the ongoing group support offers valuable benefits, some argue. People who leave addictions behind usually require new friends who don't drink or take drugs. "I have friends that have over 20 years of abstinence," says Alan. "They've been through all kinds of crises ... but didn't return to use. That gives you strength." Practitioners and problem drinkers, however, say drinking problems differ greatly and it's a fallacy that one must be in lifelong recovery. "There are people with less severe problems who can benefit from a limited period of counseling and then they are just done with it," says McCrady. In fact, a 1996 study showed that three-quarters of those who'd recovered from alcohol problems had done so on their own. For her book, "Sober for Good," Ann Fletcher interviewed some 200 people who had recovered through various means, from AA to secular self-help groups, psychological counseling, and religion. But there are also millions who don't know where to go for help. An estimated 14 million Americans have drinking problems; only 1 in 10 receives treatment. Experts say more treatment options for addictions need to be supported. Meanwhile, those in AA and NA point to results. "I was at a regional NA conference in Richmond last weekend with about a thousand people," Alan says. "All these people who used to be addicts, what was their drain on society? Now they're clean and working and productive. It's amazing." The Twelve Steps 1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol -- that our lives had become unmanageable. 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. 6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. 7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. 8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. 9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others. 10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs. Source: Alcoholics Anonymous IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1629. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Periodical literature, Christian Science Monitor, Jan. 21, 2004 From: Mel Barger . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/30/2004 11:12:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Nancy, I appreciate your going to the effort of copying the Jane Lampman article from the Christian Science Monitor. It is a good article, although some AA members may feel it's too critical. I have followed criticisms of AA ever since the first major one appeared in Harper's magazine in 1963. This was really the first time AA had received serious criticism in an important publication, and many of us were enraged by it. While AA World Services made no direct reply to the article, Bill W. did offer an excellent response in the April, 1963, issue of The AA Grapevine. This can be found today in "The Language of the Heart," a collection of Bill's articles published over the years in The Grapevine. See "Our Critics Can Be Our Benefactors," p. 345. I consider it a masterpiece of conciliatory writing. Since then, we've had much more criticism of various kinds, and there are even several books which take AA to task. While some of the critics are malicious, others are honest and sincere in pointing to problems with the way our program is presented. Bill often acknowledged that we don't have all the answers and should never present our program as the only solution to problem drinking. Criticism is almost always difficult to accept, but Bill explained that we can benefit from it. I feel very secure about our program. As for any statistics about its success percentages, my answer is 100%. I haven't had a drink since I fully accepted the program on April 15, 1950. All the best, Mel Barger ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger melb@accesstoledo.com IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1630. . . . . . . . . . . . Tyler Tex Morning Telegraph 2004 -57th anniv From: t . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/31/2004 5:34:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII MEMBERS SHARE STORIES, SUPPORT AT AA ANNIVERSARY By: MEGAN MIDDLETON, Staff Writer January 10, 2004 Gayle S. still wells up with tears when she thinks about the day more than 20 years ago that a pastor told her about Alcoholics Anonymous. She said he threw an Alcoholics Anonymous book down on the table in front of her, letting it make a loud thud, and told her, "'These are the only people who can help you. There's more love in Alcoholics Anonymous than there is in my big old ... church.'" And that night she went to her first AA meeting. "Those women just grabbed me and welcomed me," Gayle, a former Tyler resident, said. "They overwhelm you with love because they know how you feel." And for more than 20 years Gayle has remained sober. "This is a deadly disease, treated, in my case, only by abstinence from alcohol," she said. About 700 AA members from East Texas and throughout Texas and the country attended Saturday's celebration of the group's 57th anniversary in Tyler, which began Friday and continues Sunday at Harvey Convention Center. AA members identify themselves with only their first names and initials to preserve the anonymity on which the group is based. On Saturday participants listened to several speakers from across the state and nation tell their stories of dealing with alcohol and its effect on their lives. They also had a barbecue dinner and a dance. More speakers are scheduled for Sunday, beginning at 9 a.m. The cost for the weekend is $10. Gayle, who came from Kerrville to attend the conference, said the AA anniversary celebrations are important because "it tells us there's continuity in Alcoholics Anonymous." "If Alcoholics Anonymous had not arrived here, many of us would not have found sobriety," she said. A Saturday afternoon speaker, Maryann W. of Corpus Christi, kept the crowd laughing while also bringing a message of the importance of AA. Maryann was married and became a mother at 15 years old, she said, and to deal with her feelings she eventually turned to drinking. "My solution was alcohol," she said. "It was my best friend." She described the kind of drinker she was, comparing how different people would react to having a fly in their drink. She said the non-drinker would ask for a Diet Coke, a heavy drinker would ask for a different glass, and "I would have the fly by the nape of the neck saying, 'Spit it out, spit it out!'" "It was never enough," she said to the laughing crowd. She explained that her husband, who also drank, was her "cover" and the "reason" she drank. But one day she realized that it wasn't him. "What happened to me in 1977 was the most amazing grace," she said. "I saw myself for what I really was, and I remember thinking, 'It's not his fault.' I uttered, 'God help me.'" Some time after receiving help at a treatment center, she met with a woman from an AA group. "I zeroed in on her eyes," she said. "I looked at her eyes, and they were bright and shining and they danced ... and they were full of life." What hooked her on AA were the people, she said. "I was enamored and enthralled with you," she said to the crowd. "You hooked my soul, and I didn't know you hooked my soul." Despite her jokes, she said "being forced to your knees is a blessing" and warned about thinking of ways to avoid doing what you know you need to do. "Alcoholism is just beneath the skin," she said. "Don't think it ever goes away." DEMETRIUS Those listening to the speakers had their own stories as well. Demetrius J., an AA district committee member, has been sober for more than nine years. He first came to AA, he said, to save his marriage and his job. "After being in here a couple of days, I began to stop trying to save my marriage and stop trying to save my job and started trying to save my life," Demetrius said. To be sober "feels wonderful," he said. But he knows what might have been had he not found help. "I believe if it wasn't for Alcoholics Anonymous, I'd been in jail or an institution or I'd be dead," he said. "Alcoholics Anonymous guided me back to my God." He said he took his first drink, whiskey, at 10 years old and began drinking "for the confidence" he believed it gave him. "It would make me 10-foot-tall and bulletproof," he said. "It would make me sauve and debonair. It would also make the life of the party. It would also make me Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I drank 20 years trying to escape who I was." He swore off drinking time and time again during those 20 years, but when he saw that he was hurting other people, that he might lose his children and his job, he knew something had to change. "When I realized I had to drink to live and lived to drink, then and only then did I realize I had to do something about my drinking." And while contemplating suicide when he was "all alone" in his house, he said, "three words came into my mouth, 'God help me.'" GAYLE For Gayle, the drinking began after the birth of her second child in 1965, and it became a "security blanket" for her, she said. "I had denied being an alcoholic," she said. "I blamed my husband." But, like Maryann, one day she realized she couldn't shift the blame anymore. Her husband, who also drank, left on a business trip, and she got drunk by 8 p.m. every night. "I couldn't blame it on him anymore," she said. The hardest part about dealing with the problem was admitting she had one, she said. But coming to AA helped her look at her drinking in a different way. "It gave me an opportunity to see that I was not a bad person trying to get good," she said. "I was a sick person trying to get well." And she said AA is important because of the people there who can relate to each other and help each other. "Another alcoholic can help an alcoholic when no one else in the world can," Gayle said. "They can help them where professionals might not be able to." She has remained sober since 1980. To say that she has been sober for 24 years, "to me, it sounds wonderful," she said. "It's not to brag by any means. I never thought I would live to be 24 years sober and have a wonderful, fruitful ... life. My life is just so full now." But she must stay on her toes, she said, and be vigilant and diligent. "You can't be careless about your sobriety," she said. "It (alcoholism) is always beneath the surface." Gayle and Demetrius advised those battling a drinking problem to find an AA meeting to attend. "Look in the phone book under Alcoholics Anonymous, call and find out where a meeting is," Gayle said. "Take some action. You can't sit at home ... and expect to get any better." For more information on AA meetings in Tyler, call the Central Service Office at (903) 597-1796. Megan Middleton covers Gregg and Anderson counties. She can be reached at 903.596.6287. e-mail: news@tylerpaper.com ©Tyler Morning Telegraph 2004 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1631. . . . . . . . . . . . Stepping Into History -Westchester Journal News Jan04 From: t . . . . . . . . . . . . 1/31/2004 7:42:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Stepping Into history By ROB RYSER THE JOURNAL NEWS of Westchester County NY (Original publication: January 20, 2004) BEDFORD HILLS -- It's hard to say how Alcoholics Anonymous would have ended up if Bill and Lois Wilson had stayed homeless in 1941. Bill Wilson's only work then was with alcoholics, and his 1939 book about the AA fellowship had not gotten the acclaim that the group's early members expected. Lois was finding scattered jobs as a decorator, but her real work was keeping the couple off the street. The Wilsons slept at 51 places in two years. Then 1941 brought what Bill Wilson called a godsend -- a chocolate brown cottage in Bedford Hills with French doors that Lois adored and a fieldstone fireplace that reminded Bill of the East Dorset, Vt., home where he was born. The house belonged to actress Helen Griffith, whose husband drank himself to death and whose alcoholic friend had been "revived" by an AA group in New Jersey. She knew the Wilsons were destitute and offered them what Bill Wilson later called "unbelievably easy terms." The impact that the Wilsons had during the next four decades in the home they named Stepping Stones is still being lived out today. Yet the contributions they made to the understanding of alcoholism, the requirement for spiritual steps in recovery and the need for families of alcoholics to have their own support are so substantial that the National Park Service is preparing to crown the contemporary couple's home as historic. "The Wilsons' influence on 20th-century society is immeasurable," reads the nominating statement, prepared by Margaret Gaertner, a preservation specialist with the Dobbs Ferry architectural firm Stephen Tilly. "AA enabled, and continues to enable, millions of people around the world to achieve and sustain permanent sobriety." Although it may seem contradictory to call a 20th-century home historic in a region where historic properties often have 200-year pasts, the nominating form says the Wilsons are legends who make it easy to forget that as recently as 1940, alcoholism was considered one of society's great unsolved public health enigmas. Bill Wilson proclaimed that alcoholism was a disease three decades before the American Medical Association did in 1956. The 12-step solution that Wilson and AA co-founder Dr. Bob Smith created to treat the physical, mental and spiritual dimensions of alcoholism has become the standard for U.S. hospitals and clinics. Remarkably, AA was proved not in hospitals but in church basements, where recovering alcoholics shared their experiences, strength and hope to help others find the inspiration and power to stop drinking. "Wilson realized that only another alcoholic could truly understand the tangled emotions evoked by his debilitating ordeal," reads the nominating form. The Wilsons' cozy Dutch Colonial, with its barn-like gambrel roof and cement-block studio where Bill Wilson wrote, could be added to the state's Register of Historic Places in the spring. Stepping Stones could then join the National Register of Historic Places by summer. Managed by a foundation that Lois Wilson formed in 1979, eight years after Bill's death at 71, Stepping Stones is a sacred site for Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon, the 12-step program co-founded by Lois Wilson for the spouses and children of alcoholics. Yet, Stepping Stones is not mobbed with pilgrims. A mere 1,000 visitors stop by each year -- and up to half of those come for the annual picnic in June. "We could increase our visitors by 100 percent, and we could handle it," said Eileen Giuliani, Stepping Stones' executive director. Of course, she means that theoretically. For one thing, Stepping Stones is surrounded by single-family homes and wants to keep the peace. The other matter is that not all recovering alcoholics and Al-Anons know that Stepping Stones is the Wilson home, much less that it is in Bedford Hills. The historical designation is sure to raise awareness among AA's 2.2 million members in 100,000 groups worldwide, and among the 29,000 Al-Anon groups with some 387,000 members in 115 countries, according to the organizations' estimates. Giuliani said federal recognition will advance Stepping Stones' mission to protect the Wilson museum and archives, and promote the tenets of the AA experience. Neighbors -- for once in Westchester -- seem ready to yield to the prospect of more cars in the neighborhood. "It's fine with me, and I've been here seven years," said Kim Cassone, a mother of two who lives near Stepping Stones on Oak Street. "They were out there to help people who had problems, and that is a good thing." Once at Stepping Stones, visitors often feel an unmistakable presence: The air seems sweet, as though bread has been baking, but no one has lived here since Lois died at age 97 in 1988. The house is as Lois Wilson left it -- wall lengths of books stacked five shelves high, scores of grandmotherly collections, a gallery's worth of photos and framed proclamations by dignitaries ranging from Pope Paul VI to President Eisenhower. Susan Cheever, a Manhattan resident, will publish a biography, "My Name is Bill: Bill Wilson -- His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous," this month. Cheever, who grew up in Ossining, is the daughter of Pulitzer Prize-winning short-story writer John Cheever, whose own battle with alcohol she documented in her 1984 memoir, "Home Before Dark." "It is a very powerful place," Cheever said of Stepping Stones. "The ghosts are still there." It is a rite for visitors to sit at the 1920s porcelain-topped kitchen table where Bill Wilson had a spiritual breakthrough with his childhood friend Ebby Thatcher, one month before Bill got sober in December 1934. Ignoble as the little white table seems, it is venerated at Stepping Stones, sometimes drawing tears from those in recovery. "I was overwhelmed," said Mark W., 51, of Topeka, Kan., a businessman who has been sober 10 years and is obliged under AA's 12 Traditions to be anonymous when speaking to the media. He has made three pilgrimages to Stepping Stones in the past three years. It was his second visit with his wife when he dropped his composure and cried. "I already knew how much I lost drinking," he said. "But sitting there made me realize how much I gained by staying sober." Other relics nearly as special to visitors are the desk in Bill's backyard studio and the desk in the home's upstairs library, where in 1951 Lois Wilson organized the first Al-Anon groups. It was on Bill Wilson's desk, which he brought to Stepping Stones from New Jersey, that he wrote the important opening 11 chapters to "Alcoholics Anonymous" -- the 575-page AA textbook that has sold 20 million copies. "I don't want to call Stepping Stones a shrine, but it is pretty close," said Mark. W. "If it hadn't been for those people, I wouldn't be sane." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1633. . . . . . . . . . . . AA Group, Member, Growth and Recovery Statistics From: Arthur . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/1/2004 4:28:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi History Lovers Below is a table of group and membership data reported by GSO. The figures come from Conference reports except where cited. The numbers must be interpreted very carefully, very skeptically and in proper context. Group counts include only those asking GSO to be listed (thousands do not). Groups may or may not report membership estimates or update estimates over time. Members can be counted in multiple group estimates and the composition of the numbers has changed at various times from “reported” to “estimated.” In 1994, a major revision occurred in the GSO’s counting methods. The number of groups reported by GSO no longer included those described as "meetings" which chose not to be considered "groups." Such "meetings" (typically special interest) are included in prior year’s data. The 1994 revision can erroneously be interpreted as a steep drop from 1993 to 1994 when, in fact, it simply reflects a procedural change in counting methods. AA is in about 150 countries (with 51 GSOs overseas). Each year, the NY office attempts to contact overseas GSOs and groups requesting to be listed in their records. Where current data are lacking, the NY GSO uses earlier year's figures. An estimate of membership of non-reporting groups is arrived at by taking an average of reporting groups. From the beginning, the numbers are, at best, "fuzzy" and do need to be interpreted prudently to avoid drawing erroneous conclusions. The table data are not an accurate measure of a specific year’s increase or decrease. However, trends over the decades are indicative (but not exact) of AA groups reaching more places and more AA members achieving recovery. Average (mean) annual growth in groups and members is 6% and 7% respectively. (Message over 64 K, truncated.) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1634. . . . . . . . . . . . Periodical Literature, Akron Beacon Journal, IA, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2004 From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/2/2004 2:46:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Thu, Jan. 08, 2004 A.A. members object to relocating history Hospital may move world's first alcohol treatment site By John Higgins Beacon Journal staff writer The first hospital in the world to acknowledge alcoholism as a disease rather than a moral failing might move its revered treatment center to a different floor. St. Thomas Hospital would continue to provide alcoholism and drug treatment, but Ignatia Hall would lose its fifth-floor home. The hospital wants to use that space as a psychiatric unit for Alzheimer's and dementia patients; the unit would be the first of its kind in Akron. The rearrangements probably wouldn't attract much attention at most hospitals, but to recovering alcoholics worldwide, Ignatia Hall is a sacred site. Named after Alcoholics Anonymous pioneer Sister Ignatia, it became the first alcohol treatment center in the world in 1939. It's a history that the 75-year-old hospital, now part of Summa Health System, proudly claims. But tinkering with the past to accommodate the future is a tricky business. Ignatia Hall, which has been on the fifth floor since the early 1980s, has become a shrine for the thousands of pilgrims who visit Akron each summer to commemorate the birthplace of A.A. Local A.A. members have heard rumors about the proposed changes for a few months. Some have talked about trying to make Ignatia Hall an official historical landmark to ensure the hospital doesn't mess with it. "A lot of members are upset," said Rob of the Akron Intergroup Council of Alcoholics Anonymous, which does not publicize the last names or titles of its staffers. "Even if we banded together and started to whine, it's a business decision, and it's strictly the bottom line. (The hospital) doesn't care about the history," he said, speaking for himself as a recovering alcoholic. The council coordinates weekly meetings for 6,000 to 8,000 A.A. members in the Akron area and oversees the annual Founders Day events. As a matter of policy, A.A. doesn't take a position. Hospital officials say money has nothing to do with the planned change. "The legacy will continue. There's been no question about that," said Dr. Robert A. Liebelt, the treatment center's medical director. "We're not going to get rid of Ignatia Hall." Patients who need medically supervised detoxification, a process that typically requires three days' stay, probably would be moved to a medical surgical floor. Liebelt said they would have to be kept together, separated from other patients, to ensure confidentiality. "It will be a designated area and have the same ambience that Ignatia Hall as it stands today has," Liebelt said. "It's just that it will be in another part of the hospital." After those first three days, patients begin what is traditionally known as treatment, which can include talk therapy, group meetings and other counseling. That had been done in Ignatia Hall until those patients grew too numerous and were then scattered in classrooms throughout the hospital. More recently, those services have had a permanent home on the third floor in the former medical library. Summa spokeswoman Carrie Massucci said the changes are still tentative and the hospital has no timeline for the proposed transition. But should plans go through, the hospital would want that space for elderly psychiatric patients because it would be near other psychiatric services. "Summa Health System now has the only dedicated senior services program in Akron," she said. "This is just another way that we can continue to serve that population." The hospital hasn't forgotten about its past, she said. Since Ignatia Hall's founding, "we've relocated those services at least six times," she said. "They stayed in St. Thomas Hospital, but they've moved around." Sister Ignatia originally put the cots in the chapel's choir loft, now walled in, so the patients could participate in Mass, Liebelt said. But for the last 20 years, visitors to Ignatia Hall have always found it on the fifth floor. So have the former patients who return to the place they say saved their lives. At least 3,000 visitors paid homage at Ignatia Hall last summer during the Founders Day celebration, which now attracts 10,000 visitors from around the world. "It's really sad that they would destroy their own heritage," said Mary C. Darrah, the Fairlawn author of Sister Ignatia: Angel of Alcoholics Anonymous. "Over the years, people have become more and more interested in the founding places of A.A. It's like a family. They want to go back to their family roots." She likens relocating the center to tearing down A.A. co-founder Dr. Bob Smith's house, another pilgrimage site, and rebuilding it somewhere else. Physical locations matter. "This is the birthplace of the first treatment center affiliated with A.A.," Darrah said. "That's a major piece of history that belongs to the community. And the community should at least, in my opinion, have input." Liebelt said the memorabilia will be relocated along with the patients, and the pilgrims will still have a place to visit. The center was already on the fifth floor when Liebelt began in 1982. He stopped counting about three years ago, but he figures he's treated 15,000 patients and cares as much about the history of the place as anyone else. "The legacy of Ignatia Hall and St. Thomas Hospital is doing well and is viable and will continue to do well and be viable," Liebelt said. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1635. . . . . . . . . . . . 12 step prayers--a prayer for each step From: buickmackane0830 . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/3/2004 5:03:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Good morning, I just been granted the privilege of working on the archives for my local intergroup. We have a newsletter which does a good job of putting information for our groups. We have been printing prayers for each step. I questioned this and was told A.A. at one time used these prayers. I have searched on my own and could not find 12 step prayers for each step connected to A.A. Does anyone know of such prayers connected to A.A. (except 3rd, 7th step) In the big book and then there is the 11th step in the 12+12. What really bothered me was the relious implication of the prayers so if any one is aware of these prayers connected to AA or know where I can find their connection to AA please email. Note: I found 12th step prayers. Thank you IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1636. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Stepping Into History -Westchester Journal News Jan04 From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/3/2004 1:02:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hello group! My mother lives not far from Bedford Hills & she sent me the below Journal News article. It contained extras not mentioned below so I just wanted to include them here. Take it easy & God bless! Just Love, Barefoot Bill Historic Place Stepping Stones (picture) has been nominated for the National Register of Historic Places because Bill and Lois Wilson (picture) are national figures who co-founded significant social movements, not because the homestead itself has important architecture. Yet, the nomination notes that the six buildings on the 8-acre Stepping Stones homestead are intact and unified. Designed in matching brown shingle siding, white casings and trim, and with bright blue doors, the buildings retain a high level of historic integrity." Among the highlights: -A three-bedroom Dutch Colonial main house, built in 1920 as a summer cottage. -A large living room dominated by a stone fireplace and wall-length French doors. -The kitchen includes a porcelain-topped table where Wilson first discussed with a newly sober friend the importance of trusting the God of one's own understanding. -A winding stair leading to a second-floor library preserved as Lois Wilson left when she died in 1988. -A collection of antiques, glassware, china, photographs, printed materials and musical instruments of the Wilsons, including Bill Wilson's cello and Lois Wilson's piano, which visitors are encouraged to play. -Bill Wilson's homemade backyard studio, named Wit's End, has a large picture window and the desk where he wrote four books about the AA experience. Information Alcoholics Anonymous: Call 212-647-1680, visit the Web site www.aa.org, look up local listings under Alcoholics Anonymous in either the telephone directory's white pages or Yellow Pages, or write Alcoholics Anonymous, Grand Central Station, P.O. Box 459, New York, N.Y. 10163. Al-Anon Family Groups: Call Al-Anon Information Services at 914-946-1748, visit the Web site www.al-anon.alateen.org or write to the World Service Office for Al-Anon and Alateen, 1600 Corporate Landing Parkway, Virginia Beach, VA 23454-5617. Stepping Stones: Call 914-232-4822, visit the Web site www.steppingstones.org, or write Stepping Stones Foundation, Box 452, Bedford Hills, N.Y. 10507. Excerpts from Bill Wilson's letters In the Spring 1941, after 23 years of marriage and a stretch of homelessness that had lasted two years, Bill and Lois Wilson moved to their first and only true home in Bedford Hills. Originally they called the home "Bi-Lo's Break," because a friend had offered it to them for one-fourth of what it cost to build. In the next four decades, as the AA and Al-Anon movements that the Wilsons co-founded grew, they added land and buildings to their beloved homestead, which they renamed Stepping Stones. Here are excerpts from three letters Bill Wilson wrote about Stepping Stones. The letters are the property of the Stepping Stones Foundation. From a Jan. 11, 1941 letter to his mother, Emily Wilson: "It is a rather large house perched on a hill with a magnificent view extending for miles....This house was a dream of Mrs. Griffith, an artist and well-known actress. Her husband died of alcoholism so she feels quite partial to Lois and me. "[Griffith] spent about $25,000 on it before getting tired of the project. I think it can be bought for five or six thousand dollars and hope the Alcoholic Foundation will undertake to make the purchase on a small monthly payment plan over a period of years so that my earnings, if they materialize, can go into improvements." From an April 23, 1941 letter to AA co-founder Dr. Bob Smith in Ohio: "This place is going to be a godsend for Lois and me....We can't get over the peace and quiet.... "From anyplace in this living room, you may look out over the treetops on a swell view of rolling wooded country." From an undated letter many years after the Wilsons moved to Stepping Stones: "The idea of Westchester real estate seemed out of the question.... "One day we visited a new A.A. member in Chappaqua....We remembered the Bedford Hills house Mrs. Griffith had described....Lois and I drove over with [them] to see the house....We broke in at the back window and looked around.... "At the very next meeting Mrs. Griffith approached Lois and me....She told us we might have the Bedford Hills place for $40 a month....It was a great year, 1941." -----Original Message----- From: t [mailto:tcumming@airmail.net] Sent: Saturday, January 31, 2004 7:42 PM To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Stepping Into History -Westchester Journal News Jan04 Stepping Into history By ROB RYSER THE JOURNAL NEWS of Westchester County NY (Original publication: January 20, 2004) BEDFORD HILLS -- It's hard to say how Alcoholics Anonymous would have ended up if Bill and Lois Wilson had stayed homeless in 1941. Bill Wilson's only work then was with alcoholics, and his 1939 book about the AA fellowship had not gotten the acclaim that the group's early members expected. Lois was finding scattered jobs as a decorator, but her real work was keeping the couple off the street. The Wilsons slept at 51 places in two years. Then 1941 brought what Bill Wilson called a godsend -- a chocolate brown cottage in Bedford Hills with French doors that Lois adored and a fieldstone fireplace that reminded Bill of the East Dorset, Vt., home where he was born. The house belonged to actress Helen Griffith, whose husband drank himself to death and whose alcoholic friend had been "revived" by an AA group in New Jersey. She knew the Wilsons were destitute and offered them what Bill Wilson later called "unbelievably easy terms." The impact that the Wilsons had during the next four decades in the home they named Stepping Stones is still being lived out today. Yet the contributions they made to the understanding of alcoholism, the requirement for spiritual steps in recovery and the need for families of alcoholics to have their own support are so substantial that the National Park Service is preparing to crown the contemporary couple's home as historic. "The Wilsons' influence on 20th-century society is immeasurable," reads the nominating statement, prepared by Margaret Gaertner, a preservation specialist with the Dobbs Ferry architectural firm Stephen Tilly. "AA enabled, and continues to enable, millions of people around the world to achieve and sustain permanent sobriety." Although it may seem contradictory to call a 20th-century home historic in a region where historic properties often have 200-year pasts, the nominating form says the Wilsons are legends who make it easy to forget that as recently as 1940, alcoholism was considered one of society's great unsolved public health enigmas. Bill Wilson proclaimed that alcoholism was a disease three decades before the American Medical Association did in 1956. The 12-step solution that Wilson and AA co-founder Dr. Bob Smith created to treat the physical, mental and spiritual dimensions of alcoholism has become the standard for U.S. hospitals and clinics. Remarkably, AA was proved not in hospitals but in church basements, where recovering alcoholics shared their experiences, strength and hope to help others find the inspiration and power to stop drinking. "Wilson realized that only another alcoholic could truly understand the tangled emotions evoked by his debilitating ordeal," reads the nominating form. The Wilsons' cozy Dutch Colonial, with its barn-like gambrel roof and cement-block studio where Bill Wilson wrote, could be added to the state's Register of Historic Places in the spring. Stepping Stones could then join the National Register of Historic Places by summer. Managed by a foundation that Lois Wilson formed in 1979, eight years after Bill's death at 71, Stepping Stones is a sacred site for Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon, the 12-step program co-founded by Lois Wilson for the spouses and children of alcoholics. Yet, Stepping Stones is not mobbed with pilgrims. A mere 1,000 visitors stop by each year -- and up to half of those come for the annual picnic in June. "We could increase our visitors by 100 percent, and we could handle it," said Eileen Giuliani, Stepping Stones' executive director. Of course, she means that theoretically. For one thing, Stepping Stones is surrounded by single-family homes and wants to keep the peace. The other matter is that not all recovering alcoholics and Al-Anons know that Stepping Stones is the Wilson home, much less that it is in Bedford Hills. The historical designation is sure to raise awareness among AA's 2.2 million members in 100,000 groups worldwide, and among the 29,000 Al-Anon groups with some 387,000 members in 115 countries, according to the organizations' estimates. Giuliani said federal recognition will advance Stepping Stones' mission to protect the Wilson museum and archives, and promote the tenets of the AA experience. Neighbors -- for once in Westchester -- seem ready to yield to the prospect of more cars in the neighborhood. "It's fine with me, and I've been here seven years," said Kim Cassone, a mother of two who lives near Stepping Stones on Oak Street. "They were out there to help people who had problems, and that is a good thing." Once at Stepping Stones, visitors often feel an unmistakable presence: The air seems sweet, as though bread has been baking, but no one has lived here since Lois died at age 97 in 1988. The house is as Lois Wilson left it -- wall lengths of books stacked five shelves high, scores of grandmotherly collections, a gallery's worth of photos and framed proclamations by dignitaries ranging from Pope Paul VI to President Eisenhower. Susan Cheever, a Manhattan resident, will publish a biography, "My Name is Bill: Bill Wilson -- His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous," this month. Cheever, who grew up in Ossining, is the daughter of Pulitzer Prize-winning short-story writer John Cheever, whose own battle with alcohol she documented in her 1984 memoir, "Home Before Dark." "It is a very powerful place," Cheever said of Stepping Stones. "The ghosts are still there." It is a rite for visitors to sit at the 1920s porcelain-topped kitchen table where Bill Wilson had a spiritual breakthrough with his childhood friend Ebby Thatcher, one month before Bill got sober in December 1934. Ignoble as the little white table seems, it is venerated at Stepping Stones, sometimes drawing tears from those in recovery. "I was overwhelmed," said Mark W., 51, of Topeka, Kan., a businessman who has been sober 10 years and is obliged under AA's 12 Traditions to be anonymous when speaking to the media. He has made three pilgrimages to Stepping Stones in the past three years. It was his second visit with his wife when he dropped his composure and cried. "I already knew how much I lost drinking," he said. "But sitting there made me realize how much I gained by staying sober." Other relics nearly as special to visitors are the desk in Bill's backyard studio and the desk in the home's upstairs library, where in 1951 Lois Wilson organized the first Al-Anon groups. It was on Bill Wilson's desk, which he brought to Stepping Stones from New Jersey, that he wrote the important opening 11 chapters to "Alcoholics Anonymous" -- the 575-page AA textbook that has sold 20 million copies. "I don't want to call Stepping Stones a shrine, but it is pretty close," said Mark. W. "If it hadn't been for those people, I wouldn't be sane." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1637. . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. Bob Memorial Edition of the AA Grapevine (1951), Part 1 of 3 From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/2/2004 12:17:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Dr. Bob Memorial Edition January 1951 AA Grapevine (for those of you that don't know, this has now been discontinued by GSO) Part 1 of 3 Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. - Matthew V, 23-24 For 120,000 of us...and for the thousands yet to come...we who have cause for eternal gratitude dedicate this issue of the AA Grapevine to the memory of the Co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous our beloved DR. BOB. A Tribute from Bill Dr. Bob SERENELY remarking to his attendant, "I think this is it," Dr. Bob passed out of our sight and hearing November sixteenth at noonday. So ended the consuming malady wherein he had so well shown us how high faith can rise over grievous distress. As he had lived, so he had died, supremely aware that in his Father's House are many Mansions. In all those he knew, memory was at floodtide. But who could really say what was thought and felt by the five thousand sick ones to whom he personally ministered and freely gave a physician's care; who could possibly record the reflections of his townsmen who had seen him sink almost within the grasp of oblivion, then rise to anonymous world renown; who could express the gratitude of those tens of thousands of AA families who had so well heard of him but had never seen him face to face? What, too, were the emotions of those nearest him as they thankfully pondered the mystery of his regeneration fifteen years ago and all its vast consequence since? Not the smallest fraction of this great benefaction could be comprehended. He could only declare, "What indeed hath God wrought?" Never would Dr. Bob have us think him saint or superman. Nor would he have us praise him or grieve his passing. He can almost be heard, saying, "Seems to me you folks are making heavy going. I'm not to be taken so seriously as all that. I was only a first link in that chain of Providential circumstance which is called AA. By Grace and great fortune my link did not break; though my faults and failures might often have brought on that unhappy result. I was just another alcoholic trying to get along - under the Grace of God. Forget me, but go you and do likewise. Securely add your own link to our chain. With God's help, forge that chain well and truly." In this manner would Dr. Bob estimate himself and counsel us. It was a Saturday in May, 1935. An ill-starred business venture had brought me to Akron where it immediately collapsed leaving me in a precarious state of sobriety. That afternoon I paced the lobby of Akron's Mayflower Hotel. As I peered at the gathering crowd in the bar, I became desperately frightened of a slip. It was the first severe temptation since my New York friend had laid before me what were to become the basic principles of AA, in November 1934. For the next six months I had felt utterly secure in my sobriety. But now there was no security; I felt alone, helpless. In the months before I had worked hard with other alcoholics. Or, rather, I had preached at them in a somewhat cocksure fashion. In my false assurance I felt I couldn't fall. But this time it was different. Something had to be done at once. Glancing at a Church Directory at the far end of the lobby, I selected the name of a clergyman at random. Over the phone I told him of my need to work with another alcoholic. Though I'd had no previous success with any of them I suddenly realized how such work had kept me free from desire. The clergyman gave me a list of ten names. Some of these people, he was sure, would refer me a case in need of help. Almost running to my room, I seized the phone. But my enthusiasm soon ebbed. Not a person in the first nine called could, or would, suggest anything to meet my urgency. One uncalled name still stood at the end of my list - Henrietta S. Somehow I couldn't muster courage to lift the phone. But after one more look into the bar downstairs something said to me, "You'd better." To my astonishment a warm Southern voice floated in over the wire. Declaring herself no alcoholic, Henrietta nonetheless insisted that she understood. Would I come to her home at once? Because she had been enabled to face and transcend other calamities, she certainly did understand mine. She was to become a vital link to those fantastic events which were presently to gather around the birth and development of our AA society. Of all names the obliging Rector had given me, she was the only one who cared enough. I would here like to record our timeless gratitude. Straightway she pictured the plight of Dr. Bob and Anne. Suiting action to her word, she called their house. As Anne answered, Henrietta described me as a sobered alcoholic from New York who, she felt sure, could help Bob. The good doctor had seemingly exhausted all medical and spiritual remedies for his condition. Then Anne replied, "What you say, Henrietta, is terribly interesting. But I am afraid we can't do anything now. Being Mother's Day, my dear boy has just brought in a fine potted plant. The pot is on the table but, alas, Bob is on the floor. Could we try to make it tomorrow?" Henrietta instantly issued a dinner invitation for the following day. At five o'clock next afternoon, Anne and Dr. Bob stood at Henrietta's door. She discreetly wisked Bob and me off to the library. His words were, "Mightly glad to meet you Bill. But it happens I can't stay long; five or ten minutes at the outside." I laughed and observed, "Guess you're pretty thirsty, aren't you?" His rejoinder was, "Well, maybe you do understand this drinking business after all." So began a talk which lasted hours. How different my attitude was this time. My fright of getting drunk had evoked a much more becoming humility. After telling Dr. Bob my story, I explained how truly I needed him. Would he allow me to help him, I might remain sober myself. The seed that was to flower as AA began to grow toward the light. But as dear Anne well guessed, that first tendril was a fragile thing. Practical steps had better be taken. She bade me come and live at their menage for awhile. There I might keep an eye on Dr. Bob. And he might on me. This was the very thing. Perhaps we could do together what we couldn't do separately. Besides I might revive my sagging business venture. For the next three months I lived with these two wonderful people. I shall always believe they gave me more than I ever brought them. Each morning there was devotion. After the long silence Anne would read out of the Good Book. James was our favorite. Reading him from her chair in the corner, she would softly conclude "Faith without works is dead." But Bob's travail with alcohol was not quite over. That Atlantic City Medical Convention had to be attended. He hadn't missed one in twenty years. Anxiously waiting, Anne and I heard nothing for five days. Finally his office nurse and her husband found him early one morning at the Akron railroad station in some confusion and disarray - which puts it mildly. A horrible dilemma developed. Dr. Bob had to perform a critical surgical operation just three days hence. Nor could an associate substitute for him. He simply had to do it. But how? Could we ever get him ready in time? He and I were placed in twin beds. A typical tapering down process was inaugurated. Not much sleep for anybody, but he cooperated. At four o'clock on the morning of the operation he turned, looked at me and said, "I am going through with this." I inquired, "You mean you are going through with the operation?" He replied, "I have placed both operation and myself in God's hands. I'm going to do what it takes to get sober and stay that way." Not another word did he say. At nine o'clock he shook miserably as we helped him into his clothes. We were panic stricken. Could he ever do it? Were he too tight or too shaky, it would make little difference, his misguided scalpel might take the life of his patient. We gambled. I gave him one bottle of beer. That was the last drink he ever took. It was June 10, 1935. The patient lived. Our first prospect appeared, a neighboring parson sent him over. Because the newcomer faced eviction, Anne took in his whole family, wife and two children. The new one was a puzzler. When drinking, he'd go clean out of his mind. One afternoon Anne sat at her kitchen table, calmly regarding him as he fingered a carving knife. Under her steady gaze, his hand dropped. But he did not sober then. His wife despairingly betook herself to her own parents and he disappeared. But he did reappear fifteen years later for Dr. Bob's last rites. There we saw him, soundly and happily sober in AA. Back in 1935 we weren't so accustomed to miracles as we are today, we had given him up. Then came a lull on the 12th Step front. In this time Anne and Henrietta infused much needed spirituality into Bob and me. Lois came to Akron on vacation from her grind at a New York department store, so raised our morale immensely. We began to attend Oxford Group meetings at the Akron home of T. Henry W. The devotion of this good man and his wife is a bright page in memory. Their names will be inscribed on Page One of AA's book of first and best friends. One day Dr. Bob said to me. "Don't you think we'd better scare up some drunks to work on?" He phoned the nurse in charge of admissions at Akron City Hospital and told her how he and another drunk from New York had a cure for alcoholism. I saw the old boy blush and look disconcerted. The nurse had commented, "Well, Doctor, you'd better give that cure a good workout on yourself." Nevertheless the admitting nurse produced a customer. A dandy, she said he was. A prominent Akron lawyer, he had lost about everything. He'd been in City Hospital six times in four months. He'd arrived at that very moment; had just knocked down a nurse he'd thought a pink elephant. "Will that one do you?" she inquired. Said Dr. Bob, "Put him in a private room. We'll be down when he's better." Soon Dr. Bob and I saw a sight which tens of thousands of us have since beheld, the sight of the man on the bed who does not yet know he can get well. We explained to the man on the bed the nature of his malady and told him our own stories of drinking and recovery. But the sick one shook his head, "Guess you've been through the mill boys, but you never were half as bad off as I am. For me it's too late. I don't dare go out of here. I'm a man of faith, too; used to be deacon in my church. I've still faith in God but I guess he hasn't got any in me. Alcohol has me, it's no use. Come and see me again, though. I'd like to talk with you more." As we entered his room for our second visit a woman sitting at the foot of his bed was saying, "What has happened to you, husband? You seem so different. I feel so relieved." The new man turned to us. "Here they are," he cried. "They understand. After they left yesterday I couldn't get what they told me out of my mind, I laid awake all night. Then hope came. If they could find release, so might I. I became willing to get honest with myself, to square my wrongdoing, to help other alcoholics. The minute I did this I began to feel different. I knew I was going to be well." Continued the man on the bed, "Now, good wife, please fetch me my clothes. We are going to get up and out of here." Whereupon AA number three arose from his bed, never to drink again. The seed of AA had pushed another tendril up through the new soil. Though we knew it not, it had already flowered. Three of us were gathered together. Akron's Group One was a reality. We three worked with scores of others. Many were called but mighty few chosen; failure was our daily companion. But when I left Akron in September, 1935, two or three more sufferers had apparently linked themselves to us for good. The next two years marked the "flying blind" period of our pioneering time. With the fine instinct of that good physician he was, Dr. Bob continued to medically treat and indoctrinate every new case, first at Akron City hospital then for the dozen years since at famed St. Thomas where thousands passed under his watchful eye and sure AA touch. Though not of his faith, the Staff and Sisters there did prodigies. Theirs is one of the most compelling examples of love and devotion we AAs have ever witnessed. Ask the thousands of AA visitors and patients who really know. Ask them what they think of Sister Ignatia, of St. Thomas. Or of Dr. Bob. But I'm getting ahead of my story. Meanwhile a small group had taken shape in New York. The Akron meeting at T. Henry's home began to have a few Cleveland visitors. At this juncture I spent a week visiting Dr.Bob. We commenced to count noses. Out of hundreds of alcoholics, how many had stuck? How many were sober? And for how long? In that fall of 1937 Bob and I counted forty cases who had significant dry time - maybe sixty years for the whole lot of them! Our eyes glistened. Enough time had elapsed on enough cases to spell out something quite new, perhaps something great indeed. Suddenly the ceiling went up. We no longer flew blind. A beacon had been lighted. God had shown alcoholics how it might be passed from hand to hand. Never shall I forget that great and humbling hour of realization, shared with Dr. Bob. But the new realization faced us with a great problem, a momentous decision. It had taken nearly three years to effect forty recoveries. The United States alone probably had a million alcoholics. How were we to get the story to them? Wouldn't we need paid workers, hospitals of our own, lots of money? Surely we must have some sort of a textbook. Dare we crawl at a snail's pace whilst our story got garbled and mayhap thousands would die? What a poser that was! How we were spared from professionalism, wealth, and extensive property management; how we finally came up with the book "Alcoholics Anonymous" is a story by itself. But in this critical period it was Dr. Bob's prudent counsel which so often restrained us from rash ventures that might have retarded us for years, perhaps ruined us for good. Nor can we ever forget the devotion of Dr. Bob and Jim S. (who passed away last summer) as they gathered stories for the AA Book, three-fifths of them coming from Akron alone. Dr. Bob's special fortitude and wisdom were prime factors in that time so much characterized by doubt, and finally by grave decision. How much we may rejoice that Anne and Dr. Bob both lived to see the lamp lit at Akron carried into every corner of the earth; that they doubtless realized millions might someday pass under the ever-widening arch whose keystone they so gallantly helped carve. Yet, being so humble as they were, I'm sure they never quite guessed what a heritage they left us, nor how beautifully their appointed task had been completed. All they needed to do was finished. It was even reserved for Dr. Bob to see AA come of age as, for the last time, he spoke to 7000 of us at Cleveland, July, 1950. I saw Dr. Bob the Sunday before he died. A bare month previous he had aided me in framing a proposal for the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous, AA's third legacy. This bequest, in pamphlet form, was actually at the printers when he took his final departure the following Thursday. As his last act and desire respecting AA, this document will be sure to carry a great and special meaning for us all. With no other person have I ever experienced quite the same relation: the finest thing I know how to say is that in all the strenuous time of our association, he and I never had an uncomfortable difference of opinion. His capacity for brotherhood and love was often beyond my ken. For a last word, may I leave with you a moving example of his simplicity and humility. Curiously enough, the story is about a monument - a monument proposed for him. A year ago, when Anne passed away, the thought of an imposing shaft came uppermost in the minds of many. People were insistent that something be done. Hearing rumors of this, Dr. Bob promptly declared against AAs erecting for Anne and himself any tangible memorials or monument. These usual symbols of personal distinction he brushed aside in a single devastating sentence. Said he, "Annie and I plan to be buried just like other folks." At the alcoholic ward in St. Thomas his friends did, however, erect this simple plaque. It reads: IN GRATITUDE THE FRIENDS OF DR. BOB AND ANNE SMITH AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATE THIS MEMORIAL TO THE SISTERS AND STAFF OF ST. THOMAS HOSPITAL AT AKRON, BIRTHPLACE OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS, ST. THOMAS HOSPITAL BECAME THE FIRST RELIGIOUS INSTITUTION EVER TO OPEN ITS DOOR TO OUR SOCIETY. MAY THE LOVING DEVOTION OF THOSE WHO LABORED HERE IN OUR PIONEERING TIME BE A BRIGHT AND WONDEROUS EXAMPLE OF GOD'S GRACE EVERLASTINGLY SET BEFORE US ALL. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1638. . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. Bob Memorial Edition of the AA Grapevine (1951), Part 2 of 3 From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/3/2004 9:53:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Dr. Bob Memorial Edition January 1951 AA Grapevine Part 2 of 3 Without heroics ... as he would wish it, this is the story of Dr. Bob the physician whose 'practice' reached half across the world... Dr. Bob was born August 8, 1879, in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, a typical New England village of some 7000 souls. As the only son of parents prominent in civic and church activities, his early childhood was spent under strict parental guidance. Signs of inner revolt came at an early age. In later years the doctor liked to tell his children, Sue and Robert, of how he was put to bed every evening at five o'clock. He would go quietly enough, a fact which might have led the modern child-psychology-wise parent to suspect the worst, but which seemingly went unnoticed by the young man's parents. As soon as he was reasonably sure that he was considered safely asleep, he would arise, dress and slip quietly downstairs and out the backdoor to join his village gang. So far as is known he was never apprehended while on his nocturnal expeditions. The call of the woodland trail was far more fascinating to young Rob, as his schoolmates called him, than the stuffy schoolhouse to which he was forced to make his reluctant way each morning. His active young mind was more apt to be concentrating upon the best method to trap a bear than on the dull drone of his teacher's voice. He wanted to be free to roam. Rebellion surged within him at the thought of restraint of any sort...study and home-work were "musts"...even the keenness of his youthful mind was not enough to make up for his lack of application to his daily lessons. Serious repercussions often followed which led to accusations of "waywardness" by his parents and his teachers. Though his scholastic neglect may have disgraced him with his elders upon occasion, his schoolmates loved him. Whether it was because his habitual and sometimes adventurous revolts against restraint gave him a glamorous aura or because of the accuracy with which children often sense traits of character obscure to adults, they made him a popular and sought-after member of their class. Freedom from some of the "musts" came with vacations. He was released, then, to wander the hills, hunt, and trap and swim in the sea. Often Rob and his friends went into Canada on hunting trips. On one of these forays into the wilds, hunting was so poor that the boys lived on eels, blueberries and cream of tartar biscuits for three weeks. They did flush a particularly large woodchuck. They stalked him for several hours. Finally they had him within shooting range. After being shot at for sometime, the woodchuck disappeared. This episode later caused Rob's father, the Judge, to remark that the woodchuck probably went in to get out of the noise. The incident of the woodchuck and a tale of a great bear chase cast some shadow of doubt on young Rob's prowess as a hunter and woodsman. Off to the woods one day, went the young hunter and a schoolmate. The boys sauntered along, kicking at stones ... building castles in the air...talking about the things that spirited adolescent males talk about. Suddenly they saw before them a huge bear. The bear, who was probably as astonished as the boys, took to the woods at a gallop. The young hunters were hard at his heels. The day was hot, the brambles thick, courageous daring was at its height...the bear got away. "I don't believe," Dr. Bob used to say, "that we ran as fast as we might have!" In the summers the family often spent some weeks in a cottage by the sea. Here Rob became an expert swimmer. He and his foster sister, Nancy, spent many hours building and sailing their own sailboats. It was here that he saved a young girl from drowning. This event must have left an impression...probably of the advisability for every child to learn to swim at an early age. He taught his own children, Robert R. and Sue, to be expert swimmers at the age of five. The three of them would set out every vacation morning to swim the channel near their cottage. This feat often caused distraught neighbors to call their mother to tell her that her babies had fallen out of a boat in the middle of the channel. While the boy, Rob, was high-spirited, considered rebellious and wayward he was industrious and labored long and hard at anything he wanted to do. He was still very young when it became apparent that he was ambitious as well as willing to work. He wanted, above all else, to become a medical doctor like his maternal grandfather. When he was about nine years old he began to show signs of liking to work, especially out of doors. That summer he was at a neighbor's farm helping the men load hay. Perhaps he was resting, perhaps he was prowling around poking under bushes to see what he could see...he saw a jug...he pulled the cork and sniffed. It was a new odor to this son of strict New England parents. It was an odor that he liked. If the stuff in the jug smelled so good, it should taste good too. And it was good. He liked the taste. He liked the way it made him feel. A little boy; a jug of hooch; the first securely welded link in the chain. By the time he reached his teens, Rob was spending parts of his summers working on a Vermont farm or juggling trays and lugging baggage as a bellhop in an Adirondack summer hotel. His winters were passed trying to avoid the necessity of having to attend high school in order to receive a diploma. It may have been during his high school days that young Rob learned much of what there is to know about a billiard table. Later when his son, Robert, would tease him about this accomplishment as being the product of a mis-spent youth, Dr. Bob would just smile and say nothing. He was a good student in spite of himself and graduated from St. Johnsbury Academy in 1898. It was at a party given at the Academy that Dr. Bob first met Anne. A student at Wellesley, she was spending a holiday with a college chum. It was a small, reserved girl whom the tall, rangy Rob met that night. With an agile mind to match his own, Anne had a cheerfulness, sweetness and calm that was to remain with her through the years. It was these same qualities that were in the future to endear her to hundreds as Anne, Dr. Bob's wife. After high school at St. Johnsbury Academy came four years of college at Dartmouth. At long last the rebellious young colt was free of his parents' restraining supervision. New experiences were to be explored and enjoyed without having to give an accounting. His first discovery in his search for the facts of life on the campus was that joining the boys for a brew seemed to make up the greater part of after-class recreation. From Dr. Bob's point of view it was the major extra-curricular activity. It had long been evident that whatever Rob did, he did well. He became a leader in the sport. He drank for the sheer fun of it and suffered little or no ill-effects. Fame came to him at Dartmouth - no accolades for scholarship...no letters for athletic prowess...his fame came for a capacity for drinking beer that was matched by few and topped by none...and for what the students called his "patent throat." They would stand in awe watching him consume an entire bottle of beer without any visible muscular movement of swallowing. The prospects of getting drunk in the evening furnished Rob and his cronies with conversations which ran on all day. The pros and cons of whether to get drunk or not to get drunk would invariably drive one of their mild-mannered friends to distraction. He would rise in spluttering protest to say, "Well! If I were going to get drunk, I'd be about it!" As often as not...they were about it. There were times, though, when a change of scenery seemed more to their liking. Like the time Rob and a friend got it into their heads that going to Montpelier, Vermont was a fine idea. Admiral Dewey had just returned from Manila and was to parade through the town. Being in the usual state of financial embarrassment, how to get there caused a fleeting problem, but being convinced that where there was a will, a way would certainly present itself, they hopped a freight. In the morning weary but mightily pleased with themselves, they descended from the boxcar in Montpelier. As they walked up the street toward the parade route they met a fellow Dartmouth student. The boys greeted him with as much dignity as their grimy faces and straw-flecked garments would allow. To their astonishment his "Hello" was most cordial. Wouldn't they like to go to the State House with him? There, from the reviewing stand, the boys viewed the parade with their Dartmouth friend, whose father was the Governor of Vermont. Through the carefree days at college he studied just about as much as he had to, to get by. But he was a good student none-the-less. Here he made friends whom he was to know and to see from time to time through his life ...friends who did not always approve of his drinking prowess, but loved him in spite of it. His last years at Dartmouth were spent doing exactly what he wanted to do with little thought of the wishes or feelings of others...a state of mind which became more and more predominate as the years passed. Rob graduated in 1902..."summa cum laude" in the eyes of the drinking fraternity. The dean had a somewhat lower estimate. Now that he held a Dartmouth diploma, it seemed advisable that the willful young man settle down to making a living and a solid, secure future for himself. He wasn't ready to settle down to a job. The strong desire to become a medical doctor was still with him. His mother, who had never approved of this career for her son, hadn't altered her views. He went to work. For the next three years his business career was varied, if not successful. The first two years he worked for a large scale company; then he went to Montreal where he labored diligently at selling railway supplies, gas engines of all sorts and many other items of heavy hardware. He left Montreal and went to Boston where he was employed at Filene's. What his duties were there, have never been recorded. All through this three year period he was drinking as much as purse allowed, still without getting into any serious trouble. But he wasn't making any headway either. Whatever his duties at Filene's were, they certainly were not what he wanted to do. He still wanted to be a doctor. It was time he was about it. He quit his job at the store and that Fall entered the University of Michigan as a premedical student. Again he was free of all restraint and doing just as he wanted to do. Earnestly, he got down to serious business... the serious business of drinking as much as he could and still make it to class in the morning. His famous capacity for beer followed him to the Michigan campus. He was elected to membership in the drinking fraternity. Once again he displayed the wonders of his "patent throat" before his gaping brothers. He, who had boasted to his friends..."Never had a hangover in my life...began to have the morning after shakes. Many a morning Dr. Bob went to classes and even though fully prepared, turned away at the door and went back to the fraternity house. So bad were his jitters that he feared he would cause a scene if he should be called on. He went from bad to worse. No longer drinking for the fun of it, his life at Michigan became one long binge after another. In the Spring of his Sophomore year, Dr. Bob made up his mind that he could not complete his course. He packed his grip and headed South. After a month spent on a large farm owned by a friend, the fog began to clear from his brain. As he began to think more clearly he realized that it was very foolish to quit school. He decided to return and continue his work. The faculty had other ideas on the subject. They were, they told him, completely disgusted. It would require no effort at all to get along without his presence on the Michigan campus. After a long argument they allowed him to return to take his exams. He passed them creditably. After many more painful discussions, the faculty also gave him his credits. That Fall he entered Brush University as a Junior. Here his drinking became so much worse that his fraternity brothers felt forced to send for his father. The Judge made the long journey in a vain effort to get him straightened out. After those long disasterous binges when Dr. Bob was forced to face his father he had a deep feeling of guilt. His father always met the situation quietly, "Well, what did this one cost you?" he would ask. Oddly enough this feeling of guilt would come, not because he felt that he had hurt him in any way, but because his father seemed, somehow, to understand. It was this quiet, hopeless understanding that pained him deep inside. He was drinking more and more hard liquor, now, and coming up to his final exams he went on a particularly rough binge. When he went in to the examinations his hand trembled so badly he could not hold a pencil. He was, of course, called before the faculty. Their decision was that if he wished to graduate he must come back for two more quarters, remaining absolutely dry. This he was able to do. The faculty considered his work so creditable he was able to secure a much coveted internship in City Hospital in Akron, Ohio. The first two years in Akron, as a young intern, were free of trouble. Hard work took the place of hard drinking simply because there wasn't time for both. At one time during his internship he ran the hospital pharmacy by himself. This added to other duties took him all over the hospital...running up and down the stairs because the elevators were too slow...running here, rushing there as if the devil were after him. All this frenzied activity never failed to bring about an explosive, "Now where is that cadaverous young Yankee!" from one of the older doctors who became particularly fond of him. Though the two years as intern at City were hectic, Dr. Bob had time to learn much from the older men who were glad to share their knowledge with him. He began to perfect his own skills so that he might become a specialist, a surgeon. When his two years of internship were over he opened an office in The Second National Bank Building, in Akron. This was in 1912. His offices were in the same building until he retired from practice in 1948. Completely out on his own now, and again free to do as he chose - some money in his pocket and all the time in the world. It may have been that reaction set in from all the work, the irregular hours, the hectic life of an intern; it may have been real or imagined; whatever caused it, Dr. Bob developed considerable stomach trouble. The remedy for that was, of course, a couple of drinks. It didn't take him long to return to the old drinking habits. Now he began to know the real horror, the suffering of pain that goes with alcoholism. In hope of relief, he incarcerated himself at least a dozen times in one of the local sanitariums. After three years of this torture he ended up in a local hospital where they tried to help him. But he got his friends to smuggle him in a quart. Or, if that failed, it wasn't difficult for a man who knew his way around a hospital to steal the alcohol kept in the building. He got rapidly worse. Finally his father had to send a doctor out from St. Johnsbury to attempt to get him home. Somehow the doctor managed to get him back to the house he was born in, where he stayed in bed for two months before he could venture out. He stayed around town for about two months more, then returned to Akron to resume his practice. Dr. Bob was thoroughly scared, either by what had happened, by what the doctor had told him, or both. He went into one of his dry periods and stayed that way until the 18th Amendment was passed. In 1915 he went back to Chicago to marry Anne. He brought her back to Akron as his bride. The first three years of their married life were free of the unhappiness that was to come later. He became established in his practice. Their son Robert was born and life began to make a sensible pattern. Then the 18th Amendment was passed. Dr. Bob's reasoning was quite typical at this time, if not quite logical. It would make very little difference if he did take a few drinks now. The liquor that he and his friends had bought in amounts according to the size of their bank accounts, would soon be gone. He could come to no harm. He was soon to learn the facts of the Great American Experiment. The government obligingly made it possible for doctors to obtain unlimited supplies of liquor. Often during those black years, Dr. Bob, who held his profession sacred, would go to the phone book, pick out a name at random and fill out the prescription which would get him a pint of whisky. When all else failed there was the newly accredited member of American society, the bootlegger. A moderate beginning led to Dr. Bob's usual ending. During the next few years, he developed two distinct phobias. One was the fear of not sleeping and the other was the fear of running out of liquor. So began the squirrel-cage existence. Staying sober to earn enough money to get drunk...getting drunk to go to sleep...using sedatives to quiet the jitters...staying sober...earning money...getting drunk...smuggling home a bottle...hiding the bottle from Anne who became an expert at detecting hiding places. This horrible nightmare went on for seventeen years. Somehow he had the good sense to stay away from the hospital and not to receive patients if he were drinking. He stayed sober every day until four o'clock, then came home. In this way he was able to keep his drinking problem from becoming common knowledge or hospital gossip. Through these mad years Dr. Bob was an active member of the City Hospital Staff and often he had occasion to go to St. Thomas Hospital, where in 1934, he became a member of the Courtesy Staff and in 1943, a member of the Active Staff. It was during one of these visits to St. Thomas, in 1928, that in the course of his duties, he met Sister Mary Ignatia. The meeting seemed of no particular consequence at the time. Many Sisters came to St. Thomas, then departed for duties elsewhere. Though neither of them knew it, the meeting was to have great importance to them both in the years to come. Sister Ignatia, like the others, never knew of the inner turmoil with which this man was beset..."He just always seemed different than the rest...he brought something with him when he came into a room...I never knew what it was, I just felt it..." So perhaps it was, then, that the Hand that moves us all was beginning to speed up the events that led to Dr. Bob's meeting with the stranger. Anne and the children now lived in a shambles of broken promises, given in all sincerity. Unable to see her friends, she existed on the bare necessities. About all she had left was her faith that her prayers for her husband would somehow be answered. It then happened that Dr. Bob and Anne were thrown in with a crowd of people who attracted Dr. Bob because of their poise, health and happiness. These people spoke without embarrassment, a thing he could never do. They all seemed very much at ease. Above all, they seemed happy. They were members of the Oxford Group. Self conscious, ill at ease most of the time, his health nearing the breaking point, Dr. Bob was thoroughly miserable. He sensed that these new-found friends had something that he did not have. He felt that he could profit from them. When he learned that what they had was something of a spiritual nature, his enthusiasm was somewhat dampened. Unfortunately his childhood background of church twice during the week and three times on Sunday had caused him to resolve that he would never appear in a church so long as he lived. He kept that resolve for 40 years except when his presence there was absolutely necessary. It helped some to find out that these people did not gather in a church but at each other's homes. That they might have the answer to his drinking problem never entered his head but he thought it could do him no harm to study their philosophy. For the next two and one half years he attended their meetings. And got drunk regularly! Anne became deeply interested in the group and her interest sustained Dr. Bob's. He delved into religious philosophy, he read the Scriptures, he studied spiritual interpretations, the lives of the Saints. Like a sponge he soaked up the spiritual philosophies of the ages. Anne kept her simple faith in prayer...and her courage - Dr. Bob got drunk. Then one Saturday afternoon, Henrietta called Anne. Could they come over to meet a friend of hers who might help Bob... At five o'clock Sunday evening they were at Henrietta's door. Dr. Bob faced Bill W. who said, "You must be awfully thirsty...this won't take us long..." From the moment Bill spoke to him, Dr. Bob knew that here was a man who knew what he was talking about. As the hours passed, Bill told of his experiences with alcohol; he told him of the simple message that a friend had brought... "Show me your faith and by my works I will show you mine..." Slowly, at first, then with sudden clarity, Dr. Bob began to understand. Bill had been able to control his drinking problem by the very means that Dr. Bob, himself had been trying to use...but there was a difference. The spiritual approach was as useless as any other if you soaked it up like a sponge and kept it all to yourself. True, Bill had been preaching his message at any drunk who would listen; he had been unsuccessful 'til now, but the important thing was that by giving his knowledge away, he, himself, was sober! There was one more short binge for Dr. Bob after that talk. On June 10, 1935, he took his last drink. It was high time now to put his house in order. With his quiet professional dignity, his ready humor, he got about it. Bill stayed on in Akron for several months, living with Dr. Bob and Anne. It wasn't long before they realized that they needed another drunk to help, if they could. The two men went over to City Hospital. They asked the nurse on "admitting" if she had an alcoholic in the hospital. They were taken to a room where a man lay strapped to the bed, writhing in agony, "Will this one do?" the nurse asked. "This one" would do very well. That human wreck to whom they talked that day and several times after, came out of the hospital, sober. Bill D. became the third member of the little group...AA Number Three! Dr. Bob now was a man with a purpose and the will to live. When the fog cleared out of his brain, his health had improved. He felt so good in the summer of 1935, at 56 years of age, that he took Bob and Sue out to the tennis courts one day. He played them six straight sets of tennis. The kids were done in. Anne began to live again, too. She was happy with her husband's new-found, joyful sobriety. She was no longer friendless, alone. Her kitchen table was almost always littered with coffee cups, a fresh pot-full sat waiting on the stove. Her faith, her belief in prayer and divine guidance went far to carry the men through that first summer. In the year 1935, there were few men alive who would accept the fact that alcoholism is a disease, which should be treated as such. Prejudice and ignorance were some of the problems facing Dr. Bob as he set about helping sick alcoholics with his professional skill and his new-found spiritual understanding. City Hospital was often filled with drunks smuggled in under trumped-up diagnosis. The oldtimers who were hospitalized during those first years were admitted as suffering from "acute gastritis." Since he was on the courtesy staff at St. Thomas, run by the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine, Dr. Bob felt that he might enlist the help of Sister Ignatia. He knew that it had never seemed right to her that a drunk should be turned away. She couldn't understand why a drunk on the verge of DT's was turned away but a drunk with a bashed-in head was admitted. They were both sick. They both needed help. His first approach to her on the subject was casual. He didn't tell her much nor did he make any promises. He just told her that he was trying to treat alcoholics by a new method. He and some other alcoholics, he said believed that alcoholism could be controlled by medical attention coupled with the spiritual. His remarks, though brief, made sense to her. It wasn't long before Dr. Bob brought in an alcoholic. Sister admitted him as having acute indigestion. He was put to bed in a double room. Then Dr. Bob told her quietly, "We'd like to have him in a private room in the morning." As if it weren't bad enough to have an illegal admittance on her conscience this man was asking for a private room! Morning found the patient peacefully asleep, on a cot in the room where flowers were trimmed and arranged for patients' rooms! FOR HE IS THE ROCK UPON WHICH AA IS FOUNDED After that more and more "acute gastritis" cases woke up in St. Thomas Hospital. In August, 1939, Dr. Bob brought a patient to Sister for admittance. So far as is known, he was the first alcoholic ever to be admitted into a general hospital under the diagnosis: Alcoholism. Dr. Bob never could remember just what the policy of the hospital was at that time, nor did he recall ever having asked. Since that August day there have been 4800 cases admitted into St. Thomas. Until Dr. Bob retired, he visited the ward each day to give personal attention to each patient. His cheerful, "Well, what can I do for you?" was heard in the ward for the last time, on Christmas, 1949. On that day Sister played the organ for him and showed him the beautiful new chimes ...talked of her hopes of more beds and furniture for a lounge outside the ward. The chimes tell the story of the bitter criticism of 10 years ago to the complete co-operation from everyone connected with the hospital today. But so long as Sister Ignatia goes about her duties on the admitting desk and in the AA ward, whenever a drunk is brought in a call will come, "Sister, you'd better come. One of your boys is downstairs!" Dr. Bob and his first few red-eyed disciples continued to meet with the Oxford Group. But they were a 'special interest' bloc. The unpredictable nature of the alcoholic and his preoccupation with the earthy realities of drinking and drunkenness, led the tactful Doctor to the idea of separate meetings. Without fuss or bother, Dr. Bob announced that there would be a meeting for the alcoholics...if any of them cared to come. When the meeting came to order, all of the little band were there. Dr. Bob put his foot on the rung of a dining room chair, identified himself as an alcoholic and began reading The Sermon on the Mount. Still not known as Alcoholics Anonymous, this was the first Akron meeting for alcoholics only. Word of the work being done in Akron began to spread to nearby Cleveland. Men began coming over to be hospitalized in St. Thomas or City Hospital. The growth of the group speeded up. By 1939, they were meeting in Akron's Kings School. They had long since outgrown Anne's small house. Through all the growth, the hurts that come with growing pains, the gossip, the little grievances, Dr. Bob listened to them all. Occasionally, he advised. He became the "father confessor" to the group. So sacred to him were confidences, that he would not break them for anybody or anything. Anne used to tease him about being "so close-mouthed" that she claimed she didn't know a thing that was going on. She laughingly told him that she would divorce him unless he told her some of the things he knew...but she was quick to retract her statement because she knew, even for her, he would not break a confidence. By 1939, there were enough men coming to Akron from Cleveland to make it seem advisable to start a Cleveland Group. The first meeting was held in May of that year. The break away from the Akron group brought with it disagreements. The only thing that kept them on an even keel, say those pioneers, was the sound wisdom of Dr. Bob. How he kept his sanity seemed a miracle. There he was, they say, in the midst of a bunch of unstable people, not yet dry behind the ears. It may have been because he would never allow one man to speak ill of another unless that man were present, that the Cleveland off-spring survived. By the end of 1939, Cleveland had proved a big point in AA history. It had proved, first that one group could break from another. This they proved conclusively because by the end of the year there was not one Cleveland group...there were three! The two splits had been brought about by differences of opinion. It seemed that no matter what happened the group activity would go on. Cleveland proved, too, that alcoholics could be sobered up on what almost amounted to a mass production basis. By 1944, the Cleveland membership was well past 1000. Dr. Bob's wise counsel was right..."there's no use worrying about these things. As long as people have faith and believe, this will go on." In the years that came after that meeting on Mother's Day, 1935, Dr. Bob gave freely of himself to all who came to ask for help, to seek advice...to laugh or to cry. In so helping others, he began to rebuild himself. Professionally, he became loved and respected by all who worked with him...socially he was once again the kind, dignified man who Anne and their friends knew and admired. Dr. Bob, as Anne had known him to be, was possessed of calm professional dignity which gave courage and heart to his patients. In the years to come, this dignity, was to play a large part in the lives of the hundreds who came to his door. Never given to loose talk, Dr. Bob controlled his tongue as surely, as steadily and as potently as he did his scalpel. He used the gift of speech with the same concise economy, the sureness of purpose, that went into each deft movement of his surgeon's hands. More often than not his observations were sprinkled with salty humor. Dr. Bob had the rare quality of being able to laugh at himself and with others. As much a part of him as his quiet professional dignity, was this keen sense of humor. He spoke with a broad New England accent and was given to dropping a remark or telling a riotous story absolutely deadpan. This sometimes proved disconcerting to those who did not know him well, especially when he referred to the poised, charming Anne, as "The Frail." Seldom did he call his friends by their given names... it was Abercrombie to those men of whom he was particularly fond - or Sugar to close women friends...a friend in the loan business was Shylock. This tall "cadaverous looking Yankee" who held his profession sacred and walked through life with dignity would tell anyone who questioned him as to his hopes, his ambitions...that all he ever wanted in life was "to have curly hair, to tap dance, to play the piano and to own a convertible." One of the very early Akron members says that the first impression he had of Dr. Bob was of a gruff person, a bit forbidding, with a habit of looking over his glasses. He gave the impression of looking right through to your soul. This AA says that he got the impression that Dr. Bob knew exactly what he was thinking... and found out later that he did! When he met Dr. Bob for the first time, what was offered seemed to the new man, a perfect answer to an immediate and serious problem... it was something to tell a boss who, at the time was none too sympathetic to his drinking. Dr. Bob knew that the man wasn't being honest with him, and he knew he was kidding himself. No lectures were given, no recriminations. Dr. Bob began to make a habit of stopping by the man's house after office hours. About twice a week he stopped for coffee and the two men discussed ...honesty. Then Dr. Bob suggested that the man stop kidding himself. Their discussion moved on to faith...faith in God. The new man went to his employer and, for the first time, saw the practical power of real honesty. A problem which had looked insurmountable, vanished, just melted away. Dr. Bob always began his day with a prayer and meditation over some familiar Bible verse, then he set about his work in "My Father's vineyard..." The work in the "vineyard" was not easy in those years. No "preaching" would have served, either to the alcoholics who came his way or to those skeptic members of his profession. He began, now to make AA a way of life. His life began to be an example of patience and serenity for all to see and to benefit by if they so chose. It was too early in the years of education on alcoholism to be able to speak of the disease above a whisper...Dr. Bob and Sister Ignatia developed a little code...the boys on the third floor were called the Frails, while the surgical patients were spoken of in the most proper professional terms. Often while he went about the business of washing up he had to listen in silence to bitter remarks from his fellow doctors..."Too bad this hospital is so full that a fellow can't get a patient in...always room for the drunks though -." In the years to come he was to live to hear himself introduced as the co-founder of "the greatest," "most wonderful," "must momentous movement of all times..." For these tributes he was grateful, but he laughed them off and upon one occasion was heard to remark..."The speaker certainly takes in a lot of territory and plenty of time..." In his drinking days, Dr. Bob was two people, two personalities. After his return to sobriety he remained two personalities. As he made his rounds through the hospitals he was the medical practitioner but as he entered the door of the alcoholic ward he became, Dr. Bob, a man eager, willing and able to help his fellowman. Those who worked with him say that as he left the hospital each day they felt that two men went out the door... one a great M.D., the other a great man. Dr. Bob and Anne lived simply and without pretense in their modest home. Here they shared the joys of parenthood, the sorrows, the companionship of their friends. He was an industrious man, willing to work for the creature comforts that he loved. He accepted with humility any material wealth that came his way. Something of a perfectionist, he loved diamonds, not for possession, but for the beauty of their brilliant perfection. He would go out of his way to look at a diamond owned by another...he would go out of his way, too, to look at a favorite view of his beloved mountains and sea. If he had any pride in possession it was for big gleaming automobiles. He owned, through his life, many of them. He treated them with the care that their mechanical perfection deserved. The car that he probably loved the most was the last one he bought just before the end...the convertible. The car that symbolized a lifetime ambition. His friends will remember him in the summer of 1950, at 71, speeding through the streets of Akron in his new yellow Buick convertible - the long slim lines made even more rakish with the top down. No hat, his face to the sun, into the driveway he sped, pebbles flying, tires screeching, he'd swoosh to a stop! Fate, however, permitted him only 150 miles of this joyous "hot-rod" driving. It was with reluctance, that summer, that he gave in to his illness. For the forty fifth year he returned to his home in Vermont...in the staid and sedate sedan..."I won't be able to see the mountains so well...but my legs are a little long for that roadster..." Until the last summer his days were spent in the routine of the hospital... his office and his club, for recreation. During almost all of his adult life in Akron, Dr. Bob lunched at the City Club. In his drinking days, it was often to hide away in a room until he was found by friends. But in later years it was to enjoy the companionship of his good friends, some of whom joined him in his new-found sobriety, others had no need of the help he could give them...other than the pleasure of his friendship. Noon would almost always find him at the same table in the corner of the men's dining room. There, for more than ten years he was served by the same waitress, Nancy. Dr. Bob always greeted her with, "How's my chum today..." They were good friends. As Nancy served him his simple lunch of melon or grapefruit, soup, milk or coffee and his favorite Boston Cream Pie, they discussed her problems. Once, Nancy, who was ill at the time, became uncontrollably angry and threw a cracker basket at another waiter. Dr. Bob admonished..."Now, now Chum, don't let little things bother you..." The next day he sent her "As a Man Thinketh So Is He" and "The Runner's Bible." Nancy always looked forward to serving Dr. Bob and his friends..."he was such a good fellow..." Often when there was much discussion, arguments and pros and cons, Nancy would ask him why he didn't say something, to which he'd answer... "Too much being said already!" To Nancy, Dr. Bob was "such a good kind man...he had such a simple faith in prayer." After luncheon, if time permitted, Dr. Bob joined his cronies for a game of Rum or Bridge. He was expert at both; and he always played to win. The man who would give you his last dollar, though his own creditors might be hard at his heels, would take your last cent away from you, if he could, in a card game...but he never got angry. He had the habit of keeping up a steady chatter through the game, his cronies say that it could have been annoying except that it was always so funny that you had to laugh. Dr. Bob vowed that it was silly to take the game seriously...never could see how these tournament players got so serious about this thing. Once when he and Anne were in Florida, he was airing his views to a stranger on the seriousness of some bridge players. The subject had come up because a bridge tournament was scheduled for that day. The two men sat together discussing bridge until they talked themselves into entering the tournament...since they had nothing better to do. The stranger and Dr. Bob made a good showing among the "serious" players. They won that afternoon but upset their opponents to such a degree as to cause one to remark, "If you had bid right and played right you never would have won!" Whereupon Dr. Bob said, "Quite so," as he accepted the first prize. For some obscure reason, Dr. Bob always carried a pocket-full of silver. It may have been a hangover from the insecure squirrel-cage days of the eternal fight to keep enough money in his pocket just because he liked to hear the jingle but there were times when he had as much as ten dollars in his pocket. He had one particular friend with whom he would match a fifty cent piece by way of greeting. No matter where the two met, each would silently reach into his pocket, draw out the silver and match. Silently the winner took the money from the other. The first time Dr. Bob underwent serious surgery, he could not have visitors. His coin-matching friend came to the hospital to call. He was met there by Emma, the woman friend and nurse who cared for Anne. Emma met the visitor in the guest lounge. She greeted him silently with a coin in her palm...silently they matched. Dr.Bob was the richer by fifty cents. This man of two personalities would weep as he told you of his fear that his skill would not enable him to save the life of a charity patient; then again he would weep as he told of what seemed to be a miraculous recovery. He would weep, too, from laughter at some story which struck his fancy. As his son, Bob, grew into manhood, Dr. Bob shared with him the incidents and the fun of the day. He could hardly wait, it seemed, to get home to tell young Bob some story picked up at the hospital. Young Bob tells of how he would tell a good story, or listen to one, then lean back in his chair to laugh until the tears streamed down his cheeks. Then with a familiar gesture, he took off his glasses to wipe the tears away...still chuckling. "Our home was a happy one, in those days," said young Bob, "I never heard a cross word between my mother and my father." The war, then marriage took young Bob from home and to Texas where he now lives. Bob laughs as he tells of his father's first meeting with his bride-to-be. He looked her up and down then remarked, in his dry and disconcerting fashion; "She's all right, son. She's built for speed and light house-keeping!" Young Bob often remarked to his father about his seemingly endless knowledge of medicine, philosophies and general bits of information. To which Dr. Bob would reply, "Well, I should know something, I've read for at least an hour every night of my adult life - drunk or sober." Sometime during the course of all the reading, he delved into Spiritualism...he even tried the mysteries of the Ouija board. He felt that in some far distant centuries, the science of the mind would be so developed as to make possible contact between the living and the dead. All the reading of the years had included studies on alcoholism, too. This scientific knowledge coupled with his experiences with alcoholics including himself might well have led him to a strictly scientific approach. He could, with ease, have spoken of statistics, cures and the like because he undoubtedly listened to more "case histories" than any other man alive. He listened patiently to each man in the ward, to every person who came to his home for advice, and there were hundreds. He remained plain Dr. Bob, alcoholic, who came to believe that the disorder was more on the psychological and spiritual side rather than the physical. The thinking of the alcoholic patient was all beclouded, his attitudes were wrong, his philosophy of life was all mixed up, he had no spiritual life...the whole man was sick. As one man said, "He came to me in the hospital, he sat quietly by my bed and talked, then he prayed to his God for me...that's what stuck...that he took the time and interest and the compassion to pray for me..." The happy years of Dr. Bob's sobriety were marred, at last, by Anne's illness and blindness. Cataracts were completely covering her eyes, so that she could not see...even after surgery her last years were spent in shadows. Dr. Bob began, then, to be her eyes as much as he could. Still in medical practice, though, he could not be with her every hour. It was then, in his own quiet way that he found a solution. In 1942, years before Anne's blindness had become serious, two strangers came to his office, a man and his wife, Emma. The man was seeking the help that Dr. Bob could give him. The three sat in his office and talked for almost an hour, while in the reception room waited the "paying patients." Occasionally, after that first meeting, Dr. Bob and Anne stopped by their house; they saw them each week at the AA meeting in King School. Dr. Bob knew that Anne's blindness was fast growing worse and that she needed daily care...he knew too, that she would be unhappy to think of herself as a burden to anyone. It came vacation time, the children were gone which meant that the house must be left empty...the dog to his own devices. What better plan than the nice couple, who lived down the street should come to the house while they were on vacation...to keep it in running order and watch over the dog? Would the couple consider throwing some clothes into a bag and going over to the house? So it was for eight years Emma, a nurse, and her husband came from time to time to stay at Dr. Bob's house...until it was necessary for Emma to be with Anne at all times. In the last years of Anne's illness she kept house for them and during the day, when Dr. Bob was at his office, she watched over Anne. Through those last years together Anne, though in ill health, stood ever ready to give words of hope and encouragement to all who came to her door. Her first thoughts were for others, never herself, no matter how badly she might feel. When Dr. Bob and Anne prepared for their last trip together, Anne said, "You know, I don't really care to go but Dad wants too, and he may never be able to make the trip again...it will make him happy. "Of the same trip, Dr. Bob said of Anne, "I don't really want to go, but Anne wants it. It will make her happy." Each took the long trip feeling that it was making the other happy. It was in June, 1949, just after their return, that Anne passed away. At the time of her passing, Dr. Bob, said, "I will miss her terribly, but she would have had it no other way. Had she survived this attack she would have been in the hospital for months...then there would have been months at home in bed...she would have hated being a burden...she could not have stood it." In the summer of 1948, Dr. Bob found that he, too, was suffering from a serious malady. He closed his office and retired from practice, so that he and Anne could live their last days together, quietly. For a time after Anne died, there was some indecision in the house. It was understood that Emma and her husband, who had by this time been spending most of their time at the house, would leave and go to their own home. Dr. Bob was to get a housekeeper or a nurse. He did interview one woman, but his heart wasn't in it. It was then that they all felt that Anne had reached out and made their decision for them. For the first few weeks after Anne's death, Dr. Bob and Emma dreamed of Anne almost every night. To Emma, she seemed troubled. One night Emma's dream of Anne was so real as to be almost a vision. Emma knew what she must do. Next morning she faced Dr, Bob. "Do you want us to stay with you?" His answer was quick and simple, "Yes." None of them dreamed of Anne again. So it was that the couple who once came to Dr. Bob for help, came to spend the last year and one half with him...they gave up their apartment and lived with him until he too, passed on. Ever the professional man, Dr. Bob watched the progress of his disease each day. When at last, he knew that the malady was malignant and hopeless, he accepted it with calm and lack of resentment. He felt no bitterness at the doctors who had failed to make an early diagnosis..."Why should I blame them? I've probably made a lot of fatal mistakes myself!" Between the times that he was forced to stay in bed or to go to the hospital to undergo surgery, he lived his life as normally as possible and got as much enjoyment out of it as he could. After Anne's death, he and a good friend drove to the West Coast, where they renewed old acquaintances; then they went on to his home in Vermont...and to Maine. Wherever he went AAs showered him with attention and kindness. Of this he said, "Sometimes these good people do so much for me, it is embarrassing. I have done nothing to deserve it, I have only been an instrument through which God worked." At home Dr. Bob settled down to enjoying his friends and the things he could do for them...between his serious attacks he enjoyed "Emmy's" good food. "I never saw a man who could eat so much sauerkraut...he would go without his dessert, just to have another helping!" Then came the television set. Emma's husband went to Dr. Bob one day telling him that he was in the mood to buy a television set. "Well," said Dr. Bob, who didn't like television...would have no part of it... "I guess if you can buy the set, I can give you the chimney for the aerial." The beautiful new set arrived in due time but Dr. Bob would have none of it. He absolutely refused to look at it. Then one night, as he lay on the davenport, Emma caught him peeking around his newspaper! The "sneaking a look" went on for days until he succumbed and became a fan. After that he spent long pleasant hours watching the TV shows...especially the tap dancers..."Hmph," he'd grunt, "that's easy...nothing to it...anybody can do it!" At the time of the Louis Charles fight, he stayed in bed all day so that he would be rested enough to see the fight that evening! As a patient, Dr. Bob behaved himself very well except for one thing. He refused to take his pills as they were scheduled. Instead he put his old "patent throat" to use. He kept a shot glass, which he filled with all the pills he was to take for the day. While Emma looked on in awe, even as the brothers of yore, he'd throw back his head and toss off the pills at one gulp..."What difference does it make? They all go to the same place anyway!" That he knew the exact progress of his disease was evident to Emma and those close to him, although he never complained, even when in pain. After a doctor's call he would say to Emma, "Sugar, don't kid me now. This is the end isn't it?" Emma always answered with, "Now you know better. You know exactly what's going on!" During the Spring and Summer of 1950, when he had to husband his strength and measure it out carefully, Dr. Bob expressed the wish to do three things. He wanted to attend the First International Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous in Cleveland. He wanted, once again, to go to St. Johnsbury, Vermont, for his vacation. And he wanted to spend Christmas with his son in Texas...two of his wishes were fulfilled. As the days passed and the date of the Conference drew nearer, he began more and more, to conserve his energy. Most of his days were spent in his room...on the davenport watching the TV tap-dancers and listening to the pianists. Those who were close to him watched him grow weaker...then rally... While the last, mad days of preparations for the Conference were going on in Cleveland, it seemed, at times, to his close friends, that he would not gather the strength to do the thing that he so much wanted to do. Even to the last minutes before the Big Meeting, on Sunday, it was doubtful whether he would be granted the vigor he needed to appear in the Cleveland Auditorium to say the few words that he wanted to say to the thousands waiting to hear and see him. Those gathered that hot Sunday afternoon, now know, that when at last Dr. Bob joined the others on the platform they were witnessing another milestone of the movement built on simple faith and works...At the time, this throng was perhaps too close to history to know the full meaning of what was taking place before them...Now he came forward to speak to the thousands...with quiet dignity...even as that night so long ago, when in Anne's living room, he put his foot on the rung of a dining room chair to read The Sermon on the Mount...he leaned forward against the lectern to say: "My good friends in AA and of AA. I feel I would be very remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to welcome you here to Cleveland not only to this meeting but those that have already transpired. I hope very much that the presence of so many people and the words that you have heard will prove an inspiration to you - not only to you but may you be able to impart that inspiration to the boys and girls back home who were not fortunate enough to be able to come. In other words, we hope that your visit here has been both enjoyable and profitable. "I get a big thrill out of looking over a vast sea of faces like this with a feeling that possibly some small thing that I did a number of years ago played an infinitely small part in making this meeting possible. I also get quite a thrill when I think that we all had the same problem. We all did the same things. We all get the same results in proportion to our zeal and enthusiasm and stick-to-itiveness. If you will pardon the injection of a personal note at this time, let me say that I have been in bed five of the last seven months and my strength hasn't returned as I would like, so my remarks of necessity will be very brief. "But there are two or three things that flashed into my mind on which it would be fitting to lay a little emphasis; one is the simplicity of our Program. Let's not louse it all up with Freudian complexes and things that are interesting to the scientific mind but have very little to do with our actual AA work. Our 12 Steps, when simmered down to the last, resolve themselves into the words love and service. We understand what love is and we understand what service is. So let's bear those two things in mind. "Let us also remember to guard that erring member - the tongue, and if we must use it, let's use it with kindness and consideration and tolerance. "And one more thing; none of us would be here today if somebody hadn't taken time to explain things to us, to give us a little pat on the back, to take us to a meeting or two, to have done numerous little kind and thoughtful acts in our behalf. So let us never get the degree of smug complacency so that we're not willing to extend or attempt to, that help which has been so beneficial to us, to our less fortunate brothers. Thank you very much." As he returned to his seat on the platform, those who watched could easily see that the exertion of saying the brief words of counsel had left him physically weak and spent. Try as he would, he was forced to leave after a few moments. In consternation thousands of eyes followed him as he left the stage. He was driven back to Akron, that afternoon by a friend. As Dr. Bob was helped into the automobile, he seemed physically very near complete exhaustion. As they drove the thirty odd miles from Cleveland to Akron, some inner strength seemed to revive Dr. Bob so that by the time they drove up to his home he was almost his old self. The man who seemed on the point of collapse only an hour before, said "Well, if I'm going to be ready to go to Vermont next week, I'd better be about it." Shortly after the Conference, he did go to Vermont. Dr. Bob, his son and his daughter-in-law, drove, in the sedan, to his boyhood home, where he visited old friends for the last time...and worried all the time for fear the convertible would not be comfortable for Emma and her husband to drive on their long vacation trip..."Should've taken it myself..." Upon his return home, he was admitted into St. Thomas hospital for a minor operation...one of so many that had come during the last years. Then home to Emma's good cooking and rest. In November, his doctors found it advisable to perform another of the minor operations. This time, he went to City Hospital, where in 1910 he had come as an intern and where later, he and Bill had talked to "the third man." On Wednesday, November 15, a day after the operation, an old friend called and spoke to him. "Why, I'm just fine Abercrombie, just fine..." Close to noontime on Thursday, November 16, 1950, he was resting. The nurse in attendance stood by his bed, watching...waiting for any change that might come. Dr. Bob, M.D., lifted his hand to the light...with professional calm he studied the color...with a final confirming glance, he spoke... "You had better call the family...this is it..." --so reconciled with his brothers, he placed his gifts upon the alter and went his way... IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1639. . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. Bob Memorial Edition of the AA Grapevine (1951), Part 3 of 3 From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/3/2004 9:53:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Dr. Bob Memorial Edition January 1951 AA Grapevine Part 3 of 3 From Dr. Walter F. Tunks, the man who answered the telephone... EULOGY TODAY we are paying our respects to the memory of a friend whose name and influence have extended around the world. A phrase of St. Paul's well describes him; "As unknown, yet well known." Affectionately we called him Doctor Bob - and thousands who never knew him are greatly in his debt. Dr. Bob would not want us to hang any haloes around him. He would ask us, rather, to carry on the work in which he had so influential a part. There is no need for me to tell you the story of his life. It is well known to any who are familiar with the work of Alcoholics Anonymous, of which he was a co-founder. Let me merely point out how often in history God has used human weakness to demonstrate his redeeming power. Next to Jesus, no one has influenced human history more than St. Paul. Who was he? He was the chief persecutor of the Christian Church. He had stood by and watched young Stephen stoned, with never a word of protest. Then one day God caught up with him, turned him straight around in his tracks and Saul the persecutor became Paul the Apostle and chief defender of Christianity. Had you and I been living in the fourth century near the city of Carthage, we might have heard of the escapades of a fast living young man named Augustine. He was lecherous and profligate and all but broke his saintly mother's heart, though Monica's prayers for him never ceased. Then one day as he walked in the garden, he heard a voice which said to him, "Tolle, Lege" - Take, Read - and, opening the Bible at random, he came upon this passage: "The night is far spent, the day is at hand. Let us, therefore, cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye in the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof." So a man was reborn, and Augustine the dissolute, became St. Augustine, one of the most prominent leaders in the Christian Church. You know the story of Dr. Bob's weakness. Then something happened to him that profoundly changed his life and that of thousands of others who shared the same weakness. In a desperate hour, he and Bill turned to God for help they couldn't find anywhere else, and Alcoholics Anonymous was born. By Dr. Bob's side was a brave and understanding wife whom we laid to rest last year. With wisdom and patience, she helped guide the AA group in its early days and never ceased to be a power for good. And now Bob has gone to be with the one he loved so much. Here is the lesson of his life. God can use human weakness to demonstrate his power. No man need stay the way he is. With God's help he can throw off the chains of any enslaving habit and be free again to be what God wants him to be. His monument is not the money he left in the bank, but the gratitude in the hearts of so many men and women who own more than they can ever repay to his example. O GOD we thank Thee for the life and service of Thy dear servant, Doctor Bob, whom we remember at Thy alter this day. Bless and prosper the work of Alcoholics Anonymous, in whose founding he played such an all important part. Prosper the work of this organization that it may reclaim the lives of many who are ashamed of their own weakness. This we ask in the name of Him who taught us that no failure ever need be final - our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Hail and Farewell... It is such a little while ago he stood before us, sick unto death and strong unto faith... Strong still unto the task begun... Firm still, and he spoke in a strong, sure voice Ten minutes. How many thousand times ten minutes Had he served ten times ten thousands of us who were halt, and sick, and steeped in fear? And in ten minutes there again were strengths anew, and old truths reaffirmed In the strong, sure voice...in the tired, frail body. How far from St. Thomas house of healing in Akron To the surging conclave of Cleveland? In miles as far as the Marshall isles are far; As near as the first lengthening step of one drunk taking one clear stride forward, And as far as fifteen years are far, and as near as one new ray of hope in one new breast. The little man who had sworn Hippocrates great oath Had helped to heal beyond it. This be the arch of his memorial: the towering span Of Fellowship, held high upon the heritage By which we grow. And this be the echo of his founding voice: The weakest knock of whosoever seeks The opening Of any AA door... IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1642. . . . . . . . . . . . Significant February dates in AA History-corrected From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/5/2004 2:45:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Thanks to members from Philadelphia for the correction of the date Jim Burwell moved to Philadelphia. Nancy FEB 1: 1918 - Original date set for Bill Wilson's marriage to Lois Burnham. The date was moved up because of the war. FEB. 2: 1942 - Bill Wilson paid tribute to Ruth Hock, AA's first paid secretary, who resigned to get married. She had written approximately 15,000 letters to people asking for help FEB. 5: 1941 - Pittsburgh Telegram ran a story on the first AA group's Friday night meeting of a dozen "former hopeless drunks." FEB. 8: 1940 - Bill W., Dr. Bob, and six other A.A.s asked 60 rich friends of John D. Rockefeller,Jr., for money at the Union Club, NY. They got $2,000. 1940 - Houston Press ran first of 6 anonymous articles on A.A. by Larry J. FEB. 9: 2002 - Sue Smith Windows, Dr. Bob's daughter died. FEB. 10: 1922: Harold E. Hughes was born on a farm near Ida Grove, Iowa. After his recovery from alcoholism, he became Governor of Iowa, a United States Senator, and the leading dark horse for the Presidential Democratic nomination in 1972, until he announced he would not run. He authored the legislation which created the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, and other legislation to help alcoholics and addicts. FEB 11: 1938 - Clarence Snyder ("Home Brewmeister" in 1st, 2nd & 3rd editions) had his last drink. Feb. 12: 1945 - World War II paper shortage forced reduction in size of the Big Book. Feb. 13: 1937 - Oxford Groups "Alcoholic Squadron" met at the home of Hank Parkhurst ("The Unbeliever" in the 1st edition of the Big Book) in New Jersey. 1940 - With about two years of sobriety, Jim Burwell ("The Vicious Cycle") moved to the Philadelphia area and started the first Philadelphia A.A. group. FEB 14: 1971 - AA groups worldwide held a memorial service for Bill Wilson. 2000 - William Y., "California Bill" died in Winston Salem, NC. Feb. 15: 1946 - AA Tribune, Des Moines, IA, reported 36 new members since Marty Mann had been there. Feb. 16: 1941 - Baltimore Sunday Sun reported city's first AA group begun in 1940 had grown from 3 to 40 members, with five being women. FEB. 18: 1943 - AA's were granted the right to use cars for 12th step work in emergency cases, despite gas rationing. FEB.19: 1967 - Father "John Doe" (Ralph Pfau), 1st Catholic Priest in AA, died. FEB 20: 1941 - The Toledo Blade published first of three articles on AA by Seymour Rothman. Feb. 21: 1939 - 400 copies of the Big Book manuscript were sent to doctors, judges, psychiatrists, and others for comment. This was the "multilith" Big Book. Feb. 22: 1842 - Abe Lincoln addressed the Washington Temperance Society in Springfield, IL. Feb. 24: 2002 -- Hal Marley, "Dr. Attitude of Gratitude," died. He had 37 years of sobriety. Hal testified, anonymously, before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse on December 3, 1970. Feb. 26: 1999 - Felicia Gizycka, author of "Stars Don't Fall," died. Born Countess Felicia Gizycka in 1905, she was the daughter of Count Josef Gizycki and Eleanor Medill Patterson. She married Drew Pearson in 1925 and divorced him three years later. She married Dudley de Lavigne in 1934, but the marriage lasted less than a year. In 1958 she married John Kennedy Magruder and divorced him in 1964. For most of her professional career, she went by the name Felicia Gizycka. Other February happenings for which I have no specific date: 1908 - Bill Wilson made boomerang. 1916 - Bill Wilson & sophomore class at Norwich University was suspended for hazing. 1938 - Rockefeller gave $5,000 to AA. 1939 - Dr. Harry Tiebout endorsed AA, the first psychiatrist to do so. 1940 - First organization meeting of Philadelphia AA is held at McCready Hustona's room at 2209 Delaney Street. 1940 - 1st AA clubhouse opened at 334-1/2 West 24th Street, NYC. 1943 - San Francisco Bulletin reporter Marsh Masline interviewed Ricardo, a San Quentin Prison AA group member. 1946 - Baton Rouge, La., AA's hold their first anniversary meeting. 1946 - The AA Grapevine reported the New York Seaman's Group issued a pamphlet for seamen "on one page the 12 Steps have been streamlined into 5." 1946 - Des Moines Committee for Education on Alcoholism aired its first show on KRNT. 1946 - Pueblo. Colorado, had a second group, composed of alcoholic State Hospital patients. 1951 - Fortune magazine article about AA was published in pamphlet form. 1959 - AA granted "Recording for the Blind" permission to tape the Big Book. 1963 - Harpers carried article critical of AA. 1981 - 1st issue of "Markings," AA Archives Newsletter, was published, "to give the Fellowship a sense of its own past and the opportunity to study it." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1643. . . . . . . . . . . . Carl K. Obituary (1948) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/5/2004 10:37:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII February 1948 AA Grapevine EDITOR DIES Carl K., editor of The Empty Jug, died of a cerebral hemorrhage, Saturday night, July 13, in Memphis, Tenn. Carl was a member of the Chattanooga Group and was well known throughout the South. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1644. . . . . . . . . . . . Alcoholics Cannot Learn to be ''Social'' Drinkers (1995) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/5/2004 4:00:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII This article appeared in the July 29, 1995 Seattle Post-Intelligencer. It followed shortly after an article featuring an advocate of teaching alcoholics "responsible drinking" habits. James E. Royce, S.J., Ph.D. is professor emeritus of psychology and addiction studies at Seattle University and author of a leading textbook on alcoholism. Alcoholics cannot learn to be 'social' drinkers by James E. Royce Can alcoholics be conditioned to drink socially? Under such titles as "harm reduction" and "moderation management" that old question has been resurrected. Moderate drinking is certainly a more appealing goal to many problem drinkers than total abstinence. But medical professionals and additions counselors are unanimous in their opposition. Are they just rigid prohibitionists? As a lifetime member of the board of directors of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, I must point out that the big problem is that alcoholism is a progressive disease, often labeled as "problem drinking" in its early stages. Monday's cold is the flu on Wednesday and pneumonia on Friday. Most alcoholics are sure they can control their drinking on the next occasion. The result is killing alcoholics, who can expect a normal lifespan if they remain abstinent. For decades I have defined an alcoholic as one who says, "I can quit any time I want to." Self-deception is so typical of alcoholics that the American Society of Addiction Medicine included the term "denial" in its latest definition. Talk of harm reduction just feeds that denial. Most research fails to adequately separate true alcoholics from alcohol abusers or problem drinkers, which makes reports of success misleading. We can't know how many of the latter may progress into true alcoholism. The most thorough research (Helzer and Associates, 1985) studied five- and seven-year outcomes on 1,289 diagnosed and treated alcoholics, and found only 1.6 percent were successful moderate drinkers. Of that fraction, most were female and none showed clear symptoms of true alcoholism. In any case, it would be unethical to suggest to any patient a goal with a failure rate of 98.4 percent. We psychologists know that conditioning is limited in its ability to produce behavioral changes. To attempt to condition alcoholics to drink socially is asking of behavior modification more than it can do. Some have thought one value of controlled-drinking experiments could be that the patient learns for himself what he has not been able to accept from others, that he cannot drink in moderation - giving all that extra scientific help might destroy the rationalizations of the alcoholic who still thinks he can drink socially "if I really tried." Actually, most uses of conditioning in the field have been to create an aversion against drinking, to condition alcoholics to live comfortably in a drinking society and to learn how to resist pressure to drink. In that we have been reasonably successful, since this is in accord with the physiology and psychology of addiction. The discussion about turning recovered alcoholics into social drinkers started in 1962, but no scientific research had been attempted until 1970, when Mark and Linda Sobell, two psychologist at Patton State Hospital in California with no clinical experience in treating alcoholics, attempted to modify the drinking of chronic alcoholics, not as a treatment goal but just to see whether it could be done. The research literature is largely a record of failure, indicating that the only realistic goal in treatment is total abstinence. The prestigious British alcoholism authority Griffith Edwards (1994) concluded that research disproved rather than confirmed the Sobell position. Drs. Ruth Fox, Harry Tiebout, Marvin Block and M.M. Glatt were among the authorities who responded in a special reprint from the 1963 Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol to the effect that never in the thousands of cases they had treated was there ever a clear instance of a true alcoholic who returned to drinking in moderation. Ewing (1975) was determined to prove it could be done by using every technique known to behavior modification, but he also did careful and lengthy follow up - and at the end of four years every one of Ewing's subjects had gotten drunk and he called off the experiment. Finally, Pendery and Maltzman (AAAS Science, July 9, 1982) exposed the failure of the Sobell work, using hospital and police records and direct contact to show that 19 of the 20 subjects did not maintain sobriety in social drinking, and the other probably was not a true alcoholics to begin with. The Research of Peter Nathan indicates that whereas others may be able to use internal cues (subjective feelings of intoxication) to estimate blood-alcohol level while drinking, alcoholics cannot; so that method of control is not available to them. To ask a recovered addict to engage in "responsible heroin shooting" or a compulsive gambler to play just for small amounts is to ignore the whole psychology and physiology of addiction. Alcoholism is not a simple learned behavior that can be unlearned, but a habitual disposition that has profoundly modified the whole person, mind and body. That explains the admitted failure of psychoanalysis to achieve any notable success in treating alcoholics, and renders vapid the notion of Claude Steiner in "Games Alcoholics Play" that the alcoholic is a naughty child rather than a sick adult. Even the Sobells' claimed successful cases are now reported to have given up controlled drinking. For them abstinence is easier - for them trying to take one drink and stop is sheer misery. The reason is that one cannot "unlearn" the instant euphoric reinforcement that alcohol gives. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1646. . . . . . . . . . . . Alan Guiness/A Members Eye View of AA From: burt reynolds . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/6/2004 8:05:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Does anyone know anything about the man whose speech became the pamphlet "A Member's Eye View of AA"? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance: Get your refund fast by filing online [5] IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1647. . . . . . . . . . . . Recollections Of AA''s Beginnings (1952) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/7/2004 5:39:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII November 1952 AA Grapevine Thus Do I Remember. An Editorial Brings Some Recollections Of AA's Beginnings. . . Dear Grapevine: So September is the month of remembering! I am glad that you added "reading" and especially "re-dedication." I remember...the amazing friendliness of Akron AA in 1938. We were given an address book with all names listed (few could afford telephones then) and the earnest invitation to "call at any time." And we did. I remember...meetings. We were from Cleveland, and every Wednesday, rain or snow or shine, we made the 70-mile round trip to Akron. We made it eagerly, willingly; anxious to be with new friends. Often there would be pot-luck supper on Saturday nights. We were too poor in material possessions to entertain, but how wealthy we were in friendships! I remember...the emphasis on "morning meditation and morning reading," and all of us equipped with the 5˘ Upper Room. That was a must. I remember...every lesson that Anne dished out in her gentle and inimitable manner. "Dorothy, everyone has been kind to you as a newcomer. Never forget to pass that friendliness and kindness along!" I remember...when several manuscript chapters of "The Book" came. Anne and I read them to each other till 4 a.m., and Anne said: "Pray with me that this will help others." I remember...Anne every time I hear the Twelve Steps read, for the fifth chapter was one that we read so eagerly one night. I remember our first AA New Year's Eve party in Akron. Anne had gotten two new dresses, her very first new clothes. When I asked her which dress she would wear, she said "I can't wear a new dress. There will be so many who have no new clothes," and she wore the dress we were so accustomed to seeing on her. I remember...the word spreading like wild-fire: "Bill and Lois are coming!" When they arrived we would all be congregated to greet them. They would hide their weariness (as they still do) and greet us with warmth and affection. I remember...it says in the Big Book "We are like the passengers of a great liner the moment after rescue from shipwreck..." How true it was of us then! D.M., La Jolla, Calif. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1648. . . . . . . . . . . . General Service Conference - 1956 From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/8/2004 2:43:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII General Service Conference - 1956 "Petition, Appeal, Participation and Decision" By Bill W. God has been good to Alcoholics Anonymous. These sessions of the Sixth General Service Conference now ending have marked the time when our Society has taken the first step into the brave new world of our future. Never have we felt more confident, more assured of the years to come than we do this afternoon. This Conference thinks, I am sure, that its main structural concepts are approximately right. I am thinking of the relation of AA groups to their Assemblies, the method of choosing Committeemen and Delegates, Directors and Headquarters Staffs; also the relation of the Trustees, essentially a body of custody, to the operating services of the Headquarters, the Grapevine, Service office and AA Publishing. These interlocking relations are something for high confidence already based on considerable experience. Nevertheless we shall remain aware that these structures can be changed if they fail to work. Our Charter can always be amended. And of course, we shall always be much concerned with those lesser refinements that can improve the working of our main structure. Recent Improvements: On the first evening here, I explained some of our recent improvements of this Charter - how our newly formed Budget Committee is a fresh assurance that we can't go broke, how our new Policy Committee can avert blunders in this area and take the back breaking load of minor matters off of the Trustees, how our Nominating Committee can insure good choices of new Staff members, Directors and Trustees. In short, our Board of Trustees is now fitted with eyes, ears and a nose that can guarantee a much improved functioning. So far, so good. But our structure of service is no empty blueprint. It is manned by people who feel and think and act. Therefore any principles or devices that can better relate them to each other in a harmonious and effective whole are worth considering. So I now offer you four principles that might someday permeate all of AA's services, principles which express tolerance, patience and love of each other; principles which could do much to avert friction, indecision and power-driving. These are not really new principles; unconsciously we have been making use of them right along. I simply propose to name them and, if you like them, their scope and application can, over coming years, be fully defined. Four Key Words: Here are the words for them: petition, appeal, participation and decision. Maybe all this sounds a bit vague and abstract. So let's develop the meaning and application of these four words. Take petition. Actually this is an ancient device to protect minorities. It is for the redress of grievances. Every AA member, inside or outside our services, should have the right to petition his fellows. Some years ago, for example, a group of my old friends on the outside became violently opposed to the Conference. They feared it would ruin AA. To put it mildly, they thought they had a grievance. So they placed their ideas on paper and petitioned the AA groups to stop the Conference. Lots of our members got sore; they said this group had no right to do this. But they really did have the right, didn't they? Yet in our services, this right is often forgotten or unused. It is my belief that every person working in AAs services should feel free to petition for a redress of grievances or an improvement of conditions. I would like to make this personal right unlimited. Under it, a boy wrapping books in our shipping room could petition the Board of AA Publishing, the Board of Trustees, or indeed, the whole Conference if he chose to do so -- and this without the slightest prejudice against him. Of course, he'd seldom carry this right so far. But its very existence, and everybody's knowledge of it, would go far to stop those morale breakers of undue domination and petty tyranny. Let's look at the right of appeal. A century ago a young Frenchman, deTocqueville, came to this country to look at the new Republic. Despite the fact that his family had suffered loss of life and property in the French Revolution, this nobleman-student had begun to love democracy and to believe in its future. His writing on the subject is still a classic. But he did express one deep fear for the future: he feared the tyranny of the majority, especially that of the uninformed, the angry, or the close majority. He wanted to be sure that minority opinion could always be well heard and never trampled upon. How very right he was has already been sensed by the Conference. Therefore, I propose that we further insure, in AA service matters, the right to appeal. Under it, the minority of any committee, corporate Board, or a minority of the Board of Trustees, or a minority of this Conference, could continue to appeal, if they wished, all the way forward to the whole AA movement, thus making the minority voice both clear and loud. Protective Safeguard: As a matter of practice, this right, too, would seldom be carried to extremes. But again, its very existence would make majorities careful of acting in haste or with too much cocksureness. In this connection we should note that our Charter already requires in many cases a two-thirds vote (and in some instances a three-quarter vote) for action. This is to prevent hasty or inconsiderate decision by a close majority. Once set up and defined, this right of appeal could greatly add to our protection. Now we come to participation. The central concept here is that all Conference members are on our service team. Basically we are all partners in a common enterprise of World Service. Naturally, there has to be a division of duties and responsibilities among us. Not all of us can be elected Delegate, appointed Trustee, chosen Director, or become hired Staff member. We have to have our respective authorities, duties and responsibilities to serve; otherwise we couldn't function. But in this quite necessary division, there is a danger -- a very great danger -- something that will always need watching. The danger is that our Conference will commence to function along strict class lines. The elected Delegates will want all, or most all, of the Conference votes, so they can be sure to rule the Trustees. The Trustees will tend to create corporate boards composed exclusively of themselves, the better to rule and direct those working daily at the office, Grapevine and AA Publishing. And, in their turn, the volunteer Directors of the Grapevine and Publishing Company will tend to exclude from their own Board any of the paid staff members, people who so often carry the main burden of doing the work. To sum it up: the Delegates will want to rule the Trustees, the Trustees will want to rule the corporations and the corporate directors will want to rule the hired Staff members. Headquarters Experience: Now Headquarters experience has already proved that this state of affairs means complete ruin of morale and function. That is why Article Twelve of your Conference Charter states that "No Conference member shall ever be placed in a position of unqualified authority over another." In the early days, this principle was hard to learn. Over it we had battles, furious ones. For lack of a seat on the several boards and committees that ran her office, for lack of defined status and duties, and because she was "just hired help," and a woman besides, one of the most devoted Staff members we ever had completely cracked up. She had too many bosses, people who sometimes knew less and carried less actual responsibilities than she. She could not sit in the same board or committee room as a voting equal. No alcoholic can work under this brand of domination and paternalism. This was the costly lesson that now leads us to the principle of participation. Participation means, at the Conference level, that we are all voting equals, a Staff member's vote is guaranteed as good as anyone's. Participation also means, at the level of the Headquarters, that every corporate Board or Committee shall always contain a voting representation of the executives directly responsible for the work to be done, whether they are Trustees or not, or whether they are paid or volunteer workers. This is why, today the president of AA Publishing and the senior Staff member at the AA office are both Directors and both vote on the Board of AA Publishing. This puts them on a partnership basis with the Trustee and other members of the Publishing Board. It gives them a service standing and an authority commensurate with their actual duties and responsibilities. Nor is this just a beautiful idea of brotherhood. This is standard American corporate business practice everywhere, something that we had better follow when we can. In this connection I am hopeful that the principal assistant to the Editor of The Grapevine, the person who has the immediate task of getting the magazine together, will presently be given a defined status and seated on the Grapevine's Board as a voting director. So much, then, for the principle and practice of "participation." Now, what about decision? Our Conference and our Headquarters has to have leadership. Without it, we get nowhere. And the business of leadership is to lead. The three principles just described -- petition, appeal and participation -- are obviously checks upon our leadership, checks to prevent our leadership running away with us. Clearly this is of immense importance. But of equal importance is the principle that leaders must still lead. If we don't trust them enough, if we hamstring them too much, they simply can't function. They become demoralized and either quit or get nothing done. How, then, are AA's service leaders to be authorized and protected so that they can work as executives, as committees, as boards of trustees or even as a Service Conference, without undue interference in the ordinary conduct of AAs policy and business? The answer lies, I think, in trusting our leadership with proper powers of decision, carefully and definitely defined. Trusted Executives: We shall have to trust our executives to decide when they shall act on their own, and when they should consult their respective committees or boards. Likewise, our Policy, Public Information and Finance Committees should be given the right to choose (within whatever definitions of their authority are established) whether they will act on their own or whether they will consult the Board of Trustees. (Our Headquarters can, of course, have no secrets.) Similarly, the Grapevine and AA Publishing Boards should be able to decide when to decide when to act on their own and when to consult the full Board of Trustees. The Trustees, in their turn, must positively be trusted to decide which matters they shall act upon, and which they shall refer to the Conference as a whole. But where, of course, any independent action of importance is taken, a full report should afterward be made to the Conference. And last, but not at all least, the Conference itself must have a defined power of decision. It cannot rush back to the grassroots with all its problems or even many of them. In my belief the Conference should never take a serious problem to the grassroots until it knows what their own opinion is, and what the "pros" and "cons" of such a problem really are. It is the function of Conference leadership to instruct the Group Conscience on the issues concerned. Otherwise, an instruction from the grassroots which doesn't really know the score can be very confusing and quite wrong. Informed Groups: Therefore Conference Delegates must have liberty to decide what questions shall be referred to the AA group and just how and when this is to be done. The conscience of AA is certainly the ultimate authority. But the grassroots will have to trust the Conference to act in many matters and only the Conference can decide which they are. The Conference, however, must at all times stand ready to have their opinions reversed by its constituent groups but only after these groups have been thoroughly informed of the issues involved. Such, I think, are the several powers of decision that our Conference and Headquarters leadership must have or else fail in their duty. Anarchy may theoretically be a beautiful form of association, but it cannot function. Dictatorship is efficient but ultimately it goes wrong and becomes demoralized. Of course AA wants neither. Therefore, we want leadership that can lead, yet one which can be changed and restrained. Servants of our fellowship, however, our leaders must always remain trusted. We surely want leaders who are enabled to act in small matters without constant interference. We want a Conference that will remain extremely responsible to AA opinion, yet a body completely able to act alone for us when necessary -- even in some great and sudden crisis. Such then could become the AA service principle of decision. If we now begin to incorporate the words petition, appeal, participation and decision into our service thinking and action, I believe that many of our confusions about AA's service functions will begin to disappear. More harmony and effectiveness will gradually replace the service gears that still grind and stick among us. Of course, I am not now announcing these as permanent principles for definite adoption. I only offer them as ideas to ponder until we meet again in 1957. Therefore I don't see why we should delay trying the experiment I have just outlined above. If it doesn't work, we can always change. AA has often asked me to make suggestions and sometimes to take the initiative in these structural projects. That is why I have tried to go into this very important matter so thoroughly. Please believe that I shall not be at all affected if you happen to disagree. Above all, you must act on experience and on the facts, and never because you think I want a change. Since St. Louis, the future of AA belongs to you! P.S. Some AAs believe that we should increase our Board from 15 to 21 members in order to get the 10 alcoholics we need. This would involve raising the non-alcoholics from 8 to 11 in number. But, might this not be cumbersome and needlessly expensive? Personally, I think so. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1649. . . . . . . . . . . . General Service Conference - 1957 From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/9/2004 3:05:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII General Service Conference - 1957 The Need for Authority Equal to Responsibility By Bill W. The Tradition of Alcoholics Anonymous in its present short form suggests that AA shall forever remain unorganized, that we may create special boards or committees to serve us -- never governmental in character. The Second Tradition is the source of all of the authority which, as you know, lies in the group conscience of which this Conference is the articulate voice worldwide. Those are the basics on which our structure of service rests, whether at the group level, the Intergroup or AA as a whole. What we want of the service is primarily to fill a need that can be met in no other way. The test of any service really is: "Is it necessary." If it is really necessary, then provide it we must, or fail in our duty to AA and those still to come. Experience has shown that certain necessary services are absolutely indispensable at all levels. We make this distinction: The movement itself is never organized in any governmental sense. A member is a member if he says so. He cannot be coerced. He cannot be compelled. In that sense we are a source of benign anarchy. When it comes to the matter of service, the services within themselves obviously have to be organized or they won't work. Therefore the service structure of Alcoholics Anonymous and more especially of this Conference is the blueprint in which we, as flesh and blood people, operate, relate ourselves to each other and provide these needed services. And it is the evolution of this blueprint within which we function that has been my chief concern for the last dozen and a half years. The usefulness of AA to us in it, and more particularly to all those still to come, even the survival of AA, really depend very much on the soundness of our basic blueprint of relating ourselves together so A.A. can function. That is the primary thing. That is what we have come to call the structure. Let's have a brief overall look at our structure again. Then see at what point it may possibly need refinement and improvement. I hope we never think that the cathedral of AA is finished. I hope that we will always be able to refine its lines and enhance its beauty and its function. Very obviously the unit of authority in AA is the AA group itself. That's all the "law" there is. Everything that we have here in the way of authority must come from the groups. To create the voice of AA's conscience as expressed in the groups, we meet in group assemblies. And then to obviate the usual political pressures, we choose Committeemen and Delegates by the novel methods of no personal nominations and use of a two-thirds vote. Now arrived here, how are Delegates to be related to the Board of Trustees? It was the original parent of the groups and a hierarchy of service quite appropriate to our infancy, but one which must now become directly amenable to Delegates and those closely linked to Delegates. That question was responsible for a great deal of thought and speculation in time past. And I think our seven years' experience has suggested that, in broad outline, we are somewhere near right. The Board of Trustees as a hierarchy had certain great advantages, which we want to keep. For the long pull, it had immense liabilities. It was a law unto itself. Now, it must become a partner. We have the Board, which is more or less of an appointive proposition, and the staff members and directors of services, largely appointed, subject to your consent, of course. We had the problem of how the electees are going to relate to the appointees. In the first place, in this Conference, we put all of ourselves in the same club. The Trustee, for example, becomes a Conference member with one vote, and a custodial duty. A Director of a service agency becomes a Conference member, with a service duty. At the level of this Conference, we are all equal; we are all in the club. Mid you note that the appointees have been set in a great minority to the electees to insure that Area Delegates will always have adequate powers of persuasion. The Board of Trustees, you remember, is a legally incorporated entity. It has to be that way first of all to transact business. It has to be that way to give its several members and committees appropriate powers and titles which denote what they do. We have to have that much organization in order to function. Theoretically, as Bernard Smith has pointed out, the Board of Trustees has been legally undisturbed by all the recent change. Nevertheless, in a Traditional and psychological sense, the Trustees' relations to the groups and to you has been profoundly altered, not because Delegates have legal power but because Trustees know that Delegates are their linkage to AA as a whole. They also very well know that if you don't like what they do, you can go home and cut off Area support. In order to have anything functional, people have to have an authority to act. Very obviously there are all kinds of questions arising where the basic problem is "Who should act? And where should the committee or board or individual act, and when should he act?" A Conference, a movement, can't actually run anything. A Board of Trustees really can't run anything. We operated on that mistaken idea for a while. We have to classify the kind of thing that each worker, each Board, does -- and the kind of thing the Conference does and the kind of thing that AA must do to keep this Fellowship functioning. In other words there must always be an authority equal to the responsibility involved in service work. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1650. . . . . . . . . . . . Development of Online General Service From: John Phipps . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/9/2004 6:42:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII *Online General Service -- A History for Representatives to the Online Service Conference * ****************************************************************************************************** *Forenote: * The purpose of this document is to provide a basis of history as background for Online Service Conference members. The online AA groups share a common history both of Alcoholics Anonymous service structure and of AA development on the internet. It is this unique combination of shared histories which led to the Online Service Conference. *Development of General Service. * The general service structure of Alcoholics Anonymous sprang from the early success and spread of AA throughout the United States and Canada, then across the world. The founders, particularly Bill W. and Dr. Bob, realized that the program of recovery which they had founded in the late 1930's had become a "movement" only a few years later. After the Jack Alexander article of 1941 in the Saturday Evening Post, the number of groups rapidly quadrupled and continued to grow rapidly. As AA spread, it began to change to adapt to new areas, then new nations. The need for a unifying structure soon became obvious. Some means of gathering the group conscience of all the groups was needed. The increasing age of the founders made it clear that their term of leadership was nearing an end. Early attempts to answer group questions and policy issues were handled one-at-a-time by Bill W., aided by Ruth Hock, using the US mails as the principal glue which held the growing movement together. The first International Convention celebrated AA's fifteenth anniversary in Cleveland in July 1950. The first General Service Conference convened in New York City in April 1951. Both the International Conventions and the General Service Conferences have been used to express AA's collective group conscience over the years. The "three legacies" of recovery, unity and service were adopted at the International Convention of 1955, the year of publication of the second edition of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. Development of the general service structure in the United States and Canada is chronicled in some detail in AA Comes of Age, published in 1957, the year in which membership went over 200,000. It is recommended reading for those interested in early AA history. However, very little is available concerning the development of general service structures in nations other than the US and Canada. Bill W's suggestions for the continuation of the Fellowship were written as the "Traditions" of AA in 1945, published in the Grapevine in 1946, and not at all enthusiastically received by the Fellowship. Bill and wife Lois traveled far and wide in an attempt to persuade the members of new groups across North America that the Traditions were meaningful and useful. Finally, they were adopted at the International Convention of 1950 at Cleveland. In that same year, Dr. Bob fell seriously ill, and the trustees authorized Bill W to lay out a plan for a General Service Conference, to insure continued guidance for the Fellowship . On the heels of his difficult experience with "selling" the Traditions, Bill struggled with the Conference structure. He wrote, "... how on earth were we going to cut down destructive politics, with all its usual struggles for prestige and vainglory?" He also wrote, "Though the Conference might be later enlarged to include the whole world, we felt that the first delegates should come from the US and Canada only." We know now that the expansion of the Conference to the world did not come in Bill's lifetime, and is yet to be realized. There is no "World General Service Conference" of Alcoholics Anonymous which addresses policy issues and expresses the collective conscience of the worldwide Fellowship. In its place, some 52 General Service Offices and a growing number of General Service Conferences have sprung up to meet the needs of Alcoholics Anonymous groups around the world. Some of these emulate the US/Canada pattern closely; others are more unique to the locale in which they exist. The boundaries of the Conferences usually follow national frontiers, but there are linguistic Conferences which flow over the borders of nations, as did the original General Service Conference of the United States and Canada. A World Service Meeting was begun in New York City in 1969, with 27 delegates from 16 countries, and has been held biennially since; however, the meeting is not a part of the general service structure of the Fellowship, and does not attempt to express the group conscience of the world's AA's. It is an information-sharing meeting for attendees. *AA on the Internet* ==================== Little is known of the first AA members to contact other members using computer-based communications. It is likely that AA members among the first users of email sought out others to share experience, strength and hope. There are fragmentary records and oral histories of AA members using the earliest bulletin board systems (BBS) through local telephone connections via modems which were both slow and limited in reliability. Hardware concerns were in the forefront, and communication among computers over distance was possible, but difficult. By 1986, there were AA meetings, or at least meetings of AA friends, on bulletin boards in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Chicago, and probably other American cities. A few staff members in the New York General Service Office were aware of AA members meeting electronically, and began keeping contact addresses in the late 1980's. According to the AA Grapevine's "From Akron to the Internet" timeline of AA communications, "Q-link," one of the earliest online AA groups, began in 1986, grew to 200 members in two years, and GSO began keeping a partial list of online AA groups by 1988. A meeting for online members was provided at the Seattle 1990 International Convention, which may have been the first face to face meeting of AA onliners from a wide area. It was well attended, but did not result in a lasting organization for online members. The internet developed rapidly into an international communications system, and facilitated written communications at long distances. Local bulletin boards and small access providers added newsgroup and email capabilities, which soon made the local net technologies redundant. Early internet AA groups used multiple addresses (cc: lists) for email to reach all member mailboxes with a single post. When a member changed email addresses, or internet service providers, all members had to change the address in order to keep the system up to date and whole. Early members remember this as a constant headache. Mailing list technology was a breakthrough in providing a suitable online home for email-based AA groups. Listserv and Majordomo software "reflected" a message sent to a single common address onward to a multitude of recipients, and greatly eased maintenance of address lists, which could now be updated centrally. A new AA service position as online group "listkeeper" was born, and became key to the growth of the Fellowship in the new medium. Other online technologies, including "chat rooms," "guest book" technology on WWW sites and newsgroups all have played roles in the development of AA online, and continue to be used in varying ways by online groups, but the greatest growth has been in email-based groups, which number some 240 groups with perhaps 8000 participants as the Online Service Conference came into being in mid-2002. (No accurate census is available. Numbers based on estimates). * Online AA Comes Together *The first online AA groups depended upon word of mouth by their own members to identify and enroll new members. There was no complete online directory of groups. Each group carried out its efforts independently, finding its own way to sharing recovery in the new medium. Some groups grew very large, notably the Lamplighters Group, perhaps the first online meeting to formally identify itself as an AA group. It took its name from the General Electric "Aladdin's lamp" logo which identified the GEnie online service provider on which the group met. It grew swiftly in the early 1990's to hundreds of members and a full spectrum of AA committees and elected service positions emulating the largest face to face groups. Other meetings and groups felt that it was important to remain small to permit good online sharing on AA topics, and broke off to form new groups repeatedly when group size exceeded 30 or 40 members. Some groups related to one another on the basis of a common internet service provider. New online groups were founded for specialized membership, such as women, men, gay or lesbian, etc. Other groups formed around a preference for certain meeting styles, such as Big Book study, weekly topic discussions, or other styles. Email groups sometimes "spun off" chat meetings that appealed to a sector of their members. The groups were clearly autonomous. There was no central online body, and little communication among the existing groups. Rumors surfaced that one of the earliest groups, "Meeting of the Minds" (MoM) had registered as a group with the General Service Board of the UK. Some of the group's founders had been Scots. In the UK, a unique district had been designated "District 11" to contain those English-speaking AA groups not meeting in the British Isles, particularly those meeting on the European continent. In the US, Lamplighters Group attempted to follow suit by sending a standard group registration form to the US/Canada General Service Office in 1994. Because the form asked for place and time of meetings, the group identified itself as an online group and was denied registration for that reason. The GSO of the US and Canada explained that only groups which met face to face within the boundaries of the US and Canada could be registered in their Conference. A group which met on the internet, ("in cyberspace") could not be included, and could have no voice or vote in its Conference. *No criticism based on how the AA Traditions were followed online ever was voiced by the General Service Office nor any AA trustee.* It was agreed that a list of online groups would be maintained in the New York offices and provided to anyone seeking online participation in AA. The online groups were pleasantly surprised in the same year when their request to participate was approved, and a "loving invitation" was issued to provide workshop speakers on the topic of online AA and to host a hospitality room for the 1995 International Convention in San Diego. Speakers for the panel were easily located, and a "Living Cyber Committee" was formed online to host the hospitality room and plan its activities. A member of the Living Cyber Committee worked for a San Francisco Bay company which had just replaced its computing machinery with newer models, and was able to borrow some idle older machines to be used in the hospitality room as demonstrations of online AA. Online groups agreed to share with conventiongoers, and in some cases nonattending members set up special lists or held "model" meetings online for convention participants. The "Cyber Suite," as the hospitality room came to be known, was a major success by any measure, and a watershed event for online AA. The "buzz" around the San Diego Convention halls led thousands of visitors to the online demonstrations. Another important activity of the room was to provide a meeting place for "friends who had never met face to face" from the participating online groups. Every day there were whoops of recognition as members encountered those previously known only as usernames on their monitors. Delegates and trustees were briefed on the new medium as they visited, and online groups took turns in four hour shifts as "hosts" for the room. As the convention came to a close, a few members of the Living Cyber Committee and a few new friends from online groups vowed to continue serving together in some manner after they returned to their home computers. A handful, perhaps less than a dozen, set about to form a service structure for the online groups. After a few weeks of discussion, it was determined that the most flexible AA service organization, and easiest to found, was an intergroup. In short order, the Online Intergroup of AA (OIAA) was formed, incorporated in New Jersey, and brought into initial operation on the internet. Efforts continued by individual members, online groups and the new online intergroup to find a place in the general service structure of Alcoholics Anonymous. Requests to attend the US/Canada General Service Conference in observer status were denied. Requests to attend the World Service Meeting in observer status were denied, even after recommendation was made by a WSM committee that online organizations participate in their meetings, as a view to the future. Few, if any, area delegates to the US and Canada General Service Conference were online AA participants, and many without experience viewed the growing number of new online groups with suspicion and open derision. In 1998, with no representatives of online AA groups in attendance, the US/Canada General Service Conference determined that online groups applying for registration would be classified as "international correspondence meetings." The online intergroup, OIAA, was listed under that directory classification also, rather than among "Central Offices, Intergroups and Answering Services." Another "loving invitation" was issued, this time to OIAA, to participate in the 2000 International Convention in Minneapolis. Rather than a single workshop, the program included several individual presentations by online members. A trustee with online experience chaired a panel on "AA in Cyberspace - Now", followed by "AA in Cyberspace - Future,." plus other specialized online topics. A hospitality room again was hosted in Minneapolis by OIAA, and equipped with online computers demonstrating how AA had grown on the internet; however, its location outside the main flows of convention traffic, plus growing public familiarity with computers and the internet, resulted in somewhat less conventiongoer curiosity and attendance than five years earlier in San Diego. Online members were pleased beyond measure when their medium of AA participation was favorably mentioned in the last paragraph of the new Foreword to the Fourth Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous, the Fellowship's basic text. They were equally shocked when the first US/Canada General Service Conference after the Fourth Edition's publication voted to remove a sentence from the paragraph in future printings. The proscribed sentence alluded to the equivalence of online meetings and face to face groups. Even without the sentence, the paragraph remains a strong endorsement of online AA, ending, "Modem to modem or face to face, AA's speak the language of the heart in all its power and simplicity," clearly marking recognition of online AA in the basic text, if not in the general service structure.. * Establishment of an Online Service Conference*. In November 2001, OIAA members decided to start again from the beginning and study the matter of how online AA groups might best fit into the worldwide Fellowship, with emphasis on how online groups might participate in a general service structure. The chairman appointed a study committee, headed by Ewart F. of South Africa, who invited participation by a mixed group of online members, some of whom had long experience with the issues. It became clear early in study committee discussions that there were a limited number of ways in which online groups might join together in pursuit of a meaningful group conscience. The possibilities narrowed to three patterns; (1) Online Group in Existing Area, (2) Online Area for Online Groups, and (3) Online Conference for Online Groups. The following is a much-abbreviated summary of the committee's evaluation of each pattern of participation, with benefits and problems of each pattern, from the records of the study group: (1) "Online Group in Existing Area." This is the easiest and most obvious pattern of participation. An online AA group might participate as part of an existing face to face area, based upon some chosen geographic location, perhaps the home address of the group's elected GSR. The problems are many, including probable nonacceptance by some areas, and probable unwillingness of some online members to support a single distant geographic area. Ultimately, the problem lies in the question, "What was discussed at the area meeting?" There are no face to face areas which share the concerns of online groups and vice versa. Onliners in a group with worldwide membership will have little interest in the plans for visits to treatment centers in Wyoming or the convention planned for Puerto Rico. Members of face to face groups in those areas would likely have little interest in plans for an online hospitality room at the next International Convention. (2) "Online Area for Online Groups." It might be possible for the US and Canada General Service Conference to create a new area equivalent to a state or provincial area, perhaps called the "Online Area." It is easy to conceptualize, but the most difficult pattern to achieve. First, there are no delegates in the US/Canada General Service Conference who represent online groups, so there is no one to advance the proposal against known opposition -- it is "politically impossible." Second, there are many online members who are not residents of the US or Canada, and would have problems analogous to the "distant area" difficulties outlined above. A decision would have to be made whether to assume that all online members are American and Canadian for group conscience purposes, or whether each national or linguistic conference should create a separate "Online Area." Neither is fully satisfactory, and both are unlikely to be attainable. (3) "Online Conference for Online Groups." This pattern follows the model of most "new nations"(or linguistic zones) as they come into the AA Fellowship. First, a few groups are established, then perhaps an intergroup or central office, then a new general service structure evolves, especially adapted to the characteristics of the "new nation." An Online Service Conference would represent no geographic nation, but would include all the AA groups in "cyberspace," that is, those which operate on the internet, which has no national boundaries. This pattern would insure a Conference richly populated with AA viewpoints from many parts of the world. It would be necessary to replace the missing national General Service Office with some mechanism to act for the Conference between its meeting times, but such a Conference could be assembled online with less difficulty than a face to face Conference. Of the three options, all study committee members agreed that the Online Service Conference held out the only real hope for meaningful participation by online AA members in the group conscience process. The potential for future participation by an Online Service Conference in the World Service Meeting or conceptual "World Service Conference" is an attractive, if uncertain, possibility. The question remaining was whether or not the online groups would understand and support the concept of an Online Service Conference of their own. The OIAA study committee formulated an Online General Service Statement, as follows: "We, the members of Alcoholics Anonymous who share our experience, strength and hope on the internet, now assemble to discuss our common purpose and establish the Online Service Conference to unify our voice in the worldwide Fellowship of AA." This was offered to online groups for their endorsement.. The committee chairman reported to the OIAA chairman that the committee's work was finished, and that it should be dissolved to reassemble and continue its work outside the intergroup. This ended affiliation between the intergroup and the new general service structure under development. Former committee members took on the tasks of identifying online groups and inviting them to meet, and established procedures to keep the confusion of a new organization to a minimum, including a new "Steering Committee" to act in the role of a General Service Office between Conference meetings in "cyberspace." Six committee members were designated to serve as "Interim Steering Committee" to guide activities for the first meetings of the new Conference, and an agenda was prepared for the first meeting, set for July 1, 2002. * *The first meeting on the Online Service Conference was held July 1-31, 2002, when the Interim Steering Committee assembled approximately 49 interested members representing around 32 online groups. There was discussion of many issues of concern to online AA groups, including how a group conscience could be formed online, issues of internet publication of AA copyrighted documents, online anonymity, relationships with "face to face" AA bodies, and other concerns. The first Online Service Conference representatives together passed only two actions; the first, ratifying the Conference as beginning a general service structure for online AA and planning to meet again in January 2003; the second, to elect six members of a Steering Committee to stand for the Conference and prepare an agenda in the interim between meetings. The second Online Service Conference met January1-31, 2003, with 59 members (including 33 group representatives, plus alternates and steering committee) continuing discussion of many of the issues considered in the first Conference. The agenda included (1) definition of an "online AA group," (2) online literature publication and AAWS copyrights, (3) using online AA to reach those who cannot be served by "face to face" AA, (4) anonymity guidelines for the internet, (5) issues affecting world unity of the AA Fellowship, (6) future OSC participation with other AA organizations. New committees were organized, including one to search for more online AA groups who might be invited to OSC, a Literature Committee, a Translation Committee and a Web Committee. Nominations were taken for candidates for the Steering Committee, to be voted at the third Online Service Conference in July 2003. No Online Advisory Actions were voted during the second conference. The third Online Service Conference met July 1-31, 2003 with 43 groups represented, plus alternates and steering committee members, totaling 57 members. Two actions were considered - a definition of online AA groups, and a recommendation that online groups provide representatives to OSC for two year periods. Neither passed with substantial unanimity and both were referred for further study. Committees were formed to study the issues which had been offered. New members were elected to fill vacant Steering Committee positions. As in the previous assembly, no Online Advisory Actions were voted during the third conference. The fourth Online Service Conference met January 1-31, 2004 with 48 groups represented, plus alternates and steering committee members, totaling 73 members. The most significant action at the assembly was introduction of a proposed Charter for OSC presented by James C. from the UK, as chairman of the Voting Methods Committee. The Web Committee also presented its work on the OSC website for comment by the assembly. No voting actions were offered with the agenda or acted upon during the conference assembly. * John P., OSC Listkeeper *Rev: Feb 8, 2004 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1651. . . . . . . . . . . . Bill W. Yale Correspondence (1954) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/10/2004 10:48:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The Bill W. - Yale Correspondence Bill's letters declining an honorary degree, unpublished in his lifetime, set an example of personal humility for AA today and tomorrow. EARLY IN 1954, after considerable soul-searching, Bill W. made a painful decision that ran counter to his own strong, self-admitted desire for personal achievement and recognition. The AA co-founder declined, with humble gratitude, an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws offered by Yale, one of the nation's oldest, most famous, and most prestigious universities. Acceptance would have brought him - and AA - enormous amounts of favorable publicity. The university, too, would have received respectful recognition from press, public, and the academic world for presenting the degree. Yet he turned it down. Would a yes from Bill have vastly changed AA as we know it today? Would the change have been for better, or for worse? Could Bill's acceptance of the honor have sown seeds that, in time, would have destroyed AA? These are some of the questions that figured in Bill's perplexity and in his prayers. The Grapevine is publishing the correspondence between Bill and Reuben A. Holden, then secretary of the university. The exchange of letters followed a personal visit to Bill from Mr. Holden and Professor Selden Bacon in January of 1954. The following week, Bill received this letter: Yale University New Haven, Connecticut January 21, 1954 Dear Mr. W : I enclose a suggested draft of a citation which might be used in conferring upon you the proposed honorary degree on June 7th. If your trustees approve this formula, I should then like to submit it to the Yale Corporation for their consideration. The wording can be considerably improved. We shall work on that during the next few months, but in every instance we shall be sure it has your unqualified blessing. Thanks for your hospitality on Tuesday and for your thoughtful consideration of our invitation. Very sincerely yours, Reuben A. Holden (Naturally, Bill's full name was used in all this private exchange. In observance of the Eleventh and Twelfth Traditions, the Grapevine is maintaining his anonymity at the public level.) This is the first draft of the text of the citation: W.W.: Co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. For twenty years, this Fellowship has rendered a distinguished service to mankind. Victory has been gained through surrender, fame achieved through anonymity, and for many tens of thousands, the emotional, the physical, and the spiritual self has been rediscovered and reborn. This nonprofessional movement, rising from the depths of intense suffering and universal stigma, has not only shown the way to the conquest of a morbid condition of body, mind, and soul, but has invigorated the individual, social, and religious life of our times. Yale takes pride in honoring this great anonymous assembly of men and women by conferring upon you, a worthy representative of its high purpose, this degree of Doctor of Laws, admitting you to all its rights and privileges. From the office of the Alcoholic Foundation (now the AA General Service Office), Bill sent this reply: February 2, 1954 Mr. Reuben Holden, secretary Yale University New Haven, Connecticut Dear Mr. Holden, This is to express my deepest thanks to the members of the Yale Corporation for considering me as one suitable for the degree of Doctor of Laws. It is only after most careful consultation with friends, and with my conscience, that I now feel obligated to decline such a mark of distinction. Were I to accept, the near term benefit to Alcoholics Anonymous and to legions who still suffer our malady would, no doubt, be worldwide and considerable. I am sure that such a potent endorsement would greatly hasten public approval of AA everywhere. Therefore, none but the most compelling of reasons could prompt my decision to deny Alcoholics Anonymous an opportunity of this dimension. Now this is the reason: The tradition of Alcoholics Anonymous - our only means of self-government - entreats each member to avoid all that particular kind of personal publicity or distinction which might link his name with our Society in the general public mind. AA's Tradition Twelve reads as follows: "Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities." Because we have already had much practical experience with this vital principle, it is today the view of every thoughtful AA member that if, over the years ahead, we practice this anonymity absolutely, it will guarantee our effectiveness and unity by heavily restraining those to whom public honors and distinctions are but the natural stepping-stones to dominance and personal power. Like other men and women, we AAs look with deep apprehension upon the vast power struggle about us, a struggle in myriad forms that invades every level, tearing society apart. I think we AAs are fortunate to be acutely aware that such forces must never be ruling among us, lest we perish altogether. The Tradition of personal anonymity and no honors at the public level is our protective shield. We dare not meet the power temptation naked. Of course, we quite understand the high value of honors outside our Fellowship. We always find inspiration when these are deservedly bestowed and humbly received as the hallmarks of distinguished attainment or service. We say only that in our special circumstances it would be imprudent for us to accept them for AA achievement. For example: My own life story gathered for years around an implacable pursuit of money, fame, and power, anti-climaxed by my near sinking in a sea of alcohol. Though I survived that grim misadventure, I well understand that the dread neurotic germ of the power contagion has survived in me also. It is only dormant, and it can again multiply and rend me - and AA, too. Tens of thousands of my fellow AAs are temperamentally just like me. Fortunately, they know it, and I know it. Hence our Tradition of anonymity, and hence my clear obligation to decline this signal honor with all the immediate satisfaction and benefit it could have yielded. True, the splendid citation you propose, which describes me as "W. W.," does protect my anonymity for the time being. Nevertheless, it would surely appear on the later historical record that I had taken an LL.D. The public would then know the fact. So, while I might accept the degree within the letter of AA's Tradition as of today, I would surely be setting the stage for a violation of its spirit tomorrow. This would be, I am certain, a perilous precedent to set. Though it might be a novel departure, I'm wondering if the Yale Corporation could consider giving AA itself the entire citation, omitting the degree to me. In such an event, I will gladly appear at any time to receive it on behalf of our Society. Should a discussion of this possibility seem desirable to you, I'll come to New Haven at once. Gratefully yours, William G. W Six days later, Mr. Holden replied: Dear Mr. W : I have waited to respond to your letter, of February 2 until we had a meeting of the Committee on Honorary Degrees, which has now taken place, and I want to report to you on behalf of the committee that after hearing your magnificent letter, they all wish more than ever they could award you the degree - though it probably in our opinion isn't half good enough for you. The entire committee begged me to tell you in as genuine a way as I can how very deeply they appreciated your considering this invitation as thoroughly and thoughtfully and unselfishly as you have. We understand completely your feelings in the matter, and we only wish there were some way we could show you our deep sense of respect for you and AA. Some day, the opportunity will surely come. Meanwhile, I should say that it was also the feeling of the committee that honorary degrees are, like knighthoods, bestowed on individuals, and that being the tradition, it would seem logical that we look in other ways than an honorary-degree award for the type of recognition that we should like to give the organization in accordance with the suggestion you made in your last paragraph. I hope this may be possible. I send you the warmest greetings of the president of Yale University and of the entire corporation and assure you of our sincere admiration and good wishes for the continued contribution you are making to the welfare of this country. Cordially yours, Reuben A. Holden The series of letters ends with Bill's acknowledgment: March 1, 1954 Dear Mr. Holden, Your letter of February 8th, in which you record the feelings of the Yale Corporation respecting my declination of the degree of Doctor of Laws, has been read with great relief and gratitude. I shall treasure it always. Your quick and moving insight into AA's vital need to curb its future aspirants to power, the good thought you hold of me, and your hope that the Yale Corporation might presently find the means of giving Alcoholics Anonymous a suitable public recognition, are something for the greatest satisfaction. Please carry to the president of Yale and to every member of the board my lasting appreciation. Devotedly yours, Bill W Recently, the Grapevine received a letter from an AA who was a trustee on the AA General Service Board at the time of this offer to Bill. The former trustee, Cliff W. of California, recalls talking to Bill at the board meeting following the ex-change of correspondence. "I suggested that we make a pamphlet of these letters, as his refusal letter was truly magnificent. Bill grinned and replied, 'Not while I'm alive. I don't want to capitalize on humility.'" Cliff suggested to the Grapevine that it would now be proper to print the letters. During Bill's lifetime, copies of the Yale correspondence were privately circulated within the Fellowship, with Bill's knowledge and consent. Jim A., who in 1965 was AA public information chairman for a central office in a large West Coast city, wrote to Bill, asking permission to show the letters to anonymity-breakers "...as an example that AA probably does not need their individual names to keep it going or to make it more effective." In reply, Bill wrote, "Certainly, you may show that Yale correspondence in a limited way. But I see you agree that it would not be exactly right on my part to consent to its general publication at this time. Actually, I'm not so damn noble as you suppose. In reality, I rather wanted that degree...However, I think the principle of anonymity will be so invaluable to us, especially in future time, that one in my position should really fall over backwards in trying to demonstrate the principle. By way of example, it might help in the years to come." Ten years before this, just one year after the Yale correspondence had ended and less than two weeks before the Twentieth Anniversary AA Convention in St. Louis in 1955, Bill replied to a Canadian AA friend who felt that publishing the letters at that time would "help consolidate AA and fortify the anonymity Tradition." "I agree with you in part," Bill answered, "that publication now could help temporarily. But I do think that publication would imply my permission and would therefore be not a little ego manifestation on my part. "Actually, when I declined the degree, I did it with the long future in mind. I could picture a possible time when AA might find itself in some great contention and crisis. At that time, this letter, though bearing the dead hand, might have a marked, even a deciding, effect...Anyhow, I would be disinclined to have it generally published at present - that is, published under circumstances which will surely indicate to the reader that I have given my consent." Under present circumstances - seven years after Bill's death - there is clearly no possibility of the consent that he called an "ego manifestation." The Grapevine feels that AA members, now numbering around eight times as many as were sober in 1954, have a right to know of Bill's example of both courage and humility. This correspondence may help all of us appreciate the sacrifice Bill made for us, and for the countless alcoholics yet to come to our Fellowship for help. February 1978 AA Grapevine IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1652. . . . . . . . . . . . GV March 94 -- Nicollet Group, Minn From: t . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/10/2004 12:15:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Grapevine, March 1994 [from column/series What We Were Like] Minneapolis: the Nicollet Chapter Most AA members in these parts know the story of Pat C., the drunken newspaperman who borrowed the Big Book from the Minneapolis Library, read it, and wrote to the Alcoholic Foundation [forerunner of the General Service Office] asking for help on August 9, 1940. The Alcoholic Foundation replied to Pat and sent his name on to the Chicago Group. Two members of that group came to see Pat in November of 1940. Pat took his last drink on November 11, 1940, and began working with others, and the first AA meeting in Minneapolis occurred shortly afterward. That is the history and the founding that we hear about most in the Twin Cities, and many AA groups all over the state can trace their beginnings back to Pat C. and 2218 First Avenue South, the first (and still operating) Alano Society in this part of the country. We had other beginnings and other pioneers, however, and this is the story of another Twelve-Step call, another pioneer, and another longstanding AA foundation stone in Minneapolis: There is a group that meets in Minneapolis, at 6301 Penn Avenue South, which celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in October 1993. The name of the group is the Nicollet Chapter and it began in 1943 when Barry C. left 2218 to start a new group, styled after the groups of his friend and AA's co-founder, Dr. Bob of Akron, Ohio. It was a big deal when the Nicollet Chapter left 2218. Until that time, 2218 was the hub of all of the AA activity in this area. 2218 was mother and mentor to many AA groups, and most early groups asked for and got a lot of help in starting. But the Nicollet Chapter started, autonomous from 2218 and clearly wanted to stay that way, and it shook a lot of AA members up. Was this a fight? Was there a problem? Was somebody going to get drunk? Barry and Pat both said no, but a rift was created between 2218 and the Nicollet Chapter that never quite healed. Barry C. had quietly gotten sober in April of 1940, a few months before Pat, after a visit from a sober Chicago friend, Chan F. (who was also one of the two AAs who visited Pat in November). But Barry was chronically ill most of his life, and spent much of the first months of his sobriety incapacitated. Barry was in the hospital when Pat got sober and began working with others. He always had a much "lower profile" than Pat, and did not contend Pat's status as the founder of AA in Minnesota. Pat, however, made certain that Barry's part in our history was known, as witnessed in this 1941 letter to his fellow Minneapolis AAs: "Many of you, perhaps, don't know it but Barry C. was the first practicing AA in Minneapolis . . . Only the fact that he was hopelessly invalided for a long time prevented Barry from getting out and organizing. You all know what he has accomplished since he has been able to get around. That guy has more ideas in five minutes than I have in five weeks, and we all owe him a note of thanks ..." Barry C. corresponded with Bob and others in Akron, Cleveland and Chicago, and the Nicollet Chapter resembled in many ways the early meetings in Akron. Barry believed that all of the alcoholics' solutions were in the Big Book. He believed that alcoholism was a family problem and that recovery must include the entire family - the attendance of wives was strongly suggested. The Nicollet Group's most unusual characteristic was its intolerance of "slippers." Prospective members were asked if they were ready, willing, and able to practice the Twelve Steps. If not, they were asked to do their drinking outside of AA. Faith in the program was considered paramount, and once a member lost their faith, it was felt that it could not be easily regained. These were the principles that the Nicollet Chapter started with, and stayed with. They hung with each other, did Twelfth Step work, helped start AA in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Winnipeg and Manitoba, Canada, which still have groups modeled on the Nicollet Group. Those groups still correspond today, and still believe that their way of practicing the teachings of the Big Book are the best way. In their ideology, the Nicollet Group members stayed to themselves. The growth of AA in Minnesota and nationwide did not change them. The adoption of the Traditions did not change their meetings, and the General Service structure did not concern them. And, fifty years later, the Nicollet Groups' 100 or so members still stick to the original. Stepping into the meeting is sort of like stepping back in time. There is coffee, yes, and more food than usual at a meeting place. Folks know each other, and have no trouble spotting outsiders and greeting them. The Twelve Steps and the Serenity Prayer are prominently displayed everywhere, but the Traditions are not. Don't look for notices of upcoming conventions or roundups - you won't find Nicollet Group members at these events. They have their own social gatherings. There also won't be notices of upcoming general service assemblies or district meetings, or notices of intergroup happenings. They do not participate in these events. When I was newly sober, I asked an older AA member about our cofounders, Dr. Bob and Bill W. She told me about Dr. Bob wishing to keep AA simple, and about Bill the super AA promoter. She told me an old AA joke: that if Dr. Bob had his way, AA would never have made it out of the midwest, and if Bill had his way, it would be set up as an international franchise. She said that between the two of them, they created the balance between simple service and service organization that we needed to function and carry out our primary purpose. I don't know if this is what Dr. Bob had in mind, but I thought of this when I visited the Nicollet Group. There was love there, and Twelfth Step work, and newcomers, and talk of the Steps, and families, and sharing, and picnics, and announcements to visit members in the hospital. I met a man and his wife, in their late twenties, who were celebrating their one year membership in the group. I met couples who were 20 or 25 year members. I saw (and was given to pass on to our area archives) a wealth of historical materials - correspondence, articles, photographs - all telling of the miracles and the timelessness of alcoholics working together. As a group, Nicollet is recognizing that in order to survive AA groups need to work together. For the first time in many years, the Nicollet Group is listed in our local intergroup directory. They know they need to work with others, as do we all. Autonomy is a valued possession, and we cannot deny the Nicollet Group theirs. There is a lesson in autonomy here for me as an AA member. I see our autonomy must end when others are affected, as it states in the Fourth Tradition. The Nicollet Group will be richer for interaction with the rest of us, and we will be richer for our interaction with them. The Nicollet Group deserves recognition for their fifty years of meeting together, growing together, and staying sober together. They have contributed much to the fabric of AA. Anonymous, Minneapolis, Minn. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1653. . . . . . . . . . . . 10th General Service Conference - 1960 (Part One of Two) From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/11/2004 3:19:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Proposal by Bill W. For Twelve Concepts For World Service 10th General Service Conference - 1960 This proposal, delivered by Bill W. at the closing of the 10th General Service Conference, is of great historical significance as it was the first time that Bill had spoken to the Fellowship on the subject of the Twelve Concepts. The transcript has been verified against the original voice recording. _________ The last of the sand in the hourglass of our time together is about to run its course. And you have asked me, as of old, to conclude this conference, our tenth. I always approach this hour with mixed feelings. As time has passed, each year succeeding itself, I have found increasing gratitude beyond measure, because of the increasing sureness that AA is safe at last for God, so long as he may wish this society to endure. So I stand here among you and feel as you do a sense of security and gratitude such as we have never known before. There is not a little regret, too, that the other side of the coin -- that we cannot turn back the clock and renew these hours. Soon they will become a part of our history. The three legacies of AA - recovery, unity and service -- in a sense represent three utter impossibilities, impossibilities that we know became possible, and possibilities that now have borne this unbelievable fruit. Old Fitz Mayo, one of the early AAs and I visited the Surgeon General of the United States in the third year of this society, told him of our beginnings. He was a gentle man, Dr. Lawrence Kolb, since become a great friend of AA, and he said: "I wish you well. Even the sobriety of such a few is almost a miracle. The government knows that this is one of the greatest health problems we have, one of the greatest moral problems, one of the greatest spiritual problems. But we here have considered recovery of alcoholics so impossible that we have given up and have instead concluded that rehabilitation of narcotic addicts would be the easier job to tackle." Such was the devastating impossibility of our situation. Now, what had been brought to bear upon this impossibility that it has become possible? First, the Grace of Him who presides over all of us. Next, the cruel lash of John Barleycorn who said, "This you must do, or die." Next, the intervention of God through friends, at first a few, and now legion, who opened to us, who in the early days were uncommitted, the whole field of human ideas, morality and religion, from which we could choose. These have been the wellsprings of the forces and ideas and emotions and spirit which were first fused into our Twelve Steps for recovery. And some of us got well. But no sooner had a few got sober then the old forces began to come into play. In us rather frail people, they were fearsome: the old forces, the drives, money, acclaim, prestige. Would these tear us apart? Besides, we came from every walk of life. Early, we had begun to be a cross section of all men and women, all differently conditioned, all so different and yet happily so alike in our kinship of suffering. Could we hold in unity? To those few who remain who lived in those earlier times when the Traditions were being forged in the school of hard experience on its thousands of anvils, we had our very, very dark moments. It was sure recovery was in sight, but how could there be recovery for many? Or how could recovery endure if we were to fall into controversy and so into dissolution and decay? Well, the spirit of the Twelve Steps, which has brought us release, from one of the grimmest obsessions known -- obviously, this spirit and these principles of retaining Grace had to be the fundamentals of our unity. But in order to become fundamental to our unity, these principles had to be spelled out as they applied to the most prominent and the most grievous of our problems. So, out of experience, the need to apply the spirit of our steps to our lives of working and living together, these were the forces that generated the Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous. But, we had to have more than cohesion. Even for survival, we had to carry this message. We had to function. In fact, that had become evident in the Twelve Steps themselves for the last one enjoins us to carry the message. But just how would we carry this message? How would we communicate, we few, with those myriad's who still didn't know? And how would this communication be handled? And how could we do these things, how could we authorize these things in such a way that in this new hot focus of effort and ego we were not again to be shattered by the forces that had once ruined our lives? This was the problem of the Third Legacy. From the vital Twelfth Step call right up through our society to its culmination today. And, again, many of us said: This can't be done. It's all very well for Bill and Bob and a few friends to set up a Board of Trustees and to provide us with some literature, and look after our public relations, and do all of those chores for us we can't do for ourselves. This is fine, but we can't go any further than that. This is a job for our elders. This is a job for our parents. In this direction only can there be simplicity and security. And then we came to the day when it was seen that the parents were both fallible and perishable (although this seems to be a token they are not). And Dr. Bob's hour struck. And we suddenly realized that this ganglion, this vital nerve center of World Service, would lose its sensation the day the communication between an increasingly unknown Board of Trustees and you was broken. Fresh links would have to be forged. And at that time many of us said: This is impossible. This is too hard. Even in transacting the simplest business, providing the simplest of services, raising the minimum amounts of money, these excitements to us, in this society so bent on survival have been almost too much locally. Look at our club brawls. My God, if we have elections countrywide, and Delegates come down here, and look at the complexity -- thousands of group representatives, hundreds of committeemen, scores of Delegates - My God, when these descend on our parents, the Trustees, what is going to happen then? It won't be simplicity; it can't be. Our experience has spelled it out. But there was the imperative, the must. And why was there an imperative? Because we had better have some confusion, we had better have some politicking, than to have an utter collapse of this center. That was the alternative. And that was the uncertain and tenuous ground on which this Conference was called into being. I venture, in the minds of many, sometimes in mine, the Conference could be symbolized by a great prayer and a faint hope. This was the state of affairs in 1945 to 1950. And then came the day that some of us went up to Boston to watch an Assembly elect by two-thirds vote or lot a Delegate. And prior to the Assembly, I consulted all the local politicos and those very wise Irishmen in Boston said, we're gonna make your prediction Bill, you know us temperamentally, but we're going to say that this thing is going to work. And it was the biggest piece of news and one of the mightiest assurances that I had up to this time that there could be any survival for these services. Well, work it has, and we have survived another impossibility. Not only have we survived the impossibility, we have so far transcended it that I think that there can be no return in future years to the old uncertainties, come what perils there may. Now, as we have seen in this quick review, the spirit of the Twelve Steps was applied in specific terms to our problems, to living, to working together. This developed the Traditions. In turn, the Traditions were applied to this problem of functioning at world levels in harmony and in unity. And something which had seemed to grow like Topsy took on an increasing coherence. And through the process of trial and error, refinements began to be made until the day of the great radical change. Our question here in the old days was: Is the group conscience for Trustees and for founders? Or are they to be the parents of Alcoholics Anonymous forever? There is something a little repugnant -- you know, They got it through us, why can't we go on telling them? So the great problem, could the group conscience function at world levels? Well, it can and it does. Today we are still in this process of definition and of refinement in this matter of functioning. Unlike the Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions which no doubt will be undisturbed from here out, there will always be room in the functional area for refinements, improvements, adaptations. For God's sake, let us never freeze these things. On the other hand, let us look at yesterday and today, at our experience. Now, just as it was vital to codify in Twelve Steps the spiritual side of our program, to codify in twelve traditional principles the forces and ideas that would make for unity, and discourage disunity, so may it now be necessary to codify, those principles and relationships upon which our world service function rests, from the group right up through. This is what I like to call structuring. People often say, What do you mean by structuring? What use is it? Why don't we just get together and do these things? Well, structure at this level means just what structure means in the Twelve Steps and in the Twelve Traditions. It is a stated set of principles and relationships by which we may understand each other, the tasks to be done and what the principles are for doing them. Therefore, why shouldn't we take the broad expanse of the Traditions and use their principles to spell out our special needs in relationships in this area of function for world service, indeed, at long last, I trust for all services whatever character? Well, we've been in the process of doing this and two or three years ago it occurred to me that I should perhaps take another stab -- not at another batch of twelve principles or points, God forbid, but at trying to organize the ideas and relationships that already exist so as to present them in an easily understood manner. (continued in Part Two) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1654. . . . . . . . . . . . 10th General Service Conference - 1960 (Part Two of Two) From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/11/2004 3:25:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII As you know the Third Legacy Manual is a manual that largely tells us how; it is mostly a thing of mere description and of procedure. So I have cooked up in a very tentative way something which we might call Twelve Concepts for World Service. This has been a three-year job. I found the material, because of its ramifications, exceedingly hard to organize. But I have made a stab at it and the Concepts, which are really bundles of related principles, are on paper and underneath each is a descriptive article. And I have eleven of the articles and perhaps will soon wind up the Twelfth. Now, to give you an idea of what's cooking, what I've been driving at, I'll venture to bore you with two or three paragraphs of the introduction to this thing. "The Concepts to be discussed in the following pages are primarily an interpretation of AA's world service structure. They spell out the traditional practices and the Conference charter principles that relate the component parts of our world structure into a working whole. Our Third Legacy manual is largely a document of procedure. Up to now the Manual tells us how to operate our service structure. But there is considerable lack of detailed information which would tell us why the structure has developed as it has and why its working parts are related together in the fashion that our Conference and General Service Board charters provide. "These Twelve Concepts therefore represent an attempt to put on paper the why of our service structure in such a fashion that the highly valuable experience of the past and the conclusions that we have drawn from it cannot be lost. "These Concepts are no attempt to freeze our operation against needed change. They only describe the present situation, the forces and principles that have molded it. It is to be remembered that in most respects the Conference charter can be readily amended. This interpretation of the past and present can, however, have a high value for the future. Every oncoming generation of service workers will be eager to change and improve our structure and operations. This is good. No doubt change will be needed. Perhaps unforeseen flaws will emerge. These will have to be remedied. "But along with this very constructive outlook, there will be bound to be still another, a destructive one. We shall always be tempted to throw out the baby with the bath water. We shall suffer the illusion that change, any plausible change, will necessarily represent progress. When so animated, we may carelessly cast aside the hard won lessons of early experience and so fall back into many of the great errors of the past. "Hence, a prime purpose of these Twelve Concepts is to hold the experience and lessons of the early days constantly before us. This should reduce the chance of hasty and unnecessary change. And if alterations are made that happen to work out badly, then it is hoped that these Twelve Concepts will make a point of safe return." Now, quickly, what are they? Well, the first two deal with: ultimate responsibility and authority for world services belongs to the AA group. That is to say, that's the AA conscience. The next one deals with the necessity for delegates' authority. And perhaps you haven't thought of it, but when you re-read Tradition Two, you will see that the group conscience represents a final and ultimate authority and that the trusted servant is the delegated authority from the groups in which the servant is trusted to do the kinds of things for the groups they can't do for themselves. So, how that got that way, respecting world services: ultimate authority, delegated authority is here spelled out. Then there comes in the next essay this all questioned importance of leadership, this all important question of what anyway is a trusted servant. Is this gent or gal a messenger, a housemaid - or is he to be really trusted? And if so, how is he going to know how much he can be trusted? And what is going to be your understanding of it when you hand him the job? Now, these problems are legion. The extent to which this trust is to be spelled out and applied to each particular condition has to have some means of interpretation, doesn't it? So I have suggested here that, throughout our services, we create what might be called the principle of decision - and the root of this principle is trust. The principle of decision, which says that any executive, committee, board, the Conference itself, within the state or customary scope of their several duties, should be able to say what questions they will dispose of themselves - and which they will pass on to the next higher authority for guidance, direction, consultation and whatnot. This spells out and defines, and makes an automatic means of defining throughout our structure at all times, what the trust is that any servant could expect. You say this is dangerous? I don't think so. It simply means that you are not, out of your ultimate authority as groups, to be constantly giving a guy directions who you've already trusted to think for himself. Now, if he thinks badly, you can sack him. But trust him first. That is the big thing. Now, then, there is another traditional principle, the source of another essay here called the principle of participation. Our whole lives have been wrecked, often from childhood, because we have not been participants. There had been too much of the parental thing, too much of the wrong kind of the parental thing. We always wanted to belong, we always wanted to participate; and there is going to be a constant tendency, which we must always defend against, and that is to place in our service structure any group, AA as a whole, the Conference, the Board of Trustees, committees, executives - to place any of these people in absolutely unqualified authority, one over the other. This is an institutional, a military, set-up - and God knows we drunks have rejected institutions and this kind of authority, for our purpose, haven't we? So, therefore, how, as a practical matter, are we going to express this participation. Right here in this conference it's burned in; in Article XII you'll see this statement in the Conference Charter: nobody is to be set in utter authority over anybody else. How do we prevent this? The Trustees here, and the headquarters people here, are in a great minority over you people. You have the ultimate authority over us. And you say, well these folks are nicely incorporated, and we ain't; and they have the dough legally, so have we got it? Sure, you got it. You can go home and shut the dough off, can't you? You've got the ultimate authority but - we've got some delegated authority. Now when you get in this Conference, you find that the Trustees, and the Directors and the staffs have votes. And many of you say, why is it; we represent the groups; why the hell shouldn't we tell these people? Why should they utter one yip while we're doing it? Oh, we'll let 'em yip, but not vote. Well, you see, right there we get from the institutional idea to the corporate idea. And in the corporate business world, there is participation in these levels. Can you imagine how much stock would you buy in General Motors if you knew the president and half the board of directors couldn't get into a meeting because they were on the payroll? Or could just come in and listen to the out-of-town directors? You'd want these people's opinions registered. And they can't really belong unless they vote. This we have found out by the hardest kind of experience. So therefore, the essay here on participation deals with the principle that any AA servant in any top echelon of service, regardless of whether they're paid, unpaid, volunteer or what, shall be entitled to reasonable voting privileges in accordance with their responsibility. And you good politicos are going to say, but these people here hold a balance of power. Well, we qualified that in one way. We'll take the balance of power away from them when it comes to qualifications for their own jobs or voting in approval of their own actions. But the bulk of the work of this Conference has to do with plans and policy for the future. So supposing that among you Delegates there is a split. And supposing these people come in and vote, which, by the way, they seldom do as a bloc, and they swing it one way or the other on matters of future policy and planning; well, after all, why shouldn't they? Are they any less competent than the rest of us? Of course not. Besides these technical considerations, there is this deep need in us to belong, to participate. And you can only participate on the basis of equality - and one token of this is voting equality. At first blush, you won't like the idea. But you'll have a chance to think about it. One more idea: There came to this country some hundred years ago a French Baron whose family and himself had been wracked by the French revolution, de Tocqueville. And he was a worshipful admirer of democracy. And in those days democracy seemed to be mostly expressed in people's minds by votes of simple majorities. And he was a worshipful admirer of the spirit of democracy as expressed by the power of a majority to govern. But, said de Tocqueville, a majority can be ignorant, it can be brutal, it can be tyrannous - and we have seen it. Therefore, unless you most carefully protect a minority, large or small, make sure that minority opinions are voiced, make sure that minorities have unusual rights, you're democracy is never going to work and its spirit will die. This was de Toqueville's prediction and, considering today's times, is it strange that he is not widely read now? That is why in this Conference we try to get a unanimous consent while we can; this is why we say the Conference can mandate the Board of Trustees on a two-thirds vote. But we have said more here. We have said that any Delegate, any Trustee, any staff member, any service director, - any board, committee or whatever -- that wherever there is a minority, it shall always be the right of this minority to file a minority report so that their views are held up clearly. And if in the opinion of any such minority, even a minority of one, if the majority is about to hastily or angrily do something which could be to the detriment of Alcoholics Anonymous, the serious detriment, it is not only their right to file a minority appeal, it is their duty. So, like de Tocqueville, neither you nor I want either the tyranny or the majority, nor the tyranny of the small minority. And steps have been taken here to balance up these relations. Now, some of the other things cover topics like this, I touched on this: The Conference acknowledges the primary administrative responsibility of the Trustees. We have talked about electing trustees and yet primarily they are a body of administrators. In a sense, it's an executive body, isn't it? Look at any form of government. (Understand we're not a form of government, but you have to pay attention to these forms). The President of the United States is the only elected executive; all the rest are appointive, aren't they, subject to confirmation by the Senate, which is the system we got here - and this goes into that. And then there is this question taken up in another essay. How can these legal rights of the Trustees, which haven't been changed one jot or tittle by the appearance of this Conference, if they've got the legal right to hang on to your money and do as they dammed please, what's going to stop them? Well, the answer is: Nobody has a vested interest. They have to be volunteers always. They are amenable to the spirit of this Conference and its power and its prestige -- and if they are not, there is a provision here by which they can be reorganized; there is a provision in here by which they can be censored - and you can always go home and shut off the money spigot. So, the traditional power of this Conference and the groups is actually superior to the legal power of the Trustees. That is the balance. But the trustees as a minority some day, should this Conference get very angry and unreasonable, say: Boys, we're going to veto you for the time being, we ain't gonna do this - even as the President of the United States has the veto, so will these fellows. You go home and think this over. We won't go along. And if you give them a vote of no confidence, they can appeal to the groups. These are the balances, see; this is interpretive, this has all been implicit in our structure but we're trying to spell it out. Well, there are others - There's a whole section on leadership, service leadership from top to bottom, what it's composed of. In AA we wash between great extremes. On the one side, we've got the infallible leader who never makes any mistakes - and let us do just as he says. On the other side we have a concept of leadership which goes and says: What shall I do? What shall I do? Tell me, what time do it - I'm just a humble servant, not a trusted one, just a humble one. The hell with either. Leadership in practice works in between - and we spell that out. And so on. This will give you an idea of what's cooking in the Twelve Concepts for World Service. The last one which I haven't done deals with the Conference - Article XII of the Conference charter. And you who recall it know that this is several things. First of all, it's the substance of the contract the groups made with the Board of Trustees at the time of St. Louis. And this contract decrees that this body shall never be a government. It decrees that we shall be prudent financially. It decrees that we shall be keepers of the AA Tradition - and so on - so that it is in part a spiritual document and in part a contract. And, God willing, because it is both spiritual and contract, let it be for all time of our existence a sanctified contract. My own days of active service, like the sands in our last hourglass, are running out. And this is good. We know that all families have to have parents and we know that the great unwisdom of all parenthood is to try to remain the parents of infants in adolescence and keep people in this state forever. We know that when the parents have done their bit, and said their pieces, and have nursed the family along, that there comes the point that the parents must say: Now, you go out and try your wings. You haven't grown up and we haven't grown up, but you have come to the age of responsibility where, with the tools we are leaving you, you must try to grow up, to grow in God's image and likeness. So my feeling is not that I'm withdrawing because I'm tired. My feeling is that I would like to be another kind of parent, a fellow on the sidelines. If there is some breach in these walls which we have erected, some unseen flaw or defect, of course all of us oldsters are going to pitch in for the repairs. But this business of functioning in the here and now, that is for the new generation. May God bless Alcoholics Anonymous forever. And I offer a prayer that the destiny of this society will ever be safe in the hearts of its membership and in the conscience of its trusted servants. You are the heirs. As I said at the opening the future belongs to you. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1655. . . . . . . . . . . . Grace Cultice Obituary (1948) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/12/2004 2:15:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII CHICAGO SECRETARY DIES SUDDENLY From Chicago She knew all about us and loved us anyway. Grace Cultice, 57, was a blessed paradox-a non-alcoholic who spoke the language of the alkies, an "outside" believer in Alcoholics Anonymous who backed her faith with good works. When two alcoholics got together eight years ago to form the first A.A. group in Chicago, Grace was on hand to help. She's been helping ever since. She gave those eight years willingly, eagerly, unselfishly. Indeed, she literally gave her life. Grace died in her Chicago apartment January 8 of a heart attack. She had endured a long illness, but was thought to be recovering. Against medical advice she had persisted in many of her duties as secretary and office manager of the Greater Chicago group. She'd tried to slow down, but it was next to impossible to keep her under wraps. For two days her flower-banked casket lay in a Chicago mortuary. Thousands came to mourn. Then the body was taken to her native Xenia, Ohio, for burial by relatives. Miss Cultice was a familiar figure in Chicago advertising circles when she became interested in A.A. through friendship with the local group founders. Often she acted as hostess at early meetings of three, four or a half dozen members. She grew up with the Chicago group. Along the route to its present 5,000-plus membership, the need became pressing for a full-time secretary. Grace took the job, ignoring the financial sacrifice. Because she knew how alkies talk and think and act, she shepherded hundreds into the ways of recovery. She was a genial "greeter" for A.A.s visiting Chicago. On her last Christmas, cards came from A.A.s the world over. Alcoholics have an inherent distaste for mawkishness. But none feels shame for his tears for Grace, nor for his devastating sense of personal loss.-E.B. February 1948 AA Grapevine IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1656. . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. Bob "In Memoriam" (1952) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/15/2004 2:22:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII November 1952 AA Grapevine IN MEMORIAM And In Thanks Two years ago, on November 16th, 1950, R. H. S., died in Akron, Ohio. It was Thursday, close to noontime, one week before what would have been his 71st Thanksgiving Day. It was fifteen years and five months after his own last drink...and it was fifteen years and five months in which he had personally ministered as friend and teacher and physician to 5,000 alcoholics. To each of them he was simply "Doctor Bob." And to history he will be "Co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous." And to Bill he is "The Prince of Twelfth Steppers"...and "The Rock Upon Which AA Is Founded"...and simply "Smitty." He met death serenely, for he had to the fullest given himself to life. He left the rich gifts of simplicity and love and service. We who have followed him in The Way Out give him thanks anew for the message he so tirelessly carried. And we think this man who learned true humility would most like the memorial that is still to come...those thousands now sick and despairing who will yet find our way out of dilemma into recovery…strengthened by the invisible hand of Doctor Bob... IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1657. . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. Bob Announcement Of His Passing (1950) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/15/2004 2:22:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII December 1950 AA Grapevine Dr. Bob The tragic news of Dr. Bob's death came after this issue of the Grapevine had gone to press. No hastily written words can possibly describe the feelings of the thousands of AAs who knew him personally. And only the loving God who has been so merciful to us all can truly measure the greatness of his contribution not only to AA but to all mankind. We shall make here no mere listing of his devotions to AA. How in-adequate for a man who is a co-founder of something that has meant so much to so many. But even 'Co-Founder' does not serve. For Dr. Bob was the rock on which AA is founded. None who saw and heard him last summer at Cleveland will ever forget his characteristic statement -- the last he made in public -- " -- love and service are the cornerstones of Alcoholics Anonymous!" In loving tribute, the January issue of the Grapevine will be dedicated as a Memorial to our beloved Dr. Bob. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1659. . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. Bob Quote From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/16/2004 5:23:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I have always heard this quote as being attributed to Dr. Bob: "Carry the message. And if you must, use words." Can anyone tell me where this Dr. Bob quote can be found? Thanks! I found this other quote on a website attributed to St. Francis: "Preach always. When necessary use words". We recognize the importance of paying attention to the substance of our message, but that is not enough. The manner in which we make that message known is as important as the message itself. Just Love, Barefoot Bill IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1660. . . . . . . . . . . . Back to Basics - Compilation of excerpts from Previous Posts From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/17/2004 7:16:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Friends, The AA History Lovers list is getting so long that it is difficult if not impossible to search the entire list. For example, when a question was asked recently about Back to Basics I had forgotten that the subject was already thoroughly covered on the list. In an effort to clean up the list I am starting to combine posts on the same subject. The post numbers will stay but the message will be deleted after being combined in one message. I am starting with Back to Basics. Some feel that this is not an appropriate topic for the list, but I still think it is of interest to AA historians. In order to avoid repetition the following are excerpts from the posts re Back to Basics, usually not the entire message. I cannot verify the accuracy of all the posts. Nancy On September 29, 2002, Katherine E wrote: I was wondering if anyone had any information on the the development of the movement Back to Basic and their connection to AA History. I was recently at a conference where I met some Back to Basic advocates who where making some questionable statements about how things were done in the early days. I was wondering how valid this back to Basic movement is in regards to actual AA program and it's history. Ernest Kurtz responded: From what I have seen and heard in well over two decades of study, the so-called "Back to Basics" movement is an attempt to re-create the Oxford Group as it existed in the mid-1930s. AA as we know it grew out of that, partially by rejecting aspects of those teachings. Some, from Henrietta Seiberling and James Houck on, have effectively tried to deny that separation and to bring "A.A." back under those auspices. The "Back to Basics" movement has many strengths and apparently helps many people. But its relationship to Alcoholics Anonymous is similar to the relationship of Judaism to Christianity. Mary in Michigan wrote: Here in Michigan we are using a book Call Back to Basic, by Wally P. This Book has information about the development of the movement. In Michigan Meetings are starting to use the back to basic back as a class for taking the 12 steps. ... Here is a web site to check it http://www.aabacktobasics.com/index.html Jim McG wrote: That we use the AA Big Book to teach the steps, makes the claim that we are attempting to re-create the Oxford Group movement seem odd. We DO feature an Oxford Group staple, a pamphlet called "How to Listen to God" in our practicing the 11th step. This we use as a guide to practice "quiet time and guidance." ,,, We also feature a simplfied "assets/liability" 4th step inventory that is described on the page next to the resentments/fears/sex thing in the Big Book. Cliff B. in Texas wrote: One of the things I have appreciated and enjoyed about this Group has been the lack of controversy. But in the past few weeks, we have seen it begin and this topic is one that really has no place in this Group. Any student of the Big Book readily recognizes that there is a lot of stuff that has been written in the "Back to Basics" manual that is not Alcoholics Anonymous. With 63 years of time tested, experience proven success, no one has approached the success that is realized when an alcoholic PRECISELY follows the clear-cut directions that are outlined in the Basic Text for Alcoholics Anonymous which are obviously divinely inspired. ... I have been around long enough to see our Fellowship slip from: "Rarely have we seen a person fail....." to seldom do we see a person recover. Let's get back to the real Basics; the Basic Text for Alcoholics Anonymous which is titled, "ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS." ______ When questions appeared again recently I combined some of the responses as follows: From: goldentextpro@aol.com [6] NO! "Back to Basics" is not the original AA program, and it had nothing to do with Akron. And I have to be emphatic about this. First, read Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, on the Frank Amos report of AA in 1938, pp. 130-136. You will find a good description of the real first program as employed by Dr. Bob Smith. There were no Steps. There was no classroom. There was the Bible, a morning Quiet Time, religious devotionals, prayer, no drunkalogs, church affiliation, and frequent hospital visits to new prospects. The "Back to Basics" approach, kicked up by Wally P., is an off-shoot of what Clarence Snyder was doing in Cleveland post-1939. Clarence said that his only two source books were the Big Book and the Good Book. Following the Cleveland Plain Dealer's outstanding articles on AA, membership exploded in Cleveland, and to keep up with it, and so that the program wouldn't get garbled, Clarence decided to start group classroom-type education classes. He would take the folks through the first nine steps. The last three, of course, was the daily program. Prayer, Quiet Time, a daily inventory utilizing the Four Absolutes (honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love) as yardsticks, and helping others. From: "Robert Stonebraker" [7] A view of how Dr. Bob sponsored Earl Treat through Six-Step process, as it was at that time (1937), can be found on page 292 of the Third Edition (263, Fourth Edition) of the Big Book. ... I have in possession a rather thick binder from an existing Akron Group called: "Back To the 40's." The cover of which states: "Taking the 12 Steps in 5 one hour classes." Briefly, the meeting is chaired by a reader and a commentator as they "teach" the Twelve Step process in five classes by going through the Big Book. The person who gave me this is very involved in Akron AA history. From: "Arthur" [8] BtB advocates that so-called original' AA (as practiced in Akron) had a remarkably high recovery rate no longer achieved today. They further claim that 90-180 days of their meetings "takes us back to the 'original' program that produced a 50-75% recovery rate." Somehow, someway, someone has concluded that BtB is getting a 50-75% recovery rate and the rest of AA has only a 5-10% recovery rate, depending on which study you read. According to BtB, contemporary AA is supposed to be errant due to its lack of orthodoxy relative to 'original' Oxford Group methodology and principles. Please don't take my word on it. Visit their web site and draw your own conclusion based on its content. ... A possible source of BtB's assertion of an "early AA 75% recovery rate" may derive from Dr Harry Tiebout's paper "Therapeutic Mechanism of Alcoholics Anonymous." It was originally published in 1944 and later reprinted [in 1957] in "AA Comes of Age." On pg 310, it states "Alcoholics Anonymous claims a recovery rate of 75 percent of those who really try their methods." I'd suggest that the key words are "really try" not "75 percent." ... Later in commenting about Bill W's spiritual experience (Bill is called Mr. "X") Tiebout states "According to Alcoholics Anonymous experience the speed with which the spiritual awakening takes place is no criterion of either depth or permanence of cure. The religious leavening, however little at first, starts the process; the program helps to bring it to a successful conclusion." The 1944 paper, I presume, would serve as a reputable description of AA's program of Recovery in its "early days." Tiebout goes on to list a series of numbers for the initial 7 years of AA: 5 recovered at the end of the 1st year [1935];15 recovered at the end of the 2nd year [1936]; 40 recovered at the end of the 3rd year [1937];100 recovered at the end of the 4th year [1938]; 400 recovered at the end of the 5th year [1939]; 2000 recovered at the end of the 6th year [1940]; 8000 recovered at the end of the 7th year [1941]. Jack Alexander's article in Sat. Eve. Post. It should be fairly obvious that the figures cited as "recovered" are membership estimates. While certain locales may have made claims of this or that success rate, there is no way anyone can verify those claims with reasonable confidence. The data to do so just doesn't exist. What appears to get used most in these scenarios are statements of articles of faith based on anecdotal assertion and sincerity. From a membership of 5 in 1935 to an international membership in excess of 2,100,000 today, perceived issues in success rates seem far more premised on imagination than information. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1661. . . . . . . . . . . . Letter from Ruth Hock to Bill Wilson dated November 10, 1955 From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/17/2004 10:47:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII A photocopy of this letter was give to me by Rich B. in Minneapolis during the 2000 international convention. Across the top in Bill's handwriting it says "Ruth Hocks recollections." I originally posted it in several parts hoping to keep it as close to the original as possible. To clean up the list I am posting it here as one document. I have made no effort to correct punctuation or grammatical errors, so you language purists will just have to exercise tolerance. Nancy Nov. 10, 1955 Dear Bill: As I wrote to you last week it is difficult for me to get a long period of uninterrupted time together to put down my recollections of those old A.A. days - but I have about two hours - so here goes. Let me say first that I do not guarantee the accuracy of any dates I may use until I have the opportunity to check one thing against the other which I am willing to do if it ever proves necessary - neither do I insist that my memory is absolutely accurate - it will be easier if I can just sort of meander along for present purposes. As I remember it you had been sober just a little over a year when I first met you. I think I went to work for Honor Dealers in about January of 1936. The job I applied for was as Secretary to sort of a distributorship for a group of service stations - naturally I had no idea what a surprise fate had in store for me and what a change it would make in my personal life, in my relations to and my opinions of my fellow man. I walked into the Honor Dealers office in Newark, N.J. on Williams Street one Monday morning - was interviewed by Hank - and started to work immediately that morning. My immediate impression of Hank was that he had a vibrant personality - that he was capable of strong likes and dislikes - that he seemed to be possessed of inexhaustible energy - and that he liked to make quick decisions. You arrived shortly thereafter Bill bringing with you an aura of quiet warm friendliness - of slow deliberate decisions - and at least I thought at the time, not much interest really in the Service Station business. By the end of that very first day I was a very confused female for, if I remember correctly, that first afternoon you had a visitor in your office and I think it was Paul Kellogg. Anyway, the connecting door was left wide open and instead of business phrases what I heard was fragments of a discussion about drunken misery, a miserable wife, and what I thought was a very queer conclusion indeed - that being a drunk was a disease. I remember distinctly feeling that you were all rather hard hearted because at some points there was roaring laughter about various drunken incidents. Fortunately I liked you both immediately - I am not too easily frightened - and you were paying $3.00 more per week than I had been getting - so I was willing to give it a try. You will remember with me, I know, that in those days and for several years to come, we talked about "drunks" and not "alcoholics" and therefore I use those terms here. The activity of Honor Dealers, as I remember it, was never of paramount importance it seemed to me after I began to know most of you original men, that it was only a means to an end - that end being to help a bunch of nameless drunks. Having come from a thrifty German family I know what I thought if you two would spend as much energy and thought and enthusiasm on Honor Dealers as you did on drunks you might get somewhere. That would be hard to prove either way and actually I've never known whether the original premise of Honor Dealers was sound. Anyway I soon stopped caring whether Honor Dealers was successful or not and became more and more interested in each new face that came along with the alcoholic problem and caring very much whether they made the grade or not. All of you made me feel as though I were a very worthwhile person in my own right and very important to you which in turn made me want to always give my best to all of you. To me that is part of the secret of the success of A.A. - the generous giving of oneself to the needs of the other. Well - the activities of Honor Dealers slowly but surely declined and there was more and more correspondence with drunks and more of them showing up in the office. In those days it was part of the procedure, if the prospect was willing to go along, to kneel and pray together - all of you who happened to be there. To me, drunkenness and prayer were both very private activities and I sure did consider all of you a very revolutionary lot - but such likable and interesting revolutionaries! Hank put a good bit of thought and effort into Honor Dealers but whether his ideas had real merit or whether there was not enough prolonged effort or whether it was just a poor time for that kind of an idea I was not capable of judging then nor am I now. I only know that within about a year finances were precarious enough to move us into a tiny office in the same building and even then I was front man to explain to the superintendent why the rent wasn't paid on time and the telephone bill, etc. Payday was an indefinite affair indeed. I am somewhat confused about the timing of the move into the small Newark office because now that I think about it I remember that the book work was done in the large office. Anyway, early in my association with you, Bill, you began to dictate letters to Doc Smith. You never liked to dictate to a shorthand note book - you always dictated directly as I typed. In the amazing way these things often happen, since word of what you fellows were doing in New York and by that time Doc Smith in Akron was simply spread vocally from mouth to mouth, inquiries began to float in from amazing distances and some of these you asked me to answer in my own fashion. That is, to refer them to the closest "educated drunk." "Educated" of course in the sense that they knew something of this new possibility of an answer to alcoholism. Somewhere during those first months I also first met Doc Smith who gave everyone a feeling of great serenity - peace with himself and God - and an abounding wish to share what he had found with others. Somewhere along in there John Henry Fitzhugh Mayo also appeared (Offhand I have no idea of the dates) with his warm sense of humor and the all abiding wish to give to other drunks what he too had found. This you all had in common to an exciting and unbelievable degree. During that first year at least I don't think I ever attended a meeting, but through your dictation, Bill, through all I heard at the office and through the letters I was answering myself in your behalf I began to absorb an understanding of what it was all about and what you were trying to do and I became aware that the possibilities of writing a book were being discussed. Many of you thought it was an absolute necessity because even then the original idea was often distorted in the hundreds of word of mouth discussions. Its original basic simplicity was often completely confused beyond comprehension and besides it was becoming more and more impossible to fully expound the idea satisfactorily in letter after letter to various inquirers. Also, especially to the advertising type of man, the spread of the idea was going much too slowly and would become a sensation overnight if only put out in book form!! So far as I know there was never any doubt that you were the one to write it, Bill, and I know that you spent endless hours discussing its general form with everyone who would listen or offer an idea - especially with Doc Smith, Fitz and Hank. As soon as you began to feel you had at least a majority agreement you began to arrive at the office with those yellow scratch pads sheets I came to know so well. All you generally had on those yellow sheets were a few notes to guide you on a whole chapter! My understanding was that those notes were the result of long thought on your part after hours of discussion pro and con with everyone who might be interested. That is the way I remember first seeing an outline of the twelve steps. As I look at it today the basic idea of each chapter of the book and the twelve steps is still essentially today what you scribbled on the original yellow sheets. Of course there were thousands of small changes and rewrites - constant cutting or adding or editing but there are only two major changes made that I remember, both fought out in the office when you and Hank and Fitz and I were present. The first had to do with how much God was going to be included in the book itself and the 12 steps. Fitz was for going all the way with God, you were in the middle, Hank was for very little and I - trying to reflect the reaction of the non-alcoholic was for very little too. The result of this was the phrase "God as you understand Him," which I don't think ever had much of a negative reaction anywhere. We were unanimous that day and you got a greenlight everywhere you showed that typewritten copy including Doc Smith and the Akron contingent where a copy of everything was sent for O.K. or criticism. The only other major change I remember during the actual writing of the book was that originally it was directly written to the prospective alcoholic, that is -- "You were wrong" -- "You must" -- "You should" and after a big hassle, this was changed to read -- "We were wrong" -- "We must" -- "We should" -- etc." This was quite a job because by the time this major revision was decided on most of the book had been finished in its first draft at least and each chapter as well as the 12 steps had been slanted toward "you" instead of "We" to begin with. At this time I had still attended very few meetings but I know that the office confabs and final decisions were only made after the aforementioned hours of discussion with all who cared to take part in them with you so that the majority opinion of all who attended meetings at that time was reflected in the final decisions. During all this time, of course, there was plenty of discussion about a name for the book and there were probably hundreds of suggestions. However, I remember very few --"One Hundred Men" - "The Empty Glass" - "The Dry Way" - "The Dry Life" - "Dry Frontiers" - "The Way Out" - This last was by far the most popular. Alcoholics Anonymous had been suggested and was used a lot among ourselves as a very amusing description of the group itself but I don't believe it was seriously considered as a name for the book. More later on this. By the time the book was mimeographed mostly for distribution in an effort to raise money to carry on and get the book published. There was constant discussion about detail changes with seemingly little hope for unanimous agreement so it was finally decided to offer the book to Tom Uzzell for final editing. It had been agreed, for one thing, that the book, as written, was too long but nobody could agree on where and how to cut it. At that point it was still nameless because Fitz had reported that the selected name of "The Way Out" was over patented. I remember that during an appointment with Tom Uzzell, we discussed the various name possibilities and he [handwritten insert: Tom Uzzell] immediately - very firmly and very enthusiastically - stated that "Alcoholics Anonymous" was a dead wringer both from the sales point of view because it was "catchy" and because it really did describe the group to perfection. The more this name was studied from this point of view the more everybody agreed and so it was decided. Uzzell cut the book by at least a third as I remember it and in my opinion did a wonderful job on sharpening up the context without losing anything at all of what you were trying to say, Bill, and the way you said it. I really cannot remember who originally thought up the name "Alcoholics Anonymous". [Handwritten insert which appears to read "Joe Worden" and a reference to a handwritten footnote which appears to read "Joe Worden ... an AA member who just couldn't stay sober." It does not look like Bill's handwriting.] The financing of the book is quite difficult for me to remember, that is, what happened when. Originally, of course, the work was done on Honor Dealer time. In other words what salaries were paid came from Honor Dealer transactions, and the paper, the pencils, the office, the typewriter, the phone, etc. belonged to Honor Dealers. Let me make it clear that the members of Honor Dealers were never cheated in any way they were always promptly served - it's only that what might have been a worthwhile idea for a group of service stations just didn't pan out. When the income from Honor Dealers finally dwindled away completely - finances were a real problem. At this point there was universal agreement (except in Cleveland) that the book was a necessity and that what you had done on it up to that time was extremely satisfactory both in concept and execution. So the only problem was how to get enough money to finish it and get it published. You went to one of the large book publishers about an advance - and as I remember it you were offered One Thousand Dollars with a rather minute royalty on each book published. Hank, (I think) then came up with the idea of selling stock to finance the writing of the book and to publish it. Thus - Works Publishing Co. was born - and the book stock idea set up and forms printed. There was great optimism about the ease with which this stock could be sold by you and Hank and Wally von Arx who was active in this phase of the situation. That dream was not to be fulfilled because for the most part selling a share of Works Publishing Co. stock for $25.00 was like pulling teeth. Enough stock was sold in the original enthusiastic reaction of a few to keep us going on an extremely minimum basis for a while and then sales came to a complete halt and there we were back where we started. The paradox of this is the fact that if enough stock had been sold and the book carried through to a conclusion on this basis, the stockholders would have had a fine return indeed for their original investment. However all things happen for the best and this kind of private profit would probably have been a perpetual thorn in the A.A. side. You then decided to approach Mr. Rockefeller and were able to do so through various contacts you had built up through the years. This resulted in the Rockefeller dinner which in turn resulted in a minimum pledge which finally resulted in the book being carried to a conclusion and finally published by the Cornwall Press. Unfortunately I am not very good at getting across the spirit of fun, the real enjoyment of life, the cheerful acceptance of temporary defeat, the will to keep trying, the eternal effort to keep everybody satisfied, which made these years so very worth while and so soul satisfying. In this paragraph I am describing particularly my own reactions, but I know that you will agree and so would everyone else who had any share in it. Even the altercations and disagreements of which there were many were carried on with a basic will to reach a compromise at least - therefore a compromise was always possible and always reached amicably. Naturally, when the book was finally rolling off the press the feeling was that our troubles were over which turned out to be far from the case. It was agreed that the book needed to be advertised and a date was finagled for a member of A.A. on "We The People". Morgan Ryan agreed to appear anonymously and did a good job with his three minutes while we all listened breathlessly on the radio. As I remember it his talk was slanted at Doctors and to back him up we had mailed out thousands of postal cards to a selected list of Doctors to reach them in time to get them to listen to the broadcast and to tell them how to get a copy of the book. We had an assembly line all ready to pack and mail the books when the orders came rolling in - and then we waited. I don't think more than four cards were returned at all and the only one that made an impression on me was the first one that came in - an order for six books - C.O.D. There was great jubilation that morning - naturally we though we were in. We simmered down to as close to gloom as I ever remember we got in the next few days over the few replies and were really practically squashed flat when the package of six books was returned marked "no such address". I'm afraid none of us appreciated for a while the humor of whoever that joker was. By this time we were at the Vesey Street office and that address was a compromise too. Since I lived in New Jersey I didn't want to work in New York at all - on the other hand you had always wanted to have the office near Grand Central Station - so we settled on Vesey St. For quite a while, about a year at least, there were just the two of us handling correspondence, packing books, and whatever there was to be done and all the while the financial struggle to keep the thing going at all continued. The Liberty magazine article was published and for the first time we began to find a stirred up interest in the form of [letters]. Each letter was answered individually and although the book was mentioned we tried to get across the fact that it was not necessary to purchase the book and in each case the individual was referred to whatever group or individual A.A. closest to him or her. Since at that time I imagine there were no more than 500 A.A. members, if that, scattered from coast to coast and the great majority of those in the middle west and East it was often difficult to get any closer to the individual than several hundred miles. However, we did the best we could and we soon fortunately began to be able to count several traveling salesmen among our A.A. members. Outstanding among these was "Greenberg" who often made side trips of several hundred miles to try to contact people who had written to our New York A.A. office for help. When the Saturday Evening Post article hit the stands we really began to be flooded with mail and meanwhile the book sales had been steadily increasing from two or three a week until I think they hit an average of about 25 a week and we began to be able to meet office expenses. We then had to hire an assistant who turned out to be Lorraine [?] who was promptly christened "Sweety Pie" by you Bill and I don't think was ever called anything else by anyone connected with A.A. I would like to say that "Sweety Pie" was always cheerful and loyal and understanding beyond her years and was a real asset to those early days of the A.A. office at Vesey St. To me some of the things that stand out most were letters from individuals who were too far distant to contact any A.A. group or member but who kept writing back to us and with the help of the book were able to reach sobriety by themselves, and even to start their own groups. To keep us humble and laughing were developments like the Southern group started via mail through (was his last name Henry?) Anyway, he wrote us flowing reports about his group and its amazing recoveries of members of his group. One of our traveling members stopped in for a visit and his letter to us was an eye opener indeed. It seems that this particular group was based on the theory that all alcoholic beverages were very bad for the alcoholic - except beer. This idea was carried out so thoroughly that beer was served at their A.A. meetings with copious readings of the A.A. book. Oh well - the beer itself soon cured that misconception. One of the biggest things you ever did for the solid growth of A.A. in my opinion Bill was to set up a policy of non-interference in the development of individual groups. You set up a policy of suggestion not direction with which I agreed all the way and which I always followed. An individual or a group can resent and argue an order or direction but how much can you resent a suggestion which carries the intimation that possibly they might come up with a better answer if they work it out for themselves. In other words if a group wrote us a description of a problem in their midst and asked for an answer, we would usually describe what another group had done under similar circumstances or suggest possibilities and put the problem squarely back in their laps. In other words as each individual is responsible for his own sobriety - so is each group. We learned early too not to make predictions about who would or would not stay sober. The most impossible looking cases so often made the grade to confound us with the miracle while our most promising so often fell by the wayside. Do you remember the two young hopefuls we practically made bets on? I think they were Mac and Shepherd. They contacted us about the same time and [we] were specially interested because they were younger than most at that time. As I remember it Shepherd was a high betting favorite while "poor Mac was hopeless". To our surpass Sheperd at that time had trouble almost immediately while Mac seemed to make steady progress in sobriety. Of course the whole situation blew up in our faces when one day Mr. Chipman promised to visit us at Vesey Street so that you could show him what wonderful progress A.A. was making in every way and to top off the performance you invited Mac to appear to prove that even very young men could achieve sobriety. The stage was all set and you met Mr. Chipman for lunch. Meanwhile Mac appeared at the office completely polluted for the first time in about six months. Unfortunately he was so far gone that he collapsed in a coma in the big chair in your private office. I couldn't budge him so all I could think of to do was shut the door and try to head you off. When you appeared with Mr. Chipman though you were talking a blue streak complete with gestures and I couldn't get a word in edgewise as you swept open the door to your office to reveal Mac in all his drunken glory. After the proverbial moment of stunned silence you broke into roars of laughter, and a minute later, bless his heart, Mr. Chipman joined you. Then I relaxed too and all three of us laughed until we literally wept. When Mac snapped out of this particular binge some days later he enjoyed it too. This ability to laugh at yourselves and to accept the puncturing of your own self importance is one of the basic steps in A.A. I believe - of course it makes every individual more likable and lovable whether alcoholic or not. What little I have been able to absorb has made life much simpler for me I know. I'm going to quit right here Bill - if it isn't the kind of thing you want - tear it up. If there is anything I can or should add or subtract, let me know. Always the best to you Bill -- Devotedly - Ruth IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1662. . . . . . . . . . . . Books About Bill Wilson From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/18/2004 2:28:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Friends, Recent books about Bill Wilson have come to my attention. The first is written for children at a reading level of 6 to 12 years. However, I find it a fine summary of Bill's life which should be of interest to persons of all ages. Amazon.com: Books: Bill W.: A Different Kind of Hero: The Story of Alcoholics Anonymous [9] The second is a recent book by Susan Cheever called "My Name is Bill." I have only scanned it, but it looks quite interesting. Amazon.com: Books: My Name Is Bill : Bill Wilson--His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous While searching Amazon.com for the Cheever book I came upon a book entitled "Bill W., A Strange Salvation." I hasten to add that this book is not written as history but as "a Biographical Novel Based on Key Moments in the Life of Bill Wilson, the Alcoholics Anonymous Founder, and a Probing of His Mysterious 22-Year Depression." I am finding it interesting, but frustrating in that I do not know the historicity of some of the events he discussed (such as Bill's trip to Canada to visit his father while still in his teens). Amazon.com: Books: Bill W., A Strange Salvation: A Biographical Novel [10] IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1663. . . . . . . . . . . . Second Annual Stockholm Speakers´Convention 2004. From: fredrik hogberg . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/18/2004 8:02:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII SECOND ANNUAL STOCKHOLM SPEAKERS' CONVENTION The Serenity Group of Stockholm, Sweden, is organizing its 2nd annual Speakers' Convention. The convention will be held on the 28th and 29th of May, 2004.The venue will be "Östra Real´s Auditorium" - a grand old school in the heart of Stockholm. Our main speaker will be Johnnie H., from the Pacific Group, Los Angeles. He is a highly sought-after speaker in Southern California, and well known for his strong pitch. The topics of this convention will be "The Promises" and "Service". We can promise you a very interesting "Life story" together with a program brimming with good fellowship! The Serenity Group AA - Speakers' Committee of Stockholm would love to welcome visitors from other countries as well. We promise to take GOOD care of our guests and also let them know something - That Swedish hospitality entails more than meatballs.... In conjunction with the convention we will also organize dinners both evenings, for our speaker as well as all the international guests coming to visit us. We can assure you all that there will be a lot of sober fun! Last year was a real smash, with Clancy I., as our main speaker, followed by dinner and dancing at a famous downtown restaurant and nightclub. I wish to welcome all of you to this springtime convention in Sweden; at a time when Stockholm will be displaying her very prettiest face! For information and registration, please feel free to contact us at: talarkonvent2004@yahoo.com In Love and Service, Fredrik H. Committee Chairperson of Stockholm AA - Speakers' Convention 2004 Exciting offer! You won't believe it! FREE INTERNET SUPER STORES! Earn Big Income! How? By giving away SUPER STORES for FREE! Try it FREE! http://hogberg.freestoreclub.com Höstrusk och grĺ moln - köp en resa till solen pĺ Yahoo! Resor [11] IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1664. . . . . . . . . . . . Belladonna - Compiled from old posts From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/19/2004 2:35:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII On Sep. 26, 2003, Norrie F. from Scotland asked for information about Belladonna. The following are excerpts from the replies. The original posts have been deleted. Nancy David G. replied: Belladonna is the name of a sedative, antispasmodic drug that is extracted from the Bella Donna plant. Used for relief of muscle spasms, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract due to nausea and diarrhea. Developed in NY by Physician Sam Lambert. Used in alcohol treatment to ease withdrawal. Art S. replied: The book Bill W., by Francis Hartigan (pg 50) has a very brief description: “Bill’s treatment took place under the supervision of the hospital’s medical director, Dr. William D. Silkworth, who would become a legendary figure in AA circles. Silkworth had little more to offer of a medical nature than the “belladonna cure”. This involved a 'purging and puking' aided by, among other things, castor oil. Belladonna, a hallucinogen, was also administered to ease the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal.” Mark E. replied I found the following using Google as my search engine for the term Belladonna treatment when I was taking a few of my sponsees through the Big Book. The website address is as follows:  http://www.aabacktobasics.com/archives/archive6.html "Upon Wilson's arrival at Towns Hospital, he was placed in a bed and the Towns-Lambert Treatment was begun. Dr. Lambert described the belladonna treatment as follows: Briefly stated, it consists in the hourly dosage of a mixture of belladonna, hyoscyamus and xanthoxylum. The mixture is given every hour, day and night, for about fifty hours. There is also given about every twelve hours a vigorous catharsis of C.C. pills and blue mass. At the end of the treatment, when it is evident that there are abundant bilious stools, castor oil is given to clean out thoroughly the intestinal tract. If you leave any of the ingredients out, the reaction of the cessation of desire is not as clear cut as when the three are mixed together. The amount necessary to give is judged by the physiologic action of the belladonna it contains. When the face becomes flushed, the throat dry, and the pupils of the eyes dilated, you must cut down your mixture or cease giving it altogether until these symptoms pass. You must, however, push this mixture until these symptoms appear, or you will not obtain a clear cut cessation of the desire for the narcotic..." (Bill Pittman's book: AA The Way It Began 17, p. 2126; 209, p. 186) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1665. . . . . . . . . . . . How AA Got Started in Scotland - Compilation of Posts From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/19/2004 2:37:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Friends, The following are excerpts from three posts I previously made to AA History Buffs, and transferred to AA History Lovers. The original three posts have been deleted. Nancy The following flyer concerning the book "Sir Philip Dundas" by Jenny Wren was received from an archivist in England named "Barbara": Sir Philip Dundas (1899-1952) was the grandson of Sir Robert, 1st Baronet of Arniston, and thus a member of a well-known family of Lowland Scots. He was the eldest of a family of six boys and one girl, and inherited the baronetcy on the death of his father in 1930. However, he never lived at the family home of Arniston House. He served for many years in the Black Watch, including a tour of duty in Silesia after the First World War, where his regiment was stationed to keep the peace until plebiscites were arranged to settle the new borders between Germany and Poland. On retirement from the army, he farmed on the Mull of Kintyre, near Campbeltown. His greatest achievement is unconnected with either the army or farming, but arises from a personal battle with alcoholism. Realising the need for assistance with his affliction, he found help in a recently created self-help organisation in America. He was so grateful for his own liberation from alcoholism that he determined to introduce this new approach to his own country, and thus became the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous in Scotland. There are still some today who remember meeting him, and are grateful for his influence and example. There are many more who are profoundly thankful for his work, and he is held in high esteem by the Scottish Alcoholics Anonymous. Many of his more illustrious forebears have been the subject of biographical and historical studies, but this is the first book about Sir Philip and his family. As well as Sir Philip, it tells the story of each of his five brothers, whose careers ranged from banking to the Fleet Air Arm. Overlooked in most existing histories of the Dundas family, they are 'the forgotten generation of Arniston.' In this personal biography, Sir Philip's daughter puts him and his brothers on the record. _______ Barbara sent me some additional information on how AA got started in Scotland. She says: "ONE DAY AT A TIME INTO THE 1950s -- the Loners make contact... "Alcoholics Anonymous came to Scotland about the same time that it arrived in England, though reports on the earliest meetings sometimes conflict. The man who played the biggest part in getting meetings established was Philip D, [Sir Philip Dundas] whom New York registered as a loner in Campbeltown in 1948. "In February that year, New York wrote to the London members about him, describing 'an alcoholic who stopped drinking some four years ago on spiritual principles, but on his own and before he heard of AA.' Philip, a titled Scottish gentleman farmer, had gone to a World Christian Association conference in the USA, where a group of businessmen were trying to bring God into industry by setting up breakfast clubs for prayer. Philip thought that maybe doing good work like that would help him stay off drink. At the very first session he met an old time Philadelphia AA, George R, 'who gave him AA right off the spiritual main line.' wrote Bill W in AA Comes of Age. The head of one of Scotland's most ancient clans sobered up on the spot. 'In March, Philip visited London and contacted general secretary, Lottie.' "A month later, she was referring enquiries to him, and Philip began what was to be a series of 12-step visits to hospitals and prisons criss-crossing Scotland. 'My difficulties are several,' he wrote to her that same month. 'I am actively engaged in farming and what with lambing and seeding I have been up to the eyes. "'My next problem is that I live in the most out of the way spot imaginable ... a very small size fishing town and the fishermen are a comparatively sober lot so not much scope locally. It is obvious to get AA going in Scotland I shall have to collect one or two in either Edinburgh or Glasgow. Possibly out of the letters you say you have which please send on, I may be able to make a start.' "Philip paid Forbes C. to go round Scotland telling interested parties about AA. It wasn't easy. 'You know as well as I do that the Scottish alcoholics are pretty tough cases,' wrote Lottie in September 1948. "According to this letter, Forbes 'was asked by Marty M[ann] (the visiting alcoholism expert from the USA who was also an AA member) and Philip to go off ... to see if a real group could not be started. Forbes succeeded and there is one group in Perth and another one will be in Edinburgh and Glasgow.' The first Edinburgh meeting was held in Mackie's Restaurant, Princes Street. "Philip had made contact with Jack McK of Glasgow, who had been a patient at Gilgal Hospital in Perth. And in the spring of 1949, other patients in the same hospital became interested. In February that year a meeting was held in the Waverley Hotel, Perth. Five people attended. "Meanwhile in Glasgow, Philip and Jack McK had contacted Jimmy R, a patient of Crichton Royal, Dumfries, and an alcoholic named Charlie B. In March 1949, there was a public meeting held in the St. Enoch's Hotel, Glasgow, with 54 people present. Fourteen expressed some interest but only four showed up at the second meeting - Philip, Jimmy R, Jack McK and John R. Philip paid the expenses for the first three or four sessions and they decided to hold regular meetings every Tuesday evening. "Attendance was not encouraging. But a visit from Gordon M, an American, persuaded them to register as a group with the New York office. Thus in May 1949 both Edinburgh First and Glasgow Central became part of the official record. "By November 1949 a letter from Jimmy F reported that the Edinburgh group was flourishing. There was 'a stable nucleus' by the end of the year and a Dr. Clark in charge of a ward in Edinburgh Hospital was referring patients to the Fellowship. "The Glasgow members were also active in contacting doctors. Consultant Psychiatrist A. Balfour Sclare recalled: 'To the best of my recollection Alcoholics Anonymous first made its impact upon psychiatrists ... in the Glasgow area when a member of this Fellowship gave an address on its modus operandi at the Lansdowne Clinic in 1949.' "Philip continued to do his best from his Scottish farm. One of the prospects he interested was a John MD, an inmate of Greenock Prison. He sent Forbes to talk to the governor and later wrote himself in August 1949: 'If you feel it would be any use either I or one of the Glasgow members would be only too willing to come to Greenock and have a few talks with him about the movement ... I am perfectly willing to have a try with him provided he, himself, will honestly make up his mind to chuck alcohol for good, otherwise it is just a waste of time talking to him.'" _______ More On Sir Philip Dundas and How AA Got Started in Scotland I have finished reading the book "Sir Philip Dundas," by Jenny Wren. It was Philip Dundas who started AA in Scotland. "Jenny Wren" is really Myfanwy [yes, I spelled it correctly] Baldwin. At first her siblings called her "Myffie" but then changed it to "Vannie" which she has been called by her family ever since. But Sir Philip, called her his "little Jenny Wren." (Jenny Wren is the name of a character in a Charles Dickens novel, and also the name of a rose.) I asked Mrs. Baldwin, with whom I have been in touch by e-mail, if she knew whether he had called her Jenny Wren because of the character Dickens or because of the rose. She believes he called her that because he thought the wrinkled little baby looked like a little brown bird, a wren. Mrs. Baldwin writes in the book: "My mother described my father as somewhat tipsy but in a very good mood on his first visit to see me. He presented my mother with a brooch and asked her if it went with the new baby. Then he picked me up in his arms and walked up and down the room with me calling me his little Jenny Wren. So apart from half his genetic make-up my first gift from my father was my nom de plume for the purposes of his story." Sir Philip was born in 1899, and inherited his father's title in 1930, becoming the fourth Baronet of Arniston. He had been educated in the finest schools, including the prestigious Harrow, where his father had also been educated. In July of 1918, Philip was given a commission in the Black Watch (42nd Foot, Royal Highlanders). In 1920, when Europe was still dealing with the aftermath of the war, Philip was sent to Silesia to serve with the 2nd Battalion in the disputed zone on the borders of Germany and Poland. The 1920s brought tragedy to the family. In 1922, Philip's brother David, 19, who was serving in the Navy, was killed when his boat -- a mine sweeper -- disappeared at sea. Only three of the crew was found, but not David. Philip could not be with his family during this tragic time, as he was serving in Silesia. In 1928 Philip was serving in India when he brother Henry, who was in the Malay states, contracted blackwater fever and died at age 27. None of the family was able to get there for the funeral. And then, in the winter of 1930, his father -- while sailing from Southampton on his way to Capetown, South Africa -- died suddenly of a heart attack, and was buried at sea. So at age 31, following several family tragedies, Philip found himself head of the family, with all the responsibilities of his title. His daughter says that "Psychologically he may have felt somewhat battered at this time following three close family deaths." Just when Philip began drinking, she doesn't say, but by the time he assumed his title he was showing signs of strain. "He began to drink quite heavily and at times seemed unable to control the amount he drank. A photograph of him ... in April 1932 shows that he had put on weight and his face looked troubled." By 1932, his drinking was often out of control, and his mother was growing extremely concerned about him. She turned to her friend and neighbor, Violet Hood, for advice. Violet's daughter, Jean, was a very religious girl. She had joined the Oxford Group, with whom she had traveled to America where she attended meetings. They thought that perhaps the Oxford Group could help Philip. So Jean was called to talk to him. But much to her mother's dismay, Jean and Philip fell in love. (Violet had taken quite a fancy to Philip's brother Tom and had been heard to tell his mother how proud she would be to have a son like Tom. But Philip was quite another story.) Jean's parents were concerned at the situation she might be getting into, and they decided to consult the Oxford Group about the problem. Philip's mother, on the other hand was delighted, probably thinking that Jean would be a good influence on her son. Jean, however, thought that the Dundases probably felt she was not quite "out of the top drawer." The Oxford group seemed unable to help. It seemed to Jean that they were against the idea of her marrying Philip and wanted her to give him up. But Jean would not, and they were married. Their daughter says that Jean had not known Philip well during their childhood as he was more than ten years her senior, but she never could resist a "lame duck." "Now she became determined that God could heal this young man, and put all her energies into helping wherever she could." Philip and Jean produced a son, Henry, in 1937, and a daughter, Althea, in 1939. By the 1940s Philip's drinking was making Philip's behavior towards his wife impossible and she left him and planned to divorce him. But Philip soon persuaded her to return and try again, "and promised to do something about the drinking problem." His Jenny Wren was born after the reconciliation, in 1946. Another daughter, Joanne, was born in 1949. Philip had been trying for some time to find a solution to his drinking problem and by 1947 "as a member of MRA, had with their help achieved a measure of control." [I believe "MRA" may refer to "moral rearmament," the new name for the Oxford Group.] Mrs. Baldwin reports that "In 1948 he and Jean visited the United States apparently at the invitation of the Oxford Group." During his visit to America he attended a dinner at which he met "George R. who told him of an organisation, formed some fifteen years earlier, which could help people with his problem. George thus introduced my father to Alcoholics Anonymous, and that first meeting was said to have changed his life. It was also said that from that time forward he did not touch alcohol again." Bill Wilson, described it like this: "He [Philip] came over to have a look at the International Christian Leadership Movement, where he met with a group of businessmen who were interested in bringing God into industry through the medium of breakfast clubs for prayer and planning. Philip thought that maybe he could introduce the breakfast club idea to Scotland, and he hoped that such a good work would loosen his fatal attachment to the bottle. At the very first session he met an old-time Philadelphia A.A., George R., who gave him A.A. right off the spiritual mainline. The head of one of Scotland's most ancient clans sobered up on the spot. He took A.A. back to his native heath, and soon alcoholic Scots were drying up all the way from Glasgow ship chandlers to society folks in Edinburgh." His daughter reports that he "returned to Britain fired up with all he had learned in the States and, despite the initial suffering without an alcoholic drop, had stuck to his resolved and began to feel well and happy again." His relationship with his wife improved and he was determined to use his gifts and talents in helping other people who suffered from alcoholism. He was now determined to bring AA to Scotland. "His years as an officer in the army and his family background gave him the confidence of how to go about this." His first efforts were not too successful. He then "contacted the Governor of Gilgal prison and other institutions where men and women with a drinking problem might be found and asked if he might be allowed to come and talk to the sufferers. Together with a man called Forbes, who was unemployed at the time, he attempted to raise an interest in the past successes of this organization. At first it was slow to take off, as often the people approached were not interested, but eventually a group of four got together and gradually interest began to grow." Some of his letters from this time survive and his daughter says that they reveal some of his feelings and thoughts about himself. "As he worked through the agonies of withdrawing from alcohol he gradually began to feel better both mentally and physically. Washing up pots and pans, a job he had always loathed, now struck him as something he quite enjoyed and he would scrub them as hard as he could to see how bright and shiny he could make them. He began to get to know his own strengths and weaknesses much better, and was aware that sometimes he was too soft and trusting with people. He realised that it was easier to see the good in people than to face up to their faults. He sometimes acknowledged he might not be the best person to deal with certain alcoholic cases as people found it easy to deceive him. He cursed the fact that he had what he called 'a handle' to his name, because he felt that people believed he might be a soft touch for money." He was very eager to get AA established in Scotland as quickly as possible. "He feared complacency as he felt the development might grind to a halt. He also feared his fellow founders might feel he was being dictatorial and trying to grab power." But his daughter says that it was his desire to get as many branches as possible formed with plenty of capable people to run them. "The Irish set-up was a case where he felt there was too much dependence on the founder. Rather ironically he suggested what a disaster this would be should the founder suddenly die." As time went by his spent a lot of his time traveling about trying to set up new branches of AA in Scotland. Mrs. Baldwin writes that "In April 1950, my father received a personal letter from Bill Wilson, the founder of AA, stating that he proposed to visit the British Isles in June and July. This letter also mentioned that Bill hoped for a short period of rest and sightseeing while in Scotland. My parents had him and his wife to stay at Fairnington Craigs, and then went with them on their visit further north." (There is a wonderful picture in the book of Bill with Sir Philip and an unidentified man and woman at Dunkeld. Bill is looking very handsome in a three piece suit as he towers over Sir Philip by at least a head.) Sir Philip died in 1952. During his final illness his little Jenny Wren read to him from a pile of Beatrix Potter books, as her mother had read to her when she was ill. "Those words I couldn't read I made up, and he went along with it like the good sport he was," she reports. He was buried at Holy Trinity Church in Melrose. His wife chose words from St. John's Gospel to go on his gravestone: "For as much as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren you have done it unto me." "It was a reminder of his work in bringing Alcoholics Anonymous to Scotland," writes his daughter. His eldest child and only son, Henry, became the fifth Baronet upon the death of Philip in 1952. He was only 14 when he inherited the title. Sadly, Harry died unexpectedly at the age of twenty-six. He was buried at Melrose beside his father. His mother's choice of biblical text for him was "You are not alone because the father is with you." Sir Philip's brother Jim then inherited the title. His little Jenny Wren, who obviously adored her father, ends her book by saying: "During the last few years of his life, he gave so much of himself to setting up further branches of AA in Scotland, and by his death there were branches in Perth, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Ayr, Dumfries and Inverness. Today I'm told there are over 900 groups in Scotland. How many people, I wonder, does that mean have been touched by his courage and conviction? How many families have been enabled to live normal and happy lives with the help of AA? A few weeks ago it was the centenary of my father's birth, and we are now about to start on a new and significant century. I hope he would be proud of the little acorns that he sowed in Scotland. From these, people have carried on his work and reached out to those who suffer in this particular way. "Most little girls, I'm told, want a dad to be proud of. It has been a privilege through writing this book to share some of his joys and sorrows, to discover how courageous he was, and to possess that pride in his memory." Myfanwy Baldwin (nee Dundas), Cleobury Mortimer, December 1999. _______ Sources; Sir Philip Dundas, by Jenny Wren, M & M Baldwin Press. Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1667. . . . . . . . . . . . AA in Russia - Letters from Marina K and Irina K From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/20/2004 3:46:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Friends, In June of 2000 I posted to AA History Buffs (and later transferred to AA History Lovers) some correspondence from an AA in Russia named Marina K. which had been forwarded from Barbara in the UK. This resulted in my receiving copies of some letters from Irina K. in Russia. This post combines those letters. The originals have been deleted. Nancy Letters from Marina to Barbara in the UK: Good day, Barbara! I can't answer you letter in moment. It takes some more time for me to read and write in English, when in Russian. But it is one more reason for delay. I took part in very interesting thing in our AA. We name it "avtoprobeg" - it means, that on 30th of April 7 cars start from one Russian town (Tolyatty). They pass over 3000 kilometers - Ural (this is a Russian region on the border of Europe and Asia). Every day - new town, meetings this members of AA of this towns. During the way from one town to another (it took nearle 4-5 hours) - groups in the cars. It was wonderful. I was waiting this trip the whole year. I was vry afraid, that something may happen and I could not take part in this journey. But High Power gave me such happy opportunity. It is very difficult for me to tell in English about this trip. It is difficult yet in Russian - I haven't words. I met my friends (some members of AA from this towns I had meet in Moscow during last years). I saw problems of AA in deep Russian regions. I saw, how AA grow there. We visited 7 towns of Ural. And 2 and 3 years ago I was in 2 of this towns. Were was the all-Russian Convention in this towns (in 1997 - Magnitogorsk, and in 1998 - Glazov). It was difficult decision for Russian AA - to organize such all-Russian conventions not in Moscow, there we can gather more people, then in such small towns. But we think: this Convention will help AA in this regions to grow. Today, then I visit this towns second time - I saw: it was write decision. I saw results of our work 2 or 3 years ago. So, I returned home very weary (we sleep nearly for 3-4 hours at night during this journey), but very happy. Now I'll try to write for your letter. [Barbara's newsletter.] About history of Russian AA and archive documents. We are nearly 13 years old - but we have problems this our history. The first problem - we don't exactly know data of beginning. In particular - beginning of Moscow AA. There was many debates about this 3 years ago - and for today we don't decide, then Moscow AA began - in 1987 or in 1998. Different people have different opinions. Today we say, that Russian AA is 13, because it is the age of St. Peterburg group AA "Almaz" (December 1996). I don't know for today the eldest group. Many documents is keeping at homes of some members of AA. Only year ago we began to take such archives to office. But we have problems - how to keep them. But the main problem - I don't know a men (or woman) for today, who want to work this archives. For today we only put this documents in boxes - but I understand - it needs more serious work. I know one man - he try to fix events in Russian AA. But he live not in Moscow. Month ago I get from him document, it name "Chronicle of events of Russian AA" (4 pages). And this is nearly all, that we have for today about our history. No, we have some more documents - registration sheets of Russian groups (since 1995), documents of Conferences from 9 to 12 (12 was in this year). We have no documents from Conferences 1st, 2nd, 3rd. We have only decisions from Conferences from 4th to 8th. But I think - such problems are not only in Russian AA. It is reality. Perhaps, we began to think about our history not too late. About Russian office of AA. It is in Moscow, not in the center - on the fringe of Moscow. It consist of two small rooms. We have xerox, two computers, and some more equipment. What we do there? Prepare AA books (3 main books) to printing. (But print them not in office). Prepare booklets and make copies on Xerox. Unswerving service (telephone), e-mail contacts. 3 time during year we send to all Russian groups (nearly 210 for today) letters this some information about "AA life" (the analog of BOX), materials on Service. Purpose: group consciousness must be informed. I may tell many detail about work in office, but it is detail. It is every day work to help people find AA, to help them understand not only one word (recovery) but 3 important words (Unity - Service - Recovery). This is my way too - I understand, that I need service to stay sober. For last 2 years, before I had need to go to another town (this is family situation) - I worked in office as volunteer - two or three evenings and all Saturday. But today I think - it was the happiest time for last 20 years of my life. We have 2 workers in office, who get money for theirs work: secretary and accountant. We can't pay them enough money - Russian AA doesn't have mush money for today. But they do work - and this is not a work of volunteer. The main problem for today in Russian AA - we have not state registration. This gives many juridical and organization problems. And for today this question is open. It is a great problem. About your another questions. I have never been in England. I have never been in any foreign country. Last year I was elected a delegate to European Service Meeting (it was in October). All was good, I get documents, but+ In August I was informed, that my mother have cancer. She has died. It is a reason, that I go from Moscow to a small town (I have need to live with my father for today). But I can't get to Service Meeting in October. How I learn English? A specialized school in childhood. Then I forgot many. But then I came to AA - I began to work this materials in English - made translation, correct translations of another people. Then I began to work this e-mail. And I have to answer for letters from another countries - this help me to "remember" English. I don't think my English is very good, but I think - it become more better since I came to AA. About AA journals. During last year I got numbers of "Grapevine" - it was a gift from members of AA in America. It was very useful for me - I find many interesting articles, some of them we translated to Russian and one or two was publish in Russian AA journal "Rodnic". I want to translate some more articles from numbers of "Grapevine", which I have. But - my main problem - I have a little time and I wish to do so many things in AA. And this translation - not the first things for me. I have some deals, that I think more important. And translations can be done by another people. But I can say - it was very interesting to read "Grapevine", it help me in my sobriety (and in my English too). So, I must stop this letter - tomorrow I'll send it (I have Internet only on my work - and I can send letters only 1 or 2 times a week). Thank you for your story. This love in AA Marina Dear Barbara. Certainly, you may send my letter to Nancy and use it and next in your Newsletter. I understand, that my letters need a corrections (my English is not good enough+) - you may do it. I get a letter from Nancy with suggestion to join Internet group AA History Buffs. As I understand from her letter - it is very interesting group for me. I am very grateful for this suggestion. But I have some problems to join this group - Today I live in a small town on the North of Russia. And our telephone lines are not good enough. So, I have my own name in Internet, but I have technical problems to connect with my internet provider from my home computer. And I connect from my place of work (where I get money). It is not comfortable. I have a permission to use telephone line from work, but+ Usually, I have only 10-15 minutes to send my and get e-mail letters, convert them to Word file and put them on the mini-diskette. And I read this letters at home in the evening. So, in Russian-speaking e-mail group I ask my friends to send me letters in special ZIP-archives - it take less time to get such e-mail. So, I afraid, that in this group (AA History Buffs) I may get many letters, and I shall not be able "to process" them. The second problem - in summer I'll be on my work rarely (once a week or once in 10 days) - so, you may understand, that I can't answer letters very quick. I have a hope - to do some manipulations with my computer during summer and to get connection from my home. If it will be so - I'll join AA History Buffs. But for today I must wait. But I am ready to contact with you and with Nancy (if she want this), to have individual correspondence. I'll try to translate to English the document "hronika" - it is a history of Russian AA (it was written by one member of Russian AA). But I think it will take time (perhaps month or more) - I have many duties (in AA and in my usual life) today. If I will do this - I'll send it to you. I'll be very grateful, if you can send me the most interesting materials. If it will be 2-4 letters in a week - it is normal, but more then 10 - it is a problem for me (and if this files will be not very "big' in kilobytes). But if it is difficult to do this - I'll understand. I know, that it take time to do individual selection. You may not do it for me. In any case - I'll be very glad to get letters from you. Please, send a copy of this letter to Nancy. I find e-mail address in her letter, but as I understand - this is address of a group. And as I said - today I may have only individual contacts. Marina K. (Marina gave permission for me to correct her English, but I wanted to keep the flavor of her own words.) _________ Letters from Irina to Margaret S.: Hi Margaret. It's a small world! Marina mentioned about "autoprobeg"-motor race through Urals. I would like to say I came to Yekaterinburg (central city of Urals region) 2 May two years ago on this gathering after some cars of this race arrived there! Maybe I saw Marina but I don't remember. Guys did a great job. It was inspirational experience for local AAs! I'm not so advanced in history of AA of Russia. The first group in Yekaterinburg appeared just 8 years ago. There are some groups one among them in prison. I had been there twice (in prison's group Svecha-Candle). Also there are some groups in towns of Middle Urals (AA ,Al-Anon, NA). I'm the only Loner by correspondence. We have't meetimg-by-mail for Loners, Homers etc. in Russia. In my first year I asked myself, my friends in groups of Yekaterinburg- What should I do with my sobriety in my small settlement without group? I would like to mention that then my husband still drunk. I attended speaker meeting for the first time in December 98 in Yekaterinburg. Speaker was Tom from US. I was impressed. I remember I wrote down all that he said in my notebook! It was turning point for me. After meeting one sheet fell into my hands-it was information from Moscow AA Office about LIM. One brother Felix (he died in last year) told how he tries to set up something like LIM in Russia. I wrote to him immidiately. I thought just about corresponding in Russia & not presumed about Inernational corresponding-I knew nothing! He mentioned if I understand English I can write to GSO. I thought I knew! Now I know it was just a beginning. He did a great job. I wrote to GSO. After they published my letter in LIM bulletin I got a lot of letters from different countries! I'm grateful to my Higher Power for this gift! Still I have many pen pals but now prefere using e-mail because postage on "snail-mail" still rising. By the way you can read about typical state of AA of Russia in typical towns in the AA Grapevine, Millenium Editon, January 2000, page 22 "A Hard Spiritual Labor". I was so impressed that immidiately found in Russian AA Directory & wrote a letter to Krasnodar to Valery M. You can picture his shock! -He could't imagine that someone could read Grapevine somewhere in such nook as my settlement! Now he is my close AA friend & the first person with whom I corresponding in Russian! Misterious way! I found pen pal in my own country via English-speaking Grapevine! I live just near geografical border Europe/Asia about 15 km from the point. Through my sister in Australia I got last AOSM newsletter. Russia among many countries of this zone was included in AOSM. Our candidate was present on last AOSM in Seoul in Oct. 2001. I got Final Report too. As to literature-I have some pamphlets & books (AA) both in Russian & English. Mainly in English. I'm really blessed I can translate & read. But I take responsibility for not violating copyrights of AA. Yes, I have an opportunity to translate, to print, to copy. But it 's tremendous responsibility as AA member. I saw illegal BB made in Germany there a couple of years ago (free of cause). I get AA materials from Moscow AA Service regularly information about events, gathering etc. Recently I got a couple of addresses of new loners in Russia! Now I have a couple of pen pals in my country at last! Thank you for listening! Margaret, you can send my letter on the group if you wish. If someone have questions I will be glad to answer. Irina Margaret then forwarded this letter: When I read story about visit to Soviet Union [see next post] I recalled those times during Communism. If Communism wouldn't fall it would be impossible my sobriety & my participation in AAs! I remember well this time - from 1970 to 1990. It was the country of militant atheism. The only "cure" for alcoholics were labor camps. If police had stopped drunks on streets of town they were dispatched into special sobering-up stations. "Alcoholic" is still like stigma in community. I tried to prove I'm not alcoholic. My folks had said "where is your will power?" Still for example in a lobby of our mashine works names of those who drunk "too much" posting up on special board-administration of plant think that these poor workers must be ashamed! These boards were used in former Soviet Union at every plant. In province where I live (this is typical Russian out-of-the-way place) community yet not open to "open" talk. I could make sure in it. It's legacy of Communism that touched mind & spirit of people. I believe that through new market economics & freedom, reforms, cooperation something will change. People will be more free & open. Russian society is not the same as 10 or 20 years ago - I can compare those years as I was born in 1964 in Yekaterinburg (former Sverdlovsk). By the way as it turned out I was born in this city twice-in 1964 & in 1998. It's not a coinscidence! Irina (As with Marina, I did not attempt to correct Irina's English. My profound thanks to Barbara and Margaret for sending the list these letters.) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1668. . . . . . . . . . . . AA in Russia -- Some posts from those who have visited Russia From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/20/2004 4:04:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII These were compiled from earlier posts which have been deleted. Mike B. wrote: I was privileged to be on two of the trips sponsored by CASW to the then-Soviet Union. My first was in April 1987 and then again the following April - 1988. To my knowledge, trip #1 in April 1986 marked the first public AA meeting in Moscow and that is considered by most as the beginning of AA in Russia. On both of my trips (CASW # 3 and # 6), our group met in Helsinki and the Finnish AAs, then went into the Soviet Union. On the '87 trip, we went first to Estonia, and held the first AA meeting in Tallin. We also met with the Anti-Bacchus Society, a sobriety club in Tartu. Most of our contacts in both St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) and Moscow were initially through the Department of Health and the hospitals. In Leningrad, it was the Bechterov Institute and in Moscow, Hospital # 13. During these trips, I met several Russian alcoholics, some in the hospitals and some in their homes. On the second trip, we held workshops on how to take an inventory and how to make a twelve-step call; it was fascinating stuff. I remember one woman named Marina being in our meetings, but this is a very common name in Russia. ___________ Bobby D. writes: I had a most blessed trip to Russia for 10 days before I went to Minneapolis, it was an incredible experience. The highlight, of course, was to sit in a meeting in Niznhy Novgorod and hear the beautiful language of the heart spoken by 60 or 70 wonderful Russian people. I have to tell you a funny thing. There were no meetings listed for that city in the International Directory, so I took it upon myself to go looking for some drunks to work with! I contacted a pastor who contacted several others, but what I got was a group of pastors, doctors, psychiatrists, etc. They were all very eager to help alcoholics, and it was wonderful. By the second night, there were 100 of them, and there were also some real alcoholics in the bunch! I was thrilled. I spoke to them and told them my story on the first night, and what the Big Book tells us about each of the 12 steps during the second night. Then an amazing thing happened. Several of them had questions, and soon it became apparent that they knew things about AA that the average person would not know. So after the second night I asked them if they had attended AA somewhere. They said, "Oh yes. We belong to one of the two groups here in town!" I was thrilled, and they invited me to speak at their meeting. I went and was met by 60 or 70 beautiful alcoholics! They all understood why I cried, I think. I was moved to tears with gratitude. Never in my life did I imagine that I would be sitting in an AA meeting half way around the world. What a beautiful experience. I must admit that I was amazed by all the people who had turned out to hear me 4 nights in a row (including the AA meeting). Then one sweet Al-Anon lady spilled the beans. She had come to the meeting, she said, and was afraid they might not let her in, since it was a closed meeting. When she arrived, though, she found out that it was an open meeting that night. "I don't think you could have kept me out," she said, "because I figured I'd never again have the chance to meet Dr. Bob of AA fame..." My mouth dropped open! These people had actually been telling everyone in town that Dr. Bob was visiting them! Can you BELIEVE IT????? I began to chuckle, and then finally told them that I hated to disappoint them. I said, "This is a case of mistaken identity.... My name is Bobby Davis. But I'm not a doctor, and certainly not Dr. Bob! He's been dead for about 50 years..." There was a hush in the room, and then a sudden mass-recognition of the mistake they had made. There was much laughter, and afterwards, I was hugged, kissed and fawned over like I have never been before in my entire life! They are wonderful people. And they ALL BELIEVE IN GOD! WOW. Not bad from a country full of atheists! Of course, who can be an atheist for very long in an AA meeting! LOL Bobby __________ Larry D. wrote: I WAS PRIVILEGED TO SET UP A MEETING WITH THREE SPEAKERS FROM THE FIRST AA GROUP FORMED IN MOSCOW. THEIR INTERPRETER WAS ALSO WITH THEM, AN AMERICAN, WHO WAS NOT AN AA MEMBER, BUT GAVE HIS HEART AND SOUL TO THE PROGRAM OF AA IN RUSSIA. HE WAS EDUCATED AT WHEATON COLLEGE AND BECAME A MINISTER WITH MISSIONARY ZEAL. BILLY GRAHAM WAS EDUCATED AT THE SAME SCHOOL. THE MINISTER, WHO ALSO HAD HIS HOME IN WHEATON, IL BUT SPENDS MOST OF HIS TIME IN RUSSIA, WAS INTERPRETER FOR THE THREE SPEAKERS FROM RUSSIA. IT WAS FELT BY EVERYONE THERE THAT NO INTERPRETER WAS NEEDED. THIS WAS THOUGHT BY MOST OF THE ATTENDEES, ABOUT THREE HUNDRED. THEY SPOKE FROM THEIR HEARTS. THEIR EMOTIONS WERE AS EVIDENT AS THE TEARS CAME INTO THEIR EYES, SHAKING VOICES, AND THANKFULNESS TO AA. WE WERE MOST STRUCK BY THEIR BY THEIR LOVING HIGHER POWER WHICH THEY DECIDED TO CALL GOD. THEY KNEW THAT THEIR SURRENDER TO GOD WAS ONLY AS GOOD AS THEY PRAYED EACH DAY. AS I LEFT THE MEETING WITH MY NEW AA FRIENDS FROM RUSSIA, I WAS ALL BUT OVERCOME BY THE EMOTIONAL IMPACT THEY LEFT WITH US. IT WAS A MIRACLE MEETING THAT SATURDAY NIGHT. LOVE YOU ALL, LARRY D. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1669. . . . . . . . . . . . More on AA in Russia compiled from earlier posts. From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/20/2004 5:12:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I came upon this interesting article in The Alcoholism Report of July 11, 1975: "Dr. John L. Norris, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Alcoholics Anonymous, urged the development of cooperative efforts between the U.S. and Russia in the area of alcoholism. He offered to go to the Soviet Union to share the AA program with the Russian people. "In comments made on his arrival in Denver for the 40th Anniversary International Convention of AA in Denver July 4-6, Norris said: 'My hope is that AA may soon find its way to every nation on earth -- including the Soviet Union and the Iron Curtain countries. We are told that alcoholism is a major health problem in these regions. AA could alleviate it. We are apolitical -- so there should be no conflict on that score. "'Further, a believe in God or membership in any formal religion are not requirements for AA membership. Therefore, our program would work in Moscow just as it works in Denver or London or Sydney or Paris. It is refreshing to observe that some of the barriers between the U.S. and the USSR seem to be softening. I urge the development of cooperative efforts in the area of alcoholism. "'We would be willing to travel to the Soviet Union to confer with the leaders in that country who are concerned about the problems of addictions. We would be pleased to share our program with the Russian people. Alcoholism transcends all barriers. The alcoholic in Russia suffers the same pain experienced by an alcoholic anywhere. He or she deserves the same relief from pain.'" ________ AA Grapevine, July 1989 A VISIT TO THE SOVIET UNION The message of Alcoholics Anonymous knows no language barrier, nor do custom or cultural heritage have any meaning when it comes to our recovery process. There were sixteen of us at the Moscow Beginners Group. We were there celebrating their first anniversary as an AA group. The meeting opened in Russian with the Preamble, then a reading of the Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions. The chairperson said, "This is a Second Step meeting," and they began to share. One member spoke up. He was an enthusiastic Moscow businessman who was five months sober and beginning to work the Steps. When he spoke, I heard my own alcoholism, I heard my own history of destruction and pain. "I have no history of God in my life," he said. "But I began to do what they said to do here. And I have found a spiritual power within me. I think that might be God." This man is now working with three other alcoholics in the group who also had no history of God in their lives, but who together have found a spiritual power they can rely on. Inasmuch as AA can be official in any way, this was an "official" visit from the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous in the United States and Canada to some very specific people in the Soviet Union. Over the previous year or so, there had been a number of communications back and forth between the Soviet and American governments concerning alcoholism; and AA, while not affiliated with these efforts in any way, had cooperated in full. In September 1987, the general manager of the General Service Office in New York traveled by invitation to the Soviet Union with sixteen other individuals related to the field of alcoholism, as part of an exchange program between the two governments on the topic of alcoholism and drug abuse. Then, in May of 1988, a return visit was made by a group of Soviets. Through the course of these exchanges, it became clear that there were quite a few people inside the Soviet Union who had a growing interest in Alcoholics Anonymous. We began corresponding with some of these people - Ministry of Health people, Temperance Promotion Society (TPS) people, psychologists, psychiatrists, narcologists, sobriety clubs - and in the course of this ongoing dialogue, another visit was set up which was to be independent of the previous trips. The AA members picked for the trip were the two trustees-at-large - myself from the United States and Webb J. from Canada - along with Sarah P., the GSO staff member assigned to the trustees' International Committee. In addition, since we'd be talking primarily with Soviet professionals and doctors, it seemed appropriate to have a doctor along with us. So Dr. John Hartley Smith, a nonalcoholic trustee from Canada, was added to the team. Of course it wouldn't have done much good to send us off without a voice, so we also added a nonalcoholic fellow who is a simultaneous translator. Our first stop was Helsinki, Finland. We went there first for two reasons: first, we wanted to take care of jet lag and be fully adjusted to the time change; and second, the Finns have been carrying the AA message into Russia for some time and we wanted to coordinate our efforts so that each of us might be as effective as possible. Now, I've been around drunks most of my life, but I've never seen quality drunkenness until I saw the Finns. They were big, they were like redwood trees, they were stoned, and they were moving. Finnish AA members are incredible, too. They give the same depth of love to AA that they gave to the bottle - and then some. One of the ways in which the Finns practice anonymity is by taking on a nickname. And so, in Helsinki, we met "Columbus," the fellow who first brought AA to Finland. On November 13, we took the ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn, Estonia. Tallinn was one of the most beautiful cities I'd ever seen. There were buildings there which had been built in the 1400s and were still in use. Estonia was in the Soviet Republic, but it is a separate culture. We'd carried with us a good-sized box of Russian-language AA literature, and though I knew we'd be stopped, I had no idea how this literature would be received. I've been through plenty of tough customs checks before - and after one of them, I ended up in prison - and I was getting a little nervous. I'd brought along a pocket knife to open up the box with, but I couldn't find it anywhere and ended up having to open up the box with a plastic pocket comb. The customs lady took out a piece of literature, looked at it, and walked off to show it to a fellow in a suit standing back in a corner. Our interpreter leaned over and whispered to me, "It's an ideology check." In a short while, the customs lady returned with a smile on her face. She called over a uniformed guard. I thought, "There goes the box." As they talked together, the interpreter leaned over. "They like it," he said. With another burst of conversation and a nod of the head, she waved me, the box, and the interpreter on through. On the other side of the check point, the interpreter translated her last comments to the uniformed guard for me. "Look," she had said, "they are here to help us in our struggle with alcoholism." This seemed to set the tone for the entire trip, and we started handing out literature wherever we went. Each one of us on this trip had a sense of the immensity of our task, and each one of us had a real desire not to promote anything but rather to share our experience, strength, and hope with the professionals we came in contact with so that they might better understand AA and perhaps allow AA to happen in the Soviet Union. At one of our meetings with the Sobriety Society of Estonia, the people involved in helping alcoholics there tended to dominate and tell us of their program and to slant the conversation politically, but eventually we got across to them that helping alcoholics was our only interest. During one of our conversations, a girl spoke up in English and said, "I have read your book [the Big Book]. How am I going to work with these AA principles if I don't believe in God?" "Well," I said, "that's no big deal. I didn't believe in God either when I came to AA. It's not a requirement, you know." With this, the girl visibly relaxed and I heard a sigh of relief. We also met with a doctor there, a former government official, and he kept saying how the program would have to be changed to fit the Russian people, a people with no historical cultural background of God. "It won't work here" was something we heard a lot. I must admit that I did get a bit of a chuckle out of this. Quite a few times I heard people say, "We don't have any historical background of God," and then in the next breath would ask, "Would you like to see the cathedral?" At first, many of the people we talked to were reserved. But because we talked so openly about alcoholism and about ourselves, they too began to share openly. We discovered that whatever else they might be doing in terms of treatment, they were already using some of the basic principles of Alcoholics Anonymous: admission of powerlessness, an honest belief that some sort of recovery is possible, and the importance of taking a personal inventory. It was rigorous, but they were doing it. They had a thirty-question inventory that had to be renewed every six months with a doctor and a peer group. Treatment was a three-year process, and if you slipped, you went to a labor camp for two years. The official position was that after six or eight weeks of effective treatment, the patient was no longer an alcoholic. There was a cure, they believed, and it took about six to eight weeks. The only catch was that they had to keep renewing this cure or they became alcoholics again. However, the drunks we talked to said, "We know it's important to understand that we're alcoholics forevermore." And they completely understood the need to pass this information on to the next person. This, then, was the foundation of whatever was going on in the Soviet Union, and it seemed like fertile ground for AA principles to flourish in. I was looking forward to the trip from Estonia up to Leningrad because we were going to be traveling by train and I hoped it was going to be like the Orient Express. But it turned out to be more like the milk train instead. They put the four of us into one compartment with all our luggage, one bunk apiece, and gave us a cup of black Russian tea. It was an experience that I wouldn't have missed for the world, but I certainly wouldn't want to do it again. In Leningrad, we met with a doctor who had alcoholic patients who were trying to use the AA method, but he didn't believe it would work because of the emphasis on God. Eventually this man brought some of his patients to see us and it is our hope that the sharing that went on will one day be of some use to them. One of the exercises this doctor has his group doing for therapy purposes is to translate the Big Book. "It's not a very good translation," he said, but they don't seem to mind. The group that this doctor worked with has been using AA for about three years, and one of the group had three years sobriety, another had one year, and another had seven months. These people were allowed to come and visit with us in our hotel rooms, something unheard of just a few years back. On our end, we were not restricted in any way in our travels. We were allowed to just wander wherever we wanted. The people of Leningrad had a pride and a spirit like I'd never seen. At one point during our stay in Leningrad, just prior to our scheduled meeting with the Temperance Promotion Society, an American movie was shown on Soviet TV - a movie about one woman's struggle with alcoholism and her eventual sobriety in Alcoholics Anonymous. The movie created quite a response from its Soviet viewers, and the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda printed a piece with some of the hundreds of requests it received asking for more information on AA. We had the article translated and were moved by the overriding tone of the responses. Here, translated from the Russian, is just one of the many responses: "I have acquaintances but no friends. I have spent these last ten days at home. I have not gone anywhere and will invariably get drunk. And once I go on a binge, it lasts a long time. "I don't work anywhere. I would love to go to heaven, but my sins won't let me. I'm twenty-four. My employment record is like an index of available jobs. Besides which, last summer I was released from incarceration. "What should I do? I don't visit my neighborhood duty officer because I know his crowning remark: 'If you don't have a job in ten days, I'll send you to the Labor-Rehabilitation Camp.' Who wants to go there? So I hide. It was better in jail. I don't know how AA can help me, but I am writing nevertheless." The newspaper article also carried the comments of the first deputy chairman of the Temperance Promotion Society (TPS), which had recently come under fire for what appeared to be a lack of effectiveness in supplying adequate answers to the huge problem of alcoholism facing the Soviet Union. Of AA, the first deputy had this to say: "We will not forge an alliance with them. Their method is interesting, but is only partially useful for us. And we will reject it primarily because certain interested parties from across the ocean are very clearly using it to promote the American way of life. The pretext is a good one; there is nothing to be said against it. But still I will block it." With a note of uncertainty, then - and these conflicting messages in our minds - we went off to our scheduled meeting with the TPS. Of course, we got lost along the way, literally, and as things hlostave a way of going in AA, it turned out to be one of the greatest days I've ever had. Finally, after wandering around the city's back streets, we found our way. Unlike our dire predictions based on the newspaper article, the TPS people were very cordial, very kind, very open, very pro-AA. While we were there talking, a television producer showed up with her camera crew asking for permission to do some filming for a ten-minute documentary on Alcoholics Anonymous for Soviet television. We started to explain our Traditions, of course, and she cut us off; she understood them quite well, she assured us, and promised to maintain our anonymity. So, as we began to talk with the TPS people, the cameraman went to work. Rather than showing any faces, he focussed in on our hands as we were talking. At the end of the meeting, the producer commented that she didn't think ten minutes was going to be nearly enough to give a sense of Alcoholics Anonymous to the Soviet public. So what they intended to do, at their own expense, was to travel to the United States in order to prepare a more in depth documentary on AA. We made plans to send them copies of some of the films and video material that AA has already produced, such as "Young People and AA," "It Sure Beats Sitting in a Cell," and "AA - An Inside View," hoping that this material would add to their understanding of AA principles and practices. Eventually, we headed up to Moscow, and on our first day there we met with the Moscow Beginners Group. There will be debates forevermore about which was the first AA group in Russia, but this group had as good a claim as the next. It was started by an Episcopal minister who was living and working in Moscow, and it now had a number of regular attendees. It was the first Soviet AA group registered with the General Service Office in New York. Also in Moscow we had an appointment to meet with a doctor who had written a book about alcoholism and recovery, and a good part of it was about AA and its principles. The book, it seems, was a huge popular success and had already sold out. They were going to have a public debate about this book, and a big hall had been opened up at one of the cultural palaces where everyone - police, antagonists, proponents, everybody - showed up to debate the ideas in this book. We were invited to come. It turned into quite an afternoon - one we never could have planned. The author of the book and several other narcologists fielded most of the questions about AA and were quite right in their understanding of anonymity and the purpose of Alcoholics Anonymous. These people proved to be great advocates of AA. And by the time the debate was over, a spokesman for TPS announced in public that they would now actively support Alcoholics Anonymous. A woman stood up in the crowd and shouted out, "How do you think Alcoholics Anonymous will work in the Soviet Union?" My compatriots looked at me. All I could really tell her was that it would be presumptuous of me to pretend to be an expert. I had been in her country only thirteen days. How could I possibly base anything on that? But I did say that we have the experience of 114 other cultures who have used AA quite effectively, and that the only purpose of our visit to her country was to share our experience with them if it could be of any help. Finally, we were to have a meeting with the head of TPS, the man who had made the statement in Komsomolskaya Pravda. This fellow was a very short man with white hair - very charming, very cordial, and tough as nails. There was no question about who he was. The first thing he did was give us a cup of tea and say, "Now, here are the rules for this get together." He laid out how the meeting was to be conducted and said, "Since you have requested this meeting, I have asked a number of people also to be here. They are alcoholics with another way of doing things." This was all done very graciously, however, and it was clear that he wasn't opposing us in any way. So, off we went into another room, and sure enough there was this other bunch of people there. These were alcoholics from a sobriety club formed in 1978, and the founder of the club was there. He was now twelve years sober. The club was formed to give alcoholics something to do in their spare time. They were responsible for forming their own activities - staging plays, etc. Their charter stated that members couldn't drink until death, and they told us that only two people in the last nine years had slipped. They wanted to demonstrate the sober life. The trade union bosses had helped to organize this club. It was all done through the workplace. If you were an alcoholic, your name was on the wall at work. They knew who you were and lots of peer pressure was brought to bear. Their idea was to break the cycle of alcoholism. They wanted to have a whole generation of people who were living good, healthy lives without drinking alcohol. One of the interesting things to come out of this meeting was our awareness of how little they really understood of the concept of anonymity. "How can you get well when you don't even know each other?" was the basic question the head of TPS asked us. He said that in these sobriety clubs, people weren't anonymous to each other - they got together frequently and were much like a family. Our last really official meeting was with the chief deputy and chief narcologist of the Ministry of Health, the governmental agency that oversees all alcoholism treatment in the Soviet Union. This guy was tough - not in any antagonistic way, but he wanted "the facts, please." He wanted to know organizational things: how AA was set up, and how his agency could use AA. He voiced his biggest concern, however, by calling AA an "uncontrolled movement." After we'd been talking with this man for an hour or so, he asked us pointblank, "What can we do to get this thing started here?" Our response was very simple: "Give them space. Give them rooms to meet in and a little bit of space to grow in." We told him we'd send him a lot of AA information, especially the organizational stuff he was interested in. I believe that the purpose of our visit was accomplished. More and more professionals in the Soviet Union now know about and trust the process of Alcoholics Anonymous, and we've seen indications that they're willing to give it a try. We've also found that there are some necessities that the General Service Office can provide to these people, the greatest of which would be to provide portions of the pamphlet "The AA Group" in Russian so that some of the how-to questions might begin to be resolved. They also need the pamphlet on sponsorship, and of course the Big Book. Like the businessman from the Moscow Beginners Group, I am a fellow who had no history of God in his life. I am a common, garden-variety drunk with all kinds of other problems, whose very best thinking got him into a penitentiary; a man completely without moral standards, a man you could not trust, a man for whom the ends always justified the means, a self centered and domineering man. And yet, because of Alcoholics Anonymous and the grace of God I was able to participate in this trip because I was sober. It could happen to anybody reading this. There are no Russian alcoholics, no Estonian or Siberian or American alcoholics. There are only alcoholics. Of this I am now certain. Don P., Aurora, Colorado IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1670. . . . . . . . . . . . AA History FYI From: Rob White . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/20/2004 10:29:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Dear Friend, You are getting this email because you have an interest in Recovery Issues. Nancy Olson (former staff to Senator Hughes and expert historian on AA history) will be speaking at a conference on 4/15/04 in Baltimore. Her two presentations will include: Morning Plenary : Nancy Olson - The Politics of Alcoholism (Book Signing to Follow) Afternoon Workshop : Authors of the AA Big Book: Who were they and what do we know about them The conference information is below. Hope to see you there! Please pass it on. Rob White ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----\ ---- NCADD - Maryland Tuerk Conference "Double Jeopardy: Addiction and Depression" Baltimore Convention Center Baltimore, Maryland Thursday, April 15, 2004 Keynote Speaker: Claudia Black, PhD Cost: $80.00 (includes 6 CEus/CMEs & Lunch) Average Attendance: 1,000 This year's conference, sponsored by the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence - Maryland Chapter, (Co-sponsored by UMMS and Med Chi) will feature Claudia Black, PhD as the Keynote Speaker. Dr. Black is a renowned lecturer, author and trainer internationally recognized for her work with family systems and addictive disorders. Since the mid 1970's, Dr. Black's work has encompassed the impact of addiction on young and adult children. She has offered models of intervention and treatment related to family violence, multi-addictions, relapse, anger, depression and women's issues. She authors books, interactive journals, and creates and produces educational videos for use with both the addicted client and families affected by addiction. Since 1998, she has been the primary Clinical Consultant of Addictive Disorders for the Meadows Institute and Treatment Center in Wickenburg, Arizona. Workshop Titles Include: Depression and Addiction; History of Alcoholism; Relapse Issues; Adult Children of Alcoholics; Psychotropic Medications; Advocacy; Women, Work and Recovery; Substance Abuse Management; Gay and Lesbian Addiction Treatment; Anxiety and Addiction; Treating Borderline Patients; and Chronic Mental Illness and Addiction. Full-Day Cost Early Registration: Postmarked by March 5, 2004 $80.00 General Registration: Postmarked March 6 - April 2, 2004 $90.00 Early Student Registration: Postmarked by March 5, 2004 $40.00 General Student Registration: Postmarked March 6 - April 2, 2004 $50.00 (Proof of full-time student status must accompany registration.) On-Site Registration: After April 2nd, only walk-in registrations will be accepted at the cost of $120.00. Please note that lunch cannot be guaranteed for these registrations. The registration fee includes the NCADD-MD Awards Luncheon, handouts, and continuing education credits. Please note that parking is not included. For More Information or to Register: Please contact NCADD - Maryland at 410-625-6482. Additional information, including on-line registration, is available at our website www.NCADDMaryland.org IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1671. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: 12 step prayers--a prayer for each step From: jsrmeat@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/21/2004 4:44:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I have found prayers in the fifth chapter of Big Book.Pages 76 line 7,God save me from being angry, thy will be done.-Page 68:3 We ask Him to remove our fear and direct our attention to what He would have us be.-Page 69:2 Weasked God to mold our ideals and help us to live up to them.-Page 69:3 We ask God what we should do about each specific matter.Page 70:2 We earnestly pray for guidance in each questionable situation, for sanity,and for the strength to do the right thing. I have the belief when I am directly asking or petioning God I am praying and have been directed to do so by our book. Also in the fifth step-page 75:3 We thank God from the bottom of our heart that we know him better.also the ninth step-page79:1 we askthat we be given strength and direction to do the the right thing, no matter what the personal consequences may be. THere probably are more but I have to sign out for now. Ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do for the man who is still sick. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1672. . . . . . . . . . . . Rollie Hemsley From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/22/2004 2:52:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII A question was asked: In the late fifties I signed a Professional Baseball contract with the Washington Senators. Was assigned to Ferndina Beach with the Charlotte Hornets. The club manager was Rollie Hemsley. His career as a player was with the Cleveland Indians as a catcher. He caught three of Bob Fellers no hitters. Could this be the same player mentioned in "AA COMES OF AGE," bottom paragraph P-24? The following are excerpts from the replies: That is the same Rollie, referred to as "Rollicking Rollie" in Bob Feller's autobiography. Before the anonymity tradition, sports pages gave much attention to AA's role in sobering up Rolllie. _________ I know that this has little to do with AA, but as a practicing baseball history lover/buff, I felt I should correct the facts here. Rollie caught only the first of Feller's 3 no-hitters. It was the most famous one though, the one on Opening Day, 4/16/40. Feller threw his other 2 no-hitters on 4/30/46 and 7/1/51. Hemsley was a Phillie in '46, and was not an active major leaguer in '51. His complete MLB Stats http://www.baseball-reference.com/h/hemslro01.shtml A brief AA related bio http://silkworth.net/aahistory_names/namesr.html IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1673. . . . . . . . . . . . The Little Big Book From: Chrisjon10@earthlink.net . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/22/2004 9:41:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII What is the history surrounding publication of the pocket-size version of the Big Book? Thanks. John P. Richmond, VA IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1674. . . . . . . . . . . . History & Archives Gathering 2004 From: jlobdell54 . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/22/2004 6:10:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Those HistoryLovers who are AA members (and other AAs also) may be interested in the 2004 Multi-District Central Pennsylvania History & Archives Gathering, now scheduled for June 5, 2004, near Harrisburg PA. We are awaiting word from several of last year's speakers/ participants, and a couple of those who couldn't come last year, when it was held April 5th (2003) at Central Pennsylvania College. It will have a different venue this year, but it will still be focussed on the Mid-Atlantic region, especially Eastern (and Central) PA, with archives exhibits -- we hope -- at least from PA, MD, and NJ. The feature old-timer last year, Trainor H. (sober 56 years), died three months after the Gathering, but we hope other old- timers will be back, for our mixture of historians of AA, archivists, history lovers, AAs in service, and oldtimers. My email address is jaredlobdell@comcast.net, or jlobdell54@hotmail.com, or jaredlobdell@aol.com. Will let you know more details as soon as I have them. -- Jared Lobdell IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1675. . . . . . . . . . . . Humphry Osmond Passing From: Mel Barger . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/23/2004 10:37:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The Toledo Blade recently carried a notice of the Febr. 6th passing of Dr. Humphry Osmond, 86, the British-born psychiatrist who introduced the word "psychedelic" to describe the effects of hallucinatory drugs. You can read about Dr. Osmond and his colleague, Dr. Abram Hoffer, in Chapter 23 of "Pass It On." Bill Wilson met them through Aldous Huxley, the celebrated author of "Brave New World" and one of the pioneers of the New Age movement. In the 1950s, Osmond and Hoffer experimented with LSD as a possible treatment for schizophrenia. Bill saw this as a chemical means of achieving what he had found in his 1934 spiritual experience and became their advocate and ally in the experiments. He later withdrew from the LSD experiments but continued to proclaim the benefits of massive doses of Vitamin B-3. I first learned about Bill's LSD involvement from Ernie Kurtz's "Not God." I feel that any use of LSD by a recovering person is a dangerous flirtation with disaster, but Bill apparently surivived without any trouble and continued to say that LSD was not addictive. I was skeptical about the supposed benefits of LSD, although I did read that it helped actor Cary Grant recover his potency! Mel Barger ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger melb@accesstoledo.com IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1676. . . . . . . . . . . . Humphry Osmond dies From: Mark Stephen Kornbluth . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/23/2004 2:45:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII February 22, 2004 Humphry Osmond, 86, Who Sought Medicinal Value in Psychedelic Drugs, Dies By DOUGLAS MARTIN Humphry Osmond, the psychiatrist who coined the word "psychedelic" for the drugs to which he introduced the writer and essayist Aldous Huxley, died on Feb. 6 at his home in Appleton, Wis. He was 86. The cause was cardiac arrhythmia, said his daughter Euphemia Blackburn of Appleton, where Dr. Osmond moved to four years ago. Dr. Osmond entered the history of the counterculture by supplying hallucinogenic drugs to Huxley, who ascribed mystical significance to them in his playfully thoughtful, widely read book "The Doors of Perception," from which the rock group the Doors took its name. But in his own view and in that of some other scientists, Dr. Osmond was most important for inspiring researchers who saw drugs like L.S.D. and mescaline as potential treatments for psychological ailments. By the mid-1960's, medical journals had published more than 1,000 papers on the subject, and Dr. Osmond's work using L.S.D. to treat alcoholics drew particular interest. "Osmond was a pioneer," Dr. Charles Grob, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California School of Medicine, said in an interview. "He published some fascinating data." In one study, in the late 1950's, when Dr. Osmond gave L.S.D. to alcoholics in Alcoholics Anonymous who had failed to quit drinking, about half had not had a drink after a year. "No one has ever duplicated the success rate of that study," said Dr. John H. Halpern, associate director of substance abuse research at the McLean Hospital Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Center in Belmont, Mass., and an instructor at Harvard. Dr. Halpern added that no one really tried. Other studies used different methodology, and the combination of flagrant youthful abuse of hallucinogens; the propagation of a flashy, otherworldly drug culture by Timothy Leary; and reports of health dangers from hallucinogens (some of which Dr. Halpern said were wrong or overstated) eventually doomed almost all research into psychedelic drugs. Research on hallucinogens as a treatment for mental ills has re-emerged in recent years, in small projects at places like the University of Arizona, the University of South Carolina, the University of California, Los Angeles, and Harvard. Though such research was always legal, regulatory, financial and other obstacles had largely ended it. Huxley's reading about Dr. Osmond's research into similarities between schizophrenia and mescaline intoxication led him to volunteer to try the drug. Dr. Osmond agreed, but later wrote that he "did not relish the possibility, however remote, of being the man who drove Aldous Huxley mad." So in 1953, a day Dr. Osmond described 12 years later as "delicious May morning," he dropped a pinch of silvery white mescaline crystals in a glass of water and handed it to Huxley, the author of "Brave New World," which described a totalitarian society in which people are controlled by drugs. "Within two and a half hours I could see that it was acting, and after three I could see that all would go well," Dr. Osmond wrote. He said he felt "much relieved." Dr. Osmond first offered his new term, psychedelic, at a meeting of the New York Academy of Sciences in 1957. He said the word meant "mind manifesting" and called it "clear, euphonious and uncontaminated by other associations." Huxley had sent Dr. Osmond a rhyme with his own word choice: "To make this trivial world sublime, take half a gram of phanerothyme." (Thymos means soul in Greek.) Rejecting that, Dr. Osmond replied: "To fathom Hell or soar angelic, just take a pinch of psychedelic." Lester Grinspoon and James B. Bakalar in their 1979 book "Psychedelic Drugs Reconsidered" pointed out that by the rules for combining Greek roots, the word should have been psychodelic. They also said that even in the late 70's, psychedelic had mostly been replaced by hallucinogenic, a vocabulary shift they said Dr. Osmond himself made. In addition to his daughter Euphemia, Dr. Osmond is survived by his wife, Jane; a second daughter, Helen Swanson of Surrey, England; a son, Julian, of New Orleans; a sister, Dorothy Gale of Devon, England; and five grandchildren. Humphry Fortescue Osmond was born on July 1, 1917, in Surrey. He intended to be a banker, but attended Guy's Hospital Medical School of the University of London. In World War II, he was a surgeon-lieutenant in the Navy, where he trained to become a ship's psychiatrist. At St. George's Hospital in London, he and a colleague, John R. Smythies, developed the hypothesis that schizophrenia was a form of self-intoxication caused by the body's mistakenly producing its own L.S.D.-like compounds. When their theory was not embraced by the British mental health establishment, the two doctors moved to Canada to continue their research at Saskatchewan Hospital in Weyburn. There, they developed the idea, not widely accepted, that no one should treat schizophrenics who had not personally experienced schizophrenia. "This it is possible to do quite easily by taking mescaline," they wrote. Huxley read about this work and volunteered to be studied. The research also directly inspired other scientists, Dr. Halpern said. "There was a certain point where almost every major psychiatrist wanted to do hallucinogen research," Dr. Halpern said, adding that in the early 1960's, it was recommended that psychiatric residents take a dose to understand psychosis better. Perhaps the most famous psychedelic researcher was Dr. Oscar Janiger, a Beverly Hills psychiatrist, who gave L.S.D. to Cary Grant, Jack Nicholson and, again, Huxley. Dr. Halpern said that today's understanding of serotonin, a neurotransmitter important in causing and alleviating depression, grew out of research into the effect of L.S.D. on the brain. L.S.D. and serotonin are chemically similar. Dr. Osmond's most important work involved alcoholism research, done with Abram Hoffer, a colleague at Weyburn. Originally, they thought L.S.D. would terrify alcoholics by causing symptoms akin to delirium tremens. Instead, they found it opened them to radical personal transformation. "One conception of psychedelic theory for alcoholics is that L.S.D. can truly accomplish the transcendence that is repeatedly and unsuccessfully sought in drunkenness," "Psychedelic Drugs Reconsidered" suggested in 1979. Bill Wilson, a co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, met Dr. Osmond and took L.S.D. himself, strongly agreeing that it could help many alcoholics. As psychedelic research became increasingly difficult, Dr. Osmond left Canada to become director of the Bureau of Research in Neurology and Psychiatry at the New Jersey Psychiatric Institute in Princeton, and then a professor of psychology at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. He mainly studied schizophrenia but was disappointed he could not pursue his research into hallucinogens, Mrs. Blackburn, his daughter, said. "I'm sure he was very saddened by it," she said. "It could have helped millions of people." Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company | Home | Privacy Policy | Search | Corrections | Help | Back to Top -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A blank message to these addresses performs the following - holo-cert-on@mail-list.com gets you on the list. holo-cert-off@mail-list.com gets you off the list. holo-cert-switch@mail-list.com toggles you to/from the fancy digest version. holo-cert-vacation@mail-list.com toggles you to/from the vacation list. Post your message to the list by sending it to holo-cert@mail-list.com. To contact the list owner, send your message to holo-cert-list-owner@mail-list.com. This message was sent to 129 subscribers. To unsubscribe, click on the following web page. http://cgi.mail-list.com/u?ln=holo-cert&nm=mark@msknyc.com . ____________________________________________________ [12] IncrediMail - Email has finally evolved - Click Here [12] IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1678. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Humphry Osmond Passing From: Jim Burns . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/24/2004 1:05:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hello Group, Under what circumstances did Bill Wilson withdraw from the LSD experiments? Was it widely known in The Fellowship that Bill and Lois were participating in these experiments? I became curious based on Mel B.'s post that he had found out about Bill's involvement through Ernest Kurtz's book. Thank-you Jim Burns Orange County, California ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard [13] - Read only the mail you want. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1679. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Humphry Osmond Passing From: Arthur . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/25/2004 12:01:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII There are a few other books that go in to the LSD experiments in more detail than _Not God_. Mel, by the way, is the modest and primary author of _Pass It On_ which covers the matter in some detail. Francis Hartigan's book _Bill W_ and Nell Wings book _Glad to Have Been There_ offer information as well. The info below is a composite extract: British radio commentator Gerald Heard introduced Bill W to Aldous Huxley and to the British psychiatrists Humphry Osmond and Abraham Hoffer (the founders of orthomolecular psychiatry). Humphrey and Osmond were working with schizophrenic and alcoholic patients at a Canadian hospital. Bill W joined with Heard and Huxley and first took LSD in California on Aug 29, 1956. It was medically supervised by psychiatrist Sidney Cohen of the Los Angeles VA hospital. The LSD experiments occurred well prior to the 'hippie era.'' At the time, LSD was thought to have psychotherapeutic potential (research was also being funded by the National Institutes of Health and National Academy of Sciences). The intent of Osmond and Hoffer was to induce an experience akin to delirium tremens (DTs) in hopes that it might shock alcoholics from alcohol. Among those invited to experiment with LSD (and who accepted) were Nell Wing, Father Ed Dowling, (possibly) Sam Shoemaker and Lois Wilson. Marty M and Helen W (Bill's mistress) and other AA members participated in NY (under medical supervision by a psychiatrist from Roosevelt Hospital). Bill had several experiments with LSD up to 1959 (perhaps into the 1960's). _Pass It On_ reports that there were repercussions within AA over these activities. Lois was a reluctant participant and claimed to have had no response to the chemical. Hoffer and Osmond did research that later influenced Bill, in Dec 1966, to enthusiastically embrace a campaign to promote vitamin B3 (niacin - nicotinic acid) therapy. It created Traditions issues within the Fellowship and caused a bit of an uproar. The General Service Board report accepted by the 1967 Conference recommended that 'to insure separation of AA from non-AA matters by establishing a procedure whereby all inquiries pertaining to B-3 and niacin are referred directly to an office in Pleasantville, NY in order that Bill's personal interest in these items not involve the Fellowship.'' Please reference the following for more details: Pass It On - pgs 368-376, 388-391 Not God - pgs 136-138 Bill W by Francis Hartigan - pgs 9, 177-179 Glad To Have Been There - pgs 81-82 11.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;">Arthur S ----- *From:* Jim Burns [mailto:buddhabilly1964@yahoo.com] *Sent:* Tuesday, February 24, 2004 12:06 PM *To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Subject:* Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Humphry Osmond Passing 12.0pt;"> 12.0pt;">Hello Group, 12.0pt;">Under what circumstances did Bill Wilson withdraw from the LSD experiments? Was it widely known in The Fellowship that Bill and Lois were participating in these experiments? 12.0pt;"> 12.0pt;">I became curious based on Mel B.'s post that he had found out about Bill's involvement through Ernest Kurtz's book. 12.0pt;"> 12.0pt;">Thank-you 12.0pt;"> 12.0pt;">Jim Burns 12.0pt;">Orange County, California 12.0pt;"> ----- 12.0pt;">Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard [14] - Read only the mail you want. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1680. . . . . . . . . . . . Harper''s 12 & 12 (1953) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/26/2004 2:35:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII May 1953 AA Grapevine (Editor's Note: As promised last month, we are pleased to bring you a special advance notice from General Service Headquarters announcing publication 'Bill's new book, "The Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions." The Traditions appeared serially in The Grapevine in the past twelve issues.) After nearly eighteen months of writing, editing, and pre-publication detail, 'The Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions" is about to be released. In this new volume, regarded by those familiar with the project as the most important AA publication since the "Big Book" first appeared in 1939, Bill draws upon his long experience, and upon that of other early members, to set forth his profound yet spirited interpretation of the fundamental principles of AA. Step by Step, Tradition by Tradition - in nearly 200 deeply stirring pages-Bill offers his unique insight into the full meaning of each of AA's tested guideposts…the Twelve Steps through which individuals have achieved sobriety and the Twelve Traditions through which our group structure has been maintained and strengthened. Advance interest has been so great that arrangements have been made to issue the book in two editions - one for distribution by AA groups, and another for bookstore distribution to the general public by Harper and Brothers. AA retains full control and copyright ownership of both editions through Works Publishing, Inc. When the book is released for sale in late May or early June, the bookstore price will be $2.75, and our agreement with Harper's is that no books will be retailed for less than that price. To AA groups only, the book will be sold for $2.25, enabling the groups to realize fifty cents on each copy re-sold to individuals. (Although two-thirds of General Service Conference delegates in a recent poll felt that this book ought to be sold without profit to the groups, to help build an adequate Foundation reserve, neither Bill nor those at Headquarters felt this to be sufficient consent on a matter of such importance; hence the above discount.) Orders are now being accepted, by mail only, and all shipments will be made as soon after May 10 as possible. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1681. . . . . . . . . . . . Bill D. - AA #3 (1954) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/27/2004 4:27:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII November 1954 AA Grapevine HE KEPT THE FAITH IN MEMORIAM By Bill W. BILL D., AA Number Three, died in Akron Friday night, September 17th, 1954. That is, people say he died, but he really didn't. His spirit and works are today alive in the hearts of uncounted AAs and who can doubt that Bill already dwells in one of those many Mansions in the Great Beyond. Nineteen years ago last summer, Dr. Bob and I saw him for the first time. Bill lay on his hospital bed and looked at us in wonder. Two days before this, Dr. Bob had said to me, "If you and I are going to stay sober, we had better get busy." Straightway Bob called Akron's City Hospital and asked for the nurse on the receiving ward. He explained that he and a man from New York had a cure for alcoholism. Did she have an alcoholic customer on whom it could be tried? Knowing Bob of old, she jokingly replied, "Well, Doctor, I suppose you've already tried it yourself?" Yes, she did have a customer - a dandy. He just arrived in D.T.s. Had blacked the eyes of two nurses, and now they had him strapped down tight. Would this one do? After prescribing medicines, Dr. Bob ordered, "Put him in a private room. We'll be down as soon as he clears up." We found we had a tough customer in Bill. According to the nurse, he had been a well-known attorney in Akron and a City Councilman. But he had landed in the Akron City Hospital four times in the last six months. Following each release, he got drunk even before he could get home. So here we were, talking to Bill, the first "man on the bed." We told him about our drinking. We hammered it into him that alcoholism was an obsession of the mind, coupled to an allergy of the body. The obsession, we explained, condemned the alcoholic to drink against his will and the allergy, if he went on drinking, could positively guarantee his insanity or death. How to unhook that fatal compulsion, how to restore the alcoholic to sanity, was, of course, the problem. Hearing this bad news, Bill's swollen eyes opened wide. Then we took the hopeful tack, we told what we had done: how we got honest with ourselves as never before, how we had talked our problems out with each other in confidence, how we tried to make amends for harm done others, how we had then been miraculously released from the desire to drink as soon as we had humbly asked God, as we understood him, for guidance and protection. Bill didn't seem too impressed. Looking sadder than ever, he wearily ventured, "Well, this is wonderful for you fellows, but can't be for me. My case is so terrible that I'm scared to go out of this hospital at all. You don't have to sell me religion, either. I was one time a deacon in the church and I still believe in God. But I guess He doesn't believe much in me." Then Dr. Bob said, "Well. Bill, maybe you'll feel better tomorrow. Wouldn't you like to see us again?" "Sure I would," replied Bill, "Maybe it won't do any good. But I'd like to see you both, anyhow. You certainly know what you are talking about." Looking in next day, we found Bill with his wife, Henrietta. Eagerly he pointed to us saying, "These are the fellows I told you about, they are the ones who understand." Bill then related how he had lain awake nearly all night. Down in the pit of his depression, new hope had somehow been born. The thought flashed thorough his mind, "If they can do it, I can do it." Over and over he said this to himself. Finally, out of his hope, there burst conviction. Now he was sure. Then came a great joy. At length peace stole over him and he slept. Before our visit was over Bill suddenly turned to his wife and said, "Go fetch my clothes, dear. We're going to get up and get out of here." Bill D. walked out of that hospital a free man, never to drink again. AA's Number One Group dates from that very day. The force of the great example that Bill set in our pioneering time will last as long as AA itself. Bill kept the faith - what more could we say? IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1682. . . . . . . . . . . . Review of "My Name is Bill" From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 2/28/2004 2:26:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII A friend sent me this review of Susan Cheever's book "My Name is Bill." The review is written by Carolyn See. See was a stepdaughter of Wynn Laws, the author of "Freedom From Bondage." See my short bio of Wynn at this post: Yahoo! Groups : AAHistoryLovers Messages : Message 135 of 1680 [15] Nancy Teetotal Devotion By Carolyn See, who can be reached at www.carolynsee.com Friday, February 27, 2004; Page C02 MY NAME IS BILL Bill Wilson: His Life and the Creation of Alcoholics Anonymous By Susan Cheever Simon & Schuster. 306 pp. $24 When a wonderful writer with a unique voice undertakes to record the official life of an institutional icon, something interesting is bound to happen. Susan Cheever is exquisitely smart, amazingly curious and a master of the telling image. She can paint a picture of six or eight young married people dining on chicken baked in cream, and in that half a page recall -- and perfectly delineate -- a particular decade in American life. Her father was John Cheever, that literary expert on Northeastern class distinctions, and she has beautifully carried on his legacy. The elder Cheever was also a hard drinker, until he quit, and his daughter carried on that legacy, too. In her memoirs she often makes the distinction between the rapscallion she was and the sober citizen she became, but again, her work comes to far more than that. She is a perfect, natural storyteller, and that narrative gift is enlivened by an extremely keen mind. On the other hand, Bill Wilson, "Bill W.," co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, is an iconic figure. His life has traditionally been described in terms befitting a saint. His organization has been concerned with "anonymity" -- which can turn, with a single shift of light, into secrecy. The devotion of Bill's followers is legendary. This biography, then, is both "life" and an act of devotion. (Even as I write these words I feel my shoulders hunching, because there's probably no group of people more irate on general principle than AA members, who are keen to any sense that their group has been slighted in even the most glancing way.) Full disclosure: I grew up with a stepmom, Wynn, who had been fully prepared to marry Bill. He disengaged himself but put her "story" in the second edition of "Alcoholics Anonymous," in which the accounts of recovering alcoholics were included for the first time. She married my dad, her fifth husband, as a sort of consolation prize. Wynn was a wonderful woman, but I saw AA then from the point of view of a prissy, still-sober teenager, watching members bicker about whether taking an aspirin for a headache constituted a "slip," listening to stories of their friendships with a Personal God -- "I told God to have you call me today," my stepmother would say after I moved out of the house. (And what could I possibly say? Maybe she had, and maybe He did.) But they didn't worry much about sex. The first two parts, "A Rural Childhood" and "Drinking," seem to me to be absolutely brilliant. Bill Wilson was born in a Vermont town, to a family not quite yet up in the middle class. Cheever knows this material inside and out; she, again, is a scholar of the exquisite, merciless permutations of class. Bill suffered greatly. Cheever perfectly captures the undereducated, inferior-feeling young World War I recruit discovering pretty girls and iridescent cocktails; becoming, in his mind at least, a sophisticated man of the world -- as long as he has a drink in his hand. Then the drinking gets out of hand, and the Great Depression hits (together with his own personal depression). Bill's wife hangs on for dear life. It's such an American story. Cheever tells it brilliantly. Part 3, "Alcoholics Anonymous," is an entirely different story, told by another sort of writer. It's a tale like "The Boston Tea Party," or "How Jazz Came Up the River from New Orleans." It's good -- and good for us. AA is not a religion, the author assures the reader repeatedly, even though Bill and AA's other co-founder, "Dr. Bob" Smith, spent a lot of time on their knees. Men sometimes got disillusioned with Bill and went their own separate ways, the author tells us as well. But what really happened? What were their complaints? Did it have something to do with sex? Though he was married for more than 50 years, Bill W. was reputed to have had many girlfriends. But "some people believe," Cheever writes, "that none of it is true." She devotes less time to his womanizing than to his chain-smoking, and mentions only two women at any length. (One safely a lesbian; another one, coincidentally, named Wynn.) She then includes a shamefaced page or two on sexual possibilities. But there's no "evidence." Again, what an American story! What a Clintonian, "Death of a Salesman" story. So I want to say for the record (and you won't find it on "Grapevine," or any other AA publication) that early AA, at least on the West Coast, was full of raucous men and women bursting with the physical energy that drying out brings. I speak now for Wynn (the Wynn I knew), who wrote "Freedom From Bondage" in the Book, and who, though she had five husbands, considered the high point of her life her amorous connection to Bill. Wynn stood on our front steps one bright Christmas morning enthusiastically kissing a different handsome AA swain as others crowded past them, pushing inside to a party, where they would drink tomato juice and laugh like banshees, delirious with joy. They had found God (as they understood Him), and as long as they stayed away from booze and aspirin, they were okay; they were in the clear. They weren't ashamed of sex; they gloried in it. I know. Even the very brilliant and accomplished Susan Cheever couldn't take on this material, which is in no way "conference-approved literature." The second half of this very fine book is burdened by the "official story." © 2004 The Washington Post Company IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1685. . . . . . . . . . . . AA Grapevine Announcement From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/1/2004 11:30:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Dear Grapevine Web Friend: The entire AA Grapevine Digital Archive continues to be built on our website and is scheduled to launch June 2004, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the magazine. As the search function is being developed and the articles (over 12,000 of them) are being proofread, many little gems land on my desk. From February, 1963: "When rivalry threatens to cause an open fight between two Eskimo men, they use song instead of spears. They revile each other extemporaneously and the wittiest is declared the winner and a fight is averted. Psychologist Dr. Glenn says we can change the direction of an action started in the mind. If, for instance, you are all set to stage a fancy tantrum, you can sidetrack that action by song. A married couple developed a tendency to indulge in spats. They were made to promise, at the first sign of rising temperature, to sing the round "Row Your Boat" picking up speed as they went along, until out of breath. The most violent rage can be sidetracked by a hearty song." Maybe we AAs aren't as likely to break into song as we are apt to commence recital of the Serenity Prayer. From July 1957, someone had these thoughts: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change . . . "To be aware that the irritations and disappointments of each day are not a perverse plot aimed at me by the world. To understand that this world is not operated for my benefit; that my importance and its debt to me exist in direct ratio to my contributions and my adjustment to it." Courage to change the things I can . . . "To eliminate from my environment and its associations things I know to be harmful, attitudes I know to be insupportable and, no matter how well I thought I argued them, reasons which had no logic." And the wisdom to know the difference . . .. "To understand, with neither prejudice, self-justification nor pity, why changes are necessary - and which changes will give my life meaning - without alcohol." J.K., Los Angeles, Calif. Check out the latest cartoon for your one-liner contribution to Grapevine history: http://www.aagrapevine.org/Rule.html Also, exciting news: In early March, the website will have a new look. Not only will you get the Rule #62 cartoon, but a joke from each issue, and if he is available, our very own Victor E. So be sure to come back and visit. That's all for now. Best Regards, The Grapevine Web Manager IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1686. . . . . . . . . . . . Herbert Spencer Biography From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/1/2004 12:18:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII On Page 568 of the Fourth Edition Big Book it says the following: "There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance - that principle is contempt prior to investigation." - Herbert Spencer Herbert Spencer Biography British philosopher and sociologist, Herbert Spencer was a major figure in the intellectual life of the Victorian era. He was one of the principal proponents of evolutionary theory in the mid nineteenth century, and his reputation at the time rivaled that of Charles Darwin. Spencer was initially best known for developing and applying evolutionary theory to philosophy, psychology and the study of society -- what he called his "synthetic philosophy" (see his A System of Synthetic Philosophy, 1862-93). Today, however, he is usually remembered in philosophical circles for his political thought, primarily for his defense of natural rights and for criticisms of utilitarian positivism, and his views have been invoked by 'libertarian' thinkers such as Robert Nozick. Table of Contents Life Method Human Nature Religion Moral Philosophy Political Philosophy Assessment Bibliography Life Spencer was born in Derby, England on 27 April 1820, the eldest of nine children, but the only one to survive infancy. He was the product of an undisciplined, largely informal education. His father, George, was a school teacher, but an unconventional man, and Spencer's family were Methodist 'Dissenters,' with Quaker sympathies. From an early age, Herbert was strongly influenced by the individualism and the anti-establishment and anti-clerical views of his father, and the Benthamite radical views of his uncle Thomas. Indeed, Spencer's early years showed a good deal of resistance to authority and independence. A person of eclectic interests, Spencer eventually trained as a civil engineer for railways but, in his early 20s, turned to journalism and political writing. He was initially an advocate of many of the causes of philosophic radicalism and some of his ideas (e.g., the definition of 'good' and 'bad' in terms of their pleasurable or painful consequences, and his adoption of a version of the 'greatest happiness principle') show similarities to utilitarianism. From 1848 to 1853, Spencer worked as a writer and subeditor for The Economist financial weekly and, as a result, came into contact with a number of political controversialists such as George Henry Lewes, Thomas Carlyle, Lewes' future lover George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans [1819-1880])--with whom Spencer had himself had a lengthy (though purely intellectual) association--and T.H. Huxley (1825-1895). Despite the diversity of opinions to which he was exposed, Spencer's unquestioning confidence in his own views was coupled with a stubbornness and a refusal to read authors with whom he disagreed. In his early writings, Spencer defended a number of radical causes-- particularly on land nationalization, the extent to which economics should reflect a policy of laissez-faire, and the place and role of women in society--though he came to abandon most of these causes later in his life. In 1851 Spencer's first book, Social Statics, or the Conditions Essential to Human Happiness appeared. ('Social statics'--the term was borrowed from Auguste Comte--deals with the conditions of social order, and was preliminary to a study of human progress and evolution--i.e., 'social dynamics.') In this work, Spencer presents an account of the development of human freedom and a defense of individual liberties, based on a (Lamarckian-style) evolutionary theory. Upon the death of his uncle Thomas, in 1853, Spencer received a small inheritance which allowed him to devote himself to writing without depending on regular employment. In 1855, Spencer published his second book, The Principles of Psychology. As in Social Statics, Spencer saw Bentham and Mill as major targets, though in the present work he focussed on criticisms of the latter's associationism. (Spencer later revised this work, and Mill came to respect some of Spencer's arguments.) The Principles of Psychology was much less successful than Social Statics, however, and about this time Spencer began to experience serious (predominantly mental) health problems that affected him for the rest of his life. This led him to seek privacy, and he increasingly avoided appearing in public. Although he found that, because of his ill health, he could write for only a few hours each day, he embarked upon a lengthy project--the nine-volume A System of Synthetic Philosophy (1862- 93)--which provided a systematic account of his views in biology, sociology, ethics and politics. This 'synthetic philosophy' brought together a wide range of data from the various natural and social sciences and organized it according to the basic principles of his evolutionary theory. Spencer's Synthetic Philosophy was initially available only through private subscription, but he was also a contributor to the leading intellectual magazines and newspapers of his day. His fame grew with his publications, and he counted among his admirers both radical thinkers and prominent scientists, including John Stuart Mill and the physicist, John Tyndall. In the 1860s and 1870s, for example, the influence of Spencer's evolutionary theory was on a par with that of Charles Darwin. In 1883 Spencer was elected a corresponding member of philosophical section of the French academy of moral and political sciences. His work was also particularly influential in the United States, where his book, The Study of Sociology, was at the center of a controversy (1879-80) at Yale University between a professor, William Graham Sumner, and the University's president, Noah Porter. Spencer's influence extended into the upper echelons of American society and it has been claimed that, in 1896, "three justices of the Supreme Court were avowed 'Spencerians'." His reputation was at its peak in the 1870s and early 1880s, and he was nominated for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1902. Spencer, however, declined most of the honors he was given. Spencer's health significantly deteriorated in the last two decades of his life, and he died in relative seclusion, following a long illness, on December 8, 1903. Within his lifetime, some one million copies of his books had been sold, his work had been translated into French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Russian, and his ideas were popular in a number of other countries such as Poland (e.g., through the work of the positivist, Wladyslaw Kozlowski). Nevertheless, by the end of his life, his political views were no longer as popular as they had once been, and the dominant currents in liberalism allowed for a more interventionist state. Method Spencer's method is, broadly speaking, scientific and empirical, and it was influenced significantly by the positivism of Auguste Comte. Because of the empirical character of scientific knowledge and because of his conviction that that which is known--biological life--is in a process of evolution, Spencer held that knowledge is subject to change. Thus, Spencer writes, "In science the important thing is to modify and change one's ideas as science advances." As scientific knowledge was primarily empirical, however, that which was not 'perceivable' and could not be empirically tested could not be known. (This emphasis on the knowable as perceivable led critics to charge that Spencer fails to distinguish perceiving and conceiving.) Nevertheless, Spencer was not a skeptic. Spencer's method was also synthetic. The purpose of each science or field of investigation was to accumulate data and to derive from these phenomena the basic principles or laws or 'forces' which gave rise to them. To the extent that such principles conformed to the results of inquiries or experiments in the other sciences, one could have explanations that were of a high degree of certainty. Thus, Spencer was at pains to show how the evidence and conclusions of each of the sciences is relevant to, and materially affected by, the conclusions of the others. Human Nature In the first volume of A System of Synthetic Philosophy, entitled First Principles (1862), Spencer argued that all phenomena could be explained in terms of a lengthy process of evolution in things. This 'principle of continuity' was that homogeneous organisms are unstable, that organisms develop from simple to more complex and heterogeneous forms, and that such evolution constituted a norm of progress. This account of evolution provided a complete and 'predetermined' structure for the kind of variation noted by Darwin--and Darwin's respect for Spencer was significant. But while Spencer held that progress was a necessity, it was 'necessary' only overall, and there is no teleological element in his account of this process. In fact, it was Spencer, and not Darwin, who coined the phrase "survival of the fittest," though Darwin came to employ the expression in later editions of the Origin of Species. (That this view was both ambiguous --for it was not clear whether one had in mind the 'fittest' individual or species--and far from universal was something that both figures, however, failed to address.) Spencer's understanding of evolution included the Lamarckian theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics and emphasized the direct influence of external agencies on the organism's development. He denied (as Darwin had argued) that evolution was based on the characteristics and development of the organism itself and on a simple principle of natural selection. Spencer held that he had evidence for this evolutionary account from the study of biology (see Principles of Biology, 2 vols. [1864-7]). He argued that there is a gradual specialization in things--beginning with biological organisms--towards self-sufficiency and individuation. Because human nature can be said to improve and change, then, scientific--including moral and political-- views that rested on the assumption of a stable human nature (such as that presupposed by many utilitarians) had to be rejected. 'Human nature' was simply "the aggregate of men's instincts and sentiments" which, over time, would become adapted to social existence. Spencer still recognized the importance of understanding individuals in terms of the 'whole' of which they were 'parts,' but these parts were mutually dependent, not subordinate to the organism as a whole. They had an identity and value on which the whole depended--unlike, Spencer thought, that portrayed by Hobbes. For Spencer, then, human life was not only on a continuum with, but was also the culmination of, a lengthy process of evolution. Even though he allowed that there was a parallel development of mind and body, without reducing the former to the latter, he was opposed to dualism and his account of mind and of the functioning of the central nervous system and the brain was mechanistic. Although what characterized the development of organisms was the 'tendency to individuation' (Social Statics [1851], p. 436), this was coupled with a natural inclination in beings to pursue whatever would preserve their lives. When one examines human beings, this natural inclination was reflected in the characteristic of rational self-interest. Indeed, this tendency to pursue one's individual interests is such that, in primitive societies, at least, Spencer believed that a prime motivating factor in human beings coming together was the threat of violence and war. Paradoxically, perhaps, Spencer held an 'organic' view of society. Starting with the characteristics of individual entities, one could deduce, using laws of nature, what would promote or provide life and human happiness. He believed that social life was an extension of the life of a natural body, and that social 'organisms' reflected the same (Lamarckian) evolutionary principles or laws as biological entities did. The existence of such 'laws,' then, provides a basis for moral science and for determining how individuals ought to act and what would constitute human happiness. Religion As a result of his view that knowledge about phenomena required empirical demonstration, Spencer held that we cannot know the nature of reality in itself and that there was, therefore, something that was fundamentally "unknowable." (This included the complete knowledge of the nature of space, time, force, motion, and substance.) Since, Spencer claimed, we cannot know anything non-empirical, we cannot know whether there is a God or what its character might be. Though Spencer was a severe critic of religion and religious doctrine and practice--these being the appropriate objects of empirical investigation and assessment--his general position on religion was agnostic. Theism, he argued, cannot be adopted because there is no means to acquire knowledge of the divine, and there would be no way of testing it. But while we cannot know whether religious beliefs are true, neither can we know that (fundamental) religious beliefs are false. Moral Philosophy Spencer saw human life on a continuum with, but also as the culmination of, a lengthy process of evolution, and he held that human society reflects the same evolutionary principles as biological organisms do in their development. Society--and social institutions such as the economy--can, he believed, function without external control, just as the digestive system or a lower organism does (though, in arguing this, Spencer failed to see the fundamental differences between 'higher' and 'lower' levels of social organization). For Spencer, all natural and social development reflected 'the universality of law'. Beginning with the 'laws of life', the conditions of social existence, and the recognition of life as a fundamental value, moral science can deduce what kinds of laws promote life and produce happiness. Spencer's ethics and political philosophy, then, depends on a theory of 'natural law,' and it is because of this that, he maintained, evolutionary theory could provide a basis for a comprehensive political and even philosophical theory. Given the variations in temperament and character among individuals, Spencer recognized that there were differences in what happiness specifically consists in (Social Statics [1851], p. 5). In general, however, 'happiness' is the surplus of pleasure over pain, and 'the good' is what contributes to the life and development of the organism, or--what is much the same--what provides this surplus of pleasure over pain. Happiness, therefore, reflects the complete adaptation of an individual organism to its environment--or, in other words, 'happiness' is that which an individual human being naturally seeks. For human beings to flourish and develop, Spencer held that there must be as few artificial restrictions as possible, and it is primarily freedom that he, contra Bentham, saw as promoting human happiness. While progress was an inevitable characteristic of evolution, it was something to be achieved only through the free exercise of human faculties (see Social Statics). Society, however, is (by definition, for Spencer) an aggregate of individuals, and change in society could take place only once the individual members of that society had changed and developed (The Study of Sociology, pp. 366-367). Individuals are, therefore, 'primary,' individual development was 'egoistic,' and associations with others largely instrumental and contractual. Still, Spencer thought that human beings exhibited a natural sympathy and concern for one another; there is a common character and there are common interests among human beings that they eventually come to recognize as necessary not only for general, but for individual development. (This reflects, to an extent, Spencer's organicism.) Nevertheless, Spencer held that 'altruism' and compassion beyond the family unit were sentiments that came to exist only recently in human beings. Spencer maintained that there was a natural mechanism--an 'innate moral sense'--in human beings by which they come to arrive at certain moral intuitions and from which laws of conduct might be deduced (The Principles of Ethics, I [1892], p. 26). Thus one might say that Spencer held a kind of 'moral sense theory' (Social Statics, pp. 23, 19). (Later in his life, Spencer described these 'principles' of moral sense and of sympathy as the 'accumulated effects of instinctual or inherited experiences.') Such a mechanism of moral feeling was, Spencer believed, a manifestation of his general idea of the 'persistence of force.' As this persistence of force was a principle of nature, and could not be created artificially, Spencer held that no state or government could promote moral feeling any more than it could promote the existence of physical force. But while Spencer insisted that freedom was the power to do what one desired, he also held that what one desired and willed was wholly determined by "an infinitude of previous experiences" (The Principles of Psychology, pp. 500-502.) Spencer saw this analysis of ethics as culminating in an 'Absolute Ethics,' the standard for which was the production of pure pleasure--and he held that the application of this standard would produce, so far as possible, the greatest amount of pleasure over pain in the long run. Spencer's views here were rejected by Mill and Hartley. Their principal objection was that Spencer's account of natural 'desires' was inadequate because it failed to provide any reason why one ought to have the feelings or preferences one did. There is, however, more to Spencer's ethics than this. As individuals become increasingly aware of their individuality, they also become aware of the individuality of others and, thereby, of the law of equal freedom. This 'first principle' is that 'Every man has freedom to do all that he wills, provided he infringes not the equal freedom of any other man' (Social Statics, p. 103). One's 'moral sense,' then, led to the recognition of the existence of individual rights, and one can identify strains of a rights-based ethic in Spencer's writings. Spencer's views clearly reflect a fundamentally 'egoist' ethic, but he held that rational egoists would, in the pursuit of their own self interest, not conflict with one another. Still, to care for someone who has no direct relation to oneself--such as supporting the un- and under employed--is, therefore, not only not in one's self interest, but encourages laziness and works against evolution. In this sense, at least, social inequity was explained, if not justified, by evolutionary principles. Political Philosophy Despite his egoism and individualism, Spencer held that life in community was important. Because the relation of parts to one another was one of mutual dependency, and because of the priority of the individual 'part' to the collective, society could not do or be anything other than the sum of its units. This view is evident, not only in his first significant major contribution to political philosophy, Social Statics, but in his later essays--some of which appear in later editions of The Man versus the State. As noted earlier, Spencer held an 'organic' view of society, Nevertheless, as also noted above, he argued that the natural growth of an organism required 'liberty'--which enabled him (philosophically) to justify individualism and to defend the existence of individual human rights. Because of his commitment to the 'law of equal freedom' and his view that law and the state would of necessity interfere with it, he insisted on an extensive policy of laissez faire. For Spencer, 'liberty' "is to be measured, not by the nature of the government machinery he lives under [...] but by the relative paucity of the restraints it imposes on him" (The Man versus the State [1940], p. 19); the genuine liberal seeks to repeal those laws that coerce and restrict individuals from doing as they see fit. Spencer followed earlier liberalism, then, in maintaining that law is a restriction of liberty and that the restriction of liberty, in itself, is evil and justified only where it is necessary to the preservation of liberty. The only function of government was to be the policing and protection of individual rights. Spencer maintained that education, religion, the economy, and care for the sick or indigent were not to be undertaken by the state. Law and public authority have as their general purpose, therefore, the administration of justice (equated with freedom and the protection of rights). These issues became the focus of Spencer's later work in political philosophy and, particularly, in The Man versus the State. Here, Spencer contrasts early, classical liberalism with the liberalism of the 19th century, arguing that it was the latter, and not the former, that was a "new Toryism"--the enemy of individual progress and liberty. It is here as well that Spencer develops an argument for the claim that individuals have rights, based on a 'law of life'. (Interestingly, Spencer acknowledges that rights are not inherently moral, but become so only by one's recognition that for them to be binding on others the rights of others must be binding on oneself--this is, in other words, a consequence of the 'law of equal freedom.') He concluded that everyone had basic rights to liberty 'in virtue of their constitutions' as human beings (Social Statics, p. 77), and that such rights were essential to social progress. (These rights included rights to life, liberty, property, free speech, equal rights of women, universal suffrage, and the right 'to ignore the state'--though Spencer reversed himself on some of these rights in his later writings.) Thus, the industrious--those of character, but with no commitment to existing structures except those which promoted such industry (and, therefore, not religion or patriotic institutions)--would thrive. Nevertheless, all industrious individuals, Spencer believed, would end up being in fundamental agreement. Not surprisingly, then, Spencer maintained that the arguments of the early utilitarians on the justification of law and authority and on the origin of rights were fallacious. He also rejected utilitarianism and its model of distributive justice because he held that it rested on an egalitarianism that ignored desert and, more fundamentally, biological need and efficiency. Spencer further maintained that the utilitarian account of the law and the state was also inconsistent---that it tacitly assumed the existence of claims or rights that have both moral and legal weight independently of the positive law. And, finally, Spencer argues as well against parliamentary, representative government, seeing it as exhibiting a virtual "divine right"---i.e., claiming that "the majority in an assembly has power that has no bounds." Spencer maintained that government action requires not only individual consent, but that the model for political association should be that of a "joint stock company", where the 'directors' can never act for a certain good except on the explicit wishes of its 'shareholders'. When parliaments attempt to do more than protect the rights of their citizens by, for example, 'imposing' a conception of the good--be it only on a minority--Spencer suggested that they are no different from tyrannies. Assessment Spencer has been frequently accused of inconsistency; one finds variations in his conclusions concerning land nationalization and reform, the rights of children and the extension of suffrage to women, and the role of government. Moreover, in recent studies of Spencer's theory of social justice, there is some debate whether justice is based primarily on desert or on entitlement, whether the 'law of equal freedom' is a moral imperative or a descriptive natural law, and whether the law of equal freedom is grounded on rights, utility, or, ultimately, on 'moral sense'. Nevertheless, Spencer's work has frequently been seen as a model for later 'libertarian' thinkers, such as Robert Nozick, and he continues to be read--and is often invoked--by 'libertarians' on issues concerning the function of government and the fundamental character of individual rights. Bibliography Primary Sources: The Proper Sphere of Government. London: W. Brittain, 1843. Social Statics. London: Chapman, 1851. The Principles of Psychology. London: Longmans, 1855; 2nd edn., 2 vols. London: Williams and Norgate, 1870-2; 3rd edn., 2 vols. (1890). [A System of Synthetic Philosophy ; v. 4-5] First Principles. London: Williams and Norgate, 1862; 6th edn., revised, 1904. [A system of Synthetic Philosophy ; v. 1] Principles of Biology, 2 vols. London: Williams and Norgate, 1864, 1867; 2nd edn., 1898-99).[A System of Synthetic Philosophy ; v. 2-3] The Study of Sociology. New York: D. Appleton, 1874, [c1873] The Principles of Sociology. 3 vols. London : Williams and Norgate, 1882-1898. [A System of Synthetic Philosophy, v. 6-8] CONTENTS: Vol. 1: pt. 1. The data of sociology. pt. 2. The inductions of sociology. pt. 3. The domestic relations; Vol. 2: pt. 4. Ceremonial institutions. pt. 5. Political institutions; v. 3: pt. 6. Ecclesiastical institutions. pt. 7. Professional institutions. pt. 8. Industrial institutions.] The Man versus the State: containing "The new Toryism," "The coming slavery," "The sins of legislators," and "The great political superstition," London : Williams & Norgate, 1884; with additional essays and an introduction by Albert Jay Nock. [adds "From freedom to bondage," and "Over- legislation"] Intro. A.J. Nock. Caldwell, ID: Caxton, 1940. Spencer, Herbert. The Factors of Organic Evolution. London: Williams and Norgate, 1887. Spencer, Herbert. The Principles of Ethics. 2 vols. London: Williams and Northgate, 1892. [A system of synthetic philosophy ; v. 9-10] An Autobiography. 2 v. London: Williams and Norgate, 1904. Secondary Sources: Andreski, S. Herbert Spencer: Structure, Function and Evolution. London, 1972. Duncan, David. (ed.) The Life and Letters of Herbert Spencer. London: Methuen, 1908. Gray, T.S. The Political Philosophy of Herbert Spencer, Aldershot: Avebury, 1996. Jones, G. Social Darwinism and English Thought: The Interaction between Biological and Social Theory. Brighton, 1980. Kennedy, James G. Herbert Spencer. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1978. Miller, David. Social Justice. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976. Ch. 6 Paxton, N.L. George Eliot and Herbert Spencer: Feminism, Evolutionism, and the Reconstruction of Gender. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991. Peel, J.D.Y. Herbert Spencer: The Evolution of a Sociologist. London, 1971. Ritchie, David G. The Principles of State Interference: Four Essays on the Political Philosophy of Mr Herbert Spencer, J.S. Mill and T.H. Green. London: Swan Sonnenschein, 1891. Taylor, M.W. Men versus the State: Herbert Spencer and late Victorian Liberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. Wiltshire, David. The Social and Political Thought of Herbert Spencer. New York: Oxford, 1978. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1687. . . . . . . . . . . . Living Sober From: Joanna Whitney . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/3/2004 9:30:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Group -- I am newly returning after a long stay away and glad to see you are all still here. I am really curious about the origins of the publication Living Sober and what conference approved it. Anybody? Thanks, Joanna IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1688. . . . . . . . . . . . AA Literature at Unity retreats From: victoria callaway . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/3/2004 9:20:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Can anyone clarify if some piece of AA literature was written at a Nity Village retreat and what piece that is. this remark was made at a meeting my sponsor was at and she wanted me to find out. Thanks IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1689. . . . . . . . . . . . Significant March dates in AA History - Revised From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/3/2004 6:51:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Thanks to the two eagle-eyed members who spotted errors in the original list posted March 1. One of these days I'll get it right the first time. Nancy [16] March 1: 1939 - Readers Digest failed to write promised article on AA. 1941 - Saturday Evening Post article by Jack Alexander created national sensation. AA membership quadrupled in one year from 2000 to 8000. March 3: 1947 - Nell Wing, Bill's secretary and first archivist of AA, began her career at Alcoholic Foundation Office. March 4: 1891 - Lois Wilson was born. March 5: 1945 - Time Magazine reported Detroit radio broadcasts of AA members. March 9: 1941 - Wichita Beacon reported AA member from NY who wanted to form a group in Wichita, Kansas. March 11: 1947 - A Priest in St. Paul, Minnesota, founded Calix International. Alcoholics in his parish met after Saturday morning Mass to discuss the readings for the upcoming Sunday and how their faith melded with the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. March 12: 1940 - Ebby Thatcher, Bill Wilson's boyhood friend and sponsor, was reported sober again. March 14: 1941 - South Orange, NJ, AA held an anniversary dinner at the Hotel Suburban with Bill Wilson as the guest speaker. March 15: 1941 - 1st AA group was formed in New Haven, Connecticut. March 16: 1940: Bill moved the Alcoholic Foundation office to 30 Vesey St., NY. (30 Vesey St., NY, was almost destroyed on September 11, 2001.) March 18: 1951 - Cliff W. was elected 1st delegate from Southern California. March 21: 1881 - Anne Ripley, Dr. Bob's wife, was born. 1966 - Ebby Thatcher, Bill Wilson's sponsor, died sober. March 22: 1951 - Dr. William Duncan Silkworth died at Towns Hospital. 1984 - Clarence Snyder, founder of Cleveland AA and author of "Home Brewmeister," died at 81, 46 years sober. March 23: 1936 - Bill & Lois Wilson visited Fitz Mayo, "Our Southern Friend," in Maryland. 1941 - Sybil C.'s sobriety date. She was the first woman to enter AA west of the Mississippi. March 25: 1965 - Richmond Walker, author of "Twenty-Four Hours a Day" book, died at age 72, almost 23 years sober. March 29: 1943 - The Charleston Mail, WV, reported that Bill Wilson had given a talk at St. John's Parish House. March 31: 1947 - 1st AA group was formed in London, England. Other events in March, for which I have no exact date: 1942 - 1st Prison AA Group formed at San Quentin. 1945 - March of Time film was produced and supervised by E.M. Jellinek. 1946 - The Jefferson Barracks AA Group in Missouri was formed. It is thought to be the first ever in a military installation. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1690. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Living Sober From: Mel Barger . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/3/2004 2:16:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Joanna, I don't know what conference approved of Living Sober but I do know that it was written by Barry Leach, now deceased. Barry was very devoted to Lois Wilson---somewhat like a surrogate son---and even accompanied her on trips when she was very elderly. I took a picture of Barry and Lois greeting Jack Bailey (the famous Queen for a Day man) when he spoke in Akron in 1978. I wish I could find a portrait of Barry for use in my Power Point presentations. Mel Barger ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger melb@accesstoledo.com IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1691. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Living Sober From: Jim Blair . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/4/2004 12:12:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Mel wrote > I don't know what conference approved of Living Sober but I do know that it was written by Barry Leach, now deceased. This is from the unpublished history manuscript by Bob P. "Living Sober," the other booklet, published in 1975, had a more tortuous history. Around 1968, there were discussions by the Board of the need for a pamphlet for sober old-timers, and the need to point out "traps" or "danger signals." Members of the Literature Committee and others were asked to submit their ideas. Out of this grew a specific proposal for a piece of literature to be developed around the topic, "How We Stay Sober." It was in outline form by October 1969, and was assigned to a professional writer on the staff of a prestigious national magazine. After nearly two years of work, he submitted a complete draft.. Which everyone agreed would not do at all. They felt it needed such drastic revision that it should be started again from scratch by a new author. Barry L., a seasoned, skillful freelance writer/consultant for G.S.O. was given the task. With Bob H., general manager of G.S.O., he negotiated a flat fee for the project. After four and a half years of organizing material and writing . and probably some procrastinating, as well, Barry came up with a simple, intensely practical, charmingly written manual on how to enjoy a happy, productive life without drinking. It was not spiritual and contained nothing about getting sober; but it was chock-full of the kind of advice and suggestions a newcomer might get from a super-sponsor. ("A.A.'s First Aid Kit" was Bayard's name for it.) And it was written in a style unlike any other A.A. literature: breezy, impertinent, colloquial and informal. "Living Sober" proved to be hugely popular, and after it had sold nearly a million copies, Barry L. felt he should have been compensated more generously and should receive some sort of royalty. He sent a letter to all past Trustees and G.S.O. staff members with whom he was acquainted, to advance his claim. The AAWS Board and the General Service Board considered his case, but declined to take action. He then threatened legal recourse, but perhaps realizing the weakness of his case, never followed through. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1695. . . . . . . . . . . . Marty Mann and Bill Wilson, 1956, Compiled from Previous Posts From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/8/2004 7:54:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII [17] In 1956, Marty Mann had the pleasure of introducing Bill Wilson at the annual meeting of the National Committee on Alcoholism. This Committee was later to become the National Council on Alcoholism (now the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence). Bill's talk, while it included his usual "bedtime story," was also a call to cooperation and understanding and support of all those who are trying to help the still suffering alcoholic. Nancy National Committee on Alcoholism Annual Meeting Hotel Statler, New York City, N.Y. March 30, 1956 Introduction by the National Director of the National Committee on Alcoholism, Mrs. Marty Mann. Mr. President, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, I had to have that formal beginning to find out if I had a voice. This moment is of such import to me that I have been fearful for a week that I would not be able to speak. It's a moment I've been waiting for a long time. The National Committee on Alcoholism was founded on a proof. Unless there had been proof that alcoholics could recover there could have been no National Committee on Alcoholism. That proof was available by 1944, the year of the founding of the Committee because of what Alcoholics Anonymous had been doing for nine years. And the work that Alcoholics Anonymous had been doing for nine years is very largely due to a recovery of an individual. Everything has to start somewhere. We no longer look upon it as a divine plan, I think we should as divine plans require instruments, instruments that we can see and touch and hear, that can reach us. Such an instrument was found in a man who had suffered deeply and terribly from alcoholism and he was able to recover and he discovered that in order to keep his recovery he had to share it, he had to pass it on. I like to describe this as the discovery of a constructive chain reaction. Something was set in motion back in November 1934, that was to become one of the great sources for good in our time. I was very fortunate in coming in contact with this force when I most desperately needed it. It was not easy for me to change the pattern of my living from a negative one to a constructive one and I had a little trouble from time to time in the beginning in attempting my new life. The most seriously difficulty I had was met by this same man who sought me out and dug me out and whom I couldn't refuse to see and when he spoke to me he said something that I'll never forget. Something that is having is culmination here today. He asked me if I wanted to stop drinking. I said, "Yes." He put his arm around me and he said, "I'm glad because we have a long way to go together." Neither of us knew back in 1939 how far that road led or where it was going to lead but we are still traveling that road together and it's lead up all the way, up and on. I believe that the contribution that was made by this instrument, if you like, is a contribution past description, past telling. I believe that it was largely through that contribution which produced living proof that we have been able to arrive at a meeting such as today where we have been able to bring together representatives of all the professional disciplines who are happily and gladly working in this field as this wasn't always true fifteen years ago. But we were able to get great names in medicine and psychiatry and social work and psychology and in public health to be present at a meeting like this, to take part in what we are doing, to join hands with that little band of recovered alcoholics to help lick this problem. Alcoholics Anonymous couldn't do it alone. We couldn't expect any other victims of a particular affliction to carry the whole burden of doing something about that particular disease and we shouldn't expect it in this field. To lick a problem as complex, as vast and as devastating as alcoholism requires the cooperation of every one of us, of every area of our life. To have that cooperation we had to have evidence that it could produce them. That evidence exists in the growing ranks of Alcoholics Anonymous and that truth exists because back in 1934, one man got sober and allowed himself to be used as the great instrument in spreading this word of hope. In my book he is one of the greatest men of our times. I give you my friend, my sponsor, the reason why I am here, Bill. Address by Bill W. Well, folks, our world is certainly a world of contrast, it was only a few year ago that Westbrook Pegler wrote a piece in which he described Dr. Bob and me as "the wet brain founders of Alcoholics Anonymous." But very seriously and very happily, too, I think that the A.A.'s present in and out of this Committee and everywhere join in with Lois and me and are able to say that this is one of the finest hours that has yet to come to us. Some people say that destiny is a series of events held together by a thin thread of change or circumstance. Other people say that destiny is composed of a series of events strung on a cord of cause and effect and still others say that the destiny of good work is often the issue of the will of God and that he forges the links and brings the events to pass. I've been asked to come here to tell the story of A.A. and in that story, everyone here I am sure can find justification for either of those points of view. But, I want to tell more than the story of A.A., this time. I was beset, I must confess, by a certain reluctance and the reluctance issues out of this fact, of course everybody is fairly familiar with the fact that I once suffered from alcoholism, but people are not so wise to the fact that I suffer also from schizophrenia, split personality. I have a personality say as a patriarch of A.A.,founding father, if you like, and I also have a personality as an A.A. member and between these personalities is a terrific gulf. You see, a founding father of A.A. has to stand up to the A.A. Tradition which says that you must not endorse anything or anybody or even say good things about your friends on the outside or even of Beemans chewing gum lest it be an endorsement. So as the father of A.A. I am very strictly bound to do nothing but tell the story of our society. But as an A.A. member like all the rest, I am an anarchist who revels in litter so I'm really going to say what I damn please. So, if only you will receive me as Mr. Anonymous, one of the poor old drunks still trying to get honest! Now to our narrative and to the first links in the chain of events that has led us to this magnificent hour. I was by no means the first link in this chain and only one of very many. I think the founder business ought to be well deflated and I'm just going to take a minute or two to do it. As a fact, the first link in the chain was probably forged about twenty-five years ago in the office of a great psychiatrist, Carl Jung. At that time he had as a patient a certain very prominent American businessman. They worked together for a year. My business friend Rowland was a very grim case of alcoholism and yet under the doctor's guidance he thought he was going to find release. He left the doctor in great confidence but shortly, he was back drunk. Said he to Dr. Jung, "What now, You*re my court of last resort." The doctor looked at him and said, "I thought that you might be one of those rare cases that could be touched with my art, but you aren't. I have never seen," continued doctor Jung, "one single case of alcoholism recover, so grave as yours under my tutelage." Well, to my friend Rowland this was tantamount to a sentence of death. "But doctor," said he, "is there no other course, nothing else." "Yes," said Dr. Jung, "there is something. There is such a thing as a transforming spiritual experience." "Well," Rowland beamed, "after all I've been a vestryman in the Episcopal Church, I'm a man of faith." "Oh," Dr. Jung said, "that's fine so far as it goes but it has to go a lot deeper. I'm speaking of transforming spiritual experiences." "Where would I find such a thing," asked Rowland. Dr. Jung said, "I don't know, lighting strikes here or there, it strikes any other place. We don't know why or how. You will just have to expose yourself in the religion of your own choice or a spiritual influence as best you can and just try and ask and maybe it will be open to you." So my friend Rowland joined up with the Oxford Groups, the sometime Buchmanites of that day, first in London and then came to New York and lo and behold the lighting did strike and he found himself unaccountably released of his obsession to drink. After a time he heard of a friend of mine, a chap we call Ebby, who sojourned every summer in Vermont, an awful grim case, he had driven his father's bright, shiny new Packard into the side of someone's house. He had bashed into the kitchen, pushing aside the stove and had said to the startled lady there, "How about a cup of coffee." The neighbors thought that this was enough and that he needed to be locked up. He was taken before Judge Graves in Bennington, Vermont, a place not too far from my home, by the way, and there our friend Rowland heard of it and gathering a couple of Oxford Groupers together, one of them an alcoholic the other just a two fisted drinker, they took Ebby in tow and they inoculated him with very simple ideas: that he, Ebby, could not do this job on his own resources, that he had to have help; that he might try the idea of getting honest with himself as he never had before; he might try the idea of making a confession of his defects to someone; he might try the idea of making restitution or harms done; he might try the idea of giving of himself to others with no price tag on it; agnostic he was, he might try the idea of praying to whatever God there was. That was the essence of what my friend Ebby abstracted from the Oxford Groups of that day. True, we later rejected very much of the other things they had to teach us. It is true that these principles might have been found somewhere else but as it happens they were found there. Ebby for a time got the same phenomenon of release and then he remembered me. He was brought to New York and lodged at Calvary Mission and soon called me up while I lay home drinking in Brooklyn. I will never forget that day as suddenly he stood in the areaway, I hadn't seen him for a long time. By this time I knew something of the gravity of my plight. I couldn't put my finger on it but he seemed strangely changed, besides he was sober. He came in and began to talk. I offered him some grog. I remember I had a big jug of gin and pineapple juice there, the pineapple juice was there to convince Lois that I wasn't drinking straight gin. No, he didn't care for a drink. No, he wasn't drinking. "What's got into you," I asked. "Well," he said, "I've got religion." Well, that was rough on me. He's got religion! He had substituted religious insanity for alcoholic insanity. Well, I had to be polite so I asked, "What brand is it." And, he said, "I wouldn't exactly call it a brand. I've come across a group of people who have sold me on getting honest with myself; who sold me on the idea that I am powerless over my problems and have taught me to help others so I'm trying to bring something to you, if you want it. That's it." So, in his turn, he transmitted to me these simple ideas across the kitchen table. Meanwhile, another chain of events had been taking place. In fact, the earliest link in that chain runs back to William James who is sometimes called the father of modern psychology. Another link in the chain was my own Doctor William Duncan Silkworth, who I think will someday be counted as a medical saint. I had the usual struggle with this problem and had met Dr. Silkworth at Towns Hospital. He had explained in very simple terms what my problem was: an obsession that condemned me to drink against my will and increasing physical sensitivity which guaranteed that I would go mad unless I could somehow find release, perhaps through re-education. He taught me the nature of the malady. But here I was, again drinking. But here was my friend talking to me over the kitchen table. Already, you see, the elements which lie today in the foundation of A.A. were already present. The God of science in the persons of Dr. Silkworth and Dr. Jung had said "No" on the matters of psychiatry, psychology and medicine. They can't do it alone. Your will power can't do it alone. So, the rug had been pulled out from under Rowland Hazzard; and Hazzard, an alcoholic, had pulled the rug out from under Ebby; and now he was pulling it out from under me while quoting Dr. Jung and substantiating what Dr. Silkworth had let leak back to me through Lois. So, the stage was really set and it had been some years in the setting before it ever caught up with me. Of course, I had balked at this idea of a power greater than myself, although the rest of the program seemed sensible enough. I was desperate, willing to try anything, but I still did gag on the God business. But at length, I said to myself as has every A.A. member since, "Who am I to say there is no God? Who am I to say how I am going to get well?" Like a cancer patient, I am now ready to do anything, to be dependent upon any kind of a physician and if there is a great physician, I had better seek him out. So, pretty drunk, I went back to Towns Hospital, was put to bed and three days later my friend appears again. One alcoholic talking to another across that strange powerful bond that we can effect with each other. In his one hand and in the hands of the doctor was hopelessness and on the other side was hope. He went through his little list of principles; getting honest, making restitution, working with other people, praying to whatever God there was, then he left. When he had gone, I sunk into a terrific depression, the like of which I had never known and I suppose for a moment the last vestiges of my prideful obstinacy were crushed out at great depth and I cried out like a child, "Now I'll do anything, anything to get well," and with no faith and almost no hope I again cried out, "If there is a God, will he show himself." Immediately the place lit up in a great light. It seemed to me that I was on a mountain top, there was a sudden realization that I was free, utterly free of this thing and as the ecstasy subsided I am again on the bed and now I'm surrounded by a sense of presence and a mighty assurance and a feeling that no matter how wrong things were, ultimately all would be well. I thought to myself, so this is the God of the preachers. From that day to this, I have scarcely been tempted to drink, so instantaneous and terrific was the release from the obsession. At about the time of my release from the hospital, somebody handed me a copy of William James' book Varieties of Religious Experience. Many of us disagree with James' pragmatic philosophy but I think that nearly all will agree that this is a great text in which he examines these mechanisms. And in that book of his, great numbers, the great majority of these experiences took off from a base of utter hopelessness. In some controlling area of the individual's life he had struck a wall and couldn't get under, around or over. That kind of hopelessness was the forerunner of the transforming experience and as I began to read those common denominators stuck out of the cases cited by James. I began to wonder. Yes, I fitted into that pattern but why hadn't more alcoholics fitted into it before now? In other words, what we needed was more deflation at depth to lay hold of this transforming experience. Then comes Dr. Silkworth with the answer, those two little words: the obsession and the allergy. Not such little words, big words, the twin ogres of madness and death, of science pronouncing its verdict of hopelessness so far as our own resources were concerned. Yes, I had had that dose. That had perhaps laid the ground. One alcoholic talking to another had convinced me where no others had brought me any conviction. I began to race around madly trying to help alcoholics and in gratitude I briefly joined the Oxford Group but they were more interested in saving the world than other alcoholics. That didn't last too long and I began to tell people of this sudden mystic experience and I fear that I was preaching a great deal and not one single drunk sobered up for a period of six months. Again, comes the man of medicine, Dr. Silkworth and he said, "Bill, you've got the cart before the horse. Why don't you stop talking about this queer experience of yours and of all this morality? Why don't you pour into these people how medically sick they are and then, maybe coming from you or with the identification you can get with these other fellows, then maybe you'll soften them up so they'll buy this moral psychology." About that time I had been urged to get back into business and quit being a missionary and I hooked onto a business deal which took me to Akron, Ohio. The deal fell through and for the first time I felt tempted to drink. I was in the hotel with about ten dollars in my pocket and my new found friends had disappeared. I thought to myself, gee, you'd better look for another alcoholic to work with. Then I realized as never before how working with other alcoholics had played such a great part in sustaining my original experience. Well, again friends came to the rescue. I went down to the lobby and looked at the Church Directory and absentmindedly drew my finger down the list of names and there appeared a rather odd one, the Reverend Tunks. I said, "Well, I'll call up Tunks" and he turned out to be a wonderful Episcopal clergyman. I said that I was a drunk looking for another drunk to work on and tried to explain why. The good man showed some alarm as it wasn't everyday someone called up with my request but the good man gave me a list of about ten names, some of them Oxford Groupers. I called all of these people up. Well, Sunday was coming and maybe they would see me in Church, some were going out of town. I exhausted that list, all but one. None had time nor cared very much. Something not very strange under the circumstances so I went down and took another look in the bar and something said to me "You had better call her up." Her name was Henrietta Seiberling and I took her to be the wife of a tire tycoon out there who I had once met and I thought that this lady certainly isn't going to want to see me on a Saturday afternoon. But I called and she said, "Come right out, I'm not an alcoholic but I think I understand." This led to the meeting with Dr. Bob, one of my many co-partners in this enterprise, and as Dr. Silkworth had suggested I poured into him how sick we were and that produced his immediate recovery. I went to live in the Smith's house and presently Bob said, "Hadn't we better start working with alcoholics?" I said, "Sure, I think we had." We found an opportunity at City Hospital in Akron, who was being brought in with D.T.'s on a stretcher. He'd been hospitalized six times in four months and couldn't even get home without getting stewed. That was to be A.A. number three, the first man on the bed. Dr. Bob and I went to see him and he said, "I'm too far gone and besides, I'm a man of faith." Nevertheless, we poured it into him, the medical hopelessness of this thing so far as one's own resources are concerned. We explained what had happened to us, we made clear to him his future. And the next morning we came back and he was saying to his wife, "Give me my clothes, were going to get up and get out of here. These are the men, they are the ones who understand." Right then and there was formed the first A.A. group in the summer of 1935. The synthesis in it's main outline was complete. But Lord, we hadn't even started. The struggles of those next few years. A wonderful thing to think about. Terribly slow was our growth. We got way into 1939 before we had produced even a hundred recoveries in Akron and in New York, a few in Cleveland, Ohio. Then, in that year, the Cleveland Plain Dealer ran pieces about us of such strength that the few A.A.'s in Cleveland were flooded with hundreds of cases and that added one more needed ingredient. Up to this time it had been deadly slow. Could this thing spread? Could we get into mass production? Well, in a matter of months, twenty Clevelanders had sobered up several hundred newcomers. But that required hospitalization and we were not liked in the hospitals. Now, I come to the subject of this Committee, it's relation with A.A., and the linkage between us. Meanwhile, great events were going on down here (New York), there had been in preparation a book to be called Alcoholics Anonymous. As a precaution we had made mimeograph copies to be passed around and one of these copies was sent to a man who I consider to be one of the greatest friends that this society can ever have, Dr. Harry Tiebout, the onetime Chairman of this Committee. Harry Tiebout was the man who got me before the medical societies and that took great courage. Well, I'm getting ahead of my story. So Harry got one of the mimeographed copies of the A.A. book and he hands it to a certain patient at the Blythewood Sanitarium in Greenwich, Connecticut. The patient was a lady. She read the book and it made her very mad so she threw it out the window and got drunk. That was the first impact of Alcoholics Anonymous. Harry got her sobered up and handed her the book again and a phrase caught her eye, it was a trigger. "We cannot live with resentments," the book said. This time she didn't throw it out the window. Presently she came to our little meeting and you must remember that we were still less than a hundred strong in the early part of 1939 at our little Brooklyn house at 182 Clinton Street. And she came back from that meeting to Greenwich and made a remark that today is a classic in A.A. She said to a fellow patient and sufferer and friend in the sanitarium, "Grennie, we're not alone anymore, this is it." Well, that was the beginning for Marty. Much help by Harry and Mrs. Willey, the proprietor of the place. Marty started the first group on the grounds of the sanitarium. She began to frantically work with alcoholics and became the dean of our women alcoholics. So our society had made two terrific friends in Dr. Harry and Marty. Now, in the intervening years up to 1944, A.A. itself was in a bad turmoil. The Saturday Evening Post piece had been published which caused 6,000 frantic inquiries to hit our post office box here in New York, from all over the country, indeed, all over the world. So then the great question was posed. Could A.A. spread? Could it function? Could it hang together with it's enormous neurotic content that we have. We just did not know. But again, it was do or die. In old Ben Franklin's words, "We would either hang together or hang separately." Out of this group experience there began to evolve Traditions. Traditions which had to do with A.A.'s unity and function and relation with the world outside and our relations to such things as money, property, prestige, all that sort of thing. The Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous you folks, for the most part, are familiar with. Those principles began to take shape, began to gather for us and little by little, order began to come out of this seething mass of drunks in their quest for sobriety. By now, the membership of the movement had run up into the many thousands and as Marty observed, there was now proof that it can be done. But we were still a long way from today. A.A. still needed friends. Friends of medicine, friends of religion, friends of the press. We had a handful but we needed a lot of friends. The public needed to know what sort of malady this was and that something could be done about it. This Committee, much like Alcoholics Anonymous is notable not only for what it has done in its own sphere but for what it has set in motion. I remember very well when this Committee started. It brought me in contact with our great friends at Yale, the courageous Dr. Haggard, the incredible Dr.Jellinek or "Bunky" as we affectionately know him, and Seldon [Bacon] and all those dedicated people. The question arose, could an A.A. member get into education or research or what not? Then ensued a fresh and great controversy in A.A. which was not surprising because you must remember that in that period we were like the people on Rickenbacker's raft. Who would dare to rock us ever so little and precipitate us back into the alcohol sea. So, frankly, we were afraid and as usual we had the radicals and we had the conservatives and we had moderates on this question of whether A.A. members could go into other enterprises in this field. The conservatives said, "No, let's keep it simple, let's mind our own business." The radicals said, "Let's endorse anything that looks like it will do any good, let the A.A. name be used to raise money and to do whatever it can do for the whole field," and the growing body of moderates took the position, "Let any A.A. member who feels the call go into these related fields, for if we are to do less it would be a very antisocial outlook." So that is where the Tradition finally sat and many were called and many were chosen since that day to go into these related fields which has now got to be so large in their promise that we of Alcoholics Anonymous are getting down to our right size and we are only now realizing that we are only a small part of a great big picture. We are realizing again, afresh, that without our friends, not only could we not have existed in the first place but we could not have grown. We are getting a fresh concept in A.A. of what our relations with the world and all of these related enterprises should be. In other words, we are growing up. In fact last year at St. Louis we were bold enough to say we had come of age and that within Alcoholics Anonymous the main outlines of the basis for recovery, of the basis for unity and of the basis for service or function were already evident. At St. Louis I made talks upon each of those subjects which largely concerned themselves about what A.A. had done about these things but here we are in a much wider field and I think that the sky is the limit. I think that I can say without any reservation that what this Committee has done with the aid of it's great friends who are now legion as anyone here can see. I think that this Committee has been responsible for making more friends for Alcoholics Anonymous and of doing a wider service in educating the world on the gravity of this malady and what can be done about it than any other single agency. I'm awfully partial and maybe I'm a little biased because here sits the dean of all our ladies, my close, dear and beloved friend. So speaking out of turn as a founder, I want to convey to her in the presence of all of you the best I can say of my great love and affection is thanks. At the close of things in St. Louis, I remember that I likened A.A. to a cathedral style edifice whose corners now rested across the earth. I remember saying that we can see on its great floor the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous and there assembled maybe 150,000 sufferers and their families. We have seen side walls go up, buttressed with the A.A. Tradition and at St. Louis, when the elected Conference took over from our Board of Trustees, the spire of service was put into effect and its beacon light, the beacon light of A.A. shone there beckoning to all the world. I realized as I sat here today that that was not a big enough concept, for on the floor of the cathedral of the spirit there should always be written the formula from whatever source for release from alcoholism, whether it be a drug, whether it be the psychiatric art, whether it be the ministrations of this Committee. In other words, we who deal with this problem are all in the same boat, all standing upon the same floor. So let's bring to this floor the total resources that can be brought to bear upon this problem and let us not think of unity just in terms of the A.A.Tradition. Let us think of unity among all those who work in the field as the kind of unity that befits brotherhood and sisterhood and a kinship in the common suffering. Let us stand together in the spirit of service. If we do these things, only then can we declare ourselves really come of age. And only then, and I think this is a time not far off, I think we can say that the future, our future, the future of this Committee, of A.A. and of the things that people of good will are trying to do in this field will be completely assured. Thank you. _________ An excerpt from "On The Alcoholism Front," written by Bill Wilson for The Grapevine, March 1958: "Then along came Marty. As an early AA she knew public attitudes had to be changed, that people had to know that alcoholism was a disease and alcoholics could be helped. She developed a plan for an organization to conduct a vigorous program of public education and to organize citizens' committees all over the country. She bought her plan to me. I was enthusiastic but felt scientific backing was essential, so the plan was sent to Bunky [Dr. E.M. Jellinek], and he came down to meet with us. He said the plan was sound, the time was ripe, and he agreed with me that Marty was the one to do the job. "Originally financed by the tireless Dr. Haggard and his friends, Marty started her big task. I cannot detail in this space the great accomplishments of Marty and her associates in the present-day National Council on Alcoholism. But I can speak my conviction that no other single agency has done more to educate the public, to open up hospitalization, and to set in motion all manner of constructive projects than this one. Growing pains there have been aplenty, but today the NCA results speak for themselves. ..." [ IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1696. . . . . . . . . . . . More on Marty Mann - Compiled from Previious Posts From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/8/2004 10:25:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII From an article by Bill Wilson in THE GRAPEVINE, October 1944 We are again citizens of the world.... As individuals, we have a responsibility, maybe a double responsibility. It may be that we have a date with destiny. An example: Not long ago Dr. E. M. Jellinek, of Yale University, came to us. He said, "Yale, as you know, is sponsoring a program of public education on alcoholism, entirely noncontroversial in character. So, when the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism [now the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence] was formed, an AA member was made its executive director: Marty M., one of our oldest and finest. As a member of AA, she is just as much interested in us as before - AA is still her avocation. But as an officer of the Yale-sponsored National Committee, she is also interested in educating the general public on alcoholism. Her AA training has wonderfully fitted her for this post in a different field. Public education on alcoholism is to be her vocation. Could an AA do such a job? At first, Marty herself wondered. She asked her AA friends, "Will I be regarded as a professional?" Her friends replied: "Had you come to us, Marty, proposing to be a therapist, to sell straight AA to alcoholics at so much a customer, we should certainly have branded that as professionalism. So would everybody else. "But the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism is quite another matter. You will be taking your natural abilities and AA experience into a very different field. We don't see how that can affect your amateur status with us. Suppose you were to become a social worker, a personnel officer, the manager of a state farm for alcoholics, or even a minister of the gospel? Who could possibly say those activities would make you a professional AA? No one, of course." They went on: "Yet we do hope that AA as a whole will never deviate from its sole purpose of helping other alcoholics. As an organization, we should express no opinions save on the recovery of problem drinkers. That very sound national policy has kept us out of much useless trouble already, and will surely forestall untold complications in the future. "Though AA as a whole," they continued, "should have one objective, we believe just as strongly that for the individual there should be no limitations whatever, except his own conscience. He should have the complete right to choose his own opinions and outside activities. If these are good, AAs everywhere will approve. Just so, Marty, do we think it will be in your case. While Yale is your actual sponsor, we feel sure that you are going to have the warm personal support of thousands of AAs wherever you go. We shall all be thinking how much better a break this new generation of potential alcoholic kids will have because of your work, how much it might have meant to us had our own mothers and fathers really understood alcoholism." Personally, I feel that Marty's friends have advised her wisely; that they have clearly distinguished between the limited scope of AA as a whole and the broad horizon. __________ Excerpt from Marty Mann's New Primer on Alcoholism, 1981 (First Owl Book Edition), pp. 83-86. The Test There is a simple test which has been used hundreds of times for this purpose. Even an extremely heavy drinker should have no trouble in passing it, whereas an alcoholic, if able to complete it at all, could do so only under such heavy pressure that his life would be more miserable than he thinks it would be if he stopped drinking altogether. The chances are a hundred to one, how ever, against a true alcoholic's being either willing or able to undertake the test. The Test: Select any time at all for instituting it. Now is the best time. For the next six months at least decide that you will stick to a certain number of drinks a day, that number to be not less than one and not more than three. If you are not a daily drinker, then the test should be the stated number of drinks from one to three, on those days when you do drink. Some heavy drinkers confine their drinking to weekends, but still worry about the amount they consume then. Whatever number you choose must not be exceeded under any circumstances whatever, and this includes weddings, births, funerals, occasions of sudden death and disaster, unexpected or long-awaited inheritance, promotion, or other happy events, reunions or meetings with old friends or good customers, or just sheer boredom. There must also be no special occasions on which you feel justified in adding to your quota of the stated number of drinks, such as a severe emotional upset, or the appointment to close the biggest deal of your career, or the audition you've been waiting for all your life, or the meeting with someone who is crucial to your future and of whom you are terrified. Absolutely no exceptions, or the test has been failed. This is not an easy test, but it has been passed handily by any number of drinkers who wished to show themselves, or their families and friends, that they were not compulsive drinkers. If by any chance they failed the test, showing that they were alcoholics, they showed themselves, too, that they were, whether they were then ready to admit it openly or not. At least it prepared them for such an admission, and for the constructive action which normally follows that admission. It is important to add that observers of such tests should not use them to try to force a flunkee to premature action. This may well backfire and produce a stubborn determination on the part of the one who has been unable to pass the test, to prove that it is not alcoholism that caused the failure. He can and does do this in several ways: by stopping drinking altogether for a self-specified time (when this is over he usually breaks out in even worse form than before, and with an added resentment toward those who "drove" him to it); by instituting a rigid control over his own drinking, which produces a constant irritability that makes him impossible to be with, coupled with periodic outbreaks of devastating nature; or by giving himself a very large quota and insisting that he has remained within it, even when he has obviously been too drunk to remember how many drinks he had. In extreme cases, he may even give himself a quota of so many drinks, and take them straight from the bottle, calling each bottle "the" drink. The backfiring from too great outside pressure may also cause a complete collapse: knowing and admitting that he cannot pass the test and is therefore an alcoholic, he will resist efforts to force him to take action by saying in effect, "So I'm an alcoholic, so I can't control my drinking, so I'll drink as I must," and go all out for perdition. This last, despite the expressed concern of some people (who believe that admitting alcoholism to be a disease, and alcoholic drinking to be uncontrollable drinking, is simply to give alcoholics a good excuse to continue), very rarely happens. Nevertheless the possibility must be taken into account by those who are trying to help an alcoholic to recognize his trouble and take constructive action on it. If he is left alone after failing such a self-taken test, the failure will begin to work on him-it has planted a seed of knowledge which may well grow into action. The "occasional drunk" usually comes from the ranks of heavy drinkers, sometimes social drinkers. Rarely is he an abstainer between his bouts, as is generally the case with periodic alcoholics. Sometimes called "spree drinkers," these are the ones who every now and then deliberately indulge in short periods of drinking to drunkenness, usually at sporadic intervals. They talk of the "good" it does them to have a "purge" once in a while, or to "let down their hair" or to "kick over the traces" and have "all-out fun." Unfortunately for them they sometimes get into trouble during these sprees, and their drinking habits are thus brought to public attention. But they can and do stop such indulgences if they find it is costing them too much, for their sprees are their idea of fun, and not a necessity. "Occasional drunks" are most often found among youthful drinkers, whose ideas of "fun," for one reason or another, have come to center around drinking and the uninhibited behavior which excessive drinking allows. __________ The following was excerpted from a biography-in-progress of Marty Mann, by Sally and David Brown. It has since been published by Hazelden: Marty Mann is scarcely a household word today, yet she is arguably one of the most influential people of the 20th century. Marty's life was like a blazing fire, but was nearly extinguished by personal tragedy and degradation. She rose to a triumphant recovery that powered a historic, unparalleled change in our society. Through her vision and leadership, the attitude of America toward alcoholism was changed from a moral issue to one of public health. This was a tremendous shift, especially considering America's long temperance history which culminated in the Prohibition Amendment of 1920. Marty was able to accomplish these things despite numerous, very difficult setbacks along the way, any one of which might have overcome a lesser person. She would be the first to claim that her sobriety, found through Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) in its very earliest days, was the most important factor in her success. ... Marty was born into a life of wealth and privilege in Chicago in the early 1900s. Her family sent her to the best private schools. She was blessed with beauty, brains, a powerful will and drive, phenomenal energy and stunning charisma. She traveled extensively. She debuted, then married into a wealthy New Orleans family. Her future seemed ordained to continue on the same patrician track except for one serious setback on the way. When Marty was 14, she was diagnosed with Tuberculosis (TB). In those days, drugs for treatment were not yet available. However, her family could afford to send her to an expensive private sanitarium in California for a year, and then provide her with a private-duty nurse at home for another year or two. She had one recurrence of the disease several years later, and for the rest of her long life she knew that she was always in remission from this ancient scourge. Marty was no sooner past this hurdle when another disease began to assert itself. When Marty was 17 she could drink as an adult. Moving at a fast pace in an elite social group, she had a "hollow leg." A party girl from the onset, she could outdrink anyone and be the only person left standing to get everybody else home. Later, she was to learn that her unusual capacity was an important early sign of alcoholism. Suddenly her father lost all his wealth, and she had to go to work. Untrained for any specific career, she was nevertheless favored with important moneyed and social connections in this country and abroad. Her natural talents led her into the world of public relations. Marty's drinking was an occupational hazard in her line of work. Within 10 years she went from a bright, assured future to a hideous existence of round-the-clock drinking. She lost one job after another. She became destitute, living off the goodwill of friends, convinced that she was hopelessly insane. Two suicide attempts nearly killed her, and desperate drinking threatened to finish the job. At this point, friends intervened. She was accepted as a charity patient at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, then transferred to Blythewood, an exclusive private psychiatric inpatient center in Connecticut as a charity patient. There were a few patients who were alcoholics, like Marty, whose behavior had become bizarre or unmanageable. It is difficult these days to imagine a world where the term "alcoholism" was virtually unknown and there was no treatment except "drying out." Alcoholics Anonymous didn't exist. The medical profession was as much in the dark as the alcoholics and their baffled families. The concept of alcoholism as a disease -- and a major, treatable one at that -- was scarcely known. Then in 1935, two alcoholics, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, happened to come together to help each other stay sober. Alcoholics Anonymous, probably the most famous grassroots, self-help health movement of all time, was launched on its shaky way. Within four years, Bill and Dr. Bob and a handful of other pioneers had attracted two small groups of men who managed to achieve sobriety; one in Akron, Ohio (Dr. Bob's home), and the other in New York City (Bill W's home). They decided to write down their experiences in the belief and hope that they could thereby broaden their outreach to other suffering alcoholics. The book "Alcoholics Anonymous" was born, and at the heart of it was the famous "12 Steps," which have been adopted and adapted by literally hundreds of other kinds of self-help groups. The year was 1939. The year of 1939 was also a fateful year for Marty. She had been a patient at Blythewood for months, still unable to remain completely sober. Her enlightened psychiatrist, Dr. Harry Tiebout, gave her a manuscript of "Alcoholics Anonymous" to read, convinced that it would help her in a way he could not. This opened the door to her recovery. Eventually she was persuaded by Dr. Tiebout to attend her first AA meeting, held in the home of Bill Wilson and his wife, Lois. This was still during the time that there were only two AA meetings in the whole country. Each little group met just once a week. Many members literally drove over a hundred miles each way to attend the fellowship. Contrast that scene with the thousands and thousands of AA meetings available across America today, the majority a short distance from home. Furthermore, all of the AA members were men. A few women had drifted in and out, but the stigma against women alcoholics was as strong as ever. Women rarely had the courage to seek help, even if they acknowledged they might have a problem. Marty loved and appreciated AA from the beginning. She was immensely relieved to learn she was not incurably insane, but instead had a disease which manifested itself as "an allergy of the body coupled with an obsession of the mind." Scientific research describes this condition as a biochemical abnormality affecting the body and the brain in ways which increasingly limit the predisposed person's ability to function or to stop, despite dire consequences. Marty had three relapses during her first 18 months in AA. Slips, or relapses, while distressing and sometimes tragically fatal, are not uncommon with many of those who come into AA. Later, Marty settled down, and the real healing began as she started to apply the 12 Steps to her life. Five years after she found AA, Marty had a dream. Her vision was to educate the whole country about alcoholism. She was obsessed with eliminating the historic stigma attached to chronic inebriation. She joined forces with the Yale School of Alcohol Studies (now at Rutgers), where early significant scientific research into alcoholism was underway. Eventually her nationwide educational efforts led to the creation of a separate organization, the National Council on Alcoholism (now the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence or NCADD). NCADD has been this country's most important educational, referral resource for alcoholics, their families and communities all across the country. Marty was the right person at the right place and time. She was extremely fortunate to find a wealthy donor, Brinkley Smithers, who was committed to her goals and generously supported her organization. Marty was intensely focused on her mission. More than one person said she was like a train coming down the track -- jump on or get out of the way. Her elegant appearance, captivating charm, intellect and breathtaking charisma swept people off their feet. By all accounts, she was one of the most spellbinding speakers this land has ever seen. Even audiences initially skeptical of her message, that an alcoholic is a sick person who can be helped, ended up enthusiastically supporting her. For most of her 24 years as director of NCA, she maintained a speaking schedule of over 200 talks annually. The purpose of Marty's talks was to establish local volunteer groups in every major city. These affiliates of NCA would carry out NCA's mission to provide education, information and referral for their respective communities. Government financial support was minimal to nonexistent. Most of the funding for the affiliates came from local, private donations. By now, one would think Marty had it all. Restored health, sobriety, the realization of her dream. Then, once more, she was felled by a disease beyond her control -- this time it was cancer. Several surgeries were required, and eventually she recovered from the cancer. Doctors were amazed by her medical history: recovery from three major diseases, recurrences of severe chronic depression, plus the physical consequences of her early suicide attempts. When she was 65, Marty retired with some reluctance from active management of NCA. It was not easy for her to relinquish control of her creation and the central focus of her passion for over two decades. As NCA's promoter without peer, she continued a punishing speaking schedule on the organization's behalf for many years, but gave up her personal involvement in day-to-day affairs. In the early 1950s, Edward R. Murrow, distinguished journalist, selected Marty as one of the 10 greatest living Americans. During her lifetime, Marty was extremely well-known in the local, regional and national press. Her appearances before state legislatures and Congress were unforgettable for those present and produced results. She was made an honorary member of prestigious professional groups here and abroad. Marty's last talk was before AA's international convention in New Orleans in 1980. Two weeks later she suffered a stroke at home and died very shortly thereafter. She was 75. The organization and history of NCA after Marty has been mixed. There were some rocky periods, which are to be expected following the retirement and demise of a long-term, extremely dynamic and charismatic leader. The affiliates across the country also experienced some ups and downs. However, the organization persisted, stabilized and continues to be an effective public voice on behalf of alcoholics. Marty's legacy is sparingly reported in the histories of Alcoholics Anonymous, probably because NCA was not an arm of AA. However, AA grew enormously in the decades that Marty was active. Wherever she spoke, she generated extensive publicity, and new AA members appeared in droves. Her appearances were especially important in attracting women alcoholics. They figured that if a person as impressive and inspiring as Marty could admit that she was an alcoholic, they could too. Women like Betty Ford are direct inheritors of Marty's example. _____________ The following is from the 1980 Nov-Dec. Issue of ALCOHOLISM, "Pioneer, Persuader, Inexhaustible Advocate, Marty Mann." Included in the article is a tribute by Susan B. Anthony: (Dr. Susan B. Anthony, author, lecturer, theologian, and counselor, is another long-time friend and colleague of Marty's. The great niece and namesake of the famous suffrage leader, she is currently lecturing on women and alcoholism, and has authored seven books and many articles.) Putting on paper my tributes to Marty helps alleviate the frustration I felt when I could not get up north for her Memorial Services to share with old friends of hers and mine. What I did do when NCA called me to let me know of her death was to put my emotion into prayer, for her and for us. Prayer was a gift that came some years after sobering up in Marty's office on August 22, 1946. I last spoke with Marty just a few weeks before her death, on July 3 when I was visiting my sister. When I called her, she said in her rich, resonant voice, "You just caught me. I am going out the door for the New Orleans AA convention!" She sounded buoyant and happy, her voice as young as the day I first met her 34 years ago. When I told her I had been one of the 500 nominated as public members for the National Commission on Alcoholism and other Alcohol Related Problems, she laughed "It's not 500, my dear, it's 700 or 800 nominees." In July it seemed so natural that she was taking off for a talk. Just three weeks before her death (even as my own great-aunt Susan B.) she was setting forth for one last stint on the road. As her obituary in THE NEW YORK TIMES said on July 24, Marty had averaged 200 lectures, all out of town, of course. I was part of one of those flights, in 1977, en route to Des Moines, Iowa, to keynote a conference commemorating the Council she and local friends had started there. I had just spoken at another NCA conference celebrating her birthday in Pennsylvania, flown home to Florida and was now flying to Des Moines, getting off to be greeted by the program chairman when I saw Marty ahead of me. "Were you on that plane?" she asked. "I was in first class," she said apologetically. "I sometimes splurge on that -- I get so tired." She looked frail and I recalled the millions of miles she had journeyed for alcoholism education, for alcoholics, miles that were marked by broken hips, and illnesses. And that she felt she must apologize for the greater comfort of first class, though she had passed three score years and ten! When I couldn't get to her Memorial Service I wrote her family: "My gratitude to Marty since sobering up in her office in 1946 surpasses even my sympathy for you since we and the world know her work for alcoholics is deathless." I often wonder whether I would be alive and sober today if Marty had not provided a quiet, private office uptown (at the old Academy of Medicine Building, New York City) where a prima donna radio commentator, a woman at that, could seek help for alcoholism. I was not ready at that point for the old clubhouse downtown. Though Marty was not in the office that day of August 22, 1947, her aura dominated the pleasant serene office, and her volunteer AA secretary carried the message to me, as Marty later did by her being as well as by her sharing. Marty provided not only a place in which I could sober up that day, but equally important and seldom mentioned today when even wives of ex-presidents come out of the closet as alcoholics, Marty provided a witness. She was the first and a continual sign, a witness, that an upper middle class lady can also become a low class drunk, and then climb back up from that bottom to new heights. I grew up thinking of my suffragist great aunt Susan B. as "The Mother of Us All," the title Gertrude Stein gave to her opera about Aunt Susan. She was a "mother" to us in the sense of her concern for our rights and our work. Marty, I believe is "The mother of the woman alcoholic" not only the first to stay sober in AA, but the first to carry the message to the outside, non-alcoholic world, women and men, the message that alcoholism is a disease and that it is treatable. As Bill Wilson's (co-founder of AA) biographer, Robert Thomsen says: "Marty was to become one of the pioneers in the field of alcoholism education, but at this point she was primarily one of AA's spectacular recoveries." That was when Marty, an "Attractive intelligent young woman with tremendous charm" attended an early A meeting at Brooklyn. She instantly caught the message and returned to Blythwood Sanitarium in Connecticut to spread the message among other alcoholic patients of Dr. Harry Tiebout, one of the first medical champions of AA. Marty will go down in history as the founder and director in 1944 of the first public health organization on alcoholism in history, the National Council on Alcoholism. Her work finally lifted the nation's consciousness about alcoholism so that the American Medical Association accepted that it is a disease and that it is treatable. She went on to mold public opinion, laying the ground work for the passage of the Hughes Act of 1970, the Comprehensive Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Prevention, treatment and Rehabilitation Act under which the vast expansion of facilities for treatment has taken place, providing networks of out-and inpatient clinics, detoxification and rehabilitation programs. A years before she died, Marty's 75th birthday was celebrated in advance by our great friend and colleague, Felicia M. who put on a memorable party. It was also her birthday, plus my 33rd anniversary sober. Among the three we totaled 104 years of sobriety! I spent much of my time with Marty that night trying to persuade her to dictate her own autobiography now that she was less on the road. She dodged and demurred. I realized that she had reached that stage I have observed over the years of interviewing some leading men and women. Self as subject bored her. She had become increasingly "unsettled" in her later years. She didn't want to spend the time that was left writing about herself, so that task remains for someone else to do, someone who knew her, or even some younger woman. Marty is a model for the young women of today, not only the model of an "unselfed" sober woman. She is what I hoped to be when I was young, a liberated woman. She became a crusader, reformer, educator, organizer, agitator, lobbyist, a truly great speaker, a lucid writer, a great 12th stepper. She addressed U.S. Congressional committees and joint sessions of state legislatures. She received honorary degrees. She was liberated not only from the disease of alcoholism but liberated from restrictions upon her as a woman back in the 1940s when I was broadcasting on New York radio against those restrictions. Marty transcended the double stigma of being a woman and an alcoholic. In so doing she incurred snubs, distastes and dislike, and controversy. Even her best friends, her A.A. buddies, were critical of her. When I worked for NCA back in Boston in 1949, doing the first radio program that ever broadcast interviews with live alcoholics, I sensed that hostility of local AA's toward Marty's program of educating the public on the disease of alcoholism. NCA was only five years old then, my sobriety was only three years old. Even these friends thought NCA was competitive with AA, that when Marty crusaded for public education and prevention she somehow was detracting from AA. She didn't need enemies among her own, but in those early days she had them. Happily she outlived those misunderstandings. When the history of alcoholism is written, this century will carry three names ahead of the others, Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, co-founders of A.A. and Marty Mann, pioneer woman AA member and pioneer alcoholism educator. Marty lived to see her concern for women alcoholics begin to show results in 1976 when Jan du Plain launched NCA's office on women. In rapid succession occurred the first national Congress of Task Forces on women and alcoholism, then came a gathering of the alcohol establishment hosted by NCA and the U.S. Senate subcommittee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, a reception in the Senate Caucus room honoring my 30th anniversary sober. Growing out of this the next month, September 1978, the first ever Congressional hearing on Women and alcoholism was held. At lunch a few weeks later, Marty rejoiced at all this headway and said, "Do you realize, Susan, that a the age of sixty you have begun an entirely new career?" I asked what she meant. She said the lecture tour that was launched by massive coverage of the Senate activities. It would in the next four years carry me 35,000 miles in 75 cities, 46 states and to Africa and Alaska speaking on women and alcoholism. Some of those talks were before the great main line women's organizations, ranging from the National Federation of Business and Professional Women to the Junior League. Marty herself had dreamed when first forming NCA that these women's groups would grasp the importance of educating on the disease concept of alcoholism, especially for girls and women. But in the 1940s they were uninterested. Perhaps had they begun their efforts then, they might have helped avert the epidemic of alcoholism among girls and women in the 1980s, what I call the "age of anesthesia" that blankets us. With their women's focus they might have seen as we do today that alcoholism among women is different and distinct, and requires differences in prevention and treatment. Women have problems that men do not have such as stigma, discrimination, child care problems that bar women from residential treatment, and Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. In November 1979, I added another career, private practice in alcoholism counseling here in South Florida. Marty wrote me in her own hand her encouragement and recommendation for my certification. It is a letter I shall literally have framed. She wrote: "Susan dear -- "Your activities exhaust me, just reading about them! and yet they too -- like Jan's -- are a replica of my own pattern, so I understand and applaud you --"Alcoholism needs people like us: 'dedicated idiots' Selden Bacon once call Yev (Gardner) and me and we lifted it as our banner and proclaimed it good, which wasn't what he had meant! "Anyway - again you are in the pattern by turning to counseling, which is what I do, plus a once weekly lecture at Silver Hill and Yev also, at Freeport Hospital. So we've all come full circle, back to AA's one-on-one. It's good and I love it. So will you." I pray I will continue to be a "dedicated idiot" and as she said "a replica" of her pattern, carrying the message as she did, until the day I die." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1697. . . . . . . . . . . . Texas Oldtimer, Clinton Ferrell, Dead at 93 From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/10/2004 6:55:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII A friend forwarded this to me. I don't know what paper it appeared in. Nancy Clinton Ferrell KERMIT â€" Clinton Ferrell, a longtime resident of Kermit, Texas, passed away Saturday, March 6, 2004, at the age of 93. He was born on August 3, 1910, in Oklahoma. He married Sally Jones from Como, Texas, on June 17, 1938, in Pecos. They moved to Kermit in 1938 and lived there continuously until Sally’s death on Sept. 25, 1991. Clinton continued to live in Kermit and would consider no other place as home. Clinton is survived by his two sons, Freddie of Tucumcari, N.M., and Robert “Buddy” of Austin, Texas. Clinton touched the lives of many, many people throughout the years with his kindness and generosity. He was well known for his fast cars, gun collections and desire to live life to the fullest, but always with consideration for his fellow man. One of Clinton’s greatest accomplishments was to recognize that he was an alcoholic and to join AA on June 30, 1947, and to be a member for the next 56 years. He would regularly attend the meeting of AA in Kermit three times a week plus several other meeting each week in Monahans, Andrews, Odessa, Midland and other places in the Permian Basin. Clinton had the second-longest number of years of sobriety of anyone living in Texas, and he was rightfully proud of that fact. Clinton worked in the oil fields with his father in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s. In the â€60s and â€70s, he worked in the car business, and in the â€80s he served as constable of Winkler County until he retired (but didn’t slow down). He had many friends in law enforcement and in particular the Texas Rangers. To acknowledge all of the hundreds of friends of Clinton would take the pages of an entire book, but special mention must go to Don and Debbie Turner and their two kids, Derrick and Dessie Lou. In lieu of recounting all the wonderful things Clinton did and the principles for which he stood, it is hoped that everyone that knew him will take a moment to reflect upon some experience they had with him and feel so very fortunate to have known such a great man. Funeral services will be held in Kermit at Cooper Funeral Chapel, Wednesday, March 10, 2004, at 10 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to your local AA group, for that is the way Clinton would have wanted it to be. Services entrusted to Cooper Funeral Chapel. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1698. . . . . . . . . . . . Bert Taylor - Compiled From Old Posts From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/11/2004 3:05:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I am continuing to combine old posts, which are then deleted, in order to make it easier for researchers to search the archives. The following is excerpted from old posts by Charles K. and Rick T. Charles wrote that Bert Taylor was an early AA member who borrowed $1,000.00 from a Mr. Cockran one of his customers and a prohibitionist. "The loan was to help buy some time from the printer until the Liberty Magazine article came out. Once that article came out we sold some books were able to settle with the printer and get the remaining Big Books out of hock, so to speak. He also allowed meetings to be held in the loft in his shop. "Now whether the debt was not repaid on time or Bert just fell on hard times is uncertain, but he did loose ownership of the shop, but was able to keep his business and he died sober. He also was one of the first Trustees of the Alcoholic Foundation." Rick responded to Charles' message: "Much of this additional history was gleaned in on-site research through minutes and correspondence at the GSO Archives.... "His $1,000 would have brought him 400 shares in Works Publishing, and I'm sure he was able to cash in the shares, when and if any of the loan was needed to be paid. There are scant records on file of whose and how many shares were eventually traded in to the Alcoholic Foundation. The AF Trustees' ledgers remained pretty thin for many years into the mid-1940s, and only a few shares were probably ever recorded as 'bought back' by the Board of Trustees. Bill wrote in 'AA Comes of Age' about a few buy-backs, which turned out to be traded only at face value." Rick said he did not think Bert was a Trustee, but Charles responded: "I still believe Bert was a member of the Alcoholic Foundation, only from what I have read. "In the August 1947 Grapevine article 'Last Seven Years Have Made AA self-supporting' Bill writes: "'Two of the alcoholic members of our Foundation traveled out among the AA groups to explain the need. They presented their listeners with these ideas: that support of our Central Office was a definite responsibility of the AA groups; that answering written inquiries was a necessary assistance to our Twelfth Step work; that we AAs ought to pay these office expenses ourselves and rely no further upon outside charity or insufficient book sales. The two trustees also suggested that the Alcoholic Foundation be made a regular depository for group funds; that the Foundation would earmark all group monies for Central Office expenses only; that each month the Central Office would bill the Foundation for the straight AA expenses of the place; that all group contributions ought to be entirely voluntary; that every AA group would receive equal service from the New York office, whether it contributed or not. It was estimated that if each group sent the Foundation a sum equal to $1 per member per year, this might eventually carry our office, without other assistance. Under this arrangement the office would ask the groups twice yearly for funds and render, at the same time, a statement of its expenses for the previous period. '"Our two trustees, Horace C. and Bert T., did not come back empty handed. Now clearly understanding the situation, most groups began contributing to the Alcoholic Foundation for Central Office expenses, and have continued to do so ever since. In this practice the AA Tradition of self-support had a firm beginning. Thus we handled the Saturday Evening Post article for which thousands of AAs are today so grateful.' (Reprint of this article can be found in 'Language of The Heart' see pages 64-65) "Also from 'AA Comes Of Age' "Page 186......... "'At about this time our trusteeship began to be enlarged. Mr. Robert Shaw, a lawyer and friend of Uncle Dick's, was elected to the Board. Two New Yorkers, my friends Howard and Bert, were also named. As time passed, these were joined by Tom B. and Dick S. Dick had been one of the original Akronites and was now living in New York. There was also Tom K., a hard-working and conservative Jerseyman. Somewhat later more nonalcoholic, notably Bernard Smith and Leonard Harrison, took up their long season of service with us.' "(FYI: This was around the time of the Rockefeller Dinner Feb. 1940, this also shows the alcoholic members of the Foundation made up of more than just Bill & Dr. Bob. I have a copy of the minutes of the Alcoholic Foundation in July 25, 1949. Dick S., Tom B, and Bernard Smith were already trustees of the Foundation in 1949.) "Page 192: "'We also realized that these increased demands upon the office could not be met out of book income. So for the first time we asked the A.A. groups to help. Following the Post piece. Trustees Howard and Bert went on the road, one to Philadelphia and Washington, the other to Akron and Cleveland. They asked that all A.A. groups contribute to a special fund in the Foundation which would be earmarked 'for AA. office expenses only.' The contributions would be entirely voluntary. As a measuring stick, it was suggested that each group send in one dollar per member per year.' "Please let me repeat myself, I am not sure if this is the same Bert T. that owned the Tailor Shop in New York, but sure sounds like it to me. Rick, maybe on your next trip to the Archives in New York you might look for the name Herbert F. Taylor. Again I am not sure if this is the same person either, but his name and signature appears on Works Publishing Company stock certificates date September 26th 1940 (see 'AA Everywhere-Anywhere' the souvenir book from the 1995 International Convention page 23) and Bert is short for Herbert. I also have a photocopy of the same stock certificate dated June 20th 1940 and his name is on that one too, as president I might add . May have no connection at all, but worth looking into. "Well, I hope this sheds some light on the source for my assumption that Bert the Tailor might have been a Trustee of the Alcoholic Foundation. This has open a whole other question about the early make up of the Alcoholic Foundation and I think I might explore this to find out what I can." The following is from Jim Burwell's memoirs: "It was also in June of this year that we made our first contact with the Rockerfeller Foundation. This was arranged by Bert Taylor, one of the older members, who had known the family for years in a business way. Dr. Richardson, who had long been spiritual advisor for the Rockerfeller family, became very interested and friendly, and Bill and Hank made frequent visits to him, with Hank on one side asking for financial help and Bill on the other insisting on moral support only." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1699. . . . . . . . . . . . International Conventions -- Part One From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/11/2004 1:09:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII A.A. International Convention, Cleveland, 1950: The first A.A. International Convention was held in Cleveland July 28-30, 1950. Prior to the first International Convention, the Cleveland fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous hosted a big meeting in June 1945 to celebrate A.A.’s tenth anniversary. The speakers were Bill W. and Dr. Bob. Twenty-five hundred people were in attendance, from 36 states and two Canadian provinces, and one from Mexico. Obviously, Cleveland wanted to host the first International Convention. A.A. membership was approaching a hundred thousand and there were thirty-five hundred groups worldwide. The decision to hold this first International Convention was a fine example of how Bill Wilson was always able to stay on top of trends that threatened to divide A.A. His enormous personal popularity was the cement that bound A.A. together, but it was also something other members of A.A. thought they would enjoy if they became A.A.'s head man. By 1946 there were more than two thousand AA members in Cleveland, far more than in New York. Chicago had more than twice as many members as New York, and Detroit about as many as New York. Many people in these locations didn't see why A.A. had to be run by Bill Wilson from New York. Many state and regional A.A. conventions were being held, and Texas, among others, was planning to hold its own international convention, independent of New York and the Alcoholic Foundation. Bill Wilson, with "Disraeli-like diplomacy," according to Francis Hartigan, told the Texas AA members he thought it would be all right if they invited whomever they wanted to their planned 1952 convention, but he suggested they not call it an "international" convention because this could inspire other states to do the same. Bill then quickly began to organize an international convention of his own, to be held before the planned Texas convention. Three thousand people attended the first international convention in Cleveland at the end of July 1950. This was the only International Convention attended by Dr. Bob. His wife, Anne, had died the year before, and Bob was very ill with cancer. Bill chose Cleveland for several reasons: (1) It would be possible for Dr. Bob to attend, since it was not far from Akron. (2) It had one of the largest and earliest concentrations of sober alcoholics. (3) It was the home turf of Clarence Snyder (the "Home Brewmeister) who had begun claiming that he was the founder of AA. He based this claim on the fact that when the Cleveland members broke away from the Akron group because priests were refusing to allow Catholics to attend Oxford Group meetings, the Cleveland group was the first group that used the name Alcoholics Anonymous. (4) Convention planning required a lot of cooperation between Cleveland, Akron, and New York, which would help to ameliorate friction between the three groups. To demonstrate the significance of the greater whole to which each group was joined, Bill opened the convention wearing a lei over his right shoulder. He explained that it was a gift to all A.A.s from a group whose members would never attend any A.A. gathering but their own, the A.A. group at the leper colony in Hawaii. Dr. Bob, whose cancer was painfully advanced, spoke only briefly. The experience exhausted him. He left the convention early and was driven home to Akron. He died within six months, November 16, 1950. But during his brief talk he told the assembled members: "My good friends in A.A. and of A.A., I feel I would be very remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to welcome you here to Cleveland, not only to this meeting but those that have already transpired. I hope very much that the presence of so many people and the words that you have heard will prove an inspiration to you -- not only to you, but may you be able to impart that inspiration to the boys and girls back home who were not fortunate enough to be able to come. In other words, we hope that your visit here has been both enjoyable and profitable. "I get a big thrill out of looking over a vast sea of faces like this with a feeling that possibly some small thing I did a number of years ago played an infinitely small part in making this meeting possible. I also get quite a thrill when I think that we all had the same problem. We all did the same things. We all get the same results in proportion to our zeal and enthusiasm and stick-to-itiveness. "If you will pardon the injection of a personal note at this time, let me say that I have been in bed five of the last seven months, and my strength hasn't returned as I would like, so my remarks of necessity will be very brief. "There are two or three things that flashed into my mind on which it would be fitting to lay a little emphasis. One is the simplicity of our program. Let's not louse it all up with Freudian complexes and things that are interesting to the scientific mind but have very little to do with our actual A.A. work. Our Twelve Steps, when immersed down to the last, resolve themselves into the words 'love' and 'service.' We understand what love is, and we understand what service is. So let's bear those two things in mind. "Let us also remember to guard that erring member the tongue, and if we must use it, let's use it with kindness and consideration and tolerance. "And one more thing: None of us would be here today if somebody hadn't taken time to explain things to us, to give us a little pat on the back, to take us to a meeting or two, to do numerous little kind and thoughtful acts in our behalf. So let us never get such a degree of smug complacency that we're not willing to extend, or attempt to extend, to our less fortunate brothers that help which has been so beneficial to us. Thank you very much." Bill used his time on the platform to urge that AA unity be emphasized above all else. It was here that he asked AA to approve the AA traditions, and to agree to put into place the AA system of representation known as the AA Conference. The longer form of the traditions had been shortened at the suggestion and with the help of Earl Treat ("He Sold Himself Short) who started AA in Chicago. Among those who were opposing the conference idea was Henrietta Seiberling, the Oxford Group non-alcoholic woman who had introduced Bill and Dr. Bob. Despite Dr. Bob's support for the conference idea, the best that Bill could obtain during the Cleveland convention was approval to try the conference idea on an experimental basis. Nonetheless, the Cleveland Convention was a memorable event. It not only approved the Traditions, but it set precedent for International Conventions to come. Since then, they have been held every five years. Tex Brown was present at this convention, and described it to me at the 2000 International Convention in Minneapolis. I asked him to write it for posting. This is part of what he wrote: "In 1950 I attended the First International A. A. Convention in Cleveland. This was a wonderful thing and a wonderful time. Everyone was excited about everything. Especially getting to see and hear Bill and Dr. Bob. I think that this was where we knew that A.A. was really working and that we were here to stay. "One special memory that I have was seeing an Amish family (my first) all dressed up in their Sunday Meeting clothes, in a horsedrawn buggy on the highway just outside of Cleveland. The next day on the floor of the big meeting at the Convention, there they were. The driver of the buggy (Miles ?), big hat and all, was running up and down the aisles shaking hands. He seemed to know everybody. He was one of our early members. "On Sunday morning the 'Spiritual Meeting' was held. I went much excited by the prospect that I was going to rub elbows with the real heavy hitters in the 'God' department. I do not remember the name of the main speaker, but his topic dealt with the idea that the alcoholic was to be the instrument that God would use to regenerate and save the world. He expounded the idea that alcoholics were God's Chosen People and he was starting to talk about 'The Third Covenant,' (there are two previous covenants with the Jewish people described in the Old Testament and the Christians, described in the New Testament), when he was interrupted by shouted objections from the back of the room. The objector, who turned out to be a small Catholic priest, would not be hushed up. "There was chaos and embarrassment as the meeting was quickly adjourned. I was upset and in full sympathy with the poor speaker. I did not realize it at the time, but I had seen Father Pfau (Fr. Ralph Pfau of Indianapolis) in action and Father Pfau was right. I had heard the group conscience and I rejected it." But this is how Bill Wilson described the 1950 International Convention in a talk he gave later: "On A.A.'s 15th Anniversary everybody knew that we had grown up. There couldn't be any doubt about it. Members, families and friends -- seven thousand of them -- spent three inspiring, almost awesome days with our good hosts at Cleveland. "The theme song of our Conference was gratitude; its keynote was the sure realization that we are now welded as one, the world over. As never before, we dedicated ourselves to the single purpose of carrying good news of A.A. to those millions who still don't know. "As we affirmed the Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous, we asked that we might remain in perfect unity under the Grace of God for so long as He may need us. "Just what did we do? Well, we had meetings, lots of them. The medical meeting, for instance. Our first and greatest friend Dr. Silkworth couldn't get there. But his associate at Knickerbocker Hospital, New York, Dr. Meyer Texon, most ably filled the gap, telling how best the general hospital could relate itself to us. He clinched his points by a careful description how, during the past four years at Knickerbocker, 5000 drunks had been sponsored, processed and turned loose in A.A.; and this to the great satisfaction of everybody concerned, including the hospital, whose Board was delighted with the results and specially liked the fact that its modest charges were invariably paid, money on the line. Who had ever heard of 5000 drunks who really paid their bills? Then Dr. Texon brought us up to the minute on the malady of alcoholism as they see it at Knickerbocker; he said it was a definite personality disorder hooked to a physical craving. That certainly made sense to most of us. Dr. Texon threw a heavy scare into prospective 'slippees.' It was that little matter of one's liver. This patient organ, he said, would surely develop hob nails or maybe galloping cirrhosis, if more guzzling went on. He had a brand new one too, about salt water, claiming that every alcoholic on the loose had a big salt deficiency. Fill the victim with salt water, he said, and you'd quiet him right down. Of course we thought, 'Why not put all drunks on salt water instead of gin? Then the world alcohol problem might be solved overnight.' But that was our idea, not Dr. Texon's. To him, many thanks. "About the industrial meeting: Jake H., U.S. Steel, and Dave M., Dupont, both A.A.s, led it. Mr. Louis Selser, Editor of the Cleveland Press, rounded out the session and brought down the house. Jake, as an officer of Steel, told what the company really thought about A.A. - and it was all good. Jake noted A.A.'s huge collective earning power - somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 billion of dollars annually. Instead of being a nerve-wracking drag on society's collective pocket book, we were now, for the most part, top grade employables who could contribute a yearly average of $4,000 apiece to our country's well being. Dave M., personnel man at Dupont who has a special eye to the company's alcohol problem, related what the 'New Look' on serious drinking had meant to Dupont and its workers of all grades. According to Dave, his company believes mightily in A.A. "By all odds the most stirring testimony at the industrial seminar was given by Editor Louis Selser. Mr. Selser spoke to us from the viewpoint of an employer, citizen and veteran newspaper man. It was about the most moving expression of utter confidence in Alcoholics Anonymous we had ever heard. It was almost too good; its implications brought us a little dismay. How could we fallible A.A.'s ever measure up to Mr. Selser's high hope for our future? We began to wonder if the A.A. reputation wasn't getting far better than its actual character. "Next came that wonderful session on prisons. Our great friend, Warden Duffy told the startling story of our original group at San Quentin. His account of A.A.'s 5-year history there had a moving prelude. We heard a recording, soon for radio release, that thrillingly dramatized an actual incident of A.A. life within the walls. An alcoholic prisoner reacts bitterly to his confinement and develops amazing ingenuity in finding and drinking alcohol. Soon he becomes too ingenious. In the prison paint shop he discovers a promising fluid which he shares with his fellow alcoholics. It was deadly poison. Harrowing hours followed, during which several of them died. The whole prison was tense as the fatalities continued to mount. Nothing but quick blood transfusions could save those still living. The San Quentin A.A. Group volunteered instantly and spent the rest of that long night giving of themselves as they had never given before. A.A. hadn't been any too popular, but now prison morale hit an all time high and stayed there. Many of the survivors joined up. The first Prison Group had made its mark; A.A. had come to San Quentin to stay. "Warden Duffy then spoke. Apparently we folks on the outside know nothing of prison sales resistance. The skepticism of San Quentin prisoners and keepers alike had been tremendous. They thought A.A. must be a racket. Or maybe a crackpot religion. Then, objected the prison board, why tempt providence by freely mixing prisoners with outsiders, alcoholic women especially. Bedlam would be unloosed. But our friend the Warden, somehow deeply convinced, insisted on A.A. To this day, he said, not a single prison rule has ever been broken at an A.A. meeting though hundreds of gatherings have been attended by hundreds of prisoners with almost no watching at all. Hardly needed is that solitary, sympathetic guard who sits in the back row. "The Warden added that most prison authorities throughout the United States and Canada today share his views of Alcoholics Anonymous. Hitherto 8O% of paroled alcoholic prisoners had to be scooped up and taken back to jail. Many institutions now report that this percentage has dropped to one-half, even one-third of what it used to be. Warden Duffy had traveled 2000 miles to be with us at Cleveland. We soon saw why. He came because he is a great human being. Once again, we A.A.'s sat and wondered how far our reputation had got ahead of our character. "Naturally we men folk couldn't go to the meeting of the alcoholic ladies. But we have no doubt they devised ways to combat the crushing stigma that still rests on those poor gals who hit the bottle. Perhaps, too, our ladies had debated how to keep the big bad wolf at a respectful distance. But no, the A.A. sister transcribing this piece crisply assures me nothing of the sort was discussed. A wonderfully constructive meeting, she says it was. And about 500 girls attended. Just think of it, A.A. was four years old before we could sober up even one. Life for the alcoholic woman is no sinecure. "Nor were other special sufferers overlooked, such as paid Intergroup secretaries, plain everyday secretaries, our newspaper editors and the wives and husbands of alcoholics, sometimes known as our 'forgotten people.' I'm sure the secretaries concluded that though sometimes unappreciated, they still love every moment of their work. "What the editors decided, I haven't learned. Judging from their telling efforts over the years, it is altogether possible they came up with many an ingenious idea. "Everybody agreed that the wives (and husbands) meeting was an eye opener. Some recalled how Anne S. in the Akron early days, had been boon companion and advisor to distraught wives. She clearly saw alcoholism as a family problem. "Meanwhile we A.A.'s went all out on the work of sobering up incoming alkies by the thousands. Our good wives seemed entirely lost in that prodigious shuffle. Lots of the newer localities held closed meetings only, it looked like A.A. was going exclusive. But of late this trend has whipped about. More and more our partners have been taking the Twelve Steps into their own lives. As proof of this, witness the 12th step work they are doing with the wives and husbands of newcomers, and note well those wives' meetings now springing up everywhere. "At their Cleveland gathering they invited us alcoholics to listen. Many an A.A. skeptic left that session convinced that our 'forgotten ones' really had something. As one alkie put it - 'The deep understanding and spirituality I felt in that wives' meeting was something out of the world.' "Far from it, the Cleveland Conference wasn't all meetings. Take that banquet, for example. Or should I say banquets? The original blueprint called for enough diners to fill the Rainbow Room of Hotel Carter. But the diners did much better. Gay banqueters quickly overflowed the Ballroom. Finally the Carter Coffee Shop and Petit Cafe had to be cleared for the surging celebrants. Two orchestras were drafted and our fine entertainers found they had to play their acts twice, both upstairs and down. "Though nobody turned up tight, you should have heard those A.A.'s sing. Slap-happy, they were. And why not? Yet a serious undertone crept in as we toasted the absent ones. We were first reminded of the absent by that A.A. from the Marshall Islands who, though all alone out there, still claimed his group had three members, to wit: 'God, the book Alcoholics Anonymous and me.' The first leg of his 7,000 mile journey to Cleveland had finished at Hawaii whence with great care and refrigeration he had brought in a cluster of floral tributes, those leis for which the Islands are famous. One of these was sent by the A.A. lepers at Molokai - those isolated A.A.'s who will always be of us, yet never with us. We swallowed hard, too, when we thought of Dr. Bob, alone at home, gravely ill. "Another toast of the evening was to that A.A. who, more than anything, wanted to be at Cleveland when we came of age. Unhappily he never got to the Tradition meeting, he had been carried off by a heart attack. His widow came in his place and she cheerfully sat out that great event with us. How well her quiet courage will be remembered. But at length gaiety took over; we danced till midnight. We knew the absent ones would want it that way. "Several thousand of us crowded into the Cleveland Music Hall for the Tradition meeting, which was thought by most A.A.'s to be the high point of our Conference. Six old time stalwarts, coming from places as far flung as Boston and San Diego, beautifully reviewed the years of A.A. experience which had led to the writing of our Traditions. Then I was asked to sum up, which I did, saying: 'That, touching all matters affecting A.A. unity, our common welfare should come first; that A.A. has no human authority - only God as He may speak in our Group Conscience; that our leaders are but trusted servants, they do not govern; that any alcoholic may become an A.A. member if he says so -- we exclude no one; that every A.A. Group may manage its own affairs as it likes, provided surrounding groups are not harmed thereby; that we A.A.'s have but a single aim -- the carrying of our message to the alcoholic who still suffers; that in consequence we cannot finance, endorse or otherwise lend the name 'Alcoholics Anonymous' to any other enterprise, however worthy; that A.A., as such, ought to remain poor, lest problems of property, management and money divert us from our sole aim; that we ought to be self-supporting, gladly paying our small expenses ourselves; that A.A. should forever remain non-professional, ordinary 12th step work never to be paid for; that, as a Fellowship, we should never be organized but may nevertheless create responsible Service Boards or Committees to insure us better propagation and sponsorship and that these agencies may engage full time workers for special tasks; that our public relations ought to proceed upon the principle of attraction rather than promotion, it being better to let our friends recommend us; that personal anonymity at the level of press, radio and pictures ought to be strictly maintained as our best protection against the temptations of power or personal ambition; and finally, that anonymity before the general public is the spiritual key to all our traditions, ever reminding us we are always to place principles before personalities, that we are actually to practice a genuine humility. This to the end that our great blessings may never spoil us; that we shall forever live in thankful contemplation of Him who presides over us all. "So summing up, I then inquired if those present had any objections to the Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous as they stood. Hearing none, I offered our Traditions for adoption. Impressively unanimous, the crowd stood up. So ended that fine hour in which we of Alcoholics Anonymous took our destiny by the hand. "On Sunday morning we listened to a panel of four A.A.'s who portrayed the spiritual side of Alcoholics Anonymous -- as they understood it. What with churchgoers and late-rising banqueters, the Conference Committee had never guessed this would be a heavy duty session. But churchgoers had already returned from their devotions and hardly a soul stayed abed. Hotel Cleveland's ballroom was filled an hour before hand. People who have fear that A.A. is losing interest in things of the spirit should have been there. "A hush fell upon the crowd as we paused for a moment of silence. Then came the speakers, earnest and carefully prepared, all of them. I cannot recall an A.A. gathering where the attention was more complete, or the devotion deeper. "Yet some thought that those truly excellent speakers had, in their enthusiasm, unintentionally created a bit of a problem. It was felt the meeting had gone over far in the direction of religious comparison, philosophy and interpretation, when by firm long standing tradition we A.A.'s had always left such questions strictly to the chosen faith of each individual. "One member [Fr. Ralph Pfau] rose with a word of caution. As I heard him, I thought, 'What a fortunate occurrence. How well we shall always remember that A.A. is never to be thought of as a religion. How firmly we shall insist that A.A. membership cannot depend upon any particular belief whatever; that our twelve steps contain no article of religious faith except faith in God -- as each of us understands Him. How carefully we shall henceforth avoid any situation which could possibly lead us to debate matters of personal religious belief. It was, we felt, a great Sunday morning. "That afternoon we filed into the Cleveland Auditorium. The big event was the appearance of Dr. Bob. Earlier we thought he'd never make it, his illness had continued so severe. Seeing him once again was an experience we seven thousand shall always treasure. He spoke in a strong, sure voice for ten minutes, and he left us a great heritage, a heritage by which we A.A.'s can surely grow. It was the legacy of one who had been sober since June 10, 1935, who saw our first Group to success, and one who, in the fifteen years since, had given both medical help and vital A.A. to 4,000 of our afflicted ones at good St. Thomas Hospital in Akron, the birthplace of Alcoholics Anonymous. Simplicity, devotion, steadfastness and loyalty; these, we remembered, were the hallmarks of that character which Dr. Bob had well implanted in so many of us. I, too, could gratefully recall that in all the years of our association there had never been an angry word between us. Such were our thoughts as we looked at Dr. Bob. "Then for an hour I tried to sum up. Yet how could one add much to what we had all seen, heard and felt in those three wonderful days? With relief and certainty we had seen that A.A. could never become exhibitionistic or big business; that its early humility and simplicity is very much with us, that we are still mindful our beloved Fellowship is really God's success - not ours. As evidence I shared a vision of A.A. as Lois and I saw it unfold on a distant beach head in far Norway. The vision began with one A.A. who listened to a voice in his conscience, and then said all he had. "George, a Norwegian-American, came to us at Greenwich, Connecticut, five years ago. His parents back home hadn't heard from him in twenty years. He began to send letters telling them of his new freedom. Back came very disquieting news. The family reported his only brother in desperate condition, about to lose all through alcohol. What could be done? The A.A. from Greenwich had a long talk with his wife. Together they took a decision to sell their little restaurant, all they had. They would go to Norway to help the brother. A few weeks later an airliner landed them at Oslo. They hastened from field to town and thence 25 mile down the fjord where the ailing brother lived. He was in a bad state all right. Unfortunately, though, everybody saw it but him. He'd have no A.A., no American nonsense. He an alcoholic? Why certainly not! Of course the man from Greenwich had heard such objections before. But now this familiar argument was hard to take. Maybe he had sold all he had for no profit to anybody. George persisted every bit he dared, but finally surmised it was no use. Determined to start an A.A. Group in Norway, anyhow, he began a round of Oslo's clergy and physicians. Nothing happened, not one of them offered him a single prospect. Greatly cast down, he and his wife thought it high time they got back to Connecticut. "But Providence took a hand. The rebellious Norwegian obligingly tore off on one of his fantastic periodics. In the final anguish of his hangover he cried out to the man from Greenwich, 'Tell me again of the Alcoholics Anonymous, what, oh my brother, shall I do?' With perfect simplicity George retold the A.A. story. When he had done, he wrote out, in his all but forgotten Norwegian, a longhand translation of a little pamphlet published by the White Plains, N.Y. Group. It contained, of course, our Twelve Steps of recovery. The family from Connecticut then flew away home. The Norwegian brother, himself a typesetter, commenced to place tiny ads in the Oslo newspapers. He explained he was a recovered alcoholic who wished to help others. At last a prospect appeared. When the newcomer was told the story and shown the White Plains pamphlet, he, too, sobered instantly. The founders to be then placed more ads. "Three years after, Lois and I alighted upon that same airfield. We then learned that Norway has hundreds of A.A.'s. And good ones. The men of Oslo had already carried the life -- giving news to other Norwegian cities and these beacons burned brightly. It had all been just as simple, but just as mysterious as that. "In the final moments of our historic Conference it seemed fitting to read from the last chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous. These were the words we took home with us: 'Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to Him and your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find, and join us. We shall be with you, in the Fellowship of The Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the road of happy destiny. May God bless you and keep you -- until then.'" Sources: Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age Pass It On Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers Bill W., by Francis Hartigan Getting Better, Inside Alcoholics Anonymous, by Nan Robertson Communications from Tex Brown. An undated talk by Bill Wilson. Sarah P â€" GAO staff __________ A.A. International Convention, St. Louis, 1955. The second International Convention was held in St. Louis in 1955, and perhaps the most important one ever held. It was the convention at which Bill announced that A.A. had now "come of age." The five-year trial period for the General Service Conference plan was over, and this time Bill received no opposition to his plan. There were five thousand members with their families and friends in the audience. For three days they met to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous. St. Louis was another centrally located city, and for Bill personally had the advantage that it was the hometown of Fr. Ed Dowling, his spiritual sponsor. In addition to Fr. Dowling, many other persons important to AA history were there: Rev. Sam Shoemaker; Dr. W.W. Bauer of the American Medical Association; Bernard Smith, then chairman of the General Service Board; penologist Austin MacCormick (between his two terms as trustee); Henry Mielcarek, corporate personnel expert, Dr. Jack Norris; and Dr. Harry Tiebout. Many of them addressed the convention and their talks are included in "Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age." Dr. Leonard Strong, Bill's brother-in-law, couldn't make it to St. Louis, which disappointed Bill. Bernard Smith chaired the convention. Nell Wing wrote: "When Bill was trying to push through the idea of the conference, Bern Smith was the only trustee -- or, anybody -- supporting him, and it was he who finally brought a majority of the other trustees around to accept the conference on a trial basis. He also helped Bill put together the proposed General Service Conference structure; Bill called him 'the architect of the conference.' Stocky in build, quick of wit and mind, perceptive, he also relished a few drinks. He sometimes referred to himself as a 'so-called nonalcoholic.' He was devoted to Bill and to A.A. until his untimely death a month after substituting for Bill at the 35th Anniversary Convention in Miami." Ebby Thatcher, whom Bill always called his sponsor, was there as Bill's special guest, brought up from Texas, where he had moved the year before. Another special guest in St. Louis was Bill's mother, Dr. Emily Strobell. She had divorced his father and left Bill with her parents when he was eleven years old, and, according to Nell, "Bill seemed desperate to seek his mother's approval all his life. ... He particularly wanted to have her with him at this special convention to hear him speak and see how the members and friends reacted to his contributions. Bill said it was 'the icing on the cake' for him." Nell added: "At the convention, I didn't see how Dr. Emily could have helped but be impressed with her son, but she didn't show too much reaction one way or the other." Lois, of course, was also there contributing her ideas, enthusiasm and energy, primarily concentrating on her Al-Anon Family Groups. On the Sunday afternoon of the closing "coming of age" part of the program, she was the first speaker in Kiel Auditorium after the vote to turn over leadership to the Fellowship had been taken. The second edition of the Big Book was published just in time for the St. Louis convention, and was designed to show the broader range of the membership. The original text of the first 11 chapters was essentially unchanged, but Bill had worked hard to get new stories, often going to a group with the express purpose of taping the stories of various oldtimers. In addition to Bill's story and that of Dr. Bob, six others were carried over from the first edition; 30 new stories were included; and the present division of the story section into three parts was instituted. Bill gave three major talks. On the first night Bill talked of what he called the first of the three legacies: "How We Learned to Recover." His second talk dealt with the second legacy "How We Learned to Stay Together." His third talk was on the third legacy: "How We Learned to Serve." Four o'clock Sunday afternoon was reserved for the final meeting of the 1955 General Service Conference. This was the occasion on which Bill formally turned over the stewardship of A.A. to the General Service Conference, giving up his own official leadership and acknowledging that AA was responsible for its own affairs. He would later say: "Clearly my job henceforth was to let go and let God. Alcoholics Anonymous was at last safe -- even from me." Robert Thomsen wrote: "No one in Kiel Auditorium on the last afternoon of the '55 convention would ever forget the sense of expectancy when Bill again stood before them and they waited for him to speak. He seemed to have grown, to be somehow a little larger than life, a man who just naturally created memories. If Bill W. had engaged a Madison Avenue, PR firm, one old-timer recalled, and if this firm had worked around the clock on his account, they could never have done for him what he without even trying did for himself that afternoon. There had always been a powerful affinity between Bill and the imagination of alcoholics, and now this could be felt in the farthest corners of Kiel Auditorium. Even at a distance one got the impression of a tall, thin, completely relaxed man, yet with a tremendous inner energy; a personality that carried over big spaces -- that indeed seemed to expand when confronted with bigness. A warm light played over his face as he squared his shoulders and then leaned slightly forward across the lectern like some old backwoods statesman who'd stopped by for a chat. He was imposing, yet friendly, radiant but homespun." Bill wrote his history of this convention because he wanted to make sure that nobody misunderstood what had happened at St. Louis. "Pass It On," p. 359 says: "In many ways, 'Alcoholic Anonymous Comes of Age' is a masterpiece. Deceptively simple in its guise as a log of the three-day proceedings, it is actually an entire history of the Fellowship and its place in society, with whole sections given over to the vision of A.A. as held by those in society at large -- men of industry, doctors, minister, and trustees -- who lived in close relationship to the Fellowship. Published in 1957, it is Bill's penultimate book." While Bill had stepped down at St. Louis, Dennis Manders, longtime controller at the General Service Office said "Bill would spend the next 15 years stepping down." Everybody -- including Bill -- was having difficulty letting go. Bill continued to write, multitudinous letters, plus "AA's Twelve Concepts of Service" and the "AA General Service Manual," which together form a kind of constitution and a governmental structure of A.A. The AA Concepts don't have the elegance of AA's Twelve Steps or its Twelve Traditions, nor are they well known to many AA members. The Twelve Concepts represent a unique and fascinating set of principles that describe the right of AA's leaders to speak and act for the fellowship while establishing written guaranties for individual freedom and minority rights. The Concepts were conceived to protect the fellowship from becoming a top-down rather than a bottom-up organization. In June of 1958 Bill wrote to Sam Shoemaker: "St. Louis was a major step toward my own withdrawal [but] I understand that the father symbol will always be hitched to me. Therefore, the problem is not how to get rid of parenthood, it is how to discharge mature parenthood properly. A dictatorship always refuses to do this, and so do the hierarchical churches. They sincerely feel that their several families can never be enough educated (or spiritualized) to properly rid their own destinies. Therefore, people who have to live within the structure of dictatorships and hierarchies must lose, to a greater or lesser degree, the opportunity of really growing up. I think A.A. can avoid this temptation to concentrate its power, and I truly believe that it is going to be intelligent enough and spiritualized enough to rely on our group conscience. I feel a complete withdrawal on my part should be tried. Were any major structural flaws to develop later that I might help to repair, of course I would return. Otherwise, I think I should resolutely stay away. There are few, if any, historical precedents to go by; one can only see what happens. "This is going to leave me in a state of considerable isolation. Experience already tells me that if I'm within range of A.A. requests or demands, there are almost impossible to refuse. Could I achieve enough personal freedom, my main interest would almost surely become these: "(1) To bring into the field of the general neurosis which today afflicts nearly everybody, such experience as A.A. has had. This could be of value to many groups working in this field. "(2) Throughout A.A., we find a large amount of psychic phenomena, nearly all of it spontaneous. Alcoholic after alcoholic tells me of such experiences and ask if these denote lunacy -- or do they have real meaning? These psychic experiences have run nearly the full gamut of everything we see in the books. In addition to my original mystic experience, I've had a lot of such phenomenalism myself." The letter goes on to discuss this second item in great detail. The complete letter can be found on pages 373-376 of "Pass It On." Bill and Dr. Jack Norris had some correspondence on the subject of Bill's responsibility as a living founder. Dr. Jack wrote: "You cannot escape being 'Bill W.' -- nor would you, really, even though at times you will rebel. The best bets are made with all possible information in hand and considered. I am reminded of a poem written by the mother of a small child, in which she says, 'I am tied down' and goes on to list the ways she is captive, ending with the phrase 'Thank God I am tied down.' To few men has it ever been given to be the 'father image' in so constructive a way to so many; fewer have kept their stability and humility, and for this you are greatly honored. But you are human, and you still carry the scars of alcoholism and need, as I do, to live A.A. The greatest danger that I sense to the Fellowship is that you might lose A.A. as it applies to you." Sources: Pass It On Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age Grateful To Have Been There, by Nell Wing Bill W., by Francis Hartigan __________ A.A. International Convention, Long Beach, 1960. The third A.A. International Convention was held in Long Beach, California, in 1960. There were twice as many people at Long Beach as at St. Louis, but the convention seemed to be fraught with problems from the beginning. Hank G., who was then manager of the General Service Office, was handling the preparation for this convention, but while visiting Las Vegas with his wife on his way to California he was stricken with appendicitis and ended up in a hospital. Then Herb M., the chairman of the trustees' General Services Committee, who was probably the next best person for the job, took over, but he was suddenly stricken with a heart attack in upstate New York. So at the very last moment another trustee, Allen B., stepped in to handle the planning. Nell Wing, Bill's secretary, said that Allen was "a good administrator, extremely capable and well-liked." He was assisted by an Al S. Bill, accompanied by Allen, someone named Dennis Manders (whom I haven't identified), and a staff secretary named Hazel R., went out to California several days early to help prepare. Lois and Nell Wing followed on the flight on which Bill had originally been scheduled. When they landed, they were met by members of the hospitality committee. After greeting Lois the committee members continued to wait around until Lois asked if they were ready to leave. They replied, "We're waiting for Bill's Chinese secretary." Lois laughed and said, "This is Nell Wing right here," pointing to the obviously Caucasian Nell. Nell said that "Bill planned to make a major talk on Saturday night. He wanted it to be the definitive story of the how and why of the Twelve Traditions. But because of the many distractions resulting from Hank's illness, Bill hadn't had the time to prepare for this important talk. Nell spent the whole day Saturday with him going over and over the outline and notes for the speech. "I typed and retyped them as he changed and added," she wrote. "Finally, we left for the open-air stadium on the ocean where the huge crowd had gathered." A record cold spell hit Long Beach, which is extremely rare for July in that part of the world. Nobody had brought any warm clothes, so in contrast to St. Louis where Nell says they "almost melted," they almost froze. Bill was very long winded that night. (It's always easier to give a shorter talk if you have adequate time to prepare.) He went on and on for more than two hours. Nell said it was the longest talk he ever made. To make matters worse, the public address system did not work well and Lois and the trustees, who were seated on the stage behind the podium, couldn't hear a word for the entire two hours. Bill later was often teased about his "Deepfreeze Talk" -- as he himself described it. Amazingly, according to Nell, almost everyone stayed until the end, shivering and shaking. On Sunday, in the same stadium, the people who attended the conference were treated to a spectacular show featuring a popular orchestra and some of Hollywood's brightest stars including Buster Keaton, Jane Mansfield, Dennis Day, and Peggy Lee -- all of whom donated their talent without charge. Bill B., an entertainer who was the Master of Ceremonies, kidded Bill lovingly about the length of the talk. Nell said that Bill laughed, too, and took it all in good humor. I'm sure everyone fortunate enough to be able to attend this convention came away greatly edified. Nonetheless, there were problems. At least one oldtimer felt hurt that he wasn't given recognition. Jim Burwell, an early New York member (then living in California), whose story "The Vicious Cycle" appears in the Big Book, apparently had written Bill asking for some role at the convention. I assume this from a letter Bill wrote Jim on July 1, 1958. It said in part: "I note that what you say about the upcoming 1960 Conference and will suggest your name to the committee. They tell me there is still some question whether Long Beach will be big enough to accommodate the crowd. Judging, however, by the action of the Conference, I think we shall make the best of what is there. It is certainly the largest center of population and this would guarantee the gate at once." Jim must have written again asking for recognition of "oldtimers" because Bill wrote him on May 24, 1960: "I wish we had thought of an oldtimers meeting earlier. I'm taking this up with the office, but I imagine the schedule is pretty tight, as matters now stand. I don't know how we would go about getting such a crowd together - where and how we would find them and so forth. But I'll inquire." Jim must have complained bitterly again to Bill about the convention because Bill wrote a very tactful letter to him on August 8, 1960, just a short time after the convention ended. In it he said in part: "Very sincerely I feel not a little badly that the convention gave you and perhaps other very old timers, an unhappy experience because of the lack of recognition. When you wrote me, not too long before the Convention, about the possibility of an old timers meeting, I did check this up. The schedule was then in pretty air-tight shape, so far as the official sessions went. Perhaps I should have followed this thing through more fully, trying to get some sort of informal meeting together. "As you know, Hank got awfully sick just prior to the Convention. This threw added burdens on me. I must confess to neglect and forgetfulness -- at least to some extent. As a matter of fact, the Convention ran a little bit behind several thousands, we don't know just how much yet. There was always a question of how many people we could bring long distances pre-paid, and on what ground we could fetch them. In this connection, I did [not] give you and Rosa much thought because you [live] near by. But I did think a good deal about Henrietta Seiberling and Bob Oviatt in Akron, both of whom preceded you, I think, A.A.-wise. "Admittedly, I did not think of Clarence. Probably this is because he has always disapproved of conventions and all of the doings of the New York headquarters -- off and on he has had us under bitter attack for years. I didn't mean to let that affect me, but subconsciously maybe it did. In any case, you will surely remember that I tried to give all possible credit in 'A.A. Comes of Age' to you, Bert, Dorothy, Clarence, and a great many others. "Considering the time at my disposal, I did not see how you people could have been introduced in either of my talks. In the first one I could only show the bare beginnings of A.A. In the second one - which was altogether too long - I had to dwell on the development of the Traditions. I really don't see where you folks would have fitted in - at least to the satisfaction of the audience - in that respect. Naturally I had to bring in Ebby because, despite his lack of sobriety since, he was at the very beginning. Sister Ignatia was certainly due for a bow after all these years. After all, she and Smith ministered to 5,000 drunks - a number far greater than you and I ever thought of touching ourselves. "In this connection I also felt not a little sorry that Henrietta wasn't invited. There was not only the question of cost. Though she has been extremely friendly during the last two or three years, it must be remembered that she has never cared for the convention idea and indeed, was against the whole New York headquarters operation for many years. For several reasons she wasn't invited. "Maybe that was a mistake. I know that, for one, I was damn sorry she wasn't there. However, I wasn't the entire boss of this whole undertaking, by any means. "I don't know whether you and Dorothy got to say anything at those Alkathon meetings. Some of them were very outstanding indeed, and apparently rated much higher in many A.A. minds than any of my efforts. If you were not invited, this [is] surprising indeed, considering how prominent you, especially, have been out on the Coast, well known to everybody. If this was an omission, it certainly gives me cause for wonder, as doubtless it does you. However, those arrangements were all made by the Coast people. "Nevertheless I suppose if I had been thoughtful enough about it - which I wasn't - I might have taken particular pains. "I guess the upshot of it is that life never gives quite the deal we would like. On one hand, you say that you suffer from lack of recognition, and I say with certain equal fervor that I greatly suffer from far too much." One can feel some pain for Bill in his efforts to keep so very many alcoholics -- most of us with oversized egos -- happy and working together. Sources: Grateful To Have Been There, by Nell Wing Bill W. correspondence. __________ A.A. International Convention, Toronto, 1965. The fourth International Convention was held in Toronto, Canada, in July 1965. Bill and Lois were, of course, prominent on the program, and at that time many of the old-timers were still active and at the convention. Nell Wing, Bill's secretary, particularly remembered Clarence Snyder, who started A.A. in Cleveland. She said that Bill spent "a couple of hours" in Clarence's hotel suite reminiscing about the early days. This surprised Nell, who pointed out: "He started a group in Cleveland in May 1939, the first group, as far as we know, to use the A.A. initials. (Bill had been using the full name since 1938 in letters and a pamphlet.) On this slender basis, Clarence forever claimed to have founded A.A." "As long as Bill was alive," Nell notes, "Clarence was antagonistic and hostile toward him. He was a leader of a small group of dissidents, who were anti-Conference and anti-G.S.O., and who bad-mouthed Bill for many years. And here was Bill in Toronto, chatting and chuckling with his bĂŞte noire and enjoying it all. I believe that was the last time they met together." Nell adds that a "feisty priest who had threatened to disrupt the 'Coming of Age' ceremony in St. Louis, was at this convention also, but now he was loving and kind to Bill and Lois and everyone else. He had just returned from an audience with the Pope in Rome, bearing a citation for Bill. It hangs now on the wall at Stepping Stones." [Was this Ralph Pfau?] The film "Bill's Own Story," which Nell had watched being made at Stepping Stones, was shown for the first time in Toronto. It was well received and has been reproduced in several languages since then. One person who made Toronto such a significant convention: Al S.. Al, an advertising and film man in New York, had joined the fellowship in March 1944. "Within a month," Nell Wing reports, "he was 'into action,' as the Big Book says. Among his many contributions to A.A., he helped re-form the Manhattan group, and also helped organize another club for A.A.s on Forty-first Street. He helped structure the New York Intergroup, for which he served as secretary and director. While there, he and another member, George B., were instrumental in persuading Knickerbocker Hospital to set aside a ward just for alcoholics under the sponsorship of A.A. -- the first such general hospital in New York to do so." Nell notes that by late 1948, Al had become editor of the Grapevine. During the time he worked on the Grapevine, he also served as a director of A.A. Publishing, Inc. (an earlier name of AA World Services, Inc. From 1958 to 1961, he was a director of the A.A. Grapevine, Inc., and a trustee on the General Service Board. He attended, until his death, every International Convention and contributed to the success of them all. He was a valued friend of Bill's, according to Nell, and Bill solicited Al's views and comments on all his books and other writings. Nell adds: "Lois put it succinctly: 'Bill and Al were buddies.'" It was also Al S. who composed the "I am Responsible" pledge for the convention in Toronto. Nell writes: "I will never forget -- nor will anyone who was there -- the moving ceremony of rededication on Saturday evening in the Maple Leaf Gardens auditorium. The crowd of more than 10,000 rose and joined the conference delegates, trustees, and A.A. representatives from 21 countries up on the stage in repeating the declaration. They clasped hands and loudly pronounced in one tremendous, strong voice: 'I am responsible when anyone, anywhere, reaches out for help, I want the hand of A.A. always to be there. And for that: I am responsible.' "There was a special spirit about the Toronto Convention. Many people say it was the best ever." Source: Grateful To Have Been There, by Nell Wing __________ A.A. International Convention, Miami, 1970. The fifth AA International Convention was held in Miami in 1970. It was the first one that I attended. Nell Wing, Bill's secretary, wrote: "More than 13,000 members and their families came from all over the world to see the cofounder and hear him speak, as he had at all previous conventions, and to participate in the wide-ranging program." Arriving at the Fountainbleu Hotel, where the convention was held, I was thrilled to meet members from many countries. Nell said there were many from Latin America. I also was delighted -- typical A.A. member that I am -- to see that free coffee was being offered in the lobby. But when I looked for some later it was all gone. Nell explained that the host committee in Miami, chaired by Wes P., "one of the more colorful members," had raised about $10,000 from local groups to provide complimentary coffee. But $10,000 worth of coffee doesn't last long, especially at hotel prices, with that many A.A. members hanging around. It may have been Wes P. who drove me around Miami one day. When I noticed people on the street pointing at the car and smiling, he explained that the license plate on the front of the car read "Alcoholism is a Treatable Disease." He gave me one of these license plates to take back to Washington as a gift for Senator Harold Hughes, an AA member. On another occasion, a taxi driver taking me to the Fountainbleu, asked if I were there for the AA convention. I told him I was. He admitted his worry about his own drinking, and I wound up spending considerable time doing 12th step work. Other memories of the convention include the wonderful entertainment. An A.A. member who was a professional comedian did an act in which he pretended to be drunk. He pretended he was doing live commercial breaks during a movie being shown on TV. During each pretended commercial break he would take a drink of the alcoholic product, talking about it's fine bouquet, excellent flavor, etc. Each time he did the live commercial, of course, he was a little more drunk. He said at the end "I can't tell you how many thousands of dollars it cost me to learn that routine." A Florida A.A. member told me a few years ago that she thinks it was Foster Brooks, "who always did a drunken skit, even though he was a very sober member of AA at the time." He often appeared on the Dean Martin show, and was also appeared with Rowan and Martin. He, like Bill Wilson, died as a result of his addiction to cigarettes. I also remember the "Alkathons," AA meetings going on constantly 24 hours a day. I had been invited by GSO to speak at one of them. (Senator Hughes had been invited to speak at one of the big meetings, but declined because of the legislative schedule at the time. Well, that was his excuse anyway. I think he really declined because he knew he had been invited because of the celebrity he was then receiving as the leading "dark horse" for the Presidential Democratic nomination. He hated being invited to speak at A.A. functions because he was a "big name." At the opening session, we were disappointed not to see Bill. As Nell wrote: "His life long cigarette habit had caught up with him in the form of emphysema, even though he had given up smoking the year before." He had suffered a fall in the spring of 1969, from which according to Nell, he had never fully recovered. (However, when he came to Washington to testify before Senator Hughes' Subcommittee in July of 1969, he seemed in good health. I don't remember whether he was smoking, but if he had already given it up because of his emphysema, it must have grieved him to see Senator Hughes -- who also died of emphysema -- chain smoking the entire time.) But a year later, at the time of this convention, Bill's health had deteriorated greatly. That April he was unable to complete his opening talk at the annual General Service Conference. Despite his ill health, he had flown to Miami with Lois and Nell a few days before the convention. But it became clear that he was not going to be able to keep his scheduled appearances. Once or twice a day he was taken back and forth to the Miami Health Clinic. Nell reported that: "Lois, Bob H., general manager of A.A.'s General Service Office, and Dr. Jack were spread pretty thin trying to cope, trying to keep the huge convention going and easing anxiety caused by Bill's failure to appear. I was caring for Bill in their suite upstairs at the hotel. It was during that week that he began hallucinating, imagining he had made a long-distance call. It was terribly distressing for Lois." She remembers Lois's courage and determination to carry on with the Al-Anon programs. Nell thinks that Al-Anon more than ever "came of age" at this convention, with its own program of events and big crowds in its own headquarters hotel, the Eden Roc, next to the Fountainbleu. When the press conference was held the Wednesday afternoon before the convention began, Marty Mann and Dr. Jack Norris substituted for Bill. Bernard Smith, a past chairman of the GSO Board, substituted for Bill at the opening session. Nell said that Bernie Smith was a "little disgruntled" to be called down from New York on short notice, and asked her to help him adapt a talk from a previous conference. They finished the talk by one or two o'clock, after which he got in some golf. On Sunday, he apologized to Nell for his irritability the day before. Poor Nell was so exhausted that she slept in Sunday morning and missed the program. But I was there, with the thousands of others. And I was not disappointed. Late in the morning, a wheelchair appeared from the back of the stage, and there was Bill. He was hooked up with tubes to an oxygen tank, and had insisted on wearing one of the orange-colored blazers that identified the Miami host committee. When we realized it was Bill, we rose as one and exploded with applause and cheers. Bill was wheeled to the front of the stage and pulled himself up to his full height at the rostrum. He spoke for only a few minutes, but his voice was strong and clear. He seemed almost like the old Bill so many of us remembered. He talked of how happy he was about the large attendance, especially the members from other countries, and about how much it meant to him to see A.A.'s enormous growth and to have been a part of it. And then he ended by saying: "As I look out this morning on this vast crowd, I know in my heart that Alcoholics Anonymous will surely last a thousand years -- if it is God's will!" When he lowered himself into his wheelchair we all jumped to our feet in thunderous applause. Nell says "Many times since I've thought about the coincidence, the similarity of the final exit of the two cofounders twenty years apart." Later that day, Bill returned to the hospital. He and Lois remained in Miami until August, when they returned home to Stepping Stones. Bill's health steadily declined. He required oxygen constantly and his hallucinations were much worse. Soon he needed nurses around the clock. Bill was returned to a Miami hospital for treatment, and died in Miami less than six months after this convention. One of my many regrets is that I did not save a copy of the last message he wrote Senator Hughes. It was a post card which he and another AA member at the hospital both signed. They wrote: "We only hope we live long enough to see you become President." Sources: "Grateful to Have Been There," by Nell Wing Unpublished diary of Nancy Olson. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1700. . . . . . . . . . . . A.A. International Conventions -- Part Two From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/11/2004 3:19:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII A.A. International Convention, Denver, 1975. The sixth AA International Convention was held in Denver in 1975. It was the first at which neither Dr. Bob nor Bill was present. But to remind everyone that they were still there in spirit, the platform of Currigan Hall was decorated with portraits of them, with a 30-foot replica of the Big Book between them. Lois, of course, was there, and as active as ever. Al S., Bill's good friend of whom I wrote in my post on the 1965 convention in Toronto, led the huge "spiritual meeting" and Lois gave a very moving talk. Nell Wing, Bill's secretary, said that her predominant impression of the Denver convention was "crowds, crowds, crowds." GSO had planned for 12,000 and about 20,000 showed up. The workshops and panel meeting rooms were "hopelessly jammed," and at the big meetings the crowds overflowed Currigan Hall into a sports arena across the street where the talks were carried on a closed-circuit TV screen. Nell remembers that the fire department was a bit alarmed at the overcrowding of the halls. Nell attended this time, not as Bill's assistant, but as the A.A. archivist, working with George G., chairman of the Trustees' Archives Committee. As of 1992, when Nell's book was published, George was still serving as a consultant to the Trustees' Archives Committee. Nell was grateful for his "contributions to the organizing and supervision in the earliest days of the archives," and for his friendship. Nell and George spent most of their time in Denver seeking out the early members and interviewing them on tape. Nell said it was a heart-warming experience, and she kept up with these old-timers by mail. Anticipating the great demand for coffee, an "entrepreneur" rigged the world's largest coffee maker with servers on both sides of the balcony at the convention hall. Nell reports that "It had a capacity of 50,000 cups a day. The coffee was brewed in huge tanks or vats and piped to a bank of dozens of spigots where we helped ourselves after paying a quarter a cup. It worked fine and was the talk of the convention, but the coffee itself -- well, I've tasted better!" The opening session on Friday night began with a flag ceremony. As the name of each country was called over the public address system, spotlights shown on the flag, and, with music from the country (perhaps its national anthem) being played, its flag was carried down the aisle and onto the stage. A.A.s from 29 countries paraded their flags. When they arrived on the stage, each flag bearer stepped up to the microphone and repeated the conference theme, "Let It Begin With Me," in his or her native language. Alkathon meetings ran each day. One such meeting, the "drum and dance meeting" was presented by Indian A.A. groups. Ernest Kurtz reports that between each talk, "the huge drum spoke in tribute to the Higher Power that the leader chose to call the Great Spirit, and A.A.s in the regalia of many tribes went on to the Arena floor to dance -- but not alone. They reached out their hands, and soon white A.A.s and black A.A.s were on the floor with them." Source: Grateful To Have Been There, by Nell Wing. Not God, by Ernest Kurtz __________ A.A. International Convention, New Orleans, 1980. The seventh AA International Convention was held in New Orleans, LA, in 1980. The big meetings were held in the immense, air-conditioned Superdome. Nell Wing, Bill's secretary and now A.A. archivist, said that the Superdome was comfortably chilled and acoustically perfect. A mock Mardi Gras parade was held on Thursday night, and "famed Bourbon Street turned into ice-cream and coffee street," according to Nell, with mobs of A.A.s taking over. There were signs in the windows of the jazz establishments welcoming A.A.s. On Friday night, at the opening session, there was a 30 foot-high world map outlined on a blue background behind the stage. The theme of this conference was "Joy of Living," and during the flag ceremony, as each flag bearer spoke these words in his or her native tongue, the country represented was lit up on the map. An archives workshop -- the first at an international convention -- was held and a large, enthusiastic crowd attended. The films "Bill's Own Story" and "Bill Discusses the Traditions" were shown continuously throughout the convention. Also shown continuously was a recently completed film strip of the archives called "Markings on a Journey." This was the idea of Mike R., a pioneer member from Oklahoma who was also chairman of the Trustees' Archives Committee. He noted the fact that some 2,000 members visited the archives in New York every year to gain an awareness of how it all began. "But Mike felt that since it was impossible to bring all the fellowship in to see the archives, we should in some way take the archives to the fellowship," Nell wrote. "Markings on a Journey" was their attempt to accomplish that. There were also meetings of archivists after the workshop to discuss the value of circulating a newsletter among the archivists. Presentations were made by non-A.A. members, including judges, physicians, psychiatrists, clergymen, educators, prison officials, media specialists, government officials, a labor leader, an industrialist and alcoholism agency officials. Special workshops were scheduled for gay members and for young people as well as for doctors, lawyers, and women. This convention also was the first to have a marathon meeting running continuously, day and night, from Thursday midnight to Sunday morning. According to Nell, "A man who had sobered up just two days before in the marathon meeting was introduced before the crowd of 23,000." On Sunday morning Lois gave a brief talk and was presented with the first Big Book in Italian, by Roberto C., who had done the translation. He told how A.A. was growing in Italy. Then a surprise guest came to the microphone and introduced himself as Bob S., a member of Al-Anon. He explained that he was probably the only person there who had been present when Bill W. met Dr. Bob first met. He was the only son of Dr. Bob Smith. Bob Smith, "Smitty," shared some of his early memories of Bill's living in their Akron home that summer in 1935. The 1980 convention was the first to feature women, and Marty Mann, of course, was the keynote speaker. She, like Dr. Bob and Bill before her, was very ill when she gave this last major talk to A.A. Like Bill in 1970, she arrived in a wheelchair. But when she was introduced she rose from the wheelchair and walked slowly to the podium as a prolonged ovation shook the rafters. She stood tall and the old gleam came back in her eye. When the ovation finally ended, Marty looked out over the thousands of women (and many men, as well) and said: "Talk about tears -- I can't tell you what it feels like to be a great-great-great-great grandmother to so many women. Because that's what you are, all of you. You're my children, and I'm so, so proud of you." The hall erupted with a roar and gave her a long ovation. Marty Mann was not only the first woman to achieve long-term sobriety in A.A. (see her story: "Women Suffer Too" in the Big Book), she was the person most responsible for removing the stigma from the disease of alcoholism by educating the public. She told a U.S. Senate subcommittee in 1969: "I had discovered the strength of the stigma that lay on alcoholism. I had discovered the conspiracy of silence that existed about it. I had discovered that families were inclined to protect their alcoholic and that they were totally unaware of the fact that this protection was actually preventing their alcoholic from getting help." Marty had gained the support and backing of two eminent scientists at Yale University, Dr. Howard W. Haggard and Dr. E. M. Jellinek, who had been working on this problem for some years. And they gave her the support and encouragement - as did Bill Wilson - to start an organization originally called the "National Committee for Education on Alcoholism," which later became the National Council on Alcoholism (now NCADD). Marty Mann died just two weeks after she returned from New Orleans, July 22, 1980, having survived three of the most-often stigmatized health problems of the 20th century: alcoholism, tuberculosis, and cancer. She died suddenly from a massive cerebral hemorrhage. Sources: Slaying the Dragon, the History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America, by William White. Grateful to Have Been There, by Nell Wing. __________ A.A. International Convention, Montreal, 1985. The eighth AA International Convention was held in Montreal in 1985. The was the second to be held outside the United States, both in Canada. It drew more than 44,000, representing fifty-four countries, and began again, with a flag ceremony. Nell Wing wrote that "Because the emphasis of the whole event was Alcoholics Anonymous history, but mostly, I think, because I was accompanying Lois, I was on the platform in the middle of the vast Olympic Stadium Friday night for the opening ceremonies." "Lois Wilson, a tiny, stooped figure now at age 94, was assisted by her secretary, Francis H., to the microphone, where she delivered a short but touching speech in a strong voice with her sense of humor evident," according to Nell. Ruth Hock, Bill's first secretary who typed the original manuscript of the Big Book in 1938, was there and was presented with the five-millionth copy of the Big Book. Nell wrote that Ruth "was much more than a gifted secretary, she was a major factor in the stability and functioning of that early office. In fact, she was a balancing factor in the debate between Jim B[urwell] the former atheist, and Fritz M[ayo], who was strongly religious, that resulted in the use of the phrase 'God as we understood Him' in the Steps -- certainly one of the most significant decisions ever made in A.A." Nell adds "What would later be called the 'Serenity Prayer' was brought to her attention in June 1941. She sent it to an A.A. member (who was a printer) in Washington, D.C., and he printed it on small cards for distribution from G.S.O. to interested members." Ruth died in the spring of 1986. Dave B. ("Gratitude in Action" in the 4th edition of the Big Book), the founder of A.A. in Montreal, was to have been honored at the convention, but he died only a few weeks before and was represented by nonalcoholic past trustee Dr. Travis Dancey, who had first tried to bring the A.A. message to Dave. Dr. Jack Norris, Dr. Milton Maxwell, and Dr. Bob's son and daughter and Bob's wife Betty were at this convention. And among the attendees was 89-year-old Ken S., a "long-timer" from Kansas, and Sybil C., the first woman member in Los Angeles. Workshops were held on archives, and there were "old-timers' meetings and pioneers' meetings. The closing talk Sunday morning was by Joe McQ., the first black member in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1962. Joe McQ has joined with Charlie P. to participate in Big Book seminars in the USA, Canada, and overseas. "His was a stirring and moving story," says Nell. Several hundreds of A.A. members and their families could not find rooms. Every hotel room within eighty miles of Montreal was booked, and some were housed as far away as Burlington, Vermont. Many who found themselves without a room left early or slept on the floors of rooms of friends. One reporter noted that few chose to sleep in parks or other public places, which seemed to surprise the reporter. On Friday night historic figures were introduced, including Lois Wilson and Ruth Hock Crecelius, who was presented with the five-millionth copy of the book Alcoholics Anonymous. As secretary to Bill Wilson and Hank Parkhurst ("The Unbeliever" in the 1st edition), Ruth had typed the original manuscript." Many laughed that the House of Seagram paid tribute to Alcoholics Anonymous by lowering the three flags adorning its Montreal headquarters to half-staff for the duration of the convention. Ernest Kurtz wrote: "Overall, the centrality of A.A.'s own story suffused the whole convention and became permanently enshrined in the 'Family Album and Souvenir,' Fifty Years With Gratitude, which in its reproduction of over a hundred newspaper clippings and old photographs recalled their history to A.A.s and A.A.s to their history." Sources: "Not God," by Ernest Kurtz "Grateful to Have Been There," by Nell Wing. Shortly after I originally posted this I received this message from Ruth Hock's daughter: "Just read the posting - what a wonderful memory of that convention!! It was my first, and I went with my mother, Ruth Hock Crecelius. She could hardly believe how large our fellowship had grown, and had just begun to "accept" what her role in it's survival meant to us all. I had about 9 years in the fellowship then. Thought I'd add a couple of cute things about that convention that you all probably didn't know: I asked her that night what went through her mind as she accepted the book and watched those thousands of people give her a standing ovation, Her reply was: "I looked up and asked 'What do you think of this Willie?'" Also, the 5 millionth copy of the Big Book was NOT given to her that night. Everyone was up on the stage and suddenly someone remembered that the book had not been returned from the binders (special leather cover). A representative "snuck" (almost literally) from the stage to find a book. Someone in the crowd (of course) had a Big Book with them, which was promptly borrowed for the presentation!! Mom thought it was quite funny and typical of the resources we alcoholics have! That book was signed by Mom and returned to its owner. She got the leather bound volume soon after returning to Ohio. It is currently in my home - a wonderful memory of her legacy to me and all alcoholics! Sybil C. was the speaker that night - I have wonderful memories of her family and Bob Smith's during the meeting - each of us crying as his/her family member was introduced and gave a talk. As Bob Corwin so profoundly put it in a letter to me later: "we proudly sat in humility row basking in reflected glory"! What a wonderful time in my recovering life in AA. Thanks for all you do in helping keep our history alive! Laurie L. __________ A.A. International Convention, Seattle, 1990. The ninth AA International Convention was held in Seattle, in 1990. This convention drew 48,000 people from 75 countries. Dr. Bob's son and daughter, Bob Smith and Sue Windows, and Bob's wife Betty were all in attendance. It began, as had become the custom, with the Friday night flag ceremony. Nell Wing, Bill's secretary and later AA archivist, wrote that: "The hall really let go when the Soviet, Bulgarian, and Romanian flags were carried to the front of the platform." Nell told an interest anecdote about herself: "It was also a homecoming of sorts for me. I had spent 1944-46 in Seattle (the 13th naval district) as a member of SPARS, the Women's Coast Guard Reserve, In the basement of the Olympic Hotel (now affiliated with the Four Seasons chain) there was a large bar and dining room which we called the "snake pit" and where many of us, along with the Coast Guard and Navy guys, did a bit of off-duty drinking. One night I got involved in an all-night drinking spree and next morning, up before my executive officer, was 'awarded' a captain's mast and sentenced to a brief confinement in my quarters (the 'brig' was full). I was allowed out once a day, accompanied by a shore patrol. "Now, 44 years later, here I was in Seattle again and the recipient of the 10 millionth copy of the Big Book. No words can adequately express my deep gratitude to this beloved Fellowship and my cherished friends therein." So now we have some insight into why Nell Wing, who was not an alcoholic, could be so comfortable with and dedicated to the many members of AA. Source; "Grateful to Have Been There" by Nell Wing. __________ A.A. International Convention, San Diego, 1995. The 10th A.A. International Convention was held in San Diego in 1995. I could find little written about it, but got this, if my memory serves me, from Tex Brown whom I met at the International Convention in Minneapolis in 2000. The Oldtimers Meeting At San Diego The crowd was chanting, "Ruth... Ruth... Ruth..." This chant will probably become the way the International Convention in San Diego will be remembered. Forty-three years sober, Ruth O 'N., from New York City was the first of fifteen speakers chosen at random (to place principles before personalities) from the one hundred and twenty-two Oldtimers with forty years or more sobriety (a total of 5318 years) who were present at the Saturday night Oldtimers Meeting at Jack Murphy Stadium. Ruth was delightful, and had completely won the hearts of the crowd of 42,000 by the time her allotted five minutes were up. They wanted her to finish even if it took all night. [She kept on talking for a very long time.] It became the background chant between each of the fourteen remaining speakers (and in one case, during). The chant "Ruth, Ruth...." caught on and it was being heard Sunday morning and later in the week at meetings in San Diego as a celebration of A. A. itself. The loving acceptance of the oldtimers by a much younger crowd, while lauding their individual sobriety, was at a deeper level a celebration of the force and power of the A.A. program that had kept them sober for as much as fifty-five years. The Steps, written in December 1938 when there were less than one hundred men (and no women, yet) who were sober, proved to be exactly what was needed by all of us to get sober, and most importantly to stay sober. In the next fifty-seven years many people have attempted to make changes in them. There were proposals to add things to and proposals to take things out of the Steps, but none of them worked. The oldtimers assembled in front of the podium were the living proof that the 12 Steps to the A.A. way of life was exactly what they (and we) needed. How does this way of life work in the long run? I would like to tell you one oldtimer's story. Shep became a member of the Glenbard Group about 1950. The old Glenbard Group covered all of what is now District 40 and part of District 61. Starting out as an atheist, Shep was sober from the very start and gradually became a pillar of the group. After about 20 years of good sobriety, Shep fell victim to a severe form of Alzheimer's disease. He became helpless and was placed in a nursing home. It was the custom of this facility to have a gathering of the patients in the common room every Saturday evening. The residents were then rewarded for their good behavior with a glass of wine. It was the high point of the week. Shep would not drink the wine. He didn't know where he was or what he was doing there. He didn't even know his own name. He did not know why, but he did know that he did not drink. Everything else was gone, but Shep still knew how to stay sober. Can you imagine a deeper and more fundamental change in the personality than this? Many thought the Oldtimer's Meeting the high point of the Convention, a demonstration that all of us can successfully live our entire lives as sober, happy and fulfilled members of Alcoholics Anonymous. P.S. SAN DIEGO SHORTAGE! Past experience with A. A.'s amazing ability to consume vast quantities of coffee was duly noted by the planners of this International Convention. They did not run out of coffee, but the San Diego ATM's ran out of money! (From the Fall, 1995 issue of N. I. A. Concepts, Area 20 Service Letter) __________ A.A. International Convention, Minneapolis, 2000. The theme of the International Convention of Alcoholics Anonymous was Pass It On into the 21st Century. According to Valerie, the Convention coordinator at GSO, 48,000 people attended the convention held in Minneapolis, Minnesota between June 29-July 2, 2000. The Minneapolis Convention Center housed registration, hospitality, Archives displays, and meeting rooms. Big Meetings of all those who attended where held in the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome under 10 acres of Teflon-coated fiberglass held up only by air like a giant balloon. These meetings included the kick-off ceremony on Friday night, the Old Timers Meeting on Saturday night, and the closing (Spiritual Meeting) on Sunday. Minneapolis has air conditioned SKYWAYS, a unique 5 mile system of elevated walkways going from building to building that connects most of the downtown area and downtown convention hotels. But most convention members Walked the Walk to the Metrodome each day. A special Big Book Blue Line was painted onto the sidewalks of Minneapolis from the Convention Center to Metrodome stadium. Like most things in A.A., none of us had to walk-the-walk alone. Volunteers from the Host Committee were strung along the entire route to guide us along and cheer us on. After the Big Meetings in the Metrodome, we were able to Dance-the-Dance in the Dome on Friday and Saturday nights. I flew to Minneapolis on Thursday, June 29. My plane left from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton airport in Pennsylvania. When I went to catch my connecting flight in Pittsburgh, the long line of people waiting to board looked, somehow, like A.A. members. Why did I think so? Because they all looked happy and cheerful and excited, not a bit bored or irritable like many travelers. When I walked up to the end of the line I said "This looks like a bunch of drunks." The howls of laughter which greeted my remark made me feel that I was immediately in the right place. I got smiles, and hand shakes, and yes even hugs. I was immediately at home with a group of people I had never laid eyes on before. And that is the way it was for the next four days. I met no strangers, only good friends I had not previously met. After checking into the Radisson Hotel in downtown Minneapolis, I went immediately to the Convention Center to register, traveling there on one of the shuffle buses which had been arranged to take us back and forth during the convention. Getting into the convention center to register took a bit of time. One could not get through the door without shaking hands with the official greeters. Their enthusiasm never died. They were shaking hands after the closing meeting as if it was the first day of the convention. Friday morning meetings were held on: Young, Sober and Responsible; Pioneers in A.A.; Peace and Serenity; Progress Through Pain; AA and Treatment Facilities; Let's be Friendly with Our Friends; Is AA Reaching Minorities?; Tolerance and Trust; Let It Begin With Me; First things First; Courage to Change; Letting Go of Old Ideas; Fear as a Stepping Stone; AA Meeting in Japanese; Ego Deflation in Depth; The Joy of Living; A.A. and the Clergy; AA/All-Anon/Alateen Meetings; Doctors in AA; Carrying the Message into Correctional Facilities; General Service: AA Politics?; Faith in Action; Pacific U.S. Regional - Meet Your AA Neighbors; Feliz, Alegre y Sobrio; AA Around the World Call Up - I; Partners in A.A.; At the Turning Point; Le Language du Coeur; Sobriety is Progressive Too; Victory in Defeat; One Day at a Time; A New Freedom; How It Works; Easy Does It - But Do It; Freedom Through acceptance; Emotional Sobriety; Let Go and Let God; AA Meeting in Japanese; Gratitudine in Azione; Freunde in Aller Welt; There is a Solution; Sober Awhile - Now What; Carrying the Message Through Public Information; AA Grapevine: Our Meeting in Print; Southeast U.S. regional - Meet Your AA Neighbors; Working With Others; Time to Start Living; una Neuva Libertad; Reaching the Alcoholic with Special Needs. Because of my interest in AA history I chose "Pioneers in AA." Bob P. chaired the meeting. He was at one time the head of GSO. His story is the last one in the Big Book: "AA Taught Him to Handle Sobriety." Bob told us he had an extremely serious operation 18 months ago. He was not expected to live. The doctors told his wife that his survival was a miracle and that it was because of his great attitude. The doctors asked his wife where he got that great attitude. We know the answer to that. He told us that at the 1985 convention in Montreal, he was supposed to present Ruth Hock (Bill's first secretary who typed the Big Book) with the five-millionth copy of the book. He discovered he did not have it with him. So they looked all over for a Big Book to borrow. They finally found one and he presented it to her with the assurance she would get the real one later. Bob said Ruth loved that. She said "Oh that's soooo alcoholic." The speakers were: Ruth O. of New Jersey, Jules P. of California, and Bob S. of Texas, a member of Al-Anon. Bob S. spoke first. He said he was the only person still alive who was present when Doctor Bob and Bill Wilson first met. It was Dr. Bob's son, Smitty. He was 17 at the time. He went with his parents to Henrietta Sieberling's house for his father's first meeting with Bill. In the car his father said "I'm giving this bird 15 minutes." His mother did not say to Bill, "will you come to dinner next Tuesday?" She said "why don't you come live with us?" Bill said without hesitation "OK!" Smitty said that there were never two people as different as Bill and his father. If it had been up to Dr. Bob AA would never have got beyond Akron. If it were up to Bill they would have sold franchises. But they had two important things in common. They were both open minded about spirituality, and they both had a desire to be of service to others. Smitty talked about how his parents brought alcoholics to live in their home. Dr. Bob would take them up to the bedroom and then give them some medicine. It was paraldehyde. "When my teenage sister and I opened the front door and smelled paraldehyde we would say 'Oh, oh, we've lost our beds again.'" He told about the first man they tried to sober up. His name was Eddie Riley and he moved in, I think he said with his wife and kids. One day he chased Anne Smith around with a knife. Dr. Bob considered Eddie his first failure. But at Dr. Bob's funeral a man walked up to Smitty and said "Do you remember me?" It was Eddie. He was living in Youngstown, Ohio, and was sober one year. Smitty said his father had a wonderful sense of humor. When Smitty took the woman he married to meet his parents for the first time, Dr. Bob looked her up and down and said of this tall, slender woman, "She's built for speed and light housekeeping." Smitty said his wife was sober 19 years when she died. One day Dr. Bob told his son "Flies carry germs. So young man, keep yours buttoned." Smitty said the Oxford Group members communicated with each other all the time. His mother was always on the phone with one or another of them. And that, of course, was true of the alcoholics in the Oxford Group as well. But things were not always sunshine and joy. There were people in A.A. in the early days with big egos. "Can you imagine?" he asked. "There were actually alcoholics with big egos in the early days?" Smitty ended his talk with a big plug for the traditions. "I say thank God for those traditions." He got a standing ovation. I don't remember much of what Jules P said, but he was very enjoyable. The last speaker was Ruth O. When Bob P. introduced her he said that in planning the convention in 1995 he had a bright idea. "Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time." They would let every alcoholic with 40 years put their names and sobriety dates in a big bucket, and the first 15 called could get up and talk for five minutes. When Ruth O. got up to talk she talked on, and on, and on. She joked that they had told her that this time they were going to have a trap door to use if she talked too long. But she was a fascinating speaker, sober 52 years. She lived in the Bronx when she came into A.A. and was the only woman in her group for a long time. The men were apparently not too kind to her. They were rather gruff. One of them asked her one day how long it had been since she had a drink. She said proudly: "50 days tomorrow." The man sitting behind her hit her on the shoulder and said gruffly, "It's 49!" She must have told that story often because the day before she celebrated her 50th anniversary the phone kept ringing. When she answered a gruff voice would say "It's 49! It's 49!" But Bill Wilson was kinder. The first time she met Bill he kissed her on the cheek. "I haven't washed that cheek since," she said. And somehow I believed her. Our choices for the early afternoon meetings were: Lesbians/Gays in AA; Women in AA; Humility: A Power Greater; Turning It Over; La Consicence de Groupe, Informee; Living Sober; AA and Native Peoples; Sponsorship: Leading by Example; Young & successful - Who Needs Meetings?; Tools for Sobriety; Twelfth Step: Love in Action; Estructuras de Servicio General; AA Meeting in Japanese; Solo per Oggi; AA Traditions and AA Events; Die Zwöf Schritte; Unity Through Humility; Willingness: The Essence of Growth; AA's History of Love; A Daily Reprieve; East Central U.S. Regional - Meet Your AA Neighbors; In All our Affairs; Twelve Concepts: The Structural Framework; and Twelfth-Stepping the Old Fashioned Way. I had no problem choosing. My old friend, Mel S, was speaking at the Twelfh-Stepping the Old Fashioned Way meeting. I hadn't seen Mel in years. Mel had his last drink on May 23, 1965, in a bar at an officer's club in Virginia. He had entered the Army Air Corps in 1939 as a private. He wanted to be a pilot. He retired 27 years later as a full Colonel. He told of the many escapades involving crashing air planes when he was drunk. But he always somehow managed to get out of trouble. But finally, in 1965, he was ordered to fly his plane to Washington to deliver some top secret papers to the Pentagon. He drank and was in a blackout. He got a call saying that the papers had not arrived at the Pentagon. Where were they? Mel couldn't remember. He had no idea what had happened. He was desperate. This meant the end of his career. He would be court marshaled, he might serve time in prison. In desperation he called the chaplain and told him his predicament. The chaplain told him to stay where he was, he was sending someone to get him. Two men showed up, one of them an Army Warrant Officer. They took Mel in tow. The warrant officer took him to stay in his home. It was a small, modest home and they didn't have a guest room, but they had an unfinished basement and they put a cot in the basement for Mel. He lay there detoxing, and in terror of what the future would bring, Then he heard a noise on the stairs, and his host came down carrying a big roll under his arm. He spread the roll on the floor next to Mel's cot and said "I'm going to sleep here tonight. I know how you feel." Mel had trouble telling the story, he was so filled with emotion. Mel was madly trying to think of excuses to make up to get out of this very serious trouble. But the two A.A. members told him that he had to do two things: don't drink, and tell the truth. So Mel told his superiors the truth. He had been drunk and he had no idea what had happened to the top secret papers. An investigation was begun, and Mel tried -- on the advice of his A.A. sponsors -- to leave the matter in God's hands. Then one day he got a call. It seems someone at the Pentagon had found the papers. They had been locked away in a safe the whole time. So Mel's superiors told him that since he had, indeed, delivered the papers to the Pentagon as he had been ordered to do, all charges against him would be dropped. In all the years I had known Mel I had not heard his story before. I was deeply moved. Our choices for the late afternoon meetings were "Young People in AA; Gratitude in Your Attitude; AA Loners and Internationalists; AA and Court Programs; Carrying the Message Into Treatment Facilities; El Anonimato al Nivel Público; Archives: A Collective Vision; Intergrupos y Oficinas Centrales; Freedom to Choose; History of the Big Book; Spiritual Journey; Resentment - the Number One Offender; AA and Cyberspace; Carrying the Message to Older Alcoholics; Notre Methode; AA Meeting in Korean; AA Meeting for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing; AA in Western Europe/Scandinavia; AA in Central/South America; Viviendo Sobrio; AA in Asia/Oceania Zone; Western Canada Regional - Meet Your AA Neighbors; This Matter of Honesty; Prayer Under Pressure; and A Daily Inventory. Again I had no problem choosing; a friend from the Washington, D.C. area whom I hadn't seen in 20 years, Hal Marley, was speaking at the meeting on gratitude. I am very glad I had that last opportunity to see Hal. He died not long after. The highlight of the opening meeting that night was the flag ceremony. The first flag to appear was carried by a Native American in full traditional dress and carrying a large pole covered with feathers. Then, as the name of each nation was called, an A.A. member from that country entered carrying the country's flag. They were called in alphabetical order, ending with Zambia, followed by the flags of the host countries: Canada and the United States. Over 75 countries were represented. As each country name was called the members from those countries rose and cheered loudly. But many of us cheered along with them. Especially when the Russian flag appeared. The flags were lined up in front of the stage and remained there throughout the convention. Saturday turned out to be a day for miracles. Miracles were happening all over Minneapolis from the beginning, but I first began being acutely aware of them on Saturday. The trip was costing me much more than I could afford, so I wanted to save money where I could. I had hoped to save some money by having my coffee in my room each morning. But the coffee pot didn't work. I told them at the desk Friday and they said they would put a new one in. They did bring up a new one. But it, too, wouldn't work. So I bought a $1.50 cup of coffee in the lobby, as I had the day before. The man selling the coffee was reading a book by Dr. Abraham Twersky, so I said "Oh, are you in the program?" He said he was not but he was staying sober by another method. I then started telling him that I knew Rabbi Twersky, the alcoholism treatment specialist. A man was also buying a cup of coffee. He was not wearing a badge and at first I didn't even know he was there for the convention. He had just come down for coffee -- perhaps his coffee maker wasn't working either -- and had not bothered with his badge or anything else. But he was carrying a large file of papers. He, too, was an A.A. member. We sat down to drink our coffee together in the lobby and I started telling him about A.A. History Buffs. He said "I feel there is something I should say to you." Then he opened his file of papers and pulled out all sorts of wonderful historical documents. He gave me a copy of Ruth Hock's letter to Bill Wilson, recalling the early days of A.A. Our choices of meetings Saturday morning included the same wide variety of meetings, but I wanted to go to the one called "Archives: A Collective Vision," because I knew that Charles K. would be speaking there and I wanted to meet him and, Doug B., both on-line friends. Afterward, I went off to try to hear Clancy I. of California. Clancy's meeting was too crowded and I couldn't get in, so I went back to the Convention Center and wandered into the first meeting that I came upon. The meeting was already in progress. I soon discovered that it was a Gay and Lesbian meeting, and a woman from San Francisco was speaking. Her name was "Peacock." Another of those little "coincidences." I had recently befriended a lesbian woman alcoholic in Pennsylvania. When I heard "Peacock" I immediately knew I must buy her tape for my friend. She gave a magnificent talk. I was not taking notes but I remember a few things she said. She said that Clancy I. was her sponsor. She called him to ask his permission to speak at a Gay/Lesbian meeting and he responded "Now, you know how I feel about special interest groups." "But I really want to do this, Clancy," she replied. There was a very long pause and then he said: "I have good news and bad. The good news is that you may speak at the convention. The bad news is that I will be speaking at the same time." She responded "That's OK, honey, we won't attract the same crowd." Her audience roared with laughter. After hearing Peacock I wanted to catch the 3:30 meeting "Pass It On - Into the 21st Century." Searcy W. of Texas was speaking at this meeting. He was Ebby's sponsor. Bill had sent Ebby to Searcy in Texas and Ebby stayed sober there for some time. But first I needed some food. After I had some food I decided to go back to my hotel to rest. I totally forgot that I wanted to hear Searcy. Another of those little coincidences? Back in my room I found I couldn't nap, I was too restless. So I decided to try to reach another of the history buffs who was staying in the same hotel, Tex Brown of Illinois. I phoned him and asked if he would join me in the lobby. The inspiration to call Tex lead to the most exciting part of the convention for me. Tex was then 83 years old and sober 53 years. He had written me before the convention saying "I just happened to stumble into the history forum. I read the post saying that you will be staying at the Radisson Plaza. So will my wife, Barb, and I. ... I thought that I might like historians better than archivists. I guess I need to see what the big boys are like." Tex got sober Feb. 6, 1947, in Skokie, IL. He was then the editor of the Area 20 (Northern Illinois Area) service letter, "NIA Concepts." His delightful wife, Barb, has been sober 21 years. I found Tex a charming, humble, serene, humorous fellow. He told me some wonderful stories about the early days in the Chicago area. Then he scooped me up and took me along with them to sit in the oldtimers section for the oldtimers meeting at the Metrodome Saturday night. He seemed to know everybody and made sure that he introduced me to them all. Among those I met was Mel B. who has written so much wonderful AA history, and Dr. Jack Norris's widow. And what an inspiration all the oldtimers were. Those with more than 40 years sobriety had been asked to put their names and sobriety date in a Fishing Hat located at the Convention Center before 1 p.m. on Saturday. All the meetings in the Metrodome were simultaneously translated into Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Polish and Swedish. Special arrangements were also made for the hearing impaired. And the HP made sure that the oldtimers meeting would be truly international. Among the names pulled from the hat were Mosku from Finland, sober 46 years; Collin from Australia, sober 54 years; and Manual M. from France, sober 40 years. A little extra time was allowed for the oldtimers from Finland and France because they were accompanied by interpreters who repeated in English what they had said. Collin from Australia complained that they hadn't supplied him with an interpreter, and there were moments when I wished they had. His Australian accent was sometimes hard to understand. (Collin visited the U.S. in 2004 and phoned me from New York. He planned to come to Virginia, where I am now living, to meet me. But alas I was not available the only day that he could come to Virginia. It was not until his phone call that I realized he was the man who had spoken at the convention.) Shortly before they started drawing names out of the hat, I was puzzled to see a procession of about 30 members of the hospitality committee, wearing their distinctive white caps, march down the center isle. They then stood in front of the line of flags below the stage. They drew 15 names out of the hat, and as each name was called, two of these host committee people would get on each side of the oldtimer and help him or her onto the stage. All of this could be seen very clearly on the large screens around the Metrodome and it was such fun watching them being escorted up. One of them was wearing a white tuxedo. Another, whose escorts were two young women, started swinging them around and dancing with them on the way up. To make sure that they didn't have another Ruth among these oldtimers, a man sat on the stage with a large rectangular sign that said APPLAUSE. When three minutes were up, if they hadn't stopped speaking, he would walk up behind them with the sign and the entire convention would break into applause. The first called to speak was Otto W., 40 years and two months sober. Otto told how he was visited by two A.A. members while he was locked up in a mental ward. "They had something I wanted and I was willing to go to any lengths to get it: MATCHES!" All of the oldtimers showed this kind of humor. Marie M., sober 44 years, four months, said a woman had called her and said she was an alcoholic from A.A. and asked if she could visit her. "Well, I did not want any alcoholics coming to MY house." So she said she would go to the A.A.'s house instead. She rang the door bell and when the A.A. contact opened the door she announced: "I have two black eyes (as if she couldn't see)." One of the most inspirational, to my mind (and not because her name was Nancy and she was from Pennsylvania) was Nancy F. Nancy, sober 55 years, said there isn't anything you can't do if you want to after you get sober. "I went to college at 70 ... and graduated at 80 ... cum laude!" David Mc. M, sober 43 years, who followed Nancy, said he was 21 when he got sober and was told he was too young to be an alcoholic. He said he hasn't grown up yet, "but when I do I want to be just like her," pointing to Nancy. The last speaker was a tall, handsome black woman, Louise R., sober 40 years, who said that they told her if she kept coming around she would get what they had. So she kept going to meetings and waiting for them to give her whatever it was they had. Finally she asked "When are you going to give me what you have?" They asked her how long she had been coming to meetings, and if she had a drink during that period. She had not. "So you have what we have." "Here I was walking around with it," she said, "and I didn't know I had it." She said they also kept talking at meetings about how anybody who didn't have one should buy the Big Book. It cost $3.50. Well, she didn't WANT to buy no BIG Book. She didn't want to READ no BIG book. Finally they announced at a meeting that anyone who didn't have a Big Book could have one and pay for it when they could. "They think I can't AFFORD the Big Book." So after the meeting she walked up to the man and said she wanted the Big Book. She slapped down a five dollar bill and said "Keep the change." All of the oldtimers were very inspiring. They wasn't a dull one in the lot. Murray M., our history buff from Dublin wrote: "The old-timers meeting was very special. You could not but be moved by their expressions of love and gratitude. The humour was unequaled and I think the entire 15 would have stayed there sharing for hours if time allowed. The member in the white tuxedo might have summed it all up when the occasion got to him." Sunday morning my coffee pot worked just fine. Guess there was no special reason God wanted me down in the lobby for my coffee. I scooped up my new friend, Rich (who had given me Ruth Hock's letter to Bill) and his roommate and took them with me to the handicapped second on the Metrodome floor. This was near where I had been sitting with Tex the night before. I wanted to take Rich to that section because I wanted to see Tex again and introduce Rich to him. But we didn't find Tex. He told me in an e-mail that he and his wife had been late arriving. He had looked for me, too, because he wanted to give me some newsletters from his area. At this closing meeting the 20 millionth copy of the Big Book was presented to the fellowship of Al-Anon. There are 30,000 Al-Anon groups world wide. There were three very inspirational speakers. One of them was Nancy K, the lead singer for a group called "Sweet Water" in the '60s. Sweet Water was the first group to take the stage at Woodstock. "But they cut us out of the movie," she sighed. We roared with laughter. "You know, only A.A.s laugh when I tell them that. Everyone else says Ahhhhh, poor thing." Nancy got sober in 1976 in Los Angeles. "I wore a bikini to my first meeting," she said. But someone told her she would look better if she were wearing a towel. If I remember correctly, she had a bad accident, her vocal cords were damaged, and she lost her ability to sing. She later became an English teacher. But eventually her voice returned and she was reunited with some of the Sweet Water group. There are three still alive, "fatter and with less hair." They entertained outdoors at the 1995 convention, but they forgot to advertise, so there wasn't the kind of crowd they'd hoped for. I think it was Nancy who said AA is like taking wedding vows. "For better or worse, in sickness or in health, till death do us part, I am a part of AA." John K. got sober on St. Patrick's Day. (How's that for a miracle. An Irishman getting sober on St. Patrick's Day?) He told us of attending a funeral of a boy who had died and the preacher said "the only way we can change the world is to change ourselves, and now is the time, because for the boy in the box it is too late." John's daughter smashed up his new car. She hit a Mercedes. John's sponsor drove him to the scene of the accident and all he could think of was himself. Why did she have to smash MY car? How will I get to work, etc. His daughter was still in the car, and his sponsor said, "Aren't you going to check on her?" He went over to the car and his daughter said "Oh, daddy, give me a hug." "I had to be prompted by my sponsor to hug my daughter," he said. John asked us to remember that each alcoholic is a multifaceted, wonderful person. And the only one that doesn't seem to recognize it is himself. ______ One of the highlights for me Sunday morning was the sobriety countdown. They said this was our 65th anniversary, and asked any one who had been sober more than 65 years to stand. "Has anyone been sober longer than Bill?" No one stood. "Has anyone been sober 65 years? Please stand -- it you still can." Sixty-four years? Sixty-three? When they called "Fifty-five years?" One or more stood. "Keep coming back," everyone shouted. The persons with the longest sobriety at the convention had 55. When they got down to 24 hours, two or more stood. I'm not one who cries easily, but there were many times during the convention when I fought back tears. But as we concluded, and the children of Minneapolis came up and sang for us We Are Family I began to cry. And then when we stood and joined hands to say the Serenity Prayer, I broke down completely. ___________ Postscript: We were coming back from the Sunday meeting and Rich and his roommate asked me to join them for lunch. We walked around looking for a restaurant but they were all mobbed, with hundreds of people lined up outside to get in, so we went back to our hotel to have lunch. While we were strolling around we ran into a man who had a bunch of pheasant feathers sticking out of a sack. Rich started chatting with him, and this man gave us each a feather. I did not want a feather, took it to be polite, and planned to throw it away as soon as I got back to my room. I stuck into the opening in my handbag. Then we had lunch at our hotel and Rich stuck his feather in the vase of flowers on the table. At one point the waiter came over and started to take the feather away. I said "Don't take that. it belongs to my friend." Shortly after lunch, Rich and his roommate left for the airport to return home. But I was not leaving until Monday morning. I was tired and decided to spend the rest of the day in my room reading. But I began feeling strangely restless, so I decided to go down to the lobby and find a comfortable chair in which to sit and read. So I was sitting in the lobby and I got chatting with a woman who is in Al-Anon. She and her husband, an A.A. member, were both at the convention. She asked me where I got the feather, which was still sticking out of my handbag. I had "forgotten" to throw it away. I told her that some man we met on the street had given them to us. Then she showed me her feather. I said "Oh, you must have met the same man we did." "No, I did not," she answered, with tears in her eyes. Then she told me the following story. Her son, who was also in A.A., died suddenly about six months earlier. The day I met her would have been his A.A. anniversary. When she and her husband came to the convention they felt they were bringing him with them. And she saw many signs that his spirit indeed was with them. After sobering up he had become a nurse. He worked as a "traveling nurse" and worked at one point in New Mexico with Native Americans. At the convention the first night they were sitting in the handicapped section and a group of kids came by with signs saying they were from New Mexico and smiled and waved at her and her husband. She thought it was a sign from her son. Then the flag ceremony began and the Indian appeared with his big staff covered with feathers. She thought of how her son had loved Native Americans, worked with them, and had at one time called his Dad to say "They don't have an AA group here. How do I start one for them?" Her son (whom she described as a very spiritual, gentle, and artistic young man) loved feathers, collected them, and made things from them. "Then today," she said, "we went up to the third floor for lunch and in the vase of flowers on the table was this feather. We knew it was another sign from our son." Well, I never did throw away my feather. On my computer desk, as I write, stands a small vase of flowers. A pheasant feather shoots up from the center. I am reminded daily of the little anonymous way God works miracles in our lives. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1701. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Bert Taylor - Compiled From Old Posts From: Mel Barger . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/11/2004 8:19:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Everybody, As I understand it, Bert closed his tailor shop and later worked for Saks Fifth Avenue, which suggests that he must have been a first class tailor. Mel Barger ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger melb@accesstoledo.com ----- Original Message ----- From: NMOlson@aol.com To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, March 11, 2004 8:05 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Bert Taylor - Compiled From Old Posts I am continuing to combine old posts, which are then deleted, in order to make it easier for researchers to search the archives. The following is excerpted from old posts by Charles K. and Rick T. Charles wrote that Bert Taylor was an early AA member who borrowed $1,000.00 from a Mr. Cockran one of his customers and a prohibitionist. "The loan was to help buy some time from the printer until the Liberty Magazine article came out. Once that article came out we sold some books were able to settle with the printer and get the remaining Big Books out of hock, so to speak. He also allowed meetings to be held in the loft in his shop. "Now whether the debt was not repaid on time or Bert just fell on hard times is uncertain, but he did loose ownership of the shop, but was able to keep his business and he died sober. He also was one of the first Trustees of the Alcoholic Foundation." Rick responded to Charles' message: "Much of this additional history was gleaned in on-site research through minutes and correspondence at the GSO Archives.... "His $1,000 would have brought him 400 shares in Works Publishing, and I'm sure he was able to cash in the shares, when and if any of the loan was needed to be paid. There are scant records on file of whose and how many shares were eventually traded in to the Alcoholic Foundation. The AF Trustees' ledgers remained pretty thin for many years into the mid-1940s, and only a few shares were probably ever recorded as 'bought back' by the Board of Trustees. Bill wrote in 'AA Comes of Age' about a few buy-backs, which turned out to be traded only at face value." Rick said he did not think Bert was a Trustee, but Charles responded: "I still believe Bert was a member of the Alcoholic Foundation, only from what I have read. "In the August 1947 Grapevine article 'Last Seven Years Have Made AA self-supporting' Bill writes: "'Two of the alcoholic members of our Foundation traveled out among the AA groups to explain the need. They presented their listeners with these ideas: that support of our Central Office was a definite responsibility of the AA groups; that answering written inquiries was a necessary assistance to our Twelfth Step work; that we AAs ought to pay these office expenses ourselves and rely no further upon outside charity or insufficient book sales. The two trustees also suggested that the Alcoholic Foundation be made a regular depository for group funds; that the Foundation would earmark all group monies for Central Office expenses only; that each month the Central Office would bill the Foundation for the straight AA expenses of the place; that all group contributions ought to be entirely voluntary; that every AA group would receive equal service from the New York office, whether it contributed or not. It was estimated that if each group sent the Foundation a sum equal to $1 per member per year, this might eventually carry our office, without other assistance. Under this arrangement the office would ask the groups twice yearly for funds and render, at the same time, a statement of its expenses for the previous period. '"Our two trustees, Horace C. and Bert T., did not come back empty handed. Now clearly understanding the situation, most groups began contributing to the Alcoholic Foundation for Central Office expenses, and have continued to do so ever since. In this practice the AA Tradition of self-support had a firm beginning. Thus we handled the Saturday Evening Post article for which thousands of AAs are today so grateful.' (Reprint of this article can be found in 'Language of The Heart' see pages 64-65) "Also from 'AA Comes Of Age' "Page 186......... "'At about this time our trusteeship began to be enlarged. Mr. Robert Shaw, a lawyer and friend of Uncle Dick's, was elected to the Board. Two New Yorkers, my friends Howard and Bert, were also named. As time passed, these were joined by Tom B. and Dick S. Dick had been one of the original Akronites and was now living in New York. There was also Tom K., a hard-working and conservative Jerseyman. Somewhat later more nonalcoholic, notably Bernard Smith and Leonard Harrison, took up their long season of service with us.' "(FYI: This was around the time of the Rockefeller Dinner Feb. 1940, this also shows the alcoholic members of the Foundation made up of more than just Bill & Dr. Bob. I have a copy of the minutes of the Alcoholic Foundation in July 25, 1949. Dick S., Tom B, and Bernard Smith were already trustees of the Foundation in 1949.) "Page 192: "'We also realized that these increased demands upon the office could not be met out of book income. So for the first time we asked the A.A. groups to help. Following the Post piece. Trustees Howard and Bert went on the road, one to Philadelphia and Washington, the other to Akron and Cleveland. They asked that all A.A. groups contribute to a special fund in the Foundation which would be earmarked 'for AA. office expenses only.' The contributions would be entirely voluntary. As a measuring stick, it was suggested that each group send in one dollar per member per year.' "Please let me repeat myself, I am not sure if this is the same Bert T. that owned the Tailor Shop in New York, but sure sounds like it to me. Rick, maybe on your next trip to the Archives in New York you might look for the name Herbert F. Taylor. Again I am not sure if this is the same person either, but his name and signature appears on Works Publishing Company stock certificates date September 26th 1940 (see 'AA Everywhere-Anywhere' the souvenir book from the 1995 International Convention page 23) and Bert is short for Herbert. I also have a photocopy of the same stock certificate dated June 20th 1940 and his name is on that one too, as president I might add . May have no connection at all, but worth looking into. "Well, I hope this sheds some light on the source for my assumption that Bert the Tailor might have been a Trustee of the Alcoholic Foundation. This has open a whole other question about the early make up of the Alcoholic Foundation and I think I might explore this to find out what I can." The following is from Jim Burwell's memoirs: "It was also in June of this year that we made our first contact with the Rockerfeller Foundation. This was arranged by Bert Taylor, one of the older members, who had known the family for years in a business way. Dr. Richardson, who had long been spiritual advisor for the Rockerfeller family, became very interested and friendly, and Bill and Hank made frequent visits to him, with Hank on one side asking for financial help and Bill on the other insisting on moral support only." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This message was scanned by GatewayDefender [4] 8:33:05 AM ET - 3/11/2004 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1702. . . . . . . . . . . . Living Sober From: Arthur . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/12/2004 7:47:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Joanna and a warm welcome back As Mel B noted, the booklet Living Sober was written by NY member Barry Leach. I could not find a Conference advisory action (in publication M-39) that explicitly approved it. However, the 1974 Conference passed an advisory action that stated: "the partial draft of the new booklet 'Staying Sober' be reviewed by the committee and returned with comments and suggestions to GSO by June 1, 1974." AA Comes of Age (pg xi) states: "1975 - Publication of booklet Living Sober, detailing some practical methods AA members have used for not drinking." The 1974 advisory action infers that the booklet's title originally was planned as 'Staying Sober'' instead of 'Living Sober'' (its opening narrative "About that title" seems to address this). The first printing occurred in 1975 and based on the mention in AA Comes of Age, 1975 also appears to be its Conference approval year. The booklet's author, Barry L, is historically prominent in two other areas. He was among the earliest homosexual members of the AA Fellowship. Barry also was the individual who (in 1945) called Bill W from the 41st St clubhouse concerning a black man who was described as an ex-convict with bleach-blond hair, wearing women's clothing and makeup (re 'Pass It On'' pgs 317-318). The black man also admitted to being a "dope fiend." He is reported (in Pass It On) to have disappeared shortly after yet anecdotal accounts (at least here in Texas) often erroneously say that he went on to become one of the best 12th Steppers in NY. The booklet 'Living Sober'' is reputed to be the second highest selling publication in AA today. 10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;color:black;">Cheers Arthur ----- *From:* Joanna Whitney [mailto:joannagw@earthlink.net] *Sent:* Wednesday, March 03, 2004 8:31 AM *To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Subject:* [AAHistoryLovers] Living Sober Hi Group -- I am newly returning after a long stay away and glad to see you are all still here. I am "Courier New";color:black;">really curious about the origins of the publication Living Sober and what conference approved "Courier New";color:black;"> it. Anybody? "Courier New";color:black;"> Thanks, "Courier New";color:black;"> Joanna IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1704. . . . . . . . . . . . AA Historic Sites Near N.Y.C. From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/12/2004 10:02:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII General Service Offices of AA (World Service, originally called the Alcoholic Foundation): 1) 17 Williams Street in Newark, NJ, 'Honor Dealers'' Office; Hank Parkhurst & Bill Wilson set up the first 'Headquarters'' office. Most of the Big Book is written here & Ruth Hock (secretary) is the first non-alcoholic employee. 2) 30 Vesey Street, N.Y.C., the second office, Bill splits with Hank. (1938-1940) 3) 415 Lexington; office moves to Grand Central area after Bill gets Bedford Hills home. (1940-1944) 4) 141 East 4th Street. More space. (1950-1960) 5) 315 east 45th Street; larger quarters in Grand Central Area. (1960-1970) 6) 468 Park Avenue South, finally occupying 5 floors in two buildings (including 470 Park Avenue South). (1970-1992) 7) 475 Riverside Drive; all of 11th Floor & half of the 10th Floor. (1992-present) Town's Hospital, 293 Central Park West. Bill had many trips to this hospital & ultimately has a spiritual experience here. Dr. William D. Silkworth (author of most of the Big Book's 'Doctor's Opinion''), Medical Superintendent, treated 40,000 alcoholics here. Calvery Church/House, 21st Street & Park Avenue South. Where Bill attended Oxford Group meetings & got sober along with Ebby T., Rowland H., Cebra G., Hank P. and all the gang. Sam Shoemaker, source of 'the Steps & all the spiritual principles via the Oxford Group'' was the pastor here. 38 Livingston Street, Brooklyn. Bill's home during the high-flying years working on Wall Street. They were so rich that they combined two apartments here. 182 Clinton Street, Brooklyn. Bill's home when he got sober. A gift of Lois's father. Lost the house during the Depression (sober). 30 Rockefeller Plaza. Where Bill met 'Uncle Dick'' Richardson, conduit to John D. Rockefeller. Bill sat in Rockefeller's chair on the 66th Floor office of John D. Roosevelt Hotel, Madison Avenue & 44th Street. Site of over 35 General Service Conferences. Park Omni, Seventh Avenue & 56th Street. Site of General Service Conferences. New York Hilton, 1335 Avenue of the Americas. Site of the Bill W. Dinner, put on every year by the New York Intergroup since 1945. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1705. . . . . . . . . . . . Burwell Correspondence and Memoirs From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/13/2004 2:30:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII In an effort to reduce the large number of posts which must be searched to find information, I am combining many that we previously posted singly. This is a compilation of the letters to and from Jim Burwell, plus his memoirs. The Philadelphia letters and the memoirs were originally posted by Bill L. (Barefoot Bill), and the other letters were mailed to me a few years ago by Cliff B. in Texas. My thanks to them both. Nancy __________ W.G.W. Box 459 Grand Central Annex New York 17, N.Y. March 1, 1940 Dear Jimmy: I hear Fitz came to join you at the first meeting of A.A. in Philadelphia - how was the meeting? It seems impossible to dig up any bona fide requests for assistance in the territory around Philadelphia. Here is one though that might (undoubtedly will) cause some inconvenience, but sounds like it might turn out to be something. Mrs. Arthur W. Corning, Apt. G-41, Blind Brook Lodge, N.Y. wrote to us concerning her brother - Joseph Hoopes - who is now in the state hospital at Delaware. She sent him the book and wanted to know if any of our members could contact him while he was there. Can you do anything on this? Will you let me know either way? Thanks. Sincerely, /s/ Bill __________ W.G.W. Box 459 Grand Central Annex New York 17, N.Y. March 4, 1940 Dear Jim: Will you let me know with all speed at post office box #658, Church Street Annex, New York City, just what time, and just where, and how to get to your Philadelphia meeting Thursday P.M. It seems a great movement towards Philadelphia is welling up here amongst the brethren. At least one automobile load will put in an appearance, and perhaps two. It never rains - it pours! Twenty five dollars, coin of the realm has just come into my hands and I am endorsing it over to you as per enclosed. Once more Jim, a lot of thanks for the automobile. We appreciate what you did so much. Now a final burst of generosity comes from Ruth Hock who is sending you one returned book and one new one, partly in consideration for the big business done at Wanamakers, partly for the use of the Philadelphia brethren, but mostly, I suspect, because she likes you so well. Yours, /s/ Bill __________ W.G.W. Box 459 Grand Central Annex New York 17, N.Y. December 9, 1940 Dear Jimmy, Sorry you couldn't get up. I was away and so missed Bill Wells. Jack Alexander expects to be in Philadelphia all day next Sunday. He would like to see Drs. Hammer and Saul and also the man in charge of alcoholics at the Philadelphia General Hospital. Will let you know just when he will arrive and may come down myself, proceeding with him, Sunday night to Akron where he will also take in the Cleveland group, going from there to Chicago and finally writing his article at St. Louis, which is his home town. This schedule is still tentative so will keep you posted. Wes Northridge tells me there is another opening in your out-fit and he expects to interview your Mr. Carns (?) about it within a day or two. If you feel you can, I wish you would write this gentleman and put in a good word for Wesley with your boss. Some months ago I would not have done this for I have learned to be careful about pushing people too hard for jobs under some conditions. But in this case I feel very different. There has been a really miraculous transformation in Wes. It is one of the most remarkable things I have ever seen and I am positive that it is going to stick. Lois and I rode with him over to the Rockland meeting the other night when we had a good chance to talk for a long time. All of the cockiness and disagreeable egotism is a thing of the past. Moreover, he had laid hold of the spiritual angle in a big way. So I am willing to bet on him without any reservation whatever. As you know he has held some swell jobs and is usually competent to make the kind of industrial survey you are selling. Please find enclosed a copy of my report to the Trustees. Ruth is away in Cleveland and I can't give you Kathleen Parkhurst's address. Give all the boys my best together with greetings from the whole New York group who appreciated the telegram from the Philadelphia group. Though we haven't framed the telegram, it hangs on the bulletin board big as life. Be seeing you soon. As ever, /s/ Bill __________ W.G.W. Box 459 Grand Central Annex New York 17, N.Y. January 11, 1941 Deal Jim: First of all please thank Art McMasters and all of the Philadelphia group for their telegram of Christmas greeting to Lois and me. An avalanche of cards, letters, etc. came in from all over the country and it gives us both a great thrill to realize how many true friends we have. Your detailed description of operations at the Research Council was most gratifying. I have followed up the Foster Kennedy situation to the point where Blaisdell, although he won't read the paper himself, states he will request Dr. Smith to prepare and read one at the New York Academy of Medicine. And as you know, Dr. Foster Kennedy will speak on the paper and the entire proceedings will be published in the Academy Quarterly. This will, of course, validate our work all over the world and will, in one grand short cut, make it possible to sell any doctor the program immediately. Some of the follow-ups you suggested I can make myself when Lois and I come down to Washington, Baltimore and Philadelphia, which will be some time within the next two weeks. The rest of them I think ought to wait on publication of the Post article which is so powerful (we have just seen the manuscript) that it alone ought to push almost any doctor over because of its clear description and such convincing statistical data. Sommers, the Post editor, wrote us a nice letter saying that he believes the article will prove a great one both for the Post and for us; and after reading the article there can be no doubt of that. As a model A.A. group I know all you Philadelphians will be set for the new grist of prospects when they appear. With best to Mary, yourself, and all our friends, As ever, /s/ Bill __________ January 23, 1941 Dear Jimmy: Just sort of a note to send along a copy of the second effort at a bulletin. It doesn't contain very much and I'm full of ideas for it and such, but you can realize how difficult it is to get very much of anything on one page. And it is just out of the question to put out a lengthy bulletin right now. So this will have to do for the present. I've sent a few along to Art McMaster. Bill won't be down for another week or two though he definitely has the trip in mind. Finley Shepard is working on the Foundation money angle right now and Bill wants to be handy. Besides which Lois has the grippe and won't be set to go anywhere for another week. She is feeling much better now and is on the upgrade but needs rest and quiet. As you have perhaps already heard, the article will have the first three pages of that issue of the Post. We don't know yet whether the cover will carry an announcement of it or not, but it may. There has been some confusion about pictures, but they now have an assortment and what they will use only the Lord knows. They have club pictures, hospital pictures, office pictures, large group pictures and what have you. The big group picture taken in Cleveland was a floparoo. After they went to all the trouble to get four or five hundred people together, and hired a commercial photographer, he let them down for the picture, for some unknown reason, just didn't come out. They had to get another group together, about a hundred and take that. Did the Post get in touch with any of you down there for some splash picture of some kind. They wanted something hair raising like a man being carried into a hospital on a stretcher or something. Will you let me know if they did? I hope not! No other news - my best to Mary - be seeing you - /s/ Ruth [Hock] __________ W.G.W. Box 459 Grand Central Annex New York 17, N.Y. December 11, 1947 Dear Jimmy: Well, it's been a long time. But you know me. More than usually delinquent, I realize I never answered your request for a financial lift. Nor have I thanked you for that history of A.A. The first came when I was feeling pretty low myself and had already committed the dough the Foundation set aside for us to improvements on the house. So, actually I wasn't in a position to help. Later on George Hood, I believe, brought me the history. That history I did read with tremendous interest, as have several others who have since been to the house. I think several of the oldtimers ought to wright [sic] up their impressions just as you have done. If we had a dozen such accounts, I think it would be possible to piece together, after referring to the office files, an extremely accurate account of just what happened and who did what. Personally I don't care a rap who did what. But I suppose there will be a lot of debate about it later on. So the material should be assembled from different points of view and the best possible record made. I don't think it would be possible for me ever to write a detailed history of A.A. I could only tell the story in a very general way. But if this thing keeps growing and making a stir, I suppose some historian will want to know the real facts by and by. If we don't assemble them now, the record never will be anywhere near straight. And lots of interesting detail and incidents will be forever lost. So your effort in this direction is tremendously appreciated, Jim. Don't let my negligence of correspondence make you think it isn't. Lois and I expect to get out on the road a great deal after the first of the year. It looks like we might hit the Coast beginning at Vancouver and, say about the middle of March. Thereafter we should work southward, arriving two or three weeks later at San Diego. This however, is tentative -- only a guess. The idea of the trip would be to help explain and consolidate the Traditional material I have been publishing in the Grapevine. The planks of our recovery platform seem pretty solid. The sidewalls of the structure are now going up. They are the Traditions. And too, we shall have to do something further about the New York Headquarters. A self-perpetuating Board of Trustees, unkown [sic] to most A.A. members, could never stand up over the long future. So we shall have to have some kind of annual conference in which out-of-towners delegated for the purpose would sit down and talk things over with the Trustees, the office, and the Grapevine, and make a joint annual report to the Groups. But how in the hell to choose this conference without politics and uproar has always been a puzzle. After a lot of thought, I am beginning to think we have an answer -- at least a partial one. The conference can't be too big, it cant be too small. It can't ever be a political or governing body. Just a bunch of sane AA's who will sit down and see whether things are going all right in New York and make a report on it. I think that's all we shall ever need. But how shall we make the assembly of the conference simple, fair, and not political? That's the burning question. What do you think about this? Why not divide the country, including Canada, into four equal quarants. [sic] Suppose we take latitudes and longitude line already on the map. Say 40 [appears that it said 10 and was corrected by ink to 40] degrees latitude and 95 degrees longitude. The north and south line would pass just west of Chicago, the east and west line just above San Francisco and Washington. Then why not build the conference up a little at a time. The first year a panel of twelve, the next, twelve more, and the third year another batch of twelve. At the end of three years the total of out-oftowners [sic] would be thirty-six. Which, plus the Headquarters people, would make a conference of about fifty. To get the first panel of twelve, we would go to the three largest groups in each area. These twelve would be delegated for a three-year term, and each would have an alternate. The second year we would do exactly the same thing. We would then have six people from each quadrant. But this would still leave a serious inequality. As matters stand to-day [sic] the northeast quadrant would contain fifty per-cent [sic] of all the A.A. members. So I suggest that the third panel of twelve be selected on the size of the town only. No matter in which quadrant the cities happen to be. This would weight matters up a little in favor of the northeast quadrant, where so many AA's are to-day. [sic] If things change later the composition of the conference would shift accordingly. We might even include foreign centers in this list of twelve, or we might create, later years, a special foreign panel. Having thus designated the conference cities mechanically, why shouldn't we suggest to them that they do the same in picking out a delegate. Otherwise we shall have thirty-six political brawls every year at the designated point. Why couldn't central committees, or in case it is where there is no strong central committee, why couldn't the groups themselves each nominate their choices. And it ought to avoid politics or hand picking from here. Even though some hand picking might be done at the present time, it surely couldn't be done later on when the present old-timers are gone. I'm convinced the whole process will have to be pretty much mechanical. What do you think about all this? Please write me and tell me about all the news, especially about yourself and that good wife of yours. Lois and I hope you both prosper and we shall look forward so much to seeing you when we come. As ever, /s/ Bill __________ 3943 Louisiana Street San Diego 4, Calif. January, 16th 1948 Dear Lois and Bill It was swell hearing rom [sic] you at last, especially to hear you all are coming out our way this spring. I think you will be very agreeably surprised at the real progress of AA on the Coast. They seem to go to many more meetings than the Eastern groups and all the groups seem to be shaping up beautifully, especially in the last year or so. One of the things I do especially like out here in [sic] that they read the Fifth Chapter of the Book before the meetings. This seems to have more meaning to the new fellows than the reading of the Steps alone. The business deal I wrote you about did not materialize so no harm was done. I left the Government (War Assets) in August and played around with a couple of things. Now I hope I have a sales job that might work out for the long pull but will not mention it until you come out. January 8th was my tenth year in AA but 10th year of sobriety will not be completed until June 15th, so hope you will be here for it. Bill, your plans for an annual national conference with rotating representation from the country at large is the best news I have heard from NY since the Grapevine was started. In my opinion it will be the big step in making AA solid for the future - it will help AA groups to understand each other better and it will do more to sell, consolidate and perpetuate the AA traditions than anything else possible. It will also save many new groups much of trial and error that has been necessary in the past, and I think you will be very agreeably surprised to see how well they will all get along together in conference. Your idea of dividing the country into quadrants sounds fine. However, I would suggest, first, that you have a preliminary meeting of about twelve or fourteen AA's from the heavy membership area. You can then present your conference ideas to them and they can polish them up - then they will go back to their own groups and present the ideas as their own. This, I believe, would make for better acceptance of the plans nationally and will make all feel part of the planning. My thought would be to have each of the following areas send a representative to New York for a round table discussion of a national conference and rotating board: New York - Atlanata [sic] - Seattle Boston - St. Louis -San Francisco Philadelphia - Denver - Los Angeles Washington, DC - Dallas - Cleveland Chicago - Detroit Would suggest that each area pick their representative from among their five oldest and most active AA's and that their sobriety shoud [sic] at least be five years wherever possible. The area should finance the trip and the men chosen should be in a position to take time off and be willing to circulate among their local groups on their return and put the idea over to them. Of course all this could be suggested and sold to the groups gradually through the Grapevine and special letters to the groups at large. I would do everything to make the groups feel that this was their party and that all the constructive ideas would be considered. It has always been my idea that the drunk will support anything in which he is given an active part. So much for that. Rosa and I do love it out here. Everyone has been grand to us and we feel a real part of the community and the local AA. Rosa has been very active and helpful in the Women's Group and I am really trying hard to stay out of the middle of things. I am a great believer in the oldtimers getting on the sidelines and letting the two and three year boys and girls do the dirty work. Us oldsters got to know to [sic] much! I'm so glad George Hood was able to give you the "History" and that you hope to assemble similar material in order that a factual story may be written up - you are so right that with the passage of time so much is apt to be lost or forgotten. We have had a great deal of fun with your mother - we were all together for Thanksgiving and Christmas both this year and last. She is one grand fellow and is now a real AA - that's what she says. Well, all here are looking forward to your visit and are so glad to hear all the good reports on how well you and Lois are. Best to you both, /s/ Jim __________ W.G.W. Box 459 Grand Central Annex New York 17, N.Y August 23, 1949 Dear Jimmy and Rosa, Thanks so much for all the up-to-the-minute news. Just got a letter from mother saying she nearly took the plane East. Better luck next time, though I doubt she will come down in winter weather. Lois and I devoutly hope she will make it just for once before it is too late. I note with a lot of interest that you saw Dick Stanley. What you say is not surprising for we oldtimers, nearly all of us, are getting frightfully stale. I know that's very true of me. I have lived and worked far too long in the trouble department of AA. Anybody who does enough of that will finally go sour or crack up entirely. It is so everywhere. The oldtimer situation is getting to be a real problem. In a sense it means we all have to start over again and get back to first principles. I am glad to see at the group and intergroup levels that our service affairs are in the hands of two or five year old people. Moreover these folks were not so badly burned as we oldsters. As a class they are not so screwy. As you have probably gathered form Dick, neither he nor Dr. Bob are for a conference. They seem sincerely persuaded that it would cause more trouble than cure. Naturally this pits [sic] me in a hard spot. It is most difficult to oppose Smithy under any circumstances and especially now on account of his health. Therefore I suppose I expect I shall just have to wait until experience makes it painfully clear to everybody that the groups must participate or the Foundation, the Office, and the Grapevine will go under. We always learn the hard way anyway. Even if a conference proved a flop, and I could know that before hand, I would still be for trying out the idea. Basically these central assets belong to the AA movement. Nobody has the right to withhold from the group their opportunity to participate in the management of their own affairs. However, time will tell the story. Meanwhile I'm withdrawing as much as possible from any special activity hoping to be able to put some of the last ten years experience on paper. Whether I shall find the energy and the enthusiasm to see the job through, I frankly don't know, but at least I can try. Mother always writes so enthusiastically about your helpfulness, I know it means so much to her, so please know of my great thanks. /s/ Bill __________ W.G.W. Box 459 Grand Central Annex New York 17, N.Y. December 15, 1950 Mr. and Mrs. James Burwell 3611 Park Blvd. San Diego, california [sic] Dear Jim and Rosa: Thanks for your letter of November 10th. Plenty certainly happened since you penned that one. It is hard to get used to the idea that Dr. Bob is gone. But his job was well finished. No more could have been ask [sic] of him. Yet it will take a log time to get used to his absence. Much obliged for all you say about A.A. on the coast. I suppose that by now you have seen the Conference Plan. I would very much like your view of it, though I guess you did not see the preliminary draft. There wasn't too much time for consultation because final approval came only at the October Trustees meeting. We have to hold the first session in April or put it off a whole year. The Foundation Annual Reports would be too cold if held at any other date. With much interest I note what you saw about Hal Silverton. I fully agree, too, that Hal's part in the early days on the Coast has been persistently overlooked. The first time I ever went to L.A., he seemed noticeably not included in the festivities. Maybe I am wrong about that, but such was the appearance. Personally, I have always liked him a lot. These considerations would all make me look favorably on him for the post you suggest. But, are there not other considerations too? Around Los Angels, there is the largest aggregation in all A.A. Today, not one in a hundred of them know Hal. I don't believe he has been active in that area for years. These facts, would of course, suggest some old-timer in L.A. who has continued to be active and who is still favorably well-known. Besides, I understand Hal's health is very dubious; that he is often on the sick list. These are the facts which give me pause when I consider your suggestion. At best, the Trusteeship on the Coast is a ticklish business. So many oldtimers are in each other's hair or are so little known that we may have to ask a Group Representativies [sic] assembly to pick one out for us. This hand-picked business gets more full of dynamite each year A.A. grows older. So think it all over again and let me have your reaction. Meanwhile, Lois joins in Christmas best to you both. Devotedly, /s/ Bill WGW/hgb __________ W.G.W. Box 459 Grand Central Annex New York 17, N. Y. August, 31, 1951 Dear Jim and Rosa, Thanks greatly for your good letter, containing fine news of you, also the sad news concerning Earl Ryan, to whom I have just written. As you say, the Conference did come off very well. The results upon offices finances has already been excellent. We have taken in enoufg [sic] money during the past seven months to finance the Office for six months. Meanwhile, the Grapevine deficit has dropped from one thousand a month to the break-even point. The books in Works Publishing are also doing much better. So we won't use up any more reserve for 1951, and if things continue this way, we may add ten thousand dollars to it at the end of the year. Respecting a name for the Family Groups. Lois and Ann Bingham, a neighbor, have opened a Post Office Box for these groups. Right now, they are corresponding with many of them, the question of the name still being up in the air. To date, their correspondence suggests that the name may turnout to be Alanon Family Group or the Alanon Group. Only a few seem to like the word "Associate". This is because, I suppose, there is still a good deal of hostility toward them in some quarters. So they do not wish to use any word which would indicate an alliance with A.A. As you may have heard, Alcoholic Anonymous is receiving the so-called Lasker Award for meritorious service in the public health, to be awarded at the San Francisco Opera House October 30th. I shall probably come to San Diego to see Mother prior to that time. Meanwhile, best luck-and congratulations. As always, /s/ Bill WGW/nw Jim and Rosa Burwell 4193 Georgia Street San Diego, California __________ W.G.W. Box 459 Grand Central Annex New York 17, N.Y. November 24, 1953 Dear Folks, You two have certainly received tough assignments lately. And this is to tell you how often Lois and I regret your illness, think of you, and pray for you. We do hope this letter finds you on the up and up both physically and in spirit. We need hardly question the latter for knowing you as we do, you are bound to have a lot of what it takes. Please do write and tell us just how things are with you and don't forget to let us know if we can do anything. Also, if you are up to it, what about A.A. and the news out there. Back here, there isn't a lot to report. Group contributions for the office are coming in pretty well and will, we think, meet the year's budget all right. Slowly and surely, the general idea seems to be sinking in with the groups. In many spots, the realization that A.A. has to function as a whole, as well as in parts, is taking hold nicely. The new book has gone mighty well, also - about 30,000 copies will be sold this year, about 10% of these by Harpers. However, the sales of the big book has slowed down some 30%. Whether this means the new book will cut into the old one permanently, we can't say. It may be that the new line of pamphlets will slow the sales of the both books down eventually. Only time will tell that. It won't matter too much anyway, so long as people get the message. Speaking about the new book, I suddenly realized I do not think I sent you folks one. I really meant to do this and so you will soon find one in the mail, with all my affection and thanks. So, good friends, hold fast. May God bless you. Write soon. Devotedly, /s/ Bill WGW/nw Mr. and Mrs. James Burwell 4193 Georgia, Street San Diego, California __________ January 27th 1957 Dear Bill, Many thanks for the copy of the A.A. story - and the grand recognition you gave me. It's much more than I deserve except that I did prove to the original crowd that a "nonconformist" had to change to get well. So maybe that was good. Bill, this history is the very finest thing you have done, and especially for those who come to A.A. future. It is important that they know how and why we came to be what we are, and why we should continue on our present lines. Too, the way you brought all contributors in is splendid - it must have been hard, painstaking job. I don't see how any of the originals can kick-back or complain. I was particularly pleased at the way you handled poor old Hank - even Caroline Parkhurst was happy about it! I have absolutely no suggested changes. It does seem to me that I saw a copy of a letter from you and Hank to Sam Shoemaker, resigning from the Oxford group and dated Sept. 1937. In the book you say 1936 - am I wrong? Is there any way to bring in Jackie Williams' Bellevue episode as an early tragedy? The only other addition I might suggest is the Dr. Fishbein deal - where he got five of the first books and then wrote that deathless review for the A.M.A. journal. Am attaching a copy of the review in case yours is not available. And that's absolutely all I can think of. I can certainly see why this book has taken a long time to put together - it's a grand job, Bil. [sic] You know that you have my deepest thanks for all you and Lois has done for me - it's great to feel that by trying to live A.A. I have contributed a little to the world and a little to help the future drunk coming to A.A. and your tolerance in those early days made it possible. Rosa is going to conclude this with a suggestion for the Tradition section of the book. Hi, you dear people; Is there any place for a brief mention of non-A.A.books, pamphlets, records, etc. offered to members, secretaries, and those listed in the directory, especially the kind directed or of interest to A.A.'s only with discounts for group purchases, etc? There are many complaints and questions about such material. For instance, the local Community 7 Family Welfare sell and recommend "I Was a Very Sick Man" etc; then the new people ask us for them and create the problem of trying to play them down without sounding prejudiced. An offical [sic] pronouncement on this would be very useful. And THANKS very specially for the word "compulsory" in re "There are no dues ..etc." This one word will make a tremendous difference in the collection approach at group level! It's terrific! We both send you our very best love and appreciation. /s/ Jim 4193 Georgia Street San Diego, Calif. __________ W.G.W. Box 459 Grand Central Annex New York 17, N. Y. March 20, 1957 Dear folks, Forgive this rather long delay. I have been awful busy with both the book and the television project. A contract for the latter will probably be signed soon. NBC has purchased the story treatment. So I suppose that we shall begin to try to dialogue it presently. Meanwhile I have received about a hundred favorable replies on "A.A. Comes of Age." Like your own, they are extremely favorable. I'm really delighted that you folks like the book and can see so few changes. I'm especially glad to have that early review in the A.M.A. Journal. I have ransacked our files, but couldn't find it. We will try to put this in the Appendix of the book, provided that Dr. Bauer of the A.M.A. will be all right. And I'm sure he will; he is a grand chap. I have heard from Dorothy and, as you say, she likes the book very much, also. It was good to know that Caroline approved the way Hank was treated. You are dead right about 1937 being the date we parted from the Oxford Groups. Somebody else picked this up, too. I'm also putting in a little bit about Jackie Williams, how, in spite of the fact he didn't make it, he did us a lot of good. Also, the discription [sic] of his funeral and the great faith that was felt by everybody there. It was a very affecting incident which ought to be recorded. Meanwhile, I've got to fly. A million thanks to you both. Ever, /s/ Bill WGW/nw Mr. and Mrs. James Burwell 4193 Georgia Street San Diego, california [sic] __________ W.G.W. Box 459 Grand Central Annex New York 17, N. Y. April 3, 1958 Dear Folks, Thanks for your last, so full of good news. Be sure, Jim, to take it very easy for that first year after your coronary. Lois did this and she's now good for anything - she can walk two or three miles without fatigue, up hill and down. Like yourself, she's had no recurrence. But the big trick is to let the job thoroughly heal and get a fresh circulation established during the first year. It's the folks who go tearing round that get in trouble. I guess I've said this three times already, but it can't be emphasized too much. Thanks again for all you have put into A.A. The race has been well run and I hope that things will ease for you both on all fronts. It was good to hear of the prospect of clearing up the debt on the house. The TV business has come to life again. NBC backed away because they had a big management row over there. Fred Coe, the noted producer, was interested while with NBC. He has now moved to CBS. He has recently eviced [sic] an interest. This he would have done before, but he supposed that NBC owned the story outline. As a matter of fact, we kept the property ourselves and only offered the use of it. We let Coe know this recently, and he says he wants it for fall production. But seeing is believing! Everybody sends all the best. Ever yours, /s/ Bill WGW/nw Mr. and Mrs. James Burwell 4193 Georgia Street San Diego 3, California __________ W.G.W. Box 459 Grand Central Annex New York 17, N. Y. July 1, 1958 My dear Jim, Thanks for your last letter, telling me all the good news of yourself and reminding me of your approaching anniversary* I do wish I could share it with you, but the press of affairs here is so great that I don't believe there is a chance. But please know how deeply appreciative I am for all that you did in the early days and ever since, to make A.A. what it now is ... it is a record in our annals that will never be forgotten. I note that what you say about the upcoming 1960 Conference and will suggest your name to the committee. They tell me there is still some question whether Long Beach will be big enough to accommodate the crowd. Judging, however, by the action of the Conference, I think we shall make the best of what is there. It is certainly the largest center of population and this would guarantee the gate at once. Probably you have heard by now that Lois's sister Kitty died. She contracted lung cancer a couple of years ago, had an operation, but it finally caught up with her. She made a great job of the whole business -- it was vastly inspiring. I hope I can do half as well when the clock strikes. Meanwhile, please have all the best and the same to your good lady. Wish I could make this longer, but am piled high. Devotedly, /s/ Bill WGW/nw Mr. and Mrs. James Burwell 4193 Georgia Street San Diego 3, California *Jim - Bill just gave this record recently, to transcribe, so your anniversary has been past these many days! Sorry to be so late. Nell Wing. __________ W.G.W. Box 459 Grand Central Annex New York 17, N. Y. May 24, 1960 Dear Folks Memories of your visit here are still green and most enjoyable to think on. My hopper is pretty full just now. Founders Day is coming up, I'm trying to finish those Twelve Concepts, and Long Beach is just in the offing. I haven't begun to get ready for that, at least so far as what I am to say is concerned. However, I have very little luck in preparing that kind of thing in advance. I wish we had thought of an old timers meeting earlier. I'm taking this up with the office, but I imagine the schedule is pretty tight, as matters now stand. I don't [know] how we would go about getting such a crowd together - where and how we would find them and so forth. But I'll inquire. Meanwhile, all the best, Ever devotedly, /s/ Bill MGW/nw Mr. and Mrs. James Burwell 4193 Georgia Street San Diego, California __________ W.G.W. Box 459 Grand Central Annex New York 17, N. Y. August 8, 1960 Dear Rosa and Jim, Very sincerely I feel not a little badly that the Convention gave you, and perhaps other very old timers, an unhappy experience because of the lack of recognition. When you wrote me, not too long before the Convention, about the possibility of an old timers meeting, I did check this up. The schedule was then in pretty air-tight shape, so far as the official sessions went. Perhaps I should have followed this thing through more fully, trying to get some sort of informal meeting together. As you know, Hank got awfully sick just prior to the Convention. This threw added burdens on me. I must confess to neglect and forgetfulness - at least to some extent. As a matter of fact the Convention ran a little bit behind several thousands, we don't know just how much yet. There was always a question of how many people we could bring long distances pre-paid, and on what ground we could fetch them. In this connection, I did [not] give you and Rosa much thought because you near by. But I did think a good deal about Henrietta Seiberling and Bob Oviatt in Akron, both of whom preceded you, I think A.A.-wise. Admittedly, I did not think of Clarence. Probably this is because he has always disapproved of conventions and all of the doings of the New York headquarters - off and on he has had us under bitter attack for years. I didn't mean to let that effect [sic] me, but subconsciously maybe it did. In any case, you will surely remember that I tried to give all possible credit in "A.A. Comes of Age" to you, Bert, Dorothy, Clarence, and a great many others. Considering the time at my disposal, I did not see how you people could have been introduced in either of my talks. In the first one I could only show the bare beginnings of A.A. In the second one - which was altogether too long - I had to dwell on the development of the Traditions. I really don't see where you folks would have fitted in - at least to the satisfaction of the audience in that respect. Naturally I had to bring in Ebby because despite his lack of soberiety [sic] he was at the very beginning. Sister Ignatia was certainly due for a bow after all these years. After all, she and Smith ministered to 5,000 drunks - a number far greater than you and I ever thought of touching ourselves. In this connection I also felt not a little sorry that Henrietta wasn't invited. There was not only the question of cost. Though she has been extremely friendly during the last two or three years, it must be remembered that she has never cared for the convention idea and indeed, was against the whole New York headquarters operation for many years. For several reasons she wasn't invited. Maybe that was a mistake. I know that, for one, I was damn sorry she wasn't there. However, I wasn't the entire boss of this whole undertaking, by any means. I don't know whether you and Dorothy got to say anything at those Alkathon meetings. Some of them were very outstanding indeed, and apparently rated much higher in many A.A. minds than any of my efforts. If you were not invited this [is] surprising indeed, considering how prominent you, especially, have been out on the Coast, well known to everybody. If this was an omission, it certainly gives me cause for wonder, as doubtless it does you. However, those arrangements were all made by the Coast people. Nevertheless I suppose if I had been thoughtful enough about it - which I wasn't - I might have taken pains. I guess the upshot of it is that life never gives quite the deal we would like. On one hand, you say that you suffer from lack of recognition, and I can say with certainly equal fervor that I greatly suffer from far too much. Ever devotedly yours, /s/ Bill WGW:nw Mr. and Mrs. James Burwell 4193 Georgia Street San Diego, California __________ W.G.W. Box 459 Grand Central Annex New York 17, N. Y. August 2, 1961 Dear Folks, Thanks so much for that last news of you both. It's good to read on and between the lines that you both are well and happy. We can say the same. Haven't had better health in years. Am progressively detaching myself from active management of A.A. affairs, just as I probably should have done before this. The November Grapevine will carry a piece to the effect that I can no longer get around speaking, nor participate in active management of the office. Of course I shall be glad to help put on blow-out patches, if anything serious turns up. But I do hope to keep up some writing. This seems to be about the only channel left. My present series in the Grapevine is a trial run to see if I can do a larger book on "Practicing These Principles in all our Affairs". About those Twelve Step Houses. Well, honestly, I don't know. Like the clubs, some appear to be good and others bad. Are most of the Twelve Step Houses on the Coast those famous "boarding houses"? Lois and I are just now taking off for a month - the most of it probably to be spent at the old home town in Vermont, that is if we can hide out up there! Meanwhile, all goes well at General Headquarters. The contributions and book sales are fine. And the reserve fund continues to grow slowly. So we could stand quite a lot of hard times, if necessary. Do you like the Grapevine any better nowadays? We have been trying hard to improve it and have depended on improvement for increased sales, which are now up about 2,000 from the low point of a year or so ago. Meanwhile, Lois joins me in all affection, and I'll ask her to send you an Al-Anon book. Always devotedly, /s/ Bill WGW/nw Mr. and Mrs. James Burwell 4193 Georgia Street San Diego, California __________ W.G.W. Box 459 Grand Central Annex New York 17, N. Y. November 14, 1961 Dear Jim, First, all the best to you both. And thanks for your remembrance of mother - she die [sic] May 15th last. When, during the last few months she realized she could not get out of bed alone, she began to quit eating. This was quite deliberate, and it finally did her in. That was the way she wanted it, and she made a swell job of passing away - in fact, was mighty cheerful about it. You may have noticed my article in the Grapevine, which indicates that I have taken another several steps toward the sidelines. For many years I meant business on this, and at last the time is now here. I think there are a few situations in which I can still help. Our trusteeship needs several more out of town members, and perhaps a better method of selection. Eventually I expect we shall have to shift the ratio and install an A.A. Chairman of the Board. If we fail to do this, we shall be denying our present-day capabilities. And whether this is a good idea or not, we shall never know unless we try. As to the Twelve Step Houses - well, there you've got me. I haven't actually seen one of these operations in a very long time. I think the impression at the office is that some seem good, some seem fair, and others practically no good. About the best that can be done is to restrain them from soliciting money at the top public level or busting anonymity for publicity and the like. From this end we try to hold the line at this top level. Beyond that there isn't a thing that we can really do except to leave these situations to the areas concerned. It's like the trouble we used to have with the clubhouses in the old days. Some were damn good, some were damn bad. But these things do have a way [of] working around, after enough experience. What the outcome of the Twelfth Step Houses will finally be, I'm less qualified to predict than anybody I know. I'm getting like Rip Van Winkle, just waking up in the Adirondacks! Meanwhile, the old desk gets piled pretty high, in spite of my supposed retirement. I could make a full-time job of answering mail; another full-time job looking after all my old friends in trouble; a full-time job of traveling and speaking; a full-time job of messing around the office. But I don't think these are the most effective things that I could do from herein. I shall continue to do a little of all of them, but the assignment has gotten so big that it couldn't be handled anyway. So I'm beginning to get out from under a great many of these things which may often be desirable to do, but which are becoming impossible. Once again the old desk is piled up - so I have to fly. I know you'll understand. In affection, /s/ Bill WGW/nw __________ W.G.W. Box 459 Grand Central Annex New York 17, N. Y. August 29, 1962 Dear Folks, Your letter reached us while on vacation in East Dorset, Vermont, the old home town. Sometimes I wish I could resettle up here. Thanks for all the news and views. As you imply, we are not so young as we used to be. I'm beginning to feel this also, as is Lois. However, we are still doing okay, thank God. About the late lamented April Conference. There, I think we made some A.A. history, but I question just the right kind. I do think that my recommendations for strengthening the General Service Board would have bucked up our situation a good deal against a future time of real trouble. Routinely, things would go along nicely with present setup. But if the heat really came on in a big way, I would rather see a stronger situation to handle it, so I'm sure we ought to experiment in this direction -- something that the Conference and trustees seemed very adverse to doing. It wasn't [so] much that I was surprised or disappointed by the Conference decision -- the thing I deplored was the haste and even recklessness in which it was taken. At the very least I think I might have been aloud [sic] to get my recommendations printed as an Appendix to the Third Legacy Manual, along with the Concepts. But evidently the Conference and the Trustees thought the material to be of so little merit that it should not be put on permanent record in this fashion. In a way, this attitude amounted to censorship, something I can't exactly relish. I hope future Conferences will allow me the courtesy of being printed permanently. After all, the recommendations might prove to be some use later on. But one good thing did come of it. Future responsibility was so completely and eagerly taken away from me that my trip to the sidelines has been greatly facilitated. It's now strictly up to the Trustees and to the Conference and on their own say-so. In a sense, this is a great relief, because, as you know, I have been backing away for along [sic] time. So the job is now complete. All the best now, and God bless you both. In this Lois joins, Affectionately, /s/ Bill WGW/nw Mr. and Mrs. James Burwell 4193 Georgia Street San Diego, California __________ May 15, 1965 4193 Georgia Street San Diego, California Dear Bill, Just received a letter from Hazel Rice, saying G.S.O. could not invite me to Toronto, for it would break a precedent. First, I did not ask anyone in G.S.O. for an invitation. I did mention to Hazel down in Washington, D.C., that I was retired and could not afford the trip and that I was going to talk it over with you at Bedford Hills, which I did, explaining my circumstances. But, since this has now come up in G.S.O., I do feel quite hurt and slighted and unappreciated. I do feel a special exception can be made as with Ebby at two conventions. This is really a hard letter to write. Am listing a few unusual contributions I have made over these 27 years as follows: Am oldest active AA member at group level. Did contribute materially in all three of our A.A. books, with phrases "God as you understand Him" and "Only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking," plus my own story. In 1939-40 period did sell more books to stores, doctors, etc. than anyone. Did help in 1940, finance (200.00 stock) to keep Vesey Street going. Carried the message to and help organize original groups in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Wilmington, and Harrisburg; plus half a dozen neighborhood and hospital groups in Philadelphia and San Diego. The Philly group was the first to contribute to New York. Initiated the plan for Judge Bok to get us inside The Saturday Evening Post, And Bill, I am the only one of the original members that has never bucked publicly on any of your projects. Especially in 1948-49, I stumped the state for your conference. I do hope this does not sound braggadocious, [sic] but these are facts as I see them. In all these years, this is the very first favor I have ever asked you or the N.Y. office. Am now 68 and feel positive I will not make the next convention. Also, this is the first convention I have ever been asked to speak or participate, so do hope you will find ways and means to get me there. After all, A.A. has only given me life and peace of mind. Maybe I should not expect more, but have only done it this once in 27 years. Our love to both you and Lois as ever appreciated, /s/ Jim __________ This is the "history" that Bill refers to in his December 11, 1947, letter to Jim. It was supplied by Bill L, whose editorial comments are included: (Jim Burwell was among the first members of A.A. to get sober in New York. His sobriety date is 6/16/38 and his story can be found in the Big Book called "The Vicious Cycle". Please keep in mind when reading this that his recollection of some of the specific facts around the first meeting of Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith are inconsistent with more reliable versions of the same story.) MEMOIRS OF JIMMY THE EVOLUTION OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS By Jim Burwell The spark of Alcoholics Anonymous was ignited about the middle of November 1934 in a kitchen on a second floor at 182 Clinton Street, Brooklyn. This was Bill Wilson's home. The occasion was the visit of a schoolboy friend of his from Vermont, Ebby Thacher. Bill was in the middle of a binge, which had started on Armistice Day. His friend Ebby had heard of Bill's trouble with alcohol. Ebby was sober and Bill said later that this was the first time he had seen him in that condition for many years, for he always thought that Ebby was a hopeless drunk. He greeted Bill on this visit with the words, "I've got religion." Bill says at the time he thought poor Ebby had probably gotten sober only to become balmy on religion. While still drinking, he listened to Ebby's story about being converted some six months previously by the New York Oxford Group. He told Bill about the main idea of this group being one person helping another, and their other formulas. Bill said he listened to all this talk while he was in the process of keeping the jitters down by continuously drinking and probably smiling cynically to himself. When Ebby left a few hours later he practically dismissed the incident, but he later found that this was not the case. Within five days he found himself wheeled into his refuge, Towne's Hospital on Central Park West in New York, for the third time that year. On his arrival at the hospital with his wife Lois, he was greeted and put to bed immediately by his old friend, Dr. Silkworth, the Director. Bill said that after he had been in bed a short while he heard the doctor talking to Lois by the door, saying that if her husband came out of this episode and did drink again, he did not honestly believe he would live six months. [This was during an earlier hospitalization.] Bill states that when he heard these words he was immediately carried back to his talk with his friend and could not dismiss the idea that although Ebby might be batty with religion, he was sober and he was happy. He kept turning this over in his mind, in a mild delirium, and came to a vague conclusion that maybe Ebby did have something in a man's helping others in order to get away from his own obsessions and problems. A few hours later when the doctor came in, he felt a tremendous elation and said, "Doc, I've got it." At the same time he felt that he was on a high mountain and that a very swift wind was blowing through him, and despite the several weeks of drinking, he found he was completely relaxed and quiet. He asked Dr. Silkworth, "Am I going crazy with this sudden elation I have?" The doctor's answer was, "seriously, I don't know Bill, but I think you had better hold on to whatever you have." While he was in the hospital Ebby and the other Oxford Group people visited Bill and told him of their activities, particularly in the Calvary Mission. On Bill's release, while still shaky, he visited Dr. Shoemaker at Calvary Mission and made a decision to become very active in the Mission's work and to try and bring other alcoholics from Towne's to the Group. This resolution he put into effect, visiting the Mission and Towne's almost daily for four or five months, and bringing some of the drunks to his home for rehabilitation. During this time he was also trying to make another comeback in his Wall Street activities, for Bill, like many others, had built up tremendous paper profits in the roaring twenties, only to go broke in the '29 crash. However, he did make a temporary comeback in the depression years of '32 and '33 as a syndicate man, only to have John Barleycorn wipe him out more completely than ever in his worst drinking year of 1934. Through hard work and a little good luck, by May 1st, 1935, he managed to become a leader of a minority group of a small corporation, and obtained quite a few proxies from others. This group sent him out to Akron, Ohio, hoping to get control of the corporation. Bill said later that if this had happened, he would probably have been financially independent for life, but when he attended the stockholders meeting he found himself snowed under by the other faction. So around the middle of May, there he was in the Portage Hotel in Akron [Mayflower Hotel; Portage was the name of the country club at which Henrietta Sieberling put Bill up for a few days, after which he moved into Dr. Bob's home.] without even return fare home and completely at the end of his rope. Bill's story goes that he found himself pacing the lobby, backwards and forwards, trying to decide whether to forget it all in the hotel bar, when he noticed the Directory of Churches at the other end of the room. The thought struck him that if he could talk to another alcoholic he might regain his composure, for that had been effective back in New York. Although he had worked consistently with drunks for over six months he had not been able to save anyone, with the possible exception of himself. He telephoned several of the churches listed, and was finally directed to one of the Oxford Group's leaders in town, Henrietta Seiberling. Bill tells of calling Henrietta and being so shaky that he could hardly get the coin in the slot. The first thing he asked her was, "Where can I find another alcoholic to talk to?" Henrietta's answer was, "You stay right where you are until I get there, for I think I can take you to the very man you are looking for." This she did, and the man she took Bill to see was Dr. Bob Smith, who later became the co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. When Henrietta and Bill got to Dr. Bob's they found his wife, Annie, alone. She was in a mental uproar herself because her husband had been on the loose for several days. After Bill and Henrietta had waited and chatted on the Oxford Group policies, in popped the good doctor himself, quite potted and with a potted lily in his arms for his wife's Mothers Day gift. When Bob had been bedded Annie insisted that Bill stay and try to straighten her husband out. Bill did this and his stay lengthened into months. During the next few days Bill and Bob talked for hours and decided to pool their resources to help other drunks. When Bob had been dry only a few weeks, a new hurdle arose, for Bob found it was imperative for him to go to a medical convention in Atlantic City. Bob did make the convention, but suddenly found himself drunk on the train going back to Akron. However, this turned out to be his last spree, for he dates his last drink June 15, 1935. [Note that Jim's memory of the date differs from official version of June 10.] This apparent calamity was probably one of the greatest blessings in disguise for us later members, for it did cement Bob in this new fellowship they were launching. Bill stayed on with the Smiths until the 1st of October and during that time Bob and he managed to secure two more converts to the fold. Bill then returned to New York where he continued his previous activities, with daily visits to Towne's and Calvary Mission. During the latter part of October, Bill got his first real New York convert, Hank Parkhurst. Hank later became one of the genuine inspirations of Alcoholics Anonymous, for he was a red-haired, high-pressure human dynamo. Before his last trip to Towne's, where Bill found him, Hank had been sales manager for Standard Oil of New Jersey. From the time of their meeting and during the latter part of 1935 it was Hank and Bill who did all the ground work, but even then they had but indifferent success until their next real convert, Paul Rudell came in about April 1936. The next man to be pulled out of the mire, through Towne's, was dear old Fitz Mayo who joined the others about November 1936. From this time on the duet became a trio, Bill, Hank and Fitz and they were the spearheads in drunk-saving for the Oxford Group in the New York area. However, they discovered in September 1937, that despite all the wet-nursing, praying and rehabilitation work done at Bill's house on Clinton Street, of approximately thirty-five or forty drunks, they were the only three men to come clear in almost two years. During this period many things happened, some quite tragic, with even an alcoholic suicide in Bill's home. In September 1937 the three concluded that perhaps their technique would be better if they would do their work with drunks outside of an affiliation with a religious organization. Having arrived at this decision, the trio formally resigned from the Oxford Group and concentrated all their efforts on working with alcoholics in Towne's Hospital, using Bill's home as a de-fogging station. About this time the first completely alcoholic meetings were held in Bill's home on Tuesday evenings and average attendance ran about fifteen, including the drunks' families. Even though the trio had separated from the Oxford Group, they still retained a lot of their principles and utilized them in the discussions at these weekly meetings, but at the same time more emphasis was placed on the disease of alcoholism as a psychological sickness. At the same time they stressed spiritual regeneration and the understanding of one alcoholic for another. A few months after the break with the Oxford Group, January 1938, I was brought into the New York fellowship from Washington by Fitz Mayo, whom I had known since boyhood. I was enticed to New York by the existence of this new group and a small job that Hank Parkhurst gave me in a little business he and Bill had gone into on the side. [Honor Dealers] When I arrived in New York I found myself thrust into this new group of three or four actively dry alcoholics, who at that time had no group name, or real creed or formula. Within the next two or three months, things really started popping. Hank, with his promotional ideas, started to push Bill into writing a formula, the trio finally decided a book should be written on our activities and this was in June 1938. Bill was naturally given the job of writing the book for he was the only one who had made any real conclusive study of our problem. From what I can remember, Bill's only special preparation for this was confined to the reading of four very well known books, the influence of which can clearly be seen in the AA Book. Bill probably got most of his ideas from one of these books, namely James' "Varieties of Religious Experience." I have always felt this was because Bill himself had undergone such a violent spiritual experience. He also gained a fine basic insight of spirituality through Emmet Fox's "Sermon on the Mount," and a good portion of the psychological approach of AA from Dick Peabody's "Common Sense of Drinking." It is my opinion that a great deal of Bill's traditions came from the fourth book. Lewis Browne's "This Believing World." From this book, I believe Bill attained a remarkable perception of possible future pitfalls for groups of our kind for it clearly shows that the major failures of religions and cults in the past have been due to one of three things: Too much organization, too much politics, and too much money or power. Bill started his actual writing of our book in the later part of June 1938 in Hank Parkhurst's office in Newark, with Hank's secretary, Ruth Hock, taking dictation. About a month later Bill had completed two chapters. Each had been brought up at the Clinton Street Tuesday night meetings. Bill would read what had been written to the group as a whole and then pull apart and suggestions added by all those present. When these two chapters were rewritten, we were all very elated because we felt we were well on our way to saving all drunks everywhere. With these two chapters in hand, and without any introduction of any kind, Bill went to see the editors of Harper's Publishing Company. Harpers immediately caught fire and offered Bill, on the strength of this one visit, a $1,500 advance payment to finish the book, plus regular author's royalties. Bill said later that he almost succumbed to this offer because that was big money in those days and we were all broke. When Bill returned and reported this offer, Hank said, "If it's worth that much for just two chapters from an unknown author, it's worth easily a million to us," and the trio immediately determined that Bill would finish writing the book and our Group would do the publishing. In August, promotion minded Hank formed our first corporation for handling this book, to be named "100 Men Corporation" and he provided that two-thirds of the corporation would belong to him and Bill, the other third to be sold on shares at $25 par to friends and members. He announced that this third should easily bring us in $10,000, which was to see us through publication. Our idea at this time was that the book alone would save the drunks in the majority of cases, by self-education. Then it was decided that there would be some that the book alone would not do the job for, so another corporation was founded at the same time called, "The Alcoholic Foundation." The Foundation's function would be the disbursement of funds and the establishment of alcoholic "farms" all over the country. The money for this, of course, we would get after the sale of the first million books. Then we were faced with the problem of who was to go on this new foundation. At this time, August 1938, we had only four men dry over a year in New York. These were Bill, Hank, Fitz and Paul Rudell, so to these four Dr. Bob Smith of Akron was added. During this time of promotion, corporations and other such activities, Bill continued his writing of the book, averaging about a chapter a week. These were made up in triplicates, one copy going to Akron, one to the Clinton Street meetings and the third reserved as an office copy. These chapters, as completed, would be ranked and mauled over in the two group meetings, changes were noted in the margins and returned weekly to the Newark office. About the middle of October 1938 the manuscript of the book was finished and the personal stories that appear in the AA book, in its present form, were contributed by individual members from Akron and New York. As previously mentioned, the name of the book at this time was "100 Men" and the new corporation had finally raised, through forty-nine members in New York and Akron, about $3,000. We then submitted the book to Dr. Yussel, well-known critic of New York University, this was about the 1st of November and he was paid $300 to edit the book. Practically nothing was done to the personal stories of the individual members and there was less than 20% deletion from the original manuscript. When Yussel returned the book we found our "100 Men Corporation" broke, the $3,000 gone. The only concrete assets we had besides the manuscript were some blank copper plates to be used in printing. We also found our name "100 Men" inadequate for we had forgotten the ladies and we already had one girl, Florence Rankin, on the ball. In one or our discussion meetings at Clinton Street other names were brought up for consideration. Most prominent of these were "This Way Out," "Exit," "The End of the Road" and several others. Finally we hit on our present name. Nobody is too sure exactly where it came from but it is my opinion that it was suggested by one of our newer members, Joe Worden, who had at one time been considered quite a magazine promotion genius, and who had been given credit for starting the New Yorker magazine. Hank and Bill finally decided on the name "Alcoholics Anonymous" in the latter part of November 1938. About this time we almost had a disaster in our still wobbly group but it later turned out to be a Godsend. Bill and Hank had distributed quite a few copies of the original manuscript to doctors, psychiatrists and ministers to get a last minute reaction. One of these went to Dr. Howard, Chief psychiatrist for the State of New Jersey. He became greatly interested and enthusiastic, but was highly critical of several things in the book, for after reading it he told us there was entirely too much "Oxfordism" and that it was too demanding. This is where the disaster nearly overtook us, for it nearly threw Bill into a terrific mental uproar to have his "baby" pulled apart by an outside "screwball" psychiatrist, who in our opinion knew nothing about alcoholism. After days of wrangling between Bill, Hank, Fitz and myself, Bill was finally convinced that all positive and "must" statements should be eliminated and in their place to use the word "suggest" and the expression "we found we had to." Another thing changed in this last rewriting was qualifying the word "God" with the phrase "as we understand Him." (This was one of my few contributions to the book.) In the final finishing the fellowship angle was enlarged and emphasized. After many arguments and uproars, the manuscript was finally finished, complete, in December 1938. We now had one real problem - no money. It was about this time that the "100 Men Corporation" was closed out and a new one started named "Works Publishing Company." This name derived from a common expression, used in the group, "It works!!" Those that had stock or interest in the old corporation maintained the same priority in the new one. (Editor's Note: Three years later the original stock subscribers returned all their shares and interest in "Works Publishing Company" to "The Alcoholic Foundation." Today no individual has any financial interest in either the Alcoholic Foundation or in Alcoholics Anonymous.) Then a new wrinkle was devised by our master-minds, we would make a couple of hundred multilith copies of the finished manuscript and these we would use as a promotion for more stock selling and at the same time to get possible endorsement of well-known people, particularly, in the fields of religion and medicine. These copies were distributed to the Works Publishing Company shareholders and possible prospective stockholders. With these multilith copies we sent out a prospectus for our corporation and a note saying that the copy could be purchased for $3.50 and a copy of the book, if when printed, would be sent gratis to each purchaser. From this venture, we did not get one new stockholder. However, the copies did get into all sections of the country. One created quite an amusing incident for it got into the hands of a patient in a psychopathic hospital in California. This man immediately caught fire and religion all in one fell swoop. He wrote and told us about the wonderful release he had from alcohol through our new Alcoholics Anonymous multilith. Of course all of us in New York became highly excited and wires bounced back and forth between us and our new convert regarding this miracle that happened 3,000 miles away. This man wrote the last personal history in the book while he was still in California called the "Lone Endeavor". Our New York Groups were so impressed by his recovery that we passed the hat and sent for him to come East as an example. This he did, but when the boys met him at the bus station the delusion faded, for he arrived stone drunk and as far as I know, never came out of it. The major result of the multilith was our first important endorsement outside of our group and friends. It came from Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, pastor of the Riverside Baptist Church in New York and a nationally-known speaker and writer. So here we were again, broke, only more so! Bill came to our rescue, as usual, by floating a $2,500 loan from Dr. Towne, who already had a good slice in the original corporation. With the blank copper plates and Dr. Towne's loan, Hank prevailed on the Cornwall Press, in February 1939, to make 8,000 copies for our first edition. The book was purposely made to look bulky for two reasons -- to give it an air of intellectual authority and to make it look like a lot for the money. The dust jacket, with its familiar red, black, yellow and white, was designed by one of our artist members, Ray Campbell, whose story in the book is called "An Artists Concept". Although Cornwall did print these 5,000 books in April 1939, they still felt that we were quite short in our down payment and insisted that the books be kept in a bonded warehouse and withdrawn only on the payment of $2.00 per copy. Our method of distributing the books was to get possibly ten copies out at a time, and the members would individually buttonhole libraries, doctors and others for sales. Funds received from these purchasers were in turn used to buy additional copies, which in their turn were sold in the same way. About the only bookstores we could interest at the start was Brentano's in New York, who did gamble on a half a dozen copies. Five of the very first books were presented to Dr. Fishbein, editor of the American Medical Journal to whom Dr. Towne had lauded AA. Dr. Fishbein had promised to give us a real buildup in the Journal but when his review appeared, it merely said that AA was nothing new and had no real significance to the medical profession. So another balloon busted. In June, Bill and Hank decided to try another promotion stunt - this was to put a 2" x 3" advertisement in the New York Times Book Review. This cost us $250 and I have often wondered where the money came from. We thought we had the real answer to publicity this time, and we all sat back and started guessing and betting among ourselves on the number of requests we would get for our million-dollar book. The estimates ranged from 2,000 to 20,000 copies, but we were due for another disappointment, as only two copies of the book were sold in spite of our seven-day free trial offer. It was about this time that we got our first really active girl member, Marty Mann, who took the AA program while under restraint at Blythwood Sanitarium. Marty's efforts on behalf of women alcoholics in the early days were of inestimable value and today she is one of the most indefatigable workers on behalf of AA in the country. It was also in June of this year that we made our first contact with the Rockerfeller Foundation. This was arranged by Bert Taylor, one of the older members, who had known the family for years in a business way. Dr. Richardson, who had long been spiritual advisor for the Rockerfeller family, became very interested and friendly, and Bill and Hank made frequent visits to him, with Hank on one side asking for financial help and Bill on the other insisting on moral support only. Our first national publicity was arranged through one of our new members, Morgan Ryan in August 1939. This was a spot on the "We The People" radio program, which was then very popular. Again we were disappointed, for this publicity brought us only a dozen inquiries and one book sale. This was despite the fact that we sent out 10,000 post cards to doctors and ministers in the New York area announcing the broadcast. It was also in August that a real calamity befell Bill, for he and Lois were evicted from their home on Clinton Street. This had once been Lois' girlhood home and was AA's first home. Little did Bill and Lois know that for the next two years they would be homeless, dependent on the hospitality of other AA's. About this time, too, another AA Group was launched in Cleveland, Ohio. The founder was Clarence Snyder who had received his AA Indoctrination with Dr. Bob in Akron. Clarence and his wife, Dorothy, obtained our first newspaper publicity, which was in the Cleveland Plain Dealer in September 1939. As a result of this publicity the Cleveland Group, within thirty days, became temporarily the largest group in the country. Our first medical endorsement also came in September from Dr. Richard Smith, Superintendent of Rockland State Hospital in New York. His praise was the result of our work with alcoholics in the hospital there over a period of approximately six months. The first national magazine to give us a break was Liberty, in October 1939, with a two-page article labeled "Alcoholics and God". This article brought in about a thousand inquiries and sold possibly one hundred books. My guess would be that as a summary for the year 1939, we had three active groups with a total membership of less than 200 and a gross book sale for eight months of less than 500. By the end of 1939 also, AA was beginning to get some real recognition. At the end of December that year John D. Rockerfeller, Jr. issued invitations to some 200 of his closest associates and friends to a dinner to be held February 8th 1940 at the Union League Club in New York. The invitations stated that the purpose of the dinner was to have these people meet a group of people on whom Rockerfeller had become interested, no name announced. The dinner and the publicity were arranged by Rockerfeller's personal publicity man, Ivy Lee. Sixty actually attended this dinner, some of the more prominent being Dr. Fosdick, Owen Young, Wendell Wilkie, Sorenson of the Ford interests and Dr. Foster Kennedy, President of the Psychiatric Association. Before this dinner we felt it would solve all our problems, especially the financial ones, for Ivy Lee himself estimated the personal wealth of those present to be well over two billion dollars. Fate was against us again despite glowing talks by Dr. Fosdick, Kennedy, Nelson Rockerfeller and Bill, the total contributions to Alcoholics Anonymous were less than $1,500, $1,000 of which came from the Rockerfeller Foundation. (All of these contributions were later returned in full.) Still we learned later that we had gained a great deal more than money from this dinner, for thereafter the Rockerfellers allowed their name to be publicly used in connection with AA. It has always been my contention that this was the real turning point in the history of AA. During the next six months practically the whole country was spotted with AA groups. Between February and June 1940 Fitz and myself started groups in Philadelphia, Washington and Baltimore. About the same time Earl Treat migrated from the Akron Group to start one in Chicago, and Arch Trowbridge also went from Akron to Detroit. It was also during these months that Larry Jewell left Cleveland and organized a group in Houston, Texas. Kay Miller, a non-alcoholic but the wife of one of the early Akron members moved into Los Angeles and started their group. In the Fall of 1940 a Jewish member named Meyerson, a traveling salesman, started AA groups in Atlanta, Georgia and Jacksonville, Florida. The next outstanding event in Alcoholics Anonymous growth was the publication of the Saturday Evening Post article. This was mostly arranged through the efforts of two well-known Philadelphia physicians, Dr. C. Dudly Saul and Dr. A. Wiese Hammer. They had gained the interest of Judge Curtis Bok, one of the owners of the Saturday Evening Post and in the early days of Philadelphia AA, Judge Bok had been a constant visitor to the group. It was in a large part due to his interest that Jack Alexander was assigned to do a feature article on Alcoholics Anonymous in August 1940. We were later told that the editors also thought Alexander would be a good man to possibly "expose" this new "screwball" organization. However, Alexander did promise that he would not write his article until he had visited groups and seen AA in action. He traveled from New York and Philadelphia as far West as St, Louis and attended AA meetings. His experience with these groups made him so enthusiastic over the AA setup that the article he wrote was responsible for the largest sale of a single issue of the Post in its history. The Alcoholic Foundation office in New York reports that over 10,000 inquiries were received from this one article. Even today people coming into AA groups in various parts of the country tell us that their first knowledge of Alcoholics Anonymous was the Saturday Evening Post article by Jack Alexander. It is my guess that in March 1941 there were less than 1,000 active AA members in the Country and the following year we added at least seven or eight thousand members. (Editors Note: From this point on there is little the writer can add to add to the all over picture of AA's progress for this can be seen more clearly through the eyes of the New York office and the original group.) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1707. . . . . . . . . . . . SOBRIETY TIME From: ralpw2000 . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/14/2004 5:53:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII RECENTLY ONE OUR MEMBERS IN AUSTRALIA DIED AFTER 52 YEARS OF SOBRIETY. LAST YEAR HIS WIFE DIED AFTER 53 YEARS OF SOBRIETY. DOES ANYONE KNOW OF ANY MARRIED COUPLE WHO HAD MORE THAN 105 YEARS OF SOBRIETY BETWEEN THEM. RALPH W. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1710. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Rowland Hazard From: Roger Dowdy . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/13/2004 7:05:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Several questions/myths regarding Rowland Hazard recently came up at our District meeting. I'm hoping the more knowledgable folks in AAHistoryLovers can help to clarify/dubunk them... 1. Did Rowland initially want to work with Freud and then Adler before going to Jung? 2. Is it true Rowland got drunk on the return voyage after working with Dr. Jung and he simply turned right around, making it a round trip? or was he sober in the States for a short period of time prior to returning? 3. Also, what was the name of the ship? Many thanks in advance, Roger _________________________________________________________________ Fast. Reliable. Get MSN 9 Dial-up - 3 months for the price of 1! (Limited-time Offer) http://click.atdmt.com/AVE/go/onm00200361ave/direct/01/ IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1712. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Re: Rowland Hazard From: Mel Barger . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/15/2004 9:00:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Roger and Group, Re Rowland Hazard, I may be the culprit responsible for suggesting that Rowland wanted to see Freud before consulting Jung. In "New Wine," page 14, I mentioned that a Howard T. in Detroit used to say that. It's mere speculation, but it is reasonable to believe that Freud would have been first choice with most Americans at that time. But 1931 was a bad year for Freud as he suffered terribly from cancer and would have had trouble seeing patients. Rowland's son told me they traveled to Europe on the Isle de France, but this is not for certain either. Mel Barger ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger melb@accesstoledo.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Roger Dowdy" To: Sent: Saturday, March 13, 2004 7:05 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Re: Rowland Hazard > Several questions/myths regarding Rowland Hazard recently came up at our > District meeting. I'm hoping the more knowledgable folks in AAHistoryLovers > can help to clarify/dubunk them... > > 1. Did Rowland initially want to work with Freud and then Adler before going > to Jung? > > 2. Is it true Rowland got drunk on the return voyage after working with Dr. > Jung and he simply turned right around, making it a round trip? or was he > sober in the States for a short period of time prior to returning? > > 3. Also, what was the name of the ship? > > Many thanks in advance, > Roger > > _________________________________________________________________ > Fast. Reliable. Get MSN 9 Dial-up - 3 months for the price of 1! > (Limited-time Offer) http://click.atdmt.com/AVE/go/onm00200361ave/direct/01/ > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > > __________________________________________________________ > This message was scanned by GatewayDefender > 7:23:37 AM ET - 3/15/2004 > IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1713. . . . . . . . . . . . The AA Grapevine Digital Archive From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/15/2004 12:41:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII In June 2004, coinciding with the sixtieth anniversary of the magazine, the new AA Grapevine Digital Archive will be up and running, and you'll be able to go online and access every Grapevine article and letter ever published (all 12,000 of them), including the 150 articles Bill W. wrote for the magazine. FREE UNLIMITED ACCESS for ALL for the entire month of June 2004. With the AA Grapevine Digital Archive's search engine, you'll be able to locate not just an individual article but a group of articles related by topic. Just type in a key word, such as 'meditation'' or 'anonymity,'' and you'll have a wealth of articles on the subject at your fingertips. You'll be able to find articles by departments, such as Around AA or Ham On Wry, as well as by author, geographic location, or issue. If you just want to browse, you'll be able to scroll through topics to see what the Fellowship and its friends have had to say about spirituality, twelfth-stepping, or the Concepts. The subscription process will begin July 1, 2004. Starting then, you will be able to subscribe to the AA Grapevine Digital Archive in the following ways: 1) Thirty-day access - $2.00 2) One-year access for Grapevine subscribers - $10.00 (until October 31, 2004 only, a special introductory rate is available for current and new Grapevine subscribers - $5.00 for one-year access). 3) One-year access for non-Grapevine subscribers - $15.00 You must go online to subscribe, and you'll be able to link directly to the Digital Archive from the Home Page: www.aagrapevine.org IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1714. . . . . . . . . . . . In Memory of Bobbie (1953) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/15/2004 12:44:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII April 1953 AA Grapevine IN MEMORY OF BOBBIE By Bill MARGARET B., affectionately known throughout AA as "Bobbie," passed away in her sleep on February 17th of an unforeseen heart ailment. She had headed our General Service Office at New York in all the years of AA's adolescence - that exciting but fearsome period when no one could tell for sure whether our fledgling society would survive or not. Across her desk came thousands of pleas for help from individuals and hundreds from growing but anxious groups who wanted to be advised of the latest AA experience in meeting the problems that assailed them. It was out of this experience that AA's tradition was formed. And upon our tradition her devoted labor set a mark which will endure so long as God will have our society last. Her pioneering work has proved an inspiring precedent for every Intergroup and Foundation secretary, and her departure creates in the heart of each of her friends a void which can only be filled by the memory of what she left us and the assurance that her destiny is happy and secure. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1715. . . . . . . . . . . . Recovery, Unity, Service - Worldwide (1978) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/17/2004 2:12:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The theme of the Fifth World Service Meeting (1978) was 'Recovery, Unity, Service - Worldwide.'' The keynote address on this theme by David P., delegate from Columbia, was so brilliant it was not only acclaimed by his immediate audience in Helsinki, Finland, it became a kind of minor classic as it was reproduced and distributed widely in the Fellowship. It is reproduced in full here: 'The event we now open is indeed wonderful. We have gathered because, in spite of all our differences, we have something in common that binds us together with strong ties. We have known the process of a painful sickness. We have achieved, by the grace of God, a recovery which now allows us to live and to love again. We are involved in the spirit of unity that gives us strength. We are impelled by a desire to give service. We are the inheritors of the Legacies of A.A. 'The astronomers speak about certain bodies in outer space which, having lost their generating function, shrink slowly and inexorably, concentrating themselves in such a way that they shrink to infinitesimal size, but acquire an impressive gravity. They are the so-called 'black holes,'' of very small volume, with terrific weight. Their density becomes so concentrated that a gravitational vortex is formed around them, a ghostly and catastrophic hole that devours everything that passes by; light and radio and energy waves are absorbed and drawn by that irresistible whirlpool. 'The same thing happened in our alcoholic life. Emotional overload led to a shrinking of our mentality. A gloomy emptiness surrounded us. A tremendous storage of negative energy took place, aided by our own guilt and suffering. The greater our emotional load, the smaller our spiritual dimension. The greater the density of our selfishness, the shorter the scope of our horizons. Black holes in the space of our lives were sinking and paralyzing our willpower, our capacities, our dreams, our ambitions, goals, and outlooks. 'Unlike those surreal bodies, we did have a way out of our condition. The lifesaving message of A.A. came to us. And the tiny universe that confined us started to expand again. We began to untie our imagination, our mind, and our good will. We were ready to live and let live. Spiritual life was reborn. We found harmony with brothers, God, and ourselves. And we called that Recovery. 'What, then is Recovery for me? 'It is not perfection, but the search for it. It is not lethargy, but a state of awareness. It is realizing that there is a place for us in the world. It is acknowledging that we, alone, cannot do anything, but with the help of God we can accomplish everything. It is being sure that we walk along the path, even though we make our path as we walk. It is living today as we would like to have lived yesterday, and as we wish to live tomorrow. It is knowing that our journey has a meaning, a reason for being. It is a constant spiritual awakening. And, above all, recovery is a working faith. 'We alcoholics have already suffered at the hands of a powerful enemy. We do not wish to fight against anybody, not even against alcohol. We have endured our illness physically, mentally, and morally. When we awoke to reality, we stood amidst the ruins of a shattered life, a destroyed morality, and a smashed dignity. 'Through the grace of God, however, we have survived by joining a society of equals. We need each other in a harmonious environment in order to survive. We needed Unity. 'What is Unity for me? 'It is not a monody, but a symphony of individual voices. It is not a compact law, but a mixture of different opinions. It is knowing that our alcoholic brother or sister has the same right to life, happiness, and peace as we have. It is feeling that the word 'we'' stands before the word 'I.'' It is admitting that we are all equal before God. It is acceptance that different paths can lead us toward our final destiny. It is a stripping of our pride, so we won't feel greater or lesser than our fellows. It is not doing to our neighbor what we wouldn't like done to us. And, above all, unity is a working humility - humility to accept the ultimate authority that expresses itself in our group conscience; humility to welcome anybody who wishes A.A. membership; humility to understand that our service tasks do not grant us power, command, or authority; humility to keep anonymity that reminds us to place principles before personalities. 'In our drinking days, when the world was only a large 'nobody's land'' we had selfishness as compass and our own fulfillment as schedule. Money, intelligence, imagination, and initiative were used only as tools for constructing a universe fitted to our size. When our castle made out of cards fell down on our own heads, someone else came to rescue us, understood us, and delivered the message that saved us. So much was put at our disposal - literature to read, experience freely and gladly given, and a meeting place where a cup of coffee was waiting for us. 'At first we received and used these services, taking them for granted. But gradually we began to feel that a treasure, which we had no right to hide away, was being placed in our hands. We had to give to someone else the light of hope that had illuminated our darkness. It was unfair to let the fruits we had harvested rot in the barns of our laziness. And so we turned to Service. 'What is Service for me? 'It is not altruism, but a need for survival. It is not charity, but an expression of gratitude. It is the responsibility of lending a hand to our brother or sister who is drowning. It is recognizing that, by giving ourselves to others, we will find our own souls. It is learning that they who give the most, receive the most. It is extending to other alcoholics the sobriety that was bestowed on us. It is working so that others get a permanent place in the new world we have discovered. It is remembering the words of Bill W.: 'We must carry A.A.'s message; otherwise we ourselves may fall into decay and those who have not yet been given the truth may die.'' And, above all, service is a working love. 'It is love that works - unselfish, patient, tolerant, anonymous love, love that doesn't have a price tag on it. Love that has no envy and that endures everything. 'In the name of John my fellow delegate, and all the A.A.`s of Colombia, I would like to thank you for your kind invitation to address you. May God help all the participants in this meeting, so that we may be able to find new and better approaches to bringing to all alcoholics in the world our Legacies of Recovery with Unity through Service. 'Finally, we should like to congratulate our Finnish brethren for having undertaken, in such a brilliant, responsible, and effective way, the organization of this meeting. 'Thank you very much." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1716. . . . . . . . . . . . Shep Cornell - Compiled From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/17/2004 4:52:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The following is compiled from previous messages which have been deleted. Nancy Hello Group, I had someone ask me a good question that I could answer or could not find any additional information. So I thought I would ask the HISTORYLOVERS "What ever happened to Shep Cornwell?" Thanks for your help Charles from California __________ Hello Charles and Group: Charles, I think you have Shep Cornell in mind--no "w" in the name. I talked with Shep by phone in 1980. He was then retired and living in Earlysville, VA, right next to Charlottesville. It must not be very large, because I don't find it in my Rand McNally Road Atlas. Shep knew Bill, Lois, and Ebby from the 1920s days in Manchester. He was a successful investor and even owned a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. I don't know what circumstances led him into the Oxford Group, but he was a member in 1934 and conspired with Cebra Graves to call on Ebby, who was having lots of trouble right there in Manchester. Rowland Hazard joined them, and became the key person in sponsoring Ebby. Shep had an apartment in Manhattan and Ebby, after being taken there (presumably by Rowland), soon moved to Calvary Mission, which was way over on the East Side from Calvary Church. Shep was involved with Bill's early attempts to fit in with the Oxford Group and apparently didn't think Bill was very sincere at the time. He was well-heeled enough to take all of them to dinner at a time when Bill and Ebby were both flat broke. Shep was not an alcoholic, although he was abstaining at that time--much in keeping with Oxford Group practice. (My belief is that most of the Groupers didn't understand the crucial difference between normal drinkers and alcoholics.) He told me that he drank moderately on occasions and had no problem. I have the impression that Shep didn't stay with the Oxford Group as the years rolled on. He served in the Army during World War II, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. After the war, he eventually joined a large manufacturing firm in Milwaukee and became general manager. (I can't remember the name of the company, but it was a large producer of automobile frames and farm silos.) He was comfortably retired when I talked with him, and spent his days golfing and, I assume, looking after his investments. Lois remembered him as a fine golfer, and it's even possible that Bill played a few rounds with him in 1929, when Bill was still flying high on Wall Street. I heard some years ago that Shep had passed on, but I don't know the year. It's possible that his name is in the Social Security Death Index. I believe his full name was Shepard or Sheppard. Perhaps other History Lovers can do due diligence and track this down.~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger __________ [18] Check Francis Cornell 1899-1985 in SSDI -- I think he's the one. (I believe it was Francis Shepard Cornell.) -- Jared Lobdell __________ The info below was culled from the sources noted. SOURCE REFERENCES: AABB Alcoholics Anonymous, the Big Book, AAWS AACOA AA Comes of Age, AAWS AGAA The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous, by Dick B (soft cover) BW-RT Bill W by Robert Thompson (soft cover) BW-FH Bill W by Francis Hartigan (hard cover) BW-40 Bill W My First 40 Years, autobiography (hard cover) EBBY Ebby the Man Who Sponsored Bill W by Mel B (soft cover) GB Getting Better Inside Alcoholics Anonymous by Nan Robertson (soft cover) LR Lois Remembers, by Lois Wilson MSBW My Search for Bill W, by Mel B. (soft cover) NG Not God, by Ernest Kurtz (expanded edition, soft cover) NW New Wine, by Mel B (soft cover) PIO Pass It On, AAWS 1934 July, Ebby Thacher was approached in Manchester, VT by his friends Cebra Graves (an attorney) and F Sheppard (Shep) Cornell (a NY stockbroker). Both were Oxford Group members who had done considerable drinking with Ebby and were abstaining from drinking. They informed Ebby of the OG in VT but Ebby was not quite ready yet to stop drinking. (EBBY 51-55, PIO 113) August, Cebra G and Shep C vacationed at Rowland Hazard’s house in Bennington, VT. Cebra learned that Ebby T was about to be committed to Brattleboro Asylum. Cebra, Shep and Rowland decided to make Ebby “a project.” (NG 309) November (late), Ebby T (who was staying at the Calvary Mission in NYC) visited Bill W at 182 Clinton St and shared his recovery experience "one alcoholic talking to another.” (AACOA vii, 58-59) A few days later, Ebby returned with Shep C. They spoke to Bill about the Oxford Group. Bill did not think too highly of Shep. Lois recalled that Ebby visited several times, once even staying for dinner. (AACOA vii, NG 17-18, 31`, BW-FH 57-58, NW 22-23, PIO 111-116, BW-RT 187-192) December 18, Bill W left Towns Hospital and began working with drunks. He and Lois attended Oxford Group meetings with Ebby T and Shep C at Calvary House. The Rev Sam Shoemaker was the rector at the Calvary Church (the OG’s US headquarters). The church was on 4th Ave (now Park Ave) and 21st St. Calvary House (where OG meetings were usually held) was at 61 Gramercy Park. Calvary Mission was located at 346 E 23rd St. (AABB 14-16, AACOA vii, LR 197, BW-40 155-160, NG 24-25, PIO 127, GB 32-33, AGAA 144) Arthur S. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1717. . . . . . . . . . . . Harry Tiebout Obituary (1966) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/21/2004 5:30:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII July 1966 AA Grapevine In Memory of HARRY BY the time this issue of the Grapevine reaches its readers, the whole world of AA will have heard of the passing of our well-beloved friend, Dr. Harry M. Tiebout, the first psychiatrist ever to hold up the hands of our Fellowship for all to see. His gifts of courageous example, deep perception of our needs, and constant labor in our behalf have been - and always will be - values quite beyond our reckoning. It began like this: The year was early 1939, and the book, Alcoholics Anonymous, was about to hit the press. To help with the final edit of that volume we had made prepublication copies in multilith form. One of them fell into Harry's hands. Though much of the content was then alien to his own views, he read our up-coming book with deep interest. Far more significantly, he at once resolved to show the new volume to a couple of his patients, since known to us as "Marty" and "Grenny." These were the toughest kind of customers, and seemingly hopeless. At first, the book made little impression on this pair. Indeed, its heavy larding with the word "God," so angered Marty that she threw it out her window, flounced off the grounds of the swank sanitarium where she was, and proceeded to tie on a big bender. Grenny didn't carry a rebellion quite so far; he played it cool. When Marty finally turned up, shaking badly, and asked Dr. Harry what next to do, he simply grinned and said, "You'd better read that book again!" Back in her quarters, Marty finally brought herself to leaf through its pages once more. A single phrase caught her eye and it read, "We cannot live with resentment." The moment she admitted this to herself, she was filled with a "transforming spiritual experience." Forthwith she attended a meeting. It was at Clinton Street, Brooklyn, where Lois and I lived. Returning to "Blythewood" she found Grenny intensely curious. Her first words to him were these: "Grenny, we are not alone any more!" This was the beginning of recovery for both - recoveries that have lasted until this day. Watching their unfoldment, Harry was electrified. Only a week before they had both presented stone walls of obstinate resistance to his every approach. Now they talked, and freely. To Harry these were the facts - and brand new facts. Scientist and man of courage that he was, Harry did not for a moment look the other way. Setting aside his own convictions about alcoholism and its neurotic manifestations, he soon became convinced that AA had something, perhaps something big. All the years afterwards, and often at very considerable risk to his professional standing, Harry continued to endorse AA. Considering Harry's professional standing, this required courage of the highest order. Let me share some concrete examples. In one of his early medical papers - that noted one on 'surrender'' (Reprinted from the "Quarterly Journal of Studies on Alcohol," Dec., 1954, pp. 610-621, available from the National Council on Alcoholism) - he had declared this ego-reducing practice to be not only basic to AA, but also absolutely fundamental to his own practice of psychiatry. This took humility as well as fortitude. It will always be a bright example for us all. Nevertheless this much was but a bare beginning. In 1944, helped by Dr. Kirby Collier of Rochester and Dwight Anderson of New York, Harry had persuaded the American Medical Society of the State of New York to let me, a layman, read a paper about AA, at their annual gathering. Five years later this same trio, again spear-headed by Harry, persuaded the American Psychiatric Association to invite the reading of another paper by me - this time in their 1949 Annual Meeting at Montreal. By then, AA had about 100,000 members, and many psychiatrists had already seen at close range our impact on their patients. For us of AA who were present at that gathering it was a breathtaking hour. My presentation would be "the spiritual experience," as we AAs understood it. Surely we could never get away with this! To our astonishment the paper was extremely well received - judging, at least, from the sustained applause. Immediately afterwards, I was approached by a most distinguished old gentleman. He introduced himself as an early president of the American Psychiatric Association. Beaming he said, "Mr. W., it is very possible that I am the only one of my colleagues here today who really believes in 'spiritual experience' as you do. Once upon a time, I myself had an awakening much akin to your own, an experience that I shared in common with two close friends, Bucke and Whitman." Naturally I inquired, "But why did your colleagues seem to like the paper?" His reply went like this: "You see, we psychiatrists deeply know what very difficult people you alcoholics really are. It was not the claims of your paper that stirred my friends, it was the fact that AA can sober up alcoholics wholesale." Seen in this light, I was the more deeply moved by the generous and magnificent tribute that had been paid to us of AA. My paper was soon published in the American Psychiatric Journal and our New York headquarters was authorized by the Association to make all the reprints we wished for distribution (Excerpts from this talk are contained in Alcoholism The Illness, by Bill W., a pamphlet available from AA World Services). By then the trek of AA overseas had well begun. Heaven only knows what this invaluable reprint accomplished when it was presented to psychiatrists in distant places by the fledgling AA groups. It vastly hastened the worldwide acceptance of AA. I could go on and on about Harry, telling you of his activities in the general field of alcoholism, of his signal service on our AA Board of Trustees. I could tell stories of my own delightful friendship with him, especially remembering his great good humor and infectious laugh. But the space allotted me is too limited. So in conclusion, I would have Harry speak for himself. Our AA Grapevine of November, 1963, carried a piece by him that, between its lines, unconsciously reveals to us a wonderful self portrait of our friend. Again, we feel his fine perception, again we see him at work for AA. No epitaph could be better than this. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1718. . . . . . . . . . . . An Historical Announcement From: ricktompkins@sbcglobal.net> . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/21/2004 10:27:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hello group, This is your invitation to examine the Second Issue of An Alcoholics Anonymous History In Northern Illinois Area 20, copyright 1996, 2003 by NIA, Ltd. Posted online at http://www.aa-nia.org this expanded monograph represents an additional six years of research and discovery. Where the First Issue spanned 104 pages of text, this rewritten work, its Second Issue, goes to 152 pages. My Assembly will soon vote on a limited printing for distribution to District Archives and East Central Region Area Archives, to share its 'hard' copies in their lending libraries. This work is an effective result of the AA committee system, with full trust and procedural approval from the Area 20 Assembly. Meanwhile, online, enjoy it in the same spirit of discovery that was given to me as its author! Yours in serenity and in fellowship, Rick T., Area 20 past Historian Algonquin, Illinois IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1719. . . . . . . . . . . . Sparky H. From: Victor A. Farinelli . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/22/2004 9:26:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hello Group, I am looking for some information on Sparky H. from the Chicago Il area. He passed away in the mid-80's. Thanks, Victor F. __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time. http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1720. . . . . . . . . . . . June 5, multi-district history & archives gathering From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/24/2004 3:02:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII JUNE 5, 2004 MULTI-DISTRICT HISTORY & ARCHIVES GATHERING: District 36 of Area 59 (Eastern PA) will host a free one-day History & Archives Gathering Saturday, June 5, 2004 at the Friendship Fire Co. at 171 N. Mt Joy Street, Elizabethtown, PA. Full directions will be available to those planning to come. Contact Jared Lobdell at jaredlobdell@comcast.net or jaredlobdell@aol.com or by phone at 717-367-4985 (not after 9:30 p.m. Eastern time). Registration 8-9 a.m. on Saturday, June 5, and the Gathering will open at 9 a.m. and run till about 5 p.m. The nearest motels are the Red Rose Motel on Route 230 (Market St.) on the edge of Elizabethtown and the Holiday Inn Express just off Route 283 on the edge of Elizabethtown. Please let us know if you're coming. The Gathering will be looking at forming archives for history and using archives for history, and there will be a concentration on three times in AA history esp. in Eastern PA, in and around 1954 (we have invited for local oldtimers with at least 50 years sobriety), in and around 1937 (looking particularly at some of the Eastern PA founders, including Fitz M.), and in and around 1971 -- so 67, 50, and 33 years ago. The oldtimers are scheduled for the morning, the archives/history panels in the early afternoon, ending with history presentations and a roundtable. As with last year's Gathering we hope there will be archives exhibits at least from MD, Eastern PA, North Jersey, the Clarence S. Archive, and local archives. Lunch will be served. More to follow, but be in touch if you're intending to come. -- Jared lobdell Please send all replies to jaredlobdell@comcast.net IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1721. . . . . . . . . . . . Jerseyites Buy Big Sociable Clubhouse (1944) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/23/2004 11:14:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII November 1944 AA Grapevine JERSEYITES BUY BIG SOCIABLE CLUBHOUSE To the A.A.s of North Jersey goes the honor of being the original contributors to one phase of A.A. history, geographically speaking. They are the first of the "Along the Metropolitan Circuit" groups to buy a clubhouse of their own. Members of a dozen North Jersey groups, forming a company called Alanon Association (Joe B. is their counsel), participated in the deal that ended, in October, in the purchase of the three-story brick building at 8th Ave. and North 7th St., Newark, N.J., known as the Roseville Athletic Association. The purchase price of $22,000 includes furniture and equipment, which in turn includes such things as billiard tables and bowling alleys. The transaction involved a first mortgage of $15,000.00 with a non-alcoholic A.A. supporter, the remainder (a large portion of which has already been subscribed) to be pledged by individual A.A.'s. Certificates of indebtedness are to be issued to all contributors, bearing interest, and redeemable in five to ten years. The plan is, however, to clear off all indebtedness as quickly as possible, including the mortgage. (Up to the time of purchase the building had sustained itself financially with revenues from bowling, pool, billiards, and tobacco.) The dues system will be voluntary weekly contributions - the amounts kept a strictly confidential matter - with $1.00 as tops. Participation of the A.A. men and women in Alanon, Inc., is entirely as individuals. There were no group commitments, and care was taken to avoid involving Alcoholics Anonymous in any way. The Board of Trustees of the Corporation are: Chairman, Tom M.; Secretary, Jim G.; Treasurer, Herman G.; Recording Secretary (handling dues), Hal R.; Stuart S., Dr. Arthur S., Pete O'T., Oscar O., Helen D., Bea W., Ed M., and Leo D. The Newark Group, who have been holding their meetings at the Roseville A.A. for three years will continue to do so. Maintained for 58 years as a conservative gentlemen's club, there has never been a bar in the club. However, food facilities, which also do not exist at present, will be installed pronto. The big building is located one block from the Roseville Avenue station of the Lackawanna R.R., about 20 minutes from New York. It is expected that the clubhouse will develop into a clinical center for new people, and a social haven for all A.A. men and women, irrespective of their group membership. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1722. . . . . . . . . . . . AA 2004 Founders'' Day Celebrations (N.Y., VT., OH.) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/24/2004 12:11:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Saturday, June 5, 2004 Stepping Stones (where Bill & Lois Wilson lived from 1941 until they died) 62 Oak Road, Bedford Hills (Katonah), NY 914-232-7368 House & Wit's End is open for viewing at 12NOON, AA (someone who knew Bill Wilson)/Alanon/Alateen speakers meeting begins at 2PM. Coffee, soda, & dessert served only. Sunday, June 6, 2004 The Wilson House (where Bill Wilson was born & lived as a child, & where Bill & Lois are buried) Village St., East Dorset, VT. 802-362-5524 Gravesite ceremony at 1PM, speaker meeting (someone who knew Bill Wilson) at 2PM. BBQ 3PM Friday - Sunday, June 11-13, 2004 Akron, OH. (where Dr. Bob's house is, where Dr. Bob & Anne Smith are buried, where AA meeting #1 is, where St. Thomas Hospital is, where Henrietta Sieberling's gatehouse is, where the Mayflower Hotel is, etc.) http://www.akronaa.org/FoundersDay/foundersdayindex.html IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1723. . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. Susan B. Anthony II From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/26/2004 3:34:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Since starting the AA History Buffs/Lovers four years ago, I have intended to write a piece on my good friend and spiritual mentor Dr. Susan B. Anthony II. Susan sobered up in Marty Mann's office on August 22, 1946. Today I discovered this biography on the website of the University of Rochester, River Campus Libraries, where Susan's papers are archived. Nancy __________ Dr. Susan B. Anthony (also referred to as Susan B. Anthony II), the great-niece and namesake of the women's rights leader Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906), was born in Easton, Pennsylvania in 1916. Her father Luther Burt Anthony was the son of the suffragist's younger brother Jacob Merritt Anthony. Anthony attended the University of Rochester, graduating in 1938. In 1938-39 she worked as a research assistant in the office of the National Youth Administration in Washington, DC. While an undergraduate she was involved in the peace movement, but learning of the plight of anti-fascists forces in the Spanish Civil War, she lobbied in 1938 to lift the arms embargo against the Spanish Republic. During this same period she was involved in the civil rights movement, becoming a sponsor of the National Negro congress. In 1941 she received a master of arts degree in Political science from American University. Anthony was a city desk editor for the Washington Star from 1939 to 1944. She also published articles on women's issues and migrants in The New York Times Magazine, The Christian Science Monitor, and other periodicals. Her first book, Out of the Kitchen-Into the War was published in 1943. In 1940 Anthony married political activist Henry Hill Collins, Jr., (1904-1961). During the war, she worked with Ann Shyne at Bryn Mawr College to compile a comprehensive study of "Women During the War and After." A summary of the results were published by the U.S. Women's Bureau and provided Anthony with material for several articles and lectures. In 1946 she hosted five times a week a radio program, "This Woman's World," over New York station WMCA. After nine months it was canceled for being "too controversial to be commercially feasible." The program was picked up by the New York Post station WLIB, but canceled six weeks later. In 1948, she and Henry Collins were divorced. In 1945 she co-founded with Helen Snow the Congress of American Women. Anthony represented the Congress and its affiliate, the Women's International Democratic Federation, at the United Nations Status of Women Commission in 1948. In 1949 or 1950, Anthony married Clifford Thomas McAvoy (1904-1957). McAvoy had been the deputy commissioner of Welfare in New York City from 1938 to 1941. In 1941 he was appointed legislative and political action director of the Greater New York Congress of Industrial Organizations Council, and in 1944 became the legislative representative in Washington for the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. At the time of their marriage he was the New England Director of the Progressive Party Labor Committee, an organization he had founded to support the Presidential bid of Progressive Party candidate, Henry A. Wallace. Now living in Boston, Anthony broadcast a radio program on which she discussed the problems of alcoholism and interviewed alcoholics. Because of her husband's associates, she was mentioned as a "fellow traveler" in a Life magazine article. In 1951 she divorced Clifford McAvoy and moved to Key West, Florida where she became a newspaper reporter for the Citizen. In 1954 she married Aubrey John Lewis, a British citizen living in Jamaica. Lewis was a Religious Science practitioner and owner of an allspice plantation. In Jamaica Anthony became a reporter for The Gleaner, writing several articles on celebrities who visited the island. Beginning in the early 1950s, Anthony's espousal of liberal causes brought her to the attention of the U. S. Justice Department, who requested her to come to Washington, D.C. to testify before a Congressional committee investigating communism. When, for health reasons, she refused to return to the United States, she became subject to extradition. After being served a subpoena in December, 1954, she took out British citizenship. Her lawyers advised her that this action would give her dual citizenship, and not jeopardize her American citizenship. This proved not to be the case. In 1960 Anthony divorced John Lewis and left Jamaica. She arrived in the United States on a visitor's visa, her passport having been confiscated by the U. S. Consul in Kingston. In 1967 Congressman John Bardemas introduced a bill to restore her citizenship. It was voted down by the House Immigration Subcommittee, who ordered her immediate deportation. She won a stay of deportation, and the case was reheard before the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals in 1969. The Board reversed all former Immigration and Naturalization Service and Justice Department actions against her and restored her citizenship. In 1960 Anthony underwent a religious conversion and was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church in 1961. She entered St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, and in 1965 received a Ph.D. in theology. She was one of the first fifteen Catholic laywomen to receive this degree. She taught theology at Marymount College in Boca Raton, Florida from 1965 to 1969. A recovered alcoholic, Anthony dedicated much of her professional and personal life to helping others overcome alcoholism. She wrote articles and traveled extensively giving presentations on the issue. In 1973 she was a substance abuse coordinator at South County Mental Health Center in Florida. In 1975 she founded Wayside House, a rehabilitation center for chemically dependent women, in Delray Beach, Florida. The United States Senate Committee on Alcoholism and Drugs honored Anthony for her work with alcoholics at a reception in 1976. Having found strength in contemplation and prayer, Anthony often wrote and lectured on these subjects. For nine months in 1976 she was a novice at a Cenacle convent drawn by their emphasis on prayer and teaching. In 1978 Anthony appeared on the television game show, "$124,000 Question" as a women's rights expert. In five appearances she won $16,000. The publicity helped launch her national lecture tour. Her topics included women, alcoholism, feminism, and prayer. In 1977 she attended the National Women's Conference in Houston, Texas, where she endorsed the Equal Rights Amendment. When the Susan B. Anthony dollar was issued in 1979, Anthony participated in many of the celebrations, culminating in a reception at the White House hosted by Rosalyn Carter. During the 1980s, Anthony traveled throughout the country giving lectures on substance abuse, feminist issues, and prayer. In 1983 she participated in the Seneca Falls Women's Peace Encampment marching in the protest against nuclear weapons stored in the Seneca Falls army depot. In 1971, Anthony published her autobiography The Ghost in My Life (New York: Chosen Books). It was reprinted by Bantam Books in 1973. Her other books include Survival Kit (New York: New American Library, 1972), and Sidewalk Contemplatives (New York: Crossroad, 1987). Dr. Anthony died in 1991. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1724. . . . . . . . . . . . The Man Behind the A.A. Revolution From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/26/2004 11:03:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The Man Behind the A.A. Revolution Susan Cheever talks about her new biography of Bill Wilson, the man she says was made to found Alcoholics Anonymous Interview by Paul O'Donnell There have been several books and memoirs written about the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous by Bill Wilson and Dr. Robert Smith in the 1940s. But as Susan Cheever found when she was asked to write a profile of Wilson, there has not been an authoritative biography, until now. Cheever, the daughter of novelist John Cheever and the author of two memoirs of her own drinking life, has written a very personal portrait of Wilson, portraying him as a restless thinker who created A.A. the way an inventor might stumble on a revolutionary technology. We talked to her recently about her book and her subject. Bill Wilson was a complicated person with an amazing story. How did you go about getting a handle on him? There were a number of books about Bill Wilson, and by him, but a lot of the basic biographical tasks had not been done. I used everything that had been written, and I went to the archives at Stepping Stones [Wilson's home, now a museum], where I had the amazing luck of getting there before it had been indexed, so I could watch the process of archiving. There are a ton of letters. Bill and [his wife] Lois were great letter writers, and much of the early part of the book, when he's still drinking, are from their letters. Whenever you're inside someone's mind in the book, whether it's Emily Wilson's in the opening scene or Bill Wilson's in the Mayfair hotel, it's from their letters. I also went to [Wilson's birthplace] in Vermont. The more I hung out in East Dorset, the more I saw how important Yankee free-thinking and pure democracy and stubbornness is to the program of A.A. Dr. Robert Smith [A.A. co-founder] was also from Vermont. What was it about that Yankee mindset that led to AA? Well, a lot of threads start in Vermont that end up in the 12 steps and the 12 traditions of A.A. One is the idea that each person has an equal voice. That's enshrined in the bylaws. A.A. actually belongs to and is run by it's own member. That whole idea of pure democracy comes right out of the Vermont town meeting. Another thing is that alot of New England was dry when Bill Wilson was growing up. They taught temperance in the schools. Bill Wilson actually had an education in how to stay sober and how not to stay sober. And of course there is the rampant spiritualism of the turn of the century in Vermont and New Hampshire and upstate New York. People were reaching out for a different kind of God, throwing over the Calvinistic, British Puritan God. Not just of humanism, but transcendentalism, which is also enshrined in the 12 steps. Where do you find that in A.A.? Well, "God as we understand him." That's Thoreau. That's Emerson. It seems to me that he took all these different strands--the religious, pure democracy, temperance, the transcendentalist-humanist strand, which was buttressed when he married a Swedenborgian--and wove them all into this astonishing program which has changed the way we think about addiction. When I look at his life, I think, 'Wow, this was a machine designed for this job.' He came out of this weird stew of educational and spiritual tenets that ended up being the best treatment for alcoholism. The temperance movement plays a crucial role. As a child, he refuses to take the temperance pledge and rejects religion altogether. How does he get from there to seeing a higher power as a central part of a sober life as an adult? Well, I think that's the story. For him, God took the form of a specific entity. He flirted and maybe even slept with Catholicism in his later years. But he had learned that God was an extremely personal concept, and that you can never say to anyone, this is the kind of God you must have. Part of his genius was understanding that there are things no one person can prescribe for another if the person wants to help the other. This is where he really shifted the way we think. He understood that being drunk wasn't a lack of willpower or discipline. He understood that the way to treat addiction is to court a change of heart with the utmost gentleness. That is a really revolutionary idea. That understanding came from his own desperate attempt to get sober, through trial and error--mostly error. He became, as his friend Aldous Huxley called him, "The Greatest Social Architect of the 20th century." His insight was that drinking was not a moral problem? Absolutely. He took the idea that alcoholics were bad people and changed it to the idea that alcoholics are sick people. It changed the way we view addiction. It changed the way we see human nature. He changed the way we see each other as much as Freud did, I think. Bill led us to see that what we think of as a failure of willpower is not that at all. It's a disease. He wasn't saying that you're not responsible for the things that you do when you're drinking. He was just saying that the way to stop drinking requires a change of heart. How did he change his own heart? As you watch his story unfold, you see all the pieces of his program fall into place. He would get one piece from talking to another drunk who had gotten sober. Then when he was in a group of people who didn't want to drink, he saw that the power of the group was a piece of it. Then he was able to think in terms of surrendering his power rather than in terms of getting more. It was as if he was always traveling further from or closer to a drink. Slowly he began to understand the things that brought him closer and the things that took him further away. It's often called a religious program, and specifically Christian. It even makes forgiveness one of its paragons. The program of A.A., as written by Bill Wilson and Dr. Smith, only has one purpose: to get you sober. That's it. To make you a better person, forget it. That was one of the things he came to understand in those years of trial and error. It has to be about only one thing. So within the context of that primary purpose, forgiveness is a way to ready the heart for the change. Bill himself had a different view of forgiveness. One thing that's so moving about him is how he treated people who abandoned him with incredible courtesy and generosity. His parents abandoned him, financially, emotionally and physically, and they did it with incredible self-righteousness. Yet he was constantly writing them letters, sending them checks when he had no money, and inviting them to come and live with him. That's forgiveness. So as a person, and I guess we can say as a Christian, he was extremely forgiving, but in the steps of A.A., forgiveness is not meant to improve your soul, it's meant to get you sober. But it is in a sense a faith-based program, and one the courts often order people into. Well, they do that because it works. It's sort of the best thing we have by far. In some parts of the country, it's more Christian, because each A.A. meeting governs itself. So there are some A.A. meetings that are emphatically anti-Christian and there are some that are emphatically Christian. But you don't object to it being called religious. Well, that's another question. I object to that because they object to that. But I don't represent AA. I'm not an expert. And I would have trouble defining religion. Some criticize AA for proclaiming it's the only way to get sober. But it doesn't. It's like the Christianity charge. It's just not there. In addition to his work with alcohol, Wilson left his mark on Wall Street. He essentially invented market research, didn't he? That's true. While he was drinking. Did his knack for business continue after he quit drinking? His business skills were applied to try to make A.A. a going concern. He quit drinking in 1934, but it really wasn't until 1944 that it was clear that A.A. was a go. He spent ten years pouring all those skills, the endurance, the salesmanship, into making A.A. go forward. And even after he turned it over to its membership, he kept on searching for some kind of help for alcoholics, looking for a magic bullet. A lot of his friendship with Aldous Huxley was about what we now call psychopharmacology. He took LSD, which at the time was not a street drug, but he thought maybe it could help alcoholics. He thought vitamin B could help. So he continued to do a lot of searching and experimenting. Which brings us back to how he viewed alcoholism. He said it was a disease, and he even looked for pharmacological solutions. But the only remedy he found was a spiritual one. How many diseases can you say that about? The relationship with the body and the mind is complicated and mysterious. You say most diseases aren't spiritual, but many people believe they are. The question of where does disease leave the body and enter the spirit, or enter the mind or the brain--that's a question I am not able to answer. We're living in a 12-Step world now. Yet part of this story is how Wilson's program was once regarded with suspicion. When AA was starting, it was thought of in many weird ways. There were years and years when it looked as if Bill Wilson was going to be the only successful recovering alcoholic. There's that famous scene where he complains to his wife, "You know, I've had 40 people get sober and they're all drinking again. This doesn't work." And she said, "Well it worked for one person--you." There were years were AA was lucky to be regarded as anything by anyone. I don't think Bill Wilson could have possibly have envisioned what's happened with those 12 steps of his. There hundreds of 12-Step programs saving millions of lives and millions of families in ways that I don't think he envisioned. Paul O'Donnell is Beliefnet's Culture editor. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1725. . . . . . . . . . . . Sister Ignatia Obituary (1966) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/27/2004 8:09:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII August 1966 AA Grapevine For Sister Ignatia: our everlasting gratitude SISTER MARY IGNATIA, one of the finest friends that we of AA shall ever know, went to her reward Friday morning, April first, nineteen hundred sixty-six. Next day, the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine opened their Mother House to visitors. More than one thousand of them signed the guest book in the first two hours. These were the first of many who during the two days following came to pay their respects to Sister. On Monday at high noon the Cathedral at Cleveland could barely seat its congregation. Friends in the city and from afar attended the service. The Sisters of Charity themselves were seen to be seated in a body, radiant in their faith. Together with families and friends, we of AA had come there in expression of our gratitude for the life and works of our well-loved Sister. It was not really a time for mourning, it was instead a time to thank God for His great goodness to us all. In its affirmation of the faith, the Mass was of singular beauty; the more so to many, since it was spoken in English. The eulogy, written and read by a close friend of Sister's, was a graphic and stirring portrayal of her character, and of her deeds. There was a most special emphasis upon the merits of AA, and upon the part co-founder Dr. Bob had played in Sister's great adventure among us. We were assured as seldom before that those who dwell in the fellowship of the Spirit need never be concerned with barriers, or with boundaries. For those thousands of men, women and children whose lives had been directly touched and illumined by Sister, it would perhaps not be needful to write this account of her. Of Sister, and of the Grace she brought to all these, they already know better than anyone else. But to the many others who have never felt her presence and her love, it is hoped this narrative may be something for their special inspiration. Born in 1889 of devout and liberty-loving parents, Sister entered into this world at Shanvilly, County Mayo, of the Emerald Isle. The famed poet Yeats, born nearby, once remarked that the strange beauty of County Mayo had been specially designed to raise up poets, artists, heroes and saints. We can little doubt that even when Ignatia was aged six, and her parents had emigrated from Ireland to Cleveland, she was already beginning to manifest many a sterling virtue. Soon the child began to reveal unusual musical talents, both of piano and voice. A few years later she was seen giving lessons at the home of her parents. During 1914, she became possessed of a great desire to become a religious. In this year she joined the Community that many of us AAs know so well - the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine. There she continued her musical education and her teaching. But even then, as ever since, Sister was frail, exceeding frail. By 1933 the rigors of her music teaching had become too great. She had a really serious physical breakdown. Her doctor put to her this choice: "You will have to take it easy. You can either be a dead music teacher or a live Sister. Which is it going to be?" With great good cheer, so her Community says, Mary Ignatia accepted a much quieter and less distinguished assignment. She became the registrar at St. Thomas Hospital in Akron, Ohio - an institution administered by her Order. At the time it was wondered if she could manage even this much. That she would live to the age of seventy-seven was not believable; that she was destined to minister to 15,000 alcoholics and their families in the years to come was known only to God. For a considerable time Sister serenely carried on at the admissions desk in St. Thomas. It was not then certain she had ever heard of AA. Though Group One at Akron, and Group Two in New York had been in slow and fitful growth since 1935, neither had come to public notice. AA's sudden growth However in 1939 the scene changed abruptly. In the spring of that year the AA book was first printed, and Liberty magazine came up with an article about our society in the early fall. This was quickly followed by a whole series of remarkable pieces which were carried by The Cleveland Plain Dealer on its editorial page. The newspaper and the mere two dozen AAs then in town were swamped by frantic pleas for help. Despite this rather chaotic situation, the Cleveland membership burgeoned into several hundreds in a few months. Nevertheless the implications of this AA population explosion were in some ways disturbing, especially the lack of proper hospital facilities. Though the Cleveland hospitals had rallied gallantly to this one emergency, their interest naturally waned when bills often went unpaid, and when ex-drunks trooped through the corridors to do what they called "Twelfth Step" work on sometimes noisy victims just arrived. Even the City Hospital at Akron, where Dr. Bob had attended numerous cases, was showing signs of weariness. In New York we had temporarily got off to a better start. There we had dear old Dr. Silkworth and, after awhile, his wonderful AA nurse "Teddy." This pair were to "process" some 12,000 New York area drunks in the years ahead, and so they became, as it were, the "opposite numbers" to the partnership of co-founder Dr. Bob and Sister Ignatia at Akron. Much concerned that, hospital-wise, his area might be caught quite unprepared to cope with a great new flood of publicity about AA, Dr. Bob in 1940 decided to visit St. Thomas and explain the great need for a hospital connection that could prove permanently effective. Since St. Thomas was a church institution, he thought the people there might vision a fine opportunity for service where the others had not. And how right he was! Sister Ignatia learns of AA But Bob knew no one in authority at the hospital. So he simply betook himself to "Admissions" and told the diminutive nun in charge the story of AA, including that of his own recovery. As this tale unfolded, the little sister glowed. Her compassion was deeply touched and perhaps her amazing intuition had already begun to say, "This is it." Of course Sister would try to help, but what could one small nun do? After all, there were certain attitudes and regulations. Alcoholism had not been reckoned as an illness; it was just a dire form of gluttony! Dr. Bob then told Sister about an alcoholic who then was in a most serious condition. A bed would simply have to be found for him. Said Mary Ignatia, "I'm sure your friend must be very sick. You know, Doctor, this sounds to me like a terrible case of indigestion." Trying to keep a straight face, Dr. Bob replied, "How right you are - his indigestion is most terrible." Twinkling, Sister immediately said, "Why don't you bring him in right away?" The two benign conspirators were soon faced with yet another dilemma. The victim proved to be distressingly intoxicated. It would soon be clear to all and sundry that his "indigestion" was quite incidental. Obviously a ward wouldn't do. There would have to be a private room. But all the single ones were filled. What on earth could they do? Sister pursed her lips, and then broke into a broad smile. Forthwith he declared, "I'11 have a bed moved into our flower room. In there he can't disturb anyone." This was hurriedly done, and the "indigestion" sufferer was already on his way to sobriety and health. Of course the conspirators were conscience-stricken by their subterfuge of the flower room. And anyhow, the "indigestion" pretense simply couldn't last. Somebody in authority would have to be told, and that somebody was the hospital's Superior. With great trepidation Sister and Dr. Bob waited upon this good lady, and explained themselves. To their immense delight she went along, and a little later, she boldly unfolded the new project before the St. Thomas trustees. To their everlasting credit they went along too - so much so that it was not a great while before Dr. Bob himself was invited to become a staff physician at St. Thomas, a bright example indeed of the ecumenical spirit. Presently a whole ward was devoted to the rehabilitation of alcoholics, and Sister Ignatia was of course placed in immediate charge. Dr. Bob sponsored the new cases into the hospital and medically treated each, never sending a bill to any. The hospital fees were very moderate and Sister often insisted on taking in patients on a "pay later" basis, sometimes to the mild consternation of the trustees. Together Ignatia and Dr. Bob indoctrinated all who cared to listen to the AA approach as portrayed by the book Alcoholics Anonymous, lately come off the press. The ward was open to visiting AAs from surrounding groups who, morning to night, told their stories of drinking and of recovery. There were never any barriers of race or creed; neither was AA nor Church teaching pressed upon any. With infinite tenderness Since nearly all her strenuous hours were spent there, Sister became a central figure on the ward. She would alternately listen and talk, with infinite tenderness and understanding. The alcoholic's family and friends received the very same treatment. It was this most compassionate caring that was a chief ingredient of her unique Grace; it magnetically drew everyone to her, even the most rough and obstinate. Yet she would not always stand still for arrant nonsense. When the occasion required, she could really put her foot down. Then to ease the hurt, she would turn on her delightful humor. Once, when a recalcitrant drunk boasted he'd never again be seen at the hospital, Sister shot back, "Well, let's hope not. But just in case you do show up, please remember that we already have your size of pajamas. They will be ready and waiting for you!" As the fame of St. Thomas grew, alcoholics flocked in from distant places. After their hospitalization they often remained for a time in Akron to get more first-hand AA from Dr. Bob, and from Akron's Group Number One. On their return home, Sister would carry on an ever mounting correspondence with them. We AAs are often heard to say that our Fellowship is founded upon resources that we have drawn from medicine, from religion and from our own experience of drinking and of recovery. Never before nor since those Akron early days have we witnessed a more perfect synthesis of all these healing forces. Dr. Bob exemplified both medicine and AA; Ignatia and the Sisters of St. Augustine also practiced applied medicine, and their practice was supremely well animated by the wonderful spirit of their Community. A more perfect blending of Grace and talent cannot be imagined. It should never be necessary to dwell, one by one, upon the virtues of these magnificent friends of AA's early time - Sister Ignatia and co-founder Dr. Bob. We need only recollect that "by their fruits we shall always know them." Passing of Dr. Bob Standing before the Cleveland International Convention of 1950, Dr. Bob looked upon us of AA for the last time. His good wife Anne had passed on before, and his own rendezvous with the new life to come was not many months away. Ten years had slipped by since the day when he and Sister had bedded down that first sufferer in the St. Thomas flower room. In this marvelous decade Sister and Dr. Bob had medically treated, and had spiritually infused, five thousand alcoholics. The greater part of these had found their freedom under God. In thankful recollection of this great work, we of AA presented to the Sisters of Charity -of St. Augustine and to the Staff of the St. Thomas Hospital a bronze plaque, ever since to be seen in the ward where Sister and Dr. Bob had wrought their wonders. The plaque reads as follows: IN GRATITUDE THE FRIENDS OF DR. BOB AND ANNE S. AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATE THIS MEMORIAL TO THE SISTERS AND STAFF OF ST. THOMAS HOSPITAL AT AKRON. BIRTHPLACE OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS. ST. THOMAS HOSPITAL BECAME THE FIRST RELIGIOUS INSTITUTION EVER TO OPEN ITS DOORS TO OUR SOCIETY. MAY THE LOVING DEVOTION OF THOSE WHO LABORED HERE IN OUR PIONEERING TIME BE A BRIGHT AND WONDROUS EXAMPLE OF GOD'S GRACE EVERLASTINGLY SET BEFORE US ALL. Visitors at St. Thomas today often wonder why this inscription says not a word about Sister Ignatia. Well, the fact was, she wouldn't allow her name to be used. She had flatly refused; it was one of those times when she had put her foot down! This was of course a glowing example of her innate and absolutely genuine humility. Sister truly believed that she deserved no particular notice; that such Grace as she might have could only be credited to God and to the community of her sisters. This was indeed the ultimate spirit of anonymity. We who had then seen this quality in her were deeply affected, especially Dr. Bob and myself. Hers came to be the influence that persuaded us both never to accept public honors of any sort. Sister's example taught that a mere observance of the form of AA anonymity should never become the slightest excuse for ignoring its spiritual substance. Following Dr. Bob's death, there was great concern lest Sister might not be allowed to continue her work. As in other orders of the church, service assignments among the Sisters of Charity were rather frequently rotated. This was the ancient custom. However, nothing happened for a time. Assisted by surrounding AA groups, Sister continued to carry on at St. Thomas. Then suddenly in 1952, she was transferred to St. Vincent Charity Hospital at Cleveland, where, to the delight of us all, she was placed in charge of its alcoholic ward. At Akron a fine successor was named to succeed her; the work there would continue. The ward at "Charity" occupied part of a dilapidated wing, and it was in great need of repair and rejuvenation. To those who knew and loved Sister, this opportunity proved a most stimulating challenge. The Charity trustees also agreed that something should be done. Substantial contributions flowed in. In their spare hours, AA carpenters, plumbers and electricians set about redoing the old wing - no charge for their services. The beautiful result of these labors of love is now known as Rosary Hall. Again the miracles of recovery from alcoholism commenced to multiply. During the following fourteen years, an astonishing 10,000 alcoholics passed through the portals of "Rosary Hall" there to fall under the spell of Mary Ignatia, and of AA. More than two-thirds of all these recovered from their dire malady, and again became citizens of the world. From dawn to dark Sister offered her unique Grace to that endless procession of stricken sufferers. Moreover, she still found time to minister widely to their families and this very fruitful part of her work became a prime inspiration to the Al-Anon Family Groups of the whole region. Notwithstanding her wonderful workers within the hospital, and help from AAs without, this must have been a most exacting and exhausting vocation for the increasingly frail Sister. That she was providentially enabled to be with us for so many years is something for our great wonder. To hundreds of friends it became worth a day's journey to witness her supreme and constant demonstration. Toward the close of her long stewardship there were brushes with death. Sometimes I came to Cleveland and was allowed to sit by her bedside. Then I saw her at her best. Her perfect faith, and her complete acceptance of whatever God might will was somehow implicit in all she said, be our conversation gay, or serious. Fear and uncertainty seemed entire strangers to her. On my leave-taking, there was always that smiling radiance; always her prayerful hope that God might still allow her a bit more time at Rosary Hall. Then a few days later I would learn that she was back at her desk. This superb drama would be re-enacted time after time. She was quite unconscious that there was anything at all unusual about it. Realizing there would come the day which would be her last, it seemed right that we of AA should privately present Sister with some tangible token that could, even a little, communicate to her the depth of our love. Remembering her insistence, in respect of the Akron plaque, that she would not really like any public attention, I simply sent word that I'd like to come to Cleveland for a visit, and casually added that should her health permit, we might take supper together in the company of a few of her stalwart AA friends and co-workers. Besides, it was her fiftieth year of service in her community. On the appointed evening, we foregathered in one of the small dining rooms at Charity Hospital. Plainly delighted, Sister arrived. She was barely able to walk. Being old-timers all, the dinner hour was spent in telling tales of other days. For, her part, Sister regaled us with stories of St. Thomas and with cherished recollections of Anne and co-founder Dr. Bob. It was unforgettable. Before Sister became too tired we addressed ourselves to our main project. From New York, I had brought an illuminated scroll. Its wording was in the form of a letter addressed by me to Sister, and it was written on behalf of our AA Fellowship worldwide. I stood up, read the scroll aloud, and then held the parchment for her to see. She was taken by complete surprise and could scarcely speak for a time. In a low voice she finally said, "Oh, but this is too much - this is too good for me." Our richest reward of the evening was of course Ignatia's delight; a joy unbounded the moment we assured her that our gift need not be publicized; that if she wished to stow it away in her trunk we would quite understand. It then seemed that this most memorable and moving evening was over. But there was to be another inspiring experience. Making light of her great fatigue, Sister insisted that we all go up to Rosary Hall, there to make a late round of the AA ward. This we did, wondering if any of us would ever again see her at work in the divine vocation to which she had given her all. For each of us this was the end of an epoch; I could think only of her poignant and oft-repeated saying, "Eternity is now." The scroll given to Sister may now be seen at Rosary Hall. This is the inscription: IN GRATITUDE FOR SISTER MARY IGNATIA ON THE OCCASION OF HER GOLDEN JUBILEE Dear Sister, W e of Alcoholics Anonymous look upon you as the finest friend and the greatest spirit we may ever know. We remember your tender ministrations to us in the days when AA was very young. Your partnership with Dr. Bob in that early time has created for us a spiritual heritage of incomparable worth. In all the years since, we have watched you at the bedside of thousands. So watching, we have perceived ourselves to be the beneficiaries of that wondrous light which God has always sent through you to illumine our darkness. You have tirelessly tended our wounds; you have nourished us with your unique understanding and your matchless love. No greater gifts of Grace than these shall we ever have. Speaking for AA members throughout the world, I say: "May God abundantly reward you according to your blessed works - now and forever!' In devotion, March 25,1964 Bill W. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1726. . . . . . . . . . . . In Memory of Helen (1955) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/31/2004 2:09:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII November 1955 AA Grapevine In Memory of Helen JUST six years ago last month, a girl named Helen made a journey from Boston to New York. She came to this city to join the staff of AA's General Service Headquarters. Her decision to leave Boston's Central Office, where she had for three years been much loved as its first Secretary, was to result in benefits beyond measure to worldwide AA. But for her, this decision proved to be a fateful one. Helen died in my home at Bedford Hills September 28, 1955. Her death was the climax of a long period of severe exhaustion and of many difficulties. She had come to stay with Lois and me to recuperate for the fresh start about which she had eagerly written to friends only one day before the unexpected attack of illness that did, in a matter of minutes, carry her away from us. All the countless AAs who knew Helen will surely declare her to have been one of the finest servants that we have ever had. Speaking for ourselves here at Headquarters we feel that a void has been left in our lives of the kind which can never quite be filled. With Lois and me, Helen always stood high among our most devoted and treasured friends. One more unforgettable thing: When the crucial decisions were made in 1951 that a Conference of elected AAs should be called to meet yearly with our Trustees, that this Conference should ultimately become the guide and conscience for our entire Society, and the successor to its founders, a most difficult problem had to be faced. Anxiously we asked ourselves, "How can this be done?" Because of her keen sense of AA feeling and reaction, her inborn flair for sound diplomacy, Helen was assigned to help me in the preparation of the Third Legacy. This document, on which the future of AA so much depends, and of which so many of us recently became conscious at St. Louis, will ever bear the stamp of Helen's great perception and devotion. "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." Bill W. Helen B. was buried in Rockland, Massachusetts on Saturday, October 1, following a Solemn High Mass of Requiem at the Church of the Holy Family in Rockland. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1727. . . . . . . . . . . . Traditions Question From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 3/31/2004 2:35:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Does anyone know why the Twelve Traditions are in the order that they are in? Thanks! Just Love, Barefoot Bill IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1728. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Traditions Question From: Cloydg . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/1/2004 1:25:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII A.A. Traditions *************** During its first decade, A.A. as a fellowship accumulated substantial experience which indicated that certain group attitudes and principles were particularly valuable in assuring survival of the informal structure of the Fellowship. In 1946, in the Fellowship's international journal, the A.A. Grapevine, these principles were reduced to writing by the founders and early members as the Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous. They were accepted and endorsed by the membership as a whole at the International Convention of A.A., at Cleveland, Ohio, in 1950. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1729. . . . . . . . . . . . Harper Brothers From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/1/2004 1:36:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The following is a compilation of earlier posts which have been deleted: Nancy From: John Wikelius Date: Sun Oct 13, 2002 11:32 pm Subject: Harper Brothers In 1953 Harper printed the 12&12 because I believe Bill did not want the controversy associated with getting this book into prints like he went through on the Big Book. If this is true, why did Harper do two more printings since AA published their first printing in 1953 as well. The AA Publishing was established at that time. Was it a contract issue per chance? In 1957 Harper printed the first printing of AA Comes of Age along with AA. Does anyone know why they got involved in printing this book. The answer may be obvious to some but I cannot find any reference to this information to date. From: "tcumming" Date: Mon Oct 14, 2002 10:05 pm Subject: re: Harper Brothers Pass It On has nice fairly succinct history of the writing of our "Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions" on pages 352-56. Far too much for this lazy alcoholic to type out the whole thing for you. But on pages 355-6 you can read: "'Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions' was first published in two editions -- one for distribution through AA groups, and the second edition, costing 50 cents more ($2.75 instead of $2.25), intended for sale in commercial bookstores and distributed through Harper & Brothers (by arrangement with AA's old friend Eugene Exman). AA made a contract with Harper that enabled the Fellowship to retain full control and copyright ownership of both editions." AA Comes of Age, page 219, also has a bit on this: "One more noteworthy event marked this period of quiet; the publication of AA's 'Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions' in 1953. This small volume is strictly a textbook which explains AA's twenty-four basic principles and their application, in detail and with great care. "Helped by my editorial team, Betty L. and Tom P., I had begun work on this project in early 1952. The final draft was widely circulated among our friends of medicine and religion and also among many old-time AA's. This rigorous checkup was topped off by none other than Jack Alexander, who had added the final editorial touch. For group distribution we published the volume ourselves, and our old friend Gene Exman of Harper offered favorable terms for distribution through his firm to bookstores." I'll also include a quote from earlier in AA Comes of Age, pertaining to the publishing of the Big Book, which may well have had an influence on this volume as well. On page 158: "... But Henry was not discouraged. He still had ideas. 'Bill,' he said, 'you and I know this book is going to sell. And Harper thinks it will sell. But these New York drunks just do not believe it. Some take it as a joke, and the rest talk high and holy about mixing a spiritual enterprise with money and promotion. ... .'" Other references pertaining to Harpers include: AA Comes of Age - 153, 156, 158, 219 Language of the Heart - 143-4 Pass It On - 193, 194, 195, 356 (BTW, it is not too difficult to look these up in the index at the back of the books) That's the official word. Now with salt shaker in hand: What I think I remember being told about Harper publishing the 'Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions' is that it was set up that way to soothe some of those complaints. Where GSO would publish and distribute copies for the fellowship, and Harpers would handle it for those outside the fellowship. That way GSO wouldn't have to engage in promoting the book to bookstores, and money from outside sources wouldn't get mixed in with our self support funds (Traditions 11 & 7). It seemed like a good plan, but in reality it just didn't work. At first Harpers did OK with the book, but eventually some bookstores and institutions outside AA found they could get the book cheaper through GSO than through their regular channels. Printing, distribution and publicity costs may also have gone up. In the end, what I remember being told, Harper's sales were down, costs were up and they knew they had to raise the price to make a profit. They also knew that GSO wasn't going to raise the price. They made the simple business decision that it wasn't profitable to publish the book anymore and they stopped. And so ended our experiment with split distribution, 'within the fellowship' vs. outside the fellowship. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1730. . . . . . . . . . . . Periodical Literature From: Jim Blair . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/1/2004 9:45:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I have aquired 13 more articles and with post them on successive days ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---- Alcoholics take steps to cure themselves..... Alcoholics Anonymous From The Illinois Medical Journal, Oak Park, Ill. A new approach to the problem of chronic alcoholism has been taken by the alcoholics themselves. Calling their group "Alcoholics Anonymous," they first realized the utter hopelessness of their condition and then set out to do something about it. All of them had been in sanitoria, and many of them had been confined to institutions for the insane. They recognized their addiction to be a disease which medicines alone were unable to cure. They also realized that by themselves they were unable to break the hold alcohol had upon them. The chronic alcoholic has lost his friends by his drinking. He feels that no one-not even his family-understands his plight. He is truly alone-and finds solace and companionship only in his bottle. Most chronic alcoholics really want to stop. When they openly admit this, and are willing to let others help, then the members of Alcoholics Anonymous can enter the picture. The chronic alcoholic in talking to a member of the group finds a person who understands" - who has had the same experiences. The new member is introduced to the fellowship of the group. "Business" gatherings are held weekly to talk over common problems. "Social" gatherings are held several other nights of the week where companionship is sincere and bridge, poker and conversation abound. There are no officers in the group. Each member has equal standing. There are no fees, dues, nor expenses whatsoever. When a new member has become thoroughly acquainted with the meaning of his new life he should go out himself and work with other unfortunates. This giving of himself, without thought of remuneration gives him strength to combat his own desire. It is indeed a miracle when a person who for years has been more or less constantly under the influence of alcohol and in whom his friends have lost all confidence, will sit up all night with a "drunk" and at stated intervals administer a small amount of liquor in accordance with a doctor's order without taking a drop himself. Full co-operation is given to the medical profession. In dealing with patients who are ill the family physician is called in who assumes charge until the patient has recovered. About six years ago "Alcoholics Anonymous" was started in New York. The group gained headway slowly, but now there are about a thousand members with groups in nearly every large city. The first member in Chicago joined the group on Akron, Ohio, about three years ago. One year ago Chicago had eight members; now there are 150 and the group grows daily. Of alcoholics who are contacted about 80% join "Alcoholics Anonymous." Of the first 40 to join the Chicago group 23 have not tasted alcohol since being admitted. This covers a period of time of from six months to three years. Eleven have had one "slip." Three have had from two to four "slips" and three have been lost. A new member may feel so well physically and so strong mentally that in his new condition he may believe he can drink moderately as many people do. In trying to do so he re-discovers his complete lack of power to combat this disease. After such an experience he usually remains firmly attached to his new found heaven. It seems unbelievable, when one considers that in people who were "hopeless alcoholics" 58% have attained complete sobriety and 92% practical sobriety. Broken minds and bodies that have been a weight on society have been rehabilitated. Broken homes have been restored-innocent families no longer suffer. A movement that is strong enough to make rehabilitated men, some of high position and great wealth, give themselves to help restore other broken lives without thought of remuneration, is indeed a powerful thing, worthy of our attention. Source: Current Digest, April 1941 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1731. . . . . . . . . . . . Fr. Ed Dowling Obituary (1960) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/1/2004 1:30:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII AA Grapevine June 1960 To Father Ed - Godspeed! By Bill W. EARLY Sunday morning, April 3rd, Father Edward Dowling died peacefully in his sleep. The place was Memphis, Tennessee. Cheerfully unmindful of his ebbing health, he had been visiting one of his "Cana'' groups (a favorite undertaking which he founded, Father Ed's Cana groups are dedicated, under Church auspices, to the solution of difficult family problems through the practice o f AA's Twelve Steps.). Never was there a gayer evening than in the hours before. He would have wanted to take his leave of us in just that way. This was one of the most gentle souls and finest friends we AAs may ever know. He left a heritage of inspiration and grace which will be with us always. Father Ed had planned to be at our 1960 Long Beach Convention, come July. This prospect, now to be unfulfilled, brings a moving recollection of his appearance at AA's St. Louis International Convention of 1955. It seems altogether fitting that I repeat the introduction I then made of him, together with an account of the unforgettable impression he left upon me the very first time we met - a fragment of history recorded years afterward in AA Comes o f Age: "With deep joy, I present to you Father Ed Dowling who lives at the Jesuit House right here in St. Louis. Father Ed, knowing whence comes his strength, is definitely allergic to praise. Nonetheless I think that certain facts about him should be put into our record - facts that new generations of AAs ought to hear, read, and know. "Father Ed helped to start the first AA group in this town; he was the first clergyman of his faith to note the surprising resemblance between the spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius (founder of the Jesuit order) and the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. As a result, he was quick to write in 1940 the first Catholic recommendation of AA of which we have any knowledge. "Since then, his labor for us has been a prodigy. Not only have his recommendations been heard worldwide, but he has himself worked at AA and for AA. Travels, AA meetings, wise and tender counsel - these works of his can be measured in thousands of miles and thousands of hours. "In my entire acquaintance, our friend Father Ed is the only one from whom I have never heard a resentful word and of whom I have never heard a single criticism. In my own life he has been a friend, adviser, great example, and the source of more inspiration than I can say. "Father Ed is made of the stuff of the saints. * * * 'A great cheer of welcome greeted Father Ed Dowling as, indifferent to his grievous lameness, he made his way to the lectern. Father Dowling of the Jesuit order in St. Louis is intimately known to AAs for a thousand miles and more around. Many in the Convention audience remembered with gratitude his ministry to their spiritual needs. St. Louis old-timers recalled how he helped start their group; it had turned out to be largely Protestant, but this fazed him not a bit. Some of us could remember his first piece about us in The Queen's Work, the Sodality's magazine. He had been the first to note how closely in principle AA's Twelve Steps paralleled a part of the Exercises of St. Ignatius, a basic spiritual discipline of the Jesuit order. He had boldly written in effect to a11 alcoholics and especially to those of his own faith: 'Folks, AA is good. Come and get it.' And this they certainly had done. His first written words were the beginning of a wonderfully benign influence in favor of our fellowship, the total of which no one will ever be able to compute. "Father Ed's talk to us at the Convention that Sunday morning flashed with humor and deep insight. As he spoke, the memory of his first appearance in my own life came back to me as fresh as though it were yesterday: One wintry night in 1940 in AA's Old Twenty-Fourth Street Club in New York I had gone to bed at about ten o'clock with a severe dose of self-pity and my imaginary ulcer. Lois was out somewhere. Hail and sleet beat on the tin roof over my head; it was a wild night. The Club was deserted except for old Tom, the retired fireman, that diamond in the rough lately salvaged from Rockland asylum. The front doorbell clanged, and a moment later Toni pushed open my bedroom door. 'Some bum,' said he, 'from St. Louis is down there and wants to see you.' 'Oh, Lord!' I said. 'Not another one! And at this time of night. Oh, well, bring him up.' "I heard labored steps on the stairs. Then, balanced precariously on his cane, he came into the room, carrying a battered black hat that was shapeless as a cabbage leaf and plastered with sleet. He lowered himself into my solitary chair, and when he opened his overcoat I saw his clerical collar. He brushed back a shock of white hair and looked at me through the most remarkable pair of eyes I have ever seen. We talked about a lot of things, and my spirits kept on rising, and presently I began to realize that this man radiated a grace that filled the room with a sense of presence. I felt this with great intensity; it was a moving and mysterious experience. In years since I have seen much of this great friend, and whether I was in joy or in pain he always brought to me the same sense of grace and the presence of God. My case is no exception. Many who meet Father Ed experience this touch of the eternal. It is no wonder that he, was able to fill all of us there in the Kiel Auditorium with his inimitable spirit on that wonderful Sunday morning." Everyone then present will remember this famous quote from Father Ed's St. Louis talk: "There is a negative approach from agnosticism. This was the approach of Peter the Apostle. 'Lord, to whom shall we go'?" doubt if there is anybody in this hall who really ever sought sobriety. I think we were trying to get away from drunkenness. I don't think we should despise the negative. I have a feeling that if I ever find myself in Heaven, it will be from backing away from Hell." (End) Just before his death, Father Ed had completed the article he wrote for AA TODAY, the twenty-fifth anniversary commemorative book prepared by the Grapevine. The article will appear in the book under the title, "AA's Steps for the Underprivileged Non-AA." - THE EDITORS. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1732. . . . . . . . . . . . Eddie Shill From: Carter Elliott . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/2/2004 8:01:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII When I joined the Fellowship in 1969 (in North Jersey), one of my first assigned service tasks was that of chauffeuring an old timer to meetings. A stroke had rendered Eddie Shill physically disabled but his mind was razor sharp. His personal recollections of those folks we now call pioneers makes me wonder if his name pops up in any of our archive data bases. Thanks, Carter Elliott ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Small Business $15K Web Design Giveaway [21] - Enter today IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1735. . . . . . . . . . . . Periodixal Lit., Your Life, November 1944 From: Jim Blair . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/2/2004 9:42:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Miracles at Work for Alcoholics What is the secret of the success of Alcoholics Anonymous? A famous writer gives you his answer By Arthur Hopkins In Tagore's Memories he tells of walking along a country road with his mother when he was a small child. They passed a grotesque drunkard. The boy laughed. The mother said: "Don't laugh. He, too, is on his way to God." I had read and heard of the work being done by Alcoholics Anonymous. I vaguely knew that the helpful service was being offered by former victims of alcohol who had found a way out. Marcie, a friend of mine, told me of having lunch with a bank executive friend and was startled when the strong man told him, with no concealment, that he had been an alcoholic and had come close to wrecking his career. He was one of the workers in the Alcoholics Anonymous movement and asked Marcie if he would like to attend a monthly meeting of the workers. Marcie, having a lively interest in human service, accepted and later asked me if I would like to go along. Thus I shall always be indebted to Marcie for a strongly revealing and rewarding experience. The prologue had a pleasant but conventional aspect. The host had us to dinner at the Yale Club. He was an athletic, beaming man who showed no marks of gutter bruises. He spoke of three ladies joining us for the evening. Presently they came-three gracious and cultured women, probably in the thirties. It looked more and more like a patronizing expedition of the Upper Ten to the Lower Five. Soon the conversation revealed that the ladies, also free of telltale ravages, had likewise taken a pounding from John Barleycorn, but had managed to come up for the final count with John left sprawling and were now prepared to step back into the ring to second anyone who was ready to give John a battle. Before the entrée the slumming aspect had disappeared. Here were the privileged seeking the privilege of helping their own, and their own were alcoholics. More revealing than their willingness to discuss openly with strangers their alcoholic ordeal, was the complete absence of any desire to conceal what others would think shameful. This unusual freedom from the personal, I was later to learn at the meeting, is one of the key causes of the great success of the movement. On entering the hall where there were several hundred men and women, mostly graduate alcoholics and aspirants, I looked for the derelicts and defeated and found none. There was gaiety and loud laughter, which had suffered nothing from the absence of libations. A little man, with considerable dental jubilation, called the meeting to order. After a sullen, disapproving phonograph was prodded into action the assembly sang the national anthem. The little man then unwrapped his gleaming teeth from the package of his lips and asked how many had remained abstinent for three months or longer. A number raised their hands. The teeth gleamed. Then the little man told his experience in his life's battle with alcohol. There was nothing sad, self-pitying or exhibitionist about his recital. It was rather the report of a persistent and hopeless experiment. The one thing that he always knew after painful recovery from a devastating bout was that when he got in shape he would know how to handle liquor like sane people. Liquor wasn't going to lick him. No, sir! His cure began on the day he was taken to the AA house and became convinced that he was an alcoholic and the seductive opponent would best him every time. It was a fight in which there was no compromise, a fight where the decision was already in. He was talked to by people who knew his whole experience. They had lived the scenario from beginning to end. The little man, with AA guidance, gained his freedom and then became a worker himself. He found he gained new strength by helping others. "I never need to take an inventory of myself," he said. "I see myself in every one I try to help. There it is looking right at me, all my liabilities and my assets. I was never a religious man. Of course, I believed in God, I suppose, but I never thought he could do anything about me. Now I know that I never could have come through without Him. I had to have God's help. I kept asking for it and got it." Shade of Tagore's mother. There was a good deal of laughter through the little man's talk. It was the comedy of identical experience. His hearers understood perfectly. He then introduced a real estate operator from New Rochelle. Like the little man he opened his talk by saying: "I am an alcoholic." It was a recital of years of trying hopelessly to become a moderate drinker. There was obviously an element of pride involved. He could never admit to himself that alcohol was his master. As soon as he got into shape he would show alcohol how it ought to be handled. He must be a good businessman because he managed to survive for years with banks continuing to trust him. "Finally," he said, "I wasn't invited to leave my home as some here have put it. I was kicked out. I put a cot in the back of the office. I used to lie down about twelve at night so I could wake up before three and knock over a couple before the bar closed. Then I was awake at eight to be in time for the bar opening up. He tried cures. He tried will power, but always ended up seeing himself in the bar mirror. He found AA. He knew for the first time that he was an alcoholic and could never beat it. It was the end of alcohol or the end of him. New challenge and new pride were awakened. "Of course when I got off the stuff I began looking at myself to try and find out what was wrong with me. It must have been more than appetite. Then I discovered one of my troubles was intolerance. I couldn't bear to be crossed by anyone. If, in putting through a deal, I thought someone was trying to pull something I got mad and told them to go to hell, and, of course, I was so mad I had to have a drink and then I was off again-once for five weeks in a hospital with a fractured hip. "One time, after I had been going fine, I blew up again, tore up the contract, threw it on the floor. There was four hundred bucks in it for me, but to hell with it. Nobody was going to make a monkey out of me. I stormed out of the place, but this time I didn't go to a bar. I thought it over and wondered how I could straighten myself out. I always hated to apologize to anyone-knowing I'd been wrong only made it harder. But finally I had to get square with myself, so I called the fellow up. I said to him: `I'm sorry about that blow-up. I'm an alcoholic and sometimes I lose my head. I don't want you to think I care about the money. That's not why I'm calling you. I want you to forgive me.' The man said: `You know, I've been trying to figure out why I blew up. Come on over and let's straighten it out.' We did. My fee wasn't due for thirty days, but he gave me the check then. In the old days it would have ended that way. I'd have tied the bag on good. "Soon after AA got hold of me my wife came to me and said: `Why don't you come home?' I said: `Do you mean it?' `Of course, come on.' "When I got home, I said: `I don't suppose I could get a drink around here.' My wife said: `Sure.' She brought me a bottle of beer. The next day I had a bottle of beer. That night I slept for the first time without drugs. I slept because I was at peace. "They tell us around here we can call it anything we like-God, Divine Power or-well, I call it God. I never believed much, but I know that without God I'm nothing. That time I blew up I knew I wasn't going to drink because I had asked God that morning to help me." Shade of Tagore's mother. I am an alcoholic," began the next speaker. He looked like a football coach. He was a merchant from New Jersey. His drinking began young and industriously in the West. As a traveling man he found it convenient to have supplies constantly at hand by carrying three or four spares in his bag. His experience was much as the others-releases and relapses, treatments, sanitariums, lost money, lost business, lost home, lost family. "In one hospital there was a bottle of rubbing alcohol in the closet. I drank it to within one inch of the bottom, then turned on my face. When the nurse came in I asked her to rub my back as I was in such pain. She found the nearly empty bottle, refilled it and rubbed my back. When she had gone I helped myself from the refill. Later she told me I had been drinking refuse. Doctors and nurses had washed their hands in it. Wounds had been cleaned with it. "After AA I got my family back and am in business again. I then tried helping others, but I didn't have much success until I finally realized that I was looking down on them. Now I know that I am only made strong by what I can give others. I need them as much as they need me. Like the others I wasn't religious, but I now say boldly and reverently it was God and only God. Without Him I was helpless." Shade of Tagore's mother. For a time, the writer was disturbed by people who had obviously been freed saying emphatically: "I am an alcoholic." It seemed a false and harmful affirmation. Thinking back on what the traveling man had said about his feeling of superiority once he had progressed beyond the other victims, it occurred to me that a professed alcoholic might easily be more helpful than one who thinks of himself only as a former alcoholic. Maybe it is better to stay right in the lodge with the others with never a suggestion of superiority. Perhaps negative affirmations for the purpose of closer brotherhood have a positive effect with no injury to the affirmer. And now the little chairman got up to introduce a product of his own helpfulness. One day a telephone call had come from the AA office for him to go to a Long Island address from which a call for help had come. It was for a woman, so the little man made sure first that her husband was at home. He called and the good work was begun. And now, with pride, he presented her. She was Mary, a darling woman in her late twenties, with shining face, scoffing eyes and the wide, warm smile of Erin. She looked at the microphone and laughed. "When I used to see one of those things I thought I was Lily Pons." So Mary was off to a great howl. She told the list of almost identical steps of disintegration. She had two children. Her husband had helped her try everything-sessions with priests, promises, pledges, treatments. "But I hid bottles all over the house, even on the roof. Once when I needed it real bad the bottle on the roof was gone. Maybe some poor devil needed it worse than I did, but it was hard to see it that way at the time. "I went to Sanitarium, too." The place had been mentioned twice before and each time had raised a great laugh. "And, of course, like the others I tried a psychiatrist. After he talked for some time I asked him if he drank. He said that if he took two drinks it made him sick to his stomach. He couldn't take two drinks without losing his stomach and there he was trying to tell me how to handle liquor." Perhaps Mary there touched one of the cardinal reasons for the success of the AA movement. Their applicants soon learn that they have nothing to explain. They are talking to experts who have gone all the way down the road, have lain in every pitfall and tried every false exit. They cannot be shocked or deceived. "Finally," said Mary, "I landed in that lovely resort on the river, Bellevue, and what I saw there in two days left nothing but the bottle. "At last my husband gave up. He said there was nothing for us but a divorce. When we were in court someone asked us why we didn't try AA. So we telephoned, and the little man came. They asked me to the house on Twenty-fourth Street. I went and as soon as I was in the place I knew this was it. They talked to me some about God. I was raised in a convent school and that wasn't hard to take. Well, it worked. There's nothing more to say except that five weeks ago I had a baby." There were applause and cheers for Mary. "When I came out of the ether the doctor said to me: `Never lose your sense of humor, Mary. When you were still under you said: "What's all this talk about no atheists in foxholes? I guess you won't find any in delivery rooms, either."' From what my husband tells me you won't find any in the corridor." Mary was a joyful benediction. She filled the place with a sense of blessing. I doubt if there were any atheists there either. The words of a sainted woman spoken nearly a hundred years ago had come true. Drunkards, with the help of fellow victims, had found God. Whatever the pain to themselves and their loved ones the journey was worth it. Perhaps in no other way would they have found God. It seemed to one present that God was nearer in that hall than He had ever been before, that the God long accepted by the head had moved into the heart and only there can God's banners truly fly. Source: Your Life, November 1944 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1736. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Traditions Question From: Arthur . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/2/2004 1:12:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The data below is historical info on the development of the Traditions. I could not find anything to spell out what went into determining their sequence. Arthur *The history of the Twelve Traditions constructed from the following sources* 12&12 Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions AACOA AA Comes of Age BW-FH Bill W by Francis Hartigan BW-RT Bill W by Robert Thompson DBGO Dr Bob and the Good Oldtimers GSC General Service Conference (report) GTBT Grateful to Have Been There by Nell Wing Gv Grapevine LOH The Language of the Heart PIO Pass It On SM AA Service Manual and Twelve Concepts for World Service *1942:* Correspondence from groups gave early signals of a need to develop guidelines to help with group problems that occurred repeatedly. Basic ideas for the Twelve Traditions emerged from this correspondence and the principles defined in the Foreword to the 1st Ed. Big Book. (AACOA 187, 192-193, 198, 204, PIO 305-306, LOH 154) *1945: *Apr, Earl T, pioneer member and founder of AA in Chicago (whose story is _He Sold Himself Short_), suggested that Bill codify the Traditions and write essays on them for the Gv. Initially, the Twelve Traditions were qualified as _Twelve Points to Assure Our Future_. (AACOA 22, 203, GTBT 54-55, 77, SM S8, PIO 306, LOH 20-24) Aug, the Gv carried Bill's first Traditions article (titled _Modesty One Plank for Good Public Relations_) setting the ground work for his campaign for the Traditions. The July Gv had an article by member C.H.K. of Lansing, MI about the Washingtonians. Bill used this article to begin his essay commentaries. *1946: *Apr, the Gv carried the article _Twelve Suggested Points for AA Tradition_. These would later be called the long form of the Traditions. (AACOA viii, 96, 203, LOH 20, 154, Gv) *1947: *Jun, the _AA Preamble_ first appeared in the Gv. It was written by Tom Y, Grapevine's first editor. Aug, in his Gv Traditions essay _Last Seven Years Have Made AA Self-Supporting_, Bill wrote 'Two years ago the trustees set aside, out of AA book funds, a sum which enabled my wife and me to pay off the mortgage on our home and make some needed improvements. The Foundation also granted Dr. Bob and me each a royalty of 10% on the book Alcoholics Anonymous, our only income from AA sources. We are both very comfortable and deeply grateful.'' Dec, the Gv carried a notice that an important new 48 page pamphlet _AA Traditions_ was sent to each group and that enough copies were available for each member to have one free of charge. *1949: *As plans for the 1st Int'l Convention were under way, Earl T suggested to Bill that the _Twelve Suggested Points for AA Tradition_ would benefit from revision and shortening. (AACOA says 1947). Bill, with Earl's help, set out to develop the short form of the Traditions. (AACOA 213, GTBT 55, 77, PIO 334) Nov, the short form of the Twelve Traditions was first printed in the Gv. The entire issue was dedicated to the Traditions in preparation for the forthcoming Cleveland Convention. Two wording changes were subsequently made to the initial version: 'primary spiritual aim'' was changed to 'primary purpose'' in Tradition Six, and 'principles above personalities'' was changed to 'principles before personalities'' in Tradition Twelve. (LOH 96) *1950: *Jul, AA's 15th anniversary and 1st Int'l Convention at Cleveland, OH (est. 3,000 attendees). Registration was $1.50 per person. (AACOA 213, BW-RT 308, PIO 338). The Twelve Traditions were adopted unanimously by the attendees by standing vote. (AACOA 43, LOH 121, PIO 338) *1953: *Jun, the book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions was published. Bill W. described the work as 'This small volume is strictly a textbook which explains AA's 24 basic principles and their application, in detail and with great care.'' Bill was helped in its writing by Betty L and Tom P. Jack Alexander also helped with editing. It was published in two editions: one for $2.25 for distribution through AA groups, and a $2.75 edition distributed through Harper & Brothers for sale in commercial bookstores. (AACOA ix, 219, PIO 354-356) *1955:* AA's 15th anniversary and 2nd Int'l Convention at St Louis, MO. On Jul 3, by resolution, Bill W and its old-timers turned over the stewardship of the AA society to the movement. The Conference became the Guardian of the Traditions and voice of the group conscience of the entire Fellowship. The resolution was unanimously adopted by the Convention by acclamation and by the GSC by formal resolution and vote. (AACOA ix, 47-48, 223-228) *1957:* the GSC passed an advisory action that 'No change in Article 12 of the [Conference] Charter or in AA Tradition or in the Twelve Steps of AA may be made with less than the written consent of three-quarters of the AA groups.'' (SM S87) *1958:* the GSC passed an advisory action 'the GSC recognize the original use of the word `honest' before `desire to stop drinking' and its deletion from the Traditions as part of the evolution of the AA movement. Any change to be left to the discretion of AA Publishing, Inc.'' This advisory action is worded in a manner that can give the erroneous impression of a change to the wording of Tradition Three. It actually involved removing the word 'honest'' from 'honest desire to stop drinking'' in the AA Preamble in the Gv_. _It also led to changing the wording of the Preamble from 'AA has no dues or fees'' to 'There are no dues or fees for AA membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions.'' The changes were approved by the General Service Board in the summer of 1958 (www.aagrapevine.org also _Best of the Grapevine_, vol.1, 274-275) *Third Tradition Story (Two items that often are erroneously intermingled)* *1937: *On the AA calendar of 'year two,'' the spirit of Tradition Three emerged. A member asked to be admitted who frankly described himself to the 'oldest'' member as 'the victim of another addiction even worse stigmatized than alcoholism.'' The 'addiction'' was 'sex deviate.'' (Note: info provided by David S from an audiotape of Bill W at an open meeting of the 1968 GSC. See also the pamphlet _The Co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous_, P-53, pg 30). Guidance came form Dr Bob (the oldest member in Akron) asking, 'What would the Master do?'' The member was admitted and plunged into 12th Step work. (DBGO 240-241 12&12 141-142) Note: this story is often erroneously intermingled with an incident that occurred eight years later in 1945 at the 41st St clubhouse in NYC (described next). *1945:* Bill W was called by Barry L (who would later author _Living Sober_) from the 41st St clubhouse. Bill persuaded the group to take in a black man who was an ex-convict with bleach-blond hair, wearing women's clothing and makeup. The man also admitted to being a 'dope fiend.'' When asked what to do about it, Bill posed the question, 'did you say he was a drunk?'' When answered, 'yes'' Bill replied, 'well I think that's all we can ask.'' The man disappeared shortly after. (BW-FH 8, PIO 317-318) Anecdotal accounts erroneously say that this individual went on to become one of the best 12th Steppers in NY. This story is often erroneously intermingled with that of a 1937 incident ('year two'' on the AA calendar) involving an Akron member that is discussed in the Tradition Three essay in the 12&12 (pgs 141-142). *The Order of the Traditions* The order of the Traditions was defined in April 1946 and I cannot find anything that influenced the sequence in which they were written. The April 1946 Grapevine article states: Almost any A.A. can tell you what our group problems are. Fundamentally they have to do with our relations, one with the other, and with the world outside. They involve relations of the A.A. to his group, the relation of his group to Alcoholics Anonymous as a whole, and the place of Alcoholics Anonymous in that troubled sea called Modern Society, where all of humankind must presently shipwreck or find haven. Terribly relevant is the problem of our basic structure and our attitude toward those ever pressing questions of leadership, money and authority. The future may well depend on how we feel and act about things that are controversial and how we regard our public relations. Our final destiny will surely hang upon what we presently decide to do with these danger-fraught issues! Now comes the crux of our discussion. It is this: Have we yet acquired sufficient experience to state clear-cut policies on these, our chief concerns? Can we now declare general principles which could grow into vital traditions--traditions sustained in the heart of each A.A. by his own deep conviction and by the common consent of his fellows? That is the question. Though full answer to all our perplexities may never be found, I'm sure we have come at last to a vantage point whence we can discern the main outlines of a body of tradition; which, God willing, can stand as an effective guard against all the ravages of time and circumstance. Acting upon the persistent urge of old A.A. friends, and upon the conviction that general agreement and consent between our members is now possible, I shall venture to place in words these suggestions for _An Alcoholics Anonymous Tradition of Relations_--_Twelve Points to Assure Our Future._ The sequence of the Gv essays that Bill wrote do not follow the sequence of the Traditions until December 1947 through November 1948 when he wrote an essay for each Tradition in numerical sequence (later incorporated into the 12&12 and AA Comes of Age). His essays from August 1945 to November 1947 were: Modesty One Plank for Good Public Relations - Aug 1945 'Rules'' Dangerous but Unity Vital - Sep 1945 The Book Is Born - Oct 1945 A Tradition Born of Our Anonymity - Jan 1946 Our Anonymity Is Both Inspiration and Safety - Mar 1946 Twelve Suggested Points for AA Tradition - Apr 1946 Safe Use of Money - May 1946 Policy on Gift Funds - Jun 1946 The Individual in Relation to AA as a Group - Jul 1946 Who Is a Member of Alcoholics Anonymous - Aug 1946 Will AA Ever Have a Personal Government - Jan 1947 Dangers in Linking AA to Other Projects - Mar 1947 Clubs in AA - Apr 1947 Adequate Hospitalization: One Great Need - May 1947 Lack of Money Proved AA Boon - Jun 1947 Last Seven Years Have Made AA Self-Supporting - Aug 1947 Traditions Stressed in Memphis Talk - Oct 1947 Incorporations: Their Use and Misuse - Nov 1947 The above period of time was also when Bill was going through some of the worst of his episodes of depression. 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;"> 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;"> ----- *From:* Lash, William (Bill) [mailto:wlash@avaya.com] *Sent:* Wednesday, March 31, 2004 1:35 PM *To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Subject:* [AAHistoryLovers] Traditions Question 12.0pt;"> Does anyone know why the Twelve Traditions are in the order that they are in? Thanks! 12.0pt;"> Just Love, Barefoot Bill 12.0pt;"> IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1737. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Alan Guiness/A Members Eye View of AA From: mlibby . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/3/2004 1:06:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII His name was Allen McGuiness (deceased) and I believe he was from Southern California. I love the pamphlet and have memorized a large chunk of it because it is, in my opinion, the most beautiful expression of what AA is that I have ever read. I'll send you separately a 15 minute excerpt from the pamphlet that I recite daily on my way to work. You can go to xa-speakers.org and search for "Allen" and you'll find a series of five talks he gave in Brentwood, California back in 1968 called "AA Workshop" or something to that effect. Tremendous....very much in line with A Member's Eye View. You can download those and learn a significant amount more about this man through his sharing... He got sober in the early 1950's, went out shortly thereafter, but came back. Thank God. Mike ----- Original Message ----- From: burt reynolds To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, February 06, 2004 5:05 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Alan Guiness/A Members Eye View of AA Does anyone know anything about the man whose speech became the pamphlet "A Member's Eye View of AA"? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance: Get your refund fast by filing online [5] IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1738. . . . . . . . . . . . Sam Shoemaker Obituary (1964) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/5/2004 8:08:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII January 1964 AA Grapevine In Memory of Dr. Sam by Bill ON Thursday, October 31, 1963 Dr. Sam Shoemaker, the great Episcopal clergyman and first friend of AA, passed from our sight and hearing. He was one of those few without whose ministration AA could never have been born in the first place - nor prospered since. From his teaching, Dr. Bob and I absorbed most of the principles that were later embodied in the Twelve Steps of AA. Our ideas of self-examination, acknowledgement of character defects, restitution for harms done and working with others came straight from Sam. Therefore he gave to us the concrete knowledge of what we could do about our illness; he passed to us the spiritual keys by which so many of us have since been liberated. We who in AA's early time were privileged to fall under the spell of his inspiration can never be the same again. We shall bless Sam's memory forever. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1739. . . . . . . . . . . . Significant April Dates in AA History - Revised From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/6/2004 3:55:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII April 1: 1939 - Alcoholics Anonymous AA's Big Book was published. 1966 - Sister Ignatia died at the age of 77. She worked with Dr. Bob in treating many early AA members at St. Thomas Hospital in Akron. 1984 - 12 Coconuts Group, Kapiolani Park, Waikiki, Hawaii, was founded. [22] April 3: 1941 - First Florida AA meeting was held. April 4: 1960 - The Chicago Daily News reported that Fr. Edward Dowling, Jesuit Priest who helped start the first AA group in St. Louis, had died at age 62. April 7: 1941 - Ruth Hock reported there were 1,500 letters asking for help, as a result of the Saturday Evening Post Article by Jack Alexander. April 10: 1939 - The first ten copies of the Big Book arrived at the office Bill shared with Hank Parkhurst in Newark, New Jersey. April 11: 1938 - Alcoholic Foundation held its first meeting. 1939 - Marty Mann attended her first meeting a the home of Bill and Lois Wilson in Brooklyn. 1941 - Bill and Lois Wilson moved into their new home, Stepping Stones. April 12: 1942 - The Windsor Daily Star in Ontario, Canada, reported that over 400 AA's attended a testimonial dinner for Dr. Bob. April 16: 1940 - A sober Rollie Helmsley caught the only opening day no-hitter in baseball history since 1909. 1973 - Dr. Jack Norris Chairman of the AA General Service Board, presented President Richard Nixon with the one-millionth copy of the Big Book at the White House. April 17: 1941 - 2nd group in Los Angeles, the "Hole in the Ground Group" was formed. April 19: 1940 - First AA group in Little Rock, Arkansas, was formed. April 22: 1940 - Bill Wilson transferred his Works Publishing Stock to the Alcoholic Foundation. The date on which Hank Parkhurst transferred his stock is uncertain. See: Yahoo! Groups : AAHistoryLovers Messages : Message 75 of 1732 [23] April 23: 1940 - Dr. Bob wrote the Trustees to refuse Big Book royalties, but Bill Wilson insisted on them for Dr. Bob and Anne. April 24: 1989 - Dr. Leonard Strong died. He was Bill's brother-in-law and an AA Trustee. April 25: 1951 - AA's first General Service Conference was held. April 26: 1939 - Bill & Lois Wilson moved in with Hank Parkhurst after the bank foreclosed on 182 Clinton St. This was the first of over 50 moves before they acquired Stepping Stones. April 30: 1989 - The film "My Name is Bill W.," a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation, was broadcast at 9 p.m. on ABC TV. Other April events for which we have no specific dates: 1940 - The "Texas Preamble" used to open meetings in Texas, was written by Larry J. of Houston. See: Yahoo! Groups : AAHistoryLovers Messages : Message 841 of 1732 [24] 1940 - The first AA pamphlet was published, entitled simply: "AA." 1958 - The word "honest" was dropped from "an honest desire to top drinking," in the AA Preamble. 1960 - Bill Wilson refused to be on the cover of Time Magazine. 1988 - Cybil C., the first woman member in Los Angeles and archivist, died. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1740. . . . . . . . . . . . Periodical Lit., REad, March 1945 From: Jim Blair . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/7/2004 7:15:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Do You Drink Too Much? A Professor of Psychology Tells Why PeopleDrink - and Offers Advice By Peter J. Hampton The moderate drinker avoids getting drunk. He does not seek intoxication. He uses alcoholic beverages because he likes their taste and enjoys their soothing effects. Occasionally he uses them also as a means of allaying irritation and assuaging minor pains. Alcohol is not a necessity for the moderate drinker. It constitutes only a small item in his budget. More than half of the approximately 40,000,000 users of alcoholic beverages in the United States fall into this category. They can take it or leave it alone, for they have complete control over their drinking. This, more than anything else, distinguishes the moderate from the habitual or intemperate drinker. The habitual drinker uses alcohol almost every day but in view of his health and tolerance for alcoholic beverages, he does not as a rule develop any alcoholic disease. He indulges in alcohol for the lift he gets from it. Alcohol breaks down his reserve and removes his inhibitions, and thus gives him a chance to work up enthusiasm for social activities and self-expression. Alcohol aids him, also, in covering up any neurotic faults he may have. A credit manger for a retail store claims that drinking makes him a better social companion and at the same time gives him a feeling of importance. "when drinking," he says "I feel like 'a big shot' and have no worries." An inspector of machine parts puts it this way: "Because of my backward and timid nature, especially when I have to meet people, I take a few drinks to bolster me up. I feel as though the only time I can assert myself is when I am half drunk. I honestly believe that my being shy, timid, and having an inferiority complex is the main reason for my drinking." Unlike many of the 7,000,000 habitual drinkers, this inspector of machine parts knows why he drinks. Knowing, he can help himself. The neurotic drinker has to overcome his fear of people and things before he can regain control over alcohol. The pleadings and prayers of others have no effect on him. It is only when he shakes off his juvenile thinking and begins to realize that peace, contentment, relaxation and happiness come from within himself, and not from the inside of a beer glass, that he is on his way to recovery from the bondage of liquor. The remaining 3,000,000 users of alcoholic beverages in the United States, grouped under intemperate drinkers, include the normal excessive drinkers, symptomatic drinkers, stupid drinkers and alcoholic addicts. Recklessness, exuberance and mistaken good fellowship are usually to blame for the overindulgence of excessive drinkers. Many are individuals of high alcoholic tolerance who could stop, but do not merely because there seems to be no reason to do so. The symptomatic drinkers are those individuals whose excessive drinking is the result of a disturbed mental state. They may suffer from hysteria, neurasthenia, psychasthenia, schizophrenia, paranoia or manic depressive psychosis. Their drinking is only one of the many debilitating symptoms of their psychoneurotic or psy-chotic state. Here is the story of a retail salesman who may be classified as a symptomatic drinker: "As nearly as I can remember," the salesman told me, "I began to drink heavily in 1927. My average consumption of liquor per day then was two pints of hard stuff. In 1930, I had my first bout with delirium tremens and was hospitalized. When I got out, I resumed my drinking. During the next few years I was under a doctor's care three or four times. In 1937 I married, more to escape the family and be able to drink in peace than anything else.... "The courts got tired of seeing me and I was probated and sent to a mental hospital. I stayed for thirty days and then got out on probation. Two months later I was back at the hospital. This time I was placed in the strong ward for incurables where I spent the next thirteen months. Thirty days after I was let out, I was drunk once more. My wife got fed up with me and divorced me. "My trips to the hospital continued, sometimes for delirium tremens, sometimes for epileptic convulsions. Finally in September, 1943, I joined Alcoholics Anonymous. I had my last drink on October 3, 1943, and haven't had the slightest urge to drink since." Our friend, of course, is far from saved, even though he has joined Alcoholics Anonymous and has been sober for more than a year. A psychiatric examination shows that he has the symptomatology of paranoia, psychasthenia and schizophrenia, and, by his own admission, he has had epileptic convulsions. His drinking is therefore symptomatic and not causative, and unless the cause of his psychotic tendencies can be removed or ameliorated, he will at some future time relapse into inebriety. Stupid drinkers are the feeble-minded individuals who drink because they cannot resist temptation and because they cannot rise to any higher form or recreation than the passive one of intoxication. These are the unfortunate individuals who, because of their low intelligence, cannot foresee the consequences of their actions. Finally, the alcoholic addict is a person with an uncontrollable craving for alcohol. The outstanding criterion is the inability to break with the habit. Alcohol serves the purpose of creating an artificial social and personal adjustment. A woman inspector at a watch-case factory tells this story: "At the time I started to be a heavy drinker, I had become very discouraged, not having a husband and a home of my own in which to rear my daughter. All the men I came in contact with were heavy drinkers and I drank with them. I thought at the time most men liked a woman who drank with them. I drank because my marriage had been a failure." A bond dealer adds: "It was difficult to live with myself. I was not an upstanding citizen. I could not understand myself. I drank because of the threat of divorce and because I was losing custody of my baby son." From a social point of view, only the 3,000,000 intemperate drinkers constitute a serious problem to society. The symptomatic drinkers and the stupid drinkers, when detected, are as a rule hospitalized in state institutions, with the result that society manages to keep them harmless. The normal excessive drinkers, although troublesome at times, usually contain themselves sufficiently to avoid being public hazards. The most pernicious and the most dangerous of intemperate drinkers are the alcoholic addicts. Unable to control their drinking, they will go to almost any length to satisfy their craving for liquor. Although many of these people are likable and intelligent, they often become dangerous to themselves and to others. Their main difficulty lies in their absence of deep emotional responses, their inability to profit from experience, and their disregard of social mores. Between alcoholic sprees, they behave like perfectly normal people. The inability of alcoholic addicts to profit from experience makes them especially liable to asocial and antisocial deeds. The following excerpts, taken from autobiographical sketches of alcoholic addicts in my files, illustrate the point. A district manager for a business concern writes: "When I was in high school, I worked afternoons and Saturdays at a shoe store for $7 per week. Finding that having money in my pocket all the time added to my popularity, I soon began a system of petty thievery at the store." A woman running a rooming house writes: "I gradually came to the point where drink was the first thing in my mind. I would lie, steal and deceive to get it. I became a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I treated my mother awful while under the influence of liquor, but would do anything for her when sober. The same thing with my daughter. I even thought of suicide to end the disgrace I was causing my mother and daughter." Within the last ten years, a group of alcoholic addicts, known as Alcoholics Anonymous, have instituted a program of cure which has led many of these people back to sobriety. In a recent study of the personality structure of alcoholic addicts, I had an opportunity to question several hundred members of Alcoholics Anonymous as to why they became heavy drinkers. Many of the reasons offered are good reasons, but not necessarily the real ones, for, like most other people, alcoholic addicts are past masters of the art of rationalization. However, the consistency found in the statements reveals a common trend which points to escape as perhaps the most fundamental reason for excessive drinking. The alcoholic addict may try to escape from himself. Drink makes him gay, lively and happy. He forgets about his emotional immaturity, his feelings of insecurity. He becomes noisy, even boisterous and defiant. He feels like "a big shot" with no worries. Instead of trying to escape from himself, the alcohol addict may try to escape from other people. He may drink to escape the nagging of his wife, the pettiness of domestic and business relations. Disappointed in his social and financial ambitions, he may drink to escape all social responsibilities. He may become depressed and morose and hides from people. A manager for a construction company says: "I was unable to secure the financial and social position I desired. I had an adolescent viewpoint-refused to accept things as they were. I tried to find continued escape through alcohol and hide my frustration." Finally, the alcoholic addict may try to escape from the environment in which he finds himself. He may use alcohol as a means to overcome the fears, worries and anxieties brought on by the real world or as a straight defense mechanism to substitute phantasy for all reality. An advertising copywriter explains: "I used my first wife's desertion as an excuse to drink. But I believe it was an effort to escape from all reality. I drank because of boredom, frustration, anger and the weather." A stenographer says: "I sought to find temporary escape from reality. Mother's illness, which steadily grew worse until she was finally committed to a mental hospital for senile dementia, made my life drab and miserable. I drank to escape from it all." These then are the reasons why people drink. There are many ways of finding relief from "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune." Alcohol is one of the worst. Source: Read, March, 1945 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1742. . . . . . . . . . . . grapevine 6/1950 From: billyk3 . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/8/2004 4:22:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII does anyone know for sure who wrote this? it was probably the 'editors' but if there is a name, i'd like to know it. what a trbute to a wonderful lady!! thanks billyk June 1950 AA Grapevine ANNE SMITH (March 21st, 1881 - June 1st, 1949) "She greeted strangers, and listened for their names." SOMEHOW we believe Dr. Bob's beloved Anne would prefer this simple tribute beyond all others. It was written by one who knew her well. It came from the bottom of a grateful heart which sensed that extravagant language and trumpeting phrases would serve only to obscure a life that had deep meaning. It is doubtful if now, only one year after her passing, that, the true significance of Anne Smith's life can be realized. Certainly it cannot yet be written, for the warmth of her love, and charm of her personality and the strength of her humility are still upon those of us who knew her. For Anne Smith was far more than a gracious lady. She was one of four people, chosen by a Higher Destiny, to perform a service to mankind. How great this contribution is, only time and an intelligence beyond man's can determine. With Dr. Bob, Lois and Bill, Anne Smith stepped into history, not as a heroine but as one willing to accept God's will and ready to do what needed to be done. Her kitchen was the battleground and, while Anne poured the black coffee, a battle was fought there which has led to your salvation and mine. It was she, perhaps, who first understood the miracle of what passed between Bill and Dr. Bob. And, in the years to follow, it was she who knew with divine certainty that what had happened in her home would happen in other homes again, again, and yet again. For Anne, understood the simplicity of faith. Perhaps that's why God chose her for us. Perhaps that's why Anne never once thought of herself as a 'woman of destiny' but went quietly about her job. Perhaps that's why, when she said to a grief-torn wife, "Come in, my dear, you're with friends now - friends who understand" that fear and loneliness vanished. Perhaps that's why Anne always sat in the rear of the meetings, so she could see the newcomers as they came, timid and doubtful...and make them welcome. There's a plaque on the wall of Akron's St. Thomas hospital dedicated to Anne. It's a fine memorial. But there's a finer one lying alongside the typewriter as this is being written - letters to Dr. Bob from men and women who knew and loved her well. Each tries to put in words what is felt in many hearts. They fail - and that's the tribute beyond price. For real love, divine love, escapes even the poet's pen. So, in the simplest way we know, and speaking for every AA everywhere, let's just say 'Thanks, Dr. Bob, for sharing her with us.' We know that she's in a Higher Group now, sitting well to the back, with an eye out for newcomers, greeting the strangers and listening for their names! IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1747. . . . . . . . . . . . Traditions applied to GSO? Compiled. From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/10/2004 1:54:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The following have been deleted from the list and combined here: From: kentedavis@aol.com [25] Date: Thu Apr 8, 2004 11:43 am Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Traditions applied to GSO? I have been trying to find a reference that indicates if GSO is to be guided by the traditions or were the traditions written to apply only to groups. So far I have not been successful in my efforts. Specifically, I would like to find out if any one knows of a reference of GSO being self supporting. I would really like to figure out if there has been any conference action that indicates that GSO is to follow the tradition. Kent D Concord, CA From: Jim Blair Date: Thu Apr 8, 2004 11:43 pm Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Traditions applied to GSO? In an article in the November, 1952 AA Grapevine Bill W. stated that A.A.'s Twelve Traditions- Define my relation to the group. Define my group's relation to AA as a whole. Define our relations with the public. Give us a set of attitudes towards money, property, power and prestige. I think this will answer your question. Jim From: Jeff Your Date: Fri Apr 9, 2004 9:11 am Subject: Re: GSO and Traditions Kent, Take a look at Concepts III and XII: [III] To insure effective leadership, we should endow each element of AA. -- the Conference, the General Service Board and its service corporations, staffs, committees, and executives -- with a traditional "Right of Decision." [XII] The Conference shall observe the spirit of A.A. tradition, taking care that it never becomes the seat of perilous wealth or power; that sufficient operating funds and reserve be its prudent financial principle; that it place none of its members in a position of unqualified authority over others; that it reach all important decisions by discussion, vote, and, whenever possible, by substantial unanimity; that its actions never be personally punitive nor an incitement to public controversy; that it never perform acts of government, and that, like the Society it serves, it will always remain democratic in thought and action. Now, I don't know how much you want to split hairs, but these two Concepts, as well as references within the other Concepts clearly indicate to me that all AA entities recognize and follow the Traditions. At the same time, the Traditions are not legal documents and do not provide the necessary language in corporate circles to allow AA to live within the real world and conduct the business of AA outside the rooms of AA. So, there are other documents and by-laws which govern the day to day workings of the Trustees, when acting on behalf of our Fellowship. From: "Arthur" Date: Fri Apr 9, 2004 12:32 pm Subject: RE: [AAHistoryLovers] Traditions applied to GSO? The Twelve Steps, Twelve Traditions and Twelve Concepts are spiritual principles that are supposed to be practiced by AA as whole (i.e. members, groups, districts, central offices, areas, regions, GSOs, Conferences, etc., etc.). That’s how we pass on the Three Legacies of Recovery, Unity and Service throughout the Fellowship. Following is an abbreviated timeline of the evolution of the GSO in NY (which in its early days was called the “NY Headquarters” office): Aug 11, 1938: the Alcoholic Foundation was established as a charitable trust with a board of 5 Trustees (in Language of the Heart 61, Bill W said it started with 7 Trustees). Non-alcoholic board members were Willard (Dick) Richardson (who proposed the Foundation) Frank Amos and John E F Wood. One of the early challenges facing Wood was legally defining the difference between an alcoholic and non-alcoholic. (Language of the Heart, pg 61) Alcoholic board members were Dr Bob and NY member William (Bill) Ruddell (whose Big Book story is A Business Man’s Recovery). Bill R was the first Board Chairman but returned to drinking and resigned in Feb 1939. The board composition began a long (and later troublesome) tradition of making non-alcoholics a majority. An advisory committee to the board was also established. It consisted of A LeRoy Chipman, Bill W, Albert L Scott and Hank P. (AA Comes of Age 151-152, Lois Remembers 197, Not God 66, 307, 330, Pass It On 188 -- Not God 330 end note states that the AA Comes of Age date and Amos’ date of Aug 5 are in error and gives the date as Spring 1938, Language of the Heart 142 and AA Comes of Age 15 say Spring of 1938). Feb 8, 1940: John D Rockefeller Jr. held a dinner for AA at the Union League Club. 75 out of 400 invited guests attended. Nelson Rockefeller hosted the dinner in the absence of his ill father. The dinner produced much favorable publicity for AA. It also raised $2,200 ($29,000 today) from the attendees ($1,000 from Rockefeller). Rockefeller and the dinner guests continued to provide about $3,000 a year ($34,000 today) up to 1945 when they were asked to stop contributing. The Alcoholic Foundation received the donations and income from sales of the Big Book. (Lois Remembers 197, AA Comes of Age viii, 182-187, Not God 92-94, Pass It On 232-235). Mar 1, 1941: Jack Alexander's Saturday Evening Post article was published. The publicity caused 1941 membership to jump from around 2,000 to 8,000. Bill and two other members’ pictures appeared full-face in the article. (AA Comes of Age viii, 35-36, 190-191, Language of the Heart 149-150, Pass It On 245-247) The article, led to over 6,000 appeals for help to be mailed to Box 658 for the NY Office to handle. (Service Manual S7, Pass It On 249) The NY office asked groups to donate $1 ($12 today) per member for support of the office. This began the practice of financing the NY office operations from group donations. (AA Comes of Age 112, 192, Language of the Heart 149, SM S7) 1945: The Alcoholic Foundation wrote to John D Rockefeller, Jr. and the 1940 dinner guests that AA no longer needed their financial help. Big Book royalties could look after Dr Bob and Bill W and Group contributions could pay the general office expenses. This ended all “outside contributions” to AA. (AA Comes of Age 203-204) 1950: AA members were asked to donate $2 per year ($15 today) to support the NY office. (Language of the Heart 159) 1958 General Service Conference Advisory Action: The suggestion of the name change from General Service Hq. to General Service Office be adopted. (M-39) The earliest written reference would likely be the long form of Tradition Nine which states the following: Each A.A. group needs the least possible organization. Rotating leadership is the best. The small group may elect its Secretary, the large group its Rotating Committee, and the groups of a large Metropolitan area their Central or Intergroup Committee, which often employs a full-time Secretary. The trustees of the General Service Board are, in effect, our A.A. General Service Committee. They are the custodians of our A.A. Tradition and the receivers of voluntary A.A. contributions by which we maintain our A.A. General Service Office at New York. They are authorized by the groups to handle our over-all public relations and they guarantee the integrity of our principle newspaper, "The A.A. Grapevine." All such representatives are to be guided in the spirit of service, for true leaders in A.A. are but trusted and experienced servants of the whole. They derive no real authority from their titles; they do not govern. Universal respect is the key to their usefulness. Page S69 in the 2003-2004 Service Manual states the following: FINANCIAL SUPPORT: According to the Seventh Tradition, every group should be self-supporting, and the Tradition includes such pooled services as those provided by G.S.O. A.A. World Services has two sources of revenue: group contributions and income from the publishing operation. For reporting purposes, activities at G.S.O. are lumped into two categories: service and publishing expense. In the past, A.A. groups have contributed enough to cover about two-thirds of the service expenses (services provided to all registered groups, whether or not they make a contribution). The rest was covered by publishing income, which was in excess of that required for publishing expenses. In 1986, the General Service Board asked for a special effort to inform the Fellowship of the dangers inherent in this situation; particularly that a substantial fraction of the publishing income now comes from outside sources. The effort was begun to inform the groups about this growing problem. The challenge was to make G.S.0.S service work self-supporting through contributions of the membership and to sell literature at cost to everyone. The number and extent of group services have increased over the years, but the real cost of service per group has decreased consistently owing to the growth of the Fellowship. However, all groups do not contribute to the support of the service work. About one-half do not. This places a heavier burden on the groups that do. More important than the dollar amount of contributions, however, is group participation in this part of A.A. service work, as in the other activities that make groups members of the A.A. community. Making regular contributions to world services ties a group to A.A. worldwide. Many groups have found it convenient to set up a regular contribution plan whereby they send in a predetermined percentage each month or each quarter. For part of this â€" or to make additions to it - they use various methods. The Birthday Plan is one: On their A.A. birthdays each year, group members make their personal contributions (through group treasuries) on the basis of $1.00 for each year of sobriety. G.S.O. will send special Birthday Plan envelopes on request. Many groups have their own ways of getting their regular or special contributions together. In Memoriam contributions honor the memory of a deceased member. Of course contributions of this type, like those of any other, can be accepted from A.A. members only. In keeping with the Traditions, G.S.O. accepts contributions only from A.A. members, groups or other A.A. entities. Furthermore, the General Service Conference limits individual contributions to $2,000 per year. This limit also applies to a one-time bequest of $2,000 in the wills of deceased members. Arthur PS Last year around 46% of the groups in the US/Canada contributed to the GSO. From: "Dean @ e-AA" Date: Fri Apr 9, 2004 5:46 pm Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Traditions applied to GSO? GSO belongs to AA World Services, Inc., one of the two operating corporations "owned" by the General Service Board of Trustees. (The other corporation being the AA Grapevine, Inc.) The Steps, Traditions (short form), and Concepts all appear in the GSB bylaws. Here are some snippets from the bylaws: "The General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous, Inc., now has but one primary purpose, that of serving the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous." "The General Service Board in its deliberations and decisions shall be guided by the Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous. ..." "The General Service Board also shall be guided by the spirit of the Twelve Concepts of Alcoholics Anonymous. ..." The GSB bylaws are included in the "AA Service Manual." -- Dean C. Monterey Peninsula, California IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1748. . . . . . . . . . . . Reference to "As Bill Sees It" From: Sheila . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/14/2004 6:59:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII In the Book "As Bill Sees It" there are several referenced footnotes to "A.A. Today". However, I cannot find any info or links to this literature. Can anyone help me out? Thanks Sheila IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1749. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Reference to "As Bill Sees It" From: Arthur Sheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/17/2004 6:35:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Sheila "AA Today" was the first book published by the AA Grapevine. It was unveiled in 1960 at the 25th Anniversary Convention in Long Beach, CA. The book was an album styled volume containing original pictures and articles by Bill W, AA pioneers and early surviving AA friends. Similar (but smaller sized) books were published in the anniversary years of 1985 ("50 Years With Gratitude") and 1995 ("AA Everywhere - Anywhere"). Arthur ----- Original Message ----- From: Sheila To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, April 14, 2004 6:59 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Reference to "As Bill Sees It" In the Book "As Bill Sees It" there are several referenced footnotes to "A.A. Today". However, I cannot find any info or links to this literature. Can anyone help me out? Thanks Sheila IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1750. . . . . . . . . . . . New Update of "A Narrative Timeline of AA History" From: Arthur Sheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/17/2004 8:48:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi AA History Lovers For those of you who are familiar with Archie M's "Timelines in AA History (1864 - present)" - his basic research data was used some time ago as a starting point to develop an expanded chronology with added narrative and reference sources. It is titled "A Narrative Timeline of AA History" and will be sent, in PDF file format, to any member of AA History Lovers who replies to this message. If you desire a copy of the timeline, please be careful to reply only to ArtSheehan@msn.com and not to AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com. Otherwise Nancy O, our moderator, will get burdened with the replies. The timeline document is marked "confidential" and is intended for AA members and serious AA history researchers only. It contains last names and this version should not be publicly posted. There is also a "public" version of the document that can be posted on a web site and be distributed to the general public (last names have been reduced to last initial). Arthur IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1756. . . . . . . . . . . . Jack Alexander Article pictures. From: Jaime Maliachi . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/19/2004 4:12:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII * bold;">Bill W. Told us in A.A. comes of Age, that in the *Jack Alexander's _Saturday Evening Post_ article, some pictures were required by editors. *Somebody knows who were the A. A. members that gave the face in that event?* *Some body has any image about?* * bold;"> * * 12.0pt;font-family:Verdana;">Jaime F. Maliachi Pedrote.* * 12.0pt;font-family:Verdana;">servidor y amigo.* * 12.0pt;font-family:Verdana;">57 85 68 00 57 85 68 26* * 12.0pt;font-family:Verdana;">fax 57 85 68 44* 12.0pt;"> IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1760. . . . . . . . . . . . Trip to the Lois Wilson Picnic, Leaving from Berkeley Heights NJ, 6/5/04 From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/20/2004 7:43:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII JOIN US FOR A TRIP TO THE ANNUAL 2004 LOIS WILSON PICNIC At Stepping Stones (where Bill & Lois Wilson lived from 1941 until they died) 62 Oak Road, Bedford Hills (Katonah), NY Stepping Stones contact number is 914-232-7368. Saturday, June 5, 2004 House & Wit's End is open for viewing at 12noon. AA (someone who knew Bill Wilson), Alanon, & Alateen speakers meeting begins at 2pm. Only coffee, soda, & dessert will be served at the house so we will be stopping for lunch on the way. We are meeting at: The Union Village United Methodist Church 1130 Mountain Ave., Berkeley Heights, NJ We will be leaving from Berkeley Heights at EXACTLY 10:45am. For more info or to call the day of the trip please contact Barefoot Bill at 732-939-5907 (cell). Directions to The Union Village United Methodist Church (10:45am start): Traveling Rt. 22 West take Watchung Ave - VA Hospital Exit. Proceed straight on Watchung Ave. to traffic circle. Make first right then immediate left toward Berkeley Heights. The Union Village Methodist Church is approximately 3 miles on Hillcrest Rd. before blinking red light. Traveling Rt. 22 East take Watchung Ave. exit, make the first right and go over Rt. 22 to the red light. Turn left onto Watchung Ave. and follow directions above. Traveling Rt. 78 West take Exit 40 and make a right a yield sign. Proceed straight on Hillcrest Rd. for approximately 1 1/2 miles. Church is on the right before blinking light. Traveling Rt. 78 East take Exit 40 and make a left at stop sign. Proceed straight on Hillcrest Rd. for approximately 1 1/2 miles. Church is on the right before blinking light. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1761. . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. Isadore Tuerk - Compiled From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/21/2004 4:11:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII This is a compilation of posts about Isadore Tuerk: The Alcoholics Anonymous West Baltimore Group began in 1947. It's website mentions a Dr. Tuerk. "One of the members approached Dr. Tuerk, who was in charge of the state mental institutions and was given permission to bring alcoholic patients to the meetings in Charlie C's home." You can read more about the West Baltimore Group at this website: Alcoholics Anonymous West Baltimore Group, alcoholism, recovery, aa, AA, health [30] Last week I attended the NCADD-Maryland Tuerk Conference where I spoke on AA history. The following was in the first page of the program book for the conference: REMEMBERING DR. TUERK Isadore Tuerk, a psychiatrist who served as Maryland's Mental Health Commissioner for eight years, died of heart failure at the age of 81 on February 26, 1989. A native of Baltimore, Dr. Tuerk oversaw the state's mental hospital system from 1960 to 1968 before leaving public service, and continued practicing psychiatry and teaching at the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins medical schools. Dr. Tuerk grew up in the neighborhood around the School of Medicine, and first came into contract with the school as a child when he delivered clothes made by his tailor father. A 1924 graduate of Baltimore City College, Dr. Tuerk completed undergraduate studies at Hopkins and received his medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1934. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II as a division psychiatrist in the European Theatre, was awarded a bronze star and was discharged in 1946 as a lieutenant colonel. As a public servant, he fought for more dollars for the state's mental hospitals and pioneered group therapy techniques for alcoholics. All were welcome to the Saturday morning sessions he launched at Spring Grove State mental Hospital where he became a staff psychiatrist in 1939 and superintendent 10 years later. Even street people sometimes showed up for the sessions. His son Jonathan recollected that Dr. Tuerk only once threw someone out of the sessions - a man who came in with a bottle of whiskey. "It was the only time he ever kicked somebody out of the group and years later he kept asking whether that was the right thing to do." Dr. Tuerk was an honorary member of the Maryland Society on Alcoholism Treatment and was named its Man of the Year in 1957. Tuerk House, an alcoholic treatment center, formerly a University of Maryland drug and alcohol abuse treatment center, was named in his honor in 1970. He retired in 1986. A loyal member of the Medical Alumni Association, Dr. Tuerk received the Gold Key and Honor Award in 1981. He was a faithful caller in the Annual Phonothon, spreading his enthusiasm to the other participants. In 1987, he received the Medical Alumni Association Service Award for having contributed the most time making Phonothon calls. In November 1988, he was disappointed that his health prevented him from taking part. He was loved and admired by all those whose lives he touched. The Alumni office staff remembers him as soft spoken, warm and caring. Nancy Olson Moderator __________ From: kyyank@aol.com [31] Date: Tue Apr 20, 2004 8:44am Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Dr. Isadore Tuerk I came across some information that may be useful in the research of my book "SILKWORTH- The Little Doctor Who Loved Drunks" that is listed in the back section. Note particularly the collection of articles from that period of time. Dale Mitchel IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1763. . . . . . . . . . . . LSD use by AA members in AA History. - Compiled From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/21/2004 4:07:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII From: WCompWdsUnl@aol.com [32] Date: Tue Apr 20, 2004 7:52 am Subject: LSD use by AA members in AA History. Dear AA History Lovers: In "Pass It On," Bill Wilson's historical documentation of the actual history of the AA movement, from it's inception, Bill Wilson records an entire chapter, Chapter 23; Anything that helps Alcoholics...Bill experiments with LSD but eventually ceases when controversy stirs within AA. (This chapter describes how the pioneers of AA, used LSD, to wean or taper, chronic alcoholics to sobriety.) This is a phenomena similar to the modern day recovery of heroin addicts, using methadone. (Pages 368 - 378.) Can anyone provide further information related to the history of the use of LSD by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith, with Alcoholic's, in AA? Larry W. Atlanta, GA From: "Alex H." [33] Date: Tue Apr 20, 2004 9:13am Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] LSD use by AA members in AA History. I suggest studying the context of the time in which these events occurred .... LSD initially was looked upon as a beneficial drug. I am not sure how much was known at the time of its potential for abuse. That is what I mean by finding out about the context of the time. How did normal folks look at LSD at the time? Alex From Arthur S: Hi Larry First off the book Pass It On is a biography not an autobiography â€" it’s about Bill W not by Bill W. The primary author of Pass It On is Mel B who is also a member of AAHistoryLovers. The functional comparison to methadone and heroin is a bit of a stretch. The intent of the LSD experiments was to induce DTs. If anything, it would likely fall into the class of "aversion therapy." Also, there is no linkage of Dr Bob to LSD in Pass It On. There were postings in February on the topic under the subject of "Humphrey Osmond." The response I sent in follows: ------ Feb response ------ There are a few other books that go in to the LSD experiments in more detail than Not God. Mel, by the way, is the modest and primary author of Pass It On which covers the matter in some detail. Francis Hartigan's book Bill W and Nell Wing’s book Glad to Have Been There offer information as well. The info below is a composite extract: British radio commentator Gerald Heard introduced Bill W to Aldous Huxley and to the British psychiatrists Humphry Osmond and Abraham Hoffer (the founders of orthomolecular psychiatry). Humphrey and Osmond were working with schizophrenic and alcoholic patients at a Canadian hospital. Bill W joined with Heard and Huxley and first took LSD in California on Aug 29, 1956. It was medically supervised by psychiatrist Sidney Cohen of the Los Angeles VA hospital. The LSD experiments occurred well prior to the "hippie era." At the time, LSD was thought to have psychotherapeutic potential (research was also being funded by the National Institutes of Health and National Academy of Sciences). The intent of Osmond and Hoffer was to induce an experience akin to delirium tremens (DTs) in hopes that it might shock alcoholics from alcohol. Among those invited to experiment with LSD (and who accepted) were Nell Wing, Father Ed Dowling, (possibly) Sam Shoemaker and Lois Wilson. Marty M and Helen W (Bill's mistress) and other AA members participated in NY (under medical supervision by a psychiatrist from Roosevelt Hospital). Bill had several experiments with LSD up to 1959 (perhaps into the 1960's). Pass It On reports that there were repercussions within AA over these activities. Lois was a reluctant participant and claimed to have had no response to the chemical. Hoffer and Osmond did research that later influenced Bill, in Dec 1966, to enthusiastically embrace a campaign to promote vitamin B3 (niacin - nicotinic acid) therapy. It created Traditions issues within the Fellowship and caused a bit of an uproar. The General Service Board report accepted by the 1967 Conference recommended that "to insure separation of AA from non-AA matters by establishing a procedure whereby all inquiries pertaining to B-3 and niacin are referred directly to an office in Pleasantville, NY in order that Bill's personal interest in these items not involve the Fellowship." Please reference the following for more details: Pass It On - pgs 368-376, 388-391 Not God - pgs 136-138 Bill W by Francis Hartigan - pgs 9, 177-179 Glad To Have Been There - pgs 81-82 Cheers Arthur S From Jared Lobdell: The idea that Chapter 23 of PIO shows the use of LSD to "taper off" alcoholics from alcohol in a mode of operations "simular" to methadone for heroin users does not tally with the chapter or with anything I know about Bill's use of LSD (or, indeed, with the present uses of methadone). The fact that methadone is a maintenance rather than a tapering-off program is not relevant here, but the apparent inaccuracy on LSD is. It is true that LSD was considered by some as a possible amethystine in the earlier days of its development, but it is clear from Chapter 23 (and the account in the not-now-Conference-approved book by Thomsen) that what intrigued Bill was the possibility of tapping the chemical component of classical mystical experiences otherwise occurring through prayer, fasting, meditation, etc (see esp. p. 375) -- in order to aid in spiritual sobriety (through ego-deflation etc.). Bill's general rule seems to have been that spiritual aids (including LSD) might be used, but anything that would turn AAs away from the spiritual path (valium = alcohol in a pill, for example) should not. (Of course, improved physical condition could also be sought, through Niacin etc.) -- Jared Lobdell IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1764. . . . . . . . . . . . Jack Alexander Article Picture From: Arthur . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/22/2004 8:55:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 11.0pt;"> *Saturday Evening Post Inside Spread - March 1, 1941* Bill's and others' pictures appeared full-face in the Saturday Evening Post article. (See Pass It On page 247) from left to right are: Horace C (partial view), Helen P, Tom M, Tom B, Ruth Hock, Bill W, Dick S, Ray W, Lois W, Gordon M and Bob F. The photo caption was 'A typical club house discussion group.'' Arthur ----- Original Message ----- *From:* Jaime Maliachi *To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Sent:* Monday, April 19, 2004 4:12 PM *Subject:* [AAHistoryLovers] Jack Alexander Article pictures. Bill W. Told us in A.A. comes of Age, that in the Jack Alexander's _Saturday Evening Post_ article, some pictures were required by editors. *Somebody knows who were the A. A. members that gave the face in that event?* *Some body has any image about?* * * *Jaime F. Maliachi Pedrote.* *servidory amigo.* *57 85 68 00 57 85 68 26* *fax 57 85 68 44* IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1766. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: LSD use by AA members in AA History. - Compiled From: Cloydg . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/22/2004 12:33:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII  I found this short article in relation to questions being asked about Bill W.'s LSD experience. It is short, concise and I believe it states his over-all-thoughts. I found it on the Jeeves Answer Brouser by asking: Bill Wilson, LSD Therapy. I too believe we AA's should remember, that at that time LSD(d-lysergic acid diethylamide) was invented; circa 1938. Many clinical uses were being experimented with to discover cures for many aliments, depression being one of them. I am hopeful we all keep this in perspective! NOTE: The following text is a transcription of Grinspoon & Bakalar's introduction to the history and use of psychedelics in the field of psychotherapy, originally published in Current Psychiatric Therapies in 1981 (20:275-283). Lester Grinspoon is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard University, and James Bakalar is a Lecturer in Law in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. One error in reference numbering and one in spelling (a typo) were corrected. Ron Koster October, 1996 Lester Grinspoon, M.D. James B. Bakalar The Psychedelic Drug Therapies Between 1950 and the mid-1960s there were more than a thousand clinical papers (discussing 40,000 patients), several dozen books, and six international conferences on psychedelic drug therapy. Almost all publication and most therapeutic practice in this field have now come to an end, however, as much because of legal and financial obstacles as because of loss of interest. There were two main sources of therapeutic involvement. One of these was the belief of some experimental subjects that, after taking a psychedelic drug, they were less depressed, anxious, guilty, and angry and more self-accepting, tolerant, deeply religious, and sensually alert.1 [34] The other main interest arose from the possibility that therapeutic use could be made of the powerful psychedelic experiences of regression, abreaction, intense transference, and symbolic drama in psychodynamic psychotherapy. As a result, two polar forms of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) therapy emerged: one emphasized the mystical or conversion experience and its aftereffects; the other concentrated on exploring the labyrinth of the unconscious in the manner of psychoanalysis. Psychedelic therapy, as the first of these was called, involved the use of a large dose of LSD (200 µg or more) in a single session and was thought to be helpful in reforming alcoholics and criminals, as well as in improving the lives of normal people. The second type, psycholytic (literally, mind-loosening) therapy, required relatively small doses (usually not more than 150 µg) and several or even many sessions; it was used mainly for neurotic and psychosomatic disorders.2 [35] ,3 [36] In the psycholytic procedure, patients may be hospitalized or not; they may be asked to concentrate on interpretation of the drug-induced visions, on symbolic psychodrama, on regression with the psychotherapist as a parent surrogate, or on discharge of tension in physical activity. Props such as eyeshades, photographs, and objects with symbolic significance are often used. Music often plays an important part. The theoretical basis of this kind of psychotherapy is usually some form of psychoanalysis. If birth experiences are seen as true relivings of the traumatic event, Rank's ideas may be introduced; if archetypal visions are regarded as genuine manifestations of the collective unconscious, the interpretations will be Jungian. An advantage of psychedelic drugs in exploring the unconscious is that a fragment of the adult ego usually keeps watch through all the fantasy adventures. Patients remain intellectually alert and remember their experiences vividly. They also become acutely aware of ego defenses such as projection, denial, and displacement as they catch themselves in the act of creating them. Transference can also be greatly intensified. Psycholytic therapy has been recommended to speed up psychoanalysis and psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy, especially for people with excessively strict superegos and a lack of self-esteem. It has also been used to overcome the resistance of severe chronic neurotics with defenses so rigid that they would otherwise be inaccessible to treatment. In practice, many combinations, variations, a special applications with some of the features of both psycholytic and psychedelic therapy have evolved. Stanislav Grof regards the form of treatment he developed in Czechoslovakia as a bridge between psycholytic and psychedelic therapy. The unconscious material brought into consciousness by LSD is said to incorporate the most significant events in the patient's emotional life and permit a systematic exploration of personality along Freudian lines. This is followed by reliving the birth trauma and then passage into the realm of archetypes and mystical or transpersonal experience.4 [37] The Chilean psychiatrist Claudio Naranjo has pioneered the use of psychedelic drugs that do not produce the same degree of perceptual and emotional disturbance as LSD. Harmaline and ibogaine, which he calls fantasy enhancers, permit the use of guided fantasy techniques borrowed from Gestalt therapy to explore unconscious conflicts. The "feeling enhancers," 3,4 methylenedioxyamphetamine (MDA) and the 3-methoxy-4,5 compound (MDMA), give a heightened capacity for introspection and intimacy along with a temporary freedom from anxiety and depression.5 [38] NEUROTIC DISORDERS One woman described her experience with psycholytic therapy this way:6 [39] I found that in addition to being, consciously, a loving mother and a respectable citizen, I was also, unconsciously, a murderess, a pervert, a cannibal, a sadist, and a masochist. In the wake of these dreadful discoveries, I lost my fear of dentists, the clicking in my neck and throat, the arm tensions, and my dislike of clocks ticking in the bedroom. I also achieved transcendent sexual fulfillment. . . . At the end of nine sessions, over a period of nine weeks, I was cured of my hitherto incurable frigidity. And at the end of 5 months, I felt that I had been completely reconstituted as a human being. I have continued to feel that way ever since. These passages were written 3 years after a 5-month period during which she took LSD 23 times. Before that, she had had 4 years of psychoanalysis, but it was only after taking LSD that she became fully convinced of the value of Freud's theories. Psycholytic therapy has also been reported to be successful in treating chronic migraine headaches:7 [40] A 22-year-old woman who had suffered from migraine for 11 years went through nine LSD sessions. She relived trips to the dentist, her fear when she was given anesthesia for a tonsillectomy, and her desolation at being abandoned in a hospital when she was 11 years old. The migraine disappeared; 3 years later she and her husband wrote that she has felt less tense, more at peace with herself, and more mature; the migraine never returned. Psychedelic drugs can also be used as a treatment for more ordinary forms of neurotic depression and anxiety and to resolve sexual problems.8 [41] , 9 [42] Individual case histories, however impressive, can always be questioned; placebo effects, spontaneous recovery, and the therapist's and the patient's biases in judging improvement must be considered. Not many studies satisfy stringent methodological conditions; the most serious deficiencies are absence of controls and inadequate follow-up. In the case of LSD there is the special difficulty that a double blind study is impossible, since the effects of the drug are unmistakable. No form of psychotherapy for neurotics has ever been able to justify itself under stringent controls, and LSD therapy is no exception.10 [43] , 11 [44] Most psychiatrists who have done LSD therapy with neurotics would, however, probably regard all the recorded controlled experiments as far too brief and superficial to provide a genuine test, especially where so much may depend on the quality of the therapeutic relationship. For LSD therapy, as in psychoanalysis, psychiatrists tend to favor neurotics with hight intelligence, a genuine wish to recover, a strong ego, and stable, even if crippling, symptoms. Beyond that, little is clear. Should the emphasis be on expression of repressed feelings, or working through a transference attachment to the psychiatrist, or elsewhere? What should the psychiatrist do during the drug session? How much therapy is necessary in the intervals between LSD treatments? The fact that there are no general answers to these questions reflects the complexity of psychedelic drug effects; for the same reason a dose and diagnosis cannot be specified in the manner of chemotherapy. ALCOHOLISM Assuming that a single overwhelming experience can sometimes change the self-destructive drinking habits of a lifetime, can psychedelic drugs consistently produce such an experience? There is no doubt that LSD often produces powerful immediate effects on alcoholics; the question is whether these can be reliably translated into enduring change. Early studies reported dazzling success: about 50% of sever chronic alcoholics treated with a single high dose of LSD recovered and were sober a year or two later.12 [45] , 13 [46] Unfortunately, as the results of more careful research began to come in, the picture changed. All the early studies had insufficient controls, and most lacked objective measures of change, adequate follow-up, and other safeguards.14 [47] When patients were randomly assigned to drug and control groups, it proved impossible to demonstrate any advantage for LSD. Even the most enthusiastic advocates of LSD have not been able to produce consistently promising results.15 [48] Ludwig et al. at the Mendota State Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin undertook an elaborate and methodologically adequate study of psychedelic therapy for alcoholics. The 195 patients were randomly divided into four treatment groups. All had 30 days of milieu therapy; three groups had in addition, LSD alone, LSD with psychotherapy, or LSD with psychotherapy and hypnosis. The results in all four groups were the same after 3, 6, 9 and 12 months; about 75% improved on measures of employment, legal adjustment, and drinking habits.16 [49] It would be wrong to conclude that a psychedelic experience can never be a turning point in the life of an alcoholic. Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, said that his LSD trip resembled the sudden religious illumination that changed his life. Unfortunately, psychedelic experiences have the same weaknesses as religious conversions. Their authenticity and emotional power are not guarantees against backsliding when the same frustrations, limitations, and emotional distress have to be faced in everyday life. When the revelation does seem to have lasting effects, it might always have been merely a symptom of readiness to change rather than a cause. Analogous are the religious ceremonies of the Native American Church, in which regular use of high doses of mescaline in the form of peyote is regarded as, among other things, part of a treatment for alcoholism. Obviously peyote is no panacea; otherwise, alcoholism would not be the major health problem of Native Americans. Nevertheless, Native Americans themselves and outside researchers believe that those who participate in the peyote ritual are more likely to be abstinent.17 [50] Peyote sustains the ritual and religious principles of the community of believers, and these sometimes confirm and support an individual's commitment to give up alcohol. DYING In a letter to Humphry Osmond, Aldous Huxley recounted a mescaline trip during which he came to the conclusion that, "I didn't think I should mind dying; for dying must be like this passage from the known [constituted by lifelong habits of subject object existence] to the unknown cosmic fact [p.306]"18 [51] When Huxley was dying, he asked his wife to give him 100 µg LSD, the drug he had portrayed in his last novel as the liberating moksha medicine. After that he looked at her with an expression of love and joy but spoke little except to say, when she gave him a second injection of LSD, and shortly before he died, "Light and free, forward and up." Laura Huxley, in the memoirs of her husband writes: "Now is his way of dying to remain for use, and only for us, a relief and a consolation, or should others also benefit from it? Aren't we all nobly born and entitled to nobly dying? [p. 308]."18 [51] There is a new concern today about dying, in full consciousness of its significance as a part of life. As we look for ways to change the pattern, so common in chronic illness, of constantly increasing pain, anxiety, and depression, the emphasis shifts away from impersonal prolongation of physiological life toward a concept of dying as a psychiatric crisis, or even, in older language, a religious crisis. The purpose of giving psychedelic drugs to the dying might be stated as reconciliation: with one's past, family, and human limitations. Granted a new vision of the universe and their place in it, the dying learn that there is no need to cling desperately to the self. Beginning in 1965, the experiment of providing a psychedelic experience for the dying was pursued at the Spring Grove State Hospital in Maryland, and later at the Maryland Psychiatric Research Institute. Walter N. Pahnke, the director of the cancer project from 1967 until his accidental death in 1971, was a doctor of divinity as well as a psychiatrist, and he first reported on his work in 1969. Seventeen dying patients received LSD after appropriate therapeutic preparation; on-third improved "dramatically," one-third improved "moderately," and one-third were unchanged by the criteria of reduced tension, depression, pain, and fear of death.19 [52] The results of later experiments using LSD and dipropyltryptamine have been similar.20 [53] These studies lacked control groups, and there is no sure way to separate the effects of the drug from those of the special therapeutic arrangements that were part of the treatment. COMPLICATIONS AND DANGERS The main danger in psychedelic drug therapy is the same in any deep-probing psychotherapy: if the unconscious material that comes up can be neither accepted and integrated nor totally repressed, symptoms may become worse, and even psychosis or suicide is possible. The potential for harm has, however, been exaggerated, for two reasons. First, much irrational fear and hostility is left over from the cultural wars of the 1960s. Second, and more generally, we tend to misconceive drugs as something utterly different from and almost by definition more dangerous than other ways of changing mental processes. Actually, the dangers in work with LSD do not seem obviously greater than in comparable forms of therapy aimed at emotional insight. The most serious danger is suicide, and there are several reports of suicide attempts or actual suicide among patients in psychedelic drug therapy. But many people who have worked with psychedelic drugs consider them more likely to prevent suicide than to cause it. H Clark and R Funkhouser asked about this in a questionnaire distributed to 302 professionals who had done psychedelic drug research and to 2230 randomly chosen members of the American Psychiatric Association and American Medical Association. Of the 127 answering in the first group, none reported any suicides caused by psychedelic drugs, and 18 thought they had prevented suicide in one or more patients; of the 490 responding in other groups, one reported a suicide and seven believed suicidal tendencies had been checked.21 [54] All available surveys agree that therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs is not particularly dangerous. In 1960, Sidney Cohen made 62 inquiries to psychiatrist and received 44 replies covering 5000 patients and experimental subjects, all of whom had taken LSD or mescaline a total of 25,000 drug sessions. The rate of prolonged psychosis (48 hours or more) was 1.8 per 1000 in patients and 0.8 per 1000 in experimental subjects; the suicide rate was 0.4 per 1000 in patients during and after therapy, and zero in experimental subjects.22 [55] Other studies have confirmed Cohen's conclusion that psychedelic drugs are relatively safe when used experimentally or therapeutically. All these studies have serious limitations. Many psychiatrists may have minimized the dangers out of therapeutic enthusiasm and reluctance to admit mistakes; a few may have exaggerated them under the influence of bad publicity; long-term risks may have been underestimated if follow-up was inadequate. The problem is the absence of a basis for comparison between these patients and others with similar symptoms who were not treated with psychedelic drugs or not treated at all. However, psychedelic drugs were used for more than 15 years by hundreds of competent psychiatrist, who considered them reasonably safe as therapeutic agents, and no one has effectively challenged this opinion. CONCLUSION When a new kind of therapy is introduced, especially a new psychoactive drug, events follow a common pattern. At the beginning, there is spectacular success, enormous enthusiasm, and a conviction that it is the answer to a wide variety of psychiatric problems. Then the shortcomings of the early work become clear: insufficient follow-up, absence of controls, inadequate methods of measuring change. More careful studies prove disappointing, and the early anecdotes and case histories begin to seem less impressive. Later, psychiatrists fail to obtain the same results as their pioneering predecessor. As Sir William Osler said, "We should use new remedies quickly, while they are still efficacious." The rise and decline of LSD, however, took an unusual course. In 1960, 10 years after it was introduced into psychiatry, its therapeutic prospects were still considered fair and the dangers slight. Then the debate received an infusion of irrational passion from the psychedelic crusaders and their enemies. The revolutionary proclamations and religious fervor of the nonmedical advocates of LSD began to evoke hostile incredulity rather than mere natural skepticism about the extravagant therapeutic claims backed mainly by intense subjective experiences. Twenty years after its introduction it was a pariah drug, scorned by the medical establishment and banned by the law. In rejecting the notion that psychedelic drugs are a panacea, we have chosen to treat them as entirely worthless and extraordinarily dangerous. Perhaps the time has come to find an intermediate position. If therapeutic research becomes possible again, it might be good to begin with the dying, since in this case only short-term effects have to be considered. Psychedelic drugs might also be used to get past blocks in ordinary psychotherapy: to help patients decide whether they want to go through the sometimes painful process of psychotherapy, or to help a psychiatrist to decide whether a patient can benefit from the kind of insight that psychotherapy provides. In addition, MDA, harmaline, ketamine, and other psychedelic drugs with unique effects still need to be evaluated. Psychedelic drug therapy apparently still goes on unofficially. People would not continue to practice it under difficult conditions unless they believed they were accomplishing something. Many regard it as an experience worth having, some as a first step toward change, and a few as a turning point in their lives. It would simplify matters if we would be sure that they were deceiving themselves, but we do not know enough about what works in psychotherapy to say anything like that. No panacea will be discovered any more than in psychoanalysis or religious epiphanies. Nevertheless, the field obviously has potential that is not being allowed to reveal itself. REFERENCES 1. McGlothin W, Cohen S, McGlothlin MS: Long lasting effects of LSD on normals. J Psychedelic Drugs 3:20-31, 1970 2. Sherwood JN, Stolaroff MJ, Harman WW: The psychedelic experience a new concept in psychotherapy. J Neuropsychiatry 2:59-66, 1967 3. Savage C., Hughes MA, Mogar R: The effectiveness of psychedelic (LSD) therapy: A preliminary report. Br J Soc Psychiatry 2:59-66, 1967 4. Grof S: Realms of the Human Unconsious: Observations from LSD Research. New York, Viking Press, 1975 5. Naranjo C: The Healing Journey. New York, Ballantine Books, 1975 6. Newland CA: My Self and I. New York, New American Library, 1962 7. Ling TA, Buckman J: Lysergic Acid (LSD 25) and Ritalin in the Treatment of Neurosis. London, England, Lambarde Press, 1963 8. Vanggard T: Indications and counter-indications for LSD treatment. Acta Psychiatr Scan 40:427-437, 1964 9. Leuner H: Halluzinogene in der psychotherapie. Pharmakopsychiatr Neuropsychopharmakol 4:333-351, 1971 10. Savage C, McCabe OL: Residential psychedelic (LSD) therapy for the narcotic addict: A controlled study. Arch Gen Psychiatry 28-808-814, 1973 11. Kurland AA: The therapeutic potential of LSD in medicine, in DeBold R, Leaf R (eds): LSD, Man and Society. Middletown, Connecticut, Wesleyan University Press, 1967 12. Maclean JR, Macdonald DC, Ogden F, et al: LSD 25 and mescaline as therapeutic adjuvants, in Abramson H (ed): The Use of LSD in Psychotherapy and Alcoholism. New York, Bobbs-Merrill, 1967 13. Hoffer A: A program for the treatment of alcoholism: LSD, malvaria and nicotinic acid, in Abramson H (ed): The use of LSD in Psychotherapy and Alcoholism. New York, Bobbs-Merrill, 1967 14. Smart RG, Storm T, Baker EFW, et al: A controlled study of lysergide in the treatment of alcoholism. Q J Stud alc 27:469-482, 1966 15. Sarett M, Cheek F, Osmond H: Reports of wives of alcoholics on effects of LSD-25 treatment on their husbands. Arch Gen Psychiatry 14:171-178, 1966 16. Ludwig AM, Levine J, Stark LH: LSD and Alcoholism: A Clinical Study of Treatment Efficacy. Springfield, Ill, Charles C Thomas, 1970 17. Roy C: Indian peyotists and alcohol. Am J Psychiatry 130:329-330, 1973 18. Huxley LA: This Timeless Moment. New York, Farrar, Straus, & Giroux, 1968 19. Pahnke WN: The psychedelic mystical experience in the human encounter with death. Harvard Theol Rev 62:1-21, 1969 20. Grof S, Goodman LE, Richards WA, et al: LSD-assisted psychotherapy in patients with terminal cancer. Int Pharmacopsychiatry 8:129-141, 1973 21. Clark WH, Funkhouser GR: Physicians and researchers disagree on psychedelic drugs. Psychol Today 3:48-50, 70-73, 1970 22. Cohen S: Lysergic acid diethylamide: Side effects and complications. J Nerv Ment Dis130:30-40, 1960 23. Malleson N: Acute adverse reactions to LSD in clinical and experimental use in the United Kingdom. Br J Psychiatry 118:229-230, 1971 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [56] IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1767. . . . . . . . . . . . Smitty Passes On From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/23/2004 7:09:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I just got word this evening of the passing of a very special friend of this fellowship. Around 2 this afternoon, Thursday April 22 our friend Robert Smith Jr. - son of Dr. Bob Smith passed over. Smitty was probably the last living person who had witnessed the birth of AA. He was a young boy of 15 when his father had that first eventful meeting with Bill Wilson in May 1935. He went into the hospital on the 7th of April, and has went downhill from there. I know you'll join me in sending prayers of comfort to Mona, his bride of only a couple of years. Please help pass the word. Mona Sides-Smith Mailing address: 2660 Stage Coach Drive, Memphis, TN 38134-4437 Yours in shared sorrow, Maria Hoffman IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1768. . . . . . . . . . . . Chan F. Talk About Pat C. (1978) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/22/2004 2:46:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII From a talk by Chan F. at the Annual Founder's Day Banquet, November 11, 1978 (thanks to Ken R. for this): It started with a light rain and moderate temperatures in November, 1940 and continued through the Armistice Day Blizzard. There was the football game between the University of Minnesota and Michigan for the Little Brown Jug (a trophy passed back and forth to the annual winners). Up from Chicago came two members of A.A., Bill L. and Chan F. The day after the football game they proceeded to call on a list of A.A. prospects that they had received from Ruth Hock, Bill Wilson's secretary. The fourth person on the list wouldn't come to the door when they knocked. They had no luck until calling on the last name on the list - Pat C. - at his apartment at 1704 1st Avenue South. Chan gave us more of the story in a talk at the 38th Annual Founder's Day Banquet on November 11, 1978: "Pat lived in a rear room on the second floor. He seemed glad to see us and greeted us with a warm smile. Though he was suffering from the granddaddy of all hangovers, it was apparent that he desperately wanted to quit drinking. No problem about the First Step; he admitted he was licked and obviously his life had become unmanageable. He told us his story, the usual sad one, and that he expected to get fired - again - from his job on the WPA (Works Progress Administration - A New Deal employment program) Writers Project next day because he had really messed things up. He seemed almost convinced about AA, but we left him without much real hope he would make it - all by himself - though we promised to keep in close touch by letter and phone. It was snowing pretty good when we went back to the Kenesaw Hotel, a cheapie on Hennepin Avenue about Twelfth Street. We were staying there because the father of a friend of mine managed the hotel and would put us up for free. All we could do was to go back to Chicago the next day and hope that through some miracle Pat would catch fire, quit drinking on his own, read the Big Book we had left him and stay sober. Next morning we woke up late and looked out of our room into lower Nicollet Avenue. It was Armistice Day. The sky was a strange gray, the snow was swirling down and it didn't look like a good time to start that long drive back to Chicago. We dressed and went to breakfast. Afterward we looked out to where the old Chevy was parked, already up to its hubcaps in snow. 'You'd better get the car off the street,' said Bill. 'Then we'll wait and see what to do.' I bundled up and drove a couple of blocks south on Nicollet up to a garage whose door was already coming down with a 'full-up' sign on its side. I honked desperately. The attendant opened up again and shouted, 'OK, OK. We'll make room. But that's the last one.' Bill and I holed up for another night at the friendly Kenesaw, whiling away the evening hours in a long bull session just like AAs anywhere. Next morning, we woke up late and looked outside. The snow was waist-high and still swirling. Some places it had drifted nearly to the second stories of buildings. No way we could get out of town. What to do? Our new pigeon, Pat C., lived just around the corner on First Avenue and a couple of blocks south. That might give us an excuse to get out of the hotel before we started climbing the walls. 'Let's try it,' I said to Bill. 'Maybe we can make it - even without snowshoes.' We wrapped mufflers around our faces, stayed close to buildings and trudged through deep snow until we got to 1704. Pat was really surprised and was he glad to see us! He said he was toying with the idea of getting a bottle to shake off the shakes. Now he wanted to talk. Pat and I found we had quite a lot in common, besides alcoholism. He had once worked on the Minneapolis Tribune as an ad salesman and he knew a couple of my old drinking friends. Our conversation went round and round for what seemed like hours. Pat could partially accept the program, but he had lots of doubts. 'It's easy enough for you fellows,' he said. 'You've got a group and can help each other. But I'm really alone and I'm not sure I could ever convince any of my drinking pals to try AA.' He used some of his Irish blarney to fend us off, then he'd grin and listen some more." "We told him there were other loners scattered about the country who were staying sober just by reading the Big Book, trying to practice the program and work the Twelve Steps as best they could - and looking for other alcoholics to whom they could carry the message. His face brightened. But in a moment he shot back: 'Anyway, I've got problems that won't go away even if I quit drinking.' So we tried to brainstorm his problems; each time he would bring up another, we would try to put it into perspective. As he got them out, one by one, he admitted they didn't seem quite so desperate. His main problem, he said, involved a personal relationship. And it seemed impossible that he could work it out. He might even get tossed into jail. Gloom again. We asked him how much he spent on booze. When he gave us his figure - not really monumental in those years of cheap whisky - we pointed out that if he stayed sober those tidy little sums of drinking money - in regular payments - would help take care of the big problem. He hadn't thought of that. When we left his room late in the day, Pat flashed that smile so many of you knew so well and he said he'd give it a whirl. 'But for godsake,' he said to Bill and me, 'be sure to keep in touch.' Next morning we got the Chevy out of the garage and headed for Chicago. The blizzard, that had taken the lives of a number of Minnesota duck hunters in the sloughs over in the Wheaton area, was over, the main highways had been plowed. The snowdrifts ended by the time we got to Hudson, Wisconsin, and it was clear the rest of the way. We did stop overnight at the home of Harry S., the loner who was making it in Madison and who had a lot of prospective members right at his own doorstep. Harry was the chef at the Wisconsin State Hospital. Now for what happened to Pat after we got back to Chicago. Last week I ran across a batch of letters written that first year, and carbon copies of some of my answers. I'm sure he wouldn't mind my sharing some of his paragraphs with you. Maybe he's even looking over my shoulder. I'm sure the spirit of Pat C. is in the room every time two or 20 or 1,700 of you - as tonight - get together in fellowship. In a letter dated November 22, 1940 - just 10 days after we talked with him in his room at 1704 - Pat wrote, in part: 'Dear Chan & Bill: I am working this Friday to make up some time. So this joint letter to you is on WPA time...' (Pat didn't lose his WPA job. The day after we left him, he trudged a couple of miles through deep snow to get to work. That heroic performance was so unlike Pat of the drinking years that his boss was flabbergasted and gave him back his job with another final warning. For those of you unfamiliar with such Depression gobbledegook as WPA and such, WPA (Works Progress Administration) was a Roosevelt creation of the Depression years to give employment to the millions of jobless. The Writers Project, on which Pat worked, employed thousands of talented writers and editors, artists and photographers in producing state guidebooks that are now collectors' items and other creative work.) To go on with Pat's letter: 'Father C. is taking things slowly in the field of propagation of our faith or code. You will be happy to know, however, that I have been definitely arid since your departure, even going so far as to turn down a full quart of McCormick's Special on Wednesday night for which Gabriel has appropriately credited me with two gold stars, I hope... I have had several rebuffs in my zeal for converts; guess you have to catch them at the right time. George M. is reading the book right now; he drinks spasmodically, mostly through lonesomeness, but he shoots his wad when he does go... Remember Joe B. who used to work on the project with me? A card from him advises that he is in Inglewood, California. Like all rummies he was cute enough to give his address as General Delivery. I wrote him right away telling him about AA, requesting that he forward his street address. Armed with that, I can turn the Los Angeles chapter loose on him. (I wonder if AA ever caught up with Joe; Pat never mentioned him again.) Pat goes on: I am going to write Ed K. at Eau Claire tomorrow, a line from me might help. (Bill L. and I had called on Ed K., a loner, on our way from Chicago that fateful weekend.) Pat again: Haven't missed a day from work since your appearance here; my next check will be quite, quite! But Lord, you should see this one... Let me know that secretary's name at the AA Foundation in New York, the one who wrote me. If she has any more inquiries from the Twin Cities I will be glad to look them over and see if I can line them up. Fraternally, Pat C.' "As far as I am concerned, I haven't had a drop since you called on me; got the guard up and it hasn't bothered me" "Paradoxically, however," Pat wrote, "all my drunken friends who have heard I am dry pay me regular visits for the purpose of putting the bite on me for two bits or half a buck to make up the balance on a pint." "Those guys will never surrender with their present set-up so I have given up trying to interest them at present." "I haven't got that unselfish spirit as yet - looking out for the other guy - and I know it is necessary to acquire it" Then on January 21, 1941 - two and a half months dry on his own - Pat wrote that things were really perking up! "Lo and behold," he wrote, "Bill L. sent me a letter last week, the first I have heard from him. Told me that Chicago was looking forward to an article in the Saturday Evening Post which was expected to bring many inquiries." "Chan, I bought a new suit of clothes and some haberdashery and am beginning to feel respectable once more." "(I) suppose you saw Winchell's reference to AA in his column last week. He said the head of AA in New York was a famous trans-Atlantic flier; my guess is that he refers to Clarence C. who was always quite a lush." "Trust you are doing well in material things and that you are dry as I am. Had no trouble at all during the holidays; I ducked and sat in movies, etc., ran away from it rather than face it." I hadn't seen the Winchell squib, but bits and pieces of information and misinformation about AA were beginning to appear in newspapers around the country. No doubt even the garbled versions sent desperate alcoholics hunting for an AA contact. In Chicago, a famous columnist named Howard Vincent O'Brien attended an open meeting and wrote about it: "this miracle of regeneration." Writing about the alcoholics at the meeting, O'Brien said: "Some of these people I had known for a long time. I know what they once were, and I know what they are now. Something has happened to them. I do not know what that something is. That is to say, I cannot weigh it or measure it, or define it in words. That doesn't matter. I have passed the stage of wanting to 'explain' everything. I am content with reporting what I see and hear." "Perhaps, when I recover from the awe of what I saw and heard last night, I may have a go at an 'explanation.' But I doubt it. The facts need no embroidery." That column, written in mid-1940 when the Chicago group had fewer than 40 members, brought many inquiries which O'Brien referred to his AA friends. Among those who came into Chicago AA after reading the column was O'Brien's 21-year-old son. Soon afterward, the famous Saturday Evening Post article by Jack Alexander hit the newsstands. That brought the deluge for many established groups around the country - including Chicago. But in Minneapolis, Pat C. was still working alone, there was no AA headquarters except Pat's small room, and there had been no local publicity to tell alkies, many of whom had seen the Post article, where to make contact. Pat had a great idea which he told me about in a letter dated March 14, 1941, at which time he had established a personal record - four months dry. He wrote: "Chan, my boy, the Lone Eagle from Minneapolis still clings to that old waterwagon, hoping to find companionship" 3/10/41 417, 12th Ave. S.E. Minneapolis, Minn. Dear Daniel, God bless the Irish! We have been swamped with letters recently and better than half of them are from Irishmen. When we get organized and going strong, I'm sure you'll feel right at home with us. At present though, we are just struggling to set up the frame of a local chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous. I would suggest, in fact it's almost necessary, that you get a March 1st copy of the "Saturday Evening Post" and read the article in this magazine on our group, its aims and ambitions. As soon as we have established contact with a few people like yourself, we will determine on a meeting place and all get together for conference. Please feel free to write us or drop around. We are just a bunch of men like yourself who freely admit that drink has us down and we're willing to try anything that might help us. If your friends or druggist haven't a copy of the Post you'll find one on file at any library. It states our aims much more clearly than I could in a letter. You'll hear from us again shortly and until then I am, Sincerely yours, Frederick L. M. Acting Secretary Alcoholics Anonymous "After the article appeared in the Post, I went in to see Cedric Adams, whose column (in the Minneapolis Star) carries considerable weight in the Northwest. He had been talking to Dr. Michael's, head of the mental and nervous department (snake room, to you) at General Hospital." "The doctor persuaded Adams to appeal for ex-drunks (meaning Minneapolis AAs, if any) to look him up with a view to working on some of the prizes in his ward. The appeal, which was quite vague, didn't pan out for them. But he agreed a chapter of working AAs will help him solve some of his problems." "Yesterday Adams ran another squib for me. Haven't been down to see the mail as yet, but will stop in tomorrow. Don't know what to do with the guys when I do contact them." "Wish I knew the procedure you follow in Chicago. You might get together with some of the members there and write me the procedure pronto so I can pass it along to some of the shy lads who will be after writing me." Meanwhile, Pat had called me on the phone several times as he kept looking for advice and counsel and reassurance that he could handle the rummies who were coming at him in droves. Of course he could and did handle them. Who could resist Pat's gift of the tongue and his down-to-earth and earnest carrying of the message? By April 28, 1941, Pat had somehow brought together a fledgling group of alkies, including Orlo, one of my old friends. Another of my very old and dear friends, Barry C., whom I had contacted during the summer when he was critically ill in a hospital, was doing what he could to help between his regular trips back to the operating room. And in the hospital, Barry kept busy educating the doctors about AA. So by now, Pat was the busiest guy in town, working full time and trying to hold his group together. He wrote on April 28, 1941: "Our weekly meeting is arranged for this evening, at which 10 or 11 will be present. We had 10 at our last meeting. There are four or five more who for some reason or other can't attend." "Chan, we are getting some would-be members out of the upper brackets - a lawyer, a big-shot insurance man." It was almost three weeks before I heard from Pat again - a letter dated December 12, 1940 - and I was getting a little worried. But he was reassuring. "Personally, I have been too busy to even think of a drink. My landlady has developed fallen arches from running to the telephone, but we hope to remedy that situation shortly. As you and Bill L. have intimated, a permanent meeting place is our main problem. When we acquire one, we will have you up, we hope. With your Big Book, we have four in circulation." Two weeks later, on April 28, 1941, Pat was full of good news: "Chan, we have a Post Office box, 594, also a couple of rooms at 201 East Franklin, and a telephone GEneva 1251... (When I later visited the group at the new address, I learned that it was a beer flat left over from Prohibition years. How appropriate!) Pat wrote: "A Scotsman and his wife, who were separated and reunited, are living there. She answers the phone and we hold our meetings there... It's crowded as hell, 26 at one meeting, but we hope to get hold of a philanthropic realtor and arrange for a low-rental house, 8 rooms or so, where we can take care of some of the boys who are coming out of it. We now number a lawyer in our group, George W., and an insurance man, N. K. P." Others Pat mentioned as new pigeons included Guy T., Jesse C., Regis G., K. S. A. who was a CPA, and one girl, Ruth B. Pat added: "We are going to divide into squads at the next meeting and deal out the assignments more equitably so everybody is working with some of the stronger members..." Again a moment of doubt: "Perhaps we have grown too fast, but what can you do when the guys come for you? I go to gatherings where whisky is served and my friends drink beer, but I have no desire to slip, as yet. I am living the 24-hour schedule same as you and it seems to work. I try to impress on the boys, at every meeting, the necessity of asking for Divine help." Now we jump to May of 1942. As you are aware, Pat and his cohorts did better than find a big house at low rent in which to hold meetings. The good news is contained in an invitation signed by Pat and Barry C. - and obviously sent out to many friends of the Minneapolis group - to attend an open house on May 10. The new home of Minneapolis AA, christened the Alano Club, was the old Washburn mansion at 2218 First Avenue South. Chan finished off his talk: So let's break off this chronicle right here. The rest of the story - of the phenomenal growth of Minneapolis AA and the growing pains, of the many groups throughout the Upper Midwest that owed their start to Minneapolis, of Pat's happy marriage to Helga, and his later service on the Board of Trustees of the AA Foundation - did not involve me. Twice before, I have been a guest at your anniversary banquets. The first time was, if my memory serves me right, the first annual banquet held in the ballroom of the Leamington Hotel in 1941. I have, somewhere among my souvenirs, a panoramic photograph of all who attended that one, all lined up at the front of the hall. There probably were more than a hundred that night at dinner, including spouses, a scattering of judges, clergy and other friends of AA. I am grateful to have been asked to share this 38th anniversary with you. (Thanks to the Chicago Area 19 Archives Committee for furnishing a transcript). Bill Wilson (co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous) said in September 1965: "Pat C. came among us (1940) when it was by no means clear that Alcoholics Anonymous would succeed - whether permanent sobriety was going to be possible. As we all know, he stands in the forefront of those few early ones who proved that this could be so. "In all my A.A. life I have never heard an ill word spoken of him and I was always running across someone - indeed, hundreds - who owed him their very lives. "How well he kept the A.A. faith is now A.A. history, a demonstration for which we shall be grateful to Pat - and to God." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1769. . . . . . . . . . . . LAST EYEWITNESS OF AA'S ORIGINS DIES From: somrsickr . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/23/2004 2:17:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII LAST EYEWITNESS OF AA'S ORIGINS DIES IN MEMPHIS (Memphis, Tenn. April 22, 2004) Robert "Bob" Smith II, last eyewitness of the start of Alcoholics Anonymous, died of congestive heart failure at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. about 5 o'clock Thursday evening, April 22, 2004. "Smitty," his nickname in youth and later at recovery gatherings worldwide, was the only son of Anne Smith and Akron, Ohio physician Dr. Bob Smith. Then a teenager, young Bob was there on Mother's day 1935 when his father met New York stockbroker Bill Wilson for the first time. The two co- founded Alcoholics Anonymous, a twelve step recovery program that has helped more than two million people worldwide recover from the disease of alcoholism. AA's twelve step program has been replicated by more than 250 other groups that use the same steps to overcome addictions to drugs, gambling, food, sex and other behaviors. Bob Smith joined Al-Anon, a recovery program for the spouses, family, friends and other loved ones of alcoholics, when one of his family members began attending AA meetings in Nocona, Texas in the late 1970s. It was only then, the younger Smith would say, that he realized the enormity of his father's contribution to the world in the co-founding of AA. In the past 27 years, Bob Smith accepted invitations to speak at AA and Al-Anon Conventions worldwide thirty to forty times a year. Smith made his last talk three weeks ago in Chicago's Indiana suburbs at the Talumet Round-Up. He had cut back on his speaking engagements to twenty to twenty-five a year only as he entered his mid-80s. Smith would say of such invitations, "they didn't invite me for who I am. It's who I know," referring to the famous co-founders of AA who are regarded as spiritual giants by recovering alcoholics worldwide. Bob Smith would share his memories of AA's pioneering days at conferences, recalling how his parents and Bill Wilson allowed recovering drunks to stay in their Akron home at 855 Ardmore Avenue. Bob Smith's childhood home is visited annually by thousands who wish to see where the program of recovery had its origins. "It was such a gift to live with Bob. We decided if we had two weeks together or ten years together, we'd take it one day at a time and that's what we did, " said Mona Sides-Smith, a Memphis based therapist, who married the son of the AA co-founder in September 2002. Smith's first wife of more than fifty years, Betty Smith, died several years earlier. Bob Smith leaves a son from huis marriage to Betty, Todd Smith of Vernon, Texas and two daughters, Penny Umbertino of Phoenix, Arizona and Judy Edmiston of Dallas, Texas. He leaves one granddaughter, Kathy Graser of Denver, Colorado. Smith also leave three stepdaughters: Rachel Farmer, Elaine Orland and Elizabeth Douglas,all of Memphis. Smith spent his working life in Texas as an oli producer. He served as a pilot in World War II, flying the B-24 Liberator on 35 submarine huntinf missions out of Africa. Smith worked as a commercial pilot for a time after the war. But he spent the last three decades of his life focused on sharing the gift his father helped bring into the world, AA. In his book CHILDREN OF THE HEALER (Copyright 1992, Parkside Publishing Company), co-authored with his late sister, Sue Smith Windows, Smith's thoughts written on the dedication page seem a fitting epitaph, "For the loving God who allowed me to lead a very exciting life and also loved me through my many mistakes and who allows me to be of service. For the constant love and understanding of four* good kids and a steadfast wife. I am truly grateful. For my loving parents who tried to instill in me values by their tireless example. For the many friends I have met and know as a result of 12 step programs. You have taught me a way of life in these programs that I never would have figured out by myself. I am truly grateful." One AA member said upon learning of Smitty's death in Memphis, "many thousands of AAs who met Smitty and heard him tell the eyewitness account of AA's origins will mourn his passing but will celebrate his life and the great gifts he shared." Memphis Funeral Home on Poplar Avenue in Memphis, Tenn. has charge. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1770. . . . . . . . . . . . old timers info? From: text164 . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/24/2004 11:36:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII is there any other people alive from 1934-39?i also have a question if I provide a photo can someone help me identify a couple in the picture?im thinking its an ol AA from Little Rock but not sure. maybe some of you have seen this photo,its of Bill W at Dr.Bobs grave theres a group of people in the back ground and one of the couples is of african american decent.Im thinking its a guy named Joe McQ. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1771. . . . . . . . . . . . Robert Ripley Smith Jr. From: JKNIGHTBIRD@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/24/2004 9:48:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII A.A. co-founder's son is dead Akron native Robert Ripley Smith Jr., 85, was proud that local program had global impact By Carol Biliczky Akron Beacon Journal staff writer As a child, ``Smitty'' came home to find a drunk in his bed, his house filled with alcoholics. Such was Robert Ripley Smith Jr.'s start in life as the son of the august -- and eventually revered -- co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous. In 1998, Bob Smith Jr. told the Akron Beacon Journal that he and his sister were eyewitnesses to history as they saw A.A. unfold in their Akron home to become a worldwide organization with millions of members. ``I loved it,'' he said. ``The first 17 years of my life I lived with active alcoholism, now there was recovery.'' Mr. Smith died Thursday at St. Francis Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., of congestive heart failure. He was 85. He was the only son of Dr. Robert and Anna Smith, who lived at a modest bungalow with three bedrooms at 855 Ardmore Ave. in Akron. The son was there on Mother's Day in 1935 when his father, an Akron physician, and New York stockbroker Bill Wilson co-founded what would become A.A. The organization flourished and its 12-step foundation has been used by more than 250 other kinds of recovery groups that combat gambling, prostitution, drugs and more. As for Mr. Smith, he became a pilot in World War II, hunting submarines off the coast of Africa. After the war, he worked as a commercial pilot and in the oil industry, settling in Nocona, Texas, about 20 miles from the Oklahoma border. He was elected to the City Council from 1984 to 1991 and was mayor of the town of 3,000 from 1991 to 1993, recalled Minnie Walker, then the city secretary and now the city manager. ``He was a fun man, a real cut-up,'' she said. ``He told me every year how many people he gained for Alcoholics Anonymous, and I'd tell him, `Look you're not making any progress here.' '' Mr. Smith joined Al-Anon, a recovery program for spouses and loved ones of alcoholics, when his wife, Betty, began attending A.A. meetings in the 1970s. It was then that he began to realize the enormity of his father's contributions to the disease of alcoholism. He began to speak at A.A. and Al-Anon meetings across the country, most recently just three weeks ago in northern Indiana. ``They don't invite me for who I am. They invite me for who I know,'' he said. He would relate the stories of growing up in the Smith household, home to A.A. meetings that approached 70 people before they were moved to the King School building. He and his late sister, Sue Smith Windows of Akron, captured their memories in a book called Children of the Healer: The Story of Dr. Bob's Kids in 1992. ``For the many friends I have met and know as a result of 12-step programs,'' he wrote on the dedication page. ``You have taught me a way of life in these programs that I never would have figured out by myself. I am truly grateful.'' His Akron home is revered now as a national, state and local landmark and is something of a shrine to A.A. devotees who return there in an annual pilgrimage each year. ``He was a kind man, he loved his father,'' said Don C. of Cleveland, who is chairman of the board of the nonprofit Dr. Bob's House, which has been restored to the way it looked in 1935, complete with many of the Smith family's original furnishings. In keeping with A.A. tradition, group members only use the first letter of their last names. Mr. Smith's first wife and a son died several years ago. He leaves his current wife, Mona Sides-Smith of Memphis; son Todd Smith of Vernon, Texas, and daughters Penny Umbertino of Phoenix and Judy Edmiston of Dallas; three stepdaughters and one granddaughter. Services will be at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Memphis Funeral Home's Poplar Chapel in Memphis. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Carol Biliczky can be reached at 330-996-3729 or cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com -------------------------------------------------------- Submitted by Jocie, Chicago JKNIGHTBIRD A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer; it sings because it has a song. -Maya Angelou IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1772. . . . . . . . . . . . HUMILITY PLAQUE - Compilation From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/26/2004 2:52:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII From: "dla32965" Date: Sat Apr 17, 2004 8:11 am Subject: HUMILITY PLAQUE Does anyone know who wrote the text on the famous plaque that sat on Dr. Bob's desk? Humility is…Perpetual quietness of heart; It is never to be fretted or vexed, irritable or sore; to wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me and when I am blamed or despised. It is to have a blessed home in myself where I can go in and shut the door and kneel to my Father in secret and be at peace, as in a deep sea of calmness, when all around and about is seeming trouble. From: "victoria callaway" Date: Sun Apr 18, 2004 6:32 pm Subject: Author of Plaque on Humility Dr Bob's Plaque on Humility author is Andrew Murray, a South African religous leader and writer who lived from 1828-1927-searched and found by Anne K., an AA member with library experience. The results of her research was printed in "The Point" a newsletter of the Intercounty Fellowship of AA in San Francisco. A research librarian found the citations in two publications of religious quotations. reprinted with permisssion from Box 459 aApril-May 1998 vicki calllaway From Bill L: Please keep in mind that Dr. Bob's kids (Sue Smith Windows & Bob Smith Jr./"Smitty") have both been asked about this plaque & (although they were both in Dr' Bob's office many times) have stated that they had never seen this plaque in Dr. Bob's office. Interesting! Just Love, Barefoot Bill IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1773. . . . . . . . . . . . Book ''12'' - Compiled from Previous Posts From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/26/2004 5:32:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII From: "steve " Date: Sun Dec 8, 2002 2:46 pm Subject: Book '12' HistoryLovers, I have stumbled across a book which I need help ientifying. The cover is light blue with a gold `12' in the upper right hand corner. The title page reads: TWELVE STEPS and the Older Member, Older Member Press, Box 25, Guilford, Conn. Price Two Dollars Copyright 1964, Older Member Press Fourth Printing January, 1970 The book is 72 pages and its origination is articles in the Grapevine from 1954-1956. At that time (1954) the author had 7 years of sobriety. The articles for the grapevine are written about the steps. There are twelve articles (one for each step). The book then reproduces these Grapevine articles of an AA's experience with the steps at seven years sober. The book also adds to these articles an AA's experience with the steps at seven more years sober (14 years). The Eleventh Step article mentions that the original eleventh step article was printed in the April 1956 Grapevine, but none of the other articles gives an original date for the articles. Following the articles is `Lincoln on Alcoholism,' from Lincoln's address to the Washington Temperance Society, Springfield, Ill. February 22, 1842. Following this is a 5 page article titled THE 24-HOUR PLAN. I'm wondering if anyone has any more information on this piece, or its author? Does anyone know when the rest of these articles appeared in the Grapevine? Thanks for your help Steve Covieo sober in kalamazoo 269-352-7702 From: Jim Blair Date: Sun Dec 8, 2002 5:44 pm Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Book '12' The dates of the articles in the GV are as follows Step 1- Aug,54, March 61 Step 2- Oct.54, May 61 Step 3- Dec.54, July 61 Step 4- Jan. 54, Sept. 61 Step 5-March 55, Dec. 61 Step 6- June 55, Feb. 62 Step 7- Aug. 55 Step 8 - Oct. 55, June 62 Step 9- Dec. 55, Aug. 62 Step10- Feb. 56-Oct. 62 Step 11- April 56, Dec. 62 Step 12-June 56, Oct. 63 He did not include the Oct. 62 and Dec. 62 articles in the book you have. The articles were written by Jerome E., who was a writer for a national magazine. He went to work in the GSO in 1962-63 and I guess he did not see eye to eye with the way things were done. He wrote a scathing attack on the "Headquarters" and the way it publishes literature which was published in "The Nation" on March 2, 1964. Jim From: "melb" Date: Sun Dec 8, 2002 8:02 pm Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Book '12' Hi Everybody, I sent a letter to Steve about Jerry E.'s book. It's rue, as Jim says here, that Jerry had a falling out with AA General Services and wrote quite an attack on it for The Nation. He had called me while he was writing the article because I had once submitted an article for The Grapevine about racial prejudice in a southern Michigan town's AA group. He changed that to "southern" only. We know that there has been plenty of racial prejudice in the South, but we should not accuse them of any specific actions they were not guilty of! But Jerry was a good writer and I'm sorry that he had the falling out, because he had a lot to contribute. Mel Barger Toledo, Ohio IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1774. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Book ''12'' - Compiled from Previous Posts From: Mel Barger . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/26/2004 10:10:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Steve and Friends: The book you have was authored by the late Jerry E. who was for a short time the editor of The Grapevine. Jerry had been a successful magazine writer, having started his career at The Reader's Digest and later becoming managing editor of Collier's when it was a popular family magazine. He discussed his alcoholism in a book titled "Report to the Creator," which I read in the 1950s. I met Jerry at The Grapevine in 1962 and spent a few hou rs with him at his home in Guilford, CT, in 1964. Hang on to that book, Steve, as I'm sure most of the copies have now been lost. This is an odd coincidence, only a half-hour before reading your email, I was telling a fellow member something I'd heard from Jerry in 1964!. Mel Barger ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger melb@accesstoledo.com ----- Original Message ----- From: NMOlson@aol.com To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, April 26, 2004 10:32 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Book '12' - Compiled from Previous Posts From: "steve " Date: Sun Dec 8, 2002 2:46 pm Subject: Book '12' HistoryLovers, I have stumbled across a book which I need help ientifying. The cover is light blue with a gold `12' in the upper right hand corner. The title page reads: TWELVE STEPS and the Older Member, Older Member Press, Box 25, Guilford, Conn. Price Two Dollars Copyright 1964, Older Member Press Fourth Printing January, 1970 The book is 72 pages and its origination is articles in the Grapevine from 1954-1956. At that time (1954) the author had 7 years of sobriety. The articles for the grapevine are written about the steps. There are twelve articles (one for each step). The book then reproduces these Grapevine articles of an AA's experience with the steps at seven years sober. The book also adds to these articles an AA's experience with the steps at seven more years sober (14 years). The Eleventh Step article mentions that the original eleventh step article was printed in the April 1956 Grapevine, but none of the other articles gives an original date for the articles. Following the articles is `Lincoln on Alcoholism,' from Lincoln's address to the Washington Temperance Society, Springfield, Ill. February 22, 1842. Following this is a 5 page article titled THE 24-HOUR PLAN. I'm wondering if anyone has any more information on this piece, or its author? Does anyone know when the rest of these articles appeared in the Grapevine? Thanks for your help Steve Covieo sober in kalamazoo 269-352-7702 From: Jim Blair Date: Sun Dec 8, 2002 5:44 pm Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Book '12' The dates of the articles in the GV are as follows Step 1- Aug,54, March 61 Step 2- Oct.54, May 61 Step 3- Dec.54, July 61 Step 4- Jan. 54, Sept. 61 Step 5-March 55, Dec. 61 Step 6- June 55, Feb. 62 Step 7- Aug. 55 Step 8 - Oct. 55, June 62 Step 9- Dec. 55, Aug. 62 Step10- Feb. 56-Oct. 62 Step 11- April 56, Dec. 62 Step 12-June 56, Oct. 63 He did not include the Oct. 62 and Dec. 62 articles in the book you have. The articles were written by Jerome E., who was a writer for a national magazine. He went to work in the GSO in 1962-63 and I guess he did not see eye to eye with the way things were done. He wrote a scathing attack on the "Headquarters" and the way it publishes literature which was published in "The Nation" on March 2, 1964. Jim From: "melb" Date: Sun Dec 8, 2002 8:02 pm Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Book '12' Hi Everybody, I sent a letter to Steve about Jerry E.'s book. It's rue, as Jim says here, that Jerry had a falling out with AA General Services and wrote quite an attack on it for The Nation. He had called me while he was writing the article because I had once submitted an article for The Grapevine about racial prejudice in a southern Michigan town's AA group. He changed that to "southern" only. We know that there has been plenty of racial prejudice in the South, but we should not accuse them of any specific actions they were not guilty of! But Jerry was a good writer and I'm sorry that he had the falling out, because he had a lot to contribute. Mel Barger Toledo, Ohio ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This message was scanned by GatewayDefender [4] 10:44:14 AM ET - 4/26/2004 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1775. . . . . . . . . . . . More Info on quote from Bill W From: davidt030992 . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/27/2004 8:39:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII While researching a workshop I am preparing for on singleness of purpose, I recently came across this quote from Bill W in As Bill Sees it on page 79 Our Sole Purpose "An AA group, as such, cannot take on all the personal problems of its members, let alone those of nonalcoholics in the world around us. The AA group is not, for example, a mediator of domestic relations, nor does it furnish personal financial aid to anyone. "Though a member may sometimes be helped in such matters by his friends in AA, the primary responsibility for the solutions of all his problems of living and growing rests squarely upon the individual himself. Should an AA group attempt this sort of help, its effectiveness and energies would be hopelessly dissipated. "This is why sobriety - freedom from alcohol - through the teaching and practice of AA's Twelve Steps, is the sole purpose of the group. If we don't stick to this cardinal principle, we shall almost certainly collapse. And if we collapse we cannot help anyone." This was from a letter written to a memeber in 1966. I'd like to know if anyone has any further info on this (maybe the entire letter), what question was he responding to from this member? Also, I'd be interested in any more material any of you may have to offer regarding the subject. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1776. . . . . . . . . . . . Special token of appreciation given to Bill W. From: victoria callaway . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/28/2004 12:49:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII In the BB and "Pass it On" it mentions a special token of appreciation given to Bill W. Page 62 in "Pass it On' and page 1 in BB. Can anyone tell me what this was that was given to him-much thanks vicki c IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1777. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Special token of appreciation given to Bill W. From: goldentextpro@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/28/2004 11:05:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII From Lois Remembers: Memoirs of the Co-Founder of Al-Anon and Wife of the Co-Founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, (New York: Al-Anon Family Headquarters, Inc.), 1991, pp. 26-27: Upon leaving France the men of his [Bill's] battery paid him special honor. His letter of January 3, 1919, read: "Quite a touching thing happened yesterday. The men presented Captain Sackville and me each with a watch, chain and ring. The whole battery was lined up, and I tell you it was equal to promotion and decoration by J. J. Pershing himself! Coming as it did from a clear sky, it was quite overwhelming. Wouldn't have changed insignia with a brigadier general. It means so much more than promotion. Insofar as I know, we are the only people in the reigment who have been so honored. I'm sure you will be as happy and proud as I am." Richard K. Haverhill, MA IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1778. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: More Info on quote from Bill W From: Arthur Sheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/29/2004 8:33:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi David In going through Bill's writings it strikes me that he was an astute "recycler" of the same basic messages in order to maintain consistency and, perhaps, reinforce through repetition. The letter you cite on page 79 in "As Bill Sees It" was written in 1966. The substance, and a part of the citation, is contained in Bill's February 1958 Grapevine article titled "Problems Other Than Alcohol." The article is preserved in the book "Language of the Heart" pages 222-225 and also contained in a Conference-approved pamphlet of the same title (publication number P-35). There is also a small excerpts pamphlet of "Problems Other Than Alcohol" (publication number F-8) which is provided by GSO at no charge. A very powerful portion from the Grapevine/pamphlet article is: "Now there are certain things that AA cannot do for anybody, regardless of what our several desires or sympathies may be. Our first duty, as a Society, is to insure our own survival. Therefore we have to avoid distractions and multipurpose activity. An AA group, as such, cannot take on all the personal problems of its members, let alone the problems of the whole world. Sobriety - freedom from alcohol - through the teaching and practice of the Twelve Steps, is the sole purpose of an AA group. Groups have repeatedly tried other activities and they have always failed. It has also been learned that there is no possible way to make nonalcoholics into AA members. We have to confine our membership to alcoholics and we have to confine our AA groups to a single purpose. If we don't stick to these principles, we shall almost surely collapse. And if we collapse, we cannot help anyone." Arthur ----- Original Message ----- From: davidt030992 To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, April 27, 2004 8:39 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] More Info on quote from Bill W While researching a workshop I am preparing for on singleness of purpose, I recently came across this quote from Bill W in As Bill Sees it on page 79 Our Sole Purpose "An AA group, as such, cannot take on all the personal problems of its members, let alone those of nonalcoholics in the world around us. The AA group is not, for example, a mediator of domestic relations, nor does it furnish personal financial aid to anyone. "Though a member may sometimes be helped in such matters by his friends in AA, the primary responsibility for the solutions of all his problems of living and growing rests squarely upon the individual himself. Should an AA group attempt this sort of help, its effectiveness and energies would be hopelessly dissipated. "This is why sobriety - freedom from alcohol - through the teaching and practice of AA's Twelve Steps, is the sole purpose of the group. If we don't stick to this cardinal principle, we shall almost certainly collapse. And if we collapse we cannot help anyone." This was from a letter written to a memeber in 1966. I'd like to know if anyone has any further info on this (maybe the entire letter), what question was he responding to from this member? Also, I'd be interested in any more material any of you may have to offer regarding the subject. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1779. . . . . . . . . . . . "Academics Recovering Together" now a Yahoo Group From: jblair10101 . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/29/2004 3:31:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII In message 483, August 25, 2002, Barefoot Bill provided an extensive list of anonymous groups and 12-step offshoots. One group listed was "Academics Recovering Together," which began in 1989 at Brown University. This group is now online as a Yahoo Group. John IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1780. . . . . . . . . . . . Hubert "Cubby" Selby--Obituary From: jimmy . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/30/2004 7:29:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII A much loved, longtime sober and active member in Los Angeles..... Author Hubert Selby Jr. Dead at 75 Associated Press Monday, April 26, 2004 LOS ANGELES -- Hubert Selby Jr. , the acclaimed and anguished author of "Last Exit to Brooklyn" and "Requiem for a Dream," died Monday of a lung disease, his wife said. He was 75. Selby died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at his home in the Highland Park section of Los Angeles, said his wife of 35 years, Suzanne. Born in New York City, Selby's experience among Brooklyn's gritty longshoremen, homeless and the down-and-out formed the basis for his lauded 1964 novel "Last Exit to Brooklyn," which was made into a film in 1989. "It was a seminal piece of work. It broke so many traditions," said Jim Reg= an, head of the master's of professional writing program at the University of Southern California, where Selby taught as an adjunct professor for the pas= t 20 years. "There was that generation of writers: William Burroughs, Henry Miller, and= there was Hubert Selby. And he's one of the last of that generation, of som= e of the greatest writers in this country." Suzanne Selby said her late husband was kind and generous but in recent years suffered from depression and occasionally would launch into rages. "He screamed, he yelled, he broke things," she said. "But he did not have rages when he was writing." Selby shared screenwriting credit on the 2000 film version of his 1978 nove= l "Requiem for a Dream," a harrowing look inside a family's many addictions. = His other novels include "The Room" (1971), "The Demon" (1976) and "The Willow Tree" (1998). A collection of short stories, "Song of the Silent Sno= w," was published in 1986. Selby continued to work on screenplays and teach at USC until he was hospitalized last month. He had been in and out of the hospital in recent weeks and died with his wife by his side, she said. He contracted tuberculosis as a child and had suffered from breathing problems ever since, Suzanne Shelby said. He was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease several years ago. Selby often wrote at an apartment he kept in West Hollywood. He worked in a= bedroom there for at least five hours most days, and always left one line unfinished at night to have a place to start the next morning, Suzanne Selb= y said. She said that he had battled addictions, but while much of his work dealt w= ith the topic, he always wrote while sober and had not had any alcohol or any drugs since 1969. Along with his wife, he is survived by four children and 11 grandchildren. © Associated Press. All rights reserved. __________________________________ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ April 27, 2004 Hubert Selby Jr., Who Wrote `Last Exit to Brooklyn,' Dies at 75 By ANTHONY DePALMA Hubert Selby Jr., the Brooklyn-born ex-merchant mariner who turned to drugs= and to writing after cheating death and created a lasting vision of urban h= ell in his novel "Last Exit to Brooklyn," died yesterday at his home in Los Angele= s. He was 75. The cause was chronic pulmonary disease, said his son, Bill Selby, who added that his father's death was the long-term consequence of the tuberculosis he had contracted while at sea during World War II. Mr. Selby had no formal training, and disdained the prim order of punctuati= on and plot. His writing was spare and direct. But what most marked his work was the stark despair and loneliness he described in such shocking terms that some of his work was blocked for a time in the United States, and late= r England, as obscene. He said he did not understand what the fuss was about. "The events that take place are the way people are," he said in an intervie= w with The New York Times in 1988, describing the gang rapes, brutal beatings= and countless perversions described in "Last Exit." "These are not literary= characters; these are real people. I knew these people. How can anybody look inside themselves and be surprised at the hatred and violence in the world? It's inside all of us." "Tralala," one of the stories that make up the book, was the subject of an = obscenity trial involving The Provincetown Review, which published it in 1961. And when "Last Exit," which consists of "Tralala" and five other loos= ely connected stories, was published in England in 1966, a jury found it to be = obscene and fined its publisher. The novel describes the seedy underbelly of the Red Hook waterfront neighborhood in the Brooklyn of the 1950's, which is depicted as a wastelan= d prowled by gangs, whores and transvestites. When it was published by Grove = Press in 1964, its repulsive language and blast-furnace images made the novel difficult either to accept or reject. "This is a brutal book -- shocking, exhausting, depressing," wrote Eliot Fremont-Smith in the first review of the book in The Times. Yet, despite th= e gutter language and obscene grunts of the dark characters in the novel, Mr.= Fremont-Smith said that the book could not be easily dismissed. "The profound depression it causes -- once one starts seriously to read it -- is a= measure of an authentic power which carries through and beyond revulsion," = he wrote. "Just who should be asked to undergo this experience is another matter." Hubert Selby Jr. was born on July 27, 1928, in Brooklyn, the son of Adalin = and Hubert Selby Sr., a coal miner from Kentucky who served in the merchant marine for several years until his son was born. During World War II the se= nior Mr. Selby returned to the merchant marine. His son, though underage, convinced the recruiters he was old enough to join as well. While at sea he= developed tuberculosis. After going through radical surgery and more than a= year of hospitalization, he was given no chance of recovery. He did recover, but was hooked on the morphine he had received during his hospitalization. He started drinking. With no other prospects, he decided t= o try writing, although he once said he had never read anything until he was an adult. While he wrote the stories that went into "Last Exit to Brooklyn" he= worked for a time as an insurance analyst in Manhattan. Before the book was published in 1964, Mr. Selby's writing had earned him less than $100. Despite its bleakness, the book's underlying message of redemption through self-destruction caught on in a United States about to enter the radical 1960's. Mr. Selby overcame his addictions and moved to the West Coast, where he wrote several other books, including "The Room" (1971) "The Demon" (1976), = and "The Willow Tree" (1998). In 1989 "Last Exit" was made into a film by t= he German director Uli Edel. Hubert Selby Jr. was married three times, most recently in 1969 to Suzanne = Victoria Selby, who survives him, along with four children: Claudia Adams o= f Marrow Bone, Ky.; Kyle, of Yorktown, N.Y.; Rachel Kuehn of Corona, Calif.; = and Bill, of Loma Linda, Calif. At the time of his death, Mr. Selby, a high school dropout, taught a gradua= te writing class at the University of Southern California. His son Bill Selby = said he was also working on a novel and a screenplay. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company ________________________ World on the fringes of writer Selby Hubert Selby Jr, who has died aged 75, has been described as one of America's most influential writers. Selby has been compared to William Burroughs and Joseph Heller for his uncompromising prose and the scale of his impact as a US author. He will probably be best remembered for his debut novel, Last Exit To Brooklyn, a story of urban brutality set in a wasteland inhabited by charac= ters existing on the fringes of society. It caused a storm on its publication in 1964 for its stark language and ble= ak storyline of prostitutes and gang members. At a time when US society was regarded as the epitome of wholesome family life, the book was notable for its daring depiction of a previously hidden = underclass consisting of thieves, drug addicts and misfits. Using material drawn from his experiences growing up in the New York borough, the book became a cult classic but split the critics. Allen Ginsberg, the New York beat poet, said it would "explode like a rusty= hellish bombshell over America and still be eagerly read in a hundred years= ". A review in The Times stated: "This is a brutal book - shocking, exhausting= , depressing"; yet the New York Times called it "an extraordinary achievement... with a vision of hell so stern that it cannot be chucked or = raged aside". In 1989 it was turned into a film by Uli Edel, starring Jennifer Jason Leig= h and Stephen Lang, set against a backdrop of violence and corruption in 1950s Brooklyn. Like the book, it became cult viewing. Selby's other best-known work was Requiem For A Dream, a harrowing account of heroin addiction informed by his own problems with substance abuse: he had become addicted to morphine during treatment for tuberculosis. On its publication in 1978, the New York Times Book Review said it cemented= Selby's place in the "front rank" of American novelists. It, too, was made into a film, released in 2000, starring Ellen Burstyn and= Jennifer Connelly. Directed by Darren Aronofsky, it portrayed the tragic downward spiral of four once-ambitious individuals consumed by their addictions. Years before the plaudits afforded to Selby by new generations of film-goin= g fans, critics had been in thrall of his lesser-known second novel, The Room= , published in 1971. It received what Selby called "the greatest reviews I've ever read in my li= fe", then promptly vanished leaving barely a trace of its existence. Typically dark and claustrophobic, it centred on a petty criminal locked in= a remand cell harbouring feelings of impotence, hatred and rage, and fantasising about revenge. Selby's foray into literature began as a teenager when he was sent home fro= m the merchant marines, critically ill with tuberculosis, during World War II= . Spending a year in hospital having survived radical surgery, he began writi= ng the work that would later develop in to Last Exit To Brooklyn. A high school dropout, Selby was teaching a writing class at the University= of Southern California until his death. Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/entertainment/arts/3666117.stm Published: 2004/04/28 11:44:29 GMT © BBC MMIV IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1781. . . . . . . . . . . . The New York Times Magazine, February 21, 1988 From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/1/2004 2:58:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS More youths, blacks, women, homosexuals, Hispanics and alcoholics addicted to other drugs now join A.A. (Adapted from "Getting Better: Inside Alcoholics Anonymous©" by Nan Robertson, to be published by William Morrow in April 1988.) By Nan Robertson Only Bill Wilson could have imagined A.A. as it is today, because only Bill, among the old-timers of Alcoholics Anonymous, had such grandiose, improbable dreams. In the summer of 1935, there were only two A.A. members - Wilson, a failed Wall Street stockbroker, and Dr. Bob Smith, a practicing surgeon - sitting in the Smith kitchen in Akron, Ohio, through half the night, chain-smoking and gulping coffee and trying to figure out how they could sober up other drunks like themselves. The society they had founded attracted only 100 members over the next four years; it would not even have a name until 1939. Now there are more than a million and a half of us around the world - members of the most successful, imitated, yet often misunderstood self-help movement of the 20th century. About half of all A.A.'s are in the United States, the rest are scattered among 114 other countries. Many additional millions have passed through the movement and been made whole by its program, but A.A. periodically counts only those who are regularly attending meetings. For those in the know, there are clues to A.A.'s presence everywhere: the sign on a jeep's hood in a Mexican town that says the "Grupo Bill Wilson" will meet that night; a West Virginia bumper sticker advising "Keep it Simple." The Serenity Prayer, attributed to the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr and recited at the end of A.A. meetings, appears framed on the wall in a South African living room or embroidered on a pillow in a chic Madison Avenue shop. A.A.'s meet in Pagopago, American Samoa, on Wednesday nights, in McMurdo Sound, Antarctica, on Saturdays, and in Lilongwe, Malawi, on Mondays and Friday, They find one another just to sit and chat between meetings in a doughnut shop and coffee shop on the main street of Peterborough, N.H., a town of 5,200 that has four A.A. groups. One of them is called Our Town in honor of Thornton Wilder, who took Peterborough as the model for his nostalgic play about American small-town life. The belfry of a Roman Catholic Church near Covent Garden in London and a bank's board room in Marin County, Calif., are reserved for A.A. meetings once each week. Some groups meet on ships, at sea or port. To these exotic settings must be added the thousands of prosaic basements and halls in churches, community centers and hospitals where most A.A.'s inch their way back to a life of quality. In the last decade or so, large numbers of Americans, mainly entertainers, have gone public to say they are recovered alcoholics. Almost all said their motivation, and their hope, was, by their example, to inspire still-drinking alcoholics to recover. But the great mass of membership everywhere is composed of more or less ordinary people. They are neither movie stars nor skid row bums; the great drama of their lives has not been played out in the spotlight or in squalid flophouses. These alcoholics have suffered, increasingly isolated, in bars, in their own bedrooms, or in the living rooms of friends who have become estranged by their drunken behavior. Their recovery has been worked out in private. Over the last 50 years, the substance of A.A. - its core literature, its program of recovery and its ways of looking at life - has changed very little. But in terms of the numbers and diversity of its members, A.A. today would be unrecognizable to its pioneers. In the early years, A.A. members were almost exclusively male, white, middle-class, middle-aged and of Western extraction. They were men who had fallen very far, often from the top of their business and professions. The A.A. of 1988 is huge, increasingly international, multiethnic, multiracial, cutting across social classes, less rigidly religious than it was in the beginning, more accepting of gay people, and of women, who now form one-third of the total North American membership and about half of the A.A. membership in big cities. Increasingly, many turn to A.A. for help in earlier stages of their disease. A much more abrupt and spectacular trend is that young people have streamed into A.A. in the last 10 years, most of them addicted to other drugs as well as to alcohol. Dr. LeClair Bissell, the founding director of the Smithers alcoholism center, in Manhattan, expresses the consensus of the alcoholism research and treatment world when she says: "There are almost no 'pure' alcoholics among young people anymore. They are hooked on booze and other drugs, or only other drugs." It is common now at A.A. meetings to hear a young speaker say, "My name is Joe, and I'm a drug addict and an alcoholic." The dually addicted anger some A.A. members. One with 20 tears of sobriety says: "This fellowship was formed to help suffering alcoholics, and alcoholics only. That's why it has been so successful - we don't monkey around with other problems." In a few communities, A.A. members have formed groups billed for those "over 30." The message is clear: No druggies wanted. This development infuriates John T. Schwarzlose, executive director of the Betty Ford Center for substance abusers in Rancho Mirage, Calif.: "A.A. is the epitome of tolerance, flexibility and inclusiveness, but some drug addicts have told me about being turned away from A.A. meetings in the Midwest and South when they say they were just addicted to drugs, Now I tell them to say they are both alcoholics and drug abusers." In the big cities and at A.A. headquarters, attitudes toward the dually addicted are much more welcoming. For a long time, Alcoholics Anonymous was believed to be a purely North American phenomenon. It was thought that its themes of self-help and voluntarism would not transfer to more relaxed cultures. A.A.'s Ecuador-born coordinator for Hispanic groups voiced the early point of view among his Latin friends: "A.A. is O.K. for gringos, but not for us. In Latin America... if a man doesn't drink, he's not a macho." To his surprise, A.A. began to boom among Hispanics in the 1970's. Mexico's membership of 250,000 is now second only to that of the United States. Brazil, with 78,000 members, and Guatemala, with 43,000, are next-highest in Latin America. Until recently, A.A. had been unable to gain a toe-hold in the Soviet Union or in Eastern Europe. The movement had been regarded there as possibly threatening, because of its precepts of anonymity and confidentiality, its religious overtones and the fact that it operates outside any government control. Then last summer, the Soviet Union sent to the United States four doctors specializing in addiction. They visited Alcoholism-treatment centers, the Summer School of Alcohol Studies at Rutgers University and numerous A.A. meetings. When they returned home, they took back quantities of A.A. pamphlets translated for them into Russian. Still, the only Eastern European nation to embrace A.A. has been Poland. Its Government finally recognized what is called the "psychotherapeutic" value of A.A. In the United States, those long familiar with A.A. meetings notice that there seem to be disproportionately high numbers from certain ethnic groups. "Alcoholism goes with certain cultures, such as Celtic or the Scandinavian, that approve of drinking, or at least are ambivalent about it," says Dr. Bissell. "But in some environments or religions, people don't drink on principle. These abstinent cultures in the United States include Baptists, some other Southern Protestant sects and Mormons." For a long time, there was a widely held belief that Jews did not become alcoholics. The work of JACS - Jewish Alcoholics, Chemically Dependent Persons and Significant Others - is helping to dispel that myth. Jews are present in large numbers, JACS says, at A.A. meetings in many large cities where there is a significant Jewish population. But rarely do A.A. meetings take place in synagogues or Jewish community centers. Sheldon B., an alcoholism counselor in New York, told of how a few years ago he approached his own rabbi with the idea of opening their temple to an A.A. group. He though that Jewish members in any A.A. group might be more comfortable about accepting help in a synagogue setting than in a church. The rabbi informed him that there was no need: "There are no Jewish alcoholics." When Sheldon B. said, "But I am an alcoholic," the rabbi thought for a moment and them replied, "are you sure you know who your real father was?" Although there are black A.A. groups and mixed racial groups in large Northern cities, the number of blacks in A.A. does not appear to reflect the race's proportion in the nation - 29 million, or 12 percent of the population. "There is a great stigma in being black and being drunk, even recovered, a black Philadelphia teacher declared at a meeting devoted to the subject. "I made the mistake of telling my principal that I had a problem. I checked myself into a treatment center. She used a hatchet on me." As a black Milwaukee social worker explained: "The black community is afraid that if blacks admit their alcoholics, it will reinforce the white stereotype that they are shiftless...The black community likes to think that oppression causes their alcoholism...Other oppressed minorities use the same argument. "Who wouldn't drink?" they say. "Our lives are so goddamed awful. Oblivion is the only way out of our pain." Homosexuals are coming into A.A., and in sophisticated communities are welcomed. Some recovered alcoholics have formed all-gay groups, just as there are special groups for women, doctors, agnostics, lawyers, airline pilots and others. "Growing up in Alabama, I was taught to hate myself," one gay member told an A.A. meeting. "I was a nigger sissy. In A.A., I learned that God loves us all. My business in A.A. is to stay sober and help you if you want it." A.A. surveys do not inquire whether members attend religious services or if they believe in God. There are no questions about ethnic or racial origins, sexual preference or whether alcoholism runs in the family. But a family predisposition to alcoholism is reflected strikingly within A.A. Often, speakers at meetings begin: "My name is Mary, and I am an alcoholic...and my father [or mother] was an alcoholic." Longtime A.A. members believe that it is hopeless to drag another into sobriety if the alcoholic is determined not to be helped or refuses to believe he is ill. Even so, the courts in some states are sending thousands of offenders to A.A. meetings instead of to jail. But the A.A. program sometimes catches on even with unwilling alcoholics. There are many things outsiders believe A.A. to be that it is not. It is not a temperance organization or Prohibition society. A.A. does not want to save the world from gin. Nobody invites you to join A.A. You are a member if you say you are, or if you walk into an A.A. meeting with the thought that you have a drinking problem and you want to stop. There are no papers to sign, no pledges to take, no obligations to speak up, no arms twisted. The attitude of members toward those outside who drink moderately is, "I wish I could drink as you do, but I can't." A.A. is not a religious cult. Some members are agnostics or atheists. Many choose to believe that their "higher power" is their A.A. group. Most members prefer to call A.A.'s program "spiritual." Yet God is mentioned directly or indirectly in five of the Twelve Steps, which A.A. uses to help heal individuals, and this sometimes repels outsiders who might otherwise be attracted. (Boiled down to six instantly understandable principles, the Twelve Step program might read: We admitted we are licked and cannot get well on our own. We get honest with ourselves. We talk it out with somebody else. We try to make amends to people we have harmed. We pray to whatever greater Power we think there is. We try to give of ourselves for our own sake and without stint to other alcoholics with no thought of reward.) A.A. does not work for everybody. But then, nothing does. About 60 per cent of those coming to A.A. for the first time remain in A.A. after going to meetings and assiduously "working the program" for months or even years. Usually, they stay sober for good. But about 40 percent drop out. These statistics refute a widely held notion that A.A. is always successful or an "instant fix." Even so, its success rate is phenomenally high. Freudian analysis and religious faith, for example, may be two great ways to heal the human spirit, but they do not work on their own for alcoholics. The vast majority of doctors, psychologists and members of the clergy who are familiar with A.A. as well as almost all experts in alcoholism, make A.A. their No. 1 choice for a long-term program of recovery. A.A. precepts are built into the programs of every respected intensive alcoholism treatment center in the country, including those of Hazelden in Minnesota, Smithers in New York and the Betty Ford Center. John Schwarzlose of the Betty Ford Center expresses a typical opinion. "Patients ask how important it is that they go to A.A. after they're through here. I say, 'I can give you a guarantee. When you leave here, if you don't go to A.A., you won't make it.'" A.A. has no ties with political parties, foundations, charities or causes, nor does it sponsor research into alcoholism. And unlike most tax-exempt organizations, A.A., whose current annual budget is $11.5 million, does no fund raising. Nor does A.A. accept money from outsiders. The funds supporting headquarters services come mainly from A.A.'s huge publishing empire, which distributes authorized literature to members. Each group is self-supporting, passing a basket at every meeting to help pay for coffee, snacks, literature and rent for the meeting space. Those present often give a dollar. Others may just drop a coin in the basket. Some cannot give anything. No member may donate more that $1,000 a year to A.A. Nor may a member bequeath more than $1,000, or leave property to A.A., which has never owned any real estate. "The reason we discourage gifts and bequests," says Dennis Manders, a nonalcoholic who served for 35 years as the controller at A.A. headquarters, "is that we don't ever want some person dropping a million bucks in the A.A. hopper and saying, 'Now, I'm going to call the tune.'" About half of the groups contribute nothing at all for headquarters services. Many members feel that carrying the expenses of their "home group" is enough. This kind of autonomy and decentralization typifies Alcoholics Anonymous. The average A.A. member, according to surveys, attends four meetings a week. After about five years of regular attendance, some A.A.'s go to fewer and fewer meetings. They may stop altogether when they feel they are able to function comfortably without alcohol. However, some speakers at meetings are full of cautionary tales about how they drifted away from A.A. and drank again, sometimes disastrously and for long, periods of time, before returning to the fold. The movement works in quiet and simple ways. Members usually give of themselves without reservation; exchange telephone numbers with newcomers; come to help at any hour when a fellow member is in crisis; are free with tips on how to avoid that first drink. Most people in A.A. are flexible, tolerant of eccentrics, suspicious of "rules" and "musts." The lack of ritual can be a surprise to beginners. So is the absence of confrontation, finger-pointing, blame-laying, angry debate and chronic whining. The essence of A.A. can only be guessed at in big, showy gatherings, such as its international conventions every five years. It is in the intimacy of the neighborhood meetings that the truth, the flavor and the inkling of the reasons for A.A.'s success can be grasped. The members may meet in groups as small as 2 or 3, or as large as 200, but the usual attendance is somewhere between a dozen and 40 people. In New York City, the most active single A.A. spot anywhere, there is a choice of 1,826 listed meetings held by 724 groups every week. As A.A. grew and diversified, the stigma of alcoholism gradually faded. There were many stages along A.A.'s road to respectability, beginning in the 1940's, that gradually transformed the public's perception of the society of recovered drunks from a butt of disbelief and even ridicule to that of an accepted and admired organization. None was more significant than the action taken by the American Medical Association. In 1956, the AMA's trustees and its House of Delegates declared that alcoholism was a disease, thereby validating a central belief of A.A., from its co-founders on, that it is a sickness, not a sin. Now the Supreme Court of the United States is debating the legality of the issue. Last Dec. 7, the court heard a challenge by two Vietnam War Veterans against the Veterans Administration for excluding "primary alcoholism" (in which drinking itself is the root disorder) from the list of illnesses and disabilities that allow veterans more time to claim education benefits. Extensions can be granted to veterans hindered by physical or mental problems "not the result of their own willful misconduct." The justices are expected to hand down an opinion before the Court's term ends in June. The structure of A.A. is a little harder to grasp than the disease theory of alcoholism. It is close to the truth to say that A.A. consists of a million Indians and no chiefs. And that it is less an organization than an organism that keeps splitting amoeba like, into ever more groups. If a member doesn't like how things are run in his group, he can start another one with people he finds more compatible. This has given rise to an A.A. saying: "All you need to start a new group is two drunks, a coffee pot and some resentment." There is a structure in Alcoholics Anonymous, but it would set any conventional notion of how to run a business on its head. Basically, the local groups are boss and the board of trustees and the staff at the General Service Office are supposed to carry out their orders. The board of trustees is made up of 14 A.A. members and 7 non-alcoholics. Although alcoholics hold all the top administrative jobs, they never handle money. A.A.'s financial operation is run by non-alcoholics. The reason is that Bill Wilson and the early A.A.'s were afraid that if anybody running A.A. fell off the wagon, that would be bad enough, but if he were handling finances as well, the results could be disastrous. The philosophy has endured. The manner in which A.A. directs its collective affairs and sets policy can be seen most clearly - or in all its democratic confusion - at its yearly General Service Conference, the closest approximation to a governing body of A.A. About 135 people attend, including 91 delegates elected at regional A.A. assemblies in the United States and Canada. Also on hand are the trustees of the board and representatives of the head-quarter's staff. The day-to-day business of Alcoholics Anonymous has been carried on since 1970 in a brick building at 468 Park Avenue South, in midtown Manhattan. Whatever policies are decided at the conference are carried out by the headquarters staff. Their jobs are divided into specialties such as literature, treatment centers, prisons, public information and cooperation with professionals - doctors, counselors, social workers and teachers, for example - in the alcoholism field. And just in case somebody should become overly fond of a specialty, all the top staff members, except the general manager and the Hispanic coordinator, regularly rotate jobs every two years. The same frequent rotation occurs at every level in A.A. Officers in local groups usually step down every six months. The seven nonalcoholic trustees, who are often experts in some profession, such as medicine, law, banking or social work, serve a special need. Joan K. Jackson, a sociologist with long experience among alcoholics, explains: "We can use our full names in public. We are not perceived by outsiders as having any vested interest. Privately within A.A., our greatest function is as gadflies and questioners." What makes A.A. headquarters run is the A.A. World Service publishing empire. It now brings in $8.8 million annually or 76 per cent of A.A.'s yearly corporate revenues. It is the cause of some trepidation among those who have taken what amounts to a vow of poverty. Each year, A.A. distributes 7 million copies of more than 40 pamphlets (mostly gratis for members), and almost a million and a half copies of 6 books and two booklets. Seven million copies of the Big Book (A.A.'s central text, published in 1939, whose formal title is "Alcoholics Anonymous") have been sold. Last year alone, about a million Big Books were purchased, virtually all of them at A.A. meetings, alcoholic rehabilitation centers or through mail orders. At the time of his death, early in 1971, Bill Wilson was earning about $65,000 a year in royalties from the Big Book and three other books he wrote for A.A. Last year, his widow, Lois, received $912,000 in royalties. Under the terms of the agreement Bill concluded with A.A. headquarters in 1963, she was allocated 13.5 per cent of Wilson's royalties. Another 1.5 percent went to his last mistress, who died a few years after Bill. There has been almost no negative publicity about Alcoholics Anonymous over the five decades of its history. Extensive research turns up only a handful of critical views in the press. Writing in The Nation in 1964, Jerome Ellison charged that A.A.'s conservative top councils had lost touch with the ever more diverse rank-and-file. The same year, Arthur H. Cain, a New York psychologist, in a book and articles for various magazines, called A.A. a "cult" that enslaved its members to self-righteous sobriety. Bill Wilson's reaction was typical of the man's tolerance. The co-founder trying to calm the ensuing fuss at headquarters, said: "In all the years, this is the first thorough- going criticism our fellowship ever had. So the practicing of absorbing stuff like that in good humor should be of value." It was the first public criticism, and it proved to be one of the last. Privately within A.A., there has been a growing dissatisfaction with headquarters. Some members say staff members are becoming frozen in bureaucracy and are overly sensitive to pressure from the most rigid and narrow-minded members, particularly old-timers, who regard the Big Book and other authorized literature almost as Holy Writ. "If anything is going to destroy A.A.," says Dr. John Norris, a nonalcoholic physician, friend of Bill Wilson's and for many years chairman of A.A.'s board of trustees, "It will be what I call the 'tradition lawyers.' They find it easier to live with black and white than they do with gray. These 'bleeding deacons' * these fundamentalists are afraid of and fight any change." Source: The New York Times Magazine©, February 21, 1988 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1782. . . . . . . . . . . . Significant May Dates in AA History From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/1/2004 3:25:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII May 1 1941 - First Wisconsin AA meeting was held in a Milwaukee hotel. May 2 1941 - Jacksonville, FL, newspaper reported start of a new AA group. 1941 - First meeting was held in San Bernardino, California. May 3 1941 - First AA group formed in New Orleans, Louisiana. 1943 - Democrat Chronicle in Rochester, NY, reported first annual AA dinner at Seneca Hotel with 60 attending. May 4 1946 - Marty Mann explained Alcoholics Anonymous and the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism on the "We the People" radio show. May 5 1940 - Washington, DC, Sunday Star reported formation of first AA group in the District of Columbia. May 7 1956 - The first English AA Convention was held in Cheltenham, England. May 8 1943 - Akron AA group had its 8th anniversary celebration with 500 present and sober. 1971 - Bill Wilson was buried in private ceremony. May 10 1946 - Searcy W. had his last drink. (Searcy died September 30, 2003.) May 11 1935 - From the Mayflower Hotel, Bill Wilson called Walter Tunks who referred him to Henrietta Seiberling who introduced Bill to Dr. Bob. May 12 1935 - Mothers' Day - Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith met for the first time in Akron, Ohio, at the home of Henrietta Seiberling. May 14 1948 - Long Beach, California. Central Office was opened. 1998 - Sybil C., first woman to enter A.A. west of the Mississippi, died. Her date of sobriety was March 23, 1941. Her name at the time was Sybil Maxwell, though she later opened her talks by saying, "My name is Sybil Doris Adams Stratton Hart Maxwell Willis C., and I'm an alcoholic." May 15 1961 - Bill Wilson's mother, Emiliy Strobell, died. May 16 1941 - Ruth Hock learned that Joe W. (credited with coming up with the name Alcoholics Anonymous) had a "wet brain." May 17 1942 - The Journal-Herald in Dayton, Ohio, ran a story on A.A. with photos of members in Halloween masks to protect their anonymity. May 18 1950 - Dr. Bob told Bill "I reckon we ought to be buried like other folks" after hearing that local A.A.'s wanted a huge memorial. May 19 2000 - Dr. Paul Ohliger died at the age of 83. His story, "Doctor, Alcoholic, Addict," was retitled "Acceptance Was the Answer," in the 4th edition. May 22 1948 - Atlantic City Group celebrated its second anniversary with Dr. C. Nelson Davis of St. Luke's Hospital, Philadelphia, and other A.A.s speaking. May 28 1974 - The first World Service meeting of AA outside of America was held in London. May 29 1980 - "Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers," AAWS biography of AA co-founder and a history of early Mid- west AA, was published. May 31 1938 - Bill and other AA's began writing the Big Book. __________ Other May events for which we have no specific date: 1939 - Clarence Snyder told Dr. Bob, his sponsor, he would not be back to the Oxford Group meetings in Akron and would start an "A.A." meeting in Cleveland. 1942 - Richmond Walker, author of "Twenty-Four Hours a Day," had his last drink. 1946 - Long Form of Twelve Traditions was published in the AA Grapevine. 1946 - The AA Grapevine announced: "AA has 6,000 members in 180 groups." 1947 - Avalon, California (Catalina Island Group) was formed. 1948 - The AA Grapevine reported $2.00 was sent to the General Service headquarters of AA in New York, asking for a bottle of Alcoholics Anonymous. 1951 - Al-Anon was founded by Lois Wilson and Anne B. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1783. . . . . . . . . . . . A MINOR HISTORY OF AA IN KANKAKEE, ILLINOIS From: kankakeebern . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/2/2004 10:27:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII (Kankakee is about 60 miles south of Chicago) According to an article published in the Kankakee Journal in December, 1958, A.A. here had endured 10 years in October of 1958. In 1948 a man named Doc Mills went up to Evanston to the Georgian Hotel to hear Bill W. speak. He wanted to try the program here so he and three others met at the courthouse the first time. As others joined, they met once a week at different homes or wherever they could do it. This first group was listed with G.S.O. in 1949 as the Kankakee Kounty Kourthouse Group with 5 members. They tried to get churches to meet in, but the churches would have no part of it. They met at the St. Rose School in one corner of the gym while the basketball team practiced at the other end. They met at a roller rink that used to be where the old Radeke Brewery was. They met in a tavern storeroom on south Washington. They met at the Salvation Army. They met in DeSelm at a fellow's house who had a farm spraying business. Whoever was elected chairman got the Book and coffee pot and was in charge. It was an honor that they thought that much of you. They didn't have a lot of meetings but they spent a lot of time with one another. They were a close knit group. At the time, if one was in trouble, the other ones were there. By 1950 there were 12 members. Uncle Billie came in later for a while and he was sober for about a year, but he went back out. He came back and stayed straight. Uncle Billie was chairing a meeting at the Salvation Army with four others. They were paying the Salvation Army five dollars for the meeting. They passed the basket and there were only four dollars in it. He said, "Well, we don't have enough." The other members said there would be if he had put his dollar in. He had forgotten to put his money in. Uncle Billy kept it going, because he was home during the day. If they had a Twelfth Step call they ended up over at Uncle Billie's kitchen with coffee. It grew slowly in the beginning, from six to nine to 12 members. Every once in a while they would take a big trip. One time they got together to go to Indianapolis to hear Father John Doe talk. Three or four of them would get together and go to Danville or Chicago or another place for an out-of-town meeting. (This was before the Interstate Highways we take for granted now.) It was in 1972 they thought they had enough members to rent space on Durham St. in Bradley for a meeting place and Alano Club. They ended up with the space next to it being donated bcause the landlord didn't have any luck renting it. The late John Hefner came here from Chicago in 1960 to start an alcohol rehab unit at Kankakee State Hospital. In 1984 They purchased a building on East River Street for an Alano Club for meetings. As a postscript, Doc Mills never did stay sober. Besides Kankakee, Bradley and DeSelm, there were members from Momence and Bonfield. (from interviews with Spike V. and John H.) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1784. . . . . . . . . . . . One Page At A Time (2004) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/4/2004 5:25:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII One Page At a Time Susan Cheever's Chilling Glimpse of AA's Tormented 'Saint' By David Von Drehle Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, May 3, 2004; Page C01 During her research for a biography of Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson, author Susan Cheever dug through the just-opened archives at Stepping Stones, Wilson's longtime home outside New York City. Alongside an archivist, she sifted reams of material that had not been looked at in decades. One day, the archivist handed her a sheaf of wide, green-lined pages -- hourly logs kept by the nurses who tended Wilson on his deathbed. Cheever glanced at them. They seemed mundane. "Keep reading," the archivist urged her. Cheever came to the pages covering Christmas 1970. On the eve of the holiday, Bill Wilson passed a fitful night. A lifelong smoker, he had been fighting emphysema for years, and now he was losing the battle. Nurse James Dannenberg was on duty in the last hour before dawn. At 6:10 a.m. on Christmas morning, according to Dannenberg's notes, the man who sobered up millions "asked for three shots of whiskey." He was quite upset when he didn't get them, Cheever writes. Wilson asked for booze again about a week later, on Jan. 2, 1971. And on Jan. 8. And on Jan. 14. "My blood ran cold," Cheever said recently of the discovery. "I was shocked and horrified." With time to ponder, though, she found herself thinking, "Of course he wanted a drink. He was the one who talked about sobriety being 'a daily remission.' I realized that this was a story about the power of alcohol: that even Bill Wilson, the man who invented sobriety, who had 30-plus years sober, still wanted a drink." In the Big Book, as AA's foundation text is known, Wilson recalled the time in 1934 when doctors concluded that he was a hopeless drunk and told his wife that there was no cure, apart from the asylum or the grave. "They did not need to tell me," he added. "I knew, and almost welcomed the idea." On Jan. 24, 1971, the man known modestly to legions of alcoholics as "Bill W." was finally cured. Powerless Over Alcohol Cheever's discovery, reported in her book "My Name Is Bill," doesn't really change what little we know about alcoholism, a cruel, confounding and mysterious disease. It doesn't really change what we know about Wilson, a rough-hewn and unorthodox American saint sketched by Cheever in all his chain-smoking, womanizing, Ouija-board-reading, acid-tripping holiness. But it might change, at least a bit, the way some of us think about miracles -- the shelf life of miracles, the limited warranty they carry, and how high-maintenance they are. Miracles come in Bill Wilson's story, but always with strings attached. They are a bequest -- but not like an annuity that pays out endlessly and effortlessly. More like an old mansion, precious and beautiful, but demanding endless, unglamorous upkeep. The miracle of Wilson's sobriety -- and the birth of AA -- arrived like something out of the Old Testament. It was 1934, late in the year, when the doctors had given up on Bill. Booze, which once put its arm around his shoulder, now had its jaws around his throat. A smart, handsome, charming man, Wilson had become the kind of drunk who could set off one morning to play golf and awaken a day later outside his house, unsure how he got there, with his head bleeding mysteriously and his unused clubs still at his side. "The more he decided not to drink," Cheever writes, "the more irresistible drink seemed to become." So for the third time, Wilson checked himself into a private hospital in New York that specialized in drying out "rum hounds," as he called himself. He knew what to expect: doses of barbiturates, assorted bitter herbs, castor oil and other purgatives, vomiting, tremors and depression. He also knew it probably would not work, that just about every hard case like him went back to drinking after being discharged. The prospect was so dismal that Wilson picked up a few bottles of beer for the cab ride. Wilson had a friend named Ebby Thatcher, another alcoholic, who had a friend named Roland Hazard, yet another drunk, who was wealthy enough to seek help from the eminent psychiatrist Carl Jung in Switzerland. When Jung realized how serious Hazard's drinking problem was, he told his patient that the only hope was a religious conversion -- in Jung's experience, nothing else worked. The American psychologist William James had arrived at a similar conclusion, declaring in "The Varieties of Religious Experience" that "the only cure for dipsomania is religiomania." Well, by God, Hazard got religion and sobered up, for a while. He preached this approach to Thatcher, and Thatcher in turn proselytized Wilson. "I was in favor of practically everything he had to say except one thing," Wilson later recalled of his conversations with Thatcher. "I was not in favor of God." After a couple of days at Towns Hospital, Bill Wilson was past the d.t.'s and feeling really low. Science could do nothing for him. He now realized that he couldn't kick the booze by himself. Yet he was unable to believe in the only power experts knew of to save a drunk. Then: "Like a child crying out in the dark, I said, 'If there is a Father, if there is a God, will he show himself?' And the place lit up in a great glare, a wondrous white light. Then I began to have images, in the mind's eyes, so to speak, and one came in which I seemed to see myself standing on a mountain and a great clean wind was blowing, and this blowing at first went around and then it seemed to go through me. And then the ecstasy redoubled and I found myself exclaiming, 'I am a free man! So this is the God of the preachers!' And little by little the ecstasy subsided and I found myself in a new world of consciousness." Wilson never had another drink. Carry This Message Brimming with vision and new consciousness, Wilson blew back into the familiar world as if everything had changed -- not just for him, but for all of creation. He bragged that he was going to save every drunk in the world. He went scavenging for men to preach to, finding them in missions and hospitals and jails and among his own drinking buddies. Some of his targets thought he sounded an awful lot like the Bible-brandishing temperance ladies he had rebelled against as a young man. He discovered that many alcoholics were "not in favor of God" -- God was an authority figure and drunks don't deal well with authority. "This doesn't work," he despaired to his wife, Lois. She reminded him that he was keeping at least one drunk sober -- himself. But within months, even that project was at risk. Having been blinded like Saul on the road to Damascus, he now had his sight back and -- as often happens to the miraculously enlightened -- was discovering little by little that he was much the same as before. Tempted while on a business trip in Akron, Ohio, Wilson fought off the bottle by cold-calling churches from the hotel directory in search of a drunk to help. One call led him to an alcoholic surgeon named Bob Smith. Initially, Smith objected to being saved -- this was after one of those sad-but-hilarious tales that give a sort of rosy glow to a truly savage disease: Wilson's first scheduled encounter with Smith was called off after the doctor staggered home blotto carrying an enormous potted plant for no discernible reason. He deposited the non sequitur before his bewildered wife, then passed out. The next day, when they finally met, Wilson answered Smith's reluctance by saying that he wasn't there for Smith, he was there for Bill Wilson. This was a key insight in the development of AA -- the realization that helping another drunk is key to staying sober oneself. It reflected Wilson's new humility about his wondrous white light and great clean wind. Before, he was trying to work miracles in the lives of others. Now, he was just trying to maintain the miracle in his own. And it worked. After one relapse, Smith, who had been drinking even longer and harder than Wilson, got sober. Bill W. and Dr. Bob shared the story of their recoveries with more drunks in this same spirit. Some of those men and women got sober themselves, and reached out to still others. And so on, down through the years and out around the planet to the largely anonymous millions of today, who range from celebrities to legislators to schoolteachers to busboys, from a former first lady to the businessman striding down the sidewalk to the desperate soul working on a second sober sunrise. AA is now so widespread and well known that creators of the children's movie "Finding Nemo" could playfully include a 12-step meeting for fish-addicted sharks, confident that every parent in the global reach of Disney would get the joke. It's impossible to know exactly how many people have tried AA, how many stayed sober, how many attend meetings and how often. The group is not only anonymous, it is non-hierarchical, nondenominational, non-centralized, nonpartisan. According to the Twelve Traditions that govern AA, there is no requirement for membership except a desire to stop drinking, and the group endorses no cause apart from that one. All it takes to convene an AA meeting is two alcoholics who feel like talking, and the tone of the meetings is as varied as the people who choose to attend. Group consensus rules in all things, so in any good-size city there are smoking meetings and nonsmoking meetings, meetings for early risers and for night owls, meetings mostly populated by long-timers and meetings more oriented to the newly sober. The 12 Steps and decentralized structure have proved so effective and popular that other groups have copied the template for dealing with other problems: Narcotics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous and so forth. But AA has never branched out. Getting and staying sober has been labor enough. Unlike many spiritual visionaries, Wilson came to understand "that when he heard the voice of God, it was often just the voice of Bill Wilson," as Cheever puts it. And so, in the now-famous catechism that he created, AA members are pledged simply to turn their will and lives over to "the care of God as we understood him," with italics right there in the Big Book. Prospective converts are often assured that they may take as their God the nearest radiator if that's what works for them. Almighty God with the white beard, or a gentle breeze in the treetops, or the sublime engineering of a molecule, or the vastness of space, or the love of friends, or the power of the AA meeting itself: Choose your own Infinite. Whatever works. In the can-do land of the bottom line, even our spirituality tends to be results-oriented. But the language of AA plays provocatively with a simple word: "work." In one sense, sobriety is something that just happens, much like Wilson's great clean wind. It is a gift from the Higher Power to the alcoholic. At the same time, "work" means work, as in tangible, sometimes even grudging, effort. In the early days, Bill W. and Dr. Bob would sit in the Smith parlor refining their drunk-saving techniques, and often Smith's wife, Anne, read aloud from the Bible. They were partial to the Epistle of James, which reminded them that "faith without works is dead." AA members speak of "working the steps," and many meetings end with the affirmation that "it works if you work it." This means returning again and again to the state of mind and the exercises that constitute the upkeep on each miracle of sobriety. Beginning with the admission that they are powerless over alcohol and continuing through labors of humility, repentance, meditation and service, AA members maintain the dam that holds back the obliterating tide of booze from their lives. A Friend of Bill W. Cheever is a forthright woman with a big laugh and no immediately obvious illusions, a hard-working writer who publishes books like clockwork, pens a column for Newsday and teaches at Bennington College. She decided to write about Wilson because "I loved him. I loved how he changed the world without knowing it, just as a way to stop drinking himself. I loved his Yankeeness," by which she seems to mean a range of qualities, from the Emersonian flinty optimism, to the unsentimental practicality, to the hovering dark clouds and the weirdo seances, which she calls his "table-tapping after dark." No doubt she also loved Wilson for the fact that his miracle, worked and reworked through the long chain of drunks, touched her own family, late in the life of her father, the short-story artist John Cheever. Booze was the lubricant of Cheever's masterpieces. He was the poet laureate of postwar suburbia, in which hope, striving, lust and angst were all refracted through the bottom of a cocktail glass. But what was symbol and atmosphere in his stories was toxic in John Cheever's life, as his daughter explained in her acclaimed memoirs "Home Before Dark," and booze washed into Susan Cheever's life as well. In her book "Note Found in a Bottle," she recalls learning to mix a martini by the age of 6, and doing plenty of drinking as an adult. Susan Cheever now speaks of her father's AA years as an amazing gift to the whole family, not a gift of bliss so much as a gift of simple reality. When a drunk enters the unreal world of his illness, he takes his family and friends with him. Her homage to the family benefactor is pro-Wilson but not hagiographic. "I like to take saints and make them into people," she explains. She touches the spiritual bases in her portrait of Wilson, but seems more moved by the concrete elements. Over lunch at a Manhattan bistro, she recalls her first visit to Wilson's boyhood home in East Dorset, Vt., not far from the Bennington campus. Cheever noticed the low ceiling of the stairway leading to Wilson's room, and caught a glimpse in her mind's eyes, so to speak, of the gangly boy having to duck his head each time he passed. "And I was him," for that moment, she says. "I understood what it was to be a depressed 10-year-old boy trapped in that house" after his parents had abandoned him to his remote and austere grandparents. It's not easy making a spiritual figure compelling and real without slipping into iconoclasm. Cheever's approach is to apply a writerly version of Wilson's humility. She gets the goods on his serial adultery, for instance, but declines to make too much of it. "He was engaged to Lois when he was 18 -- hello!" Cheever says. "They were married 53 years. All we really know is that they were friends through an amazing life. He was a good-enough husband." Likewise, she can look into Wilson's LSD experiment with proto-hippie Aldous Huxley without getting mired in a puritanical inquisition into whether this constituted a "slip" in his sobriety or hypocrisy in his creed. This attitude allows Cheever to see that Wilson's inconsistencies and quirks weren't blemishes on his record -- they were the essence of a flawed man who was endlessly seeking what works. "Again and again, his intuitions were wrong," Cheever says. "But he wasn't interested in problems. He was interested in solutions." Most of the key traditions of AA operations, including its independence, anonymity and governance-by-consensus, ran counter to Wilson's personal disposition. "He wanted fame and fortune, but somehow was able to figure out that AA would have to be a group in which nobody represents it, nobody speaks for it and nobody's in charge of it." Sobering Reality The striking thing about Wilson's story -- which only settles in upon reflection -- is how hard his life was even after he sobered up. What, really, had that bright light and clean wind changed? He and Lois remained penniless, even homeless, for years. Sometimes it seemed that AA was determined to keep him poor forever. He had a chance to cash in by allying his message with a particular hospital, but his fledgling flock forbade him to do it. He harbored hope that John D. Rockefeller Jr. would lavish money on him, but instead Rockefeller came through with a tiny stipend. Alcoholics Anonymous struggled for six long and underwhelming years before catching its crucial break: a glowing article in the Saturday Evening Post. Then, as the group flourished, Wilson was attacked by jealous colleagues and abandoned by old friends. He sank into a crushing depression, and "often just sat for hours with his head on the desk or with his head in his hands," Cheever writes. "When he raised his head, he was sometimes weeping." Wilson liked children but was childless. Cigarettes were killing him but he couldn't stop smoking. He wrote of "being swamped with guilt and self-loathing . . . often getting a misshapen and painful pleasure out of it." It was enough to drive a man to drink. Yet for 36-plus years of this troubled and very human life, he was able to resist that next drink. Perhaps the most efficacious miracles are the small ones. And because "his mind was the right lens" and his will was "the right machine," in Cheever's words, for mass-producing that limited but crucial victory, Bill Wilson's miracle keeps working, one person and one day at a time. © 2004 The Washington Post Company Of Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill Wilson, Cheever says, "He changed the world without knowing it, just as a way to stop drinking himself." (Helayne Seidman For The Washington Post) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1785. . . . . . . . . . . . One Solitary Voice by Jack B...any info.? From: wbmscm . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/4/2004 6:43:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Does anyone have any information on a gentlemen by the name of Jack B. who wrote a publication called "One Solitary Voice"? IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1786. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: One Page At A Time (2004) From: Arthur Sheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/6/2004 10:40:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I found Cheever's book to be a big disappointment - not based its so-called "revelations" but from numerous factual errors in the material. Having read most of the books cited in its bibliography, I don't get the sense Cheever studied them very thoroughly. The book is acclaimed to be well researched but I don't get a sense that it measures up to those claims. I'm somewhat tempted to develop an itemized list of its errors (they are not trivial). Outside of revealing a letter from Bill that his first drink was a beer (a few weeks or so before drinking a Bronx cocktail) I didn't see anything that hadn't appeared elsewhere. In regards to Bill asking for whiskey on his death bed, the delirious comments of a dying man should not be projected as being representative of anything other than the delirious comments of a dying man. Regrettably there are those who persist in wanting to elevate Bill to demigod status and deprive him of his human fallibility. All things considered, despite his infidelities, séances, LSD, niacin, smoking himself to death, etc., etc., Bill's shortcomings do not need to be either rationalized or vilified. Bill left a priceless legacy of recovery, unity and service that has saved the lives of countless millions since 1935. That legacy gets obscured by what seems to be a disturbing and ever-increasing trend these days to churn out titillating exposés and editorials masquerading as well-researched biographies. Arthur ----- Original Message ----- From: Lash, William (Bill) Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2004 5:25 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] One Page At A Time (2004) One Page At a Time Susan Cheever's Chilling Glimpse of AA's Tormented 'Saint' By David Von Drehle Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, May 3, 2004; Page C01 During her research for a biography of Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson, author Susan Cheever dug through the just-opened archives at Stepping Stones, Wilson's longtime home outside New York City. Alongside an archivist, she sifted reams of material that had not been looked at in decades. One day, the archivist handed her a sheaf of wide, green-lined pages -- hourly logs kept by the nurses who tended Wilson on his deathbed. Cheever glanced at them. They seemed mundane. "Keep reading," the archivist urged her. Cheever came to the pages covering Christmas 1970. On the eve of the holiday, Bill Wilson passed a fitful night. A lifelong smoker, he had been fighting emphysema for years, and now he was losing the battle. Nurse James Dannenberg was on duty in the last hour before dawn. At 6:10 a.m. on Christmas morning, according to Dannenberg's notes, the man who sobered up millions "asked for three shots of whiskey." He was quite upset when he didn't get them, Cheever writes. Wilson asked for booze again about a week later, on Jan. 2, 1971. And on Jan. 8. And on Jan. 14. "My blood ran cold," Cheever said recently of the discovery. "I was shocked and horrified." With time to ponder, though, she found herself thinking, "Of course he wanted a drink. He was the one who talked about sobriety being 'a daily remission.' I realized that this was a story about the power of alcohol: that even Bill Wilson, the man who invented sobriety, who had 30-plus years sober, still wanted a drink." In the Big Book, as AA's foundation text is known, Wilson recalled the time in 1934 when doctors concluded that he was a hopeless drunk and told his wife that there was no cure, apart from the asylum or the grave. "They did not need to tell me," he added. "I knew, and almost welcomed the idea." On Jan. 24, 1971, the man known modestly to legions of alcoholics as "Bill W." was finally cured. Powerless Over Alcohol Cheever's discovery, reported in her book "My Name Is Bill," doesn't really change what little we know about alcoholism, a cruel, confounding and mysterious disease. It doesn't really change what we know about Wilson, a rough-hewn and unorthodox American saint sketched by Cheever in all his chain-smoking, womanizing, Ouija-board-reading, acid-tripping holiness. But it might change, at least a bit, the way some of us think about miracles -- the shelf life of miracles, the limited warranty they carry, and how high-maintenance they are. Miracles come in Bill Wilson's story, but always with strings attached. They are a bequest -- but not like an annuity that pays out endlessly and effortlessly. More like an old mansion, precious and beautiful, but demanding endless, unglamorous upkeep. The miracle of Wilson's sobriety -- and the birth of AA -- arrived like something out of the Old Testament. It was 1934, late in the year, when the doctors had given up on Bill. Booze, which once put its arm around his shoulder, now had its jaws around his throat. A smart, handsome, charming man, Wilson had become the kind of drunk who could set off one morning to play golf and awaken a day later outside his house, unsure how he got there, with his head bleeding mysteriously and his unused clubs still at his side. "The more he decided not to drink," Cheever writes, "the more irresistible drink seemed to become." So for the third time, Wilson checked himself into a private hospital in New York that specialized in drying out "rum hounds," as he called himself. He knew what to expect: doses of barbiturates, assorted bitter herbs, castor oil and other purgatives, vomiting, tremors and depression. He also knew it probably would not work, that just about every hard case like him went back to drinking after being discharged. The prospect was so dismal that Wilson picked up a few bottles of beer for the cab ride. Wilson had a friend named Ebby Thatcher, another alcoholic, who had a friend named Roland Hazard, yet another drunk, who was wealthy enough to seek help from the eminent psychiatrist Carl Jung in Switzerland. When Jung realized how serious Hazard's drinking problem was, he told his patient that the only hope was a religious conversion -- in Jung's experience, nothing else worked. The American psychologist William James had arrived at a similar conclusion, declaring in "The Varieties of Religious Experience" that "the only cure for dipsomania is religiomania." Well, by God, Hazard got religion and sobered up, for a while. He preached this approach to Thatcher, and Thatcher in turn proselytized Wilson. "I was in favor of practically everything he had to say except one thing," Wilson later recalled of his conversations with Thatcher. "I was not in favor of God." After a couple of days at Towns Hospital, Bill Wilson was past the d.t.'s and feeling really low. Science could do nothing for him. He now realized that he couldn't kick the booze by himself. Yet he was unable to believe in the only power experts knew of to save a drunk. Then: "Like a child crying out in the dark, I said, 'If there is a Father, if there is a God, will he show himself?' And the place lit up in a great glare, a wondrous white light. Then I began to have images, in the mind's eyes, so to speak, and one came in which I seemed to see myself standing on a mountain and a great clean wind was blowing, and this blowing at first went around and then it seemed to go through me. And then the ecstasy redoubled and I found myself exclaiming, 'I am a free man! So this is the God of the preachers!' And little by little the ecstasy subsided and I found myself in a new world of consciousness." Wilson never had another drink. Carry This Message Brimming with vision and new consciousness, Wilson blew back into the familiar world as if everything had changed -- not just for him, but for all of creation. He bragged that he was going to save every drunk in the world. He went scavenging for men to preach to, finding them in missions and hospitals and jails and among his own drinking buddies. Some of his targets thought he sounded an awful lot like the Bible-brandishing temperance ladies he had rebelled against as a young man. He discovered that many alcoholics were "not in favor of God" -- God was an authority figure and drunks don't deal well with authority. "This doesn't work," he despaired to his wife, Lois. She reminded him that he was keeping at least one drunk sober -- himself. But within months, even that project was at risk. Having been blinded like Saul on the road to Damascus, he now had his sight back and -- as often happens to the miraculously enlightened -- was discovering little by little that he was much the same as before. Tempted while on a business trip in Akron, Ohio, Wilson fought off the bottle by cold-calling churches from the hotel directory in search of a drunk to help. One call led him to an alcoholic surgeon named Bob Smith. Initially, Smith objected to being saved -- this was after one of those sad-but-hilarious tales that give a sort of rosy glow to a truly savage disease: Wilson's first scheduled encounter with Smith was called off after the doctor staggered home blotto carrying an enormous potted plant for no discernible reason. He deposited the non sequitur before his bewildered wife, then passed out. The next day, when they finally met, Wilson answered Smith's reluctance by saying that he wasn't there for Smith, he was there for Bill Wilson. This was a key insight in the development of AA -- the realization that helping another drunk is key to staying sober oneself. It reflected Wilson's new humility about his wondrous white light and great clean wind. Before, he was trying to work miracles in the lives of others. Now, he was just trying to maintain the miracle in his own. And it worked. After one relapse, Smith, who had been drinking even longer and harder than Wilson, got sober. Bill W. and Dr. Bob shared the story of their recoveries with more drunks in this same spirit. Some of those men and women got sober themselves, and reached out to still others. And so on, down through the years and out around the planet to the largely anonymous millions of today, who range from celebrities to legislators to schoolteachers to busboys, from a former first lady to the businessman striding down the sidewalk to the desperate soul working on a second sober sunrise. AA is now so widespread and well known that creators of the children's movie "Finding Nemo" could playfully include a 12-step meeting for fish-addicted sharks, confident that every parent in the global reach of Disney would get the joke. It's impossible to know exactly how many people have tried AA, how many stayed sober, how many attend meetings and how often. The group is not only anonymous, it is non-hierarchical, nondenominational, non-centralized, nonpartisan. According to the Twelve Traditions that govern AA, there is no requirement for membership except a desire to stop drinking, and the group endorses no cause apart from that one. All it takes to convene an AA meeting is two alcoholics who feel like talking, and the tone of the meetings is as varied as the people who choose to attend. Group consensus rules in all things, so in any good-size city there are smoking meetings and nonsmoking meetings, meetings for early risers and for night owls, meetings mostly populated by long-timers and meetings more oriented to the newly sober. The 12 Steps and decentralized structure have proved so effective and popular that other groups have copied the template for dealing with other problems: Narcotics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous and so forth. But AA has never branched out. Getting and staying sober has been labor enough. Unlike many spiritual visionaries, Wilson came to understand "that when he heard the voice of God, it was often just the voice of Bill Wilson," as Cheever puts it. And so, in the now-famous catechism that he created, AA members are pledged simply to turn their will and lives over to "the care of God as we understood him," with italics right there in the Big Book. Prospective converts are often assured that they may take as their God the nearest radiator if that's what works for them. Almighty God with the white beard, or a gentle breeze in the treetops, or the sublime engineering of a molecule, or the vastness of space, or the love of friends, or the power of the AA meeting itself: Choose your own Infinite. Whatever works. In the can-do land of the bottom line, even our spirituality tends to be results-oriented. But the language of AA plays provocatively with a simple word: "work." In one sense, sobriety is something that just happens, much like Wilson's great clean wind. It is a gift from the Higher Power to the alcoholic. At the same time, "work" means work, as in tangible, sometimes even grudging, effort. In the early days, Bill W. and Dr. Bob would sit in the Smith parlor refining their drunk-saving techniques, and often Smith's wife, Anne, read aloud from the Bible. They were partial to the Epistle of James, which reminded them that "faith without works is dead." AA members speak of "working the steps," and many meetings end with the affirmation that "it works if you work it." This means returning again and again to the state of mind and the exercises that constitute the upkeep on each miracle of sobriety. Beginning with the admission that they are powerless over alcohol and continuing through labors of humility, repentance, meditation and service, AA members maintain the dam that holds back the obliterating tide of booze from their lives. A Friend of Bill W. Cheever is a forthright woman with a big laugh and no immediately obvious illusions, a hard-working writer who publishes books like clockwork, pens a column for Newsday and teaches at Bennington College. She decided to write about Wilson because "I loved him. I loved how he changed the world without knowing it, just as a way to stop drinking himself. I loved his Yankeeness," by which she seems to mean a range of qualities, from the Emersonian flinty optimism, to the unsentimental practicality, to the hovering dark clouds and the weirdo seances, which she calls his "table-tapping after dark." No doubt she also loved Wilson for the fact that his miracle, worked and reworked through the long chain of drunks, touched her own family, late in the life of her father, the short-story artist John Cheever. Booze was the lubricant of Cheever's masterpieces. He was the poet laureate of postwar suburbia, in which hope, striving, lust and angst were all refracted through the bottom of a cocktail glass. But what was symbol and atmosphere in his stories was toxic in John Cheever's life, as his daughter explained in her acclaimed memoirs "Home Before Dark," and booze washed into Susan Cheever's life as well. In her book "Note Found in a Bottle," she recalls learning to mix a martini by the age of 6, and doing plenty of drinking as an adult. Susan Cheever now speaks of her father's AA years as an amazing gift to the whole family, not a gift of bliss so much as a gift of simple reality. When a drunk enters the unreal world of his illness, he takes his family and friends with him. Her homage to the family benefactor is pro-Wilson but not hagiographic. "I like to take saints and make them into people," she explains. She touches the spiritual bases in her portrait of Wilson, but seems more moved by the concrete elements. Over lunch at a Manhattan bistro, she recalls her first visit to Wilson's boyhood home in East Dorset, Vt., not far from the Bennington campus. Cheever noticed the low ceiling of the stairway leading to Wilson's room, and caught a glimpse in her mind's eyes, so to speak, of the gangly boy having to duck his head each time he passed. "And I was him," for that moment, she says. "I understood what it was to be a depressed 10-year-old boy trapped in that house" after his parents had abandoned him to his remote and austere grandparents. It's not easy making a spiritual figure compelling and real without slipping into iconoclasm. Cheever's approach is to apply a writerly version of Wilson's humility. She gets the goods on his serial adultery, for instance, but declines to make too much of it. "He was engaged to Lois when he was 18 -- hello!" Cheever says. "They were married 53 years. All we really know is that they were friends through an amazing life. He was a good-enough husband." Likewise, she can look into Wilson's LSD experiment with proto-hippie Aldous Huxley without getting mired in a puritanical inquisition into whether this constituted a "slip" in his sobriety or hypocrisy in his creed. This attitude allows Cheever to see that Wilson's inconsistencies and quirks weren't blemishes on his record -- they were the essence of a flawed man who was endlessly seeking what works. "Again and again, his intuitions were wrong," Cheever says. "But he wasn't interested in problems. He was interested in solutions." Most of the key traditions of AA operations, including its independence, anonymity and governance-by-consensus, ran counter to Wilson's personal disposition. "He wanted fame and fortune, but somehow was able to figure out that AA would have to be a group in which nobody represents it, nobody speaks for it and nobody's in charge of it." Sobering Reality The striking thing about Wilson's story -- which only settles in upon reflection -- is how hard his life was even after he sobered up. What, really, had that bright light and clean wind changed? He and Lois remained penniless, even homeless, for years. Sometimes it seemed that AA was determined to keep him poor forever. He had a chance to cash in by allying his message with a particular hospital, but his fledgling flock forbade him to do it. He harbored hope that John D. Rockefeller Jr. would lavish money on him, but instead Rockefeller came through with a tiny stipend. Alcoholics Anonymous struggled for six long and underwhelming years before catching its crucial break: a glowing article in the Saturday Evening Post. Then, as the group flourished, Wilson was attacked by jealous colleagues and abandoned by old friends. He sank into a crushing depression, and "often just sat for hours with his head on the desk or with his head in his hands," Cheever writes. "When he raised his head, he was sometimes weeping." Wilson liked children but was childless. Cigarettes were killing him but he couldn't stop smoking. He wrote of "being swamped with guilt and self-loathing . . . often getting a misshapen and painful pleasure out of it." It was enough to drive a man to drink. Yet for 36-plus years of this troubled and very human life, he was able to resist that next drink. Perhaps the most efficacious miracles are the small ones. And because "his mind was the right lens" and his will was "the right machine," in Cheever's words, for mass-producing that limited but crucial victory, Bill Wilson's miracle keeps working, one person and one day at a time. © 2004 The Washington Post Company Of Alcoholics Anonymous founder Bill Wilson, Cheever says, "He changed the world without knowing it, just as a way to stop drinking himself." (Helayne Seidman For The Washington Post) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1788. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: One Solitary Voice by Jack B...any info.? From: Jim K. . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/6/2004 7:25:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Jack B got sober in 1942 in the southern Westchester county area just north of New York City. Before relocating to Perth, Australia in the late 1970s, he was associated with "The Cops and Robbers" of Westchester AA [oldtimers from the era of 1950-80 in Westchester] and notably at the Sobriety Unlimited Group on Gramatan Avenue in Mt. Vernon, NY. As an aside: this group keeps a fully decorated Christmas tree in the meeting room 365 days per year. Sobriety is like Christmas everyday! It never stops giving! Jack was well known for his emphasis on the physical aspects of our disease which is chronicled in his pamphlet published in 1968 - "One Solitary Voice". He used to go to area meetings with a contraption known as "The Monster". Roughly it was a representation of the body, it's organs, and the physical interrelations between the alcohol intake in an alcoholic and the effect it has on the brain and body of an alcoholic. Jack passed in the mid 1980's if I recall correctly. He was a good friend of my mom's [Margette Grandy/Hartzell (deceased) of Maryknoll Group] and of Jim B. of Lincolndale. I still have photocopies of "One Solitary Voice", [someone made off with the original sometime ago] which I pass on to newcomers as it helps to explain the physical dimension of alcoholism which isn't discussed in many meetings these days. Glenn K. Audiotapes of Long Island has a recording of Jack at the Blackstone Retreat. Jim K. The Into Action Group Manhattan, NY --- In AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com, "wbmscm" wrote: > Does anyone have any information on a gentlemen by the name of Jack > B. who wrote a publication called "One Solitary Voice"? IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1801. . . . . . . . . . . . Chip system, etc. -- Compilation From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/12/2004 4:37:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII This is a compilation of previous posts which have been deleted. Nancy From: "pete_geilich" Date: Thu May 6, 2004 3:00 pm Subject: Chip System How did this system come about, and is it practiced world wide? From: Ken Ring Date: Sat May 8, 2004 8:28 pm Subject: Re: Chip System I don't claim that I have authenticated all of the statements included in the following, but it has been accepted locally for quite some time. From our archives collection. MEDALLIONS In 1965, a Wendell's employee, "Bill," joined AA. Bill gave numerous talks at Mission Farms and detention centers in Minneapolis and surrounding areas. He began handing out bronze medallions with the Serenity Prayer on one side and two large A's on the reverse. Everyone wanted a medallion! Bill then got the idea that all AA members should have a medallion to carry in their pocket or purse, to constantly remind them of their hard won sobrietyĹ but the medallions should be just for that person-so, somehow it has to say how long he/she has been soberĹ it had to be easily distinguished from pocket change, thus, the raised center medallion was born. The first versions of the medallion were actually two pieces-the medallion was struck, then the center was soldered on. This worked, but the medallions began to sell in such great numbers, Wendells couldn't keep up with the demand. At that time, coining dies were made and they used insert dies in the center with the Roman numeral engraved and when the medallion was struck, it gave them a one-piece medallion that could be made in one operation. The raised center medallion was introduced in November of 1973 at the Founders Group weekend at the Leamington Hotel in Minneapolis. The response was outstanding. A mailing went out to all the Intergroups and Central Offices in the United States and Canada. Wendell's has had to make various changes in the medallion at the request of AA World Services (they deleted the two A's). Without a doubt, the raised center medallion has been used by more recovering people than any one item, aside from the Big Book, used in recovery, and it all came to be because of one member who recognized the need for "reassurance" and was fortunate enough to be employed by a coining mint. In many parts of the country, or the world for that matter, have their own traditional ways of recognizing sobriety birthdays. Some offer "pins" to be worn on the lapels of jackets (remember them)? Others simply have a cake, much like a real birthday celebration, to be shared in the group. And there are certainly combinations of all of these and further adornments that show the support of family, group and fellowship. In some locales, recognition is in increments of months, years or sets of years-every five years-in others it is much more personal and not brought before the group at all and between sponsor and sponsee. Ken Ring, Dist. 18 Archives Committee Chair Archivist/Historian Alano Society of Minneapolis, Inc. "2218" From: "Robert Stonebraker" Date: Sun May 9, 2004 1:15 am Subject: RE: [AAHistoryLovers] Re: Chip System Could someone please give me the history of celebration of sobriety. I have not been able to find this in the BB. Here is a post on this subject I saved for history Lovers: Chips, Medallions and Birthdays The traditions of chips, medallions and birthdays vary in different parts of the country and I thought it would be interesting to look up some of the history on them. Sister lgnatia, the nun who helped Dr. Bob get the hospitalization program started at St. Thomas Hospital in Akron was the first person to use medallions in AlcoholicsAnonymous. She gave the drunks who were leaving St. Thomas after a five day dry out a Sacred Heart Medallion and instructed them that the acceptance of the medallion signified a commitment to God, to A.A. and to recovery and that if they were going to drink, they had a responsibility to return the medallion to her before drinking. The sacred heart badges had been used prior to A.A. by the Father Matthew Temperance Movement of the 1840s and the Pioneers an Irish Temperance Movement of the 1890s. The practice of sobriety chips in A.A. started with a Group in Elmira, N.Y. in 1947 and has grown from there. The celebration of birthdays came from the Oxford Group where they celebrated the anniversary of their spiritual rebirth. As we have a problem with honesty, A.A. chose the anniversary of the date of our last drink. Early celebrations of birthdays resulted in people getting drunk and Dr. Harry Tiebout was asked to look at the problem and he commented on this phenomenon in an articled titled "When the Big "I" Becomes Nobody", (AAGV, Sept. 65) "Early on in A.A., I was consulted about a serious problem plaguing the local group. The practice of celebrating a year’s sobriety with a birthday cake had resulted in a certain number of the members getting drunk within a short period after the celebration. It seemed apparent that some could not stand prosperity. I was asked to settle between birthday cakes or no birthday cakes. Characteristically, I begged off, not from shyness but from ignorance. Some three or four years later, A.A. furnished me the answer. The group no longer had such a problem because, as one member said, "We celebrate still, but a year’s sobriety is now a dime a dozen. No one gets much of a kick out of that anymore." The AAGV carried many articles on chips and cakes and the following is a brief summary of some. Feb. 1948, Why All the Congratulations? "When we start taking bows (even on anniversaries) we bow ourselves right into the cuspidor." July, 1948. Group To Give Oscar for Anniversaries. The Larchmont Group of Larchmont, N.Y. gives a cast bronze camel mounted on a mahogany base to celebrate 1st., 5th and 10th anniversaries. "The camel is wholly emblematic of the purposes of most sincere A.A.s, i.e., to live for 24 hours without a drink." August 1948. The Artesta, N.Mex. Group awards marbles to all members. If you are caught without your marbles, you are fined 25 cents. This money goes into the Foundation Fund. June 1953, We operate a poker chip club in the Portland Group (Maine). We have poker chips of nine colors of which the white represents the probation period of one month. If he keeps his white chip for one month he is presented with a red chip for one month's sobriety. The chips continue with blue for two months, black for three, green for four, transparent blue for five, amber for six, transparent purple for nine months and a transparent clear chip for one year. We have our chips stamped with gold A.A. letters. Also at the end of the year and each year thereafter, we present them with a group birthday card signed by all members present at the meeting. January 1955, Charlotte, N.C. "When a man takes "The Long Walk" at the end of a meeting, to pick up a white chip, he is admitting to his fellow men that he has finally accepted the precepts of A.A. and is beginning his sobriety. At the end of three months he exchanges his white chip for a red one. Later, a handsome, translucent chip of amber indicates that this new member has enjoyed six months of a new way of life. The nine month chip is a clear seagreen and a blue chip is given for the first year of sobriety. In some groups a sponsor will present his friend with an engraved silver chip, at the end of five years clear thinking and clean living. March 1956, The One Ton Poker Chip. Alton, Illinois. Author gave friend a chip on his first day eight years ago (1948) and told him to accept it in the spirit of group membership and that if he wanted to drink to throw the chip away before starting drinking. October 1956, Bangor Washington. Article about a woman who sits in a bar to drink the bartender sees her white chips and asks what it is. She tells him. He throws her out as he does not want an alcoholic in his bar. She calls friend. April 1957, Cape Cod, Mass. Group recognizes 1st, 5th and 15th anniversaries. Person celebrating leads meeting. Person is presented with a set of wooden carved plaques with the slogans. July 1957, New Brunswick, Canada. Birthday Board. Member contributes one dollar for each year of sobriety July 1957, Oregon. Person is asked to speak and is introduced by his or her sponsor. The wife, mother, sister or other relative brings up a cake. The Group sings Happy Birthday. The wife gives a two or three minute talk. April 1959, Patterson, N.J. People are asked to give "three month pin talks." And that's a little bit of info on chips, cakes and medallions. From: "Robert Stonebraker" Date: Sun May 9, 2004 1:33 am Subject: RE: [AAHistoryLovers] Re: Chip System In 1975, when I first came to AA in the Los Angeles area of Southern California, this was the custom: · No beginner's chip was given, but you had to hold up your hand if you had less than 30 days sober. · Then embossed poker chips on chains were given: White for 30 days, Red for 3 months, Blue for 6 months, and Yellow for 9 months. They had “God grant me the serenity” stamped on the back. · It was the custom to carry all these accumulated tokens till you got one year. · No tokens were given for number of years, but there was always a birthday cake and singing of “Happy Birthday.” Followed by singing “Keep coming back.” Then the candles were blown out. · This custom was still in effect at some of the meetings I attended out there last year. Bob S., now from Indiana From: "Kimball Rowe" Date: Sat May 8, 2004 7:52 pm Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Chip System The "chip" system used in Germany consisted of poker chips and pie pans (originally). They used poker chips with 5 colors, white, green, red, yellow and blue. They were given for beginners, 2 months, 3 months, and 6 months. There was no 9 month chip, and there was no 18 month chip. Metal chips started at one year. SURRENDER - The white chip was called the surrender chip since the international color for surrender is white. It was given to all new comers (1-30 days). It is said that if you chose not to surrender, then the white could stand for the color of the sheet that they cover you dead body with. GO - The green chip was called the "GO" chip since green is the international color for go. It was given at 30 days and implied that the owner should GO to more meeting, GO get a big book, GO read your big book, GO take a step, GO get into service, GO get into action, etc. It is said that if you don't take these simple suggestions that green could also symbolize the color of your liver as they perform the autopsy. STOP - The red chip was called the "STOP" chip since red is the international color for stop. It was given at two months and meant for us to STOP our stinking thinking, to STOP using our character defects, STOP taking others inventory, STOP ducking responsibility, etc. It is said that if you persisted in your old ways, then perhaps red could be the color of your windshield as you are ejected from the car in an alcohol related car accident. CAUTION - The yellow chip was called the "CAUTION" chip since yellow is the international color for caution. It was given at three months because at three months a member knows just enough about sobriety to be dangerous, so CAUTION is the watch word. It is said that if you do not practice caution during this time that the color yellow could reflect the color of your eyes as jaundice sets in. SERENITY - The blue chip was called the "SERENITY" chip, as it resembles the color of the a peaceful sky. It was given at six months. It is said that if you don't do what it takes to achieve serenity that the color blue could refer to the emotional state of your loved ones as you disappear into an alcoholic oblivion. After the plastic chips, a disc of aluminum was cut our of an aluminum pie pan and the number of your sobriety year was stamped onto the soft aluminum. The aluminum chips have since been replaced by "store-bought" metal chips with anniversary years on them. Kim R. From: "Gerry Silver" Date: Sun May 9, 2004 9:37 am Subject: Fw: Chip System I read with interest the comments of Ed Ring re Medallions, and that they first surfaced in the Minneapolis area in 1965. In the early 1950's a Group in Brandon, Manitoba, Canada began using copper chips to recognize years of sobriety. They were almost as large as a large penny (for those who remember what a large penny looked like), they were blank and then stamped with the members initials and the number of years of sobriety. A number of these early chips are hanging on the wall of the Wheat City Group in Brandon today. In the mid 1950's, groups in Winnipeg, Manitoba began to use a heavy copper oval medallion about 1½" x 1". There was a raised AA on one side, and the flat reverse was used to engrave the members' name (with last initial), dry date, and group name. This type of medallion soon became widely used in Western Canada. I still have my first medallion from 1959, although can't find it this minute. Gerry Silver From: "wilfried antheunis" Date: Sun May 9, 2004 3:37 pm Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Fw: Chip System [69] From:.The History of A.A. in Ontario: The medallion as we know It today was thought of and designed by Tom G. the acting manager of our A.A. Toronto Office in April 1946. Little could he have known that his simple idea would come to mean so much to so many In such a short time. From: "Jim K." Date: Mon May 10, 2004 12:46 pm Subject: Re: Fw: Chip System In a twist on the chip system Long Islanders once had the following tradition: When there was still smoking in meetings on Long Island, and in particular in Suffolk County, people were issued lighters at their first anniversary. A Zippo with your sobriety date and your name and a single star. With each subsequent year a new star was added. Some would also bear a slogan of the member's choice. Non-smokers, few indeed back in the 70's and 80's, were given a medallion. Then the meetings went non-smoking, as did I. Jim K The Into Action Group Manhattan, NY And I would add to the above, that I was told in New York in 1965 -- where we then did not have chips, only a cake on the first anniversary -- that some sponsors gave a marble to their sponsees, telling the sponsee to carry it in his pocket and throw it away if he decided to take a drink. "Then you will have lost all your marbles." Nancy IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1802. . . . . . . . . . . . Principles Meditation Card From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/13/2004 2:27:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The following is a compilation of previous posts. No further posts on this subject will be approved. Nancy From: "David G." Date: Sun May 9, 2004 9:40 pm Subject: Principles Meditation Card [72] Good Day All, While attending an AA Area function, I purchased a meditation card, from a vendor, which listed "The Principles of the Program." Step One-Honest Step Two-Hope Step Three-Faith Step Four-Courage Step Five-Integrity Step Six-Willingness Step Seven-Humility Step Eight-Brotherly Love Step Nine-Justice Step Ten-Perseverance Step Eleven-Spiritual awareness Step Twelve-Service I've seen these around for years and usually buy some to just pass along. Does anyone know where and/or when these originated? Thanks, Respectfully, David G. Illinois-USA From: "Kimball Rowe" Date: Mon May 10, 2004 8:28 am Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Principles Meditation Card I have a card like that, that has the principles on one side and the gifts on the other. The gifts were received as the result of taking the step. The Gifts Step 1 - Willingness - As willing to listen as a dying man can be. Step 2 - Open-Mindedness - All you really need is a truly open mind. Step 3 - Honesty - Turning our will and lives over to the care of God, we lose our reason to lie. Step 4 - Truth - The truth we must now share with our God and another human being. Step 5 - Humility - We gained a genuine humility, a recognition of who and what we are, followed by a sincere attempt to become what we could be. Step - 6 - Spiritual Growth - We begin to grow in the image and likeness of our Creator. Step 7 - Unselfishness - We stand ready to make amends and serve others. Step 8 - Forgiveness - Forgiveness of others makes step nine possible. Step 9 - Freedom - Freedom of others, of our past and of ourselves. Free to seek God in the steps that follow. Step 10 - Sanity - We will react normally, even where alcohol is concerned. Step 11 - Strength - Sufficient strength to help others. Step 12 - Recovery. If anyone knows where the gifts come from that would be appreciated too! From: "J. Lobdell" Date: Mon May 10, 2004 9:21 am Subject: RE: [AAHistoryLovers] Principles Meditation Card [75] They originated with a Texas Intergroup sometime around 1951, I think -- there's a copy of the original Intergroup sheet/flyer/whatever in the Archives in NYC. They are not GSO literature, and as they date from the time when the Conference had been established, they are at most local AA literature. So far as I know "practice these principles" in Step 12 is intended to refer to the Steps. -- Jared Lobdell From: "wilfried antheunis" Date: Mon May 10, 2004 11:19 am Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Principles Meditation Card They have been around forever plus a day. The principles vary from various to other cards. A list I have dated February 2000 has the following variances; 8. Self-discipline 9. Love The Big Book uses the word Principle 36 times. USE OF THE WORD PRINCIPLE IN THE BIG BOOK Here are the 36 instances of "principle" in the Big Book. 1 & 2) As we discovered the principles by which the individual alcoholic could live, so we had to evolve principles by which the A.A. groups and A.A. as a whole could survive and function effectively. [Big Book, page xix, lines 8 & 9] 3) Though none of these principles had the force of rules or laws, they had become so widely accepted by 1950 that they were confirmed by our first International Conference held at Cleveland. [Big Book, page xix, line 27] 4) The basic principles of the A.A. program, it appears, hold good for individuals with many different life-styles, just as the program has brought recovery to those of many different nationalities. [Big Book, page xxii, line 13] 5) My friend had emphasized the absolute necessity of demonstrating these principles in all my affairs. [Big Book, page 14, line 29] 6) We feel elimination of our drinking is but a beginning. A much more important demonstration of our principles lies before us in our respective homes, occupations and affairs. [Big Book, page 19, line 7] 7) Quite as important was the discovery that spiritual principles would solve all my problems. [Big Book, page 42, line 32] 8) That was great news to us, for we had assumed we could not make use of spiritual principles unless we accepted many things on faith which seemed difficult to believe. [Big Book, page 47, line 23] 9) 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. [Big Book, page 60, line 3] 10) No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. [Big Book, page 60, line 8] 11) The principles we have set down are guides to progress. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection. [Big Book, page 60, line 9] 12) We listed people, institutions or principles with whom we were angry. We asked ourselves why we were angry. [Big Book, page 64, line 30] 13) Although these reparations take innumerable forms, there are some general principles which we find guiding. [Big Book, page 79, line 6] 14) Unless one's family expresses a desire to live upon spiritual principles we think we ought not to urge them. [Big Book, page 83, line 13] 15) If not members of religious bodies, we sometimes select and memorize a few set prayers which emphasize the principles we have been discussing. [Big Book, page 87, line 26] 16) The main thing is that he be willing to believe in a Power greater than himself and that he live by spiritual principles. [Big Book, page 93, line 10] 17) When dealing with such a person, you had better use everyday language to describe spiritual principles. [Big Book, page 93, line 12] 18) We are dealing only with general principles common to most denominations. [Big Book, page 93, line 12] 19) Should they accept and practice spiritual principles, there is a much better chance that the head of the family will recover. [Big Book, page 97, line 29] 20 & 21) When your prospect has made such reparation as he can to his family, and has thoroughly explained to them the new principles by which he is living, he should proceed to put those principles into action at home. [Big Book, page 98, lines 26 & 28] 22) The first principle of success is that you should never be angry. [Big Book, page 111, line 1] 23) If you act upon these principles, your husband may stop or moderate. [Big Book, page 112, line 20] 24) The same principles which apply to husband number one should be practiced. [Big Book, page 112, line 22 25) Your new courage, good nature and lack of self-consciousness will do wonders for you socially. The same principle applies in dealing with the children. [Big Book, page 115, line 20] 26) Now we try to put spiritual principles to work in every department of our lives. [Big Book, page 116, line 30] 27) Though it is entirely separate from Alcoholics Anonymous, it uses the general principles of the A.A. program as a guide for husbands, wives, relatives, friends, and others close to alcoholics. [Big Book, page 121, footnote line 3] 28) Another principle we observe carefully is that we do not relate intimate experiences of another person unless we are sure he would approve. [Big Book, page 125, line 18] 29) Giving, rather than getting, will become the guiding principle. [Big Book, page 128, line 2] 30) Whether the family has spiritual convictions or not, they may do well to examine the principles by which the alcoholic member is trying to live. [Big Book, page 130, line 21] 31) They can hardly fail to approve these simple principles, though the head of the house still fails somewhat in practicing them. [Big Book, page 130, line 23] 32) Without much ado, he accepted the principles and procedure that had helped us. [Big Book, page 139, line 5] 33) The use of spiritual principles in such cases was not so well understood as it is now. [Big Book, page 156, line 33] 34) Twelve - Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our Traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities. [Big Book, Appendix I, page 564, line 32] 35) & 36) There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance -- that principle is contempt prior to investigation. HERBERT SPENCER [Big Book, Appendix II, page 570, lines 16 & 19] [Note: These page numbers are from the 3rd edition, not the 4th. Nancy] From: "Arthur Sheehan" Date: Tue May 11, 2004 12:25 pm Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Principles Meditation Card Hi In comparing the so-called "principles" and "gifts" cards, it seems fairly self-evident that both represent little more than the creative exercises of individual imagination. Also, the imagination can go in many well-intended, but far different, directions. It is easy to go from "keep it simple" into a realm that can be just a bit too simplistic. It's also interesting to note that the "principles" card was purchased from a "vendor" yet is being associated with an "AA function." I'd sure like to see the members who put together so-called "AA functions" eliminate the participation of those who sell tapes, trinkets and t-shirts. Words printed on a card, and sold by a vendor, are not endowed with any special or extra insight, authority, validity, accuracy or historical relevance. The so-called "principles" and "gifts" cards, do little more than denote the semantic preferences of the those who did the word association. I've seen a number of variations on this theme (in the form of cards, wall charts, etc.) trying to reduce the Steps to single words and asserting that the word represents the "principle" embodied in the Step. I just don't see how this rises to the level of an adequate description. Much can be gained, and gleaned, from the Steps (and Traditions and Concepts) both in understanding and results, when each of them is viewed as a whole instructive sentence. Each whole instructive sentence can then be viewed as a "principle" (i.e. a rule of personal conduct) that we try to practice in all our affairs as a means of developing a spiritual condition that offers a daily reprieve from alcohol. The resultant God-given gift is something called "sobriety" (freedom from alcohol). I'm always amazed at the energy that goes into reading things into AA's spiritual principles with perhaps far too much emphasis on cleverness than clarity. It is often done at the expense of missing what is written there in rather plain language. One of our principal principles (rule #62) is to try to carry a message - not creatively modify it. Arthur From: "Dick" [78] Date: Wed May 12, 2004 6:41pm Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Principles Meditation Card Thank you, Arthur. I wish I could have said it so eloquently. Whenever I hear the "principles debate", I think of page 15, the Forward to Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions (Third paragraph): "A.A.'s Twelve Steps are a group of principles, spiritual in their nature, which, if practiced as a way of life, can expel the obsession to drink and enable the sufferer to become happily and usefully whole." Bill Wilson clearly intended this to be a "Program of Action". Practicing these principles with these goals in mind seems much more important to me than playing word games. Dick Spaedt IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1806. . . . . . . . . . . . What Causes A Man to Slip? (1948) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/15/2004 5:43:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Aug. 1948 AA Grapevine What Causes A Man to Slip? The Program? From Ponca, Neb. What is there about a man that causes him to slip? Why, having once accepted something which he so desperately wanted and needed, does he suddenly get drunk? Surely there can be nothing wrong with the Program. It has been effective in too many cases to lay the blame on it; it even proved effective for the slipper for a good period of time. It can and will prove effective for him again if he chooses to use it. If the fault does not lie within the Program then it must be that the fault lies within the man himself. Either he never actually accepted the Program in the first place, or else he accepted it with reservations. Too Much Attention But perhaps, and most likely, he gradually lost sight of the A.A. Program in favor of some other related activities and thus just as gradually began re-inflating an ego that had once been satisfactorily deflated. Perhaps he began paying too much attention to the related activities that have somehow become attached to A.A. The result being that he began attaching more and more importance to these related activities and his relation to them and less and less importance to the real A.A. Program. Perhaps he began to believe that these activities were the Program. Over-emphasis Thus the over-emphasis on the attached but basically unrelated activities tended to obscure in his mind his continuing need for the basic A.A. Program. He began to drop his own A.A. in favor of conventionitis and banquetitis to such an extent that what was once recognized as a desperate need gradually came to be considered as no need at all. His ego and self-sufficiency began to build itself up again. From a program of personal salvation the shift was to a program of personal glorification. Instead of worrying about the problem of alcohol, he began worrying about making his speeches click. In-stead of seeking help, he began to seek applause. Pride began to replace humility. He began to lose his salvation because he forgot that he needed it. He no longer needed to be saved because he was saved already. He could now turn his attention to things more important than the search for God. God Not Important God was not so important anymore because he had become important in him-self. His prayer was no longer "Thy will be done,"' but "My will be done." The poisonous vapors of self-concern began to cloud his vision. The reliance upon God was over for he had become a self-sufficient alcoholic again, concerned about his own importance and welfare. Then lo and behold--he slipped. In view of these slips it seems essential that we continue to re-examine ourselves as alcoholics and our relationship as alcoholics to the A.A. Program as our way of life. - L.T.C. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1807. . . . . . . . . . . . Rowland Hazard From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/15/2004 3:04:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII THE ROUNDTABLE OF AA HISTORY April 12, 1998 ************** Rowland Hazard (1881-1945) ************************** [This is being reposted as the original post became garbled. Nancy] Rowland Hazard was the sober alcoholic who brought the spiritual message of The Oxford Group to Ebby Thacher. Thacher carried the message to Bill Wilson. Wilson then based much of the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous on Oxford Group principles. The rest is history; millions have recovered from alcoholism. Hazard was born October 29, 1881, into a prominent, enormously wealthy Rhode Island industrial family. He was the oldest son of Rowland Gibson and Mary Pierrepont Bushnell Hazard. An unbroken line of Hazard men named Rowland dates back to 1763. His grandfather and great-great-grandfather had the same name. So: he sometimes used the name Rowland Hazard III. He named one of his companies, Rowland Third, Inc. The Hazard family's colonial roots dated back to 1635 and its members were large-scale landowners, manufacturers and people of learning in science and literature. They were respected widely as achievers and as philanthropists. The family resided in a colony of estates at Peace Dale, Rhode Island. Oakwood was built in the 1800’s by Rowland's paternal grandfather. Rowland lived from age 11 at Holly House. His Aunt Helen's home, The Acorns, was where 1941 Pulitzer Prize winning poet Leonard Bacon grew up. And, there was Scallop Shell, the home of Rowland's Aunt Caroline, on her return from serving as President of Wellesley College. Rowland was the tenth generation of Hazards born in Rhode Island. The subject of this writing was a Yale graduate (BA, 1903). Some of his classmates called him, "Ike" or “Rowley”. He sang in the varsity glee club and chapel choir and was a member of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. Both his father and paternal grandfather had graduated from Brown University. The males on his mother's side of the family favored Yale. One of these was Eli Whitney, who invented the cotton gin. Rowland spent the years immediately following Yale learning the various family businesses. He began at The Peace Dale Manufacturing Company, of Peace Dale Rhode Island, a woolen mill that produced much of the family wealth. That mill had made blankets for the Army during the Civil War. Rowland then moved on to work in family industries producing coke and coke ovens, soda ash, calcium chloride and soda bicarbonate in Chicago and Syracuse, before returning to Peace Dale Manufacturing in 1906, as Secretary-Treasurer. In October 1910, Rowland married his wife, Helen Hamilton Campbell, a Briar Cliff graduate, the daughter of a Chicago banker. They had one daughter and three sons. Two of their three sons were killed while serving with the US armed forces during World War Two. Like many of his family, Rowland was active in Republican Party politics. He was a delegate to the 1912 national party convention, which re-nominated President William Howard Taft. Hazard was a Rhode Island State Senator from 1914 to 1916. Previously he had served as President of the South Kingstown, Rhode Island Town Council When World War 1 began, Rowland became a civilian official of the Ordnance Department. But, he resigned later to accept a commission as Captain in the US Army's Chemical Warfare Service. It's unclear precisely when Rowland's drinking problems began. The socially elite of that time were quite guarded about private family matters. But, relatives who were alive at the time this research began say they believe Rowland's alcohol problems began when he was quite young. These relatives note that covering up his heavy drinking was no problem for Rowland, because he was a member of the family that owned the businesses. And they conclude that he probably hit bottom hard before he decided to consult with doctors for help. Rowland sought treatment for his rapidly progressing alcoholism from all of the major psychiatrists in the United States. None had an answer that worked. Dr. Sigmund Freud, according to legend, was too busy to take Rowland's case. So: in 1931, still drinking, at 50, Hazard traveled to Zurich, Switzerland, where he consulted Dr. Carl Gustav Jung -- then considered, with the possible exception of Freud, the finest psychiatrist in the world. Dr. Jung treated Rowland for his drinking problem. That much is clear from Jung's correspondence with Bill Wilson, published in the AA book, “Pass It On”. But, there are at least two different conclusions concerning precisely when, to what extent and at what intervals the treatment took place. Some AA historians believe Jung treated Hazard, in Zurich, for almost a year and that Hazard then felt fully ready to return home to the United States â€" convinced he had solved his drinking problem, and that the solution was self-knowledge. They believe Rowland left Zurich by train and got as far as Paris before he got drunk. Other AA historians believe Rowland returned to the United States before he drank again. Its generally agreed that Hazard returned immediately to Zurich and Dr. Jung for an explanation concerning his relapse. But, records on file among the Hazard Family Papers in the Manuscripts Division of the Rhode Island Historical Society show that Rowland was in the United States for part of every month of 1931 and 1932, with the exception of a family trip to Europe from June 12 to September 10, 1931. During that time period, Hazard can be traced to France, on July 9, Italy on July 20 and apparently to England on August 13, 1931. Furthermore, there is no evidence in the records of the RIHS to suggest Hazard was in Switzerland at all during 1931 or ’32. And RIHS officials note that the Hazard family commented quite freely, on other occasions, about Rowland's travels and treatment. That Jung treated Rowland Hazard hardly seems in dispute. In his published correspondence with Bill Wilson, Jung said he treated him. But, the RIHS records make it appear unlikely that the treatment was seven days per week, for an entire year. It is possible the treatment took place over a one-year period, but was intermittent. At the conclusion of treatment, following Hazard's relapse, Jung told Rowland that he had done everything he could for him, clinically. He told the despondent Hazard that psychiatry and medicine could no nothing more for him and that his only hope would be to have what the psychiatrist called a “vital spiritual experience”. Dr. Jung further suggested that Rowland find what we would now call a “self-help group” to help him have such an experience. Hazard joined The Oxford Group, a spiritual, evangelical group founded on first-century Christian principles and practices (prayer, meditation, and guidance). The Group was then at the height of its success and popularity in Europe. Through attending meetings and practicing the group's beliefs, Rowland had a conversion experience such as Dr. Jung had described, an experience that released him from the obsession/compulsion to drink. (There is disagreement among A.A. historians over whether Rowland's spiritual experience happened in Europe or the US. Most believe it happened in Europe.) Some psychiatric experts call it a blessing that Dr. Freud was too busy to see Rowland. They say it's fortunate he consulted Dr. Jung. They point out that while Jung insisted the solution to Rowland's alcoholism was spiritual, a turning to God, a conversion experience: Freud would have condemned any such spiritual experience as a neurosis. In the United States, Hazard connected with The Oxford Group in New York, led by the Reverend Dr. Samuel Shoemaker, at the mission of Calvary Episcopal Church, on 23rd. Street, in Manhattan. In 1932, Rowland moved to Shaftsbury, Vermont. There, during August 1934, he heard from two other Oxford Groupers about Edwin Throckmorton “Ebby” Thacher's pending six-month sentence to Windsor Prison for drunkenness and alcoholic insanity. Hazard and fellow Oxford Grouper Cebra Graves attended Ebby’s sentencing hearing in court at Bennington, Vermont. There are two conflicting accounts of what happened next. The first version says they told the presiding judge, Judge Collins Graves, Cebra's father, of their group's success in controlling alcohol problems and asked the Court to release Ebby to Rowland's custody. This version says Judge Graves consented. The second version says it was Judge Graves who asked Hazard to take Ebby under his wing and that Rowland consented. Both versions conclude the same way: that Ebby was released to Rowland's custody and, Rowland, Cebra and a third Group member, Shep Cornell, began taking Ebby with them to Oxford Group meetings in Vermont. Ebby moved with Rowland to New York, later in 1934. And, it was there, during late November 1934 that Ebby Thacher, sober approximately two months, brought the message of recovery from alcoholism through the principles of The Oxford Group, to Bill Wilson, in Wilson's kitchen, at 182 Clinton Street, Brooklyn Heights. That visit would result, approximately seven months later, in the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous. Yet, Rowland Hazard, who played such a major part in AA's birth, returned to drinking. Records of the Hazard family indicate he was treated in 1933-1934 by the well-known lay therapist Courtenay Baylor. In August 1936, the Hazard family paid to have Rowland brought home to Rhode Island from his ranch in Alamagordo, New Mexico, because his drinking had become still more serious. Rowland apparently consented. His younger brother, Thomas, authorized the use of funds from the family-owned Aguadero Corporation to cover the expenses. But, later events tempt one to conclude that Rowland must have stopped drinking, again, at least for a time. From 1938 to 1939 he was associated with an engineering firm, Lockwood-Greene Engineers, Inc. From 1940 to 1941 he was an independent consultant. In 1941 he became vice-president and general manager of the Bristol Manufacturing Company of Waterbury, Connecticut. (Bristol was a leading manufacturer of industrial measuring and recording devices.) Rowland Hazard died of a coronary occlusion, (a heart blockage) on Thursday, December 20, 1945, while at work in his office at Bristol Manufacturing. He was 64. The fact that he was a top executive of a major corporation at the time of his death suggests that Rowland had stopped drinking again. Nonetheless, some A.A. historians question whether he died sober. He had stayed active in The Oxford Group and remained in the group after it changed its name to Moral Rearmament (MRA) in 1938. Some early AA members said they knew Rowland because he sometimes visited the old 24th Street clubhouse, which Bill, Lois and others had established during early June 1940 in a former stable at 334½ West 24th Street, in Manhattan. But, there is no evidence that Rowland Hazard ever joined AA. -0- SOURCES: AA publications “Alcoholics Anonymous”, “Pass It On” and “The Grapevine” (May 1995); The Hazard Family Papers, Manuscripts Division of The Rhode Island Historical Society and Rick Stattler, Curator; “Not-God” by Ernest Kurtz; “Ebby The Man Who Sponsored Bill W.” by Mel B; “Lois Remembers” by Lois Burnham Wilson; “Bill W.” by Francis Hartigan; The Archives of the AA General Service Office and The Providence Journal. . -0- I'm very grateful for the above sources. Any mistakes are my own. -0- Researched/written for The Roundtable of AA History by: Mike O. (Michael O'Neil), of The Just Do It Big Book Study Group of Alcoholics Anonymous, DeBary, Florida. Updated/revised periodically through July 2001. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1808. . . . . . . . . . . . The Towns Hospital From: apexnomad . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/16/2004 5:51:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Is the "old" CHARLES B. TOWNS HOSPITAL still standing? The adress 293 central west ny ny, is the American Anorexia/Bulima Association. Is this the same bulding? I am going to NYC this Fri. and would love some info. if someone knows. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1809. . . . . . . . . . . . Jack Alexander Obit (1975) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/16/2004 10:04:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII December 1975 AA Grapevine Passing of Jack Alexander Recalls Early AA Growth Our Fellowship has reason to be forever grateful to Jack Alexander, who died on September 17 in St. Petersburg, Fla., at 73. AA was less than six years old, with a membership around 2,000, when the reporter and magazine writer was assigned to do a Saturday Evening Post article on the obscure group of recovering alcoholics. Jack approached the job skeptically, but ended his research as "a true AA convert in spirit," in the words of co-founder Bill W. The article (now re-printed as an AA pamphlet, "The Jack Alexander Article") was published in the March 1, 1941, issue - and by the end of that year, AA membership had reached 8,000! In the May 1945 Grapevine, Jack told the story-behind-the-story, "Were the AAs Pulling My Leg?' During Jack's 1951-56 service as a non-alcoholic trustee on the AA General Service Board, he "added the final editorial touch" to the manuscript of the "Twelve and Twelve." He was a senior editor on the Post at his retirement, in 1964. After he and his wife (who survives him) moved to Florida, he kept in touch with AA until his health began to fail. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1810. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Jersey Lightning From: ny-aa@att.net . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/17/2004 8:56:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII A member asked about Jersey Lightning which Bill was drinking during one of his failed attempts to stay sober on his own. What is it? I remember reading that the engineers were playing cards and passing around a jug of Jersey Applejack in the hotel while working on one of Bill's deals. Bill was trying to stay sober and turned it down several times. Unfortunately, he refused the jug one less time than it was offered. Here is a history timeline item on it thanks to the West Baltimore Group: May 1932, Bill went on a business trip to Bound Brook NJ with a group of engineers from the Pathe Co. to look at a new photographic process. It turned into a disaster. In a small hotel, Bill drank Apple Jack (Jersey Lightning) and was drunk for three days. His contract with Wheeler and Winans was cancelled. "Pass It On" pages 91-92 "Bill W." by Robert Thompson (soft cover) pages 165-167 This is probably the incident on Page 5 of the Big Book. "Someone had pushed a drink my way, and I had taken it. Was I crazy?" There are sources on the web that refer to "Jersey Applejack a.k.a. Jersey Lightning." This is not just hard cider. Applejack is a brandy distilled from hard cider. It goes back to colonial times. It was widely distributed in the east during prohibition. I would give the recipe for a home brew version if everyone promised not to make it. :-) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1811. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: The Towns Hospital From: Arthur Sheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/17/2004 7:50:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The Charles B Towns Hospital for Drug and Alcohol Addictions opened in NYC in 1901. It was a private "drying out" hospital for the affluent. It initially opened on 81st and 82nd Sts. and later moved to 293 Central Park West. Towns also later opened an annex (behind the Central Park facility) at 119 W 81st St to provide treatment for patients of "moderate means." Hospital fees had to be paid in advance, or be guaranteed. Treatment fees for alcoholism ran from $75 to $150 in the main hospital ($1,560 to $3,120 today) and $50 ($1,040 today) in the annex. Reference Slaying the Dragon pgs 84-85, and Silkworth pg 125. ----- Original Message ----- From: apexnomad To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, May 16, 2004 5:51 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] The Towns Hospital Is the "old" CHARLES B. TOWNS HOSPITAL still standing? The adress 293 central west ny ny, is the American Anorexia/Bulima Association. Is this the same bulding? I am going to NYC this Fri. and would love some info. if someone knows. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1812. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: The Towns Hospital From: Jim K. . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/17/2004 1:59:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Towns Hospital at 293 Central Park West is still standing but as a Co-op apartment building. It is one door north of the intersection of West 89th Street and CPW. Best viewed from the park side of CPW it is steps north of the northern exit of the 8th Avenue (B, C, D trains) subway line station at 86th street. For more info you may email me offlist at jknyc@hotmail.com Jim K. The Into Action Group Manhattan, NY >>Is the "old" CHARLES B. TOWNS HOSPITAL still standing?<< IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1813. . . . . . . . . . . . Fitz M From: Jim Burns . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/17/2004 5:30:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hello group, I am interested in why Fitz M.'s story was not put in the Pioneer section until the 4th edition. Also, is there any addition information on Dr. Jim S. from " Jim's Story?" Thank you, Jim Orange County, California ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! [79] - Internet access at a great low price. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1814. . . . . . . . . . . . Grapevine Magazine, May 1945 From: Charles Knapp . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/17/2004 11:58:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII In post # 560, the December 1975 AA Grapevine article about Jack Alexander passing, it mentioned a May 1945 Grapevine article by Jack. Here is a copy of that article. Hope you enjoy Charles from California ******************************************************************* JACK ALEXANDER OF SAT EVE POST FAME THOUGHT A.A.s WERE PULLING HIS LEG Grapevine Magazine, May 1945 Ordinarily, diabetes isn't rated as one of the hazards of reporting, but the Alcoholics Anonymous article in the Saturday Evening Post came close to costing me my liver, and maybe A.A. neophytes ought to be told this when they are handed copies of the article to read. It might impress them. In the course of my fact gathering, I drank enough Coca-Cola, Pepsi-Cola, ginger ale, Moxie and Sweetie to float the Saratoga. Then there was the thickly frosted cake so beloved of A.A. gatherings, and the heavily sweetened coffee, and the candy. Nobody can tell me that alcoholism isn't due solely to an abnormal craving for sugar, not even a learned psychiatrist. Otherwise the A.A. assignment was a pleasure. It began when the Post asked me to look into A.A. as a possible article subject. All I knew of alcoholism at the time was that, like most other non-alcoholics, I had my hand bitten (and my nose punched) on numerous occasions by alcoholic pals to whom I had extended a hand --unwisely, it always seemed afterward. Anyway, I had an understandable skepticism about the whole business. My first contact, with actual A.A.s came when a group of four of them called at my apartment one afternoon. This session was pleasant, but it didn't help my skepticism any. Each one introduced himself as an alcoholic who had gone "dry," as the official expression has it. They were good-looking and well dressed and, as we sat around drinking Coca-Cola (which was all they would take), they spun yarns about their horrendous drinking misadventures. The stories sounded spurious, and after the visitors had left, I had a strong suspicion that my leg was being pulled. They had behaved like a bunch of actors sent out by some Broadway casting agency. Next morning I look the subway to the headquarters Alcoholics Anonymous in downtown Manhattan, where I met Bill W. This Bill W. is a very disarming guy and an expert at indoctrinating the stranger into the psychology, psychiatry, physiology, pharmacology and folklore of alcoholism. He spent the good part of a couple of days telling me what it was all about. It was an interesting experience, but at the end of it my fingers were still crossed. He knew it, of course, without my saying it, and in the days that followed he took me to the homes of some of the A.A.s, where I got a chance to talk to the wives, too. My skepticism suffered a few minor scratches, but not enough to hurt. Then Bill shepherded me to a few A.A. meetings at a clubhouse somewhere in the West Twenties. Here were all manner of alcoholics, many of them, the nibblers at the fringe of the movement, still fragrant of liquor and needing a shave. Now I knew I was among a few genuine alcoholics anyway. The bearded, fume-breathing lads were A.A. skeptics, too, and now I had some company. The week spent with Bill W. was a success from one standpoint. I knew I had the makings of a readable report but, unfortunately, I didn't quite believe in it and told Bill so. He asked why I didn't look in on the A.A.s in other cities and see what went on there. I agreed to do this, and we mapped out an itinerary. I went to Philadelphia, first, and some of the local A.A. a took me to the psychopathic ward of Philadelphia General Hospital and showed me how they work on the alcoholic Inmates. In that gloomy place, it was an impressive thing to see men who had bounced in and out of the ward themselves patiently jawing a man who was still haggard and shaking from a binge that wound up in the gutter. Akron was the next stop. Bill met me there and promptly introduced me to Doc S., who is another hard man to disbelieve. There were more hospital visits, an A.A, meeting, and interviews with people who a year or two before were undergoing varying forms of the blind staggers. Now they seemed calm, well-spoken, stead-handed and prosperous, al least mildly prosperous. Doe S. drove us both from Akron to Cleveland one night and the same pattern was repeated. The universality of alcoholism was more apparent here. In Akron it had been mostly factory workers. In Cleveland there were lawyers, accountants and oilier professional men, in addition to laborers. And again the same stories. The pattern was repeated also in Chicago, the only variation there being the presence at the meetings of a number of newspapermen, I had spent most of my working life on newspapers and I could really talk to these men. The real clincher, though, came in St. Louis, which is my hometown. Here I met a number of my own friends who were A.A.s, and the last remnants of skepticism vanished. Once rollicking rumpots, they were now sober. It didn't seem possible, but there it was. When the article was published, the reader mail was astonishing. Meat of it came from desperate drinkers or their wives, or mothers, fathers or interested friends. The letters were forwarded to the A.A. office in New York and from there were sent on to A.A. groups nearest the writers of the letters. I don't know exactly how many letters came in, all told, but the lust time I checked, a year or so ago, it was around 6,000. They still trickle in from time to time, from people who have carried the article in their pockets all this time, or kept it in the bureau drawer under the handkerchief case intending to do something about it. I guess the letters will keep coming in for years, and I hope they do, because now I know that every one of them springs from a mind, either of an alcoholic or of someone close to him, which is undergoing a type of hell that Dante would have gagged at. And I know, too, that this victim is on the way to recovery, if he really wants to recover. There is something very heartening about this, particularly in a world which has been struggling toward peace for centuries without ever achieving it for very long periods of lime. Jack Alexander The Saturday Evening Post Philadelphia, Pa. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1815. . . . . . . . . . . . Promises From: Cloydg . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/17/2004 6:43:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I'm told there are 118 promises in the BB, not just the 12 we refer to on pages 63-64. Does anyone have a complete list with page numbers? In sobriety, Clyde G. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1816. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Fitz M From: goldentextpro@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/17/2004 7:03:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hello Jim, Here's the summary: In the second and third editions of the book, the same twelve stories appeared in the section "Pioneers of AA." They were: STORY - MEMBER - DOS Dr. Bob's Nightmare - Dr. Bob Smith - June 1935 Alcoholic Anonymous Number Three - Bill Dotson - June 1935 He Had to Be Shown - Dick Stanley - Feb. 1937 (1st Ed. story called "The Car Smasher") He Thought He Could Drink... - Abby Goldrick - May 1938 Women Suffer Too - Marty Mann - March 1939 The European Drinker - Joe Doppler - April 1936 The Vicious Cycle - Jim Burwell - Jan. 1938 The News Hawk - Jim Scott - July 1937 (1st Ed. story - "Traveler, Editor, Scholar") From Farm to City - Ethel Macy - May 1941 The Man Who Mastered Fear - Archie Trowbridge - Sept. 1938 (1st Ed. "The Fearful One") He Sold Himself Short - Earl Treat - April 1937 Home Brewmeister - Clarence Snyder - Feb. 1938 The Keys of the Kingdom - Sylvia Kaufman - Aug. 1939 The fourth edition removed Dick, Abby, Joe, Jim Scott, Ethel, and Clarence. (Interestingly, they were all part of the Akron root.) One story was added: Dave B., Gratitude In Action, 1944. The fourth edition's pioneer section is noticeably more condensed, as apparently the GSC was going for a more "eclectic" feel. (My word for it.) Simply put, Fitz Mayo (Oct. 1935) fit the bill as a pioneer, and the New Yorker was kept in the pool. As to the details behind the selection process, Valerie O. at GSO could probably be of help, as she was on the committee. As to why Fitz wasn't in the second and third editions as a "pioneer," the committee probably felt that the early women pioneers (Marty, Ethel and Sylvia) were needed to be representative of the lower percentage of women at that time, and the only woman from the first edition (Florence Rankin) later resumed drinking and committed suicide. Regards, Richard K. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1817. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Promises From: Diz Titcher . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/18/2004 7:19:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Go to: www.msag.org/BBCA/the%20147%20promises.htm Best, Diz T. ----- Original Message ----- From: Cloydg To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, May 17, 2004 7:43 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Promises I'm told there are 118 promises in the BB, not just the 12 we refer to on pages 63-64. Does anyone have a complete list with page numbers? In sobriety, Clyde G. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1818. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Fitz M From: J. Lobdell . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/18/2004 9:22:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII It's not clear why Bill put "Our Southern Friend" in "They Lost Nearly All" rather than "Pioneers of AA" -- especially since Fitz is identified as an "AA pioneer" and given that Fitz was Bill's first NY success. We can't say this question will be answered at our panel on Fitz (9:10-10:10 a.m.) at our June 5 2004 Multi-District History & Archives Gathering in Elizabethtown PA, but we thought we'd remind HistoryLovers of the panel and of the Gathering. My email is jaredlobdell@aol.com or jaredlobdell@comcast.net or call 717-367-4985 (not after 9:30 p.m. EDT). The Gathering also includes Eastern PA oldtimers (50 yrs+), plus Nancy O., Rick T., exhibits from Areas 29, 44, 59, Philadelphia Intergroup, a panel on Coming Into AA Before Jan 24 1971. 8:00 registration. Over at 5:00 p.m. Free. Hope to see you there. -- Jared Lobdell >From: Jim Burns >Reply-To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com >To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com >Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Fitz M >Date: Mon, 17 May 2004 15:30:00 -0700 (PDT) > >Hello group, >I am interested in why Fitz M.'s story was not put in the Pioneer section until the 4th edition. > >Also, is there any addition information on Dr. Jim S. from " Jim's Story?" > >Thank you, >Jim >Orange County, California > > >--------------------------------- >Do you Yahoo!? >SBC Yahoo! - Internet access at a great low price. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Is your PC infected? Get a FREE online computer virus scan from McAfee® Security. [80] IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1819. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Fitz M From: Arthur Sheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/18/2004 8:43:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Jim Fitz M's story (Our Southern Friend) has appeared in the original manuscript and all editions of the Big Book. His story was moved to Part I (Pioneers of AA) of the Personal Stories in the 4th edition. It was previously in Part III (They Nearly Lost All). I don't believe that the appearance of his story in Part III, as opposed to Part I, represented any form of diminished stature in the scheme of things. Fitz M's sober life was rather brief. He died in 1943 (of cancer). AA Comes of Age (pgs 17-18) contains some of Bill W's recollections of Fitz M (he and Bill, and their wives, were reputedly very close friends). Fitz started AA in Washington DC and helped get AA started in Maryland as well. Jim S, the black physician (Jim's Story), is mentioned briefly in AA Comes of Age on page 37. Arthur ----- Original Message ----- From: Jim Burns To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, May 17, 2004 5:30 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Fitz M Hello group, I am interested in why Fitz M.'s story was not put in the Pioneer section until the 4th edition. Also, is there any addition information on Dr. Jim S. from " Jim's Story?" Thank you, Jim Orange County, California ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Do you Yahoo!? SBC Yahoo! [79] - Internet access at a great low price. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1820. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Promises From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/18/2004 10:36:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Promises, promises! How often we hear the incorrect phrase "The Twelve Promises of AA" used in meetings when referring to the Ninth Step promises on pages 83 & 84. What about all the OTHER promises found in the Big Book, like the ones associated with working Steps 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, and 12? As a matter of fact, the Ninth Step promises are only SOME of the better ones! Well, Dave F. was taught to consider all statements of hope in the Big Book, which guarantee a result, through our sober actions, in the working of the Steps, to be a "promise". Therefore, by this definition (although some of the groupings here may be a stretch), here are 238 promises of the Big Book. - Barefoot Bill First Step Promises: 1. How many thousands of men and women have recovered from alcoholism. (Title page). 2. Who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. (foreword 1st edition xiii) 3. To show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book. (foreword 1st edition xiii) 4. We are sure that our way of living has its advantages for all. (foreword 1st edition xiii) 5. Our earliest printing voiced the hope -that every alcoholic who journeys will find the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous at his destination (foreword 2nd edition xv) 6. It also indicated that strenuous work, one alcoholic with another, was vital to permanent recovery (xvii) 7. A.A.'s had to hang together or die separately. We had to unify our Fellowship or pass off the scene.(xix) 8. Today the remarkable unity of A.A. is one of the greatest assets that our Society has.(xix) 9. It is our great hope that all those who have as yet found no answer may begin to find one in the pages of this book and will presently join us on the highroad to a new freedom. (xxi) 10. ...recovery begins when one alcoholic talks with another alcoholic, sharing experience, strength, and hope. (xxii) 11. We who have suffered alcoholic torture must believe that the body of the alcoholic is quite as abnormal as his mind (xxiv) 12. We are sure that our bodies were sickened as well. (xxiv) 13. We work out our solution on the spiritual as well as an altruistic plane. (xxiv) 14. Once a psychic change has occurred, the very same person who seemed doomed, who had so many problems he despaired of ever solving them, suddenly finds himself easily able to control his desire for alcohol, the only effort necessary being that required to follow a few simple rules. (xxvii) 15. There are many situations which arise out of the phenomenon of craving which cause men to make the supreme sacrifice rather than continue to fight. (xxviii) 16. I was soon to be catapulted into what I like to call the fourth dimension of existence. I was to know happiness, peace, and usefulness, in a way of life that is incredibly more wonderful as time passes. (8:2) 17. I would enter upon a new relationship with my Creator; that I would have the elements of a way of living which answered all my problems. Belief in the power of God, plus enough willingness, honesty and humility to establish and maintain the new order of things, were the essential requirements. (13:5) 18. For if an alcoholic failed to perfect and enlarge his spiritual life through work and self-sacrifice for others, he could not survive the certain trials and low spots ahead. If he did not work, he would surely drink again, and if he drank, he would surely die. Then faith would be dead indeed. With us it is just like that. (14:6) 19. It is a design for living that works in rough going. (15:1) 20. The joy of living we really have, even under pressure and difficulty. (15:2) 21. There is scarcely any form of trouble and misery which has not been overcome among us. (15:2) 22. I have seen hundreds of families set their feet in the path that really goes somewhere; have seen the most impossible domestic situations righted; feuds and bitterness of all sorts wiped out. I have seen men come out of asylums and resume a vital place in the lives of their families and communities. Business and professional men have regained their standing. (15:2) 23. There is, however, a vast amount of fun about it all. I suppose some would be shocked at our seeming worldliness and levity. But just underneath there is deadly earnestness. Faith has to work twenty-four hours a day in and through us, or we perish. (16:2) 24. Most of us feel we need look no further for Utopia. We have it with us right here and now. Each day my friend's simple talk in our kitchen multiplies itself in a widening circle of peace on earth and good will to men. (16:3) 25. ...there exists among us a fellowship, a friendliness, and an understanding which is indescribably wonderful. (17:2) 26. Our joy in escape from disaster does not subside as we go our individual ways. (17:2) 27. The feeling of having shared in a common peril is one element in the powerful cement which binds us... The tremendous fact for every one of us is that we have discovered a common solution. We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree, and upon which we can join in brotherly and harmonious action. This is the great news this book carries to those who suffer from alcoholism. (17:2) 28. An illness of this sort-and we have come to believe it an illness-involves those about us in a way no other human sickness can. (18:1) 29. For with it (the alcoholic illness) there goes annihilation of all the things worth while in life. It engulfs all whose lives touch the sufferer's. It brings misunderstanding, fierce resentment, financial insecurity, disgusted friends and employers, warped lives of blameless children, sad wives and parents-anyone can increase the list. (18:1) 30. Most of us sense that real tolerance of other people's shortcomings and viewpoints and a respect for their opinions are attitudes which make us more useful to others. Our very lives, as ex-problem drinkers, depend upon our constant thought of others and how we may help meet their needs. (19:4) 31. The alcoholic reacts differently from normal people. We are not sure why, once a certain point is reached, little can be done for him. We cannot answer the riddle. We know that while the alcoholic keeps away from drink, as he may do for months or years, he reacts much like other men. We are equally positive that once he takes any alcohol whatever into his system, something happens, both in the bodily and mental sense, which makes it virtually impossible for him to stop. (22:3) 32. The main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind, rather than in his body. (23:1) 33. At a certain point in the drinking of every alcoholic, he passes into a state where the most powerful desire to stop drinking is of absolutely no avail. (24:0) 34. The fact is that most alcoholics, for reasons yet obscure, have lost the power of choice in drink. Our so-called will power becomes practically nonexistent. We are unable, at certain times, to bring into our consciousness with sufficient force the memory of the suffering and humiliation of even a week or a month ago. We are without defense against the first drink. (24:1) 35. There is a solution. (25:1) 36. We saw that it really worked in others. (25:1) 37. We have found much of heaven and we have been rocketed into a fourth dimension of existence of which we had not even dreamed. (25:1) 38. The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous. He has commenced to accomplish those things for us which we could never do by ourselves. (25:2) 39. A new life has been given us or, if you prefer, "a design for living" that really works. (28:2) 40. All of us, whateverour race, creed, or color are the children of a living Creator with whom we may form a relationship upon simple and understandable terms as soon as we are willing and honest enough to try. (28:3) 41. The idea that somehow, someday he will control and enjoy his drinking is the great obsession of every abnormal drinker. (30:1) 42. We alcoholics are men and women who have lost the ability to control our drinking. We know that no real alcoholic ever recovers control. All of us felt at times that we were regaining control, but such intervals-usually brief-were inevitably followed by still less control, which led in time to pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. We are convinced to a man that alcoholics of our type are in the grip of a progressive illness. Over any considerable period we get worse, never better. (30:3) 43. To be gravely affected, one does not necessarily have to drink a long time nor take the quantities some of us have. This is particularly true of women. Potential female alcoholics often turn into the real thing and are gone beyond recall in a few years. (33:3) 44. The actual or potential alcoholic, with hardly an exception, will be absolutely unable to stop drinking on the basis of self-knowledge. (39:1) 45. That if I had an alcoholic mind, the time and place would come-I would drink again. (41:2) 46. I saw that will power and self-knowledge would not help in those strange mental blank spots. (42:0) 47. The program of action, though entirely sensible, was pretty drastic (42:0) 48. Most alcoholics have to be pretty badly mangled before they really commence to solve their problems. (43:1) 49. The alcoholic at certain times has no effective mental defense against the first drink. Except in a few rare cases, neither he nor any other human being can provide such a defense. His defense must come from a Higher Power. (43:3) 50. If he is an alcoholic of the hopeless variety. To be doomed to an alcoholic death or to live on a spiritual basis are not always easy alternatives to face. (44:2) 51. We had to face the fact that we must find a spiritual basis of life -or else. (44:3) 52. Our human resources, as marshalled by the will, were not sufficient; they failed utterly. (45:0) 53. Lack of power, that was our dilemma. We had to find a power by which we could live, and it had to be a Power greater than ourselves.(45:1) Second Step Promises: 1. We did not need to consider another's conception of God. (46:2) 2. God does not make too hard terms with those who seek Him. (46:2) 3. We found that as soon as we were able to lay aside prejudice and express even a willingness to believe in a Power greater than ourselves, we commenced to get results, even though it was impossible for any of us to fully define or comprehend that Power, which is God. (46:1) 4. The Realm of Spirit is broad, roomy, all inclusive; never exclusive or forbidding to those who earnestly seek. It is open, we believe, to all men. (46:2) 5. As soon as a man can say that he does believe, or is willing to believe, we emphatically assure him that he is on his way. It has been repeatedly proven among us that upon this simple cornerstone a wonderfully effective spiritual structure can be built.* (47:2) 6. In the face of collapse and despair, in the face of the total failure of their human resources, they found that a new power, peace, happiness, and sense of direction flowed into them. (50:4) 7. When we saw others solve their problems by a simple reliance upon the Spirit of the Universe, we had to stop doubting the power of God. Our ideas did not work. But the God idea did. (52:3) 8. Deep down in every man, woman, and child, is the fundamental idea of God. It may be obscured by calamity, by pomp, by worship of other things, but in some form or other it is there. (55:2) 9. If our testimony helps sweep away prejudice, enables you to think honestly, encourages you to search diligently within yourself, then, if you wish, you can join us on the Broad Highway. With this attitude you cannot fail. The consciousness of your belief is sure to come to you. (55:4) 10. He has come to all who have honestly sought Him. When we drew near to Him He disclosed Himself to us! (57:3) Third Step Promises: 1. Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. (58:1) 2. Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually men and women who are constitutionally incapable of being honest with themselves. (58:1) 3. Their chances are less than average. (58:1) 4. Some of us have tried to hold on to our old ideas and the result was nil until we let go absolutely. (58:3) 5. Without help it is too much for us. (59:0) 6. But there is One who has all power-that One is God. (59:0) 7. Half measures availed us nothing. (59:1) 8. No one among us has been able to maintain anything like perfect adherence to these principles. (60:1) 9. We claim spiritual progress rather than spiritual perfection. (60:1) 10. We were alcoholic and could not manage our own lives. (60:2) 11. Probably no human power could have relieved our alcoholism. (60:2) 12. God could and would if He were sought. (60:2) 13. that any life run on self-will can hardly be a success. On that basis we are almost always in collision with something or somebody, even though our motives are good. (60:4) 14. Selfishness-self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles. (62:1) 15. We invariably find that at some time in the past we have made decisions based on self which later placed us in a position to be hurt. (62:1) 16. So our troubles, we think, are basically of our own making. They arise out of ourselves, and the alcoholic is an extreme example of self-will run riot, though he usually doesn't think so. (62:2) 17. Above everything, we alcoholics must be rid of this selfishness. We must, or it kills us! God makes that possible. And there often seems no way of entirely getting rid of self without His aid. Many of us had moral and philosophical convictions galore, but we could not live up to them even though we would have liked to. Neither could we reduce our self-centeredness much by wishing or trying on our own power. We had to have God's help. (62:2) 18. We had to quit playing God. It didn't work. (62:3) 19. God was going to be our Director. He is the Principal; we are His agents. He is the Father, and we are His children. Most good ideas are simple, and this concept was the keystone of the new and triumphant arch through which we passed to freedom. (62:3) 20. We had a new Employer. Being all powerful, He provided what we needed, if we kept close to Him and performed His work well. (63:1) 21. Established on such a footing we became less and less interested in ourselves, our little plans and designs. (63:1) 22. More and more we became interested in seeing what we could contribute to life. (63:1) 23. As we felt new power flow in, as we enjoyed peace of mind, as we discovered we could face life successfully, as we became conscious of His presence, we began to lose our fear of today, tomorrow or the hereafter. We were reborn. (63:1) Fourth Step Promises: 1. Though our decision was a vital and crucial step, it could have little permanent effect unless at once followed by a strenuous effort to face, and to be rid of, the things in ourselves which had been blocking us. (64:0) 2. Our liquor was but a symptom. (64:0) 3. Resentment is the "number one" offender. It destroys more alcoholics than anything else. From it stem all forms of spiritual disease, for we have been not only mentally and physically ill, we have been spiritually sick. (64:3) 4. When the spiritual malady is overcome, we straighten out mentally and physically. (64:3) 5. Nothing counted but thoroughness and honesty. (65:3) 6. But the more we fought and tried to have our own way, the worse matters got. As in war, the victor only seemed to win. Our moments of triumph were short-lived. (66:0) 7. It is plain that a life which includes deep resentment leads only to futility and unhappiness. To the precise extent that we permit these (resentments), do we squander the hours that might have been worth while. (66:1) 8. But with the alcoholic, whose hope is the maintenance and growth of a spiritual experience, this business of resentment is infinitely grave. We found that it (resentment) is fatal. For when harboring such feelings we shut ourselves off from the sunlight of the Spirit. The insanity of alcohol returns and we drink again. And with us, to drink is to die. (66:1) 9. If we were to live, we had to be free of anger. (66:2) 10. We turned back to the list, for it held the key to the future. (66:3) 11. We began to see that the world and its people really dominated us. In that state, the wrong-doing of others, fancied or real, had power to actually kill. (66:3) 12. This was our course: We realized that the people who wronged us were perhaps spiritually sick. 13. Though we did not like their symptoms and the way these disturbed us, they, like ourselves, were sick too. (66:4) 14. We cannot be helpful to all people, but at least God will show us how to take a kindly and tolerant view of each and every one. (67:4) 15. "Fear" This short word somehow touches about every aspect of our lives. It was an evil and corroding thread; the fabric of our existence was shot through with it. It set in motion trains of circumstances which brought us misfortune. (67:3) 16. Just to the extent that we do as we think He would have us, and humbly rely on Him, does He enable us to match calamity with serenity. (68:2) 17. We ask Him to remove our fear and direct our attention to what He would have us be. At once, we commence to outgrow fear. (68:3) 18. If we are sorry for what we have done, and have the honest desire to let God take us to better things, we believe we will be forgiven and will have learned our lesson. (70:1) 19. If we are not sorry, and our conduct continues to harm others, we are quite sure to drink. (70:1) 20. If we have been thorough about our personal inventory, we have written down a lot. (70:3) 21. We have listed and analyzed our resentments. (70:3) 22. We have begun to comprehend their futility and their fatality. (70:3) 23. We have commenced to see their terrible destructiveness. (70:3) 24. We have begun to learn tolerance, patience and good will toward all men, even our enemies, for we look on them as sick people. (70:3) 25. We have listed the people we have hurt by our conduct, and are willing to straighten out the past if we can. (70:3) Fifth Step Promises: 1. In actual practice, we usually find a solitary self-appraisal insufficient. (72:2) 2. If we skip this vital step, we may not overcome drinking. (72:2) 3. They took inventory all right, but hung on to some of the worst items in stock. They only thought they had lost their egoism and fear; they only thought they had humbled themselves. But they had not learned enough of humility, fearlessness and honesty, in the sense we find it necessary, until they told someone else all their life story. (73:0) 4. We must be entirely honest with somebody if we expect to live long or happily in this world. (73:4) 5. Once we have taken this step, withholding nothing, we are delighted. (75:2) 6. We can look the world in the eye. (75:2) 7. We can be alone at perfect peace and ease. (75:2) 8. Our fears fall from us. (75:2) 9. We begin to feel the nearness of our Creator. (75:2) 10. We may have had certain spiritual beliefs, but now we begin to have a spiritual experience. (75:2) 11. The feeling that the drink problem has disappeared will often come strongly. (75:2) 12. We feel we are on the Broad Highway, walking hand in hand with the Spirit of the Universe. (75:2) Sixth Step Promises: None in the Big Book... See the 12 & 12 for promises. ===================================================== Seventh Step Promises: None in the Big Book... See the 12 & 12 for promises. Eighth Step Promises: 1. Now we need more action, without which we find that "Faith without works is dead." (76:3) Ninth Step Promises: 1. We are there to sweep off our side of the street, realizing that nothing worth while can be accomplished until we do so, never trying to tell him what he should do. (77:2) 2. If our manner is calm, frank, and open, we will be gratified with the result. (78:0) 3. In nine cases out of ten the unexpected happens. (78:1) 4. Rarely do we fail to make satisfactory progress. (78:1) 5. We must lose our fear of creditors no matter how far we have to go, for we are liable to drink if we are afraid to face them. (78:2) 6. Perhaps there are some cases where the utmost frankness is demanded. No outsider can appraise such an intimate situation. (82:1) 7. Yes, there is a long period of reconstruction ahead. We must take the lead. A remorseful mumbling that we are sorry won't fill the bill at all. (83:1) 8. If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through. (83:4) 9. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. (83:4) 10. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. (83:4) 11. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. (83:4) 12. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. (84:0) 13. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. (84:0) 14. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. (84:0) 15. Self-seeking will slip away. (84:0) 16. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. (84:0) 17. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. (84:0) 18. We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. (84:0) 19. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. (84:0) 20. Are these extravagant promises? We think not. They are being fulfilled among us-sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. They will always materialize if we work for them. (84:1) Tenth Step Promises: 1. We continue to take personal inventory and continue to set right any new mistakes as we go along. (84:2) 2. We vigorously commenced this way of living as we cleaned up the past. (84:2) 3. We have entered the world of the Spirit. (84:2) 4. Love and tolerance of others is our code. (84:2) 5. We have ceased fighting anything or anyone even alcohol. (84:3) 6. For by this time sanity will have returned. (84:3) 7. We will seldom be interested in liquor. If tempted, we recoil from it as from a hot flame. (84:3) 8. We react sanely and normally, and we will find that this has happened automatically. (85:0) 9. We will see that our new attitude toward liquor has been given us without any thought or effort on our part. It just comes! That is the miracle of it. (85:0) 10. We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation. (85:0) 11. We feel as though we had been placed in a position of neutrality-safe and protected. (85:0) 12. We have not even sworn off. Instead, the problem has been removed. It does not exist for us. (85:0) 13. We are neither cocky nor are we afraid. (85:0) 14. That is our experience. That is how we react so long as we keep in fit spiritual condition. (85:0) 15. We are headed for trouble if we do, for alcohol is a subtle foe. (85:1) 16. We are not cured of alcoholism. (85:1) 17. What we really have is a daily reprieve contingent on the maintenance of our spiritual condition. (85:1) 18. Every day is a day when we must carry the vision of God's will into all of our activities. (85:1) 19. "How can I best serve Thee-Thy will (not mine) be done." These are thoughts which must go with us constantly. (85:1) 20. We can exercise our will power along this line all we wish. It is the proper use of the will. (85:1) 21. If we have carefully followed directions, we have begun to sense the flow of His Spirit into us. (85:2) 22. To some extent we have become God-conscious. (85:2) 23. We have begun to develop this vital sixth sense. But we must go further and that means more action. (85:2) Eleventh Step Promises: 1. We shouldn't be shy on this matter of prayer. Better men than we are using it constantly. It works, if we have the proper attitude and work at it. (85:3) 2. We ask God to direct our thinking, especially asking that it be divorced from self-pity, dishonest or self-seeking motives. Under these conditions we can employ our mental faculties with assurance, for after all God gave us brains to use. (86:2) 3. Our thought-life will be placed on a much higher plane when our thinking is cleared of wrong motives. (86:2) 4. We are often surprised how the right answers come after we have tried this for a while. (86:3) 5. What used to be the hunch or the occasional inspiration gradually becomes a working part of the mind. (87:0) 6. Nevertheless, we find that our thinking will, as time passes, be more and more on the plane of inspiration. We come to rely upon it. (87:0) 7. We are careful never to pray for our own selfish ends. Many of us have wasted a lot of time doing that and it doesn't work. (87:1) 8. We constantly remind ourselves we are no longer running the show, humbly saying to ourselves many times each day "Thy will be done." We are then in much less danger of excitement, fear, anger, worry, self-pity, or foolish decisions. (87:3) 9. We become much more efficient. (88:0) 10. We do not tire so easily, for we are not burning up energy foolishly as we did when we were trying to arrange life to suit ourselves. (88:0) 11. It works-it really does. (88:1) 12. "Faith without works is dead." (88:3) Twelfth Step Promises: 1. Practical experience shows that nothing will so much insure immunity from drinking as intensive work with other alcoholics. It works when other activities fail. (89:1) 2. Carry this message to other alcoholics! You can help when no one else can. (89:1) 3. You can secure their confidence when others fail. (89:1) 4. Life will take on new meaning. (89:2) 5. Frequent contact with newcomers and with each other is the bright spot of our lives. (89:2) 6. Unfortunately a lot of prejudice exists. You will be handicapped if you arouse it. (89:3) 7. Ministers and doctors are competent and you can learn much from them if you wish, but it happens that because of your own drinking experience you can be uniquely useful to other alcoholics. (89:3) 8. To be vital, faith must be accompanied by self sacrifice and unselfish, constructive action. (93:2) 9. You should not be offended if he wants to call it off, for he has helped you more than you have helped him. (94:1) 10. You will be most successful with alcoholics if you do not exhibit any passion for crusade or reform. (95:1) 11. We have no monopoly on God; we merely have an approach that worked with us. (95:4) 12. Helping others is the foundation stone of your recovery. (97:1) 13. A kindly act once in a while isn't enough. You have to act the Good Samaritan every day, if need be. (97:1) 14. The men who cry for money and shelter before conquering alcohol, are on the wrong track. (98:0) 15. Some of us have taken very hard knocks to learn this truth: job or no job-wife or no wife-we simply do not stop drinking so long as we place dependence upon other people ahead of dependence on God. (98:1) 16. Burn the idea into the consciousness of every man that he can get well regardless of anyone. The only condition is that he trust in God and clean house. (98:2) 17. Remind the prospect that his recovery is not dependent upon people. It is dependent upon his relationship with God. (99:3) 18. If you persist, remarkable things will happen. (100:1) 19. When we look back, we realize that the things which came to us when we put ourselves in God's hands were better than anything we could have planned. (100:1) 20. Follow the dictates of a Higher Power and you will presently live in a new and wonderful world, no matter what your present circumstances! (100:1) 21. Assuming we are spiritually fit, we can do all sorts of things alcoholics are not supposed to do. (100:4) 22. An alcoholic who cannot meet them, still has an alcoholic mind; there is something the matter with his spiritual status. (101:1) 23. In our belief any scheme of combating alcoholism which proposes to shield the sick man from temptation is doomed to failure. (101:2) 24. At a proper time and place explain to all your friends why alcohol disagrees with you. If you do this thoroughly, few people will ask you to drink. (102:1) 25. Keep on the firing line of life with these motives and God will keep you unharmed. (102:2) 26. We would not even do the cause of temperate drinking any good, for not one drinker in a thousand likes to be told anything about alcohol by one who hates it. (103:1) 27. After all, our problems were of our own making. Bottles were only a symbol. (103:3) 28. Besides, we have stopped fighting anybody or anything. We have to! (103:3) Miscellaneous Promises: 1. The power of God goes deep! (114:1) 2. If God can solve the age-old riddle of alcoholism, He can solve your problems too. (116:2) 3. You will lose the old life to find one much better. (120:0) 4. All problems will not be solved at once. Seed has started to sprout in a new soil, but growth has only begun. In spite of your new-found happiness, there will be ups and downs. Many of the old problems will still be with you. This is as it should be. (117:1) 5. The faith and sincerity of both you and your husband will be put to the test. These work-outs should be regarded as part of your education, for thus you will be learning to live. You will make mistakes, but if you are in earnest they will not drag you down. Instead, you will capitalize them. A better way of life will emerge when they are overcome. (117:2) 6. You and your husband will find that you can dispose of serious problems easier than you can the trivial ones. (118:1) 7. Patience, tolerance, understanding and love are the watchwords. Show him these things in yourself and they will be reflected back to you from him. (118:2) 8. Live and let live is the rule. If you both show a willingness to remedy your own defects, there will be little need to criticize each other. (118:2) 9. Both of you will awaken to a new sense of responsibility for others. (119:2) 10. We grow by our willingness to face and rectify errors and convert them into assets. The alcoholic's past thus becomes the principal asset of the family and frequently it is almost the only one! (124:1) 11. Cling to the thought that, in God's hands, the dark past is the greatest possession you have-the key to life and happiness for others. With it you can avert death and misery for them. (124:2) 12. We alcoholics are sensitive people. It takes some of us a long time to outgrow that serious handicap. (125:2) 13. But we aren't a glum lot. If newcomers could see no joy or fun in our existence, they wouldn't want it. We absolutely insist on enjoying life. We try not to indulge in cynicism over the state of the nations, nor do we carry the world's troubles on our shoulders. (132:1) 14. We have recovered, and have been given the power to help others. (132:2) 15. We have three little mottoes which are apropos. Here they are: First Things First, Live and Let Live, Easy Does It.(135:4) 16. The greatest enemies of us alcoholics are resentment, jealousy, envy, frustration, and fear. (145:3) 17. As a class, alcoholics are energetic people. They work hard and they play hard. (146:1) 18. Yes, there is a substitute and it is vastly more than that. It is a fellowship in Alcoholics Anonymous. (152:2) 19. There you will find release from care, boredom and worry. (152:2) 20. Your imagination will be fired. (152:2) 21. Life will mean something at last. (152:2) 22. The most satisfactory years of your existence lie ahead. Thus we find the fellowship, and so will you. (152:2) 23. You will be bound to them with new and wonderful ties, for you will escape disaster together and you will commence shoulder to shoulder your common journey. (152:4) 24. Then you will know what it means to give of yourself that others may survive and rediscover life. (153:0) 25. You will learn the full meaning of "Love thy neighbor as thyself." (153:0) 26. The practical answer is that since these things have happened among us, they can happen with you. Should you wish them above all else, and be willing to make use of our experience, we are sure they will come. The age of miracles is still with us. Our own recovery proves that! (153:1) 27. He will show you how to create the fellowship you crave. (164:1) 28. God will constantly disclose more to you and to us. (164:2) 29. The answers will come, if your own house is in order. But obviously you cannot transmit something you haven't got. (164:2) 30. See to it that your relationship with Him is right, and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is the Great Fact for us. (164:2) 31. We shall be with you in the Fellowship of the Spirit, and you will surely meet some of us as you trudge the Road of Happy Destiny. (164:3) -----Original Message----- From: Cloydg [mailto:cloydg449@sbcglobal.net] Sent: Monday, May 17, 2004 7:44 PM To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Promises I'm told there are 118 promises in the BB, not just the 12 we refer to on pages 63-64. Does anyone have a complete list with page numbers? In sobriety, Clyde G. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1821. . . . . . . . . . . . Richard Dubiel on Rowland Hazard (Part 1 of 2) From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/18/2004 5:24:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ROWLAND HAZARD Part 1 of 2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NOTE BY GLENN C. (South Bend, Indiana) -- What has now become the definitive account of Rowland Hazard's life and role in the founding of A.A. is contained in a recent book by Richard M. Dubiel, Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, entitled *The Road to Fellowship: The Role of the Emmanuel Movement and the Jacoby Club in the Development of Alcoholics Anonymous,* Hindsfoot Foundation Series on the History of Alcoholism Treatment (New York: iUniverse, 2004). For more details about the book see the Hindsfoot website at: http://hindsfoot.org In my own view, it is a book which should be read and studied in detail by anyone, from this point on, who wishes to write about early A.A. history. It gives us an incredible insight into the actual thought currents of the period in American history during which A.A. was coming into being -- it puts A.A. into historical context, in ways that we have to understand in order to determine what was important to the founders, and what the problems were which they were trying to solve -- and which they in fact DID solve so well. What follows is an excerpt from Chapter 4 of that book, though without the copious and detailed endnotes. Anyone wishing to do serious research on Hazard needs to get a copy of the book and check through all of those carefully. Some of the more important findings are that Rowland Hazard (who was a very busy businessman in the United States) had no opportunity to see the famous psychiatrist Carl Jung, who lived and worked in Switzerland, except for a two month period (at most) in 1931, when Rowland and other members of the Hazard family traveled around Europe for part of the summer He did not join the Oxford Group and get sober immediately after seeing Jung -- there is in fact no record of him being involved with the Oxford Group until almost three years later. He was hospitalized for his alcoholism in February and March of 1932, and totally incapable of carrying on business activities from January 1933 until October 1934. He had recovered enough however to come to Ebby Thatcher's rescue in August 1934 (along with two other Oxford Groupers) when Thatcher was threatened with commitment to the Brattleboro Asylum. After his rescue, Thatcher took to the program of the Oxford Group with a good deal of enthusiasm. Three months afterwards, Ebby then passed the message on to Bill W. in the latter's kitchen in November 1934. What is even more important is that Rowland was under the care of the Emmanuel Movement therapist Courtenay Baylor in 1933 and 1934. Although Carl Jung might have planted a valuable seed a few years earlier, the therapist who really got Rowland sober was Baylor. The reason for paying careful attention to Courtenay Baylor's role, is that the only three groups in the United States during the first half of the twentieth century which had any notable success in getting alcoholics sober and keeping them sober, were the Emmanuel Movement (where Baylor was a key leader), the closely associated Jacoby Club, and Alcoholics Anonymous. In spite of the importance of the Oxford Group to A.A. beginnings, and the way it shaped some of the phrasing of the Twelve Steps, and so on, the Oxford Group all by itself had had no great success at all in sobering up alcoholics. As long as Bill W. had only the Oxford Group, he was still miserable and desperate a good deal of the time, and hanging onto sobriety only by the skin of his teeth. Richmond Walker, the author of *Twenty-Four Hours a Day,* managed to stay sober in the Oxford Group for two and a half years (1939-1941), but then went back to drinking again. It was only joining the Jacoby Club-linked Alcoholics Anonymous group in Boston in May 1942 that got Rich permanently sober. Dr. Bob was never able to stop drinking at all, as long as the only thing he had was the Oxford Group. Rowland Hazard was able to get sober when he had both the Oxford Group people AND the Emmanuel Movement therapist Courtenay Baylor working with him. But he then stopped going to Baylor for counseling, and by 1936 was back drinking once again. The Oxford Group clearly had PART of the vital answer to how alcoholics could stop drinking, but one must also look at A.A. after the gradual split from the O.G. started occurring, and at the Emmanuel Movement and the Jacoby Club -- and what these latter three groups all had in common -- in order to see what else in addition was necessary in order to produce high success rates in treating alcoholism. Prof. Dubiel's book gives us an excellent account of the Emmanuel Movement (which was linked strongly to the Episcopal Church and its spiritual tradition), and is the only detailed research ever published on the Jacoby Club, which was spiritually oriented but run by lay people, and was even closer to A.A. in the way that it was organized and the way it worked with suffering alcoholics. But let me now start excerpting from Prof. Dubiel's book, which explains things much better than I can: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ CHAPTER 4 Rowland Hazard and the Beginnings of A.A. Rowland Hazard III was a wealthy Rhode Island businessman who had become an alcoholic, requiring hospitalization on more than one occasion. He is well-known to the A.A. tradition as one of the Oxford Group circle who rescued Ebby Thatcher and got him sober when Ebby was threatened with commitment to the Brattleboro Asylum in August 1934. Three months later, in November 1934, Ebby visited Bill Wilson, the co-founder of A.A., and they sat in Bill's kitchen talking for hours in the famous scene which is reported in the first chapter of *Alcoholics Anonymous*. Ebby was the messenger to Bill W. of victory over the alcoholic compulsion through a new spiritual way of life. But even if Ebby was the one who actually talked with Bill, Rowland Hazard is recognized in the A.A. tradition as "the messenger behind the messenger," and two things about him are normally highlighted: He was a member of the Oxford Group, and he had been a patient of the famous psychiatrist Carl Jung in Switzerland. In the traditional A.A. version of the latter story, it was said that Hazard had been unable to stop returning to the bottle in spite of extensive Jungian therapy, until finally Jung told him that with alcoholics of his type only a spiritual conversion of some sort, which would enable him to radically remake and remold his inner spirit, would ever give him freedom from his overwhelming compulsion to drink. But there was a third factor involved in Hazard's story, one that up until now has been omitted in A.A. accounts of his role in their history. During both 1933 and that especially crucial year 1934, he was also a patient of the Emmanuel Movement author Courtenay Baylor, whose contributions and methods were discussed in the previous chapter. So early A.A. was influenced by the Emmanuel Movement from at least two different sources. Bill W. read Richard R. Peabody's *The Common Sense of Drinking*, which taught a secularized and intellectualized version of the Emmanuelite methods (as was explained in the previous chapter), but he was also in secondhand contact (via Ebby) with Rowland Hazard and hence the ideas of Courtenay Baylor, who taught something much closer to the original spiritually based Emmanuel therapy as devised in 1906 by the Rev. Elwood Worcester in the basement meetings he conducted in the church he pastored in downtown Boston.. The discovery that Rowland Hazard was deeply involved with Courtenay Baylor and the Emmanuelite tradition in addition to his Oxford Group activities was in fact only made quite recently. The present chapter will discuss the way this new information can be documented in the Hazard family papers which are preserved in the Rhode Island Historical Society,. It will also attempt to sort out some of the perplexing issues surrounding the story of Rowland's therapy with Carl Jung in 1931, because materials contained in that same archival source make it clear that he was only in Europe from June to September of that year as part of a Hazard family trip, and that the dates and places given in the family's letters from that period would have given Rowland two months at most to spend in Switzerland with Jung. In fact, as will be seen, even that may be pressing the matter: Rick Stattler at the Rhode Island Historical Society, who did the primary research, sorting through all the family papers searching for relevant items, has stated that he believes that Rowland would have found it very difficult to have spent more than two weeks at most talking to Jung in any great depth during that trip to Europe. Rowland Hazard III Rowland Hazard III was born in Peace Dale, Rhode Island, on October 29, 1881. (Bill Wilson was born in 1895 and Dr. Bob Smith in 1879, so he was closer to Dr. Bob's age, and fourteen years older than Bill W., who likely seemed to him but a brash young man.) Rowland ("Roy") represented the tenth generation of his family in Rhode Island. The first American Hazard, Thomas, was born in 1610; he came over to the New World after the British had begun settling in Massachusetts, taking up his residence first in Boston, then the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Roy was the eldest of five children born to woolen manufacturer Rowland Gibson Hazard and Mary Pierrepont Bushnell. Hazard graduated from the Taft School in Waterbury, Connecticut, and Yale University (1903) with a B.A. degree. He sang in the Glee Club and University Choir and was a member of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity as well as the Elihu Club. After graduation Hazard worked at family businesses in Chicago and Syracuse briefly, then entered the woolen textile trade in Rhode Island, where he joined the Peace Dale Manufacturing Company, which specialized in woolen and worsted fabrics. The firm had been founded circa 1801 by his great-great-grandfather and his great-grand-uncle, Rowland Hazard and Joseph Peace Hazard respectively. He began work in the wool-sorting department and worked his way up, eventually being elected treasurer of the firm. The firm was sold in 1918. Hazard served in the Rhode Island state senate between 1914 and 1916 and spent World War I as a captain in the Chemical Warfare Service of the Army. Shortly after the war a number of family deaths left Hazard the eldest member of his generation. In 1919 he effected a plan originally formulated by his father and uncle and formed the Allied Chemical and Dye Company. By 1920 he was a director and so remained throughout his career. By 1921 Hazard had also joined the New York banking firm of Lee, Higginson and Company and remained there until 1927. Throughout this period he remained active in Rhode Island politics. In the fall of 1927, Hazard went on a hunting expedition to Africa for big game and specimens for American museums. He contracted a tropical illness, and on his return to the United States in 1928 settled on the West Coast. He established a ranch in southern New Mexico, at La Luz, and shortly organized the La Luz Clay Products Company. He had discovered substantial deposits of high-grade clay for the manufacture of items ranging from roofing tiles to decorative urns and vases. Upon establishing La Luz, he returned to the East Coast to pursue other ventures. By 1931 he had transferred his residence from Peace Dale, Rhode Island, to a family home in Narragansett, Rhode Island, originally built in 1884 by his great-grand-uncle, Joseph Peace Hazard, and known as Druid's Dream. "He also kept residences intermittently at 52nd Street and other addresses in Manhattan; in La Luz, New Mexico; at 'Ladyhill' in Shaftsbury, Vermont; and at 'Sugarbush' in Glastonbury, Vermont." In his later years, following his move to Narragansett, Hazard served as the executive vice president of the Bristol Manufacturing Company, Waterbury, Connecticut, manufacturers of precision instruments. He also served as a director of the Allied Chemical and Dye Company, the Rhode Island Hospital Trust Company, and the Interlake Iron Company. From 1935 to 1938 he was in a general partnership with the New York brokerage house of Taylor Robinson Company, Inc. At one point he was director of the old Merchants' Bank in Providence. In 1910 Hazard married Helen Hamilton Campbell, the daughter of a Chicago banker. The couple were divorced on February 25, 1929, and remarried on April 27, 1931, little more than a month before the trip to Europe during which Hazard was supposed to have had his crucial encounter with Carl Jung. Rowland and Helen had four children, Caroline C., Rowland G. III, Peter Hamilton, and Charles B. Of these four, it was Charles who lived the longest, dying in 1995. Rowland Hazard III remains somewhat of a mystery, cloaked in a silence that was partly a feature of his times and his class, but a silence that was especially impenetrable because he left behind almost no extant letters of his own. We have to read about his life for the most part through the letters of other family members. In addition, much of the information concerning Hazard's relationship with early A.A. is anecdotal, very little of it documented. On the surface, Hazard's life is mirrored effectively in the descriptions of some of the characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel *The Great Gatsby*, though Hazard was more like one of the East Egg crowd, the established wealthy class, than the upstart Jay Gatsby himself. When Fitzgerald (in a remark to Ernest Hemingway) spoke of the very rich as being different from you and me, he might have been speaking of the Hazard family and Rowland. Hazard moved from place to place with apparent ease, tried his hand in this business and adventure and then that. His success was seemingly always assured, his position never tangibly threatened. His alcoholism was spoken of in hushed terms, if mentioned at all. The information about exactly where he was and when during his trips to Europe or Africa is vague and not well documented. And this has bearing on the claim that has been long accepted: that Hazard met with Carl Jung and was in therapy with him for an extensive period of time ("over a year" in the version frequently seen in the later A.A. tradition). Since Rowland's own letters are no longer in existence, the correspondence between his mother and his brother, Thomas Pierre Hazard, provide the bulk of what we do know about "Roy," but they do not ever mention him going to Jung for psychiatric treatment. This may have been a matter which he did not fully share with his mother and brother, or they may have avoided talking about it in their letters out of embarrassment that a member of a family so solid and distinguished as theirs would need a psychiatrist. But these letters do provide enough information about where Rowland was during the period from 1930 to 1934 to make it clear that the only opportunity he would have had to see the Swiss psychiatrist Jung in Zurich in any kind of extensive fashion was for a couple of months in 1931. Hazard clearly struggled with alcoholism throughout his life, even though mentions of it in the letters are scant. It embarrassed the family and it made them uncomfortable to acknowledge his drinking problem even to other family members. We do know that he eventually became acquainted with Ebby Thatcher, a friend of Bill Wilson's from their days as classmates at the Burr and Burton boarding school. And we know that Hazard's connection to A.A., that is, to Bill W., came through his meeting Ebby and helping rescue him from commitment to an asylum in August 1934. Hazard and Courtenay Baylor Whatever his relationship to Jung -- an issue which will be discussed in more detail later in this chapter -- Rowland Hazard had considerable involvement with Courtenay Baylor, establishing a direct link between the Emanuel Movement and the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous. The documentation of Hazard's treatment by Baylor is contained in the list of Hazard family documents prepared by Rick Stattler. The relationship between Hazard and Baylor, though provable, is lacking in detail: ample evidence at the Rhode Island Historical Society documents that Hazard was a client or patient of Baylor during 1933 and 1934. The Hazard family papers also show that after January 1933, Rowland went through a long period when he was virtually incapacitated by his personal problems. He ceased being actively involved in the ventures he had begun in New Mexico, and his brother-in-law Wallace Campbell had to take over all his regular business. Rowland's canceled checks showed only routine payments (although they were still signed by him) for many months afterward. Finally in late 1933 he completely stopped writing any checks at all. During most or all of this period, he seems to have been in Vermont under the care of Courtenay Baylor, and only occasionally made trips to New York to see family and sign checks. He was unable to return to his normal high level of activity until October 1934. So the period when Hazard was Courtenay Baylor's patient corresponded to the deepest slump in his life, the time between January 1933 and October 1934, when this normally aggressive and continuously active businessman, industrialist, and entrepreneur seems to have been rendered almost totally nonfunctional by his psychological and alcohol-related problems. Baylor may in fact have been first called in when Hazard was hospitalized for his alcoholism in February and March of 1932, but this would be merely supposition. We do know that Baylor visited the family and worked in some fashion with other family members also during 1933 and 1934. But the lack of full detail means that though we know that their continuing relationship existed during this period, we know little else about it. The available documents thus do not allow us to discover whether Hazard's enthusiasm for the Oxford Group was aided by his work with Baylor or diminished by it. We do know that Hazard did not remain sober throughout his life, and did drink again after 1934. The first mention of Baylor in the surviving family documents occurs in a list of acquaintances compiled by Hazard on April 13, 1933. Hazard was attempting to sell maple syrup from his farm in Vermont and a "C. Baylor" is listed. According to Stattler's notes, Baylor responded but did not order syrup. The next reference to Baylor occurs on July 24, 1933, when his mother writes to Thomas Hazard from Vermont: "Mr. Baylor just arrived. Am to have a talk with him today, Roy goes to N.Y. and Baylor will go to Burlington tonight and come back here tomorrow." The first therapeutic contact, as mentioned previously, may of course have arisen much earlier, and may have been related to Hazard's hospitalization for alcoholism in February and March 1932. Perhaps the severity of that episode triggered a serious recovery effort on Rowland's part, or caused his family to call in Baylor for an intervention. But this must be conjecture. And it is also possible that Baylor may not have become involved in trying to help until after Rowland's further breakdown in January 1933. Of the fourteen letters in the RIHS material pertaining to Baylor, most concern bills from him paid by Thomas Hazard. As Stattler summarizes, "It collectively indicates that Hazard hired Baylor from at least December 15, 1933 to October 16, 1934 for unspecified services" There is also reference to the fact that Baylor worked with the entire family, not simply on a personal basis with Hazard alone. In one letter (November 20, 1934), Thomas Hazard wrote: "Inasmuch as throughout 1933 and 1934 you were working with Helen, Carol and Rowley as well as Roy, it seemed to me that it would be proper to estimate that one-third of your remuneration could be considered as a gift to my brother." Baylor seemed to have become rather a part of the family in some ways. While brother Thomas was signing checks, he was also a potential business partner, or so it seemed in Baylor's eyes. On Feb. 2, 1934, Baylor sent Thomas Hazard a long letter detailing the opportunity to buy into a Nevada gold and silver mine. Baylor referred to the deal as one which he believed to be as "clean a proposition as could be found in mining." Thomas checked this out with business friends who advised him against the deal. On February 13, Thomas's secretary curtly informed Baylor that "Mr. T. P. Hazard has directed me to advise you that all the individuals have been heard from, in connection with your letter, and are not in favor of going into the venture." The letter concludes with a reference to an Internal Revenue tax matter covering payments to Baylor by Hazard's mother. The RIHS packet of Hazard-Baylor letters concludes with a rare document of Emmanuel Movement history. In 1949 a letter was written to Thomas Hazard at Peace Dale, the family home, by the Courtenay Baylor Memorial Committee, so indicated by the letterhead. The letter is a request for donations for a memorial to Baylor, consisting of lighting fixtures at the entrance of the Parish House of the Emmanuel Church. They were to be wrought-iron lanterns, "one to be fixed to the outside of the Parish House entrance, and the other to be placed inside the entrance porch. A dedicatory inscription will be carved into the stone wall of the porch." The author of the letter preceded this description with the comment that "the idea [of the lighting] is a particularly happy one as it is symbolic of the light shed by him on the paths of so many people." The bills from Baylor to Hazard document the continued existence of the Emmanuel Movement, renamed the Craigie Foundation, as manifested in Baylor's work. The full nature of the foundation's activities during this time are not easy to document. The bills do not explicitly specify that Baylor was paid this money for treating Hazard for his alcoholism, but it is difficult to see anything else Baylor could have provided them for which payments of this sort would be due. Baylor knew that a person had to rethink and reformulate himself, that is, "remake himself," if he were to escape from alcoholism. Attempting to bring this message to a person of Rowland Hazard's stature and accomplishments could only have been a vexing task. Just how Baylor related to the rest of the Hazard family raises questions the surviving documents cannot answer. Baylor believed "every alcoholic came from what might be called an alcoholic or neurotic atmosphere" and that "we can hardly expect a patient to become or stay cured if he must remain in an environment which has in all probability contributed to his own abnormal nervous condition. This environment must in its turn be 'cured.'" So in terms of Baylor's normal methodological assumptions, it would make sense if, in the process of attempting to treat Rowland for his alcoholism, he also made some efforts to change the way the other members of his family interacted with one another. Nevertheless, given the accomplishments and self-confidence of the Hazard family as evidenced by their letters to one another, it is difficult to believe that Baylor would have remained a popular guest if he had pushed too hard on the other members of the family to change their ways also. Hazard's mother in particular does not appear to be the type of person who would take kindly to the suggestion that she too needed to be cured. Hazard was also participating in the Oxford Group during this same period. The earliest reference in the Rhode Island Historical Society collection is a letter from Thomas P. Hazard to his mother in February of 1934 which refers to Rowland as being a member of the Oxford Group, but he could in fact have joined them much earlier. Whether from his therapy with Courtenay Baylor or his participation in the Oxford Group (or both combined), Rowland Hazard was ultimately apparently able to achieve at least significant periods of continuous sobriety; whether he achieved real serenity and happiness we cannot know. A linked chain did however exist, starting with the Rev. Elwood Worcester at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Boston, and linking him to Courtenay Baylor, who in turn worked with Rowland Hazard during the years 1933 and 1934. Hazard in turn was linked, through Ebby Thatcher, to Bill Wilson at the decisive moment at the beginning of the A.A. movement. Hazard also knew the people at Calvary Church in New York, where Bill W. started going in 1934 for further spiritual help with his alcoholism. So he definitely moved in the same orbits as the early members of A.A. and was present during the time period when Bill W. was first getting sober. How and to what degree Hazard influenced events must remain more conjectural, beyond a few bare bones facts such as his major role in helping to rescue Ebby Thatcher and get him sober in August 1934. Nevertheless A.A. historians must take seriously not only his continual and important presence behind the scenes during that key period, but also the possible ways that he could have been of major influence. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1822. . . . . . . . . . . . Richard Dubiel on Rowland Hazard (Part 2 of 2) From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/18/2004 5:27:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ROWLAND HAZARD Part 2 of 2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NOTE BY GLENN C. (South Bend, Indiana) -- Excerpted from Richard M. Dubiel, *The Road to Fellowship: The Role of the Emmanuel Movement and the Jacoby Club in the Development of Alcoholics Anonymous,* Hindsfoot Foundation Series on the History of Alcoholism Treatment (New York: iUniverse, 2004), Chapter 4, "Rowland Hazard and the Beginnings of A.A." See http://hindsfoot.org for more details. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hazard and Jung Ernest Kurtz's definitive history of A.A. regards Hazard as instrumental in one of the four founding moments of Alcoholics Anonymous, the point where Bill W. learned from Ebby Thatcher about what Carl Jung was supposed to have told Hazard, that is, that alcoholics could not recover without some sort of spiritual conversion. Bill W. interpreted this kind of conversion experience as necessarily involving a major ego deflation. "One-half of the core idea -- the necessity of spiritual conversion -- had passed from Dr. Carl Jung to Rowland. Clothed in Oxford Group practice it had given rise to its yet separate other half -- the simultaneous transmission of deflation and hope by "one alcoholic talking to another" -- in the first meeting between Bill and Ebby." Kurtz quotes Bill W.'s own words on this issue (where the "Oxford Group friend" is of course Rowland Hazard): "Deflation at depth, yes that was it. Exactly that had happened to me. Dr. Carl Jung had told an Oxford Group friend of Ebby's how hopeless his alcoholism was and Dr. Silkworth had passed the same sentence upon me. Then Ebby [Thatcher], also an alcoholic, had handed me the identical dose." Carl Jung (along with the American psychologist William James) was frequently cited by Bill W. and the early A.A.s as a way of legitimizing their emphasis on the spiritual dimension of recovery. For James, religion embodied a perfectly valid kind of experience, one that could be studied and said to have its own objective reality. It could be demonstrated that certain kinds of religious experiences could produce extraordinary life changes. For Jung, religion was a way of expressing in symbolic fashion certain key components within the human psyche, using archetypal images which were part of the makeup of all human minds at the unconscious level. This material had to become integrated at the conscious level, he stated, to produce full mental health. Conventional psychiatry by itself could not bring freedom from the alcoholic compulsion to a certain type of chronic alcoholic, as Bill W. had heard the story of what Jung told Hazard. So as Bill interpreted what he believed to be Jung's opinion, he saw this at first as a decree of hopelessness just as severe as the one imposed on him by his own American psychiatrist William D. Silkworth. The psychiatrists, even the best in the world, could not help a certain kind of chronic alcoholic by conventional psychiatry. But Jung had said to Hazard, according to the story Bill had been told, that a real spiritual conversion could provide the power to stop drinking. So conversion then became the only hope. This necessity of conversion became a key ingredient in the formation of A.A. For the history of A.A., the connection with the ideas of Carl Jung was extremely important in this way, and in a variety of other ways also. Kurtz goes into considerable depth on this matter, including long discussions of the way Bill W. regarded Jung (and William James too) and appropriated their material. All these observations remain valid. Carl Jung stated in a letter to Bill W. many years later that the A.A. understanding of his theory of alcoholism was in fact correct, and those who have studied Jungian psychiatry can easily see how that understanding fits smoothly into his overall theoretical structure. Jung praised the A.A. movement in that letter and indicated that he wholeheartedly approved of their approach. But the fact is that there was at the very least a considerable exaggeration of the length and depth of Rowland Hazard's contact with Carl Jung in Switzerland. Part of the Hazard-Jung story, as recounted in later A.A. sources, was clearly more legend than historical reality. The Traditional Account of Hazard's Therapy with Carl Jung and Its Influence on A.A. The official story regarding Hazard goes something like this, as stated by Bill's early biographer Thomsen and quoted by later A.A. historians. The story begins with the assertion that Hazard "wound up in Zurich, a patient of Carl Jung," and that he worked with him in therapy of some sort for "over a year." This was supposed to have happened in 1931. Hazard apparently thought that he had seen the depths of his unconscious and understood himself to the extent that he could rest easily in a sober life. According to the basic Bill W. biography, Hazard then left Zurich but soon found himself drunk once again. He returned to Zurich and once more sought the counsel of Jung. At this time the psychologist told Hazard that he was hopeless in his alcoholism, insofar as conventional psychiatry was concerned, and that religious conversion seemed the one hope for such cases. After this second meeting, Hazard is said to have discovered the Oxford Group and to have begun to flourish in the program it provided. Hazard then came to Ebby Thatcher's rescue in August 1934 when Thatcher was threatened with commitment to the Brattleboro Asylum. The intervention of Hazard, along with Cebra G. and another Oxford Group member, Shep C., was apparently fortuitous. The three members happened to be vacationing at a summer home near Bennington when they heard of the impending commitment. So they decided there on the spot to make Thatcher a "project." After his rescue, Thatcher took to the program of the Oxford Group with a good deal of enthusiasm. Their zeal and evangelical fervor appealed to him, granting him an extended period of sobriety. Three months after the Oxford Group people had saved him from the insane asylum, he passed the message on to Bill W. in the latter's kitchen in November 1934. The standard A.A. tradition regards this as the context in which Ebby told Bill W. the story about Rowland Hazard and Carl Jung. And then, according to the time-honored story, the account of what Jung had told Hazard continued to sit and ferment in Bill W.'s mind, and was one of the more important things that Bill learned from Ebby in that meeting in his kitchen in November 1934. The importance of Jung to Bill W. is not in doubt. But the detailed account given for many years by A.A. people of Rowland Hazard's activities from 1931 to 1934 clearly contained some legendary elements. Hazard could not conceivably have seen Jung for more than two months, perhaps less, in 1931. There is no evidence in the Hazard family papers that he joined the Oxford Group at that point. In fact, the earliest documentary evidence of him being a member did not appear until February 1934, six months before he helped rescue Ebby Thatcher from the asylum. Although this does not mean that he could not have joined the Oxford Groupers much earlier, all our evidence so far of any deeply committed involvement on his part in that group's activities comes from 1934. Furthermore, we have now considerable evidence of Hazard's contact with the Emmanuel Group author Courtenay Baylor during 1933 and 1934, presumably as Baylor's patient, which is a key factor which was left out of the traditional A.A. legend. So to understand the actual role which Rowland Hazard may have played in the development of early A.A., it will be necessary to go beyond the legend and see what the Hazard family papers reveal of what may or may not have actually happened. The Problems with the Traditional Account of the Hazard-Jung Contact Two scholars, Rick Stattler and William L. White, have recently investigated Hazard's role in the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous, in part by examining materials at the Rhode Island Historical Society (RIHS) in Providence. This author likewise examined selected Hazard material at the RIHS, focusing largely on Hazard's connection with the Emmanuel Movement, but also reading materials discovered by Stattler which might pertain to the Carl Jung question. Scholars must be warned that the nature of these papers means that many important questions still cannot be answered. They give us evidence which is in many ways partial and sometimes frustrating. In recent correspondence with the author, Rhode Island Historical Society Manuscripts Curator Rick Stattler summarized the findings of a 1998 research project which endeavored to document Hazard's whereabouts during the period 1930-1934. Stattler's scholarship as summed up in this letter and seen in an accompanying six-page document list (1930-1934) is thorough and germane to the subject at hand: Hazard's involvement with Courtenay Baylor. Stattler himself best summarizes his main point: "I can state with confidence that Rowland Hazard did not undergo any counseling in Zurich for more than a couple of months between 1930 and 1934. I can also state that the records examined, which are very suggestive on other matters, do not so much as hint at any treatment by Dr. Jung, at least not as I have interpreted them." The Stattler letter is accompanied by a document list, an annotated list of letters from the Hazard Family Papers between 1930-1934. The letters either place Hazard in a specific locale or refer in some way to his alcoholism. The letters verifying his 1931 trip to Europe also substantiate Stattler's claim that "there is no way he could have spent an extended period in Europe between 1930 and early 1933; he was intimately involved in several business ventures in New York and New Mexico." When he did visit Europe from June to September of 1931 he was with his wife and children. Stattler adds: "it seems very unlikely that he could have spent more than a couple of weeks in Zurich." This author examined the letters on Stattler's document list and can attest to the reasonableness of Stattler's conclusions. The letters during the 1931 trip do in fact give the feel of a family adventure. In one such letter Hazard's mother, Mary, writes to his brother Thomas from Florence, Italy, wondering if Roy (Rowland) won't bring her LaSalle automobile over when he arrives so she can take it to England. When the itinerary is discussed in several places, a familial feeling pervades, at least in the heart of the mother. There is an expectation that all the family members will be in contact and will meet at some point Examining the family correspondence, however, still leaves a few mysteries during the overall period that ran from 1930 to 1934. In a March 9, 1930, letter to Thomas, the mother asserts: "I think Roy has had a spiritual awakening which makes him ready to do anything which he feels incumbent upon him. That is why I think those about him should try to prevent a sacrifice which is not to the best good of all." She recognizes his vulnerability at this point, particularly with regard to his ex-wife At that time he would have been considering remarriage to Helen after their divorce a year earlier. The point is that this spiritual awakening would have been in advance of meeting Dr. Jung or being introduced to the Oxford Group or any contact that we know of between him and Courtenay Baylor. What was this awakening? At this point we do not know. A second mystery surfaces in letters written on February 3, 5, and 13 of 1933, in which his mother mentions Roy's "successes" with a "patient" and later refers to other "patients," presumably while he was in Vermont. The "patient" could not have been Thatcher at this point, since Hazard and Cebra did not carry out their intervention with him until August 1934. Was Hazard attempting to be like Baylor, emulating his own doctor and trying to take on patients himself as a lay psychotherapist? This would be interesting in itself since the first actual documentation on any connection between Hazard and Baylor does not occur until December 15, 1933, ten months later. But as has been noted, there is the possibility that Baylor may have first been called in when Hazard was hospitalized for his alcoholism in February and March of 1932, so his apparent attempts to play lay psychotherapist in early 1933 could have occurred under Baylor's influence. There are no other mentions of this practice in the collections, so the references to Hazard having "patients" of his own in early 1933 remain a mystery. It is important to note that these investigations do not conclude that Hazard had no contact with Jung. It is possible that the two had a brief encounter, and that it was of such a force that the meeting turned into a legend which, in the retelling, was expanded into the tale of a course of extensive psychotherapy that soon encompassed a full year or more. The news from Jung that so impressed Bill Wilson might also have affected Hazard in a similar manner; such is the nature of "good news." Apostles, stricken as they are with the revelatory nature of the message, are more interested in passing the message along than in documenting times and dates. And so it may have been with Hazard and Jung. A cynical interpreter would also note that alcoholics tend by their nature to exaggerate and boast and inflate the stories which they tell. Such is the nature of the disease. The Correspondence between Bill W. and Carl Jung On January 23, 1961, Bill Wilson wrote a letter to Carl Jung referring to the psychiatrist's encounter with Rowland Hazard thirty years earlier, and on January 30, 1961 Jung wrote him back [*"Pass It On" The Story of Bill Wilson and How the A.A. Message Reached the World* (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1984), 381-6]. Jung said that he remembered working with Hazard, and that Bill's account of what he told Rowland at that time was "adequately reported" and completely correct. [In recent correspondence with the author, Glenn F. Chesnut, Indiana University South Bend, noted:] Jung's letter also gives the only perhaps potentially deep insight we could possess into Hazard's personality and character. The psychiatrist seemed, on the basis of his remarks in his letter to Bill W., to have had other experience in trying to work with alcoholics, and made the interesting observation in that letter that the kind of spiritual conversion he was referring to when he spoke to Hazard could take one of three forms. It could be produced by "an act of grace," but Hazard, the hardheaded businessman, apparently had too many mental blocks in place to ever allow himself to have anything like the vision of divine light, for example, which Bill W. experienced in the Charles B. Towns Hospital not long after his meeting in the kitchen with Ebby Thatcher, or any equivalent to that sort of spiritual experience. Conversion could also be produced, Jung said in his letter to Bill W., "through a higher education of the mind beyond the confines of mere rationalism," but the pragmatic industrialist and banker Hazard did not seem to have had any ability to explore the Jungian interpretation of religious ritual and art in a way which would involve the deeper feeling levels. Hazard's mind apparently was too prosaic for that. But a spiritual remaking could also be produced, Jung commented, "through a personal and honest contact with friends," that is, through joining in a fellowship of people who were attempting to lead the spiritual life and then becoming totally immersed in the activities of that group. And on the basis of what Bill W. had reported in his letter, Jung said that he believed that Rowland had chosen that way, "which was, under the circumstances, obviously the best one." Fellowship among recovering people -- that vital part of both the Emmanuel Movement method and the Oxford Group's practices -- had been the only one of these threes routes through which a man like Rowland Hazard could be reached and freed from his alcoholic compulsion. The Rhode Island Historical Society material requires us to regard part of the later A.A. account of the meeting between Rowland Hazard and Carl Jung as legendary expansion. Whatever specific conclusion a reader of those documents might reach, their contents cannot be simply ignored. Yet we also have this 1961 letter from Carl Jung affirming that he had in fact had some sort of significant contact with Hazard thirty years earlier, and that the A.A. account of what he had told the Rhode Island businessman at that time was substantially correct. And it seems unquestionably the fact that Jung came into the thinking of the A.A. founders in 1934, and exerted a profound influence on their ideas during the years following. Additional Emmanuel Movement Influence on A.A.: the Emphasis on Fellowship Hazard's later years seem to have been prosperous enough, although he never did join Alcoholics Anonymous. In 1936 he became a member of the Episcopal Church and remained active in several of its organizations. Throughout the latter part of his troubled life, Hazard relied on the fellowship of the Oxford Group (including activities such as his work with Ebby Thatcher in 1934) to aid and comfort him in his struggle with alcohol. It was fellowship that helped him even toward the end of his life, when he was being returned to New York after his 1936 binge. The comment Carl Jung made in his letter to Bill W. seems to have been correct, that a saving encounter with the healing quality of the spiritual life could in fact be brought about "through a personal and honest contact with friends," and that this route had been "obviously the best one" for someone of Rowland Hazard's personality. It was fellowship between recovering people that was a vital part of the approach which the Emmanuel Movement and its offshoot, the Jacoby Club, began developing in 1906-1909. We do not know whether Courtenay Baylor was one of the people who was encouraging Hazard to participate in the activities of the Oxford Group in 1934, but since Hazard lived at a great distance from Boston where Emmanuel Episcopal Church and the Jacoby Club were located, the Oxford Group could have appeared to Baylor as a useful alternative to suggest to the businessman. Fellowship with recovering alcoholics was also one of the most important features of the A.A. method of freeing people from the compulsion to drink. There have been voices to the contrary: Linda Mercadante, in her book *Victims and Sinners*, claims that the original intention of A.A.'s founders was to have the Big Book the central point of recovery. She insists that "meeting attendance was not seen as 'vital to sobriety.'" In her analysis, the rise of meetings was accidental, more or less an afterthought that later took over the very character of the movement. This seems a very strained interpretation. While it is true that the Big Book was seen as the central point, capable of evoking reverence both then and now, this does not diminish that fact that fellowship, the idea of one drunk helping another, sprang forth almost immediately as one of the key ingredients in the movement. A person cannot get sober alone: this became an axiomatic and vital A.A. tenet. Fellowship became indistinguishable from the movement itself. This was a situation in which one could not tell the dancer from the dance. Rowland Hazard's own personal experiences made the importance of fellowship clear to the early A.A. people who knew him. And he was a patient of Courtenay Baylor, who came out of the fellowship-oriented Emmanuel Movement tradition. Rowland himself was very active in 1934 in the Oxford Group, which was a strongly fellowship-based spiritual program, and as a result of this, seems to have recovered from his almost two-year total breakdown and returned to his normal business activities by October of that year. Although Hazard did not get along with Bill Wilson and the other early A.A.s, never joined an A.A. group, and may not have even liked its program, the fact is that he knew from personal experience the power of the fellowship he had seen, felt, and witnessed in other contexts. And he must have had some sort of influence on early A.A.s who knew about him, whether at first or second hand. Could one imagine that some small portion of the power of the early Emmanuel meetings, held by Elwood Worcester in the church basement in Boston back at the beginning of the century, was somehow carried through time and was conveyed to Hazard by Courtenay Baylor when he ministered to and influenced him in 1933 and 1934? We cannot know. But it is clear that behind Ebby Thatcher, the messenger who brought the word of salvation to Bill Wilson in the kitchen of Bill's apartment in November 1934, lay the figure of Rowland Hazard III, the mysterious messenger behind the messenger. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NOTE BY GLENN C. (South Bend, Indiana) -- Prof. Dubiel backs up his account with a set of detailed endnotes, which have been omitted from this brief excerpt from his book, except for one of the notes, which is important to cite. There he talks about the actual dates of Rowland Hazard's involvement in the Oxford Group, as nearly as we can reconstruct this: "Rowland's membership and active participation in the Oxford Group is well-documented in family correspondence. See the letter from Mary P. B. Hazard to Thomas P. Hazard dated 25 February 1934 in the Thomas P. Hazard Papers; and the letters from Thomas P. Hazard to Mary P. B. Hazard dated 14 February and 28 March 1934 in the Rowland G. Hazard II Papers, both in the Manuscripts Collection, RIHS." What is especially important to observe in this set of dates is that there is no indication that Rowland Hazard joined the Oxford Group immediately after talking with Carl Jung in 1931. Or at any rate, references to his involvement in the Oxford Group do not appear in any documents now known until almost three years later. The later statements by various A.A. members purporting to show that Rowland saw the light and joined the Oxford Group within a few days or weeks after seeing Jung and never drank again (often accompanied by what looks like an amazing amount of detail) seem to be on the whole totally legendary. In fact, the later A.A. oral traditions about Rowland Hazard, for some unknown reason, seem to show more in the way of free-floating creative imagination and pure invention than almost any other part of early A.A. history! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SELECTED REFERENCES FROM PROF. DUBIEL'S ENDNOTES Winfield Scott Downs, *Men of New England*, vol. 4 (New York: American Historical Co., 1947). "Rowland Hazard Dead in 65th Year," *Providence Journal*, 21 December 1945. Steve Dalpe and Rick Stattler, "A Guide to the Rowland Hazard III Papers," Rhode Island Historical Society, 1999. Letter from Rick Stattler (Rhode Island Historical Society Manuscripts Curator) to Richard M. Dubiel, 8 September 2003. Courtenay Baylor, *Remaking a Man: One Successful Method of Mental Refitting* (New York: Moffat, Yard, 1919). Ernest Kurtz, *Not-God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous* (Center City, MN: Hazelden, 1979). *Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age* (New York: A.A. Publishing, Inc., 1957). R. Thomsen, Bill W. (New York: Harper & Row, 1975). *"Pass It On" The Story of Bill Wilson and How the A.A. Message Reached the World* (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1984). Letter from Glenn F Chesnut, Professor of History, Indiana University (South Bend), to Richard M. Dubiel, 17 October 2003. Linda A. Mercadante, *Victims and Sinners: Spiritual Roots of Addiction and Recovery* (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1996). IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1823. . . . . . . . . . . . More on Fitz M From: jlobdell54 . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/19/2004 5:32:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Just a reminder that Fitz was also a founder (present at the first regular meeting) in Eastern PA, and in North Jersey, as well as MD and DC. Also, I'm told, through Oscar V., the line in Kansas City and CO (and probably other places too) also goes back to Fitz. You might be interested to know that there is evidence his family called him Hugh -- but we'll cover some of that at our panel in Eastern PA (Elizabethtown) June 5. -- Jared IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1824. . . . . . . . . . . . Capt. Jim Baxter dead at 79 From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/22/2004 10:25:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The following obituary appeared today: James A. Baxter, New Bern, North Carolina Saturday, May. 22, 2004 ©The Virginian-Pilot James Arthur "Jim" Baxter, 79, died May 21, 2004, at his home. Born Sept. 30, 1924, in Van Buren, Ark., he was the son of the late William Arthur Baxter and Waisie Johnson Baxter. Jim was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Class of 1947, serving his country for 28 years as a naval officer, attaining the rank of captain. During his military career, he commanded the USS Waldron and the USS Dahlgren, as well as serving as Naval Attache in Warsaw, Poland. Jim founded, organized and served as director for the Navy's Alcoholism Prevention Program, for which he was awarded the Legion of Merit. After retiring from active duty, he continued his fight against alcoholism by serving in the allied field of Employee Assistance Programs, as executive director of ALMACA, the national professional organization for those in the employee assistance field. Jim is survived by his soul mate and wife, Karen; as well as three daughters, Christine B. Philput, Ph.D., Winchenden, Mass. and her husband Donald, Mary R. "Molly" Baxter and Elizabeth L. Baxter, both of Virginia Beach; two stepsons, Clifton T. Hopper of Moorestown, N.J. and his wife Barbara and Whitney Hopper of Overland Park, Kan. and his wife Pamela; and five grandchildren including his namesake, James Philput and his wife Miranda, Katherine Baxter, Ashley Hopper, Alexis Hopper and Brennan Hopper. A memorial service will be held Sunday at 5 p.m. at Cotten Funeral Home with full military honors. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made in memory of Jim to Craven County Health Department Home-Health Hospice. The following is an excerpt from my book "With a Lot of Help From Our Friends: the Politics of Alcoholism" in which I discuss Jim's role: "In late 1970 we held our first hearings specifically on drug abuse and alcoholism in the military. We decided to have a panel of recovered alcoholics who had suffered from alcoholism while in the military. So on December 3 this panel testified in such a way that we could preserve their anonymity. Julien Granger had met a young Army non-commissioned officer, Jim S., who had worked â€" drunk â€" on nuclear warheads. I also invited Jim B., from the Navy, and Hal M. a retired Air Force Colonel. Both Jim and Hal had held highly sensitive intelligence positions during their military service and while they were still drinking. "When I telephoned Jim and Hal and asked them to testify, they agreed without hesitation. Hal told me later that he had told his boss at the State Department that he was going to testify. It was the first time he had told her that he was as recovered alcoholic. She was very understanding. "Jim had more of a problem with his superiors. Not long after I invited them to testify, I received a call from the Pentagon. 'I understand that you have invited [Jim B.] to testify before the subcommittee. Of course, this was done informally â€" you didn't go through Navy channels â€" so I have no official role here. But I wanted you to know that we believe he would be much more comfortable about testifying if he could testify in civilian clothes instead of in uniform.' "'Of course,' I replied in as sweet a manner as I could muster, 'we want the Captain to be as comfortable as possible so he may wear whatever he chooses.' "Later that day I got a call from Jim. 'Nancy,' he said, 'I got a call from the Pentagon. They are not too happy about my testifying and told me that they want me to wear civilian clothes. Do you want me in uniform?' "'Well, Jim,' I replied, 'we certainly want you to feel comfortable.' I then told him of the call I'd had from the Pentagon. 'But if you'd feel just as comfortable in uniform we sure would like to have you in uniform.' "'Gotcha, kid,' he replied. He showed up for the hearing in uniform. "When this panel was called to testify Hughes made the usual announcement that they were testifying anonymously and there would be no pictures allowed which showed their faces. 'It's O.K. to shoot the back of their heads' he added, 'but not their faces.' As they were testifying, one of the TV network reporters approached me and whispered, 'We'd like to bring the cameras up to the side to get a picture of their hands. We will not shoot their faces.' I told him it would be O.K. "I was puzzled about why they would want a shot of the witnesses' hands, but my curiosity was satisfied when I watched the TV news that evening. True to their word they showed no pictures of the faces. But there was a wonderful shot of Jim's sleeve showing the gold braid of his Captain's rank. I suspect there was apoplexy at the Pentagon. "... "At one point the Senator mentioned to the panel that people often think of alcoholics as skid row bums. 'Do you feel like bums?' he asked. Jim B. responded by raising his arm to show the gold braid. "A few months later, Jim telephoned me. 'I heard a rumor that the Navy has found a recovered Captain whom they are going to name to head the Navy's alcoholism program. Do you know who it is? I'd like to contact him and ask him for a job.' 'Jim, you're the only recovered Captain I am aware of; it's probably you.' "'Oh, no,' he said, 'I'd certainly know if it were me. It's someone else.' Well, my hunch was right. On August 22, 1971, he was installed as the first Director of the Navy Alcohol Abuse Control Program. It grew rapidly in size and effectiveness under Jim's able leadership and in January 1972, the Alcohol Rehabilitation Center in Norfolk, Virginia, was commissioned. Other centers were soon opened in Great Lakes, Illinois; San Diego, California; and Jacksonville, Florida, all patterned after Zuska's Long Beach facility. Smaller units were opened in a total of fourteen Naval Hospitals, and Alcoholic Rehabilitation "Drydocks" were planned as outpatient resources at strategic locations all over the world. "... "It seems that all the recovered naval officers still on active duty got assigned to the Navy's alcoholism program. This was not surprising because there was really nowhere else they could go in the Navy. As Jim told the Subcommittee: 'Due to the lack of understanding by many people in the service, once an alcoholic has been openly identified he can be sober indefinitely but that man's career is pretty much down the drain. Right now in some particular areas, I am unassignable as far as the service is concerned, because they will not put somebody with a history of alcoholism into a number of different jobs. This, I feel, is unfortunate because I certainly feel that I am more competent now than I was two or three years ago when I was commanding officer of a ship â€" certainly more reliable, if not more competent.'". IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1825. . . . . . . . . . . . Oscar V From: jlobdell54 . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/23/2004 12:22:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I'm looking for any information on Oscar Vieths, listed by Richard K among the first forty members of AA, with an indication he did not stay sober. Thomsen's BILL W gives him as from an old St Louis family, and a recent conversation with a Regional Trustee (Gary K) suggests that Oscar did in fact stay sober and was fundamental in establishing AA in Kansas City and from that in the founding of AA in Colorado. The only Oscar Vieths I have found in St Louis was born in 1874, son of Claus Vieths (1843-1896). If anyone can give me any information on our Oscar V I would very much appreciate it. -- Jared lobdell IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1826. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Oscar V From: goldentextpro@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/23/2004 11:32:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII In response to Jared's request for information on Oscar Veiths: Bill Wilson typed up a short "history" of sorts of the years 1934-1939. This was found at Stepping Stones. In this list he refers to Oscar as one of the failures during that early period. Bill's notes do not elaborate on events post-Big Book release. As my own roster of early AA members indicates, the information I had provided portrays the picture at that time (1934-39). Whether he did eventually make it, it is very possible. And it would be of value for my own purposes to know that information for accuracy. As to his purported involvement in Kansas City and in Colorado: My sources for the history of AA's growth around the country include Bob P.'s never-released Non-Approved History of Alcoholics Anonymous 1957-1985. The title is a bit of a misnomer, as it covers quite a lot of facts from 1939 to 1985. Bob P. broke down AA's expansion into regions. In the sections "Kansas City and Western Missouri" and "Colorado," there is no mention of an "Oscar" anywhere. I should also make note of Bob's own comments that his work was by no means a complete picture for every region. However it was exhaustively researched and compiled very well. My other sources are AA's Conference-approved literature and other "non-AA" works (i.e., Kurtz's Not-God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous), as well as rosters that were compiled by Jim Burwell and Bill Wilson on the early AAs. Oscar is not on any lists. I would suggest that the best way to go about verifying this claim would be to check with the Kansas City Intergroup for archival research. And the same with Denver. Quite often these offices will have correspondence letters and early rosters somewhere on file or in storage. Hopefully something may exist there that will corroborate Gary K's information. Best of luck, Richard K. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1827. . . . . . . . . . . . 12 th tradition -Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, From: snuffysdead . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/24/2004 8:25:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi friends I am new here - used to do history buffs a while back. I am doing a short presentation on Tradition 12 on Friday. would you have a few comments on the 12th Tradition that I may share these with our Primary Purpose Group? I will do so anonymously if you so request. I am particularly interested in history, the spirtual foundation of the 12th tradition, and any application of this tradition such as you may have in your personal life. I think alot of local AA members get confused about what is to be kept anonymous and what is not, too. An example of this is what someone said at a previous meeting - should it be repeated inside the group? Outside the group among AA friends -etc., and any general guidelines of that kind you may have. Of course the general presentation is just on the 12th tradition. Any help would be appreciated -post to thread here or e-mail to snuffysdead@yahoo.com Thanks Beth T IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1828. . . . . . . . . . . . AA archivists From: steve . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/24/2004 9:31:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Does anyone have a list of archivists by location? Recently an archivist from Pinella County tracked me down through this group to introduce me to a man 56 years sober---who's originally from michigan, and it brought to my attention that if we had a contact list by area, or county, or city...that it would be much easier to send the right info to the right archivist, and easier to connect. Thanks for all you do, Steven (now in mt pleasant, michigan) Covieo IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1829. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: 12 th tradition -Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, From: Arthur Sheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/25/2004 8:27:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Beth The long form of the Traditions is invaluable for establishing informed context: 11) Our relations with the general public should be characterized by personal anonymity. We think A.A. ought to avoid sensational advertising. Our names and pictures as A.A. members ought not be broadcast, filmed, or publicly printed. Our public relations should be guided by the principle of attraction rather than promotion. There is never need to praise ourselves. We feel it better to let our friends recommend us. 12) And finally, we of Alcoholics Anonymous believe that the principle of Anonymity has an immense spiritual significance. It reminds us that we are to place principles before personalities; that we are actually to practice a genuine humility. This to the end that our great blessings may never spoil us; that we shall forever live in thankful contemplation of Him who presides over us all. A piece of AA literature that might be very helpful is the pamphlet "Understanding Anonymity." It is both concise and informative. The historical origins of the Traditions (i.e. Bill W's Traditions essays) can be found in the Grapevine book "Language of the Heart." Other good sources of historical information are the book "AA Comes of Age" and the pamphlet "AA Tradition - How It Developed." Arthur ----- Original Message ----- From: snuffysdead To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, May 24, 2004 8:25 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] 12 th tradition -Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, Hi friends I am new here - used to do history buffs a while back. I am doing a short presentation on Tradition 12 on Friday. would you have a few comments on the 12th Tradition that I may share these with our Primary Purpose Group? I will do so anonymously if you so request. I am particularly interested in history, the spirtual foundation of the 12th tradition, and any application of this tradition such as you may have in your personal life. I think alot of local AA members get confused about what is to be kept anonymous and what is not, too. An example of this is what someone said at a previous meeting - should it be repeated inside the group? Outside the group among AA friends -etc., and any general guidelines of that kind you may have. Of course the general presentation is just on the 12th tradition. Any help would be appreciated -post to thread here or e-mail to snuffysdead@yahoo.com Thanks Beth T IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1830. . . . . . . . . . . . The DAy Dr Bob died... From: andyrawks . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/25/2004 8:53:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Can anyone fill me in on a tape I have called 'The Day Dr Bob Died' which purports to be Bill speaking at the first anniversary of the Kips Bay, NY group - but which I seem to remember reading may actually be an acted radio performance? Does anyone know more about this? IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1831. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: 12 th tradition -Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, From: Alex H. . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/25/2004 12:39:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII > I am particularly interested in history, the spirtual foundation of > the 12th tradition, and any application of this tradition such as > you may have in your personal life. Well... there is a Jewish tradition that one should be careful not to shame the person who needs help. In that vein, Maimonides (Rambam) listed several levels of "charity" that are all good ways to give but some are better than others. One way to give "charity" is to "give in secret". In other words, the giver doesn't know who is receiving and the receiver doesn't know who is giving. This takes the ego out of the giving and no one loses or gains social status. I should better define the word "charity" because Christians have changed the emphasis of this word. The word "Charity" comes from the Greek and means "to give out of love." "Charity" in Hebrew is "tzedaka" and it means "to give justice" roughly speaking. In "Freedom from Bondage" one of my favorite quotes reads "The greatest freedom a person can know is doing what he is supposed to do because he wants to do it." In a Jewish sense, "Charity is what you are SUPPOSSED to do" whether you can muster the feeling or not. Christians emphasize "and you should WANT to do it out of love". In AA we know that having both is best, but if you can't have both, just do it and the feeling will follow later. That is a Jewish attitude. > I think alot of local AA members get confused about what is > to be kept anonymous and what is not, too. An example of > this is what someone said at a previous meeting - should it > be repeated inside the group? Outside the group among AA > friends -etc., and any general guidelines of that kind > you may have. I generally keep to my own story. If I hear something in a meeting that helped me then I relate that to what I learned and don't try to duplicate what the other person said exactly. Frankly, trying to relate what others said usually fails and ends up sounding more like preaching or like reading from a textbook. I hate that and usually stop listening. But when I relate what I heard to myself, then my voice has conviction and that is what makes AA powerful. Alex H. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1832. . . . . . . . . . . . The day that Dr. Bob died From: kilroy6131.rm . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/25/2004 2:34:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII There is a tape that was recorded the night Dr. Bob died. On that night Bill Wilson was to speak at the the first anniversary of the Kips Bay, NY group. That afternoon he had got the news about the death of his old friend by means of a telephone call. Bill decided to go to the anniversity anyway but in stead of telling his personal story he told the AA story. Bill talked of meeting Dr. Bob and the beginning of AA. Bills voice was badly broken up he didn't sound much like himself. Kilroy W. 4021 Club Philadelphia PA IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1833. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: The day that Dr. Bob died From: goldentextpro@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/25/2004 12:37:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII That tape is not of Bill. It was a re-enactment of sorts. I have copies of this tape, as well as over 100 other talks by Bill over the years. It is definitely not Bill. Richard K. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1834. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: The DAy Dr Bob died... From: davidt030992 . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/25/2004 4:57:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Yes, this is a play written and performed by Bill McN around 1989. Unfortunately, it has gotten passed around the fellowship as an actual tape of Bill speaking on the night of Bob's death, which was never the intent of the author of the play. Here's a description of the play from the Winter/Spring 2004 Erie County "Aware News" about a recent local performance: Close to 100 celebrants journeyed back in time to New York City in November, 1950 to mark National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. The occasion for the time-travel was Moments...An Evening With Bill W., an evening of theater that recaptured the birth and early struggles of the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous and of the American phenomenon known as the recovery movement.\Moments, a one-man show written and performed by Bill McN*** of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, took place at Daemen College in September. The performance, preceded by a dessert reception, was presented by The Recovery Alliance and ECCPASA. The show is set at a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous held by the Kips Bay group in Brooklyn, New York, where the evening's speaker is to be Bill Wilson, co-founder of the fellowship with Dr. Bob Smith of Akron, Ohio. On that night, Wilson has just learned that Smith has just died, and uses the occasion to reminisce about how the two friends came together to offer a solution to the disease of alcoholism. \Though the Kips Bay meeting where Wilson spoke never occurred - it's entirely fictional - all the incidents related by Wilson are rooted in fact. McN*** interviewed numerous members of the recovering community who had connections with Wilson, Smith and other early members of Alcoholics Anonymous, which dates its beginnings to 1935. Many of their anecdotes and recollections are incorporated into the play. Wilson had been a speculator on Wall Street during the boom years of the 1920s. But by the 1930s, the Depression and his out-of-control drinking had laid him low. Many attempts to achieve sobriety in the primitive "drying out" hospitals of the era proved fruitless. Then, by chance, Wilson met up with an old drinking buddy who had become sober through membership in the Oxford Group. Some of the bedrock principles of that organization helped Wilson to attain at least a shaky sobriety. Later, these prinicples were to grow into the steps of AA. But finding himself in Akron, Ohio, in 1935 to clinch a business deal, Wilson found himself wanting a drink. Remembering that helping another active alcoholic to refrain from drinking is the best way to stay sober, Wilson sought out Smith, a surgeon whose practice was in tatters owing to his alcoholism. The beginning of Alcoholics Anonymous dates from their historic meeting.\With the arrival of their third member, Alcoholics Anonymous began slowly to grow, with most of its members based in New York, where Wilson lived, and Akron, Smith's home town. One of the fellowship's earliest struggles centered around funding, when an expected grant from the Rockefeller Foundation did not come through. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, for from that time on AA became self-supporting through the contributions of its members only, and would never find itself beholden to outside interests.\Using but a few props - a bar stool, a kitchen table, a lectern - McN*** recreated the ambience of the Depression era and the post-war years. And he brought to life something that was then new under the sun - the hope for millions of sufferers of lifelong recovery from the scourge of addictive disease. It was an age of humble, defeated men and women who would become legendary pioneers, an age captured in Moments...An Evening With Bill W. --- In AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com, "andyrawks" wrote: > Can anyone fill me in on a tape I have called 'The Day Dr Bob Died' > which purports to be Bill speaking at the first anniversary of the > Kips Bay, NY group - but which I seem to remember reading may > actually be an acted radio performance? Does anyone know more about > this? IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1835. . . . . . . . . . . . MAY, 1971 From: dla32965 . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/27/2004 4:51:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I am looking for any article that may have been published reporting the burial of Bill W. in East Dorset, VT in May, 1971. Thanks. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1836. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: The DAy Dr Bob died... From: Bob McK . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/27/2004 10:26:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;">See message #743 (http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/743) where Bill McNiff, the actor in this performance, talks about it. 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;"> 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;">Our area archives (NE Ohio, area 54) has an original copy of the videotape. It's a very nice historical fiction production. 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;"> 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;"> 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;"> ----- *From:* andyrawks [mailto:chartvoter@hotmail.com] *Sent:* Tuesday, May 25, 2004 9:53 AM *To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Subject:* [AAHistoryLovers] The DAy Dr Bob died... 12.0pt;"> Can anyone fill me in on a tape I have called 'The Day Dr Bob Died' which purports to be Bill speaking at the first anniversary of the Kips Bay, NY group - but which I seem to remember reading may actually be an acted radio performance? Does anyone know more about this? IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1837. . . . . . . . . . . . Fourth Edition of Big Book From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/31/2004 2:31:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Alcoholics Anonymous World Services has now made the entire Fourth Edition of the Big Book, including the Personal Stories, available online. Thanks to Doug H. for bringing this to my attention. Nancy http://www.aa.org/bigbookonline IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1838. . . . . . . . . . . . Grapevine Digital Archives From: kentedavis@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/31/2004 6:09:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII For the month of June The AA Grapevine has made it possible to access the archives at no charge. .AA Grapevine - Our Meeting in Print Online [81] IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1839. . . . . . . . . . . . SUPPORT YOUR SERVICES From: dla32965 . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/31/2004 12:01:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII In some AA communities in South Florida I am aware of "Support Your Services" Committees that have been established and are functioning in some districts. Not in my own, however, and I am trying to find out what these committees are all about. I can find nothing about "Support Your Services" on any of the non-AA websites I frequently visit. It does not appear that such committees are part of the general service structure as it is nowhere mentioned in the service manual. I would like to know if anyone has this information what objectives these disctrict "Support Your Services" committees are designed to meet, what criteria are generally in place to necessitate the establishment of such a committee, and what are it's traditional guidelines. Thank you. Darcie Alcott IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1840. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: SUPPORT YOUR SERVICES From: J. Carey Thomas . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/1/2004 11:10:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Darcie, District 9, Broward County, holds service "events" in Ft. Lauderdale which feature presentations by the various committees -- including the Central Office/Intergroup -- active in the District. Perhaps this is what you have heard about. I'm not sure there is a specific committee, per se, behind the efforts. Contact the District 8 folks at the next quarterly, July 11th in Miami Beach In Love and Service, _\|/_ (o o) -----------o00-(_)-00o-----------carey---------- Archives Committtee, Area 15, District 8. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1841. . . . . . . . . . . . Lincoln''s Washingtonian Address From: Carter Elliott . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/2/2004 8:19:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Each February we post Abraham Lincoln's address to the Springfield, IL, Washingtonian Temperance Society (Feb. 22, 1842) on our local billw listserv. One of our members who's a grad student at Radford U. wants to quote portions in a paper, but needs bibliographical references. I've had the speech on file for so many years I have no idea where we got it. Does anyone in our AA History Lovers group have a reference the student can use? Carter Elliott http://home.usit.net/~carter32/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Do you Yahoo!? Friends. Fun. Try the all-new Yahoo! Messenger [82] IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1842. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Lincoln''s Washingtonian Address From: Roger Weed . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/2/2004 10:50:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I found his address to the Washingtonians at < http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/ancient/TempAddr.htm >. Roger --- Carter Elliott wrote: > Each February we post Abraham Lincoln's address to > the Springfield, IL, Washingtonian Temperance > Society (Feb. 22, 1842) on our local billw listserv. > One of our members who's a grad student at Radford > U. wants to quote portions in a paper, but needs > bibliographical references. I've had the speech on > file for so many years I have no idea where we got > it. Does anyone in our AA History Lovers group have > a reference the student can use? > Carter Elliott > http://home.usit.net/~carter32/ IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1843. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Lincoln''s Washingtonian Address From: Hugh D. Hyatt . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/2/2004 9:06:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Carter Elliott is alleged to have written, on or about 6/2/2004 09:19: > Does anyone in our AA History Lovers group have a reference the student can use? Try Vol. 1 of *The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln*, (8 vols.) Roy P. Basler, Ed., Rutgers University Press, 1953, on or about p. 278 (from http://www.bartleby.com/73/36.html). -- Hugh D. Hyatt voice: 215.947.1799 P.O. Box 143 fax: 603.316.0347 611 Dale Road e-mail: hughhyatt@bluehen.udel.edu Bryn Athyn, PA 19009 web: http://hugh.freeshell.org IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1844. . . . . . . . . . . . Significant June Dates in AA History From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/2/2004 1:12:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII June 1: 1949 - Anne Smith, Dr. Bob's wife, died. June 4: 2002- Caroline Knapp, author of "Drinking: A Love Story" died sober of lung cancer. June 5: 1940 - Ebby Thatcher took a job at the NY Worlds Fair. June 6: 1940 - The first AA Group in Richmond, VA, was formed. 1979 - AA gave the two-millionth copy of the Big Book to Joseph Califano, then Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. It was presented by Lois Wilson, Bill's wife, in New York. June 7: 1939 - Bill and Lois Wilson had an argument, the first of two times Bill almost slipped. 1941 - The first AA Group in St. Paul, Minnesota, was formed. June 8: 1941 - Three AA's started a group in Kalamazoo, Michigan. June 10: 1935 - The date that is celebrated as Dr. Bob's last drink and the official founding date of AA. There is some evidence that the founders, in trying to reconstruct the history, got the date wrong and it was actually June 17. June 11: 1945 - Twenty-five hundred attend AA's 10th Anniversary in Cleveland, Ohio. 1969 - Dr. Bob's granddaughter, Bonna, daughter of Sue Smith and Ernie Galbraith (The Seven Month Slip in the First Edition) killed herself after first killing her six-year-old child. 1971 - Ernie Galbraith died. June 13: 1945 - Morgan R. gave a radio appearance for AA with large audience. He was kept under surveillance to make sure he didn't drink. June 15: 1940 - First AA Group in Baltimore, MD, was formed. June 16: 1938 - Jim Burwell, "The Vicious Cycle" in Big Book, had his last drink. June 17: 1942 - New York AA groups sponsored the first annual NY area meeting. Four hundred and twenty-four heard Dr. Silkworth and AA speakers. June 18: 1940 - One hundred attended the first meeting in the first AA clubhouse at 334-1/2 West 24th St., New York City. June 19: 1942 - Columnist Earl Wilson reported that NYC Police Chief Valentine sent six policemen to AA and they sobered up. "There are fewer suicides in my files," he commented. June 21: 1944 - The first Issue of the AA Grapevine was published. June 24: 1938 - Two Rockefeller associates told the press about the Big Book "Not to bear any author's name but to be by 'Alcoholics Anonymous.'" June 25: 1939 - The New York Times reviewer wrote that the Big Book is "more soundly based psychologically than any other treatment I have ever come upon." June 26: 1935 - Bill Dotson. (AA #3) entered Akron's City Hospital for his last detox and his first day of sobriety. June 28: 1935 - Dr. Bob and Bill Wilson visited Bill Dotson at Akron's City Hospital. June 30: 1941 - Ruth Hock showed Bill Wilson the Serenity Prayer and it was adopted readily by AA. 2000 - More than 47,000 from 87 countries attended the opening meeting of the 65th AA Anniversary in Minneapolis, MN. Other significant events in June for which we have no specific date: 1948 - A subscription to the AA Grapevine was donated to the Beloit, Wisconsin, Public Library by a local AA member. 1981 - AA in Switzerland held its 25th Anniversary Convention with Lois Wilson and Nell Wing in attendance. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1845. . . . . . . . . . . . type of cancer Dr. Bob died from? From: Dan Roe . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/2/2004 5:17:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Does anyone know where to find documentation of the type of cancer that killed Dr. Bob? Dan R IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1846. . . . . . . . . . . . Gratitude Month/Week From: Colston Vear . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/3/2004 10:50:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Aside from Box 459 Vol 48, No.5 oct-Nov 2002 does anyone have any information about the origins of Gratitude Week/Month. I understand it is November in the US. I am UK based and here it is June. I also understand it is October in Canada. Does anyone know why the discrepancy? It is recommended here that we give the equivalent of a day's drinking in "gratitude". Are there any customs elsewhere? Thanks. Colston, Bristol, UK. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1847. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Gratitude Month/Week From: J. Carey Thomas . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/3/2004 3:51:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Colston, Below, a smattering of AA History in Plam Beach County, Florida. The last item -- it is believed -- was the first celebration of a Gratitude Dinner in the US. This has continued each year, with all proceeds contributed to GSO in New York. Others in the group can -- and probably will -- fill you in on your other questions. (I have 'pasted' the items into this note, as the group doesn't want "attachments.") carey Area 15, District 8 Archives Committee IMPORTANT DATES IN PALM BEACH COUNTY AA HISTORY 1. September 13, 1945: A Lake Worth resident, Steve Hulme, who found AA in Chicago, spoke at a Rotary Club meeting in Lake Worth about AA. 2. December 13, 1945: Steve and Bob R. (from Connecticut) held first AA meeting in Lake Worth. 3. February 3, 1946; First AA meeting in West Palm Beach held at Norton Art Gallery. Our own Paul M. attended and marks his sobriety from that date. Chris O. (for whom Chris House is named) also attended that meeting, but his sobriety dated from 1955 or 1956. 4. December 6, 1951: Sixth Anniversary of AA in Palm Beach County held in Lake Worth. Chairman - Steve H. AA Speakers: Hazel O., P.O. G. Guest Speaker: Charles Francis Coe 5. November 30, 1949: First Club Room opened at 512 South Olive, West Palm Beach. 6. March 5, 1961: Dedication of our new Headquarters at 423 4th Street, West Palm Beach. 7. First Saturday in November, 1962: First of our GRATITUDE DINNERS held at 423 4th Street, West Palm Beach. ____________________________________________________________________________ provenance: 12TH ANNUAL GRATITUDE DINNER SATURDAY. NOVEMBER 3, 1973 reproduced by Carey Thomas from a card distributed at that Dinner. District 8 Archives:January 10, 2002 carey IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1848. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: AA archivists From: rrecovery1984 . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/6/2004 8:07:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII There will be the National Archivists Workshop in Murfreesboro, Tennessee from Septemeber 23-26. Might be good place to go. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1849. . . . . . . . . . . . History of Alcoholics Anonymous -- Suffolk County NY From: rrecovery1984 . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/6/2004 11:34:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Took over as archivist over a year ago and am trying to put together the history of all meetings. Anyone know anything please feel free to contact me IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1850. . . . . . . . . . . . origin of the 3rd tradtion From: buickmackane0830 . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/5/2004 3:34:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Besides the examples listed in the 12&12,AA comes to age,etc,are there any other backround storeis for the inception of the 3rd tradition ? IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1851. . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. George Gehrmann, Dr. Jack Norris From: Mel Barger . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/9/2004 9:00:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Friends, This is Mel Barger, the occasional free-lance writer in Toledo. I am interested in finding out more about the industrial alcoholism program started at DuPont in the early 1940s by Dr. George Gehrmann, the medical director. He reportedly brought an AA member onto his staff to counsel DuPont employees with alcohol problems. This may have been the first such program in industry. Does anybody know who the AA member was? Dr. Jack Norris also started an early program at Eastman Kodak. Anything known about his program and AA members involved would be helpful. Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated. I do need this information in the next few days. Mel Barger ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger melb@accesstoledo.com IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1852. . . . . . . . . . . . Father Ed Dowling and CANA From: rrecovery1984 . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/6/2004 8:01:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Wonderful to find this site. In addition to the history of AA. I am interested in those other groups that formed using the 12 steps of AA. The more obscure or little known the better. For starters I am trying to track down more information on CANA that Father Ed Dowling started around 1942. I am right in assuming this was the second 12 step program? What are there 12 steps? Does anyone know of a good site for information on this and of course, I am always interested in finding information out on other 12 step groups especially ones that no longer exist. Bob IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1853. . . . . . . . . . . . Fw: the passing of an AA friend and servant From: ricktompkins@sbcglobal.net> . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/9/2004 11:01:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Relocating from Canada and serving a brief five years as a Staff Member at AA's General Service Office, Bill Archer most recently served AA as the 2004 General Service Conference Coordinator and Secretary. Please keep his family in your thoughts and hearts, and remember his example of service and courage. Our love goes with him. Rick, Illinois ----- Original Message ----- From: General Service Office Staff Sent: Monday, June 07, 2004 1:27 PM Subject: Bill Archer's Passing Friends, It is with enormous sadness that we inform you of the death of our beloved friend and colleague, Bill Archer, on Sunday evening, June 6, 2004 at the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, N.Y. I know you join all of us here at G.S.O. in sending our love and support to Bill's wife, Audrey, and his brother, David, as they mourn the passing of this dear person. Bill fought a courageous battle, always putting others ahead of himself, giving every ounce of energy he could to the work and well-being of Alcoholics Anonymous and practicing the principles of A.A. in all his affairs - right to the end. Our lives are sadder without him but richer for having known and worked with him. Here are the planned arrangements for Bill's funeral and memorial service: Funeral Home - Wake: Wednesday, June 9, 2004 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home 1076 Madison Ave at 81st Street New York, N.Y. 10028 212-288-3500 Memorial Service - Thursday, June 10, 2004 Service: - 2:00 pm - 3:00pm Reception: - 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm Interchurch Chapel (ground floor) Interchurch Building 475 Riverside Drive New York, N.Y. 10115 Audrey asks, in keeping with Bill's wishes, that in lieu of flowers a contribution be sent to one or both of the organizations listed below: Gilda's Club 195 West Houston Street New York, N.Y., 10014 Please make checks out to: Montefiore Medical Center Department of Oncology Send to: Dr. Andreas Kaubisch, M.D. Montefiore Medical Center Department of Oncology 111 East 210th Street Bronx, N.Y. 10467-2490 Condolences to Bill's wife may be sent to: Audrey Van Slyck 200 Clinton St # 4J Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201 Condolences to Bill's brother may be sent to: David Archer c/o Audrey Van Slyck 200 Clinton St # 4J Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1854. . . . . . . . . . . . AA Birthplace opens to public From: JKNIGHTBIRD@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/9/2004 9:42:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII AA Birthplace Opens to Public June 12-13 6/8/2004 For the first time, the public will be able to view the Tudor-style cottage where the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) founders came up with the idea for the recovery program nearly 70 years ago, the Associated Press reported June 8. The Gate Lodge in Akron, Ohio, will be open June 12-13. "It's such a significant, blessed site," said Rev. Sam Ciccolini, who works with individuals with alcohol and other drug addiction in Summit County. The open house is part of this year's Founders Day weekend. Founders Day is held annually to honor Robert Smith and William Wilson, who started the organization that focuses on sobriety through faith and fellowship. Today, the Gate Lodge is part of the Stan Hywet Estate, which is the family home of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. founder F.A. Seiberling. His daughter-in-law, Henrietta, introduced Smith, a friend of hers, to Wilson through a group called the Oxford Movement, a group of intellectuals who believed in using Christian principals to solve problems. Gate Lodge has remained a private residence over the years. However, a fundraising campaign has begun to restore the home and create a public exhibit. "It's not unusual to see people jump the fence just to touch the building with tears in their eyes," said curator Mark Heppner. ------------------------------------------- Submitted by: Jocie in Chicago IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1855. . . . . . . . . . . . Recordings of Bill W From: rrecovery1984 . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/10/2004 9:41:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII For the 69th anniversary of AA tonight, we played a CD of Dr. Bob from 1948 and wonder if anyone has any tapes of Bill that would be interested in swapping for a copy of this CD. Bob talked for about 45 minutes on this one. Kindly email me. Thanks IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1856. . . . . . . . . . . . Printer''s Copy of Big Book From: Pittman, Bill . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/11/2004 9:43:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII AA history for sale. In AACA p. 169 it states "in Henry's (Hank P) clear handwritting all corrections were transferred to it." Last year, May 2003, I was contacted by Bauman Rare Books in New York. They had the printer's copy for sale. I flew out to take a look and verify the handwriting. Lois gave the multilith to Barry Leach Jan 1, 1978. A relative of Barry's is selling it. The owner thinking it is very valuable has now taken it to Sotheby's and will be auctioned June 18. Put Bill W in search at www.sotherbys.com and you will see item# N08006 in Lot 330. The item description is wrong in my opinion. Bill W's handwriting is not in the manuscript. It would be great to have it purchased and donated to GSO archives or Stepping Stones. Bill Pittman IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1857. . . . . . . . . . . . Printer''s Copy of Big Book Part 2 From: Pittman, Bill . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/14/2004 8:34:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII here's link to NY Times article today, Bill Pittman www.nytimes.com/2004/06/14/books/14BILL.html IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1858. . . . . . . . . . . . NY Time story re Big Book Manuscript From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/14/2004 9:41:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII From the New York Times today: --- NY My Name Is the Big Book. My Future Is Open. June 14, 2004 By FELICIA R. LEE On June 10, 1935, Robert Smith, a physician from Akron, Ohio, took his last drink. He and William Wilson, better known as Dr. Bob and Bill W., had no idea that the date would later mark the beginning of what some consider one of the most important movements in the 20th century: Alcoholics Anonymous. Wilson later wrote an account of their philosophy - that only an alcoholic could help another alcoholic quit drinking - and the lives of other alcoholics that is referred to as the Big Book, the movement's bible. Now Sotheby's is planning to auction what it says is Wilson's master copy of the working draft of "Alcoholics Anonymous," the Big Book's disarmingly straightforward official title. Its value has been estimated by the auction house as $300,000 to $500,000. The sale, scheduled for Friday, has created excited speculation among collectors and scholars about who will buy it, and a debate about its value and rightful place. Given the enormous impact of a book that in its fourth printing alone has reached more than 19 million people, some believe that Sotheby's is offering a priceless historical document. That status, some argue, means that it should be placed in an archive accessible to scholars and ordinary people rather than on the auction block. "I think these things really belong to the fellowship of A.A.," said Eileen Giuliani, executive director of the Stepping Stones Foundation, which maintains the home and the documents of Wilson and his wife, Lois Wilson, as a museum in Bedford Hills, N.Y. "Documents like this belong in archives." Bill Pittman, a historian who has written extensively about the history of A.A., said he, too, was concerned that the manuscript's sale would make it inaccessible to scholars. He said the Sotheby catalog incorrectly stated that Wilson's annotations were among the multitude of annotations on the typewritten manuscript. Mr. Pittman said he viewed the manuscript last year when the owner took it to a rare-book dealer. But Selby Kiffer, a senior vice president at Sotheby's, said the manuscript did indeed contain Wilson's annotations. He said experts had spent weeks going through the 161-page manuscript, which contains thousands of annotations by many people. In either case, the absence of Wilson's annotations does not reduce the document's value, said Mr. Pittman, the director of historical information at the Hazelden Foundation in Center City, Minn. Although Wilson was the primary author, there were many drafts and many comments from a wide variety of people involved in the project, he said. The book authorship is stated as "the story of how many thousands of men and women have recovered from alcoholism." "It's the most important piece of A.A. history to be sold, ever," said Mr. Pittman, who worked for several years at the A.A. archive in New York City. He said the margin notes and last-minute changes before the master copy went off to the printer provided valuable insights into how the Big Book evolved. Still, he said, he thought the document was overpriced. "I think someone should buy it and give it back to A.A. and let researchers like myself look at it," Mr. Pittman said. "I don't want someone to buy it and sell each individual page." Ms. Giuliani said, she too, thought the manuscript's price put it out of the reach of serious researchers and was out of line with what A.A. material usually cost. In many ways the argument about Bill W.'s manuscript is familiar, occurring whenever price tags are attached to valuable historical items. The first edition of "Alcoholics Anonymous" was published in April 1939, and only the personal stories attached to the basic text have changed over the years. The 1938 document being auctioned was consigned to Sotheby's by an A.A. member, Joseph B. (He asked that only the initial of his last name be used.) His aunt was also an A.A. member, who knew Wilson personally, he said, and she gave Mr. B. the manuscript back in 2001. The 1978 inscription on the manuscript is from Wilson's wife, who died in 1988, to a "Barry" (who some historians say is the writer Barry Leach, who wrote a biography of Lois Wilson). Along with the manuscript, Sotheby's is offering a second-edition Big Book that Wilson inscribed in 1958 to "Grace," Mr. B.'s aunt, and four LP albums of A.A. lectures. Mr. B. said his efforts to find interest in the document within Alcoholics Anonymous "ran into a lot of brick walls, a lot of dead ends." So, he said, he turned to Sotheby's to establish its provenance and find a buyer. "Not being a rich man, there was some money to be made, but that was not my main reason," Mr. B. said. "It's beyond words for me." As an alcoholic in recovery since 1976, he said that Wilson "saved my life." He found it thrilling, he added, to imagine Wilson cobbling together the Big Book. "I hope it ends up in a proper setting, an academic setting," he continued. "I think Sotheby's can provide that venue." Early drafts of the Big Book went out to dozens of people, from alcoholics to psychologists, who sprinkled the margins with their ideas, feelings and experiences. As the manuscript being auctioned by Sotheby's shows, the book was a vigorous exercise in group-think, with a jumble of different handwriting crossing out words, circling phrases, excising passages. The first chapter tells Bill W.'s story. Wilson was born in East Dorset, Vt., in 1895 and died of emphysema in 1971. He met Dr. Bob, the co-founder of A.A., during a 1935 business trip to Akron. Desperate for a drink, he contacted a local minister who put him in touch with Dr. Bob, a general practitioner and an alcoholic with a failing practice. The two talked for hours, and the idea of a fellowship of alcoholics helping alcoholics was born. The Big Book was published four years later, but the first sales were slow. It took took off only after a March 1, 1941, article in The Saturday Evening Post about Alcoholics Anonymous and its "freed slaves of drink," as the writer Jack Alexander put it. "What really matters for us is the final version of the Big Book,' which helped millions of people to recover," said Judit Santon, the archivist at the General Service Office of A.A. in New York City, home to the largest A.A. archive in the world with half a million pieces of personal correspondence and primary documentation. Much of the interest in the manuscript has come from "traditional book and manuscript dealers," Mr. Kiffer of Sotheby's said. As far as anyone knows, he added, the highest price tag for a single A.A.-related item has been for first-edition copies of the Big Book, signed by Wilson, which have gone for as much as $25,000. A thriving market exists for Alcoholics Anonymous items, in the same way that people collect Elvis Presley or Civil War memorabilia, said David C. Lewis, a physician and founder of the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University. Social historians or any collector of Americana, as well as members of 12-step programs would also find the manuscript intriguing, Dr. Lewis said. "It's basically priceless," he said of the document being sold by Sotheby's. Susan Cheever, the author of "My Name Is Bill" (Simon & Schuster, 2004), a biography of Wilson, agreed. "This is one of the 10 or 20 most important books written in the 20th century, probably the most important nonfiction book," she said. "This guy, with `Dr. Bob,' figured out how to save alcoholics. They changed the way we think about human nature." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1859. . . . . . . . . . . . Selling Memberships From: ny-aa@att.net . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/14/2004 2:30:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The early members knew even before the Big Book was written that there should be no dues or fees. But I heard a presenter say that the man who took A.A. to one part of the United States (possibly Florida) was selling memberships. He wasn't keeping the money. He sent it to the Alcoholic Foundation or whatever it was at the time. His reasoning was that people were more inclined to value something that costs them money. Can anyone confirm this, possibly with a supporting reference? From what the speaker said, it sounded like there was documentation in the form of letters that were exchanged at the time. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1860. . . . . . . . . . . . Conference Approved Literature From: Roseanne Schofield . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/14/2004 9:20:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi everyone, I'm looking for a little information and thought maybe one of you may be able to help. The question arose in one of our groups recently as to whether or not the use of non-conference approved literature by those in the Program was acceptable, or if it constituted a violation of of AA principles. I seem to recall having read something about the use of conference approved literature by AA members--it may have been in a newsletter or at this site, but I searched previous postings and didn't find anything. Did Bill W. speak or write about this in his later years or do you know of any relevant articles? Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Roseanne S. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1861. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Conference Approved Literature From: Mel Barger . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/15/2004 7:20:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Roseanne and Friends, As author of both conference-approved and non-approved literature, I have a special interest in this matter. As far as I know, it's never been stated that we shouldn't read "outside" material. After all, don't we live in a country that has a First Amendment permitting us to read what we want to read? As I understand it, conference-approved came into being to assure that all members would understand just what AA's position was on various issues, etc. Unfortunately, some members do take this to mean that we should read only conference-approved material. Here in Toledo, the groups are very rigid on this issue and don't even offer that marvelous gem, Twenty-Four Hours a Day. Our Central Office sells only conference-approved material, when they could actually raise more money (and pay our secretary a decent salary) if they sold other books. I am very grateful that I spent my first months in sobriety in Pontiac, Mich., where the group offered Emmet Fox's "The Sermon on the Mount" and other items that have been very helpful to me over the years. Incidentally, an early Akron Manual put together with the help of Dr. Bob listed about ten books that were considered helpful. None of them are on today's conference-approved list, but they are excellent for our uses. Dr. Bob was especially keen on recommending Henry Drummond's "The Greatest Thing in the World" and said it would change your life if you would read it for thirty days. With the help of Glenn Chesnutt, I am publishing a book that includes both "As A Man Thinketh" and "The Greatest Thing in the World, " along with the St. Francis Prayer and commentary. Mel Barger ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger melb@accesstoledo.com ----- Original Message ----- From: Roseanne Schofield To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, June 14, 2004 10:20 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Conference Approved Literature Hi everyone, I'm looking for a little information and thought maybe one of you may be able to help. The question arose in one of our groups recently as to whether or not the use of non-conference approved literature by those in the Program was acceptable, or if it constituted a violation of of AA principles. I seem to recall having read something about the use of conference approved literature by AA members--it may have been in a newsletter or at this site, but I searched previous postings and didn't find anything. Did Bill W. speak or write about this in his later years or do you know of any relevant articles? Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Roseanne S. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This message was scanned by GatewayDefender [4] 7:01:41 AM ET - 6/15/2004 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1862. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Conference Approved Literature From: Mary . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/15/2004 9:05:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Roseanne, There is an unconscious movement to make the term "Conference Approved" mean something that it does not mean. The simple summary of "Conference Approval" is that it is literature written for AA that has been voted on in General Service Conference meetings as representing the thinking of the majority of (US and Canadian) AA groups. It is not a representation that the literature is more right than other literature, only that it does not create substantial disagreement within AA and represents the thinking of AA as a whole. There is other literature, equally revered either locally or internationally, that cannot be "Conference Approved" because it was not written for AA and is either public domain or the copyright is owned by some private source. A general statement that applies is that there is no such thing as "Conference Dis-Approved" literature. All literature is fair grist for AA groups. Within AA history we have the use of the Bible (cf., Anne's morning readings with Bill and Bob), The Upper Room - a periodical meditation pamphlet that I believe was put out by the Episcopal or some other church, "24 Hours A Day" privately written and now owned by the Hazelton Foundation. There is a pamphlet reputed to have been written in Akron and published under the title "A Guide To the 12 Steps" that is not copyrighted and is published by various sources that has seen much use in discussion meetings but is not "Conference Approved" and probably will never be due to its parochial nature. All of these, and more, have at some time been part of various AA groups format for meetings and/or been used by individuals to augment their recovery from alcoholism. There is no point in using the term "Conference Approved" to imply that some literature is acceptable and other literature is not. The stamp just means that in gatherings and votes of our delegates, substantial agreement has been reached about the content and that no minority viewpoint has been trampled upon. The most valuable part of "Conference Approved" on literature is in using it as a source when expressing a viewpoint about AA to non-AAs. If the viewpoint is not in the stamped literature, it is probably a personal opinion and does not represent AA as a whole. That doesn't make personal opinion wrong, only that it is not held in common and it would not be fair to say that "AA says....." Mary, In Michigan ----- Original Message ----- From: Roseanne Schofield To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, June 14, 2004 10:20 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Conference Approved Literature Hi everyone, I'm looking for a little information and thought maybe one of you may be able to help. The question arose in one of our groups recently as to whether or not the use of non-conference approved literature by those in the Program was acceptable, or if it constituted a violation of of AA principles. I seem to recall having read something about the use of conference approved literature by AA members--it may have been in a newsletter or at this site, but I searched previous postings and didn't find anything. Did Bill W. speak or write about this in his later years or do you know of any relevant articles? Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Roseanne S. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1863. . . . . . . . . . . . AA''s Anonymity Keeps Focus On Cause From: JKNIGHTBIRD@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/15/2004 6:10:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Posted on Fri, Jun. 11, 2004 A.A.'s anonymity keeps focus on cause Tradition more about protecting movement than those who fear exposure By Paula Schleis Beacon Journal staff writer Rob, Gail, Bob, Jay and Harmon make no secret they are alcoholics, and the fact that you won't find their last names or photos with this story has nothing to do with shyness or shame. As volunteers with this weekend's Founders Day activities -- the annual celebration of the forming of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1935 -- their faces and phone numbers will circulate widely. But A.A. takes the ``anonymous'' part of its name very seriously -- and not just for the reasons you might think. While a promise of confidentiality is critical in reaching people who fear exposure, A.A.'s strict tradition of anonymity is more about protecting the reputation of a movement that millions depend on. ``You sacrifice your last name for the good of the whole,'' Gail said. By keeping names and images out of the media, A.A. can't be exploited for personal power or gain, said Rob, as he sat around a table discussing the subject with his peers. Within reach was a stack of black ``Lone Ranger'' masks, just in case a photographer showed up wanting a picture. As a matter of fact, only a non-alcoholic can be elected as the national chairman because of the exposure that job requires. Elaine McDowell, elected to the post in 2001, can face the cameras head-on and use her name in legal and public venues. As A.A. co-founder Bill W. once explained: ``A.A. had to become known somehow, so we resorted to the idea that it would be far better to let our (non-alcoholic) friends do it for us.'' The tradition of anonymity also has helped A.A. avoid being stereotyped. It is not the image of a male or female, a Democrat or Republican, factory worker or business owner, Protestant or Jew, gay or straight. ``People need to feel that A.A. is for people just like them,'' said Jay. From beginning The tradition of not using last names goes back to the very beginning, when Akron physician Dr. Robert Smith and New York businessman William Wilson began working out the details of their 12-step program. The co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous called themselves Dr. Bob and Bill W. Gail, archivist for the Akron Intergroup Council of Alcoholics Anonymous, said there is some evidence Dr. Bob and Bill W. gave up their last names partly out of concern their phones would never stop ringing as word of their efforts spread. ``There were too few of them to handle all the requests,'' Gail said. Bill W. might also have been influenced by the Oxford Group to which he belonged. In that religious movement, anonymity was a way of showing humility. And that reason still melds perfectly with the 12-step program, Harmon said. ``Until the alcoholic surrenders his ego, he can't get better,'' he said. The concept of stressing anonymity as a way to protect the work of the organization can be traced to 1939, when a well-known Cleveland Indians catcher went public with his ties to an A.A. group in Akron. The catcher was making a spectacular comeback, and the media lavished attention on his successful struggle with alcoholism. At first, Dr. Bob and Bill W. didn't balk at the attention. But when other members began coming out, the pair began to wonder what it would mean for A.A. if those celebrities started falling off the wagon. Would there be a public perception that A.A. had failed them? Would that make others reluctant to try it? In 1950, an A.A. convention in Cleveland unanimously accepted a list known as the 12 traditions. The 12th tradition is this: ``Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.'' Avoid controversy Anonymity extends to the organization itself. A.A. will not take an official stance on any outside issue, Rob said. That way, it can avoid public controversy and avoid alienating someone who needs help but disagrees with an opinion. For the same reason, local A.A. groups have to be self-supporting. A.A.'s adherence to anonymity can lead to some complicated situations. In 1951, Bill W. agonized over whether A.A. should accept a prestigious national award. He finally agreed to, though he admitted that merely being on hand to accept it forced him to be a celebrity for the day. A decade later, however, he cited anonymity in declining a request by Time magazine to put a picture of the back of his head on the cover. More recently, the Akron group struggled with the issue when Good Morning America expressed interest in doing a story on A.A.'s roots. After speaking to members throughout the country, it was clear such publicity would lend a celebrity image to Akron. ``We told them no,'' Gail said. ``We can only have one purpose in A.A. -- to maintain sobriety and help others.'' No reprimands Privately, A.A. members do not have to maintain anonymity, and indeed, it would be impossible to operate that way, Rob explained. ``How would anybody reach me? You can't look in the phone book under `Rob,' '' he said. But the organization is mindful when last names and images show up in the paper, on TV or film, or on the Internet. ``There is no punishment or reprimand,'' Rob said, ``but a delegate will usually approach the member and remind them politely of the tradition.'' The head office in New York usually will swing into action, too, contacting the media outlet that revealed an identity to ask for cooperation in the future. And even though the identities and images of A.A.'s co-founders were revealed long ago, members still commonly call them simply Dr. Bob and Bill W. ``They would tell you that they were just instruments,'' Gail said. ``We're all just instruments.'' ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Paula Schleis can be reached at 330-996-3741 or pschleis@thebeaconjournal.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Submitted by Jocie in Chicago IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1864. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Conference Approved Literature From: David Johnson . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/15/2004 1:17:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Dear Roseanne: G.S.O. has responded in the past by mentioning a few concerns on staying "on topic" re: alcoholism but there are no rules "written in stone." Dr. Bill recommends quite a list of non-conference approved books in his Homegroup Manual, written in 1940: "SUGGESTED READING The following literature has helped many members of Alcoholics Anonymous. Alcoholics Anonymous. (Works Publishing Company.) The Holy Bible. The Greatest Thing in the World. Henry Drummond. The Unchanging Friend. (A Series) (Bruce Publishing Co., Milwaukee.) As a Man Thinketh. James Allen. The Sermon on the Mount. Emmet Fox (Harper Bros.) The Self You Have to Live With. Winfred Rhoades. (Lippincott.) Psychology of Christian Personality. Ernest M. Ligon. (Macmillan Co.) Abundant Living. E. Stanley Jones The Man Nobody Knows. Bruce Barron." Once again, this is from A Manual for Alcoholics Anonymous, From AA Group No. 1, Akron, Ohio, 1940.Dr. Bob's Home Group Hope this helps! crescentdave@yahoo.com Roseanne Schofield wrote: Hi everyone, I'm looking for a little information and thought maybe one of you may be able to help. The question arose in one of our groups recently as to whether or not the use of non-conference approved literature by those in the Program was acceptable, or if it constituted a violation of of AA principles. I seem to recall having read something about the use of conference approved literature by AA members--it may have been in a newsletter or at this site, but I searched previous postings and didn't find anything. Did Bill W. speak or write about this in his later years or do you know of any relevant articles? Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Roseanne S. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Do you Yahoo!? New and Improved Yahoo! Mail [83] - 100MB free storage! IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1865. . . . . . . . . . . . Use of "The Promises" at Meetings From: aceyahut . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/15/2004 3:04:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi, all. A bit of a "difference of opinon" has developed at a group I serve regarding reading of the so-called "12 Promises" at the close of the meeting. Some folks seem to believe this is an important part of AA tradition while others insist it is a relatively recent development and a "twisting of meaning" of the Big Book passage on pages 83-84. The nay-sayers point to the fact that, unlike the 12 Traditions or "How It Works", New York has steadfastly declined to make available a single page broadside of "The Promises", suitable for passing out to designated "readers". Can anyone shed light on: 1. When and by who this passage was first dubbed "The 12 Promises", 2. Where, when and why the custom of reading it aloud at meetings began, and 3. Why, indeed, there is no "conference approved" sheet, suitable for lamination. Thanks for your help on this. Ace, alcoholic Santa Cruz, California IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1867. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Conference Approved Literature From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/16/2004 12:55:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Most homegroups in my area also put out some non-conference approved literature. What is the general practice here in New Jersey is to separate them by NOT putting approved & non-approved literature on the same table. Just Love, Barefoot Bill P.S. - This is what GSO officially has to say about it: WHAT DOES 'CONFERENCE-APPROVED LITERATURE'' MEAN? Service Material From G.S.O. 'Conference-approved'' - What It Means to You The term 'Conference-approved'' describes written or audiovisual material approved by the Conference for publication by G.S.O. This process assures that everything in such literature is in accord with A.A. principles. Conference-approved material always deals with the recovery program of Alcoholics Anonymous or with information about the A.A. Fellowship. The term has no relation to material not published by G.S.O. It does not imply Conference disapproval of other material about A.A. A great deal of literature helpful to alcoholics is published by others, and A.A. does not try to tell any individual member what he or she may or may not read. Conference approval assures us that a piece of literature represents solid A.A. experience. Any Conference-approved booklet or pamphlet goes through a lengthy and painstaking process, during which a variety of A.A.'s from all over the United States and Canada read and express opinions at every stage of production. How To Tell What Is and What Is Not Conference-approved Look for the statement on books, pamphlets and films: 'This is A.A. General Service Conference-approved literature'' All 'A.A. Literature'' Is Not Conference-approved Central offices and intergroups do write and distribute pamphlets or booklets that are not Conference-approved. If such pieces meet the needs of the local membership, they may be legitimately classified as 'A.A. literature.'' There is no conflict between A.A. World Services, Inc. (A.A.W.S. - publishers of Conference-approved literature), and central offices or intergroups - rather they complement each other. The Conference does not disapprove of such material. G.S.O. does develop some literature that does not have to be approved by the Conference, such as service material, Guidelines and bulletins. Available at Most A.A. Groups Most local A.A. groups purchase and display a representative sampling of Conference-approval pamphlets, and usually carry a supply of hardcover books. Conference-approved literature may be available at central offices and intergroups, or it may be ordered directly from G.S.O. Groups normally offer pamphlets free of charge, and the books at cost. Copyright Conference-approved literature is copyrighted with the Copyright Office, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. To insure the continued integrity of A.A. literature, and to make sure the A.A. recovery programs will not be distorted or diluted, permission to reprint must be obtained from A.A.W.S. in writing. However, A.A. newsletters, bulletins, or meeting lists have blanket permission to use the material, providing proper credit to insure that the copyrights of A.A. literature are protected. The A.A. Preamble is copyrighted by The A.A. Grapevine, Inc. (not by A.A. World Services). Beneath it, these words should appear: Reprinted with permission of the A.A. Grapevine, Inc. The Steps and Traditions should be followed by these words: Reprinted with Permission of A.A. World Services, Inc. -----Original Message----- From: Roseanne Schofield [mailto:roseanne120100@tbc.net] Sent: Monday, June 14, 2004 10:20 PM To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Conference Approved Literature Hi everyone, I'm looking for a little information and thought maybe one of you may be able to help. The question arose in one of our groups recently as to whether or not the use of non-conference approved literature by those in the Program was acceptable, or if it constituted a violation of of AA principles. I seem to recall having read something about the use of conference approved literature by AA members--it may have been in a newsletter or at this site, but I searched previous postings and didn't find anything. Did Bill W. speak or write about this in his later years or do you know of any relevant articles? Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Roseanne S. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1868. . . . . . . . . . . . Painting that is signed "Helen Griffith" From: silkworthdotnet . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/16/2004 9:41:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The following was sent to me @ silkworth.net: Name: Ann Email: ag......@c...... Subject: Painting signed "Helen Griffith" Hello, I am an Art Researcher in Seattle, WA. I have a painting which is signed "Helen Griffith". The painting dates, by my estimate from late 1920's. It is titled, "Gig Harbor - Fishing Village". I believe it may have been painted by the Helen Griffith who helped Bill and Lois, get their 1st house. I have read the most recent biography about Bill Wilson and the background for Helen Griffith could be a match. Do you have any other details about Helen? Was there possibly an obituary, when and where she died? Any help, references, or additional resources would be greatly appreciated. Of course, it would be an amazing coincidence that I would be so lucky to find this painting if it is by YOUR Helen Griffith. I am the mother of a son who is the 1st in 3 generations (of alcoholics I have known and loved ) to find recovery (after being on death's doorstep at age 17). He now has 7+ years of sobriety and is an amazing person. Best regards !and thanks for the help on retracing Helen Griffith's background. -Ann G. ======================================= I will direct Ann to AAHistoryLovers to see if anyone has responded and posted information about the above information. Kind regards, / Jim Myers IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1869. . . . . . . . . . . . I need help encouraging more Closed meetings From: Lance . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/16/2004 10:09:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Anyone who can cite where out literature or other sources may say that closed meetings are one way to help us stick to our Primary Purpose...I'd be grateful for those references! Thanks so much! HUGS!!! Lance from colorful Colorado! Lance_1954@yahoo.com IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1870. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: I need help encouraging more Closed meetings From: Gilbert Gamboa . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/17/2004 10:34:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII First of all read Tradition 5-it states our primary purpose, also tradition 3 talks about membership(not attendance of meetings) being for alcoholics..step 12 also states our primary purpose, and page 159 (third edition)it reads - "IN ADDITION TO THESE CASUAL GET TOGETHERS,ITS BECOME CUSTOMARY TO SET APART ONE NIGHT A WEEK FOR A MEETING TO BE ATTENDED BY ANYONE OR EVERYONE INTERESTED IN A SPIRITUAL WAY OF LIFE.ASIDE FROM FELLOWSHIP AND SOCIABILITY,THE PRIME OBJECT WAS TO PROVIDE A TIME AND PLACE WHERE NEW PEOPLE MIGHT BRING THEIR PROBLEMS".(problems in this sentence refers to alcoholism !!!!!) again we are here for the newcomer,its important to understand that most reasons for making a meeting a closed one is because of sharing of personal problems we are having that day.see somthing wrong with that?these things arent for the meeting where is the solution in sharing personal problems in a meeting,that should be left to your higher power and your sponsor.A meeting is to hook up the new-comer to a solution and remind each other (50 years sober or 30 days sober) where we found that solution. Trust God,Clean house,Carry hope Gilbert G. Lance wrote: Anyone who can cite where out literature or other sources may say that closed meetings are one way to help us stick to our Primary Purpose...I'd be grateful for those references! Thanks so much! HUGS!!! Lance from colorful Colorado! Lance_1954@yahoo.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1871. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Conference Approved Literature From: Danny S . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/18/2004 4:35:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The term "Conference Approved" did not even exist in our Fellowship prior to the First Annual General Service Conference held in April 20- 22, 1951. Not even the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous could be "Conference Approved" before that year. Today not all AA material distributed through AA has gone through the rather tedious conference approval processed, nor does it require approval of the General Service Conference in order to be considered by members as AA literature. All references to use of the term "Conference Approved" in the Report of the First Annual General Service Conference appears to point heavily toward the creation of a process by which we could officially distinguish which literature we hold publishing rights and therefor control over the proceeds that such literature generates. This also would establish a firm precedence in order to prevent non-AA entities from profiting out the sale of AA literature. No small issue. There is no written record, to which I am aware that would indicate that "Conference Approved" should construed by AA members as a "stamp of approval" for content. Peace, Danny S IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1872. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Painting that is signed "Helen Griffith" From: Mel Barger . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/17/2004 8:12:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Ann and History Lover friends: I stayed two weekends at Stepping Stones while working on "Pass It On." The story I got from Lois was that a Griffith had lived there in the 1920s and had a drinking problem. The coincidence is that Griffith was Bill's middle name and also the family name of his maternal grandparents. But perhaps the real estate agent was named Griffith too. In any case, she pushed hard to persuade the Wilsons to visit the house which they were reluctant to do because they were flat broke and didn't even have money for a down payment. After getting them to see the house, the agent worked out a deal so they could get it for $6500 with no down payment and $40 a month payments. Since they were already paying $20 a month to store their furniture, all they had to do was come up with another $20 and they were home free, which they did. The bedrooms were very tiny and it wouldn't have been a good family home. But it was fine for a couple and would have been great for a person with an artistic bent. The Wilsons were happy there and Lois wouldn't have moved even when her income had soared to half a million a year and she could have moved into the swankiest Manhattan apartment. She was a great gardener and knew where everything on the eight or ten acre place was planted. Mel Barger ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger melb@accesst ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger melb@accesstoledo.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "silkworthdotnet" To: Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 2004 10:41 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Painting that is signed "Helen Griffith" > The following was sent to me @ silkworth.net: > > Name: Ann > Email: ag......@c...... > Subject: Painting signed "Helen Griffith" > > Hello, I am an Art Researcher in Seattle, WA. I have a painting > which is signed "Helen Griffith". The painting dates, by my estimate > from late 1920's. It is titled, "Gig Harbor - Fishing Village". I > believe it may have been painted by the Helen Griffith who helped > Bill and Lois, get their 1st house. I have read the most recent > biography about Bill Wilson and the background for Helen Griffith > could be a match. Do you have any other details about Helen? Was > there possibly an obituary, when and where she died? Any help, > references, or additional resources would be greatly appreciated. Of > course, it would be an amazing coincidence that I would be so lucky > to find this painting if it is by YOUR Helen Griffith. I am the > mother of a son who is the 1st in 3 generations (of alcoholics I have > known and loved ) to find recovery (after being on death's doorstep > at age 17). He now has 7+ years of sobriety and is an amazing person. > Best regards !and thanks for the help on retracing Helen Griffith's > background. -Ann G. > ======================================= > > I will direct Ann to AAHistoryLovers to see if anyone has > responded and posted information about the above information. > > Kind regards, > / Jim Myers > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > > __________________________________________________________ > This message was scanned by GatewayDefender > 8:18:46 AM ET - 6/17/2004 > IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1873. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Re: Conference Approved Literature From: Susan Krieger . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/18/2004 2:13:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII In the 1977 conference actions report: It was suggested tha A.A.groups be discouraged from selling literature not distributed by the General Service Office and the Grapevine. p44 A Summery: Advisory Actions of the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous 1951 - 1986 susan baltimore ----- Original Message ----- From: "Danny S" To: Sent: Friday, June 18, 2004 2:35 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Re: Conference Approved Literature > The term "Conference Approved" did not even exist in our Fellowship > prior to the First Annual General Service Conference held in April 20- > 22, 1951. Not even the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous could > be "Conference Approved" before that year. > > Today not all AA material distributed through AA has gone through the > rather tedious conference approval processed, nor does it require > approval of the General Service Conference in order to be considered > by members as AA literature. > > All references to use of the term "Conference Approved" in the Report > of the First Annual General Service Conference appears to point > heavily toward the creation of a process by which we could officially > distinguish which literature we hold publishing rights and therefor > control over the proceeds that such literature generates. This also > would establish a firm precedence in order to prevent non-AA entities > from profiting out the sale of AA literature. No small issue. > > There is no written record, to which I am aware that would indicate > that "Conference Approved" should construed by AA members as a "stamp > of approval" for content. > > Peace, > > Danny S > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1874. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Re: Conference Approved Literature From: Arthur . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/19/2004 7:43:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi I don't believe it's a stretch to suggest that when groups stress that they will allow only Conference-approved literature, they are likely trying to achieve three things: 1. Keep out the proliferation of 'recovery'' writings that are emanating from more and more varied sources (e.g. Barnes and Noble has a 'Recovery'' section in their book stores). 2. Ensure that there is no blurring of the distinction between AA and the proliferation of other '12 Step Fellowships.'' 3. Stay with literature that has been reviewed by a Conference standing committee to ensure that it conforms to AA principles. It would likely be better to use the term 'AA literature'' instead of 'Conference-approved literature'' since a fairly substantial body of AA literature is not required to go through the Conference-approval process. Some examples: 1. Grapevine (and its non-English counterparts). 2. Box 459 3. Guidelines (the "yellow sheets") 4. Workbooks (e.g. Archives, PI, CPC, TF and CF service committees) 5. Markings (the GSO Archives newsletter) 9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;"> 6. About AA (PI releases) 7. Directories 8. Advisory Actions of the General Service Conference of AA (M-39) 9. Final reports of the General Service Conference 10. Literature published by GSOs other than the US/Canada and AAWS 11. Final reports of the World Service Conference 9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;"> 12. Memento booklets from International Conventions 9.0pt;font-family:Verdana;"> 13. Literature catalogs and flyers (AAWS and Grapevine) 14. Non-English interpretations of books/pamphlets 15. Various and sundry GSO publications called 'service pieces.'' (And I've probably missed others) There is literature, published outside of AA, that is not Conference-approved but which is certainly valuable and beneficial. There are some wonderful historic and spiritual works. If you visit GSO in NY and go the Archives exhibit, you'll see an entire wall of books that are not Conference-approved - which is fine for anyone engaging in serious research. On the other hand there is an awful lot of nonsense, 'recovery psycho-babble'' and revisionist history that gets published as well. So how do you deal with all of this? I believe most groups draw a line by adopting a guideline to only allow Conference-approved literature. What does GSO have to say on the matter? The information below is a transcription of a service piece (re 15 above) that is included in a packet that is sent to a new group when it registers with GSO. It also appears in a number of service committee kits. Cheers Arthur *CONFERENCE-APPROVED LITERATURE* *Service Material From G.S.O.* *'Conference-approved''--What It Means to You* The term 'Conference-approved'' describes written or audiovisual material approved by the Conference for publication by G.S.O. This process assures that everything in such literature is in accord with A.A. principles. Conference-approved material always deals with the recovery program of Alcoholics Anonymous or with information about the A.A. Fellowship. The term has no relation to material not published by G.S.O. It does not* bold;"> *imply Conference disapproval of other material about A.A. A great deal of literature helpful to alcoholics is published by others, and A.A. does not try to tell any individual member what he or she may or may not read. Conference approval assures us that a piece of literature represents solid A.A. experience. Any Conference-approved booklet or pamphlet goes through a lengthy and painstaking process, during which a variety of A.A.s from all over the United States and Canada read and express opinions at every stage of production. *How To Tell What Is and What Is Not Conference-approved* Look for the statement on books, pamphlets and films: *'This is A.A. General Service Conference-approved literature''* *All 'A.A. Literature'' Is Not Conference-approved* Central offices and intergroups do write and distribute pamphlets or booklets that are not Conference-approved. If such pieces meet the needs of the local membership, they may be legitimately classified as 'A.A*. *literature.'' There is no conflict between A.A. World Services, Inc. (A.A.W.S. - publishers of Conference-approved literature), and central offices or intergroups - rather they complement each other. The Conference does not disapprove of such material. G.S.O. does develop some literature that does not have to be approved by the Conference, such as service material, Guidelines and bulletins. *Available at Most A.A. Groups* Most local A.A. groups purchase anddisplay a representative sampling of Conference-approved pamphlets, and usually carry a supply of hardcover books. Conference-approved literature may be available at central offices and intergroups, or it may be ordered directly from G.S.O. Groups normally offer pamphlets free of charge, and the books at cost. *Copyright* Conference-approved literature is copyrighted with the Copyright Office, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., U.S.A. To insure the continued integrity of A.A. literature, and to make sure the A.A. recovery programs will not be distorted or diluted, permission to reprint must be obtained from A.A.W.S. in writing. However, A.A. newsletters, bulletins, or meeting lists have blanket permission to use the material, providing proper credit is given to insure that the copyrights of A.A. literature are protected. The A.A. Preamble is copyrighted by The A.A. Grapevine, Inc. (not by A.A. World Services). Beneath it, these words should appear: Reprinted with permission of the A.A. Grapevine, Inc. The Steps and Traditions should be followed by these words: Reprinted with Permission of A.A. World Services, Inc. *10/93* F-29 (handwritten) ----- *From:* Susan Krieger [mailto:susank@qis.net] *Sent:* Friday, June 18, 2004 2:14 PM *To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Subject:* Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Re: Conference Approved Literature 12.0pt;"> 10.0pt;">In the 1977 conference actions report: It was suggested tha A.A.groups be 10.0pt;font-family:"Courier New";"> discouraged from selling literature not distributed by the General Service Office and the Grapevine. p44 A Summery: Advisory Actions of the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous 1951 - 1986 susan baltimore ----- Original Message ----- From: "Danny S" To: Sent: Friday, June 18, 2004 2:35 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Re: Conference Approved Literature > The term "Conference Approved" did not even exist in our Fellowship > prior to the First Annual General Service Conference held in April 20- > 22, 1951. Not even the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous could > be "Conference Approved" before that year. > > Today not all AA material distributed through AA has gone through the > rather tedious conference approval processed, nor does it require > approval of the General Service Conference in order to be considered > by members as AA literature. > > All references to use of the term "Conference Approved" in the Report > of the First Annual General Service Conference appears to point > heavily toward the creation of a process by which we could officially > distinguish which literature we hold publishing rights and therefor > control over the proceeds that such literature generates. This also > would establish a firm precedence in order to prevent non-AA entities > from profiting out the sale of AA literature. No small issue. > > There is no written record, to which I am aware that would indicate > that "Conference Approved" should construed by AA members as a "stamp > of approval" for content. > > Peace, > > Danny S > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1875. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Conference Approved Literature From: jbackman1@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/19/2004 5:19:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII In a message dated 6/15/2004 2:31:05 PM Central Daylight Time, meggie1270@wideopenwest.com writes: , There is an unconscious movement to make the term "Conference Approved" mean something that it does not mean. The simple summary of "Conference Approval" is that it is literature written for AA that has been voted on in General Service Conference meetings as representing the thinking of the majority of (US and Canadian) AA groups. It is not a representation that the literature is more right than other literature, only that it does not create substantial disagreement within AA and represents the thinking of AA as a whole. There is other literature, equally revered either locally or internationally, that cannot be "Conference Approved" because it was not written for AA and is either public domain or the copyright is owned by some private source. A general statement that applies is that there is no such thing as "Conference Dis-Approved" literature. All literature is fair grist for AA groups. Within AA history we have the use of the Bible (cf., Anne's morning readings with Bill and Bob), The Upper Room - a periodical meditation pamphlet that I believe was put out by the Episcopal or some other church, "24 Hours A Day" privately written and now owned by the Hazelton Foundation. There is a pamphlet reputed to have been written in Akron and published under the title "A Guide To the 12 Steps" that is not copyrighted and is published by various sources that has seen much use in discussion meetings but is not "Conference Approved" and probably will never be due to its parochial nature. All of these, and more, have at some time been part of various AA groups format for meetings and/or been used by individuals to augment their recovery from alcoholism. There is no point in using the term "Conference Approved" to imply that some literature is acceptable and other literature is not. The stamp just means that in gatherings and votes of our delegates, substantial agreement has been reached about the content and that no minority viewpoint has been trampled upon. The most valuable part of "Conference Approved" on literature is in using it as a source when expressing a viewpoint about AA to non-AAs. If the viewpoint is not in the stamped literature, it is probably a personal opinion and does not represent AA as a whole. That doesn't make personal opinion wrong, only that it is not held in common and it would not be fair to say that "AA says....." Mary, In Michigan Mary's explanation of Conference approval is interesting, but inconsistent with what I have seen and heard at AA meetings around the country. In meetings everywhere, I have heard "oldtimers" express the view that, during closed meetings at least, readings should be limited to Conference approved materials. Though not an oldtimer, I like the oldtimers' approach. Time and again I have heard newcomers, enthusiastic about having a revitalized (or wholly new) spiritual experience, and viewing it as a religious experience, read paragraph after paragraph from the Holy Bible. I love the Bible, but when I want to hear what G-d or Jesus had to say, I go to church or synagogue. When an AA reads a specific portion to me, I feel as though I am being preached to. So I am grateful when oldtimers, as soon as the reading is done, explain to the newcomer that, in meetings, we limit our readings to Conference approved materials. And the newcomer understands that he/she is not being criticized for his/her newfound religious beliefs, but merely being corrected on AA protocol. The one downside of the rule is that it does exclude the Hazelden publication that Mary referenced and other excellent and spiritual writings. But there are plenty of Conference approved meditation books and, as Mary notes, any AA is free to read non-Conference approved materials in the sanctity of his or her home, church, etc. Is there any support in the archives or in other AA history for the approach that I have witnessed being practiced today (in NY, Wisconsin, Chicago, Bloomington and Florida, among other places)? Jon B. Bloomingtion, IL IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1876. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Conference Approved Literature From: Kimball Rowe . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/19/2004 11:08:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII It is highly unlikely that such a rule ever existed, at any time. So much of our literature in "non-conference" approved. Even our Grapevine, "Meeting in Print" is "non-conference" approved literatrue, and yet it contains a section providing suggested meeting topics which we use all the time. Conference approved literature, like the Big Book, requires the collective conscience of our fellowship, thus it must go before the groups, the districts and areas before a conference decision is reached. In the case of the 4th edition of the Big Book, it took 4 years to get the volume to print. Now, can you imagine subjecting the Grapevine, a monthy magazine to that same 4 year process! We'd never have a meeting in print. There is a huge difference between "Conference Approved Literature" and "AA Literature." AA literature is anything that didn't go before the Conference, but is pulished by AA to meet a specific AA need (i.e., Grapevine, service materials, etc.) I also remember reading that Bill had spoken about using the "AA literature" as the basis for carrying the message so as not to dilute or otherwise muddle the message. But I don't know where this would be. The traditions seem to allow for the reading of non-AA literature, so long as the group does not give any endorsement to the outside source. The decision to use non-AA literature should be left up to the only authority that any group has, a loving God, as he may express Himself in the group conscience. In the early years of my sobriety (pre-"Daily Reflections"), the "24 hours a Day", "Stools and Bottles" and "The Little Red Book" were frequently read from. Some groups still use the "24 Hours a Day" book to this day. Kim ----- Original Message ----- From: Roseanne Schofield To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, June 14, 2004 8:20 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Conference Approved Literature Hi everyone, I'm looking for a little information and thought maybe one of you may be able to help. The question arose in one of our groups recently as to whether or not the use of non-conference approved literature by those in the Program was acceptable, or if it constituted a violation of of AA principles. I seem to recall having read something about the use of conference approved literature by AA members--it may have been in a newsletter or at this site, but I searched previous postings and didn't find anything. Did Bill W. speak or write about this in his later years or do you know of any relevant articles? Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. Roseanne S. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1877. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Re: Conference Approved Literature From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/19/2004 9:29:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hello all! I just wanted to mention that I just came back from spending a week in Akron for the Founders' Day celebration there. The Intergroup offices both in Akron & Cleveland have MORE non-conference approved literature for sale than conference-approved literature. Most of these pamphlets were written BEFORE there was conference approval. Thanks for letting me share! Just Love, Barefoot Bill IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1878. . . . . . . . . . . . Results of the Sotheby''s Auction of the Big Book Manuscript From: JoAnne . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/19/2004 11:38:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII > Just had to take a look at Sotheby's this morning to find out what the > auction of the Big Book brought. USD $1,576,000 > > Here's the url, if anyones interested: http://tinyurl.com/33ef4 > > Jo Anne IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1879. . . . . . . . . . . . auction results From: ricktompkins . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/19/2004 12:52:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII In Brief ======== By FELICIA R. LEE Published: June 19, 2004 copyright The New York Times Big Price for Big Book The master copy of the working draft of the book "Alcoholics Anonymous," which belonged to William Wilson, a co-founder of A.A., was sold at auction yesterday for $1.576 million. Sotheby's sold the 161-page manuscript, considered the bible of A.A., to a classic book collector from La Jolla, Calif., said Matthew Weigman, a spokesman. The auction house had estimated the manuscript's price at $300,000 to $500,000. It was offered for sale by an unidentified A.A. member who said he received it from an aunt who knew Wilson. Some collectors and scholars expressed concern that the manuscript's sale would put it out of the reach of scholars interested in studying 12-step programs like A.A., which some consider one of the most important movements of the 20th century. They wanted the manuscript to go to A.A. or to an archive. The typewritten manuscript has a multitude of annotations that showed how the Big Book, as it is known, was very much a group project. Early drafts went to dozens of people, from alcoholics to psychologists. In the manuscript's margins they refined the language and hammered out their philosophy of how only another alcoholic could help an alcoholic stop drinking. It was published in 1939. Wilson, better known as Bill W., founded A.A. with Robert Smith in 1935 and became very much its public face. He died of emphysema in 1971. A 1978 inscription on the manuscript is from Wilson's wife, Lois Wilson (who died in 1988), to a "Barry." Some historians think that is the writer Barry Leach, who wrote a biography of her. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1880. . . . . . . . . . . . God Calling and the Two Listeners From: Mel Barger . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/21/2004 3:49:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Friends: We all know that Rich Walker's "Twenty-Four Hours a Day" has been, and still is, a marvelous meditation book for AA members. Many of us also know that it uses some of the devotional messages from "God Calling," edited by A.J. Russell. Still in print and still popular, "God Calling" was a result of meditations by two English women in the early 1930s (or perhaps the late 1920s). Both women had serious personal problems but found wonderful improvements in their lives when they began to pray together and listen for guidance. A.J. Russell, author of "For Sinners Only," edited these meditations and had them published in their present form. The book was first published by Arthur James in England, and since 1945 has been published in the U.S. by Dodd, Mead and Company. Does anybgody know the identity of the Two Listeners? Mel Barger melba@accesstoledo.com IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1881. . . . . . . . . . . . Tex B. (Sober 2/6/47) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/22/2004 8:21:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII We celebrate the life and sobriety of Tex B., who sadly passed away after this article was submitted for publication. I came into A.A. February 6, 1947 in Skokie, Illinois. I made a telephone call to a friend who I knew was in A.A. and she came to my apartment and attempted to tell me about Alcoholics Anonymous. I was drinking and passed out in the middle of the call. I don't remember taking my last drink. When I woke up, Jo and her husband, Bill, were waiting. They were old drinking companions of mine, but now were in A.A. We did not spend much time on my qualifications as an alcoholic, as this was not in dispute. However, Bill did talk about the nature of alcoholism, that there was no cure, and that I might die an alcoholic. The question was...soon? Or sometime later, sober. Was I willing to do anything to be able to stop my drinking? I thought that this was a rhetorical question but he was insistent, "Are you willing to do anything to stop drinking?" After I gave a shaky, "Yes," he read the Twelve Steps to me. Back in our drinking days Bill and I had had several boozy discussions of our atheism. But now he was talking about a Higher Power and God. I objected. He didn't give an inch, "This is what we talk about in A.A., and we are not going to change it because you don't like hearing about God. You said that you were willing to do anything to stop drinking...I am asking you to keep an open mind about this. I am not asking you to believe in God, just keep an open mind and respect the fact that some of us do believe. He was willing to risk driving me away from A.A. rather than deny or conceal that A.A. was a spiritual program. We talked about the strength of the commitment I was willing to make to the program. He reminded me how much I had put into my drinking, that after I took the first drink my commitment was total (I went on long violent sprees). The strength of my commitment to A.A. should equal or exceed the strength of the insanity of starting to drink again. After I managed to eat a bowl of soup, they left some pamphlets and went home. I read, "20 Questions" (19-yes, 1-no) and "So You Can't Stop Drinking?" (three times). The next night they took me to the home of Bill W. in Mount Prospect and I heard his story and we talked about working the program. I was loaned a copy of the Big Book to read. I first read the book by laying face down on a studio couch with the book on the floor. I shook too much to hold it. Then we met at Bill and Jo's house, where we talked about the Steps. It was decided that I should start working on the Fourth Step because I couldn't/wouldn't work on Two and Three. On the third night, I was taken to a meeting. This was done only after I was sober, had the program explained to me, had made a commitment to a serious effort and they had made a judgment that I really did intend to quit drinking. I think that they felt that if I only had one chance to make it in A.A., they didn't want me to waste it by coming in too soon. At the meeting, they talked about me just like I was not there. "He can't make it, he's too young (29)... You have to be at least 40. He can't have suffered enough." And so on; they really believed that I was too young to get sober in A.A. They wanted me to stay. They hoped I could stay sober but didn't think it would work out. I got mad and this was a blessing. I stayed. In the suburbs, the meetings were held in homes, usually on Thursday night. Refreshments were served after the meeting. In some groups (i.e. Glenview) the spread was lavish, often by those who could least afford it. A few members got drunk over this. Skokie tended to be prudent. On Tuesday night, I was taken downtown to the Chicago Open Meeting. This was in the auditorium of the Olympic Building, 80 W. Randolph. We went early to attend the beginners meeting. When we came out the auditorium was full, 1500-2000 people! It was exciting to see this many alcoholics all at once. I had seen 20 at a group meeting...but 2000! It was a very emotional time for me. I knew that I never had to be alone again. One reason that this meeting was so large was that there were no other open meetings in the Chicago area. I asked why and was told that it was not permitted. I didn't question this for several years. Home group meetings were usually eight to twelve people (what you could get in a living room). The host was responsible for the topic and refreshments. When a group got too big for a living room, the group was split. The group secretary was the treasurer, kept contact with the Chicago Central Office and assigned the Twelfth Step calls. Sometimes they assigned sponsors, who were expected to know why someone had missed a meeting and so on. Sponsorship was formal; the two members making the first call became the new member's sponsors; if for some reason this wouldn't work, the secretary assigned someone else. Sponsorship was serious. The sponsor explained the Steps and gave advice on how to work a Step. He was expected to know what Step the sponsoree was working on, to know what problems he was having and to help if he could. The sponsoree was expected to be honest and open, and to tell the sponsor what was happening in his life. Groups were fewer than now, so the members were closer and more dependent on each other and the group. Often one member would call another just to see if they were still there (of course, you didn't say so). Maybe we were not too sure that this thing was really going to work. Two of the effects of this were strong resentments between members (cabin fever), and the emergence (sometimes) of the group strong man or group Fuhrer. Resentment is the number one offender. It often seemed that the biggest problem we had was resentment of other A.A.s. These resentments were very intense, just why I am not sure. It had something to do with the closeness of the group, relationships; we mirrored each other's faults. My foibles were monstrous and gross in someone else. Because we were A.A.s I expected a much higher standard of behavior from them (and myself), and I was angry. It seemed that it was very important that we all have the same interpretation of the program. We had heated arguments over minor points of doctrine. Because we didn't know how A.A. was keeping people sober, we were, very touchy about anybody with new or different ideas. I suppose we had a gut feeling that they were messing around with the foundations of our sobriety. Sometimes the group was like a pressure cooker. The same old stories and attitudes, week after week. Group pride and loyalty were high. There was fear of leaving the group just because you couldn't stand someone. You would not be welcomed with open arms at another group if they suspected that you were having trouble in your own group. We learned about resentments fast. Emmet Fox's, Sermon on the Mount was as popular as the Big Book. Few people drank over these resentments, the program was supposed to fix things. It usually did. We prayed for each other - alot. The group strong man was like a tribal chieftain who saw to the affairs of "his group." Often he was the oldest member, was retired or could devote a lot of time to his chosen task. If he was benign he was the Sponsor and told everyone what to do and how to do it. If this included personal service the job was a killer. One of these living saints worked tirelessly managing the affairs of a large flock of pigeons. One night he died in his sleep. Fifteen of them got drunk. Another also worked tirelessly, but with A.A. women, always accompanied by his nonalcoholic wife. This was thought to be a great thing until people began to realize that none of the ladies were staying sober. It later developed that he blamed his wife for the loss of a key promotion before he retired. She spent too much money and ruined his credit (this was in addition to his booze bills). He was angry and blamed all women. A different kind of 13 Step work! One man hung around the Chicago office contributing both time and money. "C" did a lot of good work, but he also took most of the Twelfth Step calls west of Oak Park for his group. "C" controlled this group absolutely. After a couple of years sobriety in the Skokie Group, I attended a meeting of "C's" group. "C" sat in state, with his lieutenants on each side, and the attendance was taken. Someone gave a report on each missing member. One poor wretch, a local barber, was banished because he had questioned "C's" wisdom and authority. Members were forbidden to speak to him or have any contact of any kind. It was a speaker meeting so I did not have much of a chance to sample the quality of their brand of A.A., but I was not impressed. I never went back. There were two other groups in the area, "S's group" and "the Colonel's group." Groups had the name of their leader. I went to "S's" group; they invited me to join and would take a vote to see if my A.A. wife could join too. Again, I never went back. The "Colonel's group" had two women, so we went there. It was the best choice, several A.A.s with good sobriety moved in and we had a good group after a few skirmishes to redefine the authority. "C's and S's groups" did not acknowledge any other groups in the area. Members of "C's group" were scattered throughout the area because of "C" taking all of the Twelfth Step calls, and these people were not told that there was a local A.A. group. When they did find out they were told not to associate with any of us. For years after "C's" death they kept apart, until the group just disappeared. The most absolute of the A.A. "bosses" was "J," the founder of the A.A. group in a nearby city. "J" started and nursed the A.A. group. It was successful and as it grew rapidly someone would suggest a split. "J" would assemble the group and give his "Fellows, you can't do this to me" speech; then he would break down and cry .He earned the name of "Crying J." He was successful in preventing any other groups from being established. "J" had good relations with the local police. As a result, one group of dissidents who held their first meeting in a church basement, came out and found parking tickets on every car. Others were denounced as not "real A.A." and meeting places were denied. Gossip was used as a weapon, one group was described to me as "Black A.A., the women and slippers." Serious A.A's went to meetings in nearby towns or moved. The founder and his friends hindered the growth of A.A. in this city for two decades. "J" died a few years ago; there are about 20 groups in his city now. In the beginnings of A.A., these things were possible because we were few in number, and had nobody of experience or tradition to guide us. People would just go to another meeting if this occurred now. We were willing to accept sobriety as evidence of the wisdom and the right to the authority of the founder or old-timer. We now know that sobriety does not mean that the alcoholic has learned how to control the ego and is now qualified as a trusted servant of A.A. In 1950, I attended the first International A.A. Convention in Cleveland. This was a wonderful thing and a wonderful time. Everyone was excited about everything - especially getting to see and hear Bill and Dr. Bob. I was deeply affected by what was obviously Dr. Bob's last talk. I was scheduled to speak at the Chicago open meeting the next week, so I attempted to enhance my prestige by being the messenger to bring back the co-founder's last words. I misquoted him as saying, "Keep It Simple!" I completely missed what he was actually saying about "Love and Service." I sincerely and deeply regret this. There is no solace in the fact that many others did the same thing. The slogan, "Keep It Simple" has become a permanent A.A. cop-out. But Dr. Bob did not say it. What he did say was, "There are two or three things that flashed into my mind on which it would be fitting to lay a little emphasis. One is the simplicity of our Program. Let's not louse it all up with Freudian complexes and things that are interesting to the scientific mind, but have very little to do with our actual A.A. work. Our Twelve Steps, when simmered down to the last, resolve themselves into the words 'Love and 'Service.' We understand what love is, and we understand what service is. So let's bear those two things in mind." On Sunday morning the Spiritual Meeting was held. I was excited by the prospect that I was going to rub elbows with the real heavy hitters in the God department. I do not remember the name of the main speaker but his topic dealt with the idea that the alcoholic was to be the instrument that God would use to regenerate and save the world. He expounded on the idea that alcoholics were God's Chosen People and was starting to talk about 'The Third Covenant," when he was interrupted by shouted objections from the back of the room. The objector, who turned out to be a small Catholic priest, would not be hushed up. There was chaos and embarrassment as the meeting was adjourned. I was upset and was in full sympathy with the poor speaker. I did not realize it at the time, but I had seen Father Pfau in action and Father Pfau was right. I had heard the Group Conscience and I rejected it. The format for an A.A. meeting was much simpler than it is now. Most of the meetings were in homes. The host conducted the meeting, and opened the meeting with a quiet time. Then the topic was introduced (usually a Step), it was discussed and the meeting was closed with the Lord's Prayer. There were no introductory readings and no identification (My name is Jack S. and I am an alcoholic) whenever you spoke. If you had the meeting, you were expected to have a prepared topic. You did not ask, "does anyone have a problem?" hoping to fluff off the fat that you did not prepare-anything. The quality of the program worked by those who were really trying was about the same as it is now. But we had some extra things going for us. In the early days we were closer to the source. I was fortunate enough to be able to talk to the two people who had actually had a spiritual "experience." I think that hearing a second-hand account of Bill's experience in Towns Hospital was a turning point in my life. This was told to me by a close friend and sponsoree of Bill's who had finally had an experience of his own. This kind of contact was available to me. I was able to talk to Bill on the telephone for over an hour. I went on one of Father Pfau's retreats. It was a time of great opportunity. There was a special feeling in being part of something important that was happening. A.A. was beginning its rapid growth and one had the feeling of the Power that was behind the whole thing. Our attitudes about the program were different and this was due to several causes. We did not know just how the program would work for people who were not sure they were alcoholic. It was often suggested to a prospect that they do more drinking, to be sure that they were ready. The prospects were lower bottom than they are now. They were handled differently, Twelfth Step calls were to tell your stories, to explain the A.A. program, give the prospect a chance to back out and finally to make a commitment. A prospect who regarded their situation as a temporary embarrassment or that they were the innocent victim of circumstance was discouraged. I think that there is a difference in how many are really trying. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1882. . . . . . . . . . . . Bill'' Story From: robert . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/23/2004 1:01:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII HI i'm Robert, theres a little poem in bills story maybe spmeone has herd of it i'm sure poeple have Here lies a Hampshire Grenadiar who caught his death drinking cold small beer. A good soldier ne'er forgot wheather he dieth by musket or by pot well what i'm wondering is what that last part means or what the whole thing means i can understand most of it. just that last part any info. on this would be helpful thanx Robert D IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1883. . . . . . . . . . . . "God Calling" & Oxford group From: gentle_bear . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/23/2004 7:46:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII http://www.equip.org/free/DG100.htm "It would appear that even the book's title originated from the Oxford Group. Walter Clark observes: "Expressions such as `God calling'....can be found on nearly every page of the volume of his [i.e., Oxford Group founder Frank Buchman's] collected speech-es" (p.108). We must also remember that Russell edited God Calling for publication." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1884. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Bill'' Story From: J. Lobdell . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/23/2004 6:36:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII "Or by pot" in this context means "or by drink" -- soldiers who got drunk to fight were called "pot valiant" -- I believe the word refers to a "pot" of punch and one XVIIth Century punch recipe is roughly (in modern form) "Take two bottles of whiskey, a bottle of rum, half a pint of peach brandy, mix, add sugar and the juice of fresh lemons, and leave to ferment to itself in a dark place for a couple of weeks, bring out, and serve." (South River Club punch 1695) A potent pot, I think. -- Jared Lobdell >From: "robert" >Reply-To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com >To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com >Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Bill' Story >Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 06:01:09 -0000 > >HI i'm Robert, theres a little poem in bills story maybe spmeone has >herd of it i'm sure poeple have > Here lies a Hampshire Grenadiar > who caught his death > drinking cold small beer. > A good soldier ne'er forgot > wheather he dieth by musket > or by pot >well what i'm wondering is what that last part means or what the >whole thing means i can understand most of it. just that last part >any info. on this would be helpful thanx Robert D > > > >------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> >Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. >Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! >http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/219olB/TM >--------------------------------------------------------------------~-> > > >Yahoo! Groups Links > ><*> To visit your group on the web, go to: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/ > ><*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > AAHistoryLovers-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com > ><*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: > http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- MSN Toolbar provides one-click access to Hotmail from any Web page - FREE download! [84] IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1885. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Tex B. (Sober 2/6/47) From: Glenn Brown . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/23/2004 5:27:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Dear Group...I don't know where Bill Lash got Tex's article...It's not important...But to continue where his writings left off, Tex had a full and fulfilling life before he passed on October 6, 2000. He was active in his Tuesday Night Whiskey Creek Group in West Chicago, Illinois for many years. Some time around 1970 he realized that he was putting too much time in his AA activities and scaled back; he even stopped going to meetings for a while, but found that his home life was filled with problems which no amount of praying and counseling with his minister could solve. He and his wife (a strong Al-Anon) finally divorced. Like so many of us who go through stressful times in our lives, he turned back to getting active in service work, which is where I met him. I was a GSR at the time, and when our District decided to split he and I were on one of the committees which traveled to a number of our groups to determine their group conscience on the subject. Later (much later) after I was divorced, our relationship was rekindled through a Saturday night open meeting. We were married in 1984. Since service work was so important to both of us, I continued to a position in the Area. He went to the Committee meetings with me, and in 1989 he was tapped to be Editor of our Area Newsletter Concepts. As you can see from the article which you quoted, he was an excellent and exciting writer. Concepts ( I always disagreed with the name of our newsletter but lost every time it was brought up for a vote to change it) was published quarterly. Each quarter he would write at least two pretty good size articles on something that was both pertinent to present day AA and always talking about the spiritual nature of our program. He gave many slight digs to our trends toward excessive psychiatric or (as he called it) "psychobabble" comments in our meetings. His reliance on a Higher Power showed through in all his writings and his humility was also in evidence. We both continued in Area service, he as Editor for 12 years and I as chairman of many committees. After he died I found that my friends in AA were the backbone of my life. Since he dropped dead of a heart attack his death was a great shock. My friends helped me through my grief by continuing to elect me to Area service positions which, along with my regular group meetings, keep my life full and fulfilling. I thank my Higher Power almost daily that I had the privilege to be happily married to Tex for 17 years. He was a wonderful man. Barb Brown P.S. Nancy, I don't know if you want to publish this or not, but I was compelled to write after I saw Bill's use of Tex's article. "Lash, William (Bill)" wrote: We celebrate the life and sobriety of Tex B., who sadly passed away after this article was submitted for publication. I came into A.A. February 6, 1947 in Skokie, Illinois. I made a telephone call to a friend who I knew was in A.A. and she came to my apartment and attempted to tell me about Alcoholics Anonymous. I was drinking and passed out in the middle of the call. I don't remember taking my last drink. When I woke up, Jo and her husband, Bill, were waiting. They were old drinking companions of mine, but now were in A.A. We did not spend much time on my qualifications as an alcoholic, as this was not in dispute. However, Bill did talk about the nature of alcoholism, that there was no cure, and that I might die an alcoholic. The question was...soon? Or sometime later, sober. Was I willing to do anything to be able to stop my drinking? I thought that this was a rhetorical question but he was insistent, "Are you willing to do anything to stop drinking?" After I gave a shaky, "Yes," he read the Twelve Steps to me. Back in our drinking days Bill and I had had several boozy discussions of our atheism. But now he was talking about a Higher Power and God. I objected. He didn't give an inch, "This is what we talk about in A.A., and we are not going to change it because you don't like hearing about God. You said that you were willing to do anything to stop drinking...I am asking you to keep an open mind about this. I am not asking you to believe in God, just keep an open mind and respect the fact that some of us do believe. He was willing to risk driving me away from A.A. rather than deny or conceal that A.A. was a spiritual program. We talked about the strength of the commitment I was willing to make to the program. He reminded me how much I had put into my drinking, that after I took the first drink my commitment was total (I went on long violent sprees). The strength of my commitment to A.A. should equal or exceed the strength of the insanity of starting to drink again. After I managed to eat a bowl of soup, they left some pamphlets and went home. I read, "20 Questions" (19-yes, 1-no) and "So You Can't Stop Drinking?" (three times). The next night they took me to the home of Bill W. in Mount Prospect and I heard his story and we talked about working the program. I was loaned a copy of the Big Book to read. I first read the book by laying face down on a studio couch with the book on the floor. I shook too much to hold it. Then we met at Bill and Jo's house, where we talked about the Steps. It was decided that I should start working on the Fourth Step because I couldn't/wouldn't work on Two and Three. On the third night, I was taken to a meeting. This was done only after I was sober, had the program explained to me, had made a commitment to a serious effort and they had made a judgment that I really did intend to quit drinking. I think that they felt that if I only had one chance to make it in A.A., they didn't want me to waste it by coming in too soon. At the meeting, they talked about me just like I was not there. "He can't make it, he's too young (29)... You have to be at least 40. He can't have suffered enough." And so on; they really believed that I was too young to get sober in A.A. They wanted me to stay. They hoped I could stay sober but didn't think it would work out. I got mad and this was a blessing. I stayed. In the suburbs, the meetings were held in homes, usually on Thursday night. Refreshments were served after the meeting. In some groups (i.e. Glenview) the spread was lavish, often by those who could least afford it. A few members got drunk over this. Skokie tended to be prudent. On Tuesday night, I was taken downtown to the Chicago Open Meeting. This was in the auditorium of the Olympic Building, 80 W. Randolph. We went early to attend the beginners meeting. When we came out the auditorium was full, 1500-2000 people! It was exciting to see this many alcoholics all at once. I had seen 20 at a group meeting...but 2000! It was a very emotional time for me. I knew that I never had to be alone again. One reason that this meeting was so large was that there were no other open meetings in the Chicago area. I asked why and was told that it was not permitted. I didn't question this for several years. Home group meetings were usually eight to twelve people (what you could get in a living room). The host was responsible for the topic and refreshments. When a group got too big for a living room, the group was split. The group secretary was the treasurer, kept contact with the Chicago Central Office and assigned the Twelfth Step calls. Sometimes they assigned sponsors, who were expected to know why someone had missed a meeting and so on. Sponsorship was formal; the two members making the first call became the new member's sponsors; if for some reason this wouldn't work, the secretary assigned someone else. Sponsorship was serious. The sponsor explained the Steps and gave advice on how to work a Step. He was expected to know what Step the sponsoree was working on, to know what problems he was having and to help if he could. The sponsoree was expected to be honest and open, and to tell the sponsor what was happening in his life. Groups were fewer than now, so the members were closer and more dependent on each other and the group. Often one member would call another just to see if they were still there (of course, you didn't say so). Maybe we were not too sure that this thing was really going to work. Two of the effects of this were strong resentments between members (cabin fever), and the emergence (sometimes) of the group strong man or group Fuhrer. Resentment is the number one offender. It often seemed that the biggest problem we had was resentment of other A.A.s. These resentments were very intense, just why I am not sure. It had something to do with the closeness of the group, relationships; we mirrored each other's faults. My foibles were monstrous and gross in someone else. Because we were A.A.s I expected a much higher standard of behavior from them (and myself), and I was angry. It seemed that it was very important that we all have the same interpretation of the program. We had heated arguments over minor points of doctrine. Because we didn't know how A.A. was keeping people sober, we were, very touchy about anybody with new or different ideas. I suppose we had a gut feeling that they were messing around with the foundations of our sobriety. Sometimes the group was like a pressure cooker. The same old stories and attitudes, week after week. Group pride and loyalty were high. There was fear of leaving the group just because you couldn't stand someone. You would not be welcomed with open arms at another group if they suspected that you were having trouble in your own group. We learned about resentments fast. Emmet Fox's, Sermon on the Mount was as popular as the Big Book. Few people drank over these resentments, the program was supposed to fix things. It usually did. We prayed for each other - alot. The group strong man was like a tribal chieftain who saw to the affairs of "his group." Often he was the oldest member, was retired or could devote a lot of time to his chosen task. If he was benign he was the Sponsor and told everyone what to do and how to do it. If this included personal service the job was a killer. One of these living saints worked tirelessly managing the affairs of a large flock of pigeons. One night he died in his sleep. Fifteen of them got drunk. Another also worked tirelessly, but with A.A. women, always accompanied by his nonalcoholic wife. This was thought to be a great thing until people began to realize that none of the ladies were staying sober. It later developed that he blamed his wife for the loss of a key promotion before he retired. She spent too much money and ruined his credit (this was in addition to his booze bills). He was angry and blamed all women. A different kind of 13 Step work! One man hung around the Chicago office contributing both time and money. "C" did a lot of good work, but he also took most of the Twelfth Step calls west of Oak Park for his group. "C" controlled this group absolutely. After a couple of years sobriety in the Skokie Group, I attended a meeting of "C's" group. "C" sat in state, with his lieutenants on each side, and the attendance was taken. Someone gave a report on each missing member. One poor wretch, a local barber, was banished because he had questioned "C's" wisdom and authority. Members were forbidden to speak to him or have any contact of any kind. It was a speaker meeting so I did not have much of a chance to sample the quality of their brand of A.A., but I was not impressed. I never went back. There were two other groups in the area, "S's group" and "the Colonel's group." Groups had the name of their leader. I went to "S's" group; they invited me to join and would take a vote to see if my A.A. wife could join too. Again, I never went back. The "Colonel's group" had two women, so we went there. It was the best choice, several A.A.s with good sobriety moved in and we had a good group after a few skirmishes to redefine the authority. "C's and S's groups" did not acknowledge any other groups in the area. Members of "C's group" were scattered throughout the area because of "C" taking all of the Twelfth Step calls, and these people were not told that there was a local A.A. group. When they did find out they were told not to associate with any of us. For years after "C's" death they kept apart, until the group just disappeared. The most absolute of the A.A. "bosses" was "J," the founder of the A.A. group in a nearby city. "J" started and nursed the A.A. group. It was successful and as it grew rapidly someone would suggest a split. "J" would assemble the group and give his "Fellows, you can't do this to me" speech; then he would break down and cry .He earned the name of "Crying J." He was successful in preventing any other groups from being established. "J" had good relations with the local police. As a result, one group of dissidents who held their first meeting in a church basement, came out and found parking tickets on every car. Others were denounced as not "real A.A." and meeting places were denied. Gossip was used as a weapon, one group was described to me as "Black A.A., the women and slippers." Serious A.A's went to meetings in nearby towns or moved. The founder and his friends hindered the growth of A.A. in this city for two decades. "J" died a few years ago; there are about 20 groups in his city now. In the beginnings of A.A., these things were possible because we were few in number, and had nobody of experience or tradition to guide us. People would just go to another meeting if this occurred now. We were willing to accept sobriety as evidence of the wisdom and the right to the authority of the founder or old-timer. We now know that sobriety does not mean that the alcoholic has learned how to control the ego and is now qualified as a trusted servant of A.A. In 1950, I attended the first International A.A. Convention in Cleveland. This was a wonderful thing and a wonderful time. Everyone was excited about everything - especially getting to see and hear Bill and Dr. Bob. I was deeply affected by what was obviously Dr. Bob's last talk. I was scheduled to speak at the Chicago open meeting the next week, so I attempted to enhance my prestige by being the messenger to bring back the co-founder's last words. I misquoted him as saying, "Keep It Simple!" I completely missed what he was actually saying about "Love and Service." I sincerely and deeply regret this. There is no solace in the fact that many others did the same thing. The slogan, "Keep It Simple" has become a permanent A.A. cop-out. But Dr. Bob did not say it. What he did say was, "There are two or three things that flashed into my mind on which it would be fitting to lay a little emphasis. One is the simplicity of our Program. Let's not louse it all up with Freudian complexes and things that are interesting to the scientific mind, but have very little to do with our actual A.A. work. Our Twelve Steps, when simmered down to the last, resolve themselves into the words 'Love and 'Service.' We understand what love is, and we understand what service is. So let's bear those two things in mind." On Sunday morning the Spiritual Meeting was held. I was excited by the prospect that I was going to rub elbows with the real heavy hitters in the God department. I do not remember the name of the main speaker but his topic dealt with the idea that the alcoholic was to be the instrument that God would use to regenerate and save the world. He expounded on the idea that alcoholics were God's Chosen People and was starting to talk about 'The Third Covenant," when he was interrupted by shouted objections from the back of the room. The objector, who turned out to be a small Catholic priest, would not be hushed up. There was chaos and embarrassment as the meeting was adjourned. I was upset and was in full sympathy with the poor speaker. I did not realize it at the time, but I had seen Father Pfau in action and Father Pfau was right. I had heard the Group Conscience and I rejected it. The format for an A.A. meeting was much simpler than it is now. Most of the meetings were in homes. The host conducted the meeting, and opened the meeting with a quiet time. Then the topic was introduced (usually a Step), it was discussed and the meeting was closed with the Lord's Prayer. There were no introductory readings and no identification (My name is Jack S. and I am an alcoholic) whenever you spoke. If you had the meeting, you were expected to have a prepared topic. You did not ask, "does anyone have a problem?" hoping to fluff off the fat that you did not prepare-anything. The quality of the program worked by those who were really trying was about the same as it is now. But we had some extra things going for us. In the early days we were closer to the source. I was fortunate enough to be able to talk to the two people who had actually had a spiritual "experience." I think that hearing a second-hand account of Bill's experience in Towns Hospital was a turning point in my life. This was told to me by a close friend and sponsoree of Bill's who had finally had an experience of his own. This kind of contact was available to me. I was able to talk to Bill on the telephone for over an hour. I went on one of Father Pfau's retreats. It was a time of great opportunity. There was a special feeling in being part of something important that was happening. A.A. was beginning its rapid growth and one had the feeling of the Power that was behind the whole thing. Our attitudes about the program were different and this was due to several causes. We did not know just how the program would work for people who were not sure they were alcoholic. It was often suggested to a prospect that they do more drinking, to be sure that they were ready. The prospects were lower bottom than they are now. They were handled differently, Twelfth Step calls were to tell your stories, to explain the A.A. program, give the prospect a chance to back out and finally to make a commitment. A prospect who regarded their situation as a temporary embarrassment or that they were the innocent victim of circumstance was discouraged. I think that there is a difference in how many are really trying. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1886. . . . . . . . . . . . History of AA in Chicago From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/24/2004 11:17:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The following was written in 1949 by Luke H., who later served Chicago as the elected Panel I Delegate to the 1951 General Service Conference. A. A. in Chicago is a direct descendant of the original group in Akron. The Chicago Group probably ranks fifth in among the larger groups, the earlier ones being Akron, New York, Cleveland and Detroit. Since there are no records to refer to, our place in line may be challenged by some group in the northern Ohio seedbed, of whose history we are not aware of. Nevertheless, Chicago was among the early strongholds of the movement. A former resident of Akron, then living in Evanston, brought it from the fountainhead in the summer of 1937, which may legitimately be regarded as the birth date of A.A. in Chicago, although the first group meeting was then two years in the future. Why did two years have to go by before a group was formed? Looking back, Lonesome No. 1 realizes now that he was being taught an important lesson in A.A. His idea was that a group would spring up at once, as it had in Akron, but in spite of his best efforts at Twelfth Step work, nothing happened. "I went back to Dr. Bob in Akron and asked him what it was I was doing wrong or what I was failing to do. I went back more than once, and each time he told me the same thing: 'When the time is ripe for a group in Chicago, you'll have one.' That's the way it turned out. By September 1939 there were five A.A.s in Chicago, four of whom had sobered up and been indoctrinated in Akron, and the first meeting was held. All six brand new A.A.s and three nonalcoholic spouses gathered at the home of No.1 on a Tuesday night in September. One of the first matters discussed was the obligation to make A.A. available to all in the Chicago area, which meant first establishing a meeting place in the Loop. This historic spot, A.A.'s first home, was the top of two floors of the Medical and Dental Arts Building at Lake and Wabash. The first meeting there was held on a Tuesday night in October 1939. As a bonus for our mass patronage of the 65 cents table d'hote on the topside, we were granted the freedom of the lounge on the floor below. It was convenient and congenial and much good was accomplished there. We gained our first 110 members at Lake and Wabash and held our first New Year's Eve party, with a complete A.A. orchestra for dancing on the restaurant floor. Tuesday night was established as the main meeting night. The feeling that A.A. was an affair for the whole family was fostered from the start, and the practice of inviting nonalcoholic wives and husbands was founded. The system of Thursday group meetings, open only to A.A.s, got its start during this period. Also started at this time was a simple form of set-up committee that handled the few administrative details. This has since developed into the rotating committee, with its appended policy, public relations, finance, and program committees. The programs were simple. Members took turns leading the meetings, and in early months a new man was likely to be called on three weeks after he first showed up. Following the Akron custom, the leader read a few verses of scripture and then told his story. Looking back to those days in the beginning, it is notable that there was never any deviation from the spiritual essence of the program. At that time, as now, the program was accepted as a divine gift beyond questioning. Unlike some other places, Chicago had not suffered from improvements to improve on its founders. The principle of "Easy Does It" became firmly rooted. As Dr. Bob had promised No.1, it came to pass that a group was formed in Chicago, and its subsequent sound growth seems to indicate that it was founded when the time was ripe. Similarly, all of the branching out, the formation of committees and other affairs of that sort have taken place when the need to form them became evident. A.A. in Chicago has revealed its strength of character by never organizing for the sake of organization and never promoting any matters that might overshadow the fundamentals of the program. These things are part of the history of the Chicago Group, and they are impressive because they came to pass early and in a completely natural fashion. Occupation of the Medical and Dental Arts Building ended suddenly after eight months. We made a switch to a $20 private room in the LaSalle Hotel and it was necessary to pass the hat. Up until then, A.A. got along without receiving a nickel. The A.A. spirit burned bright that night. Nearly three times the $20 was collected. Thus, a policy of generous giving came into being. Later we moved to Madison Street. Then the LaSalle Hotel in the old Hamilton Club, then a building on Lake and Wabash, and then back again to the Medical and Dental Arts Building. It was there that the 1940 New Years Eve party was held with a large assortment of sobered-up piano players. By the following spring, a brisk rate of growth was evident. Attendance at meetings ran about 250. The next move in summer, 1945, took us to the YMCA, where we had the use of the auditorium for a small fee and where the cafeteria served prime rib for 45cents. At the Y, the style of program was changed from one or two speakers to a panel. The custom of inviting comment from the floor died out. Another departure was the beginners meeting. At first, this was only a pre-meeting conversation between a sponsor and two of his new patients being helped in one corner of the auditorium. The next week some other new ones asked to sit in and listen, and presently a score or more were making it a weekly custom. A.A. outgrew the YMCA, by the spring of 1944, and we moved to the engineering building on Wacker Drive, a pleasant chamber with a normal capacity of 800. We moved in May 1946, to the current meeting place at 32 West Randolph. Counting all of the stop-offs, it is the eighth meeting place in the group's history, which will end its first decade next September. In that time, membership has grown to 4,000. By way of branching out, the city and the suburban areas served by the Chicago Central Office have 175 neighborhood groups. Each of them, at its Thursday or Friday night meetings, is more equal in numbers to the whole group when it moved downtown. These milestones tell of A.A.'s growth in terms of members, from the beginning to the present. Courtesy, Chicago Area 19 Archives Committee IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1887. . . . . . . . . . . . Publication Listed in 1940 Akron Manual From: Mel Barger . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/24/2004 2:38:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Friends, Some time ago, Glenn Chesnut sent me information about a 1940 Akron Manual which listed books helpful for alcoholics. They are: A Manual for Alcoholics Anonymous: THE AKRON MANUAL, 1940 "The following literature has helped many members of Alcoholics Anonymous Alcoholics Anonymous (Works Publishing Company). The Holy Bible. The Greatest Thing in the World, Henry Drummond. The Unchanging Friend, a series (Bruce Publishing Co., Milwaukee). As a Man Thinketh, James Allen. The Sermon on the Mount, Emmet Fox (Harper Bros.). The Self You Have to Live With, Winfred Rhoades. Psychology of Christian Personality, Ernest M. Ligon (Macmillan Co.). Abundant Living, E. Stanley Jones The Man Nobody Knows, Bruce Barton." I have tracked down all of the publications except "The Unchanging Friend," a series (Bruce Publishing Co., Milwaukee). Bruce now seems to be out of business, although there are a couple of smaller publishing firms listed under that name. They published considerable Catholic-related material and some of it can still be found in libraries. I'm assuming that "The Unchanging Friend" may be a series of essays about Jesus, although that's not certain. Whatever it was, the 1940 AA's in Akron apparently thought it was helpful for alcoholics. I have called the librarian at the Catholic Diocese in Toledo and also the librarian at Lourdes College, a Catholic institution in our area. No luck so far. Any advice or help you can give me would be greatly appreciated. Mel Barger ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger melb@accesstoledo.com IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1888. . . . . . . . . . . . Joe McQ and Charlie Tapes From: caseyosh . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/24/2004 5:47:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Would appreciate anyone who can provide a brief history of the J and C tapes on the Big Book... including when they were initially formulated and first presented privately and/or publicly... Thanks KC IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1889. . . . . . . . . . . . Joe and Charlie From: jeffyour . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/25/2004 7:53:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII as quoted on http://rtfrog.tripod.com/Charlie.html Joe McQ and Charlie P met in 1973 when Joe introduced Charlie as the AA speaker at an ALAnon convention. Joe had wondered if Charlie P might be the country singer Charlie Pride. "he wasn't even the right color," Joe laments. They instantly discovered their mutual fascinations with AA's basic textbook, Alcoholics Anonymous commonly called "The Big Book". What interested them mostly was that The Big Book was written a particular sequence to convey certain ides. That interest became close friendship, which has lasted over 20 years. They would frequently meet to discuss The Big Book, often driving 225 miles to meet in each other's homes. Soon they were planning meetings in hotel rooms at AA conventions in Oklahoma and Arkansas and, within a few years, the meetings grew in popularity. In 1977, some AA members met in a Tulsa, Oklahoma hotel room for a discussion on The Big Book. One member asked Joe and Charlie to come to his home group to present a program on The Big Book. A taping of that presentation was made and called "The Big Book Study". Through the circulation of these audio tapes throughout the Fellowship, Joe and Charlie received invitations to present the Study at AA conventions, roundups and special events. By 1980, there were about eight studies offered each year. At the AA International Convention in New Orleans in 1980, Wesley P, an impassioned AA "Big Booker" from Pompano Beach, Florida, organized a lunch for 1,500 AA members from all over the world and gave away 100 Joe & Charlie tape sets as door prizes. Invitations exploded, and within a couple of years Joe & Charlie were presenting about 36 seminars a year worldwide. These seminars struck a deep chord within the AA members ... for the reaffirmation of "this message" as written April 1939 with the publication of the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous. Big Book Studies presented by Joe & Charlie have been given in all 50 states as well as most Canadian provinces in addition to Australia, New Zealand, England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and Holland. Joe & Charlie have been invited to take the Big Book Study to Iceland in August of 1998. The original Joe, Joe McQ, has had to cut back his traveling in recent years. Oddly enough, another Joe - Joe McC (who was active in the study group since the beginning) has been able to pick up the slack. "where God guides, God provides", as some members say. Joe & Charlie are not paid for their services. In fact, the only financial compensation they receive are their travel expenses, meals, and lodging which are paid for by the independent host committee sponsoring the Big Book Studies. Further, this is in accordance with the AA Guidelines of Conferences & Conventions (MG4), published by the General Service Office. In the past 24 years, an estimated 200,000 members of various 12 step programs have experienced the spiritual benefits of these collective seminars. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1890. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Joe and Charlie From: denezmcd@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/25/2004 6:43:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII In May 1980 I heard the tapes of Joe McQ. & Charlie P. and there were only two tapes at that time. Later they became 4 tapes, then 6 tapes, then 9 tapes and now there are 12 tapes. It would be interesting to know when all the tapes were first made. Thanks for any imput on this. LOL, Inez IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1891. . . . . . . . . . . . A Teen Agers Decision From: rebosjoey@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/25/2004 9:23:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I would like to locate some Imfo. on the lady who wrote a Teen Agers Decision in the 3rd Edition Big Book, Any tapes email address or anything. Thank You Joey in Tulsa rebosjoey@aol.com IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1892. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Joe and Charlie From: Jan Baldwin . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/25/2004 11:04:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII There is also a book that goes along with these tapes- "A Program For You" I highly recommend getting it, as it is a complimentary piece of information to the tapes. JanB ----- Original Message ----- From: "jeffyour" To: Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 7:53 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Joe and Charlie > as quoted on http://rtfrog.tripod.com/Charlie.html > > Joe McQ and Charlie P met in 1973 when Joe introduced Charlie as the > AA speaker at an ALAnon convention. Joe had wondered if Charlie P > might be the country singer Charlie Pride. "he wasn't even the right > color," Joe laments. > They instantly discovered their mutual fascinations with AA's basic > textbook, Alcoholics Anonymous commonly called "The Big Book". What > interested them mostly was that The Big Book was written a > particular sequence to convey certain ides. That interest became > close friendship, which has lasted over 20 years. > > They would frequently meet to discuss The Big Book, often driving > 225 miles to meet in each other's homes. Soon they were planning > meetings in hotel rooms at AA conventions in Oklahoma and Arkansas > and, within a few years, the meetings grew in popularity. > > In 1977, some AA members met in a Tulsa, Oklahoma hotel room for a > discussion on The Big Book. One member asked Joe and Charlie to come > to his home group to present a program on The Big Book. A taping of > that presentation was made and called "The Big Book Study". Through > the circulation of these audio tapes throughout the Fellowship, Joe > and Charlie received invitations to present the Study at AA > conventions, roundups and special events. By 1980, there were about > eight studies offered each year. > > At the AA International Convention in New Orleans in 1980, Wesley P, > an impassioned AA "Big Booker" from Pompano Beach, Florida, > organized a lunch for 1,500 AA members from all over the world and > gave away 100 Joe & Charlie tape sets as door prizes. Invitations > exploded, and within a couple of years Joe & Charlie were presenting > about 36 seminars a year worldwide. > > These seminars struck a deep chord within the AA members ... for the > reaffirmation of "this message" as written April 1939 with the > publication of the first edition of Alcoholics Anonymous. Big Book > Studies presented by Joe & Charlie have been given in all 50 states > as well as most Canadian provinces in addition to Australia, New > Zealand, England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden > and Holland. Joe & Charlie have been invited to take the Big Book > Study to Iceland in August of 1998. > > The original Joe, Joe McQ, has had to cut back his traveling in > recent years. Oddly enough, another Joe - Joe McC (who was active in > the study group since the beginning) has been able to pick up the > slack. "where God guides, God provides", as some members say. > > Joe & Charlie are not paid for their services. In fact, the only > financial compensation they receive are their travel expenses, > meals, and lodging which are paid for by the independent host > committee sponsoring the Big Book Studies. Further, this is in > accordance with the AA Guidelines of Conferences & Conventions > (MG4), published by the General Service Office. > > In the past 24 years, an estimated 200,000 members of various 12 > step programs have experienced the spiritual benefits of these > collective seminars. > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1893. . . . . . . . . . . . Join the Tribe From: Ed Witte . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/25/2004 4:36:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII One of my favorite stories from the Third Edition was "Join the Tribe". It was pure poetry. Someone in our local group said the author did not remain sober & his story was therefore deleted from the 4th edition. Does anyone know the story of this Canadian Maliseet Indian? Any help is appreciated. Thank you IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1894. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Join the Tribe From: Bruce Lallier . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/28/2004 10:35:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Ed, he did remain sober, at least through the 70's when I saw him last. He lived in the Bridgeport Ct. area and remained active volunteering at the Bridgeport jail where I worked in the late 70's. I moved to western Pa. in the 80's and have not seen him since. He was very dedicated and well liked by all. Bruce Lallier Conneaut Lake Pa.----- Original Message ----- From: "Ed Witte" To: Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 5:36 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Join the Tribe > One of my favorite stories from the Third Edition was "Join the Tribe". > It was pure poetry. Someone in our local group said the author did not > remain sober & his story was therefore deleted from the 4th edition. > > Does anyone know the story of this Canadian Maliseet Indian? > > Any help is appreciated. > > Thank you > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1895. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Join the Tribe From: Jay Lawyer . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/27/2004 10:30:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I had the privilege of hearing Maynard speak at the Purdy's group. I believe that is in Westchester County. That was back around 1990 or so. It was the Purdy groups 3rd anniversary. Maynard lived up around Danbury, Connecticut. I have not heard of the whereabouts of Maynard for awhile. As for the reason of taking his story from the 4th edition I have no idea. Jay Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Join the Tribe One of my favorite stories from the Third Edition was "Join the Tribe". It was pure poetry. Someone in our local group said the author did not remain sober & his story was therefore deleted from the 4th edition. Does anyone know the story of this Canadian Maliseet Indian? Any help is appreciated. Thank you IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1896. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Join the Tribe From: kopnor . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/27/2004 11:23:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII --- In AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com, Ed Witte wrote: > One of my favorite stories from the Third Edition was "Join the Tribe". > It was pure poetry. Someone in our local group said the author did not > remain sober & his story was therefore deleted from the 4th edition. > > Does anyone know the story of this Canadian Maliseet Indian? > > Any help is appreciated. > > Thank you His name is maynard. I don't know his last initial. He died sober a few years back. I use to see him at the Maine area Roundup. You can find out more about him by going to the biography section of the History lover's messages. His biography is there. Just look for join the tribe 2nd edition. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1897. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: "Join The Tribe" From: Dennis Mardon . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/28/2004 7:26:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I believe Maynard, the author of the 3rd edition Big Book story, "Join the Tribe" stayed sober. My understanding of the reason why "Join the Tribe" was removed from the 4th Big Book edition was that a fair number of native North Americans expressed the opinion to GSO that the language of the story was too stereotypical and could therefore be offensive to some members and potential members. I met Maynard in Kent, Connecticut in 1990 and recall the language of the story reflected how he actually spoke and I was disappointed at what sounded like 'political correctness' creeping into the AA committee work. Dennis M. > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2004 16:36:56 -0500 > From: Ed Witte > Subject: Join the Tribe > > One of my favorite stories from the Third Edition was "Join the Tribe". > It was pure poetry. Someone in our local group said the author did not > remain sober & his story was therefore deleted from the 4th edition. > > Does anyone know the story of this Canadian Maliseet Indian? > > Any help is appreciated. > > Thank you IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1898. . . . . . . . . . . . Any info on blue card read at many meetings? From: victoria callaway . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/1/2004 9:01:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The blue card, a service piece is read before our meetings, and I would like if someone could back it up with some history to it? Thnaks vicki IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1899. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Any info on blue card read at many meetings? From: Arthur . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/2/2004 10:56:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Vicki The 'blue card'' definitions of open and closed meetings are part of a series of Conference advisory actions emphasizing AA's primary purpose. The 'blue card'' is sometimes called the 'primary purpose'' card.'' It was first recommended by the 1986 Conference, adopted by the 1987 Conference and reaffirmed by the 1988 Conference. Below, is a timeline history of Conference advisory actions related to AA's primary purpose: *1968 *It was recommended that: AA groups in correctional facilities and hospitals adhere to AA's Fifth Tradition, on primary purpose of carrying the message to the alcoholic. That anyone with problems other than alcohol be made welcome at inside open meetings, but not participate in group activities. *1969 *It was recommended that: Guidelines be prepared outlining procedures for AA members to follow in working with institutions and ways of informing the nonalcoholic staff about AA. The following committee recommendations are to be included in the guidelines: a. AAs attending meetings at prisons or hospitals should be selected carefully so that relations with the institution's staff remain harmonious. b. AA's position on membership in institutional groups be defined as follows: We cannot give AA membership to nonalcoholic narcotic addicts and other unrelated groups or organizations. AA groups in institutions can welcome anyone with problems other than alcohol to inside open meetings, but it is suggested that they do not speak or otherwise participate in these meetings. *1970 *It was recommended that: The wording of the 1969 Institutions Committee recommendation concerning the definition of AA's position on membership in institutions groups be changed to read as follows: Open meetings are traditionally open to all interested in AA, but should be devoted exclusively to the alcoholic problem. Closed meetings should traditionally be restricted to alcoholics. *1972 *It was recommended that: The Conference reaffirm AA group policy that "Only those with a desire to stop drinking may be members of AA groups; only AA members are eligible to be officers of AA groups; nonalcoholics are welcome at open meetings of AA." And, it is suggested that the word "family" not be used in the name of an AA group; if AA's and their nonalcoholic mates wish to meet together on a regular basis, they consider these gatherings "meetings" and not AA groups. (Floor Action) *1985 *It was recommended that: The following be inserted in the pamphlets "If You Are a Professional" and "How AA Members Cooperate": The only requirement for membership in AA is a desire to stop drinking. If the person is not sure about this point, then he or she is most welcome to attend an open AA meeting. If the person is sure that drinking is not his or her problem, then he or she may wish to seek help elsewhere. *1986 *It was recommended that: A service item for use at AA meetings regarding AA's primary purpose be developed by the appropriate trustees' committee and proposed to the appropriate Conference committee at the 1987 Conference. *1987 *It was recommended that: The following statement regarding AA's primary purpose be available as an AA service piece. THIS IS A CLOSED MEETING OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS This is a closed meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. In support of AA's singleness of purpose, attendance at closed meetings is limited to persons who have a desire to stop drinking. If you think you have a problem with alcohol, you are welcome to attend this meeting. We ask that when discussing our problems, we confine ourselves to those problems, as they relate to alcoholism. The following statement regarding AA's primary purpose be available as an AA service piece. THIS IS AN OPEN MEETING OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS This is an open meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. We are glad you are all here--especially newcomers. In keeping with our singleness of purpose and our Third Tradition which states that "The only requirement for AA membership is a desire to stop drinking," we ask that all who participate confine their discussion to their problems with alcohol. *1988 *It was recommended that: The Primary Purpose Card continue as a service piece. *1990 *It was recommended that: "The AA Membership Survey" pamphlet, the one-way display and the poster be updated to reflect the findings from the 1989 Membership Survey. "The AA Membership Survey" pamphlet, the one-way display and poster reflect all the findings of the 1989 Membership Survey. The answer to Question #14 in the AA survey pertaining to drugs should be presented as follows: "In addition to their alcoholism X% of members indicated they were addicted to drugs," and include the disclaimer "AA's primary purpose is recovery from alcoholism." *1992 *It was recommended that: The 1992 AA Membership Survey Questionnaire be changed as follows: a. Add item "f' to Question #3: "this is my fist AA meeting." b. Revise item "1" of Question #5 to read: "Newspaper, magazine, radio or TV." c. Change Question #9 to read: "Do you belong to an AA Home Group?" d. Revise item "a" of Question #10 to read: "Do you have a sponsor?" e. Change item "b" of Question #10 to read: "Did you get a sponsor within 90 days of coming to AA?" That Question #14, "In addition to your alcoholism, were you addicted to drugs?" be removed from the 1992 AA Membership Survey Questionnaire because the question: a. emphasizes problems other than alcohol; b. has a tendency to lead to disunity; c. could be construed as conflicting with our primary purpose. *1997 *It was recommended that: The following statement regarding Singleness of Purpose be added to the C.P.C. pamphlets: "Alcoholics Anonymous in Your Community," "AA and Employees Assistance Programs," "AA as a Resource for the Health Care Professional," "How AA Members Cooperate With Professionals," "If You Are a Professional," and "Members of the Clergy Ask About Alcoholics Anonymous" under the title "Singleness of Purpose and Problems Other Than Alcohol" at the next printing: "Alcoholism and drug addiction are often referred to as 'substance abuse' or 'chemical dependency.' Alcoholics and nonalcoholics are, therefore, sometimes introduced to AA and encouraged to attend AA meetings. Anyone may attend _open _AA meetings. But only those with a _drinking _problem may attend _closed _meetings or become AA members. People with problems other than alcoholism are eligible for AA membership _only _if they have a drinking problem." Cheers Arthur 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;"> ----- *From:* victoria callaway [mailto:vickicool2003@yahoo.com] *Sent:* Thursday, July 01, 2004 9:01 PM *To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Subject:* [AAHistoryLovers] Any info on blue card read at many meetings? 12.0pt;"> 10.0pt;">The blue card, a service piece is read before our meetings, and I would like if someone could back it up with some history to it? Thnaks vicki ----------------------------------------------- *Yahoo! Groups Links* · To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/ · To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: AAHistoryLovers-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com · Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service [1] . IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1900. . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. Silkwork Birthday Celebration, W.Long Branch NJ, 7/24/04 From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/3/2004 3:37:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII You are cordially invited to the first annual Dr. Silkworth birthday celebration! Saturday, July 24, 2004 at 3:00PM At his gravesite in Glenwood Cemetery, Route 71 (Monmouth Rd.), West Long Branch NJ. Speakers: Barbara Silkworth (a family member) and Ruth O'N. (who got sober on April 14, 1948 & knew Silky). Dr. William Duncan Silkworth is the author of the "Doctor's Opinion" in the Big Book "Alcoholics Anonymous" and is known as a friend to millions of alcoholics worldwide. He worked with Bill Wilson, AA's co-founder in N.Y.C., after Bill finally got sober in 1934. He gave deep understanding and great encouragement to an infant society in the days when a lack of understanding or a word of discouragement might easily have killed it. He freely risked his professional reputation to champion an unprecedented spiritual answer to the medical enigma and the human tragedy of alcoholism. Without his blessing, our faith might well have died in its birth. He was a luminous exception to the rule that only an alcoholic understands an alcoholic. He knew us better than we knew ourselves, better than we know each other. Many of us felt that his medical skill, great as that was, was not at all the full measure of his stature. Dr. Silkworth was something that it is difficult even to mention in these days. He was a saintly man. He stood in an unusual relationship to truth. He was able to see the truth of a man, when that truth was deeply hidden from the man himself and from everyone else. He was able to save lives that were otherwise beyond help of any kind. Such a man cannot really die. We wish to honor this man, a gentle doctor with white hair and china blue eyes. Dr. Silkworth lived on Chelsea Avenue in Long Branch, attended Long Branch High School where he has been inducted in that school's Hall of Fame, graduated from Princeton University, and lived for a while in Little Silver. He was born on July 27, 1873 and died on March 22, 1951. His relatives that still carry the Silkworth name live in Oceanport NJ. PLEASE BE SURE TO BRING A LAWN CHAIR OR SOMETHING TO SIT ON. If you have any questions please call Barefoot Bill at 201-232-8749 (cell). Directions: Take the Garden State Parkway (north or south) to Exit 105 (Route 36), continue on Route 36 approximately 2.5 to 3 miles through 5 traffic lights (passing Monmouth Mall, two more shopping plazas, and several automobile dealerships). Watch for green road signs stating "Route 71 South, West Long Branch and Asbury Park" (this is before the sixth light). Take this turnoff to the right, past Carriage Square and bear right onto Route 71 (Monmouth Road.) Glenwood Cemetery appears very quickly on the left. The entrance is marked by two stone pillars and the name. Once inside the cemetery, bear left, go up the hill and make the first right (a hard right). The gravesite is near the first tree on the right. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1901. . . . . . . . . . . . Reel to Reel tape restoration From: kopnor . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/6/2004 12:02:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi I am Richard K. . I am a member of the Maine area archives committee. We have a reel to reel tape of the 1955 St.Louis convention. We would like to know if there is a lot of these tapes in circulation. this tape is over 50 years old. We are wondering if we will run into any difficulties restoring this tape. Maybe someone has some ideas they might have on this subject. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1902. . . . . . . . . . . . 4th Step Guides From: lawrence . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/7/2004 10:27:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Dear AA friends, I'm collecting 4th step guides. I have a xerox copy of a lenthy one, about 28 full pages, starting with General Instructions "Buy paper and pen and start writing." etc. Then there's the main part called "Revised Fourth Step Guide" starting with 'Why a "Revised edition"? The original Fourth Step Inventory, written over 10 years ago, needed revision for three reasons. 1. Two major areas were not ncluded in the original inventory and are in this one: military service (including Vietnam) and Alanon."' Then there are lengthy sections on Family, Your Childhood, Religion, Kindergarten and Early School, Your Sexual Life, Adolescence, etc. etc. Is this lengthy and very detailed 4th Step Guide available online so I could download it? I do have a similar one which I found on a couple sites, starting with the following: "A Searching, Fearless, Moral, Inventory 4th Step Guide The history of this 4th Step Guide is vague but it has been attributed to anonymous members of Alcoholics Anonymous. Various versions could be found on early recovery computer bulletin boards (BBS). One version was dubbed "The California 4th Step Guide" as it was believed that the originators were located in California. Another version "suggested" that a person should have at least 5 years of recovery before using this guide. In any event this guide has well over 300 questions for a person to answer starting with your childhood years, through adolescence, and into your adult life. The guide works for all 12 step programs as the guide is not specific to any particular program. The guide has a very good set of general directions for doing a 4th step." Etc. Perhaps the one I have a xerox of is an earlier version of this one, one, but I'd love to find a copy of the first one I could download. Thank you for any help on this, or suggestions of other 4th Step guides I should know about. Yours in sobriety, Larry G. in Placitas, NM. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1903. . . . . . . . . . . . Beginner''s Meeting Format From: Linda . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/8/2004 8:20:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I thought I had posted before but I don't see it so, I'll try again. Does anyone have a good meeting format for Beginner's Meetings? Thanks, Linda D "Florida Keys" IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1904. . . . . . . . . . . . two questions From: john . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/10/2004 5:33:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I have a 4x6 card which lists the first three books and has the price of each AA 4.50, 12&12 2.75 and AA Comes of Age 4.00 at the top it atates (You may wish to use this as a book mark) Does anyone know when this card was pbulished by AA I have a pamphlet This is AA in the burgandy cover. The only reference to age is a note that states 11th printing. When was this published? John Wikelius 301 North Rawls Street Enterprise, Alabama 36330 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1905. . . . . . . . . . . . Loners International From: kopnor . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/12/2004 3:04:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I have heard that the loners international group is the largest group in AA. Is this true. I would also like to know if Captain Jack was the official founder of the loners international. I also would appreciate it if someone could tell me if there is a biography or story available on Captain Jack. Richard K. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1906. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Loners International From: Jim S. . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/12/2004 1:10:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII From page 7, Box 459, Vol. 50, June-July 2004: "Staff Report: Loners are A.A.s who are unable to attend meetings because there are no groups nearby. There are about 210 Loners in 57 countries. Seagoing A.A.s, known as Internationalists, number about 73 as well as 55 Port Contacts. We now have 185 Homers, A. a .s who are housebound due to illness or physical disability. Homers, Loners, and Internationalists stay sober by sharing with each other through letters, tapes, and e-mails. Each new Loner, Homer, and Internationalist receives a directory of members, a subscription to Box 459, and the Loners/Internationalists Meeting-By-Mail (LIM), a confidential bi-monthly bulletin which shares excerpts of letters received at G. S. O. from LIM members. There are also over 475 Loner Sponsors, who share A. A. activities and personal experience." From LIM, Volume 13, No. 1, January/February 1988: "...Note: for those who might not know, Capt. Jack is the founder of A. A. Internationalists. ........" From LIM, Volume 29, No. 2, March/April 2003: "OVERVIEW OF LIM HISTORY" "The first LIM bulletin, printed in 1949 as The Internationalists Round Robin, was a few pages of excerpts from letters received at G. S. O. and mailed to a small band of Internationalists determined to stay sober no matter how isolated they were. By 1963, the bulletin consisted of 5 or 6 one-sided pages, mimeographed on blue paper. In 1976, an A. A. Loners meeting merged with the original Internationalists meeting. Since the March-April 1980 issue, LIM has been printed on the familiar yellow pages. Lim began through the efforts of Captain Jack S., a sailor who found sobriety in A. A. and understood that to maintain sobriety he needed to reach out to other members through correspondence. Initially, Captain Jack was looking for A. A. contacts in port cities when he wrote a letter to G. S. O. dated March 28, 1946. Captain Jack requested information on A. A. contacts because he was "...still at sea on oil tankers, on which I have served for ten years. I have few contacts ashore with A. A., and have to rely on the Book and the guy upstairs." A G. S.O. staff member provided Captain Jack with the names of A. A. contacts in port cities, and encouraged him to write to other seagoing members, which he did. After the publication of a three-part article, "A `Loner' at Sea," by Captain Jack in the October, November, and December 1948 issues of the A. A. Grapevine, plans began to take shape to start an Internationalists meeting-by-mail. Letters responding to that Grapevine article prompted another G.S.O. staff member to suggest to Captain Jack that he consider starting a "Round Robin Meeting" via letters. Captain Jack responded positively and suggested the name be "The Far East International Group." he said the name `...would leave it open to members stationed ashore in the Far East and also to men who sail these waters under flags of different nations." Captain Jack died in December 1988 at age 91, a few months after celebrating his 42nd A. A. anniversary. He had remained active in the Fellowship, seeking newcomers in Portland, Maine, where he had retired, while continuing to answer the many letters he received. Some of A. A.'s phenomenal worldwide growth is attributed in part to Captain Jack and hundreds of Internationalists like him who, sailing the seven seas, carried the message wherever they dropped anchor." It's my understanding that the Pacific Group in California has well over 1000 members, which would make it larger than LIM. Jim S. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1907. . . . . . . . . . . . AA on the Internet From: Gary Becktell . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/12/2004 10:41:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Does anyone have any info on the early days of AA on the Internet, and the Bulletin Boards that preceded the Internet? Thank you. G gk@kitcarson.net IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1908. . . . . . . . . . . . Older Grapevine Question From: rrecovery1984 . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/12/2004 8:08:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I am area archivist and we are often donated older Grapevines. The duplicate ones, I give to the Institution and jail reps to bring to hospitals and jails but I just can't bring myself to donate thirty or forty year old ones. Any other people have this problem? I would rather trade for ones we are missing. Any suggestions? IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1909. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Older Grapevine Question From: Mel Barger . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/13/2004 8:45:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Instead of donating the old Grapevines, a better way would be to find the articles on the new Digital Archive and print them out for institutions. This will serve the same purpose and will allow you to save your old GVs as treasures. I understand that there's no problem in making these printouts as long as it's not for commercial purposes. And it can be done very cheaply on your printer. Mel Barger ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger melb@accesst ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger melb@accesstoledo.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "rrecovery1984" To: Sent: Monday, July 12, 2004 9:08 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Older Grapevine Question > I am area archivist and we are often donated older Grapevines. The > duplicate ones, I give to the Institution and jail reps to bring to > hospitals and jails but I just can't bring myself to donate thirty or > forty year old ones. Any other people have this problem? I would > rather trade for ones we are missing. Any suggestions? > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > > __________________________________________________________ > This message was scanned by GatewayDefender > 9:17:42 AM ET - 7/13/2004 > IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1910. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: AA on the Internet From: Martha Brummett . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/13/2004 9:20:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Subject: AA on the Internet > Does anyone have any info on the early days of AA on the Internet, and the Bulletin Boards that preceded the Internet? Thank you. G There was a FidoNet forum called A.A. SiP (for Singleness in Purpose, s/h/b S of P) in the mid to late eighties. I vividly recall the exchange of messages as a woman in Nashville got sober and got directed to her first meeting. I can't recall any names really. I participated from around 1986 to 1992 or so. Supposedly all the FidoNet stuff was archived, but that was a long time ago, and there was an effort in this forum to maintain anonymity. Martha Brummett Denver CO IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1911. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Older Grapevine Question From: ricktompkins . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/13/2004 7:10:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII You neglected to say what Delegate Area Archives you serve... I would suggest that after your Grapevines are duplicated into two sets, place the older extras with your Area's District archives. Does your Area's largest Intergroup hold an archives collection? There's another destination! Make sure you get a stamp that will print "courtesy of Area xx Archives." From my own past experience, our general service archives grows by giving, not swapping.. Rick T., Illinois past Area 20 Archivist ----- Original Message ----- From: "rrecovery1984" <> To: Sent: Monday, July 12, 2004 8:08 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Older Grapevine Question > I am area archivist and we are often donated older Grapevines. The > duplicate ones, I give to the Institution and jail reps to bring to > hospitals and jails but I just can't bring myself to donate thirty or > forty year old ones. Any other people have this problem? I would > rather trade for ones we are missing. Any suggestions? IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1912. . . . . . . . . . . . THE A.A. MESSAGE IN PRINT-SUMMARY OF DISTRIBUTION From: JOHN REID . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/14/2004 3:48:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Below are the literature piece that are updated annually. Service Material from the General Service Office THE A.A. MESSAGE IN PRINT-SUMMARY OF DISTRIBUTION First Printing through December 31, 2003 Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book) English (First printing - 1939) Hardcover (B-1) 15,845,956 Softcover (B-30) 6,713,109 Large Print (B-16) 241,712 Pocket/abridged (B-35) 1,163,732 Total: 23,964,509 Spanish (First Printing - 1962) Hardcover (SB-1) 53,561 Softcover (SB-30) 495,032 Pocket/abridged (SB-35) 68,024 Total: 616,617 Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions English (First Printing - 1952) Hardcover (B-2) 7,842,858 Pocket Size (B-17) 412,778 Softcover (B-15) 2,254,309 Large Print (B-14) 120,208 Gift Edition (B-4) 1,386,176 Total: 12,016,329 Spanish (First Printing - 1985) Softcover (SB-15) 357,325 Pocket Size (SB-17) 37,440 Total: 394,765 Other Formats Audio Cassettes: Big Book (MB-1) 79,659 Big Book (MB-1A) 490 Twelve & Twelve (MB-2) 38,937 Big Book CD ROM (M-70) 517 Big Book Audio CD (M-81) 1,235 Spanish Big Book (SMB-1) 6,839 Spanish Twelve & Twelve (SMB-2) 11,320 Braille: Big Book (M-34) 2,766 Twelve & Twelve (M-35) 1,717 ASL Video: Big Book (VS-1) 1,910 Computer Disk: Big Book (M-53) 7,234 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1913. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: AA on the Internet From: Susan Krieger . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/14/2004 1:12:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The West Baltimore site went up 6/26/94, about the time the WWW went up. According to Archives at GSO we are the first and we have sent them a copy of the first site as it went up and also a copy of the Baltimore Intergroup as originally published. Contact Al W. welsch@a-1associates.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gary Becktell" To: Sent: Monday, July 12, 2004 8:41 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] AA on the Internet > Does anyone have any info on the early days of AA on the Internet, and > the Bulletin Boards that preceded the Internet? Thank you. > G > gk@kitcarson.net > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1914. . . . . . . . . . . . Beginners'' Meeting Format From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/14/2004 4:35:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII For Linda D (Florida Keys), You wrote in on July 8th asking, "Does anyone have a good meeting format for Beginners' Meetings?" Several early pamphlets for newcomers including material designed for beginners' lessons can be found on the Hindsfoot Foundation website: http://hindsfoot.org/archives.html One pamphlet on that website comes from Detroit (1943) and four came from Akron (the earliest published in late 1939 or early 1940, and the others only a few years later at most). The four from Akron give us a very good and detailed picture of what early Akron A.A. people believed and practiced. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Detroit Pamphlet is one which I do know will work very effectively for beginners. On Monday night, June 14, 1943, the North-West Group at 10216 Plymouth Road in Detroit began holding a set of four beginners' meetings (which were repeated over and over again for years). There were so many people coming into A.A. by that point, that the old-timers could no longer give each newcomer the same kind of individual, one-on-one instruction that they had used in the beginning. So the most knowledgeable old-timers sat as a panel at the front of the room, with the beginners gathered in front of them. The introductory material for that particular class was read, and then the newcomers were allowed to ask questions of the old-timers. Like everything else in early A.A., anything that seemed to be working well was rapidly circulated all over the country, and the first printed version was actually produced in Washington D.C., so that some A.A. people still associate these Beginners' Lessons with that city instead of Detroit. But Jack H. in Scottsdale, Arizona, who has done the most careful study on the whole topic of Beginners' Lessons and other early A.A. readers, says that Detroit published its own printed version not long afterwards, probably only a few months later. Just a few years ago I know, copies of The Detroit Pamphlet were still obtainable from the Greater Detroit A.A. office Alcoholics Anonymous of Greater Detroit in Ferndale, Michigan, for a modest cost. In the early 1990's, The Detroit Pamphlet was used very successfully in northern Indiana, so it still works just as well today. In Elkhart, they had a Saturday morning Beginners' Meeting which was structured a little like the original Detroit meetings. An old-timer would preside over the meeting and give a short talk at the beginning on one of the steps. Submarine Bill in particular found that a talk based on The Detroit Pamphlet worked better than anything he had ever used over the years. Then (in Elkhart) the newcomers were allowed to speak, going around the table in turn, much like an ordinary A.A. discussion meeting. It did require a powerful personality like Submarine Bill's (he was used to giving orders to a whole submarine full of sailors, and having those orders obeyed!) for a single person to keep control of a group of newcomers that large (usually thirty or forty people). In South Bend, Indiana, what was called the Golden Key Group was set up in 1990, where each person was given a copy of the pamphlet, and then they went around the huge table, with each person reading two or three paragraphs of that Discussion (The Detroit Pamphlet divides the steps into Four Discussion sessions). Then each person in turn was allowed to speak on something that had been read that evening. (The original Detroit printed version was filled with an awful lot of typographical errors which made it hard to read, so the South Bend people completely re-set the type, but without changing a single word, so it's the same text as the original. The South Bend version is the one which is on the Hindsfoot Foundation website.) In its heyday, of the newcomers who went to the Golden Key Group every Thursday evening without fail for an entire year, 90% remained sober for that entire year. And even today, 90% of those who made it through that first year without a slip are still sober. That's around an 80% success rate. (The idea that only EARLY A.A. could ever have that kind of success rate is a total myth. There are different kinds of strategies that work -- there is no one single formula which must be used -- but there are still meetings in northern Indiana today which achieve that kind of 75% to 80% success rate. Nobody gets sober who doesn't keep on coming to A.A. meetings, but that is hardly the program's fault! Modern medicine can control diabetes with insulin shots and proper diet, but nobody blames the medical doctors when people who refuse to follow these directions get sick and die horribly.) But back to the Golden Key Group. It eventually ended up dying because of a combination of (1) its enormous success and (2) lack of responsibility among the South Bend people with some time in the program. (1) Treatment centers and halfway houses began bringing in bus loads of newcomers, literally, as word spread of how extraordinarily well this Beginners' Meeting worked, and then (2) in response to these floods of newcomers, the people with time in the program gradually began to quit coming in the years that followed. It turned out that, because of its discussion meeting format, it required at least four or five people with a little bit of significant time in the program be present to keep the discussion on track. By the end of the line, it was just me and maybe one other person trying to manage thirty or forty people from halfway houses and treatment centers, many of whom only wanted to wallow in self-pity and complain about "how badly" the place they were in was treating them. And it just doesn't work effectively that way -- you don't put the inmates in charge of the insane asylum! We were all crazy people when we first came in, or I was, anyway -- ask anybody who knew me during my first year, and they will start laughing so hysterically that's it really embarrassing for me even now! -- and when we were newcomers, we needed the people who had a little bit of time in the program to help us slowly find our way towards a little greater sanity. So my advice here is that if you want to set up a Detroit Pamphlet Beginners' Meeting of that sort, most of your work is going to be getting some of the people with significant time in the program to show up and participate and make some real long term commitment. The Twelfth Step says that this should be a primary responsibility for everyone in the program who has worked through the first eleven steps. When people shirk this responsibility, A.A. in their community can no longer flourish and grow. I should say that, in my experience, every one of the twelve steps is a marvelous learning experience. And strangely enough, I have found myself that Twelfth Step work (in the sense of working with newcomers and participating in Beginners' Meetings and things of that sort) gives more insight and personal growth than any of the other steps. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Some people also think very highly of The Little Red Book: An Interpretation of the Twelve Steps of the Alcoholics Anonymous Program for Beginners' Meetings. In the 1940's, the Nicollet Group in Minneapolis, Minnesota, required newcomers AND their spouses to attend Twelve Step Study Classes which were conducted by Ed Webster and Barry Collins along with other members of the group who had some time in the program. Mimeographed copies of the lecture notes Ed Webster wrote up for these classes began circulating all around the United States. Their lesson plans were used in Canada too: in 1946, for example, the Nicollet Group received a letter from an A.A. group in Edmonton (in Alberta) telling them how successful the mimeographed version had been there. The first printed version was published in Minneapolis in August 1946 as The Little Red Book by the "Coll-Webb Company," which meant that Barry Collins and Ed Webster had it printed themselves. Hazelden took over publishing and distributing the book later on, and keeps a version of The Little Red Book in print today. Jack H. in Scottsdale, Arizona, has a copy of the original 1946 printed edition, which he puts on display at A.A. conferences. The 50th Anniversary Edition which Hazelden published in 1996 claims to be a reprint of that original edition, but Jack says that it was actually a reprint of a slightly later edition. The reason this is an issue, is because Jack (who has tracked all the different versions down) says that Ed Webster himself kept on making revisions in the little book all the way to the end of his life. So the regular version which you can buy from Hazelden today is different in various ways from the original printed edition which came out in 1946, and even that 50th Anniversary Edition isn't quite the same as the original 1946 version. Here in my part of Indiana, I am told that there are groups in Fort Wayne for example which still use The Little Red Book for meetings on a regular basis (or this was certainly true only a few years ago), and I understand that it is also still very much in use in various other places all over the United States and Canada. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ But then A.A. hit a crisis in the late 1980's and early 1990's, where some of the younger leaders began insisting that no one was allowed to read ANYTHING except "conference approved" literature. A.A. began being cut off from its historical roots, and falling into greater and greater triviality, and achieving lower and lower success rates. The only opposing force has been the Archival Movement that arose during that same period: Nancy O. and the AAHistoryLovers Group, and Gail LaC.'s role in helping set up the first National Archives Workshop in Akron, and other grassroots archival efforts which arose at that time all over the United States, fortunately began to play a role as significant counter-forces. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ But the understanding back in the early days, as far as I can tell, was that any piece of printed material WHICH WAS SPONSORED BY AN A.A. GROUP (the Nicollet Group in Minneapolis for The Little Red Book and the A.A. group in Daytona Beach, Florida, for Twenty-Four Hours a Day) was automatically assumed to be perfectly acceptable for reading in meetings by any other A.A. groups in the world. That seemed to have been the key: if that pamphlet or little book been sponsored by an A.A. group somewhere then it was perfectly O.K. for other A.A. groups to use. In early A.A. the New York office took this position too: something that is written and printed by the members of one A.A. group is totally legitimate to read in A.A. meetings anywhere else. Dr. Bob and Bill W. both put themselves on record as supporting that principle. Jack H. in Scottsdale, Arizona, has a copy of The Little Red Book which Dr. Bob had personally made notes on, making suggestions to Ed Webster for changes or additions to be made in the next edition. It is obvious that Dr. Bob gave his O.K. to the four Akron pamphlets also. Bill W. wrote to Ed Webster in November 1950 and said "we are not policemen" here at the New York headquarters, "AAs are free to read any book they choose." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Usually in early A.A. (though not necessarily, since each A.A. group is completely autonomous and can read anything it wants to) books and pamphlets which were not sponsored by a particular A.A. group were only read outside of formal A.A. meetings. In early A.A. in South Bend, Indiana, for example, little groups would gather in people's homes to read and talk about the latest Golden Book, but they would not call these "A.A. meetings" in the formal sense. They were just little private groups of A.A. members gathering on their own. The Golden Books were printed and distributed by Ralph Pfau (Father John Doe) on his own. They had marked on the title page that they were published by the "SMT Guild," which meant the "Society of Matt Talbott," which in turn meant Father Ralph himself and the three nuns who served as his secretaries and helpers in the convent in Indianapolis where he lived as confessor to the sisters. Ralph got along O.K. with the A.A. groups in Indianapolis where he was based, but none of the Indianapolis groups officially sponsored these Golden Books, and he basically had to do that on his own. Likewise, the books on the early Akron A.A. recommended reading list (Emmet Fox's Sermon on the Mount, James Allen's As a Man Thinketh, Henry Drummond's The Greatest Thing in the World, Ernest Ligon's Psychology of Christian Personality, and so on) were not usually, to the best of my knowledge, read from or used for providing meeting topics in formal A.A. meetings. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On the other hand, A.A. groups all around the country had books which were on this Akron list for sale for A.A. members to purchase. Mel B. (sober 1950) bought two books from this list in Detroit A.A. when he was first getting sober. When I asked Brooklyn Bob here in South Bend whether there was any rule in early A.A. about "only reading conference-approved literature," he snorted and laughed and said, "We read anything we could get our hands on that might get us sober!" Real early A.A. was like that, intensely pragmatic -- these were not rule-bound uptight people who thought that you could get people sober by repeating mechanical formula phrases and preventing the members from ever reading or hearing anything that was not approved by the tiny circle of people who led the organization -- all the really good old-timers whom I have interviewed have had that same kind of marvelously free and flexible spirit as Brooklyn Bob had, they're just wonderful people. So if A.A. people who had some sobriety under their belts in various parts of the country said, "Yeah, that book by Emmet Fox, The Sermon on the Mount, sure helped me and some of our other members when we first came in -- it doesn't work for everybody, you know, but for some of us it really opened our eyes as to what we were supposed to be doing when we were working the steps" -- then A.A. people in other parts of the country would read it and see if it helped them. And if it helped enough people there, then it would be made available for sale at their A.A. group or their intergroup office, and newcomers would be encouraged to read it if it seemed appropriate to that particular person's central problems. And contrariwise, I remember when one of John Bradshaw's later books was literally driving some susceptible people over the edge into full-fledged psychosis, where their attempts to use his methods to come into contact with their "Inner Child" did so much psychological damage that they had to be institutionalized for several years afterwards. I'm not kidding, they were genuinely and literally driven insane by the traumatic stuff that started coming out of their subconscious minds. It was only a few people who were driven literally insane in this way, but the word nevertheless spread through responsible A.A. circles in my part of northern Indiana: Do NOT give that book to newcomers, or anybody else, it's too dangerous. Do NOT sell that book at the intergroup offices. WARN people who start talking about reading that book about how dangerous it is. We can't play games like that with people's lives. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ But the idea which sprang up in the late 1980's and early 1990's, that somehow or other it wasn't "proper" for an A.A. group or intergroup to sell helpful books that weren't published by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services in New York is another thing that is threatening to cut A.A. off from its historical roots. The New York office never ever had the money to publish all the useful books that could help a recovering alcoholic, and still doesn't today. The traditions forbid A.A. itself from having the kind of wealthy publishing houses that some of the larger religious denominations have (Abingdon Press, Fortress Press, Augsburg Press, Westminster Press, Loyola University Press, Ave Maria Press, and so on, for the Methodists, Lutherans, Roman Catholics, and the other large church organizations). Therefore we MUST to a certain extent rely on individuals to publish some of the literature which A.A. needs in order to be successful. The important thing is to make it clear at all times that several people who get together to publish some books on A.A. cannot claim any official A.A. connection in anything that shows up in public, even if all of them are A.A. members. Likewise, an A.A. group itself cannot get involved in the enormous monetary expense of publishing a full sized book -- this can sometimes require thousands of dollars for the initial investment. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Also, just for myself, I would prefer that A.A. books of this sort be published on a totally nonprofit basis if at all possible, just as Richmond Walker did when he was printing and distributing his Twenty-Four Hour book. I have a rule for myself that I will not be involved in publication ventures involving any kind of program-related material, unless the group publishing it is a genuine nonprofit organization which exists only to help alcoholics. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ At any rate, Linda, I hope that some of these materials may give you some useful ideas. Having a set of Beginners' Meetings for newcomers is an old A.A. tradition that goes back to the early 1940's in many parts of the United States and Canada. Glenn C. (South Bend, Indiana) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1915. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: THE A.A. MESSAGE IN PRINT-SUMMARY OF DISTRIBUTION From: Rob Childs . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/14/2004 8:21:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;">Do you know how to get an ascii version of the big book? Is that the computer disk or CD version? If so, how does one order a copy? 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;"> -----Original Message----- *From:* JOHN REID [mailto:johnyr1@iprimus.com.au] *Sent:* Wednesday, July 14, 2004 3:49 AM *To:* aaHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Subject:* [AAHistoryLovers] THE A.A. MESSAGE IN PRINT-SUMMARY OF DISTRIBUTION 12.0pt;"> Below are the literature piece that are updated annually. Service Material from the General Service Office THE A.A. MESSAGE IN PRINT-SUMMARY OF DISTRIBUTION First Printing through December 31, 2003 *Alcoholics Anonymous (Big Book)* English (First printing - 1939) Hardcover (B-1) 15,845,956 Softcover (B-30) 6,713,109 Large Print (B-16) 241,712 Pocket/abridged (B-35) 1,163,732 Total: 23,964,509 Spanish (First Printing - 1962) Hardcover (SB-1) 53,561 Softcover (SB-30) 495,032 Pocket/abridged (SB-35) 68,024 Total: 616,617 *Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions** * English (First Printing - 1952) Hardcover (B-2) 7,842,858 Pocket Size (B-17) 412,778 Softcover (B-15) 2,254,309 Large Print (B-14) 120,208 Gift Edition (B-4) 1,386,176 Total: 12,016,329 Spanish (First Printing - 1985) Softcover (SB-15) 357,325 Pocket Size (SB-17) 37,440 Total: 394,765 Other Formats Audio Cassettes: Big Book (MB-1) 79,659 Big Book (MB-1A) 490 Twelve & Twelve (MB-2) 38,937 Big Book CD ROM (M-70) 517 Big Book Audio CD (M-81) 1,235 Spanish Big Book (SMB-1) 6,839 Spanish Twelve & Twelve (SMB-2) 11,320 Braille: Big Book (M-34) 2,766 Twelve & Twelve (M-35) 1,717 ASL Video: Big Book (VS-1) 1,910 Computer Disk: Big Book (M-53) 7,234 12.0pt;"> IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1916. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: AA on the Internet From: soul . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/15/2004 6:43:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The Online Service Conference has a nice page on AA History on the Internet Here is the link http://www.aa- onlineserviceconference.org/history_online_aa.htm#AA%20on%20the% 20Internet . soul --- In AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com, "Gary Becktell" wrote: > Does anyone have any info on the early days of AA on the Internet, and > the Bulletin Boards that preceded the Internet? Thank you. > G > gk@k... IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1917. . . . . . . . . . . . 4th Edition Big Book From: chillydog012001 . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/13/2004 5:34:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I am interested in the years and General Service Conference votes that took place in order to publish the 4th Edition of the Big Book. How many votes took place and what was the general consensus at the group level. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1918. . . . . . . . . . . . principles before personalities... From: Stanley . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/15/2004 2:04:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I'm new to this mailing list; but certainly not new to A.A. (16 years sobriety) and I have a question that I hope someone familiar to A.A. history could help me with. I've read most of the books sanctioned by A.A.; but can't remember how the last part of the 12th Tradition came into being. The "...principles before personalities" part. I am really excited about this mailing list! Stan ********************************************************************** Stanley Koehler In the heart of the Ozarks stanley4756@mchsi.com Springfield, MO ********************************************************************** IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1919. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Re: AA on the Internet From: Mark Warner . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/15/2004 12:29:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII soul wrote: > The Online Service Conference has a nice page on AA History on the > Internet Here is the link http://www.aa- > onlineserviceconference.org/history_online_aa.htm#AA%20on%20the% > 20Internet . http://www.aa-onlineserviceconference.org/history_online_aa.htm#AA%20on%20the% 20\ Internet [85] http://tinyurl.com/3qk69 -- Mark Warner IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1920. . . . . . . . . . . . Report from the Moderator From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/16/2004 2:37:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Friends, A few items: 1. As of tomorrow, July 17, I will be out of town for a few days and the AA history lovers will be inactive. I will be at Shreveport, LA for a talk to the Louisiana Association of Substance Abuse Counselors and Trainers, Inc. If any members of the list will be present I would be delighted to meet you. 2. I have been doing a post every month of significant dates in AA history. I have been unwell for the last several week and have not had the energy to finish the July list. Is anyone willing to take this over for me? As my sources I use the 2004 Sobriety Calendar PLUS this website: Sobriety Anniversaries [86] BTW, July 21, 1980, Marry Mann suffered her fatal stroke. She died the next day. I sorely miss her. 3. I may also have to turn the AA history list over to someone else in the near future -- at least temporarily. At least temporarily. I warn that it is very time consuming so a single, retired person might be the ideal. 4. As of today there are 901 members of the list. Each day it seems to advance by one or two members, then suddenly ten members will disappear. The mysteries of the Internet. I think it has something to do with "bouncing," whatever the devil that means. If anyone can explain it, this ol' gal would be appreciative. I hope you are all having a good summer and that I will meet some of you in Louisiana over the next few days. Fondly, Nancy Olson Moderator IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1921. . . . . . . . . . . . Principles before personalities From: marathonmanric . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/16/2004 8:57:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hello AAHistory Lovers, My understanding of that phrase in the 12th tradition (...ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.) has always been the realization that there are no expert personalities or occupations in AA. No Doctors or clergy which many have a "hand up" on the recovery process. If you are a member of Alcoholics Anonymous and, in turn, have a desire to stop and stay stopped drinking, you are also just another recovering alcoholic, and we all learn from each other. We learn the same principles and our recovery is not based on any type of personality. Ric the GratefulCamel in Miami IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1922. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: principles before personalities... From: Arthur Sheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/16/2004 10:58:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Stanley and welcome on board. What follows is a bit of long answer to your short question. A useful place to get a sense of the context of the Traditions is their long form. Tradition 12's long form is: And finally, we of Alcoholics Anonymous believe that the principle of Anonymity has an immense spiritual significance. It reminds us that we are to place principles before personalities; that we are actually to practice a genuine humility. This to the end that our great blessings may never spoil us; that we shall forever live in thankful contemplation of Him who presides over us all. Below is a timeline of some milestones in the evolution of the Traditions. SOURCE REFERENCES: AACOA - AA Comes of Age, AAWS GTBT - Grateful to Have Been There by Nell Wing (soft cover) LOH - The Language of the Heart, AA Grapevine Inc PIO - Pass It On, AAWS SM - AA Service Manual and Twelve Concepts for World Service, AAWS 1942 Correspondence from groups gave early signals of a need to develop guidelines to help with group problems that occurred repeatedly. The basic ideas for the Twelve Traditions emerged from this correspondence and the principles defined in the Foreword to the first Ed. of the Big Book. (AACOA 187, 192-193, 198, 204, PIO 305-306, LOH 154) 1945 April, Earl Treat, founder of AA in Chicago (Big Book Story: He Sold Himself Short) suggested to Bill W that he codify the Traditions and write essays on them in the Grapevine. (AACOA 22, 203, GTBT 54-55, 77, SM S8, PIO 306, LOH 20-24) August, the Grapevine carried Bill W's first article (Modesty One Plank for Good Public Relations) and set the groundwork for Bill's 5-year campaign for the Traditions. The July Grapevine edition had an article by member CHK of Lansing, MI about the Washingtonians. Bill used this article to begin his essay commentaries. 1946 April, the Grapevine carried Bill W's article Twelve Suggested Points for AA Tradition. They would later be called the long form of the Twelve Traditions. (AACOA viii, 96, 203, LOH 20, 154) 1949 As plans for the first Int'l Convention were under way, Earl T suggested to Bill W that the Twelve Suggested Points for AA Tradition would benefit from revision and shortening. (AACOA 213 says it occurred in 1947) Bill, with Earl's help, set out to develop the short form of the Twelve Traditions. (AACOA 213, GTBT 55, 77, PIO 334) November, the short form of the Twelve Traditions was first printed in the AA Grapevine. The entire issue was dedicated to the Traditions in preparation for the forthcoming Cleveland Convention. Two wording changes were subsequently made to the initial version: "primary spiritual aim" was changed to "primary purpose" in Tradition Six, and "principles above personalities" was changed to "principles before personalities" in Tradition Twelve. (LOH 96 and copy of Nov 1949 Grapevine) 1950 Jul 28-30, AA's 15th anniversary and first International Convention at Cleveland, OH. An estimated 3,000 attendees adopted the Twelve Traditions unanimously. (AACOA 43, LOH 121, PIO 338) ----- Original Message ----- From: Stanley To: A.A. History Sent: Thursday, July 15, 2004 2:04 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] principles before personalities... I'm new to this mailing list; but certainly not new to A.A. (16 years sobriety) and I have a question that I hope someone familiar to A.A. history could help me with. I've read most of the books sanctioned by A.A.; but can't remember how the last part of the 12th Tradition came into being. The "...principles before personalities" part. I am really excited about this mailing list! Stan ********************************************************************** Stanley Koehler In the heart of the Ozarks stanley4756@mchsi.com Springfield, MO ********************************************************************** IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1923. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Principles before personalities From: Danny S . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/16/2004 2:39:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII In Tradition 12, is about "anonymity". In the long form, "principal before personalities" is in reference back to the word "anonymity". It describes a reminder which anonymity gives us. The other reminder born out of anonymity is humility. The subject of "nonprofessional" versus "professional" is addressed in Tradition 8, not 12. Hope this is helpful Peace, Danny S IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1924. . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. Bob''s Tattoos From: Roger Dowdy . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/19/2004 12:47:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I'm looking for additional information regarding Dr. Bob's tattoos (i.e. location, where he got them, etc.). Here's all I've been able to find thus far (thanks to Silkworth.net): A tattoo he wore the rest of his life was probably from those days at Dartmouth: a dragon and a compass tattoo. The dragon wound around his left arm from the shoulder to the wrist. It was blue with red fire. His son thinks "he had to have been drunk to have it put there, and you didn't do something that complicated in a day. When I asked him how he got it, he said, 'Boy, that was a dandy!' And it must have been, too." Many thanks, in advance! -Roger IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1925. . . . . . . . . . . . The Upper Room and its influence on early A.A. From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/20/2004 12:28:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII After some years of searching, I have just found some copies of The Upper Room from 1938 and 1939. This was the meditational book which most A.A. people used to read every morning during the early period (1935-1948). Reading through them proved to be even more insightful than I had dreamed. You can get a real feel for the simple but incredibly deep Christian piety of Anne Smith, and you find meditation after meditation where it almost seems as through you are sitting in a very good modern A.A. meeting. I have made some excerpts of typical readings which illustrate the kind of influence which The Upper Room had on early A.A. In order to format it in a way that will be readable, I have had to organize it in a way that cannot be set up in an e-mail. So I apologize for having to do it this way, but you will be able to read these passages by clicking here: http://hindsfoot.org/UpRm1.html (it is also listed if you click on "A.A. Historical Materials" over on the left hand side in the general Hindsfoot website at http://hindsfoot.org ). The Oxford Group of course had the largest single influence on early A.A. Many of the twelve steps were simply developments of Oxford Group teachings. However, the second most important influence may well have come from The Upper Room. For the first thirteen years, A.A. members studiously read it every morning and thoroughly internalized its values, and its conception of the spiritual life. These ideas became so totally ingrained in the spirit and traditional teaching of A.A. that they survive even now, well over half a century after A.A. people stopped using these little meditational books. Glenn C. (South Bend, Indiana) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1926. . . . . . . . . . . . The Early Akron A.A. Reading List, Part 1 of 5 From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/20/2004 11:56:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ================================ The Early Akron Recommended Reading List: The Works It Contained and their Significance for Understanding Early Akron A.A. Glenn C. (South Bend, Indiana) ================================ PART ONE: A pamphlet entitled A Manual for Alcoholics Anonymous, often referred to as the Akron Manual, was written and published by early Akron A.A. at a very early period, as an introductory booklet to hand to newcomers when they began the detoxification process. [Note 1] Based on things that are mentioned in the Manual, it was most probably put together during the summer or fall of 1939, and certainly no later than 1940. A copy of it can be found at http://hindsfoot.org/AkrMan1.html (the first half) and http://hindsfoot.org/AkrMan2.html (the second half) on the Hindsfoot Foundation website ( http://hindsfoot.org ). So this small pamphlet is an extraordinarily valuable document. It is a little window opening into the world of early Akron A.A. shortly after the Big Book first started coming off the press. ~~~~~~~~~~ At the very end of the Akron Manual it says "the following literature has helped many members of Alcoholics Anonymous," and then it gives a list of ten works as a kind of recommended reading list: Alcoholics Anonymous (Works Publishing Company). The Holy Bible The Greatest Thing in the World, Henry Drummond. The Unchanging Friend, a series (Bruce Publishing Co., Milwaukee). As a Man Thinketh, James Allen. The Sermon on the Mount, Emmet Fox (Harper Bros.). The Self You Have to Live With, Winfred Rhoades. Psychology of Christian Personality, Ernest M. Ligon (Macmillan Co.). Abundant Living, E. Stanley Jones. The Man Nobody Knows, Bruce Barton." ~~~~~~~~~~ THE BIBLE was the second item on the list, right behind the Big Book. But earlier in the pamphlet it was made clear that there were certain places in the Bible that they wanted the newcomers to especially focus on: the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7, the letter of James, 1 Corinthians 13, and Psalms 23 and 91. This was a typical early twentieth-century Protestant liberal selection of passages to emphasize, but they were also especially useful for A.A. purposes because none of them required the newcomer to believe in the divinity of Christ or that salvation could only be found by praying to Jesus. ~~~~~~~~~~ EMMET FOX, The Sermon on the Mount, is still well known to A.A. people today. He was a major representative of an American religious movement called New Thought, which was connected to, but also different from, Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science movement. Among present-day American religious denominations, Unity Church is the largest group using that basic kind of approach. Emmet Fox's position was strongly Christian in its orientation, although the kind of Protestantism he represented was clearly in the liberal camp. Please note that nineteenth and early twentieth-century New Thought was most definitely NOT the same as "New Age," which was a late twentieth-century movement involving claims that its practitioners were able to do spirit channeling and use the mystical properties of crystals, and things of that sort. New Age sometimes include beliefs drawn from Wicca -- that is, ancient witchcraft -- and other unconventional religious ideas. Or to put it another way, New Thought was fundamentally Christian in its orientation, whereas New Age is for the most part extremely hostile to Christianity. ~~~~~~~~~~ JAMES ALLEN, As a Man Thinketh (34 pages long). He published his book in 1908 or a little before. I would also put his ideas in the same general category as New Thought, even though he was English. He may or may not have read any of the American authors in the general New Thought genre, which is why I hesitate to call him "New Thought" in the narrow sense of the term. ~~~~~~~~~~ HENRY DRUMMOND, The Greatest Thing in the World (45 pages long). His book was a beautiful commentary on 1 Corinthians 13. He was closely associated with Dwight L. Moody in the 1870's, so we might describe him as one of the best examples of the richness and depth of thought which we can find in some parts of the nineteenth century evangelistic movement. Drummond was a Scotsman, who was Professor of Natural Science at the College of the Free Church of Scotland, and had written a book (famous in his lifetime but forgotten today) called Natural Law in the Spiritual World, which was an attempt to make peace between science and religion. This is important, because early A.A. had no sympathy whatsoever with religious people who were completely anti-scientific in their attitudes and who tried to deal with modern science by rejecting its findings. Early A.A. realized that there was a spiritual dimension of reality which went beyond anything which the scientific method could investigate, but they also realized that the profound discoveries of modern science could neither be denied nor neglected. The modern evangelical movement, at its beginnings in the 1730's and 40's, had an enormously respectful attitude toward the new science. Both Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley, the movement's two greatest theologians, were deeply interested in Newtonian physics, the new biological discoveries, modern medicine, electricity, and modern psychology. The evangelical movement remained positive in its attitude to modern science down through most of the nineteenth century, as we see in Henry Drummond. But then the Fundamentalist movement, with its often negative attitude toward modern science, began developing in a series of events which took place in 1895-1919. [Note 2] ~~~~~~~~~~ E. STANLEY JONES, Abundant Living (first came out in 1942, 156 pages long). Chapter 6-10 is one of the best discussions of prayer that I have ever read. He ends up that section with a discussion of guidance and entering the Divine Silence. If Richmond Walker did not read this book, he read something in that tradition (there were similar kinds of material in The Upper Room for example). At any rate, this book helps enormously in understanding more of what Walker was doing in his selection and modification, in the fine print sections of Twenty-Four Hours a Day, of various passages from God Calling by Two Listeners. Chapter 6 of E. Stanley Jones' book begins with a section on "Prayer is Surrender," and Chapter 8 is entitled "The Morning Quiet Time." Jones gives a good deal of detail on what we are supposed to be doing during this Morning Quiet Time, including talking about the role of the subconscious in the process, how to deal with the problem of "wandering thoughts," and what to do when we are confronted with what the medieval tradition called aridity (where it doesn't "feel" like we are in real contact with God, and where we have extraordinary difficulty forcing ourselves to pray at all). On both of these latter issues, I suspect that he as a Methodist had read John Wesley's Standard Sermons, including especially Wesley's sermons on "Wandering Thoughts" and "Heaviness through Manifold Temptations." John Wesley in the 1740's was one of the two major theoreticians of the modern evangelical movement during its beginning years. He was an Anglican priest who taught theology and classics at Oxford University in England for a number of years, but ended up becoming a traveling revival preacher who founded the Methodist movement. His work was thoroughly scripturally grounded - - he knew the New Testament by heart in the original Greek, and knew not only Old Testament Hebrew, but also several other ancient Semitic languages. Yet he and Jonathan Edwards (the other major formative evangelical thinker of the 1730's and 40's) both made skillful use of the work of the seventeenth-century British empiricist John Locke, who invented modern psychology, and both of them knew that a knowledge of psychology was necessary for understanding how to preach the gospel effectively and produce real moral change in people's lives. It is totally incorrect to believe that good evangelical theology and modern psychology are opposed to one another. What gave the evangelical movement so much power during its early period was its use of the best psychology of its period. John Locke had discovered not only the basic principles of behavioral psychology and operant conditioning, but had also discovered the way early childhood traumas could continue to influence adult behavior in negative ways. And he also made the first serious studies of the profoundly psychologically disturbed who were confined in insane asylums and discovered "the inner logic of insanity" which affected these people. Wesley, who knew Locke's work forwards and backwards, was the first person I have read in the modern period who used the term "psychotherapy" - - though of course as a teacher of classics at Oxford University, it was used by him in the original Greek form as psyches therapeia (!!!) Wesley said that good psychotherapy (which meant "the healing of the soul") was what true scriptural Christianity was actually about. And although he did not use the word subconscious, he anticipated Sigmund Freud by over a century in his understanding of the distinction between conscious thought and the subconscious layer underneath which creates so many of our spiritual problems. And like Freud he realized that this subconscious material came out in both free association and dreams. Around fifty years ago, Protestant seminaries all over the country began putting people on their faculties with professional degrees in psychology and psychotherapy to teach counseling techniques to their students. I had to pass an exam in psychotherapy and counseling to obtain my degree from the seminary at Southern Methodist University, and that was back in 1964. The best books and articles on practical psychology today are being published by conservative evangelical theologians, who seem to have a better understanding of what is important. But most Christian pastors in the United States today know that there is no conflict between good spirituality and good psychotherapy. ~~~~~~~~~~ IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1927. . . . . . . . . . . . The Akron Reading List Part 3 of 5 From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/21/2004 12:06:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII [The Akron Reading List Part 3 of 5] ================================ PART TWO: But simply on the basis of what has been learned from this Akron reading list so far, and from other things we know about the period, we can definitely state that early Akron A.A. was influenced by all the following six strands of thought: 1. VIA THE OXFORD Group and we know not what other sources, it was strongly influenced by the Augustinian tradition of salvation sola gratia (by grace alone) and the concept of Original Sin. The latter implied the necessary imperfectibility of human beings after Adam and Eve's fall from grace, and also the horrendous potential for evil which lay in the human heart. This could have come from good Roman Catholic theology and spiritual literature, or works involving a good sixteenth-century Protestant understanding of salvation (Luther's Bondage of the Will, etc.) mediated through a Methodist synergistic understanding of the relationship between God and man in the work of salvation. But it is very strong Augustinianism which we see in the Big Book: pride is the central sin, and so on and so forth. It was this which saved A.A. from the central weakness of classical Protestant liberalism. The Protestant Neo-Orthodox movement had in fact already begun, and Reinhold Niebuhr (its greatest American representative) taught at Union Theological Seminary in New York from 1928 till his retirement in 1960. Protestant Neo-Orthodox thinkers put the Augustinian doctrine of salvation by grace alone, the doctrine of Original Sin, and the concept of human pride as the root of all evil, at the heart of their theology and stressed the importance of these three concepts in everything that they wrote. Father Sam Shoemaker, Bill Wilson's early spiritual supporter and guide, would have certainly known about what was going on at Union, which was after all right there in the same city, because of its extraordinary importance within American theological studies. The five top doctoral degree granting schools in the field of theology at the national level were Yale, Union in New York City (which was associated with Columbia University), Chicago, Harvard, and Princeton. I am increasingly beginning to think that some sort of contact with the Protestant Neo-Orthodox movement via first or second-hand contact with Union Theological Seminary in New York would have been a very likely way that early A.A. could have developed some of the ideas that A.A. historian Ernie Kurtz has written about: the strong emphasis upon (a) our human imperfectibility and (b) that we human beings are Not-God but simply finite and limited members of the created realm, which means that as long as we keep on trying to play God we will continue to sink into ever greater evil. As Karl Barth put it in the Romsbriefe (his famous commentary on the Apostle Paul's Letter to the Romans, published in 1919, which began the twentieth-century Neo-Orthodox movement), we will never be able to hear God's "Yes" until we first hear God's "No" to all our human presumption and arrogant claims to be the masters of the universe ourselves. 2. CLASSICAL Protestant liberalism: see the article I have written which is on the Hindsfoot Foundation website at http://hindsfoot.org/ProtLib.html And behind these nineteenth and early twentieth-century Protestant liberals lay the thinkers of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment: authors and philosophers like Voltaire, Kant, and Jonathan Swift in Europe and the British Isles, and in America major leaders like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington. A.A. people were very much children of the Enlightenment from the very beginning, and even more so by the late 1940's and 50's, when a good many of the remaining connecting links to Christianity began rapidly to be broken. A.A. is committed to the basic Enlightenment philosophy down at the visceral level. This is what they will instinctively fight for above all else. There is no way that a historian who is not deeply familiar with the principles of the Enlightenment can understand A.A. at all. 3. NEW THOUGHT: this is very important, and has to be studied in order to understand a good deal of what was going on in early A.A. And one of the influences lying behind the New Thought movement was New England Transcendentalism, so that the study of figures like Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Thoreau and Louisa M. Alcott can also help in understanding some of the ideas that many early A.A. people took for granted. [Note 5] 4. THE OLD EIGHTEENTH and nineteenth century evangelical movement (including in the United States the Great Awakening and Frontier Revivalism), which was NOT the same as the ideas of the Fundamentalist movement which arose in the twentieth century. It was also NOT the same as most of what one sees among the televangelists who are preaching on various television channels at the present time. The old classical evangelical movement meant people like Dwight Moody (originally a Congregationalist) and General William Booth (originally a Methodist), and so on. It was Mel B.'s New Wine which first started me looking at their importance. Their influence, and the books they wrote, were still around during the early twentieth century. 5. MODERN PSYCHOLOGY and psychiatry. Although the names of Carl Jung and William James were frequently bandied about in early A.A. circles, it was the American Neo-Freudians who seem to have had the greatest influence. We see this in Akron A.A.'s recommendation of Ligon's book on personality development, and we see the same kind of influences affecting the work of Sgt. Bill S., who got sober on Long Island in 1948, and was closely associated with Marty Mann and early New York A.A. In other words, there was no real difference between Akron and New York A.A. on this issue - - this is another modern myth that has developed - - because in both places they realized that some knowledge of modern psychology could be useful in better understanding A.A., and in both places it was the Neo-Freudians whom they looked to as the kind of modern psychology which was most compatible with A.A. In both the midwest and on the east coast, some A.A. people put greater stress on the spiritual aspects of the program, and some put greater emphasis on the psychological aspects of the program. There could sometimes be real tension in early A.A. over this issue, but it was not one region of the United States pitted against another - - the issues affected A.A. almost everywhere. Sgt. Bill S. is especially important because he was the early A.A. figure who is our best representative of the kind of early A.A. which stressed psychology more than spirituality. In fact he was the ONLY early A.A. figure who wrote about this at length. See his book with Hindsfoot: http://hindsfoot.org/kBS1.html Also see http://hindsfoot.org/kBS4.html and http://hindsfoot.org/kBS5.html on the Lackland Model of alcoholism treatment which he and Dr. Louis Jolyon "Jolly" West devised in the early 1950's, a strongly A.A. related treatment method which achieved a fifty percent success rate even in the rather hostile environment of a major military base, where military people at that time fiercely denied that they had any alcoholics at all in the U.S. armed services, and did everything they could to discourage any kind of real treatment of suffering alcoholics. On the general issue of psychological vs. spiritual emphases in early A.A., see http://hindsfoot.org/PsySpir.html The chapter in Sgt. Bill's book entitled "The Effects of Alcohol on Our Emotional Development" has been praised to the skies by every surviving good old-timer who has read it. Bill, they say, managed to get into that chapter the heart of the way we understood the psychological dimension of the program back in the old days. In fact, I would recommend that the modern A.A. reader should spend more time studying that little chapter than reading Ligon's book, because Bill translates all the psychological terminology into A.A. language that is easy to read and understand, and gives concrete examples from his own drinking years to illustrate all his points. Neo-Freudian psychiatry therefore seems to have been the kind of psychological theory which most influenced early A.A. There were nevertheless exceptions, in particular Ralph Pfau in Indianapolis (who wrote the Golden Books under the pen name of Father John Doe and was the third most widely read early A.A. author). Father Ralph made use of an interesting new psychiatric approach, developed by a psychiatrist in Chicago named Abraham A. Low. Dr. Low had also rebelled against the orthodox Freudian psychoanalysts, but unlike the Neo-Freudians, Low had developed one of the earliest cognitive-behavioral theories as his own alternative. [Note 6] 6. THERE WAS A STRONG Roman Catholic (and Episcopalian Anglo-Catholic) influence on early A.A. The Akron List mentions The Unchanging Friend, which Mel B. tells us came from a Roman Catholic press. We are searching hard to see if we can find some copies. We also know from Mary Darrah's work that Sister Ignatia was handing out to each person who came through St. Thomas Hospital either Thomas a Kempis' Imitation of Christ (a work which came out of the late medieval devotio moderna, with its scepticism about the scholastic theologians at the universities and all their minute theological distinctions in their discussions of doctrines and dogmas) and (even more significantly) a little meditational book composed of excerpts from St. Ignatius Loyola's Spiritual Exercises, which had an important influence on the way early A.A. regarded the tenth step, among other things. Although Roman Catholics only made up about one sixth of the general American population at that time, let us not forget that as early A.A. spread, it tended to center on large American cities, many of which had large Roman Catholic immigrant populations which made the percentage far higher. At Father Ralph Pfau's weekend A.A. spiritual retreats, it often tended to be around 60% Protestant and 40% Roman Catholic. We also must not forget that the Episcopalians (the Anglo-Catholics or Anglicans) regarded themselves as Catholics, not Protestants. They usually celebrated a sung mass every Sunday morning as their regular Sunday morning service, which was basically just an English translation of the Roman Catholic mass. They had the Stations of the Cross on the walls of the sanctuary, a holy water font beside the door, kneeling benches on the backs of the pews, medieval vestments and incense, and so on. Father Sam Shoemaker was an Episcopal priest (who wore the priestly black suit and clerical collar if you notice the old photos), and Henrietta Seiberling and Dr. Bob and his wife Anne were Episcopalians, along with Marty Mann's right-hand man Yev Gardner, who was an ordained Episcopal deacon. Mel B. tells me that when he once asked Dr. Bob and Anne's son Smitty what it meant that they had all gone to the Episcopal Church in Akron when he was child, Smitty gave the standard Episcopalian quip, mimicking the light beer commercials touting their product as containing "all the flavor but only half the calories." Smitty said that the Episcopalians were "kind of 'Catholic Light,' all the ritual but only half the guilt." The Episcopalians read a lot of traditional Roman Catholic theology and spirituality, but also read a lot of the Protestant literature on theology and especially biblical studies, although they tended to be conservative about taking up radical German Protestant theological fads, of which they were inherently suspicious. ~~~~~~~~~~ Out of this extremely complex mix we see early A.A. being born: (1) a strong Augustinian theology, perhaps mediated partly through the influence of Reinhold Niebuhr, (2) classical Protestant liberalism, (3) New Thought and perhaps also New England Transcendentalism, (4) the old eighteenth and nineteenth-century evangelical movement, (5) modern psychology and psychiatry, particularly the Neo-Freudians, and (6) a strong Roman Catholic (and Episcopalian Anglo-Catholic) influence. The Akron List is especially important, I believe, because it does such a good job of pointing us towards some of these major ingredients which went into the A.A. synthesis. It was a fascinating world out of which early A.A. emerged, but it requires some knowledge of the history of ideas, including especially American religious history and the history of twentieth-century psychology and psychiatry, to appreciate the full richness and depth of the ideas which informed this little handful of inspired men and women, who remade American life at any number of significant levels over the sixty years that followed. ================================ IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1928. . . . . . . . . . . . The Akron Reading List Part 4 of 5 (notes #1-3) From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/21/2004 12:11:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ================================ NOTES TO THE ARTICLE: NOTE 1. Barefoot Bob told me that he was sure that this Akron pamphlet was produced within a year of the time when the Big Book was published, which would mean at some point in late 1939 or early 1940. Since the Akron Manual tells alcoholics to use the Big Book as their basic text, this means that it has to have written after that book was published, which means at some point after April 1939. We can be further aided in dating the pamphlet by investigating what was going on in Akron A.A. and in St. Thomas Hospital in Akron during this period. Mary C. Darrah, Sister Ignatia: Angel of Alcoholics Anonymous (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1992), Chapter 3, "The Spiritual Connection," gives the fullest account. In August 16, 1939, Dr. Bob approached Sister Ignatia for the first time about admitting an alcoholic to St. Thomas Hospital. In the late summer of 1939, she started arranging to have alcoholics admitted on a regular basis and put two at a time into private rooms. But St. Thomas was a Roman Catholic hospital, and before anything further could be done in setting up a formal program of alcoholism treatment, A.A. had to separate itself from the Oxford Group, which was Protestant. When A.A. made its separation from the Oxford Group in November 1939 and then started meeting at King's School in January 1940, Sister Ignatia was able to take the next steps. She said later that "It was not until, probably, January, 1940 that a definite working agreement was achieved with the knowledge of my superior, Sister Clementine, Dr. Bob, and probably, the Chief of Staff. Had we proposed it to the whole staff, at that time, you may be sure that we could not have gotten a foothold." By 1941, there were so many alcoholics who needed admission that Room 228, a four-bed ward, was assigned for permanent use by Dr. Bob's alcoholic patients. Not long after, Sister Ignatia was also able to gain the additional use of a two-bed hospital room right across the hall, giving them six beds they could employ. Then she was eventually able to trade these two rooms (across the hall from one another) for an isolated place in the hospital where there was a seven-bed ward, a utility room with plumbing connections, and a door leading into the balcony at the back of the hospital's chapel. This new ward opened its doors on April 19, 1944. Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age, p. viii, agrees with this basic time framework, that is, that Dr. Bob and Sister Ignatia first began working together extensively at St. Thomas Hospital in August 1939. And Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, pp. 187-8, gives us additional information, and tells us that in August 1939, the problem facing the A.A. people was that Dr. Bob had been told by the other hospital in the area which he had been using for drying out alcoholics, that they would no longer admit these drunks, ever again. So he came to Sister Ignatia and pleaded with her for the use of a private room for an alcoholic they were currently working with. She finally thought of a little room which the nurses used for preparing flowers which had been sent to patients, and they discovered that it was just barely possible to push a hospital bed through its door. How does this information help us in dating the manual? The little pamphlet assumes that the alcoholic will usually be put in a hospital room for several days in order to dry out, and also that A.A. visitors will be coming into the room and talking with the patient continually throughout the day. But the pamphlet does not state that the hospital would be St. Thomas Hospital, which means that it could have been written even before August 1939. But since it could also have been written later than that, we need to ask further questions. On internal grounds from within the text of the manual, how much later than that could it have been written? The pamphlet seems to assume that the alcoholic patient is going to be in that hospital room completely alone except for the A.A. visitors who call on him. By 1941, Room 228 at St. Thomas Hospital, a four-bed ward, had been assigned for the A.A.-sponsored patients. The Akron Manual certainly seems to have been written before that point, when it was only one alcoholic in a private room. And in April 19, 1944, a large ward was opened at St. Thomas where a group of alcoholics could be housed during the initial treatment phase. I think we can say quite conclusively that what is described in the Akron Manual does not match up at all with the treatment program at the Alcoholic Ward which was established at St. Thomas Hospital in 1944. So I believe that Barefoot Bob's dating has to be basically correct: the Akron Manual definitely has to have been written after April 1939, but it likewise was fairly certainly written before 1941. And the assumption that the alcoholic is going to be all by himself in a private room, as opposed to the system of having two or more alcoholics sharing a room, actually makes the date of composition look to me like the summer of 1939, and no later than the fall of 1939. ~~~~~~~~~~ NOTE 2. FUNDAMENTALISM: The modern evangelical movement which began in the 1730's and 40's had a positive attitude toward science until the debate over the theory of evolution began to heat up a century and a half later. When Charles Darwin published The Origin of Species in 1859 and The Descent of Man in 1871, public controversy over the idea that human beings were descended from apes continued to mount in the United States. Most of the evangelical churches began to fall into bitter disputes and split apart into fiercely opposed factions. The Fundamentalist movement, which was a reaction against the Darwinian doctrine of evolution and also the spread of classical Protestant liberalism, was born when the Niagra Conference in 1895 issued its statement of the "Five Points of Fundamentalism": (1) the verbal inerrancy of scripture, (2) the divinity of Jesus Christ, (3) the Virgin Birth, (4) the physical resurrection of Christ and his bodily return at the end of the world, and (5) the substitutionary doctrine of the Atonement, that is, adherence to the medieval doctrine which was first introduced by St. Anselm in 1098 in his Cur Deus Homo. (This was the new theological theory that we were saved by Christ's death on the cross because it paid the penalty due to God for the sins we human beings had committed. For the first thousand years, Christianity had understood the work of Christ in other kinds of ways, and tended to place the power of salvation in the Incarnation rather than in the Crucifixion, often expressed in the kind of way which we see in the vision of the Divine Light at the very end of Dante's Divine Comedy.) It is important to note that being a Fundamentalist meant adherence to certain specific theological doctrines. It was not the same thing as simply reading the Bible regularly, praying daily, and singing the traditional hymns to Jesus at church on Sunday. The classical Protestant liberals did all that, and any Fundamentalist whom you asked about it would make it clear these things did not count unless you agreed with all five of those "fundamental" dogmas at a bare minimum. Around 1909, a series of twelve tracts called The Fundamentals began being published in the United States and distributed in other parts of the English-speaking world with American money. In 1919 the World's Christian Fundamentals Association was formed, which began sponsoring rallies in many American cities. Then came the event that really put the new Fundamentalist movement out in the public eye: In 1925 William Jennings Bryan helped prosecute a Tennessee school teacher named J. T. Scopes for teaching the doctrine of evolution to his students, in a court case widely reported by the newspapers, which came to be called the Scopes Monkey Trial. Ten years later Bill W. met Dr. Bob and the A.A. movement began. The two of them, along with all the other early A.A. writers and leaders whom I know about, seem basically to have tried to stay out of the new Fundamentalist vs. Modernist controversy as much as they could. But they also were very careful indeed to make sure that A.A. members knew that A.A. people were not required to believe in any of the Five Points of Fundamentalism. It is my own belief that there were relatively few genuine Fundamentalists in A.A. during its first five or ten years, and that the largest single group in A.A. during that period held more what we would call classical Protestant liberal beliefs. By 1939 the A.A. leaders were increasingly recommending that newcomers only read a small selection of biblical passages deliberately chosen because they did not speak about the divinity of Christ or contain any notion that people had to pray to Jesus or rely upon his death and resurrection to save them. In the Sermon on the Mount, prayer is to God the Father, and in the Letter of James, it is to God the Father of Lights. In chapter 13 of First Corinthians (unlike the chapters that come before it and after it), the higher power is spoken of only as the one who already knows us fully, whom we shall at last see face to face. When Richmond Walker published his Twenty-Four Hours a Day in 1948, it swept the country rapidly, and put an end to A.A. use of the classical Protestant liberal meditational book called The Upper Room. This means that by that point, the center of gravity in American A.A. had clearly moved from the classical Protestant liberal position to something much more radical, that is a desire among many members for a kind of spirituality which made little or no mention of Christianity at all. Individual members were free to be Fundamentalists or conservative Baltimore Catechism Roman Catholics or anything else they wanted in their private prayers, but in most parts of the United States, it was made clear that Christian references were to be kept out of A.A. meetings, with very few exceptions to that rule. Several months ago, I conducted a memorial service for an A.A. member who had just died. He was a Roman Catholic and the overwhelming majority of the two hundred or so people present were from Christian backgrounds. There was one Jew, and a few who were hostile to organized religion in almost any form. But I wore my black suit and clerical collar and used the traditional words of the Christian funeral service, even though some A.A. readings and prayers were also included, and everyone seemed to feel comfortable. On the other hand, this was not an A.A. meeting in the formal sense and, as is always the case, those A.A. members who were not Christians came to do honor to the memory of the A.A. member who had just died, and recognized that he would have wanted the Christian liturgical material. I have attended both Fundamentalist Protestant funeral services for A.A. members and Roman Catholic funeral masses. I am sure that if the A.A. member who had just died were Jewish, everyone would have come to a Jewish funeral service in order to pay their last respects, and so on with other religions. NOTE 3. Adolf Harnack (1851-1930) was Germany's leading scholar in the history of Christian dogma at the beginning of the twentieth century, especially in the area called patristics, that is, the history of Christian ideas and practices in the first five to seven centuries of the Christian era. One of his other major works was his seven volume History of Dogma (original German edition 1886-9 as three volumes, English translation 1894-9), which was still being used well into the twentieth century. In other words, Harnack's criticism of traditional Christian doctrine was not that of an ignorant man who knew nothing about that which he criticized! ~~~~~~~~~~ IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1929. . . . . . . . . . . . The Akron Reading List Part 5 of 5 (notes #4-6) From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/21/2004 12:19:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII [The Akron Reading List Part 5 of 5 (notes #4-6)] NOTE 4. Beginning in the eighteenth century, before the American Revolution, it had been noted that the same sayings of Jesus are frequently given in slightly different words when they appear in more than one gospel. In the United States, Thomas Jefferson was already aware of this, and had attempted to write an account of Jesus's words and actions involving a synthesis of the different gospel accounts. There were also German scholars who were aware of this problem. By the early twentieth century, when liberal Protestant scholars taught courses on the New Testament, they would frequently have the students purchase a kind of book which had a title like "Harmony of the Gospels" or "Gospel Parallels." This book would put the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke in parallel columns, so that the students could see the slight variants that occurred in the different accounts of what Jesus had said. It had become clear by that time that the gospels were not written until after the great Jewish War that had ended with the destruction of Jerusalem and the Second Temple in 70 A.D., and in fact Matthew, Mark and Luke were probably not written until somewhere between 80 and 90 A.D. Jesus had been executed by an Italian businessman who was the Roman governor of Judaea in 30 A.D. (or no more than a year or two later at most). The letter of James said that it was the wealthy Italian, Greek, Syrian, and Judaean business community in Jerusalem which was basically responsible, because they regarded Jesus' attacks on materialism as "bad for business." During the fifty to sixty years that passed between Jesus' death and the writing of the gospel accounts, the information about what he had said on various occasions was passed down mostly by oral tradition. This made the differences in wording between the three gospels make perfect sense. Protestant liberals were therefore aware that we could not know the exact words that Jesus said on many occasions, at least not down to the precise letter, but they also believed very strongly that anyone with a modicum of simple common sense could easily work out what the main points were in his message. So they rejected the Fundamentalist belief in the literal inerrancy of the scriptures (anyone who could pick up a Harmony of Gospels and read what was right before his eyes could see that this was impossible) but they nevertheless regarded Jesus as their inspired Lord and Teacher. One can see in Ligon at all times the incredible respect he had for the teaching of Jesus, which he regarded as the truth about the nature of human life and the correct relationship between God and the human race. ~~~~~~~~~~ NOTE 5. The New England Transcendentalists need to be studied in order to understand certain ideas contained in both New Thought and in some A.A. circles. Two useful websites are: http://jackhdavid.thehouseofdavid.com/papers/4334_1.html http://www.westminster.edu/staff/brennie/wisdoms/transcen.htm In 1836, a group of young Unitarians, led by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Frederic Hedge, and George Ripley, rebelled against the staid teachings of Harvard Divinity School, and formed the Transcendental Club of America. Henry D. Thoreau and Louisa M. Alcott were other famous names associated with the movement. They believed in the divinity of nature, that mind was more important than matter, and that there is an inner light within the human soul which can perceive divine truth. There is something of the Absolute and Eternal in every human soul. There was an immortal mind residing within every human being which was distinct from the outer Self. Time and space are not external realities, but ways in which the mind constructs its sense world. God, freedom, and immortality are transcendental ideas which the mind intuits via a special kind of knowledge which is not the same as ordinary sense perception. God is immanent in the world, and because of this indwelling of divinity within the realm of nature, the individual soul can apprehend the beauty, truth, and goodness incarnate in the natural world, and appropriate for itself the spirit and being of God. Their ideas came out of the Kantian philosophical tradition, particularly as that tradition was expressed in England by the great poets Samuel Coleridge and William Wordsworth, and they were strongly influenced by Plato's philosophy too. They also knew just a little bit about Asian religions, such as the Hindu tradition, and some of them were willing to embrace ideas like the transmigration of souls. This may have been one of the sources of the occasional Buddhist and Hindu ideas which sometimes appear in early A.A. writings, such as advising people to act without being over-concerned about the results of their actions, and some sort of awareness of the dangers represented by what Buddhism called the chains of karma, and how one can free oneself from them. In this regard, the early Akron pamphlet called Spiritual Milestones in Alcoholics Anonymous - - see http://hindsfoot.org/AkrSpir.pdf Adobe Acrobat file - - assumes throughout that the members of their A.A. group have come from Christian backgrounds, which was fairly close to 100% true at that time. But the little booklet also says, "The modern Jewish family is one of our finest examples of helping one another . . . . Followers of Mohammed are taught to help the poor, give shelter to the homeless and the traveler, and conduct themselves with personal dignity. Consider the eight-part program laid down in Buddhism: Right view, right aim, right speech, right action, right living, right effort, right mindedness and right contemplation. The Buddhist philosophy, as exemplified by these eight points, could be literally adopted by AA as a substitute for or addition to the Twelve Steps. Generosity, universal love and welfare of others rather than considerations of self are basic to Buddhism." The people in early Akron A.A. had no difficulty with someone bringing in Hindu or Buddhist ideas to help them develop a better spiritual program, and Buddhism clearly was the non-Christian religion which fascinated them the most. The influence on American thought of the New England Transcendentalists -- some of them quite famous authors regularly read by American school children -- may have been one of the background factors which made them open to the world of Asian religious ideas. Richmond Walker, an A.A. member who got sober in Boston, developed some of these New England Transcendentalist ideas in the little meditational book which he wrote in 1948, Twenty-Four Hours a Day, the book that took the A.A. world by storm. He put a quotation from the Hindu religious tradition at the beginning of the little volume to make sure that his readers understood that one did not need to be a Christian at all in order to practice the spiritual life. He also took the Oxford Group work God Calling by Two Listeners and inserted ideas like the concept of the little spark of the divine in every human soul, and the idea that mind (and the world of ideas) is more basic than matter. His references to the Kantian concept that our minds are locked within a box of space and time when it comes to observing the physical world, may have partially been mediated to him through New England Transcendentalist influences, although he probably had been exposed to Kant himself in his college courses - - he certainly understood what Kant's philosophy was about, and what the philosophical problems were which were raised by that system for any attempt to talk about God. And he also understood the world of Platonic philosophy which lay behind Kant and the Transcendentalists. ~~~~~~~~~~ NOTE 6. Dr. Abraham A. Low established his own movement, called Recovery Inc., in 1937, which began spreading all across the United States and is still a very strong movement today. One may consult their website at http://www.recovery_inc.com/ for current information on where and when meetings are held in various cities. One well-known writer on this movement is Professor Linda Farris Kurtz, who believes (as do many other of the best modern mental health professionals) that Recovery Inc. is an extremely useful group to which they can send patients with certain types of emotional problems such as anxiety attacks, phobias, and inability to handle even relatively minor everyday social conflicts. Among her publications one could read Linda Farris Kurtz, DPA, Self-Help and Support Groups: A Handbook for Practitioners, Sage Sourcebook for the Human Services, vol. 34 (Thousand Oaks, CA, Sage Publications, 1997). This work deals prominently with Recovery, Inc., among other organizations. She also co-authored another work, Linda Farris Kurtz and Adrienne Chambon, Ph.D., "Comparison of Self-Help Groups for Mental Health," Health and Social Work, Vol 12 (1987): 275-283, which compares Recovery, Inc., Emotions Anonymous, and GROW International. ================================ IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1930. . . . . . . . . . . . The Akron Reading List Part 2 of 5 From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/21/2004 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII [The Akron Reading List Part 2 of 5] BRUCE BARTON, The Man Nobody Knows: A Discovery of the Real Jesus (235 pages long, copyright 1924, 1925). Some of his images -- Jesus as successful modern American businessman and corporate executive taking charge of the situation!! -- are amusing, and would be easy to ridicule and make fun of, but the presence of this book on the Akron List is nevertheless important. It helps to establish something I have already argued in earlier pieces that I have written, namely that the "center of gravity" within A.A. in its earliest stages (the center of the bell-shaped distribution curve) lay for the most part with the kind of classical Protestant liberalism which we see in Adolf Harnack's What Is Christianity?, Horace Bushnell's Christian Nurture (he was a New England Congregationalist), and the meditational book (produced by the Southern Methodists) called the Upper Room. Barton was particularly following the spirit of the enormously influential Harnack [Note 3] in tossing aside most of the traditional complex doctrines of the Trinity, the Chalcedonian Definition of the union of the divine and human in Christ, the substitutionary doctrine of the atonement, and so on, and concentrating on producing a very human picture of Jesus as a real live human being with a teaching which was very simple but which also provided the key to living a truly good life. If Barton mentions a traditional Christian doctrine about Christ's person and work -- for example, the "divinity" of his mission -- he tries to explain it, not in terms of ancient Greek and medieval Catholic philosophy and metaphysics, but as a kind of extension of rather commonplace things that would make sense to an everyday American (in this case, total conviction about the sacredness of his mission). In other words, Barton was enthusiastically doing (from his own businessman's perspective) exactly what Harnack said that we should do. And Barton also helped to make it clear to early A.A.'s that they were not to seek an other-worldly spirituality where they walked around two feet off the ground with their hands folded piously in front of them and tried to achieve the perfection of a plaster saint gazing soulfully upwards towards heaven. They were to seek a kind of spirituality which gave them to ability to take action, even forceful action if necessary, and learn how to deal with the real world on real world terms -- but nevertheless not falling prey to petty vengefulness, trying to over-control, exploding in out-of-control rage, or other counterproductive kinds of responses. A good A.A. sponsor sometimes bluntly gives orders to his or her pigeon, and Barton's book explains the spiritual foundation of this. ~~~~~~~~~~ ERNEST M. LIGON, The Psychology of Christian Personality (1935, in its 18th printing by 1950, 407 pages long). In this book, Ligon analyzed the Sermon on the Mount and its relationship to modern psychology. Ligon was deeply influenced by the Neo-Freudians: the goal was to fully "integrate" the personality, and deal with problems in the individual's socialization, and so on. In the bibliography at the back of his book, he mentioned two books by the Austrian psychiatrist Alfred Adler (1870-1937), but one can see the influence of other Neo-Freudian psychiatrists as well. F. H. Allport's Social Psychology was also listed in his bibliography (he was the brother of the psychologist Gordon W. Allport). The citing of this fundamental work on social psychology indicated the special importance of social factors in Ligon's psychological thought. The term Neo-Freudian refers to a group of psychiatrists including Alfred Adler, Karen Horney, Harry Stack Sullivan, Eric Fromm, and Erik Erikson. Carl Jung is sometimes also included in this group, but his ideas had no role in Ligon's thought. The Neo-Freudians whom we are talking about here modified orthodox Freudian doctrine by talking about the importance of other issues such as social factors, interpersonal relations, and cultural influences in personality development and in the development of psychological illnesses and disorders. They believed that social relationships were fundamental to the formation and development of personality. They tended to reject Freud's emphasis on sexual problems as the cause of neurosis, and were more apt to regard fundamental human pscyhological problems as psychosocial rather than psychosexual. The two great dangers to spiritual and psychological health, Ligon said, were inappropriate (1) anger and (2) fear - - the same basic position as the Big Book. He defined what was meant by the "natural instincts" in ways closely similar to the chapter on the Fourth Step in Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. My feeling here is that Bill W. must have either read this book, or read somebody closely similar, or picked up some of Ligon's ideas from talking to people who had read this book. Ligon came from Texas and did his B.A. and M.A. at Texas Christian University, which is connected with the Disciples of Christ (Christian Church). He did both a graduate seminary degree (a B.D., normally a three-year program) and a Ph.D. in psychology at Yale, so he had an excellent grounding in both theology and psychology. At the time he was writing this book, he had links to Westminster Presbyterian Church in Albany, New York. But he knew things about John Wesley which normally only a Methodist would know about, so it is not totally clear what his religious background was: Disciples of Christ? Presbyterian? Methodist? It was clearly a Protestant background of some sort. The crucial thing at any rate is that he had his graduate theological training at Yale, so that he would have been trained in the best Protestant theology and biblical studies of that period. So Ligon accepts modern biblical criticism to some degree -- not all the sayings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount were genuine words of Jesus, he says, or may not have originally been stated verbatim in those exact words -- but as far as I can see so far, Ligon went no further than most classical Protestant liberals of that period, including Harnack. [Note 4] Like Emmet Fox, he was most definitely NOT part of what is called the Fundamentalist movement. This is important, because the Fundamentalist movement had gotten started in the United States at the beginning of the early twentieth century, and even though it still had relatively little influence during the 1930's, it could in theory have been an influence on early A.A., just in terms of the time frame. Nevertheless, Fundamentalism seems to have had little if any effect on early A.A. as far as I can see from my own researches. I have found no A.A. writings from the early period arguing for the verbal inerrancy of scripture or defending the doctrine of the Virgin Birth or the physical resurrection of Jesus, or any other of the "Christian Fundamentals" which this movement was dedicated to defending. On the other hand, Ligon was NOT a representative of the sometimes almost insane world of the later radical Bultmannian form critics who began "demythologizing" the New Testament and ultimately denying that Jesus said much of anything at all that he is credited with having said. By the 1960's, this kind of radical scholarship began taking over many of the Protestant seminaries, and some of their more notoriety-seeking leaders still enjoy getting their names and ideas into the newspapers and magazines so they can scandalize the pious. To repeat, this kind of silliness is not what Ligon was doing at all. Probably the most important thing to note about the inclusion of Ligon's book on The Psychology of Christian Personality in the Akron list of recommended books, is that the notion that early Akron A.A. was totally hostile to talking about the psychological aspects of the twelve step program is simply a myth. When Dr. Bob spoke to the A.A. First International Convention in Cleveland in 1950, just a few months before he died, what he actually said was: "There are two or three things that flashed into my mind . . . . One is the simplicity of our program. Let's not louse it all up with Freudian complexes and things that are interesting to the scientific mind, but have very little to do with our actual A.A. work. Our Twelve Steps, when simmered down to the last, resolve themselves into the words 'love' and 'service.' We understand what love is, and we understand what service is." Let us put Dr. Bob's words in historical context. He was warning about the dangers of getting too much complex psychological theory into A.A., like Sigmund Freud's insistence that the Oedipus complex lay at the bottom of every male's subconscious mind, so that he subconsciously wants to kill his father (and all other authority figures) and force himself sexually on his mother (and all the other females whom he encounters). Or let us give another example. The psychiatrist Eric Berne gave an orthodox Freudian psychoanalytical interpretation of alcoholism in a book he wrote in 1964, in which he stated that its dynamics were based on oral deprivation (not getting enough time at the mother's breast when an infant), and that its internal psychological advantages lay in rebellion and in self-castigation in an attempt to relieve the inner guilt complex. Its external psychological pay-offs came in the form of avoidance of sexual and other forms of intimacy. No psychiatrist was ever able to have much if any success at all in getting alcoholics to stop drinking using this kind of approach. Berne defends his theory in that book and then blames the alcoholics for not getting well under his care! This was not uncommon among psychiatrists at that time: it was somehow the alcoholics' fault that their psychiatric theories did not work. This is the kind of thing that Dr. Bob was warning A.A. people to stay away from. But to see how psychiatry and psychology could be used in the proper kind of way, the Akron List suggested reading Ernest Ligon's book The Psychology of Christian Personality instead. Both Ligon and Sgt. Bill S. (the early A.A. member who wrote the most about the psychological aspects of alcoholism) were Neo-Freudians who rejected that kind of esoteric talk about Freudian sexual complexes and breast deprivation and so on, and talked about psychological issues that made a good deal more common sense in language that could usually be understood by anyone who read books regularly. It is also probably true that quoting this off-the-cuff remark by Dr. Bob, made when he was dying and barely able to stand up in front of the audience, points us in the wrong direction anyway. The real issue for A.A. was that most psychologists and psychiatrists of that time were staunch atheists who tried to get their patients to toss away all that superstitious guilt-inducing nonsense (as they regarded it) that religious teachers had loaded them down with. But A.A. people eagerly praised psychologist William James and psychiatrist Carl Jung, two respectable professionals who both acknowledged the importance of the spiritual dimension. They praised Yale-trained psychologist Ernest Ligon who argued that Jesus' spiritual teaching in the Sermon on the Mount was in fact good psychology of the best sort. That is what I believe was the real issue: A.A. could not make use of any psychological or psychiatric theory which attacked the necessary spiritual dimension of recovery. ~~~~~~~~~~ WINFRED RHOADES, The Self You Have to Live With, seems to still be available, even though it has not been studied by us yet. ~~~~~~~~~~ So far, no one has been come up with much information on the series called The Unchanging Friend which was published by the Bruce Publishing Co. in Milwaukee. Mel B. says "Bruce now seems to be out of business, although there are a couple of smaller publishing firms listed under that name. They published considerable Catholic-related material and some of it can still be found in libraries." ~~~~~~~~~~ IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1931. . . . . . . . . . . . N.M.Olson is in the hospital From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/24/2004 2:10:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Dear AAHistoryLovers, I am very sorry to have to pass on this news, but N.M.Olson, the moderator of our group, is in the hospital and is very ill. I talked with her over the phone Friday morning, and she is very weak but says to tell everyone, "I am O.K. with this." She gave a speech to a standing ovation Monday in Louisiana. She went out on stage, she said, like the "ol' show horse that I am," and in spite of how weak she was, summoned up the energy somehow to get through it successfully. Then Friday morning I got a phone call from one of her friends and got the news that she had had to be hospitalized, and a request to call her there. I have fielded e-mails and things for her before for short periods, such as the time she went to Bristol in England to speak to the people at their fine conference on AA history. So when she asked, I immediately agreed to try to take care of things in the present situation as best I could. She may be able to return to doing some small part of the moderator's duties for a while after she gets out of the hospital, but I could tell that she was so very tired this past week and found even simple things very difficult. I hope everyone will bear with me while I try to figure out how to do what needs to be done at this point to take care of the group account at Yahoo and get messages posted and so on. Some of these things I did not have to do on previous occasions, when she was only away from the computer for a few days, so I am still trying to thread my way through the maze of computer commands involved. It may be slow going for a while, so I apologize in advance. It took me most of this past day to figure out how to log in to one part of the system, because I have a different kind of browser and internet connection than she has. Please pray for her to God who loves us. Her soul is walking in the Light. Glenn Chesnut, South Bend, Indiana IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1932. . . . . . . . . . . . ***IMPORTANT***Dr. Silkworth Birthday Celebration, postponed until 7/31/04 From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/23/2004 2:22:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Due to storms coming through, the following event will be delayed one week. Please help spread the word so that people don't go there on the wrong day. Thanks! Just Love, Barefoot Bill You are cordially invited to the first annual Dr. Silkworth birthday celebration! Postponed from July 24, 2004, and changed to Saturday, July 31, 2004 at 3:00PM At his gravesite in Glenwood Cemetery, Route 71 (Monmouth Rd.), West Long Branch NJ. Speakers: Barbara Silkworth (a family member) and Ruth O'N. (who got sober on April 14, 1948 & knew Silky). Dr. William Duncan Silkworth is the author of the "Doctor's Opinion" in the Big Book "Alcoholics Anonymous" and is known as a friend to millions of alcoholics worldwide. He worked with Bill Wilson, AA's co-founder in N.Y.C., after Bill finally got sober in 1934. He gave deep understanding and great encouragement to an infant society in the days when a lack of understanding or a word of discouragement might easily have killed it. He freely risked his professional reputation to champion an unprecedented spiritual answer to the medical enigma and the human tragedy of alcoholism. Without his blessing, our faith might well have died in its birth. He was a luminous exception to the rule that only an alcoholic understands an alcoholic. He knew us better than we knew ourselves, better than we know each other. Many of us felt that his medical skill, great as that was, was not at all the full measure of his stature. Dr. Silkworth was something that it is difficult even to mention in these days. He was a saintly man. He stood in an unusual relationship to truth. He was able to see the truth of a man, when that truth was deeply hidden from the man himself and from everyone else. He was able to save lives that were otherwise beyond help of any kind. Such a man cannot really die. We wish to honor this man, a gentle doctor with white hair and china blue eyes. Dr. Silkworth lived on Chelsea Avenue in Long Branch, attended Long Branch High School where he has been inducted in that school's Hall of Fame, graduated from Princeton University, and lived for a while in Little Silver. He was born on July 27, 1873 and died on March 22, 1951. PLEASE BE SURE TO BRING A LAWN CHAIR OR SOMETHING TO SIT ON. If you have any questions please call Barefoot Bill at 201-232-8749 (cell). Directions: Take the Garden State Parkway (north or south) to Exit 105 (Route 36), continue on Route 36 approximately 2.5 to 3 miles through 5 traffic lights (passing Monmouth Mall, two more shopping plazas, and several automobile dealerships). Watch for green road signs stating "Route 71 South, West Long Branch and Asbury Park" (this is before the sixth light). Take this turnoff to the right, past Carriage Square and bear right onto Route 71 (Monmouth Road.) Glenwood Cemetery appears very quickly on the left. The entrance is marked by two stone pillars and the name. Once inside the cemetery, bear left, go up the hill and make the first right (a hard right). The gravesite is near the first tree on the right. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1934. . . . . . . . . . . . old preamble From: Lee Nickerson . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/24/2004 7:15:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Does anyone know the origin of this? "We are gathered here because we are faced with the fact that we are powerless over alcohol and unable to do anything about it without the help of a Power greater than ourselves. We feel that each person's religious views, if any are his own affair. The simple purpose of the program of Alcoholics Anonymous is to show what may be done to enlist the aid of a Power greater than ourselves regardless of what our individual conception of that Power may be. In order to form a habit of depending upon and referring all we do to that Power, we must at first apply ourselves with some diligence. By often repeating these acts, they become habitual and the help rendered becomes natural to us. We have all come to know that as alcoholics we are suffering from a serious illness for which medicine has no cure. Our condition may be the result of an allergy which makes us different from other people. It has never been by any treatment with which we are familiar, permanently cured. The only relief we have to offer is absolute abstinence, the second meaning of A. A. There are no dues or fees. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. Each member squares his debt by helping others to recover. An Alcohoiics Anonymous is an alcoholic who through application and adherence to the A. A. program has forsworn the use of any and all alcoholic beverage in any form. The moment he takes so much as one drop of beer, wine, spirits or any other alcoholic beverage he automatically loses all status as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous A.A. is not interested In sobering up drunks who are not sincere in their desire to remain sober for all time. Not being reformers. we offer our experience only to those who want it. We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree and on which we can join in harmonious action. Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our program. Those who do not recover are people who will not or simply cannot give themselves to this simple program. Now you may like this program or you may not, but the fact remains, it works. It is our only chance to recover. There is a vast amount of fun in the A.A. fellowship. Some people might be shocked at our seeming worldliness and levity but just underneath there lies a deadly earnestness and a full realization that we must put first things first and with each of us the first thing is our alcoholic problem. To drink is to die. Faith must work twenty-four hours a day in and through us or we perish. In order to set our tone for this meeting I ask that we bow our heads in a few moments of silent prayer and meditation. I wish to remind you that whatever is said at this meeting expresses our own individual opinion as of today and as of up to this moment. We do not speak for A.A. as a whole and you are free to agree or disagree as you see fit, in fact. it is suggested that you pay no attention to anything which might not he reconcilied with what is in the A. A. Big Book. If vou dont have a Big Book. it's time you bought you one. Read it. study it, live with it, loan it, scatter it, and then learn from it what it means to be an A.A." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1935. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: The Early Akron A.A. Reading List, Part 1 of 5 From: Mel Barger . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/23/2004 8:00:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII With reference to Glenn Chesnut's information about the early Akron Manual, I would like to add that this publication is still available from the Akron Central Office. I picked it up yesterday while in Akron. They also offer a "Spiritual Milestones in Alcoholics Anonymous," a "Second Reader for Alcoholics Anonymous," and "A Guide to the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous," all for fifty cents a copy. Should you wish to purchase copies, the office is: AA of Akron, 775 N. Main St., Akron, OH 44310. The phone number is 330-253-8181, the toll-free is 800-897-6737, and the email address is: info@akronaa.org. Incidentally, the Akron Manual no longer lists the additional publications reading list which caught my attention. I was given this manual at my first meetings in the Ventura, Calif., area in October, 1948, and I definitely remember the list. I assume it was deleted in later editions when some members may have objected to their inclusion in the manual. But the manual still retains its original, no-nonsense flavor and really lays it on the line for the newcomer, demanding that he must decide to get sober and do what's necessary for real sobriety. Mel Barger ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger melb@accesstoledo.com ----- Original Message ----- From: Glenn Chesnut To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, July 21, 2004 12:56 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] The Early Akron A.A. Reading List, Part 1 of 5 ================================ The Early Akron Recommended Reading List: The Works It Contained and their Significance for Understanding Early Akron A.A. Glenn C. (South Bend, Indiana) ================================ PART ONE: A pamphlet entitled A Manual for Alcoholics Anonymous, often referred to as the Akron Manual, was written and published by early Akron A.A. at a very early period, as an introductory booklet to hand to newcomers when they began the detoxification process. [Note 1] Based on things that are mentioned in the Manual, it was most probably put together during the summer or fall of 1939, and certainly no later than 1940. A copy of it can be found at http://hindsfoot.org/AkrMan1.html (the first half) and http://hindsfoot.org/AkrMan2.html (the second half) on the Hindsfoot Foundation website ( http://hindsfoot.org ). So this small pamphlet is an extraordinarily valuable document. It is a little window opening into the world of early Akron A.A. shortly after the Big Book first started coming off the press. ~~~~~~~~~~ At the very end of the Akron Manual it says "the following literature has helped many members of Alcoholics Anonymous," and then it gives a list of ten works as a kind of recommended reading list: Alcoholics Anonymous (Works Publishing Company). The Holy Bible The Greatest Thing in the World, Henry Drummond. The Unchanging Friend, a series (Bruce Publishing Co., Milwaukee). As a Man Thinketh, James Allen. The Sermon on the Mount, Emmet Fox (Harper Bros.). The Self You Have to Live With, Winfred Rhoades. Psychology of Christian Personality, Ernest M. Ligon (Macmillan Co.). Abundant Living, E. Stanley Jones. The Man Nobody Knows, Bruce Barton." ~~~~~~~~~~ THE BIBLE was the second item on the list, right behind the Big Book. But earlier in the pamphlet it was made clear that there were certain places in the Bible that they wanted the newcomers to especially focus on: the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7, the letter of James, 1 Corinthians 13, and Psalms 23 and 91. This was a typical early twentieth-century Protestant liberal selection of passages to emphasize, but they were also especially useful for A.A. purposes because none of them required the newcomer to believe in the divinity of Christ or that salvation could only be found by praying to Jesus. ~~~~~~~~~~ EMMET FOX, The Sermon on the Mount, is still well known to A.A. people today. He was a major representative of an American religious movement called New Thought, which was connected to, but also different from, Mary Baker Eddy's Christian Science movement. Among present-day American religious denominations, Unity Church is the largest group using that basic kind of approach. Emmet Fox's position was strongly Christian in its orientation, although the kind of Protestantism he represented was clearly in the liberal camp. Please note that nineteenth and early twentieth-century New Thought was most definitely NOT the same as "New Age," which was a late twentieth-century movement involving claims that its practitioners were able to do spirit channeling and use the mystical properties of crystals, and things of that sort. New Age sometimes include beliefs drawn from Wicca -- that is, ancient witchcraft -- and other unconventional religious ideas. Or to put it another way, New Thought was fundamentally Christian in its orientation, whereas New Age is for the most part extremely hostile to Christianity. ~~~~~~~~~~ JAMES ALLEN, As a Man Thinketh (34 pages long). He published his book in 1908 or a little before. I would also put his ideas in the same general category as New Thought, even though he was English. He may or may not have read any of the American authors in the general New Thought genre, which is why I hesitate to call him "New Thought" in the narrow sense of the term. ~~~~~~~~~~ HENRY DRUMMOND, The Greatest Thing in the World (45 pages long). His book was a beautiful commentary on 1 Corinthians 13. He was closely associated with Dwight L. Moody in the 1870's, so we might describe him as one of the best examples of the richness and depth of thought which we can find in some parts of the nineteenth century evangelistic movement. Drummond was a Scotsman, who was Professor of Natural Science at the College of the Free Church of Scotland, and had written a book (famous in his lifetime but forgotten today) called Natural Law in the Spiritual World, which was an attempt to make peace between science and religion. This is important, because early A.A. had no sympathy whatsoever with religious people who were completely anti-scientific in their attitudes and who tried to deal with modern science by rejecting its findings. Early A.A. realized that there was a spiritual dimension of reality which went beyond anything which the scientific method could investigate, but they also realized that the profound discoveries of modern science could neither be denied nor neglected. The modern evangelical movement, at its beginnings in the 1730's and 40's, had an enormously respectful attitude toward the new science. Both Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley, the movement's two greatest theologians, were deeply interested in Newtonian physics, the new biological discoveries, modern medicine, electricity, and modern psychology. The evangelical movement remained positive in its attitude to modern science down through most of the nineteenth century, as we see in Henry Drummond. But then the Fundamentalist movement, with its often negative attitude toward modern science, began developing in a series of events which took place in 1895-1919. [Note 2] ~~~~~~~~~~ E. STANLEY JONES, Abundant Living (first came out in 1942, 156 pages long). Chapter 6-10 is one of the best discussions of prayer that I have ever read. He ends up that section with a discussion of guidance and entering the Divine Silence. If Richmond Walker did not read this book, he read something in that tradition (there were similar kinds of material in The Upper Room for example). At any rate, this book helps enormously in understanding more of what Walker was doing in his selection and modification, in the fine print sections of Twenty-Four Hours a Day, of various passages from God Calling by Two Listeners. Chapter 6 of E. Stanley Jones' book begins with a section on "Prayer is Surrender," and Chapter 8 is entitled "The Morning Quiet Time." Jones gives a good deal of detail on what we are supposed to be doing during this Morning Quiet Time, including talking about the role of the subconscious in the process, how to deal with the problem of "wandering thoughts," and what to do when we are confronted with what the medieval tradition called aridity (where it doesn't "feel" like we are in real contact with God, and where we have extraordinary difficulty forcing ourselves to pray at all). On both of these latter issues, I suspect that he as a Methodist had read John Wesley's Standard Sermons, including especially Wesley's sermons on "Wandering Thoughts" and "Heaviness through Manifold Temptations." John Wesley in the 1740's was one of the two major theoreticians of the modern evangelical movement during its beginning years. He was an Anglican priest who taught theology and classics at Oxford University in England for a number of years, but ended up becoming a traveling revival preacher who founded the Methodist movement. His work was thoroughly scripturally grounded - - he knew the New Testament by heart in the original Greek, and knew not only Old Testament Hebrew, but also several other ancient Semitic languages. Yet he and Jonathan Edwards (the other major formative evangelical thinker of the 1730's and 40's) both made skillful use of the work of the seventeenth-century British empiricist John Locke, who invented modern psychology, and both of them knew that a knowledge of psychology was necessary for understanding how to preach the gospel effectively and produce real moral change in people's lives. It is totally incorrect to believe that good evangelical theology and modern psychology are opposed to one another. What gave the evangelical movement so much power during its early period was its use of the best psychology of its period. John Locke had discovered not only the basic principles of behavioral psychology and operant conditioning, but had also discovered the way early childhood traumas could continue to influence adult behavior in negative ways. And he also made the first serious studies of the profoundly psychologically disturbed who were confined in insane asylums and discovered "the inner logic of insanity" which affected these people. Wesley, who knew Locke's work forwards and backwards, was the first person I have read in the modern period who used the term "psychotherapy" - - though of course as a teacher of classics at Oxford University, it was used by him in the original Greek form as psyches therapeia (!!!) Wesley said that good psychotherapy (which meant "the healing of the soul") was what true scriptural Christianity was actually about. And although he did not use the word subconscious, he anticipated Sigmund Freud by over a century in his understanding of the distinction between conscious thought and the subconscious layer underneath which creates so many of our spiritual problems. And like Freud he realized that this subconscious material came out in both free association and dreams. Around fifty years ago, Protestant seminaries all over the country began putting people on their faculties with professional degrees in psychology and psychotherapy to teach counseling techniques to their students. I had to pass an exam in psychotherapy and counseling to obtain my degree from the seminary at Southern Methodist University, and that was back in 1964. The best books and articles on practical psychology today are being published by conservative evangelical theologians, who seem to have a better understanding of what is important. But most Christian pastors in the United States today know that there is no conflict between good spirituality and good psychotherapy. ~~~~~~~~~~ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This message was scanned by GatewayDefender [4] 4:20:52 AM ET - 7/21/2004 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1939. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: old preamble From: ny-aa@att.net . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/24/2004 10:38:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII There are at least a dozen copies of that particular "Old Preamble" around the internet. For example: http://www.aabibliography.com/old_1940_AA-preamble.htm. Most identify it as 1940. Some point out that it "was never official." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1941. . . . . . . . . . . . Question from Gilbert G. on Ebby T. From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/25/2004 11:34:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Gilbert G. has written in asking "does anybody have any info on Ebby T's life (like the times he spent sober, where he sobered up at, with whom, etc.) any and all info will be greatly appreciated." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1942. . . . . . . . . . . . NY-AA@att.net on the Old Preamble From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/26/2004 12:14:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Lee N. (Woodstock, Maine) dcm19@megalink.net wrote on Sun, 25 Jul 2004: An elder member who was a great friend of our Archives during my tenure, and another member also, were close to Captain Jack near the end of his life. When he passed from us both these folks donated a very large amount of Captain Jack's memorabilia to the Archives, including this old Preamble which I described in my previous post to the group. We were able to fill a display case 4' long with his memorabilia at the Central Office where our Archives is located. Anyway, she has passed this question to me and I would very much like to give her an answer. How do we describe this old Preamble which we have on display? What kind of tag or information should we put on it? Tom E. NY_AA@att.net responded: Hi, Folks: Variations of that preamble were discussed in AAHistoryLovers and the earlier AAHistoryBuffs forums. Here are some of the posts: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/247 http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/271 http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/826 http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/827 http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/828 http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/829 http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/836 http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/841 Article 828 quotes a GrapeVine article with Searcy W taking partial credit. In Message 841, Art Sheehan is saying that it was a Preamble from Texas but it predated Searcy's sobriety. Lacking physical evidence, I'm not going to attempt to validate any attribution of the source. This Google search gets you thirty-four examples of the same or similar preambles on web sites. http://www.google.com/search?q=%22We+are+gathered+here+because+we+are+faced+wi th%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF_8&c2coff=1&filter=0 [87] Most of these sites have no attribution or are vague. I believe they got their information when it was argued out without agreement in the Usenet news group alt.recovery.aa in the mid 1990s. ______________________ En2joy! Tom En2ger IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1943. . . . . . . . . . . . How to post messages on AAHistoryLovers From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/26/2004 1:02:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII To post messages for the AAHistoryLovers webgroup, all you need to do is write an email to: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com And then all the moderator needs to do is push a button and the message will automatically go out to everybody in the group. If you have a question or comment you want to make to me privately, my home email address is glennccc@sbcglobal.net . But I can't transfer stuff directly from that email address to the AAHistoryLovers webgroup. Glenn C. (South Bend) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1944. . . . . . . . . . . . on Ebby T. From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/26/2004 1:08:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Gilbert G. text164@yahoo.com has written in asking "does anybody have any info on Ebby T's life (like the times he spent sober, where he sobered up at, with whom, etc.) any and all info will be greatly appreciated." karlbateman2000@yahoo.com writes: The piece by Walter L. in http://www.barefootsworld.net/aaebbyt.html is a great article on Bill's "sponsor." He was the one that carried the message to Bill from the Oxford groups. Ebby had various relapses until 1964. Ebby had carried the message of the Oxford Group to Bill with great care and dedication -- that recovery from alcoholism was possible using spiritual principles, but only if it was combined with practical actions. Bill Wilson never took another drink, and left Towns Hospital to dedicate the rest of his life to carrying the message to other alcoholics. Ebby, however, took a different path, one that caused him to have a series of relapses. The man whom Bill Wilson called his sponsor could not stay sober himself, and became an embarrassment. There were periods of sobriety, some long, some short, but eventually Ebby would, "fall off the wagon," as he called it. Ebby drifted in and out of sobriety, and in and out of AA, with many AA members trying to help him regain a more stable sobriety. The person who was ultimately successful was Searcy W., who had established a hospital for alcoholics in Texas. Early in 1953, Searcy had asked Bill what he would like to see happen in AA, and Bill said, "I would like for Ebby to have a chance to sober up in your clinic." Several months later, it came to pass, and after a short slip in 1954, Ebby remained sober for seven years. In 1961, Ebby's girlfriend died and the next day Ebby got drunk. He apparently still believed that his sobriety was conditional on having the right woman, and now she was gone. Ebby moved back to New York and lived at several places for the next two years, one of which was at his brother Ken's home in Delmar, a suburb of Albany. He had emphysema, the same disease that caused Bill's death, and was in poor health, his weight having dropped from 170 to 122 pounds. Ebby eventually came to Margaret and Micky McPike's farm outside Ballston Spa, New York, in May, 1964 and it was under their loving care that he finished the final two years of his life, dying sober on March 21, 1966. FROM: karlbateman2000@yahoo.com IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1945. . . . . . . . . . . . keep coming back, it works if you work it From: David Ingram . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/26/2004 4:31:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Greetings; I have inadequately searched the archives trying to answer this question and thought I would try a broad appeal. In my home group we close our meetings holding hands and reciting the Lords Prayer, but before breaking the chain we say "keep coming back, it works if you work it". We're trying to learn anything about the origin & introduction of the latter statement. Many grateful Thank You's in advance - David ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail [88] - Helps protect you from nasty viruses. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1946. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: NY-AA@att.net on the Old Preamble From: Arthur . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/26/2004 4:42:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black;">I have a very similar preamble that was used by the first group in Fort Worth, Texas in 1946 (perhps earlier). Parts of the preamble were taken (near verbatim) from the 1940 Akron Manual. 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black;"> 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black;">Cheers 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black;">Arthur *ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS OF FORT WORTH, TEXAS, INC.* *GROUP ONE* *REGULAR PREFACE TO MEETINGS * We are all gathered here because we are faced with the fact that we are powerless over alcohol and are unable to do anything about it without the help of a Power greater than ourselves. We feel that each person's religious views, if any, are their own affair, and the simple purpose of the program of Alcoholics Anonymous is to show each of us what we can do to enlist the aid of a Power Greater than Ourselves, regardless of what our individual conception of that Power may be. That in order to form a habit of depending upon and referring all we do to that Power, we must at first apply ourselves with some diligence, but by often repeating these acts, they become habitual, and the help rendered becomes natural to us. We have all come to know that as alcoholics we are suffering from a serious disease for which medicine has no cure. Our condition may be the result of an allergy, which makes us different from other people. It has never been, by any treatment with which we are familiar, permanently cured. The only relief we have to suggest is absolute abstinence - the second meaning of AA. There are no dues nor fees. The only requirement for AA membership is an honest desire to stop drinking. Each member squares his debt by helping others to recovery. An Alcoholic Anonymous is an alcoholic who, through an application of an adherence to the AA program, has completely foresworn the use of any and all alcoholic beverages or narcotics in any form. The moment he drinks so much as one drop of beer, wine, spirits or any other alcoholic beverage, he automatically loses working status as a member of Alcoholics Anonymous. He cannot attend a meeting if he has had a drink on any meeting day. He is barred from making contact calls on any new or prospective member until he has had thirty days sobriety, unless accompanied by an eligible member or directed to do so by the Dispatcher. He cannot hold office or be a candidate for office until he has had three months sobriety and must submit his resignation as an officer if a slip occurs during his tenure in office.[i][i] AA is not interested in sobering up drunks who are not sincere in their desire to remain completely sober for all time. Not being reformers, we offer our experience only to those who want it. We have a way out on which we can absolutely agree, and upon which we can join in harmonious action. Rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. Those who do not recover are people who will not completely give themselves to this simple program. You may like this program or you may not. But the fact remains that it works and it is our only chance of recovery. There is, however, a vast amount of fun about it all. Some people might be shocked at our seeming worldliness and levity. But just underneath there is a deadly earnestness and a full realization that we must put First Things First. With each of us the First Thing is our alcohol problem, to drink is to die. Faith has to work 24 hours a day in and through us - or we perish. 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;"> 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;"> ----- *From:* Glenn Chesnut [mailto:glennccc@sbcglobal.net] *Sent:* Monday, July 26, 2004 12:15 AM *To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Subject:* [AAHistoryLovers] NY-AA@att.net on the Old Preamble 12.0pt;"> Lee N. (Woodstock, Maine) dcm19@megalink.net wrote on Sun, 25 Jul 2004: An elder member who was a great friend of our Archives during my tenure, and another member also, were close to Captain Jack near the end of his life. When he passed from us both these folks donated a very large amount of Captain Jack's memorabilia to the Archives, including this old Preamble which I described in my previous post to the group. We were able to fill a display case 4' long with his memorabilia at the Central Office where our Archives is located. Anyway, she has passed this question to me and I would very much like to give her an answer. How do we describe this old Preamble which we have on display? What kind of tag or information should we put on it? Tom E. NY_AA@att.net responded: Hi, Folks: Variations of that preamble were discussed in AAHistoryLovers and the earlier AAHistoryBuffs forums. Here are some of the posts: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/247 http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/271 http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/826 http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/827 http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/828 http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/829 http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/836 http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/841 Article 828 quotes a GrapeVine article with Searcy W taking partial credit. In Message 841, Art Sheehan is saying that it was a Preamble from Texas but it predated Searcy's sobriety. Lacking physical evidence, I'm not going to attempt to validate any attribution of the source. This Google search gets you thirty-four examples of the same or similar preambles on web sites. http://www.google.com/search?q=%22We+are+gathered+here+because+we+are+faced+wi th%22&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF_8&c2coff=1&filter=0 [87] Most of these sites have no attribution or are vague. I believe they got their information when it was argued out without agreement in the Usenet news group alt.recovery.aa in the mid 1990s. ______________________ En2joy! Tom En2ger 12.0pt;"> - IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1947. . . . . . . . . . . . A Pint of Dignity, a Sip of Humour (2004) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/26/2004 4:03:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII This is from the Toronto Star Jul. 20, 2004. A pint of dignity, a sip of humour JIM COYLE Tonight, in a Toronto church basement that's bright and cheerful as such places go but is still a church basement, a man I know will receive a medallion marking 20 years of sobriety. To say the least, 7,305 days is a long time between drinks. To illustrate just how long, the year the last one was taken Wayne Gretzky and his Edmonton Oilers won their first Stanley Cup, the Soviet Union boycotted the Los Angeles summer Olympics and Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called to Say I Love You" was a top single. If it's a long time, it's also a long way from a life of self-centredness, irresponsibility and despair to one of generosity, duty and contentment. To some, such a transformation is a miracle. At the very least, it is astonishing. And this one happened, as such things frequently do, in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous. If tonight's medallion is a celebration of the power of AA, so too is a new biography by Susan Cheever of Bill Wilson, co-founder of what's come to be regarded as one of the more important social breakthroughs of the 20th century. In My Name is Bill, Cheever says the method Wilson devised for addressing alcoholism "didn't work perfectly. It didn't work all the time. But it worked often and fairly well, which was worlds ahead of anything else that has been thought of to combat addiction before or since." Some regard Wilson as having been divinely inspired in drafting AA's 12 Steps. Whatever one's view on that, there can be little argument that his fusing of ideas from medicine, psychology, philosophy, religion and the power of storytelling into a program of recovery was no small act of genius. As it happens, the writer Christopher Hitchens has a bash at AA in the current issue of Vanity Fair in an entertaining but facile review of U.S. Preside nt George W. Bush's battle with alcohol. Hitchens calls it "a quasi-cult that demands surrender to a higher power." He dismisses what goes on there as "church-basement babble." In truth, far from acting as a proselytizing cult, AA has resisted even much in the way of advertising since its founding in 1935, believing in attraction, rather than promotion. In his day, Wilson even turned down honorary degrees and other public tributes in order to avoid the cult of personality. In reality, AA demands nothing. Those who arrive at its doors - and nobody does by accident or without having made rather a botch of things - are free to take it or leave it, their misery cheerfully refunded. But should they wish to try a different way, they are shown what has worked for millions of others like them around the world. And considering the toll untreated alcoholism takes on families, highways, in workplaces, the health and justice systems, anything that transforms so many of the perpetrators of such mayhem into responsible citizens must be doing a lot more than talking babble. Actually, you'd think AA and its founder, who was a lifelong conservative and staunch Republican, might appeal to Hitchens. As Cheever notes, AA is a society with no laws, one that is fully self-supporting. Its leaders "are but trusted servants, they do not govern." To be sure, it is a program often perplexing for being so counter-intuitive and rooted so much in paradox. It is about personal responsibility and mutual support, surrender as a means to freedom, concern for others as the route to understanding the self, and selfless service as a path to personal gain. For all it accomplishes, Hitchens might be pleased to know he would still probably run into as many practicing rogues as holy rollers at most AA meetings. Wilson himself dabbled in spiritualism, psychedelic drugs and regular adulteries after sobering up. AA doesn't get you saintly. It gets you sober. What you do after that is pretty much up to you. If nothing else, it will probably involve some laughter. Given the horror stories told at AA meetings, newcomers and outsiders often find that odd. But there was probably no greater expert on humour than E.B. White, and perhaps he said it best. "There is often a rather fine line between laughing and crying," he once wrote. "(Humour) plays close to the big hot fire which is truth." And, as has been famously said, the truth will set you free. On the back of the medallion my friend will receive tonight is engraved his first name and last initial, his group, his dry date - July 20, 1984 - and the word "merci." In any language, gratitude is hard to miss. It gives warmth and light and hope and example. One day at a time. And sometimes for a good long time, indeed. Jim Coyle usually appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1948. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: on Ebby T. From: Arthur Sheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/26/2004 4:25:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I'd strongly recommend a very enjoyable and informative book from a member of AAHistoryLovers - it's Mel B's book "Ebby The Man Who Sponsored Bill W." You can order it on-line from Hazelden. Searcy W (now deceased) was one of several members who tried to help Ebby stay sober when he lived in Texas. Another important name was Olin L who also served as the Northeast Texas Area's Panel 1 Delegate to the General Service Conference. I have a graphic of Olin and Ebby together if you'd like a copy. Cheers Arthur ----- Original Message ----- From: Glenn Chesnut To: AA History Lovers Sent: Monday, July 26, 2004 1:08 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] on Ebby T. Gilbert G. text164@yahoo.com has written in asking "does anybody have any info on Ebby T's life (like the times he spent sober, where he sobered up at, with whom, etc.) any and all info will be greatly appreciated." karlbateman2000@yahoo.com writes: The piece by Walter L. in http://www.barefootsworld.net/aaebbyt.html is a great article on Bill's "sponsor." He was the one that carried the message to Bill from the Oxford groups. Ebby had various relapses until 1964. Ebby had carried the message of the Oxford Group to Bill with great care and dedication -- that recovery from alcoholism was possible using spiritual principles, but only if it was combined with practical actions. Bill Wilson never took another drink, and left Towns Hospital to dedicate the rest of his life to carrying the message to other alcoholics. Ebby, however, took a different path, one that caused him to have a series of relapses. The man whom Bill Wilson called his sponsor could not stay sober himself, and became an embarrassment. There were periods of sobriety, some long, some short, but eventually Ebby would, "fall off the wagon," as he called it. Ebby drifted in and out of sobriety, and in and out of AA, with many AA members trying to help him regain a more stable sobriety. The person who was ultimately successful was Searcy W., who had established a hospital for alcoholics in Texas. Early in 1953, Searcy had asked Bill what he would like to see happen in AA, and Bill said, "I would like for Ebby to have a chance to sober up in your clinic." Several months later, it came to pass, and after a short slip in 1954, Ebby remained sober for seven years. In 1961, Ebby's girlfriend died and the next day Ebby got drunk. He apparently still believed that his sobriety was conditional on having the right woman, and now she was gone. Ebby moved back to New York and lived at several places for the next two years, one of which was at his brother Ken's home in Delmar, a suburb of Albany. He had emphysema, the same disease that caused Bill's death, and was in poor health, his weight having dropped from 170 to 122 pounds. Ebby eventually came to Margaret and Micky McPike's farm outside Ballston Spa, New York, in May, 1964 and it was under their loving care that he finished the final two years of his life, dying sober on March 21, 1966. FROM: karlbateman2000@yahoo.com IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1949. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Question from Gilbert G. on Ebby T. From: Robert Stonebraker . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/26/2004 1:15:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Dear Gilbert and Group, I found a book by Mel B., _'Ebby The Man Who Sponsored Bill W.'' _ to be a fascinating read. (153 pages) Published by Hazelden. Another book is by Nell Wing, _'Grateful To Have Been There'' _tells many interesting stories about Ebby in New York. (187 pages) Also published by Hazelden. 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;">Bob S. _ Arial;font-style:italic;"> _ -----Original Message----- *From:* Glenn Chesnut [mailto:glennccc@sbcglobal.net] *Sent:* Sunday, July 25, 2004 11:35 PM *To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Subject:* [AAHistoryLovers] Question from Gilbert G. on Ebby T. Gilbert G. has written in asking "does anybody have any info on Ebby T's life (like the times he spent sober, where he sobered up at, with whom, etc.) any and all info will be greatly appreciated." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1950. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: keep coming back, it works if you work it From: Al Welch . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/26/2004 5:42:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII We have been told that this is one of the "mantras" supplied by recovery institutions to stamp their identity on the program. There are so many of these "worthy additions" that if you were to chant them all, the meeting would last an hour and a half instead of an hour. ----- Original Message ----- From: David Ingram To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, July 26, 2004 5:31 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] keep coming back, it works if you work it Greetings; I have inadequately searched the archives trying to answer this question and thought I would try a broad appeal. In my home group we close our meetings holding hands and reciting the Lords Prayer, but before breaking the chain we say "keep coming back, it works if you work it". We're trying to learn anything about the origin & introduction of the latter statement. Many grateful Thank You's in advance - David ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail [88] - Helps protect you from nasty viruses. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1951. . . . . . . . . . . . The Lord''s Prayer (1944) From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/27/2004 1:33:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII This is from a series of eight editorial articles on 'The Lord's Prayer'' in the Cleveland Central Bulletin, an AA newsletter that began before the AA Grapevine. February 1944 "Our Father..." These are crucial words. Of all the words of the most universal of all prayers, these two words are of greatest importance to us. In uttering them, we turn to a Power greater than our own. We turn from complete reliance upon our own egotistical natures, from exaggerated self love and self exaltation. We confess that our efforts to run our entire lives in our own willful way have led to error, frustration, defeat, failure. We admit that the self justification that resulted from our errors has only deepened our defeat. Even when we have seen the depth of our failure, the folly of self justification and the pitfalls of egotism, we have discovered that our efforts to re-establish ourselves solely through will power have led to more stumbling. Our wills, as one writer has observed, are where we are sickest. So we, out of desperation turn to the sure Power that has always existed and make that Power the rock upon which we will rebuild our lives. Many of us had long since lapsed in belief in any Supreme Power. Most of us had not addressed ourselves to that Power for many years, except, perhaps, in an occasional desperate moment. In the realization of the position in which we have found ourselves, we come to a crossroads. We may continue to rely upon our sick wills and our erring judgements, which so often speak the words of justification. Our experience should show us what the result of following along that path may be. Most of us find it better to choose the other path. Certainly all who have succeeded in application of the AA program have found this other path better. We turn from our selves to anchor our lives on something outside. Preferably, we anchor our lives to that something outside that we consider greater than ourselves, and eventually, we recognize that something as being the Supreme Power. We bring that Supreme Power into our lives, and by so doing, we lift ourselves up. We think of that Supreme Power in our own terms, but we know that the realm of that Power is of realm of the Good, where the spirit may find peace. With these words, Our Father, we address ourselves to the Supreme Power. In the morning when we get up to prepare for the day's work; in the evening when we retire and think for a few moments about our actions during the day that has just past, we place ourselves in the presence of that Supreme Power with the words, Our Father. When occasion arises during the day, when we are sorely tempted, when we are angry, when we are resentful, when we pity ourselves, when we feel frustrated or worried, we can shift gears and connect ourselves with the Supreme Power by uttering the words, Our Father. There we will find help. March 1944 'Hallowed Be Thy Name'' 'Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy Name…'' When we discovered ourselves powerless over alcohol and unable to manage our own lives, we turned to a Power greater than our own. When we have denied that Power, or ignored it, or when we have turned to that Power only mechanically, we have failed in our efforts to meet our problems. When we have turned to that Power and have done so sincerely, we have succeeded in regaining control over our lives and have progressed in the solution of our problems. So other test of the existence of that Power, or our dependence upon it, is necessary. That Power we recognize as being the supreme power in the universe. It has, and has had throughout history, many names. To most of us today, the name of the Supreme Power is simply God. In our prayer, we say, 'hallowed be thy Name.'' That means that the name of God is to be set aside as being holy; it is consecrated for sacred uses. It is revered, held in profound respect and at the same time regarded with love. However, these are attitudes that are not limited merely to the name of God, as if the name were magical (as the ancients believed). These are attitudes that we take in our approach to God. We regard God as being apart from the profane world even though concerned with it. And in our approach to God, we are to put off all that is profane. We approach God with reverence, with profound respect, with love, and perhaps with fear. We acknowledge God's power over the universe. We acknowledge that the realm of God is the realm of the good. And we recognize that if we are to receive the help of God, we must strive consciously to separate ourselves from those things that are antagonistic to the good. It is good for us to use restraint in the use of the name of God (the name being. for most of us, God), simply be-cause the profanation of the name tends to weaken and then destroy the meaning of the word in our minds. The name of God should call God into our minds, and should cause us to think of God's power, God's goodness, God's help to us. Through it, we should be able to shift gears from the profane world. But again, 'Hallowed be Thy Name'' must mean something more to us than respect for God's name. It must be the supreme acknowledgment of God himself, and of our entire dependence upon God. April 1944 'Thy Kingdom Come'' In our thoughts on the Lord's Prayer. we are inclined to pass over the words, Thy kingdom come. The words seem to us to refer either to life beyond the grave, or to the age-old hope of the prophets and the religious for the day when God's kingdom shall be set up on earth and swords shall be beaten into plowshares. But the Lord's Prayer is essentially a prayer for our daily needs, one through which we strive to place ourselves within the sphere of God's works. While the world at large still does not conduct itself as the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom exists today for all those who will turn to it. For those of us who have found our lives unmanageable, the Kingdom of God is our sure refuge. By acknowledging ourselves as the subjects of a Power greater than our own, as obedient to the laws of life that have grown out of the experience of mankind throughout the ages, we can restore ourselves. We place ourselves in the Kingdom of God within us. What is the Kingdom of God? The Apostle Paul ssaid it is not meat or drink. That means it is not the material side of lift. Those whose interests lie alone in bread, in wealth , in the comforts of life, do not find the Kingdom of God. They are more likely to find themselves victims of lust and greet, to find themselves selfish and intolerant, to find themselves where we found ourselves as the result of our one-sided interest in material things. The Kingdom of God, said Paul, is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Some of us shy away from words like 'righteousness,'' which have a 'goody-goodv'' sound. But what is a righteous man but one who is upright and honest and fair and free from the will to do wrong. The Kingdom of God. we might say, is the realm of honesty and unselfishness and purity and love, the four principles that guide our efforts to remake our lives. Some of our members call them the Four Absolutes. The Kingdom of God is peace: the peace from the tortures of the mind and the flesh that we have suffered so many years. With honesty and unselfishness and purity and love, by being upright and fair and free from the will to do wrong, by casting from us the errors that have troubled us, we can relax and find peace in the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is joy in the Holy Spirit. Perhaps Paul meant to suggest that it is the joy that comes to us through acceptance of the Holy Spirit. And so it is. But many of us, who have spent so many years in error and have been inclined to look with contempt upon those persons who followed the way of God, tend to keep the Holy Spirit at arm's length. Many are inclined to think that it is not quite 'grown up'' to find joy in the Holy Spirit. Thus we persist in error, and deprive ourselves of the opportunity to find peace. We have to let ourselves find joy in the Holy Spirit. It is well to recall the first three of the Twelve Steps. We confessed that we were powerless over alcohol and that our lives had become unmanageable. We decided that a Power greater than our own could restore us to sanity. We undertook to place our lives and our wills in the hands of that Power. So now we acknowledge the Supreme Power, 'Our Father.'' We regard that Power reverently. And we ask that we live today in the realm of that Power, when we are upright, where we find peace, where we find joy in the Holy Spirit. Thy Kingdom come. May 1944 'Thy Will Be Done'' So words that we can utter are as vital to us as these words in the Lord's Prayer, 'Thy will be done.'' In uttering these words we surrender to the will of a Power greater than our own. This is the essential act in the third of the Twelve Steps, the step that is the very heart of our program. The instincts that rule our material selves are largeIy instincts of self-preservation. They make Self our first concern and they are the causes of most of the troubles that we can fall into. Self-concern leads to egotism, to self-assertion, to vanity, to lack of concern for the feelings of others: It leads to things that destroy us: lust, greed, and similar excesses of body passions. A sane view of lift is that all things are good in their right use. But we have devoted ourselves to the misuse of a number of things and have regarded ourselves accountable to no man. Now that the bill for our misconduct has been presented, we find ourselves thoroughly rooted in misuse and thoroughly the victims of our impulses. Now that we are in AA, most of us have recognized our chief errors. Most of us see the need for control, for responsible action, for curbs on selfish acts. We have seen how some of the results of our habits of thought, in resentment, in self-pity, in jealousy, in other aspects of self-love, return again and again to harass us. Our head strong tendencies demand surrender, demand a yielding of ourselves to the will of an external power. To place ourselves in the hands of that Power, we have to create new habits of action to keep us out of old ruts. We may continue to do all the things that nature intended us to do, bur it is important that we do those things under control. We must control impulses, particularly those associated with our excesses. Most difficult, perhaps, are those times when there is an urge that we cannot define, just a general tension under the skin and a hazy hut strong impulsive feeling in the mind. These are times when it is particularly necessary to call on the aid of the Supreme Power. We must develop the habit of turning to the Supreme Power at all times, at regular daily intervals, at times when we are under stress. Impulses should be discharged by addressing ourselves directly to the Supreme Power and asking for guidance. We must learn to see the signs of headstrong and self-willed action and remember the troubles that such action has brought in the past. Our watchword here is, 'Easy does it.'' It is the will of the Supreme Power that we love our neighbors, that we be merciful and just in all our action. Perhaps we should be especially mindful of the warning that we should not judge others. We have to learn to be tolerant and to improve our own ways of living. These things are hard at first because they run so contrary to the habits we have developed. Our task is to develop new habits in which we place the direction of our lives in the hands of a Power greater than our own. We have to do it first by conscious effort. Eventually we find that when we turn to the Supreme Power and accept the guidance of that power, the painful shackles fall away and the driving impulses lose their force and we find a measure of peace. June 1944 'Give Us this Day Our Daily Bread'' This is the 21-Hour Plan of life in the Lord's Prayer, and as such it is far from being the simple petition for the gift of food that it seems. This petition is worthy of our particular consideration, since it has special meanings for us in AA. 'Bread'' in the Lord's Prayer means all the things that man needs to sustain life. The petition is concerned wholly with material things. Every material thing, whether it is food, clothing, shelter, a convenience of life or a means of pleasure, is solely the product of the labor of man applied to the gifts of nature. We get nothing without labor, but our labor would not be fruitful were it not for the gifts of nature, which are the fruits of the labor of God. It is a fundamental law that man must work if he is to live. It is a fundamental truth that life depends on God's bounty. 'Give us this day our daily bread'' is first of all an acknowledgment that we are dependent upon God's bounty. But those who will take the trouble to read the Sermon on the Mount, in which the Lord's Prayer appears, will discover ample evidence that the word 'daily'' in this petition is of greatest importance. 'Give us today bread for today,'' the petition means tomorrow's bread we will seek tomorrow. Thus, this is a renunciation, one that grows out of the last of the Ten Commandments (covetousness). It is linked spiritually with the declaration that 'Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.'' Granted that man must have bread, he must not make the pursuit of material things the ruling passion of his life. Now this is of particular interest to us. For most of us in AA became alcoholics largely because of our concern over material things. A few of our younger alcoholics are simply undisciplined children who have devoted themselves to the pursuit of pleasure and escape from the responsibilities of life. But most of our older alcoholics are men and women who have suffered frustration and disappointment, who have discovered that the aims they had in youth never are to be realized. We have had to cut our patterns to fit our opportunities, to walk when we had hoped to soar aloft. Moreover, the depression that preceded the present war made alcoholics of many men who ordinarily would have escaped. Devotion to material things made tragedy out of disappointment. No one would suggest that we turn away from the material entirely. We must care for our needs and our family's needs. And in our present economic order, a prudent man will save something if he can. But if we are to have health, economic pursuits must not be our ruling passion. Ambition and pride and covetousness, the desire for wealth and the demand for power must be curbed, and with them, the resentment and jealousy that come in the wake of frustration. We have to learn to be satisfied with what we can achieve, and in learning to be satisfied, it is well to renounce something of our aims. We may start by being practical. We may go on by finding interest in higher things. The man who has given up greed is on the way to happiness. July 1944 'Forgive Us Our Trespasses'' 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.'' No one who has completed his moral inventory can pass over this petition lightly. First, what are trespasses? Any act contrary to the moral law, a neglect of duty, an injury or wrong to another person, is a trespass. 'Moral'' is used here in its proper sense as pertaining to action with reference to right and wrong and obligation of duty. It refers not only to things we have done but also to things we have neglected to do. Some of our trespasses are easy to recognize. We have no difficulty in seeing our guilt in them. Others may be more difficult, partly because we have spent so much time in justifying and excusing our acts or neglects that we have come to think of justification as answering the accusation. It is precisely at this point that our moral inventories must become fearless. Every excuse or justification must be challenged as being in itself evidence of guilt. We should examine our conduct in detail and specify each trespass. This is important. The Lord's Prayer does not excuse us from responsibility for our acts. Nor is it a license for repetition of wrongful acts. We are bound to make reparation for harm that we have done, and we are bound to cease doing harm. Our prayer is made daily. So should our inventories be made daily. In our prayer, we should keep in mind the things the inventories have revealed, so that we may make progress in correcting our faults. 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.'' This petition is conditional. No one who is not willing to forgive can expect to be forgiven. No one who harbors hatred, malice and resentment in his heart can expect to find peace. This condition is of particular concern to us, since so many of us suffer through resentment, self pity, jealousy, self love. It has been the experience of all of us who try to control resentment that most of the causes of our resentments are found to be either imaginary or petty, and that they actually have done us no real harm. When we can rid ourselves of these resentments, we shall make progress. Honest inventory often will reveal that in those cases in which we have suffered in our dealings with others, some of the fault, much of the fault, or even most of the fault has been ours. But even in those few instances in which we have suffered genuine injury at the hands of others, we are bound to forgive. Certainly we gain nothing but harm to ourselves when we allow resentment to fill our minds and consume our energies. When we forgive, we heal our minds. August 1944 'Lead Us Not Into Temptation'' These words of the last petition of the Lord's Prayer come from our lips with greatest fervor. We have turned to prayer in a desperate hour to plead for deliverance and we ask that we may be taken out of the path of temptation. There is no doubt in the mind of any one who is in trouble what the words of this petition mean, and there is rather little doubt, at least at first, what we wished to be saved from. Temptation has sly ways, however. After we have all the gaps plugged. Temptation begins to whisper fairy tales into our ears, trying to get us to open up at least one of the gaps. Temptation hints that the diagnosis we made when we took the first of the Twelve Steps was not quite right. Why not take just one now and then? And why not ask to be delivered from the temptation of taking more than one? But then, three would be better, why not never more than three? Or, Temptation may make a more direct assault. We're as big as God is: we can step off that cliff! Well, maybe not quite; but we are capable of handling ourselves, and there is no reason why we cannot go down to the water's edge and wade around abit! We forget that for us there is no shallow water. Temptation stays with us, trying to build up our confidence, trying to make us believe that we have been cured, scoffing at the old troubles. Temptation slips in at the side door when we become proud and satisfied. It is the greatest to those who have persisted in remaining at the threshold of evil by always having that 'Some day!'' in the back of the mind. The most persistent temptation we have is the temptation to change the diagnosis. When we turn our backs firmly against that temptation we are likely to stay out of trouble. Self love is a great pitfall, and the source of the great sins. Many of the temptations here seem rather innocent. But they lead, step by step to denial of the Supreme Power, to exaltation of the self. For us, deliverance and temptation go together, and one of the most important evils that we seek to be freed from is temptation. Drink has become so much a part of our lives that we associate virtually every act with it. The result is that the idea of drink, the urge to take a drink or to go to get a drink constantly pops into the mind for no apparent reason. The Devil here is experience. As our sins may be forgiven if we are truly contrite, so may we be delivered from the evils we have created for ourselves, by being sorry for our misdeeds, by undertaking to make good for any injury we have done to others, and by striving not to offend again. We are bound to take positive action for the right and the good, and we are bound not to allow ourselves drift with our inclinations. We place ourselves in the hands of the Supreme Power and follow the lead we receive from that power, away from temptation, away from evil. September 1944 'For Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory Forever.'' Thus the Lord's Prayer ends, with words of surrender. The kingdom of God is God's kingdom. The power in the kingdom is God's power. And the glory for the works in the kingdom is God's glory. The kingdom is not ours, though we are part of it. The power is not ours, though God gives us a little of his power for our own use. The glory is not ours, but God's We should do well not to mumble these words when we say the Lord's Prayer, and not to hurry through them. We should do well to think as we say them. The kingdom and the power and the glory are God's, not ours. Many of us thought the whole kingdom ours, or thought it should be. Many of us thought the power ours, and abused such power as we had. Or we thought the power should be ours, and WE kicked at everything when we found it was not. We finally kicked ourselves down. And many of us, all too may of us, thought the glory ours. Big shots. Important guys. Bigger than our neighbors. Bigger than God. Spoiled children when no one else agreed with our notions. Now, the sin that the Bible talks about is the sin of imagining ourselves bigger than God. We start by imagining ourselves bigger than any other person. We insist on running everything our own way, regardless of the rules that men have found necessary throughout civilized life. We went from the great sin to the deadly sins and thence to the gutter. We fount it hard to learn, and some of us find it is easy to unlearn. When the bad days are gone and good days come again, some of us forget the lessons of those evil days. Old yearnings stir up in us. Pride awakens, with perhaps an extra urge to wipe out the memory of the bad days and to show the world that we are great. Some want power in business, some in politics, some in AA, some elsewhere. Some of us want others to bow to us, to admit our power and our glory. Some of us go so far as to act on these urges. The result is trouble. Eventually, it is the same old trouble. We have seen it happen many times, sometimes with men quite old in AA. The kingdom and the power and the glory are God's not ours. The wise man yields first place to God. The wise man avoids seeking advantage over others, or even seeking equal place with others. The wise man keeps himself on a leash and thus gains peace. The wise man is humble. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1952. . . . . . . . . . . . Bare Witness From: marywb . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/27/2004 10:58:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Does anyone know where the phrase "may bear witness" came from in the 3rd Step Prayer? I have a newcomer who is having lots of trouble with that phrase. Thanks. God, I offer myself to Thee--to build with me and to do with me as Thou wilt.Relieve me from the bondage of self, that I may better do Thy will. Take away my difficulties, that victory over them may bear witness to those I would help of Thy Power, Thy Love and Thy Way of life. May I do Thy will always! IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1953. . . . . . . . . . . . Characters in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. From: Byron Bateman . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/27/2004 2:29:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I have been trying to find the identities of two individuals that Bill W. wrote about in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. I have always been curious about the identity of the "Tough Irishman" mentioned on pp.152-153, (Tradition Five) of the 12x12. Also, the well-loved clergyman referred to on p. 63, (Step Six) of the 12x12, who said; "This is the step that separates the men form the boys" I would appreciate any help that anyone might supply on these two individuals. Byron Bateman IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1954. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Characters in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. From: Bruce Lallier . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/27/2004 6:19:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I believe the well loved clergyman was Father Dowling. ----- Original Message ----- From: Byron Bateman To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 3:29 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Characters in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. I have been trying to find the identities of two individuals that Bill W. wrote about in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. I have always been curious about the identity of the "Tough Irishman" mentioned on pp.152-153, (Tradition Five) of the 12x12. Also, the well-loved clergyman referred to on p. 63, (Step Six) of the 12x12, who said; "This is the step that separates the men form the boys" I would appreciate any help that anyone might supply on these two individuals. Byron Bateman IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1955. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Characters in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. From: lee . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/27/2004 6:23:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I would say that the tough Irishman was Ryan M. of the Gabriel Heatter interview fame and the clergyman was Father Dowling, Bill's spiritual sponsor. A good and entertaining source for a talk on Morgan is a tape that Bill made on 1954 in San Antonio on the making of the Big Book. lee "This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness." -Dalai Lama ----- Original Message ----- From: Byron Bateman To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 3:29 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Characters in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. I have been trying to find the identities of two individuals that Bill W. wrote about in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. I have always been curious about the identity of the "Tough Irishman" mentioned on pp.152-153, (Tradition Five) of the 12x12. Also, the well-loved clergyman referred to on p. 63, (Step Six) of the 12x12, who said; "This is the step that separates the men form the boys" I would appreciate any help that anyone might supply on these two individuals. Byron Bateman IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1956. . . . . . . . . . . . Ancient origins of the Serenity Prayer From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/28/2004 12:15:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII In terms of the ancient background of the Serenity Prayer, the distinction between "the things we do not have the power to change" and "the things we do have the power to change" is a fundamental and central part of ancient Greco-Roman Stoic philosophy. In ancient Greek (in the Stoic literature), it is called the distinction between ta ouk eph' hemin and ta eph' hemin, that is, read literally, "things not up to us" vs. "things up to us." And the goal of the good life in Stoic philosophy is always described as the attainment of "serenity," which in ancient Greek was apatheia, which meant freedom from overwhelming emotional storms (what were called the pathe in Greek, that is, the fierce passions like the furious and insane rage which drove Medea to kill her own children and Clytemnestra to murder her husband, King Agamemnon, by chopping him up with an ax as he lay soaking in his bathtub). To see what they meant by the pathe, the overwhelming "passions" which led us to our destruction, see the Roman tragedies written by Seneca. His plays usually focus on the destructive power of ira (out of control anger) and furor (which is out of control anger carried to truly insane lengths). But the Stoics knew that there were a lot of other passions which could destroy you when they got out of control, such as desire, grief, fear, and even joy (modern drug addicts can assure you that this is so). And the ancients knew about sexual lust of course! They had felt its power too. At any rate, any ancient Greek philosopher who looked at the Serenity Prayer would note these two items - - the distinction between the things we cannot change and the things we can, and the idea of serenity as the goal of the good life - - and nod his head and say, "Yes, this must be by a Stoic." These were technical terms which these ancient philosophers argued over, and everybody knew that this was the Stoic position on those issues. St. Augustine, who knew his ancient philosophy thoroughly, later on attacked the idea of serenity as the goal of the good life in his City of God, which he wrote at the beginning of the fifth century A.D., specifically identifying this as a Stoic idea. The Discourses of Epictetus is the best Stoic work to look at to see how the ancient Stoics understood these terms. Epictetus had once been a slave in the mad emperor Nero's palace, and knew whereof he spoke when he talked about being in situations where we had no control over people, places, or things. (This observation was a standard part of ancient Stoic belief also. The only thing we ultimately have real control over, they taught, is what is going on inside us, inside our own heads.) How did these ideas get down to the twentieth century? By the end of the Greco-Roman period, most philosophers were teaching mixtures of Stoic and Platonic (and sometimes Aristotelian) philosophy. They were called Late Stoics or Middle Platonists or Neo-Pythagorians or other technical terms like that, but all of them had mixed a lot of Stoic ideas into their thought. Even the writings of an Academic Sceptic like Cicero were filled with references to Stoic ideas. And by the second century, Christian theologians were using a mixture of Stoic and Middle Platonic philosophy to explain their own Christian ideas. In the eastern end of the Mediterranean most early Christian theologians taught that serenity in the Stoic sense was the goal of the Christian life, and Eastern Orthodox Christianity still teaches that to this day. And the revival of the Greek and Roman classics in the Renaissance, beginning in the 1300's A.D., meant that you can find Stoic ideas coming out in all sorts of Renaissance and Early Modern literature from western Europe for a number of centuries afterward. Reinhold Niebuhr was probably the greatest American-born theologian of the twentieth century, and had a deep and profound knowledge of ancient philosophy as well as the history of Christian theology. There is a little bit of the Stoic approach in the early medieval philosopher Boethius (who is sometimes cited as the source), but he really doesn't use the Stoic technical terminology, and he was also not very apt to have been on Reinhold Niebuhr's reading list. Boethius just did not show up on the standard reading lists at either Protestant or Roman Catholic seminaries in the early twentieth century. They might mention his name in a general history course, but would not go into any detail about his ideas, or require the students to actually read anything Boethius wrote. But Reinhold Niebuhr could have picked up these ideas from so many different Late Ancient and Medieval sources, that I think tracking down the particular one that suggested the prayer to him is impossible. There were just too many places he could have found the basic ideas. Originally though, if we take the ideas in the Serenity Prayer back to their beginnings, it was a very distinctive and easily identifiable Stoic philosophical position. It wasn't just vague talk about men and women sometimes being at the mercy of forces they cannot control, which was something which thoughtful human beings in all cultures at all periods of history have talked about (Egyptians, Persians, Buddhists, Hindus, the classical Greek tragedians, and so on). Glenn Chesnut, Professor Emeritus of Ancient History, Indiana University IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1957. . . . . . . . . . . . Report from the moderatpr From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/29/2004 8:46:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The group keeps growing. Today there are more than 910 members from all over the world. Lately I have not responded to new members with welcoming messages. So this is for the new members, and a reminder to the others: Welcome to AA History Lovers. We are not an AA group: The list is open to anyone interested in AA history whether AA members or not. We are not a chat room: Please do not use the list to comment on other people's posts. Comment on the post ONLY if your message has additional history on the subject. Personal Opinions Are to be Avoided: No personal opinions, or posts based just on rumor or vague memory of what someone told you will be posted. To the extent possible please list the sources for any information you send. Messages that repeat history already on the list will not be posted: Please use the search box to make sure the information is not already on the list. Also please search the list before posting a question which may already have been answered. Subject Lines: Please identify the subject in any post that you send. Those that say "A question" are not helpful. Are you getting too much mail?: You can always change your setting to get a daily digest or to receive no e-mails but only read the messages on the website. Read old posts by going to: Yahoo! Groups : AAHistoryLovers Messages : 1-31 of 853 [89] Also, I do not always post questions about how a particular local custom got started. There are far too many of them and they would crowd the list with nothing but local customs. Please do not argue when your post is not approved. I do not have time to respond to such complaints. As some of you know, I have not been well lately and considered turning the group over to someone else. But now I have decided I want to keep control of it until it is absolutely necessary to turn it over. But I may not be as efficient as I have tried to be in the past. Please be patient with me. Nancy Olson Moderator IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1958. . . . . . . . . . . . Serenity Prayer and New York Herald Tribune From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/28/2004 12:11:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Cora F. seems to have discovered what may be yet a new problem in tracking down the origins of the Serenity Prayer. So far, everyone has taken as a starting point the tradition that the prayer came from a newspaper clipping described as follows: Nell Wing for example, in Appendix B to Grateful to Have Been There (p. 167), says that the prayer was discovered in 1941 in the "In Memoriam" obituary column of an early June edition of the New York Herald Tribune. Cora F., whom I already know to be a very careful researcher with really sharp eyes, says "I copied down the relevant dates, went to the library at the big university, and spent several hours over two afternoons with a diabolical microfilm viewer. No luck." Has anyone else in our web group tried to verify that the copy of the prayer which came into the New York AA office in fact came from an obituary in the New York Herald Tribune in 1941? If it cannot be found in that newspaper during that time period, was the person who brought it in to the AA office mistaken in saying that it came from the Herald Tribune? There were a lot of newspapers in New York in those days. Or did the date perhaps get remembered incorrectly? Or was the newspaper clipping which was brought into the office in June 1941 a memento which the person had kept from a much earlier time? Cora F. says that she was looking at the obituaries in and around early June 1941. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1959. . . . . . . . . . . . CHARACTERS IN TWELVE AND TWELVE From: jacqueline belgium . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/28/2004 1:42:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII One of a good reference to AA history is the Bill W.'s biography published by A.A. i.e. «PASS IT ON» where a lot of names is mentioned together with the role they played in A.A. first days of AA history. just for your information, the French-speaking European countries (i.e France, Switzerland and Belgium) translated, a few years ago, the only existing French version known up to now. Regards. Jacqueline - Brussels - Belgium _________________________________________________________________ Ne cherchez plus. Trouvez. http://search.fr.msn.be/ IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1960. . . . . . . . . . . . Price of the Big Book From: Susan Krieger . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/28/2004 5:57:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Starting in 1939 when the book was published is there any way of finding out the original price and a history of GSO's price changes throughout the past 65 years? trudgetheroad IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1961. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Serenity Prayer and New York Herald Tribune From: Tim Sheehy . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/30/2004 7:43:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII There is a grapevine article in the January 1950 edition describing the origins of the serenity prayer as we know it. -----Original Message----- From: Glenn Chesnut [mailto:glennccc@sbcglobal.net] Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2004 10:12 AM To: AA History Lovers Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Serenity Prayer and New York Herald Tribune Cora F. seems to have discovered what may be yet a new problem in tracking down the origins of the Serenity Prayer. So far, everyone has taken as a starting point the tradition that the prayer came from a newspaper clipping described as follows: Nell Wing for example, in Appendix B to Grateful to Have Been There (p. 167), says that the prayer was discovered in 1941 in the "In Memoriam" obituary column of an early June edition of the New York Herald Tribune. Cora F., whom I already know to be a very careful researcher with really sharp eyes, says "I copied down the relevant dates, went to the library at the big university, and spent several hours over two afternoons with a diabolical microfilm viewer. No luck." Has anyone else in our web group tried to verify that the copy of the prayer which came into the New York AA office in fact came from an obituary in the New York Herald Tribune in 1941? If it cannot be found in that newspaper during that time period, was the person who brought it in to the AA office mistaken in saying that it came from the Herald Tribune? There were a lot of newspapers in New York in those days. Or did the date perhaps get remembered incorrectly? Or was the newspaper clipping which was brought into the office in June 1941 a memento which the person had kept from a much earlier time? Cora F. says that she was looking at the obituaries in and around early June 1941. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1962. . . . . . . . . . . . Another "Original" Preamble From: Lee Nickerson . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/31/2004 6:59:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Can anyone identify the source of the following. Its language appears to be close to Oxford Group principles? "Alcoholics Anonymous is a group of people for whom alcohol has become a major problem and who have banded together in a sincere effort to help themselves and other problem drinkers recover their healthy and maintain sobriety. Definitions of alcoholics are many and varied. For brevity we think of an alcoholic as one whose life has become unmanageable, to any degree, due to the use of alcohol. We of Alcoholics Anonymous believe that the alcoholic is suffering from a disease for which no cure has yet been found. We profess no curative powers but have formulated a plan to arrest alcoholism. The only requirement for A.A membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees in A.A. Activities are supported by the voluntary contributions of the members. Alcoholics Anonymous does not perform miracles, believing that such power rests only in God. We adhere to no particular creed or religion. We do believe, however, that an appeal for help to one's own interpretation of a Higher Power, or God, is indispensable to a satisfactory adjustment to life's problems. Alcoholics Anonymous is not a prohibition or temperance movement in any sense of the word. Neither have we any criticism of the controlled drinker. We are concerned ONLY with the alcoholic. From the vast experience of our many members we have learned that successful membership demands total abstinence. Attempts at controlled drinking for the alcoholic inevitable fail. We attempt to follow a program of Recovery which has for its chief objectives, sobriety for ourselves; help for other alcoholics who desire it; amends for past wrongs; humility; honesty; tolerance; and spiritual growth. We welcome and appreciate the cooperation of the medical profession - the clergy, and the public in general." unknown IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1963. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Serenity Prayer and New York Herald Tribune From: Cloydg . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/30/2004 10:58:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Here's a selected contribution I found on the net, hope it will help? Clyde The Origin of our Serenity Prayer As published in August/September 1992 BOX-459 (Reprinted with permission) AA History.com [90] For many years, long after the Serenity Prayer became attached to the very fabric of the Fellowship's life and thought, its exact origin, its actual author, have played a tantalizing game of hide and seek with researchers, both in and out of A.A. The facts of how it came to be used by A.A. a half century ago are much easier to pinpoint. Early in 1942, writes Bill W., in A.A. Comes of Age, a New York member, Jack, brought to everyone's attention a caption in a routine New York Herald Tribune obituary that read: [91] "God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can, and wisdom to know the difference." Everyone in A.A.'s burgeoning office on Manhattan's Vesey Street was struck by the power and wisdom contained in the prayer's thoughts. "Never had we seen so much A.A. in so few words," Bill writes. Someone suggested that the prayer be printed on a small, wallet-sized card, to be included in every piece of outgoing mail. Ruth Hock, the Fellowship's first (and nonalcoholic) secretary, contacted Henry S., a Washington D.C. member, and a professional printer, asking him what it would cost to order a bulk printing. Henry's enthusiastic response was to print 500 copies of the prayer, with the remark: "Incidentally, I am only a heel when I'm drunk .. . so naturally, there could be no charge for anything of this nature." "With amazing speed," writes Bill, "the Serenity Prayer came into general use and took its place alongside our two other favorites, the Lord's Prayer and the Prayer of St. Francis [92] . Thus did the "accidental" noticing of an unattributed prayer, printed alongside a simple obituary of an unknown individual, open the way toward the prayer's daily use by thousands upon thousands of A.A.s worldwide. But despite years of research by numerous individuals, the exact origin of the prayer is shrouded in overlays of history, even mystery. Moreover, every time a researcher appears to uncover the definitive source, another one crops up to refute the former's claim, at the same time that it raises new, intriguing facts. What is undisputed is the claim of authorship by the theologian Dr. Rheinhold Niebuhr, who recounted to interviewers on several occasions that he had written the prayer as a "tag line" to a sermon he had delivered on Practical Christianity. Yet even Dr. Niebuhr added at least a touch of doubt to his claim, when he told one interviewer, "Of course, it may have been spooking around for years, even centuries, but I don't think so. I honestly do believe that I wrote it myself." Early in World War II, with Dr. Niebuhr's permission, the prayer was printed on cards and distributed to the troops by the U.S.O. By then it had also been reprinted by the National Council of Churches, as well as Alcoholics Anonymous. Dr. Niebuhr was quite accurate in suggesting that the prayer may have been "spooking around" for centuries. "No one can tell for sure who first wrote the Serenity Prayer," writes Bill in A.A. Comes of Age. "Some say it came from the early Greeks; others think it was from the pen of an anonymous English poet; still others claim it was written by an American Naval officer... ." Other attributions have gone as far afield as ancient Sanskrit texts, Aristotle, St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas and Spinoza. One A.A. member came across the Roman philosopher Cicero's Six Mistakes of Man, one of which reads: "The tendency to worry about things that cannot be changed or corrected." No one has actually found the prayer's text among the writings of these alleged, original sources. What are probably truly ancient, as with the above quote from Cicero, are the prayer's themes of acceptance, courage to change what can be changed and the free letting go of what is out of one's ability to change. The search for pinpointing origins of the prayer has been like the peeling of an onion. For example, in July 1964, the A.A. Grapevine received a clipping of an article that had appeared in the Paris Herald Tribune, by the paper's correspondent in Koblenz, then in West Germany. "In a rather dreary hall of a converted hotel, overlooking the Rhine at Koblenz," the correspondent wrote, is a tablet inscribed with the following words: "God give me the detachment to accept those things I cannot alter; the courage to alter those things I can alter; and the wisdom to distinguish the one thing from the other." These words were attributed, the correspondent wrote, to an 18th century pietist, Friedrich Oetinger (1702-1782). Moreover, the plaque was affixed to a wall in a hall where modern day troops and company com-manders of the new German army were trained "in the principles of management and . . . behavior of the soldier citizen in a democratic state." Here, at last, thought A.A. researchers, was concrete evidence-quote, author, date-of the Serenity Prayer's original source. That conviction went unchallenged for fifteen years. Then in 1979 came material, shared with G.S.O.'s Beth K., by Peter T., of Berlin. Peter's research threw the authenticity of 18th century authorship out the window. But it also added more tantalizing facts about the plaque's origin. "The first form of the prayer," Beth wrote back, originated with Boethius, the Roman philosopher (480-524 A.D.), and author of the book, Consolations of Philosophy. The prayer's thoughts were used from then on by "religious-like people who had to suffer first by the English, later the Prussian puritans . . . then the Pietists from southwest Germany . . . then A.A.s . . . and through them, the West Germans after the Second World War." Moreover, Beth continued, after the war, a north German University professor, Dr. Theodor Wilhelm, who had started a revival of spiritual life in West Germany, had acquired the "little prayer" from Canadian soldiers. He had written a book in which he had included the prayer, without attribution, but which resulted in the prayer's appearance in many different places, such as army officer's halls, schools and other institutions. The professor's nom de plume? Friedrich Oetinger, the 18th century pietist! Wilhelm had apparently selected the pseudonym Oetinger out of admiration of his south German forebears. Back in 1957, another G.S.O. staff member, Anita R., browsing in a New York bookstore, came upon a beautifully bordered card, on which was printed: "Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, give us Serenity to accept what cannot be changed, Courage to change what should be changed, and Wisdom to know the one from the other; through Jesus Christ, our Lord." The card, which came from a bookshop in England, called it the "General's Prayer," dating it back to the fourteenth century! There are still other claims, and no doubt more unearthings will continue for years to come. In any event, Mrs. Reinhold Niebuhr told an interviewer that her husband was definitely the prayer's author, that she had seen the piece of paper on which he had written it, and that her husband-now that there were numerous variations of wording -"used and preferred" the following form: "God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, Courage to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other." While all of these searchings are intriguing, challenging, even mysterious, they pale in significance when compared to the fact that, for fifty years, the prayer has become so deeply imbedded into the heart and soul of A.A. thinking, living, as well as its philosophy, that one could almost believe that the prayer originated in the A.A. experience itself. Bill made this very point years ago, in thanking an A.A. friend for the plaque upon which the prayer was inscribed: "In creating A.A., the Serenity Prayer has been a most valuable building block-indeed a corner-stone." And speaking of cornerstones, and mysteries and "coincidences"-the building where G.S.O. is now located borders on a stretch of New York City's 120th St., between Riverside Drive and Broadway (where the Union Theological Seminary is situated). It's called Reinhold Niebuhr Place. -- (end of article) (A long version of the Prayer) God grant me the SERENITY to accept the things I cannot change; COURAGE to change the things I can; and WISDOM to know the difference. Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it: Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Amen (Another long version of the Prayer from Ireland) God take and receive my liberty, my memory, my understanding and will, All that I am and have He has given me God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference Living one day at a time Enjoying one moment at a time Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, Not as I would have it Trusting that He will make all things right If I surrender to his will That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy in the next. AMEN (thanks to Noel D. from Ireland for the long version) Read the Serenity Prayer in your own native language Finnish [93] Danish [94] French [95] German [96] Hebrew [97] Icelandic [98] Italian [99] Japanese [100] Norweigen [101] Polish [102] Portuguese [103] Spanish [104] Swedish [105] (Special thanks to Sunil K. from Mumbai, India for the whole idea) and Anna B. from Sweden and Jorge L. from Portugal for numerous contributions! IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1964. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Price of the Big Book From: Arthur . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/30/2004 3:00:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Susan Big Book price changes over the years should have their amounts converted to today's dollar values. Otherwise it's not an "apples to apples" comparison. Your simple question turned out to be a fairly challenging piece of research. I relied principally on the final reports of the General Service Conferences and some issues of Box 459 as source references. The Conference Reports were difficult to use in that they stated that prices would go up/down but wouldn't always state by what amount or when. The initial price of the Big Book was $3.50 in April 1939. It will return to $6.00 in 2004. A special (and temporary) $5.00 introductory price was set for the 4th edition. First impression might be that the price today is nearly double that of 1939. Far from it. The price value today is actually just a fraction of what it was in 1939. The $3.50 selling price in 1939 would be equivalent to around $47 today. As a result of the high price of the book, the printer, Edward Blackwell of Cornwall Press, was told to use the thickest paper in his shop. The large, bulky volume became known as the 'Big Book.'' The idea was to convince the alcoholic he was getting his money's worth (the name 'Big Book'' has stuck ever since). Bill W reported that the cost of printing the first edition Big Book was 35˘ per copy ($4.73 today). That provided a return of $3.15 per book sold ($42.57 today). The intent of the book from day 1 was to generate funds to cover essential services provided by the NY office (GSO today). Also, both Dr Bob and Bill received royalties on the book for life. The '$47 today'' amount was derived using Consumer Price Index conversion factors published by Robert C Sahr of the Political Science Dept. of Oregon State University. The history of Big Book price changes over the years is difficult to pin down with precision. Many past adjustments were made to literature prices. In the latter 1980's literature prices were lowered over concerns whether AAWS (and AA) were being self-supporting due to the return received on the large quantity of literature sold to institutions like Hazelden. In the 1990's, price adjustments were used as the primary tool to manage the level of the [prudent] Reserve Fund. Here's what I was able to cull from the source references: *Year* *Price* *2004 Value* 1939 $3.50 $47.30 1955 $4.50 $31.47 1975 $5.75 $20.00 1977 $5.15 $15.90 1980 $4.65 $10.54 1986 $5.30 $9.03 1990 $4.60 $6.57 1994 $5.00 $6.31 1997 $6.00 $6.99 2002 $5.00 $5.19 Soon $6.00 Price-wise, the Big Book is a truly remarkable value. It's even better in the soft cover version. Content-wise - how does that TV commercial go? - Priceless! Cheers Arthur 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;"> 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;"> ----- *From:* Susan Krieger [mailto:susank@qis.net] *Sent:* Wednesday, July 28, 2004 5:57 PM *To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Subject:* [AAHistoryLovers] Price of the Big Book 12.0pt;"> Starting in 1939 when the book was published is there any way of finding out the original price and a history of GSO's price changes throughout the past 65 years? 12.0pt;"> trudgetheroad 12.0pt;"> IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1965. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Serenity Prayer and New York Herald Tribune From: Arthur . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/30/2004 3:07:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII From 1957 to 1999, different pieces of literature have varying accounts of the story (sometimes contradictory): * bold;">AA Comes of Age from AAWS (pg 196) 1957* _ italic;">Has it occurring in 1942. Wording of prayer is slightly different using the pronouns 'us'' and 'we.''_ In early 1942, nonalcoholic Secretary Ruth Hock left us to be married…. Just before Ruth left, a news clipping whose content was to become famous was called to our attention by a New York member, newsman Jack. It was an obituary notice from a New York paper Underneath a routine account of the one who had died, there appeared these words: 'God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can and wisdom to know the difference.'' .. Howard walked into the office. Confirming our own ideas, he exclaimed, 'We ought to print this on cards and drop one into every piece of mail that goes out of here. I'll pay for the first printing.'' * bold;">Bill W by Robert Thomsen (pgs 261-262) 1975* _ italic;">Has it occurring in Newark, NJ - which places it in early 1940_ One morning Ruth found in the mail a newspaper clipping containing a three-line prayer. It had been torn from an unidentified newspaper and sent in by an anonymous member. She read it and was instantly struck by how much AA thinking could be compressed into three short lines. On her own, Ruth had the prayer printed on cards, and without asking anyone, she began slipping a card into each piece of mail that went out from the Newark office. … And in this way the Serenity Prayer became part of the AA canon, its phrases part of the alcoholic lingo. * bold;">Pass It On from AAWS (pg 252) 1984* _ italic;">No date is given for the letter used as a point of reference but the news article is placed in 1941_ … The prayer had found its way into the Vesey Street office shortly before that letter was written … It was discovered in the 'In Memorium'' column of an early June 1941 edition of the New York Herald Tribune. The exact wording was 'Mother - God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Goodbye.'' Said Ruth 'Jack C appeared at the office one morning, and he showed me the obituary notice with the `Serenity Prayer.' I was as much impressed with it as he was and asked him to leave it with me so that I could copy and use it in our letters to the groups and loners. Horace C had the idea of printing it on cards and paid for the first printing.'' * bold;">Grateful to Have Been There by Nell Wing (pg 167-168) 1992* _ italic;">Seems to be taken from Pass It On - has Ruth writing to a member in Washington DC on June 12, 1941_ The prayer entered unobtrusively in 1941. It was discovered in the 'In Memorium'' obituary column of an early June edition of the New York Herald Tribune. The exact wording was 'God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Goodbye.'' Some fifteen years later, reminiscing about this event, Ruth Hock Crecelius, our first non-alcoholic Secretary said: 'It is a fact that Jack C appeared at the office [30 Vesey Street, Manhattan] one morning for a chat, during the course of which he showed me the obituary notice with the 'Serenity Prayer.'' I was as much impressed with it as he was and asked him to leave it with me so that I could copy it and use it in our letters to the groups and loners… At this time, Bobbie B [who became Secretary when Ruth married in February 1942] who was also terrifically impressed with it, undoubtedly used it in her work with the many she contacted daily at the 24th St Clubhouse… Horace C had the idea of printing it on cards and paid for the first printing. … On June 12, 1941, Ruth wrote Henry S, a Washington DC member and printer … [she asked Henry what it would cost to print it on a small card]. * bold;">Women Pioneers in 12 Step Recovery by C Hunter, B Jones and J Zieger (pgs 79-80) 1999* _ italic;">No mention of dates_ Ruth played a major part in introducing the serenity Prayer to the Fellowship. Jack C, a New York newspaperman and recovering drunk, brought a newspaper clipping to the office. It was an obituary that closed with the words: 'God grant us the serenity to accept the things we cannot change, courage to change the things we can and wisdom to know the difference.'' Bill and Ruth agreed with Jack that 'never had we seen so much AA in so few words.'' And Ruth began at once to tuck the prayer into the letters she was sending out. Not long afterward, Horace C, an older member and friend of Bill came in with the suggestion to print the prayer on cards that could be included with all the outgoing letters. Everyone thought it was a wonderful idea but they had no money to implement it - so Horace personally paid to have the cards printed. I think there is a fair chance that the obituary may have been printed prior to June 1941 and it may also be from a newspaper other than the NY Herald Tribune. Cheers Arthur 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;"> ----- *From:* Tim Sheehy [mailto:tsirish1@yahoo.com] *Sent:* Friday, July 30, 2004 7:43 AM *To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Subject:* RE: [AAHistoryLovers] Serenity Prayer and New York Herald Tribune 12.0pt;"> 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue;">There is a grapevine article in the January 1950 edition describing the origins of the serenity prayer as we know it. -----Original Message----- *From:* Glenn Chesnut [mailto:glennccc@sbcglobal.net] *Sent:* Wednesday, July 28, 2004 10:12 AM *To:* AA History Lovers *Subject:* [AAHistoryLovers] Serenity Prayer and New York Herald Tribune Cora F. seems to have discovered what may be yet a new problem in tracking down the origins of the Serenity Prayer. So far, everyone has taken as a starting point the tradition that the prayer came from a newspaper clipping described as follows: Nell Wing for example, in Appendix B to _ italic;">Grateful to Have Been There_ (p. 167), says that the prayer was discovered in 1941 in the "In Memoriam" obituary column of an early June edition of the _New York Herald Tribune_. Cora F., whom I already know to be a very careful researcher with really sharp eyes, says "I copied down the relevant dates, went to the library at the big university, and spent several hours over two afternoons with a diabolical microfilm viewer. No luck." Has anyone else in our web group tried to verify that the copy of the prayer which came into the New York AA office in fact came from an obituary in the _New York Herald Tribune_ in 1941? If it cannot be found in that newspaper during that time period, was the person who brought it in to the AA office mistaken in saying that it came from the _Herald Tribune_? There were a lot of newspapers in New York in those days. Or did the date perhaps get remembered incorrectly? Or was the newspaper clipping which was brought into the office in June 1941 a memento which the person had kept from a much earlier time? Cora F. says that she was looking at the obituaries in and around early June 1941. 12.0pt;"> IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1966. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Serenity Prayer and New York Herald Tribune From: t . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/30/2004 10:27:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII --Grapevine, July 1950 ORIGINAL CLIPPING Reprinted below is the original clipping of The Serenity Prayer which appeared in the New York Times obituary columns. An early AA member saw it and thinking, it particularly fitting for AAs, brought it to the old Vesey Street office. Soon it began to appear on cards and in AA literature until it became an integral part of the AA way of life. Mother--God grant me the serenity to accept things I cannot change, courage to change things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. Goodby. ---------------------- The above short Grapevine piece credits it to having been found in the NY Times, rather than the NY Herald Tribune. Could be why you are having a hard time finding it. Unfortunately, no date is given for when it was published. In the article, the second paragraph [starting with "Mother"] has lines above and below it, and looks like an enlarged photostatic copy from the newspaper column. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1967. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Another "Original" Preamble From: Rickydotcom . . . . . . . . . . . . 7/31/2004 11:21:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Greetings, The other "original preamble" you refer to is called the "Old Baltimore Prologue." Long time AA members in Maryland date its use back to 1946. In fact at most AA meetings in Baltimore today, the officially recognized "AA Preamble" is called "the Prologue." I attempted to search online for the origins of the "Old Baltimore Prologue" without success. I would be grateful to anyone who could shed some light on its origins. Thank you. Rick B. Hagerstown, Maryland Link to "Old Baltimore Prologue" http://www.recoveryemporium.com/Articles/OldPreamble.htm Can anyone identify the source of the following. Its language appears to be close to Oxford Group principles? "Alcoholics Anonymous is a group of people for whom alcohol has become a major problem and who have banded together in a sincere effort to help themselves and other problem drinkers recover their healthy and maintain sobriety. Definitions of alcoholics are many and varied. For brevity we think of an alcoholic as one whose life has become unmanageable, to any degree, due to the use of alcohol. We of Alcoholics Anonymous believe that the alcoholic is suffering from a disease for which no cure has yet been found. We profess no curative powers but have formulated a plan to arrest alcoholism. The only requirement for A.A membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees in A.A. Activities are supported by the voluntary contributions of the members. Alcoholics Anonymous does not perform miracles, believing that such power rests only in God. We adhere to no particular creed or religion. We do believe, however, that an appeal for help to one's own interpretation of a Higher Power, or God, is indispensable to a satisfactory adjustment to life's problems. Alcoholics Anonymous is not a prohibition or temperance movement in any sense of the word. Neither have we any criticism of the controlled drinker. We are concerned ONLY with the alcoholic. From the vast experience of our many members we have learned that successful membership demands total abstinence. Attempts at controlled drinking for the alcoholic inevitable fail. We attempt to follow a program of Recovery which has for its chief objectives, sobriety for ourselves; help for other alcoholics who desire it; amends for past wrongs; humility; honesty; tolerance; and spiritual growth. We welcome and appreciate the cooperation of the medical profession - the clergy, and the public in general." unknown ===== "He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life away in fruitless efforts. (Samuel Johnson) " IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1968. . . . . . . . . . . . Ruth''s Prayer From: Lash, William (Bill) . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/2/2004 9:36:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Ruth O'N. got sober on 4/14/48. Within a few months, at a meeting in Brooklyn NY, she was given a business card by another AA member. On one side of the card was the Four Absolutes of the Oxford Group (Absolute Honesty, Absolute Unselfishness, Absolute Love, and Absolute Purity) and on the other side of the card was the following prayer. She still recites it daily and shares it when she speaks (as she did this past Saturday). It has come to be know as 'Ruth's Prayer'': Thank You, dear God, for another day, The chance to live in a decent way, To feel again the joy of living and happiness that comes from giving. Thank You for friends who can understand and the peace that flows from Your loving hand. Help me to wake with the morning sun, With the prayer today, 'Thy will be done.'' For with Your help I will find the way. Thank You again, dear God, for AA. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1969. . . . . . . . . . . . Wilmington Baltimore Preamble Prologue From: ny-aa@att.net . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/3/2004 2:51:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi, Group: I have seen the old Alcoholics Anonymous Preamble that Lee asked about referred to as "The Old Baltimore Prologue" and as "The Wilmington AA Preamble" with various explanations. Most of those are people saying that they remember it or their sponsor remembers it from a long time ago. One source includes more details. Article 247 here in AAHistoryLovers forwards some research by Bill Lash which explains the dual Wilmington and Baltimore origin. Bill says it was by sportswriter Mickey M who wrote it for the Wilmington (Delaware) Group in June or July 1944. That was long before the Grapevine's AA Preamble. While covering horseraces at Pimlico, Mickey gave it to the Baltimore Group as well. --------------- http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/247 THE HISTORY OF THE WILMINGTON PREAMBLE From: "Lash, William (Bill)" The Wilmington Preamble has long been surrounded by controversy and discussion of such has sparked many a debate almost from its inception in the early years of Alcoholics Anonymous. The history of our fellowship has mostly been passed from member to member over the expanse of many years; member whose very disease has a tendency to distort one's memory. Inaccuracies may prevail. The following is in no way an attempt to dispel those controversies, but an effort to establish an accurate history of the birth of the Wilmington Preamble and to keep it's true history alive for the enlightenment of future generations. Documentable corrections are welcomed. The Wilmington Preamble's birth ties in with one of Wilmington's earliest members, Shoes L. Shoes joined the Wilmington Group and got sober in May of 1944. The following month in June, Shoes was Chairman of the group and in charge of getting speakers for their meetings. There was at this time a sportswriter in town covering the horseraces at Delaware Park. His name was Mickey M. and Shoes asked him to speak at the group's meeting. Mickey replied that he wasn't much of a speaker but that he would write something appropriate. He reportedly went back to his room at the Hotel Dupont and wrote the Wilmington Preamble as we know it and it was read the following Friday night. Being a sportswriter, Mickey M. covered events in other towns, and while in Baltimore covering the races at Pimlico gave the same preamble to the Baltimore Group which they also adopted as their own. Where it was actually read first is the subject of many debates but one fact remains clear, that this "Preamble" was widely accepted in Maryland and Delaware long before World Service sanctioned the shorter A.A. Preamble that is more universally accepted today. THE WILMINGTON AA PREAMBLE We of Alcoholics Anonymous are a group of persons for whom alcohol has become a major problem. We have banded together in a sincere effort to help ourselves and other problem drinkers recover health and maintain sobriety. Definitions of alcoholics are many and varied. For brevity we think of an alcoholic as one whose life has become unmanageable to any degree due to the use of alcohol. We believe that the alcoholic is suffering from a disease for which no cure has yet been found. We profess no curative powers but have formulated a plan to arrest alcoholism. From the vast experience of our many members we have learned that successful membership demands total abstinence. Attempts at controlled drinking by the alcoholic inevitably fail. Membership requirements demand only a sincere desire on the part of the applicant to maintain total abstinence. There are no dues of fees in A.A.; no salaried officers. Money necessary for operating expenses is secured by voluntary contributions. Alcoholics Anonymous does not perform miracles, believing that such powers rests only in God. We adhere to no particular creed or religion. We do believe, however, that an appeal for help to one's own interpretation of a higher power, or God, is indispensable to a satisfactory adjustment to life's problems. Alcoholics Anonymous is not a prohibition or temperance movement in any sense of the word. We have no criticism of the controlled drinker. We are concerned only with the alcoholic. We attempt to follow a program of recovery which has for its chief objectives: Sobriety for ourselves; help for other alcoholics who desire it; amends for past wrongs; humility; honesty; tolerance; and spiritual growth. We welcome and appreciate the cooperation of the medical profession and the help of the clergy. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1970. . . . . . . . . . . . Rostrum. From: Jaime Maliachi . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/6/2004 12:23:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII * bold;">Good day, everybody. My name is Jimbo and I am an alcoholic.* "Courier New";"> "Courier New";">Does anybody know in which year in the early groups, the fellows started to speak from the 'rostrum''. In México we take a place to participate in our meetings from this one 'rostrum''. We take 15 minutes, and after that, other fellow take his turn. And so on. In Other groups the fellows speak from a chair. * bold;"> * * bold;">I will thank you for any information. * * bold;"> * *Jimbo**. * * * * * * * * 12.0pt;font-family:Verdana;">Jaime F. Maliachi Pedrote.* * 12.0pt;font-family:Verdana;">servidor y amigo.* * 12.0pt;font-family:Verdana;">57 85 68 00 57 85 68 26* * 12.0pt;font-family:Verdana;">fax 57 85 68 44* 12.0pt;"> IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1971. . . . . . . . . . . . Principles Behind Steps and Traditions From: michael oates . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/12/2004 2:27:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII We at the Kansas City Ofice have a request about the orgin of the principles associated with the steps and the traditions. Please Help IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1972. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Principles Behind Steps and Traditions From: ny-aa@att.net . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/13/2004 4:41:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII This topic has been run around the yard a few times in the past. Nancy recently summarized one such discussion in post 1802 of this forum: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/1802 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1973. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Principles Behind Steps and Traditions From: Arthur . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/13/2004 7:28:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Michael Each Step, Tradition and Concept is, of itself, a 'principle'' (i.e. a rule of personal conduct). When you see wall charts or wallet cards that convey the notion of a single-word descriptor as a so-called "principle" behind each Step, Tradition or Concept, it is far more a contemporary editorial invention of individual AA members rather than an historic cause and effect association. Bill W published essays (in the Grapevine, 12&12, AA Comes of Age and Twelve Concepts for World Service) defining the context, origin and basis of each of the 36 principles embodied in our Steps, Traditions and Concepts. Bill's original Grapevine essays on the Traditions can be found in the book The Language of the Heart. Last month (7/16/04) I posted a timeline history of the Traditions in message # 1922 which is archived on the AAHistoryLovers web site. An amended version of the message is shown below. Cheers Arthur *SOURCE REFERENCES:* 12&12 *Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions*, AAWS AACOA *AA Comes of Age*, AAWS BW-FH *Bill W* by Francis Hartigan (hard cover) BW-RT *Bill W* by Robert Thompson (soft cover) DBGO *Dr Bob and the Good Oldtimers*, AAWS GTBT *Grateful to Have Been There* by Nell Wing (soft cover) LOH *The Language of the Heart*, AA Grapevine Inc NG *Not God*, by Ernest Kurtz (expanded edition, soft cover) NW *New Wine*, by Mel B (soft cover) PIO *Pass It On*, AAWS SM *AA Service Manual and Twelve Concepts for World Service*, AAWS *1937* On the AA calendar of 'year two'' the spirit of Tradition 3 emerged. A member asked to be admitted who frankly described himself to the 'oldest'' member as 'the victim of another addiction even worse stigmatized than alcoholism.'' The 'addiction'' was 'sex deviate.'' [*] Guidance came from Dr Bob (the oldest member in Akron, OH) asking, 'What would the Master do?'' The member was admitted and plunged into 12th Step work. (DBGO 240-241 12&12 141-142) Note: this story is often erroneously intermingled with an incident that occurred 8 years later in 1945 at the 41st St clubhouse in NYC. (PIO 318). [*] Information on this revelation was provided by David S from an audiotape of Bill W at an open meeting of the 1968 General Service Conference. See also the pamphlet The Co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous. (publication number P-53, pg 30). *1939* Principles defined in the Foreword to the First Edition Big Book provided the seeds for many of the Traditions that Bill later published in the April 1946 Grapevine. These same principles were also incorporated into the AA Preamble which was first published in the June 1947 Grapevine. *1942* Correspondence from groups gave early signals of a need to develop guidelines to help with group problems that occurred repeatedly. The basic ideas for the Twelve Traditions emerged from this correspondence and the principles defined in the Foreword to the first Edition of the Big Book. (AACOA 187, 192-193, 198, 204, PIO 305-306, LOH 154). October, Clarence S (whose Big Book story is The Home Brewmeister) stirred up a controversy in Cleveland after discovering that Dr Bob and Bill W were receiving royalties from Big Book sales. (DBGO 267-269, BW-FH 153-154, AACOA 193-194) Bill and Dr Bob re-examined the problem of their financial status and concluded that royalties from the Big Book seemed to be the only answer to the problem. Bill sought counsel from Father Ed Dowling (Bill's spiritual sponsor) who suggested that Bill and Dr Bob could not accept money for 12th Step work, but should accept royalties as compensation for special services. (AACOA 194-195, PIO 322-324). This later formed the basis for Tradition 8. *1945* April, Earl T, founder of AA in Chicago (whose Big Book Story is He Sold Himself Short) suggested to Bill W that he codify the Traditions and write essays on them in the Grapevine. (AACOA 22, 203, GTBT 54-55, 77, SM S8, PIO 306, LOH 20-24). Earl T played a prominent role in the development of both the long and short form of the Traditions. Bill W was called by Barry L (who would later author Living Sober) from the 41st St clubhouse. Bill persuaded the group to take in a black man who was an ex-convict with bleach-blond hair, wearing women's clothing and makeup. The man also admitted to being a 'dope fiend.'' When asked what to do about it, Bill posed the question, 'did you say he was a drunk?'' When answered, 'yes'' Bill replied, 'well I think that's all we can ask.'' The man was reported to have disappeared shortly after. (BW-FH 8, PIO 317-318) Anecdotal accounts erroneously say that this individual went on to become one of the best 12th Steppers in NY. This story is often erroneously intermingled with that of a 1937 incident ('year two'' on the AA calendar) involving an Akron member that is discussed in the Tradition Three essay in the 12&12 (pgs 141-142). August, the Grapevine carried Bill W's first article (titled Modesty One Plank for Good Public Relations) setting the groundwork for his 5-year campaign for the Traditions. The July Grapevine edition had an article by member CHK of Lansing, MI about the Washingtonians. Bill used this article to begin his essay commentaries. The Alcoholic Foundation wrote to John D Rockefeller, Jr. and the 1940 dinner guests that AA no longer needed their financial help. Big Book royalties could look after Dr Bob and Bill W and Group contributions could pay the general office expenses. This ended all 'outside contributions'' to AA. (AACOA 203-204). It formed the basis of Tradition 7. All loans received from Rockefeller and the dinner guests from 1941 to 1945 were repaid in 1945 out of Big Book income. *1946 Grapevine* April, the Grapevine carried Bill W's article Twelve Suggested Points for AA Tradition. They would later be called the long form of the Twelve Traditions. (AACOA viii, 96, 203, LOH 20, 154) *1947 Grapevine* December, the Grapevine carried a notice that an important new 48-page pamphlet titled AA Traditions was sent to each group and that enough copies were available for each member to have one free of charge. *1949* As plans for the first Int'l Convention were under way, Earl T suggested to Bill W that the Twelve Suggested Points for AA Tradition would benefit from revision and shortening. (AACOA 213 says it occurred in 1947) Bill, with Earl's help, set out to develop the short form of the Twelve Traditions. (AACOA 213, GTBT 55, 77, PIO 334) November, the short form of the Twelve Traditions was first printed in the AA Grapevine. The entire issue was dedicated to the Traditions in preparation for the forthcoming Cleveland Convention. Two wording changes were subsequently made to the initial version of the short form of the Traditions: 'primary spiritual aim'' was changed to 'primary purpose'' in Tradition 6, and 'principles above personalities'' was changed to 'principles before personalities'' in Tradition 12. (LOH 96) July 28-30, AA's 15th anniversary and first International Convention at Cleveland, OH with an estimated 3,000 attendees. The attendees adopted the Twelve Traditions unanimously by standing vote. (AACOA 43, LOH 121, PIO 338) *1953* June, the book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions was published. (GTBT 37) Bill W described the work as 'This small volume is strictly a textbook which explains AA's 24 basic principles and their application, in detail and with great care.'' Betty L and Tom Powers helped Bill in its writing. Jack Alexander also helped with editing. It was published in two editions: one for $2.25 ($15.50 today) for distribution through AA groups, and a $2.75 ($19 today) edition distributed through Harper and Brothers for sale in commercial bookstores. (AACOA ix, 219, PIO 354-356) *1955* July 1-3, AA's 20th anniversary and second Int'l Convention at St Louis, MO. Theme: Coming of Age. (BW-RT 311, AACOA viii, GTBT 42-51, NG 131, SM S2) Bill W claimed attendance of 5,000. Nell Wing (GTBT 105) was told by Dennis, who handled registrations that attendance was 3,100 plus a few hundred walk-ins. On July 3, by resolution, Bill W and its old-timers turned over the stewardship of the AA society to the movement. The Conference became the Guardian of the Traditions and voice of the group conscience of the entire Fellowship. The resolution was unanimously adopted by the Convention by acclamation and by the General Service Conference by formal resolution and vote. (AACOA ix, 47-48, 223-228) *1957 Conference Advisory Action* No change in Article 12 of the [Conference] Charter or in AA tradition or in the Twelve Steps of AA may be made with less than the written consent of three-quarters of the AA groups. (SM S87) *1958 Conference Advisory Action* The 1958 General Service Conference approved removing the word 'honest'' from the term 'honest desire to stop drinking'' in the AA Preamble. It also changed the term 'AA has no dues or fees'' to 'There are no dues or fees for AA membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions.'' The wording of the Conference advisory action can give the misleading impression that the Traditions were changed. The advisory action reads: 'The General Service Conference recognize the original use of the word `honest' before `desire to stop drinking' and its deletion from the Traditions as part of the evolution of the AA movement. Any change to be left to the discretion of AA Publishing, Inc.'' The advisory action did not change the Traditions nor did it change the Foreword to the first Edition Big Book. *1976 Conference Advisory Action* It is resolved by the 1976 General Service Conference that those instruments requiring consent of three-quarters of the responding groups for change or amendment would include the Twelve Steps of AA should any such change or amendment ever be proposed. In case a change is needed in the Twelve Traditions, the Twelve Steps, or the Six Warranties of Article 12, wherever the words 'registered AA groups of the world'', 'registered groups'' or 'directory-listed groups'' appear in the AA Service Manual and Twelve Concepts for World Service, a bracketed sentence be inserted to state, 'This would include all AA groups known to the General Service Offices around the world.'' ----- *From:* ny-aa@att.net [mailto:ny-aa@att.net] *Sent:* Friday, August 13, 2004 4:42 PM *To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Subject:* Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Principles Behind Steps and Traditions 12.0pt;"> 10.0pt;">This topic has been run around the yard a few times in the past. Nancy recently summarized one such discussion in post 1802 of this forum: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/1802 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1974. . . . . . . . . . . . Looking for info regarding publication Date of "AA and the Woman" From: Audrey Borden . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/17/2004 5:48:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Greetings AA Historians, I'm hoping you can help me track down the first publication date of the AA pamphlet "AA and the Woman." The copyright on the version I have (picked up recently at my home group) is 1976. My sense is that this pamphlet (or a version of it) would have been available before that, and I recently came across evidence that suggests this is true. On page 51 of "Advisory Actions of the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous, 1951-2000," in the list of Actions based upon reports from the Conference Literature Committee, I note that in 1967 the Literature Committee "voiced high hopes for the Newcomers' Meetings Kit; and expressed interest in upcoming revisions of 'A.A. for the Woman, 'Young People in A.A.," and 'Questions and Answers on Sponsorship.'" This seems to indicate that A.A. did publish a pre-1976 version of "A.A. for the Woman." Can anyone verify this and give me the publication date? Your help is much appreciated! Sincerely, -- Audrey B. Marin County, California IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1975. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Looking for info regarding publication Date of "AA and the Woman" From: Jim Blair . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/17/2004 8:53:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Audry wrote Can anyone verify this and give me the publication date? Your help is much appreciated. The unpublished history manuscript by Bob P (1985) contains the following note. "A.A. and The Woman" was probanly written in the late 1940's by Ralph B., was being reprinted in 51'. It was revised and updated in 1961-62 abd again after 1985." Jim IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1976. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Looking for info regarding publication Date of "AA and the Woman" From: Arthur . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/17/2004 9:29:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Audrey The pamphlet 'AA for the woman'' is one of the oldest pieces of literature in AA. It was Conference-approved in 1952 by Panel 2 (the first Conference with all Delegates attending). Below are extracts from Conference Advisory Actions. I only checked up to 2002 and don't know if there were any related advisory actions last year or this year. Cheers Arthur * Arial;font-weight:bold;">Advisory Actions relevant to the* * Arial;font-weight:bold;">CONFERENCE LITERATURE COMMITTEE* * Arial;font-weight:bold;">1952 *It was recommended that: The report of the Foundation's Committee on Literature, together with Bill's report of his proposed program of activity be approved. Note: Ten projects carried out by the Foundations Committee on Literature included production of the new pamphlet "A.A. for the Woman," the pictorial script for film strips on headquarters services, the 1951 Conference report, Interim reports from the Trustees to the delegates, preparation of the manuscript for a new pamphlet on "The Alcoholic Employee," material on the Traditions prepared by Bill, two recordings and two reproductions of the A.A. prayer. * Arial;font-weight:bold;">1961* The Committee noted with sympathy the recommendation that stories of a more personal nature be included when the pamphlet "A.A. for the Woman" is due for revision. * Arial;font-weight:bold;">1967 *The committee: Expressed interest in upcoming revisions of "A.A. for the Woman," "Young People in A.A.," and "Questions and Answers on Sponsorship." * Arial;font-weight:bold;">1986 *It was recommended that: The updated draft for "A.A. for the Woman" be accepted with the exception of the story "I Hated Monday Mornings. . . ," and that production proceed under the direction of the trustees' Literature Committee. * Arial;font-weight:bold;">2002* The first sentence, first paragraph on page 36 in the pamphlet 'A.A. for the Woman'' be changed from 'Yes, A.A. is a spiritual program, providing no material aid, but it is not a religious program in any sectarian sense,'' to 'Yes, A.A. is a spiritual program, not a religious program.'' 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;"> ----- *From:* Audrey Borden [mailto:audreyborden@earthlink.net] *Sent:* Tuesday, August 17, 2004 5:48 PM *To:* aahistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Subject:* [AAHistoryLovers] Looking for info regarding publication Date of "AA and the Woman" 12.0pt;"> 12.0pt;">Greetings AA Historians, 12.0pt;"> 12.0pt;">I'm hoping you can help me track down the first publication date of the AA pamphlet "AA and the Woman." 12.0pt;"> 12.0pt;">The copyright on the version I have (picked up recently at my home group) is 1976. My sense is that this pamphlet (or a version of it) would have been available before that, and I recently came across evidence that suggests this is true. 12.0pt;"> 12.0pt;">On page 51 of "Advisory Actions of the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous, 1951-2000," in the list of Actions based upon reports from the Conference Literature Committee, I note that in 1967 the Literature Committee 12.0pt;">"voiced high hopes for the Newcomers' Meetings Kit; and expressed interest in upcoming revisions of 'A.A. for the Woman, 'Young People in A.A.," and 'Questions and Answers on Sponsorship.'" 12.0pt;">This seems to indicate that A.A. did publish a pre-1976 version of "A.A. for the Woman." 12.0pt;">Can anyone verify this and give me the publication date? Your help is much appreciated! 12.0pt;"> 12.0pt;">Sincerely, -- Audrey B. Marin County, California 12.0pt;"> 12.0pt;"> 12.0pt;"> 12.0pt;"> IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1977. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Looking for info regarding publication Date of "AA and ... From: dbennitt@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/17/2004 6:46:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII In a message dated 8/17/2004 8:12:51 PM Central Standard Time, audreyborden@earthlink.net writes: I'm hoping you can help me track down the first publication date of the AA pamphlet "AA and the Woman." I have a pamphlet titled AA FOR WOMEN, published by THE ALCOHOLIC FOUNDATION, ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS PUBLISHING INC. 1952......it looks like the pamphlet you are talking about was published by AA WORLD SERVICES 1968..... There was also a conference approved pamphlet THE ALCOHOLIC WIFE, published by ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS PUBLISHING INC. JANUARY 1954 dbennitt@aol.com IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1978. . . . . . . . . . . . sauerkraut, tomatoes and syrup From: Robert Stonebraker . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/18/2004 3:20:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Arial;">For many years I believed that the idea of serving drunks a diet of sauerkraut, tomatoes and syrup originated with Dr. Bob at St. Thomas Hospital in the mid 1930s. But recently I have read where this menu (at least the sauerkraut & tomatoes part) originated with Bill W. when he came to Akron from NY. However, I have forgotten where I read it. Arial;"> Arial;">I would appreciate a bibliographical sort of reference to this? Arial;"> Arial;">Thank you, Arial;"> Arial;">Bob S., from Indiana IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1979. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: sauerkraut, tomatoes and syrup From: Stef Donev . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/18/2004 10:48:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue;">I found the following at:: 12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue;">http://www.wemac.com/info/adm_hist.html *The Changing Role of the Physician in the Treatment of Chemical Dependence* ****************************************************************************** *** Thomas L. Haynes, M.D. Presented in Minneapolis, MN October, 1988 12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue;"> 12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue;"> *C. Robert H. Smith* Robert Holbrook Smith was the first alcoholic to whom Bill Wilson carried the message who eventually remained sober. In the early days of A.A. in Akron, Ohio, Dr. Bob, as he is affectionately known to A.A.'s everywhere, carried the message of recovery to hundreds of suffering alcoholics. Many of these he hospitalized at St. Thomas Hospital, formerly Akron City Hospital. This fact is often forgotten by those who feel that in-hospital treatment is not ever necessary for the induction of recovery. They didn't have fancy drugs like Librium or Tranxene at that time, and detoxification was carried out by administering measured doses of _Spiritu Frumenti_, or common whiskey. This was still the practice when I worked as a resident physician at St. Thomas Hospital in 1976, though the use of benzodiazepines has now become commonplace. An adjunct to Dr. Bob's treatment was the administration of a mixture of stewed tomatoes, sauerkraut, and Karo syrup. I often wonder how many of the patients we treat today would tolerate this mixture without leaving against medical advice. But then, maybe Dr. Bob's patients really wanted to get well. Another fact about Dr. Bob that is often understated or ignored is the fact that he was addicted to pills as well as to alcohol. This should help cross-addicted alcoholics feel more at home in A.A. 12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue;"> 12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue;">I hope this helps. Stef Donev 12.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue;">~ ~ ~ ----- *From:* Robert Stonebraker [mailto:rstonebraker212@insightbb.com] *Sent:* Wednesday, August 18, 2004 1:21 PM *To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Subject:* [AAHistoryLovers] sauerkraut, tomatoes and syrup For many years I believed that the idea of serving drunks a diet of sauerkraut, tomatoes and syrup originated with Dr. Bob at St. Thomas Hospital in the mid 1930s. But recently I have read where this menu (at least the sauerkraut & tomatoes part) originated with Bill W. when he came to Akron from NY. However, I have forgotten where I read it. I would appreciate a bibliographical sort of reference to this? Thank you, Bob S., from Indiana IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1980. . . . . . . . . . . . date of Alcoholic Anonymous Comes of Age From: wilfried antheunis . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/18/2004 12:23:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I have two copies of "Alcoholic Anonymous Comes of Age." The newest says on spine "A.A. World Services" and inside says: "Twelfth Printing 1986" The older copy says on spine: "A.A. Publishing Inc". Inside the older copy says Alcoholics Anonymous comes of Age Copyright ©1957 by alcoholics Anonymous Publishing Inc. Printed in the United States of America All rights in this book are reserved. First Edition H-G I am curious if anyone knows anything about the publishing of the older copy. I know it is a first edition of the book, but what does the "H-G" mean? thanks wil IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1981. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Looking for info regarding publication Date of "AA and the Woman" From: Roger Wheatley . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/19/2004 1:12:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Terrific reference, thanks! The answer causes another question. Does anyone know if the prayer refered to by Panel 2 as the "AA prayer" was the Serenity Prayer? Any prayer claimed as the "AA prayer" by such a group would seem of some significance. Roger Arthur wrote: Hi Audrey The pamphlet "AA for the woman" is one of the oldest pieces of literature in AA. It was Conference-approved in 1952 by Panel 2 (the first Conference with all Delegates attending). Below are extracts from Conference Advisory Actions. I only checked up to 2002 and don't know if there were any related advisory actions last year or this year. Cheers Arthur Advisory Actions relevant to the CONFERENCE LITERATURE COMMITTEE 1952 It was recommended that: The report of the Foundation's Committee on Literature, together with Bill's report of his proposed program of activity be approved. Note: Ten projects carried out by the Foundations Committee on Literature included production of the new pamphlet "A.A. for the Woman," the pictorial script for film strips on headquarters services, the 1951 Conference report, Interim reports from the Trustees to the delegates, preparation of the manuscript for a new pamphlet on "The Alcoholic Employee," material on the Traditions prepared by Bill, two recordings and two reproductions of the A.A. prayer. 1961 The Committee noted with sympathy the recommendation that stories of a more personal nature be included when the pamphlet "A.A. for the Woman" is due for revision. 1967 The committee: Expressed interest in upcoming revisions of "A.A. for the Woman," "Young People in A.A.," and "Questions and Answers on Sponsorship." 1986 It was recommended that: The updated draft for "A.A. for the Woman" be accepted with the exception of the story "I Hated Monday Mornings. . . ," and that production proceed under the direction of the trustees' Literature Committee. 2002 The first sentence, first paragraph on page 36 in the pamphlet "A.A. for the Woman" be changed from "Yes, A.A. is a spiritual program, providing no material aid, but it is not a religious program in any sectarian sense," to "Yes, A.A. is a spiritual program, not a religious program." ----- From: Audrey Borden [mailto:audreyborden@earthlink.net] Sent: Tuesday, August 17, 2004 5:48 PM To: aahistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Looking for info regarding publication Date of "AA and the Woman" Greetings AA Historians, I'm hoping you can help me track down the first publication date of the AA pamphlet "AA and the Woman." The copyright on the version I have (picked up recently at my home group) is 1976. My sense is that this pamphlet (or a version of it) would have been available before that, and I recently came across evidence that suggests this is true. On page 51 of "Advisory Actions of the General Service Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous, 1951-2000," in the list of Actions based upon reports from the Conference Literature Committee, I note that in 1967 the Literature Committee "voiced high hopes for the Newcomers' Meetings Kit; and expressed interest in upcoming revisions of 'A.A. for the Woman, 'Young People in A.A.," and 'Questions and Answers on Sponsorship.'" This seems to indicate that A.A. did publish a pre-1976 version of "A.A. for the Woman." Can anyone verify this and give me the publication date? Your help is much appreciated! Sincerely, -- Audrey B. Marin County, California ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Do you Yahoo!? Win 1 of 4,000 free domain names from Yahoo! Enter now [106] . IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1982. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Saurkraut, tomatoes, and syrup From: Jim S. . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/19/2004 5:25:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII "Another fact about Dr. Bob that is often understated or ignored is the fact that he was addicted to pills as well as to alcohol." Thomas L. Haynes, M. D. Can anyone tell me where he found that information? In his story in the Big Book, he tells of taking large doses of sedatives to quiet the morning jitters, and in "Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers." pp21,22. it mentions his `patent throat,' saying, "In his sober years, he would take a days supply of vitamins or medicines and toss them down his open throat all at one time, without water." While I don't claim to be a student of AA history I have read quite a bit without coming across anything which would hint that he was anything but an alcoholic. Perhaps this is another rumor along the lines of , "Bill W. dropped acid for five years and didn't change his sobriety date." A fact or two twisted to mean something entirely different. Jim S. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1983. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Re: Saurkraut, tomatoes, and syrup From: Arthur Sheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/20/2004 12:31:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Re "Dr Bob and the Good Oldtimers" pgs 32 & 33 - Dr Bob did barbiturates by day and booze by night. At the bottom of pg 32 it states "He contracted what in later years would be called a pill problem, or dual addiction." Re "Pass It On" pgs 368 to 377 - Bill's LSD experiments are fairly well documented. At the time (1956) LSD was undergoing serious medical research in the treatment of alcoholism. Other who also experimented with LSD were Father Dowling, the Rev Sam Shoemaker and Lois Wilson. Marty Mann, Bill's mistress, Helen W, and Nell wing also joined the experimentation in NY (re "Bill W" by Francis Hartigan pgs 9 and 177 - 179 and "Grateful to Have Been There" by Nell Wing pgs 81 - 82). Cheers Arthur ----- Original Message ----- From: Jim S. To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, August 19, 2004 5:25 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Re: Saurkraut, tomatoes, and syrup "Another fact about Dr. Bob that is often understated or ignored is the fact that he was addicted to pills as well as to alcohol." Thomas L. Haynes, M. D. Can anyone tell me where he found that information? In his story in the Big Book, he tells of taking large doses of sedatives to quiet the morning jitters, and in "Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers." pp21,22. it mentions his `patent throat,' saying, "In his sober years, he would take a days supply of vitamins or medicines and toss them down his open throat all at one time, without water." While I don't claim to be a student of AA history I have read quite a bit without coming across anything which would hint that he was anything but an alcoholic. Perhaps this is another rumor along the lines of , "Bill W. dropped acid for five years and didn't change his sobriety date." A fact or two twisted to mean something entirely different. Jim S. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1984. . . . . . . . . . . . Recovery rate. From: Johnny Hughes . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/22/2004 9:55:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hello all you history lovers.... Somewhere I read an article about someone doing research on the present recovery rate and they had secured information from a large intergroup source concerning the number of white chips purchased by local groups and the number of blue chips purchased by local groups which gave some indication. Does anyone know of this article or any other source concerning the present recovery rate experienced by AA? Thanks.... In His Service Johnny H. Fayetteville, NC "Remember, Bill, let's not louse this thing up. Let's keep it simple" Dr. Bob's last words to Bill. [107] has notified the sender that this message has been received. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1985. . . . . . . . . . . . Earliest Printings of Twenty-Four Hours a Day From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/23/2004 12:11:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The Earliest Printings of Richmond Walker's Twenty-Four Hours a Day Glenn C. (South Bend, Indiana) Jack H. (Scottsdale, Arizona), who has one of the best private collections of A.A. archival material in the United States, has copies of some of the first printings of Richmond Walker's Twenty-Four Hours a Day, running from the earliest printed version down to the later Hazelden printings. This article is based in large part on information and photocopies which he kindly provided. (A version of this article with photos of various pages of these books may be seen at http://hindsfoot.org/RWcvPhot.html) Rich (who had gotten sober in May 1942) first assembled the material on small cards which he carried around with him to use in his own prayer and meditation. But in 1948, members of the A.A. groups in Daytona Beach, Florida, persuaded him to have this material printed in book form, so the rest of them could use it too. He had some copies printed, and demand for the book quickly began to spread outside of the Daytona Beach area. Rich distributed them from his basement: A.A. members would write him asking for copies, and he would wrap them and mail them out. Past Delegate Bob P. (Goshen, Indiana) told me that Wesley Parrish, an A.A. member in Daytona Beach, was a County Commissioner and obtained the use of the county printing press to run these copies off. The county was paid for the printing, but this arrangement may have made it easier to print small batches relatively inexpensively. I was told that Parrish (whom Bob P. had met in the course of his A.A. activities) had come from Georgia down into Florida as a housing contractor. A photocopy of the title page of this earliest version may be seen at http://hindsfoot.org/RW1prnt1.html. The pages are about 2-7/8 inches wide and 5-1/2 inches high (7.3 cm x 14 cm). The title page reads as follows: ============================== TWENTY-FOUR HOURS A DAY Price $1.50 Twenty-Four Hours A Day P. O. Box 2170 Daytona Beach, Florida ============================== Following Jack's chronology (which makes sense), Rich at first gave no indication of authorship. Everyone in that part of Florida knew that he was the one who had put the book together. So the back page of this earliest version (for photo see http://hindsfoot.org/RW1prnt2.html) gives only the price and the address for ordering copies of the book: ============================== FURTHER COPIES OF THIS BOOK MAY BE HAD AT $1.50 APIECE BY WRITING TO: TWENTY-FOUR HOURS A DAY P.O. BOX 2170 DAYTONA BEACH, FLORIDA ============================== In later printings (following Jack's chronology) Rich added, at the end of the book, "Compiled by a member of the Group at Daytona Beach, Fla." As use of the little book began to spread rapidly across the United States, people in other parts of the country wanted to know where it came from. Rich, who always acted with the greatest humility, refused even to put his first name and last initial on the book, but simply indicated what A.A. group he belonged to. He wanted absolutely no personal fame, glory, or personal profit from the book. David W., the Florida A.A. archivist, says that if at some points the book distribution earned a slight profit, Rich immediately donated all of it to A.A. But putting the name of the group on the book was important, because the rule in old-time A.A. was that a pamphlet or book which was sponsored by any one A.A. group was automatically considered appropriate for use by other A.A. groups -- any other group which chose to do so could read from it in meetings and employ it for beginners lessons and so on, simply on the grounds that it had been officially supported by the A.A. group where it was originally written. So the simple statement that the publication of this meditational book had been backed by the Daytona Beach A.A. groups was extremely important. A.A. groups started using Twenty-Four Hours a Day to read from in their meetings all over the United States, and individual members began buying copies of the little book to carry with them throughout the day in a pocket or a purse. At least half of the A.A. members in the United States owned a copy before very long. Any number of good old-timers have told me that they got sober off of two books: the Big Book and the Twenty-Four Hour book. In fact, one of the best A.A. historians has estimated that there was a period when more A.A. members owned a copy of Rich's book than owned their own personal copy of the Big Book. As demand for the little book continued to increase, Rich (who was not getting any younger) found that he was not able to keep up with packaging and mailing the thousands of copies that were now being distributed. In 1954, the year Rich turned 62, Patrick Butler at Hazelden, who had heard of the problems Rich was now having keeping up with the demand, offered to take over the printing and distribution of the book. It is important to realize that Hazelden was not even started until 1949, the year after Rich had published Twenty-Four Hours a Day. Rich had had no connection with Hazelden or Minnesota at all, and his little book of meditations was definitely not a statement of the Minnesota Model of alcoholism treatment. And even here in 1954, Hazelden was still not much more than a large farmhouse on a Minnesota farm. As William L. White notes in Slaying the Dragon: The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America, pp. 201-2 and 207-8, the psychiatrists and psychotherapists did not really take over the Hazelden operation until later, in the 1960's -- their people basically won control of its administration in 1966 -- at which point their program began referring to "chemical dependency" and treating alcoholism and drug addiction as simply two forms of the same addictive tendency, and so on, in ways that so often infuriate so many of the A.A. old-timers. Richmond Walker was already dead by then (he died in 1965) -- his book is most definitely NOT a statement of that later "treatment center mentality." The first Hazelden printing of Twenty-Four Hours a Day in 1954 showed that they were nevertheless already showing a tendency at times to blur the distinction between A.A. principles and commercialism. Instead of the original title page at the front of the book, the first Hazelden printing (see the enlarged photocopy at http://hindsfoot.org/RWhaz1.html) put a long advertisement for the Hazelden treatment program. There is a line drawing of the farmhouse on the Hazelden farm, and the following text: ============================== Hazelden FOR THE PROBLEM DRINKER at Center City, Minnesota The management at "Hazelden" has had six years experience in helping men with drinking problems. Its Directors have been "through the mill" themselves, and have developed a program of reading, meditation, audio-visual education, consultation and discussion, which enables the convalescent guest to understand the whys and wherefores of his problem, and how to get on top of it. The serving of appetizing meals is given special attention, as physical well-being is recognized as one of the important steps along the road to recovery. Rest and freedom from responsibility are also important, and visitors are permitted only at the request of the guest. Fishing, boating, pool, and shuffleboard are some of the possible diversions. Doctors and registered nurses are available at all hours, and psychiatric consultation is provided upon request. Reasonable Rates . . . For particulars write to Hazelden 341 North Dale Street Saint Paul 3, Minn. (or) Center City, Minnesota A Non-Profit Organization ============================== This first Hazelden printing which came out in 1954 had a dark green cover. At the back of the book, the last page (page 372) followed the format set in Rich's later printings by not giving Rich's name in any form (not even first name and last initial, or a pseudonym), but by instead simply saying that the book was sponsored by the A.A. groups in Daytona Beach, Florida: ============================== ADDITIONAL COPIES OF THIS BOOK AVAILABLE AT $1.50 WRITE TO: HAZELDEN 341 No. Dale St. St. Paul 3, Minn. Compiled by a member of the Group at Daytona Beach, Fla. ============================== Rich was outraged at the way Hazelden had commercialized his book by putting the lengthy advertisement for their treatment center as the first page in the book. He told them to quit, and subsequent Hazelden printings removed the ad and put the simple title "Twenty-Four Hours a Day" at the beginning as Rich had intended. Rich died on March 25, 1965, with 22 years of sobriety. His humble desire for anonymity meant that A.A. people soon forgot who had written Twenty-Four Hours a Day, but he left behind for the A.A. people whom he wished to serve, the greatest classic of early A.A. spirituality. Step 11 said "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out," but the Big Book gave no detailed information about how prayer and meditation of this sort needed to be done. Rich supplied that need, and grateful A.A. people everywhere seized upon his little book as their guide to living sober and remaining in constant contact with the source of healing grace on a day-by-day basis. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1986. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Recovery rate. From: Arthur Sheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/23/2004 12:22:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi This topic has been addressed previously and I'd like to resubmit most of the same reply I did last time. ----- Pinning down success rates is not a trivial proposition. My concerns relate to the statistical validity of the sampling method that goes into the construction of quoted rates and whether it rises to a level that yields statistical confidence in the numbers produced. Even today with the membership surveys that are conducted by AA, I have concerns with the sampling method used. The deadly characteristic of alcoholism is the inclination of the alcoholic to repeatedly return to drinking even in the face of compelling evidence that shows they have no business taking a drink (the jay walker analogy in the literature is right on). A fair number of alcoholics will fall into the "unsuccessful" tally a number of times, hit bottom, and then move into the "success" tally. All too often an underlying presumption exists that if somebody doesn't participate in AA any longer then they are likely to have returned to drinking. That is just flat out wrong. There are many paths to spiritual living and being helpful to others. I think the Achilles heel of quoted rates lies not in the determination of the number of folks who are around and sober, but in pinning down the number of folks who are not around and have returned to drinking. Those who stay sober in AA are clearly 100% successful and that population can be approximately determined. As for the determination of the number of those who have come to check out AA and then departed to drink again, each member will have their anecdotal account but in terms of coming up with a statistically valid census, I really have my doubts if it can be done. Other things that increasingly cloud today's figures are "chemical dependency" folks that enter AA with no drinking history who undergo a metamorphosis into an alcoholic (usually because that don't want to attend NA and want to go to AA instead). On the plus side, this subject always provides a really good discussion item. Cheers Arthur PS - I'm struggling to understand what white and blue chips have to do with recovery rates. ----- Original Message ----- From: Johnny Hughes To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2004 9:55 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Recovery rate. Hello all you history lovers.... Somewhere I read an article about someone doing research on the present recovery rate and they had secured information from a large intergroup source concerning the number of white chips purchased by local groups and the number of blue chips purchased by local groups which gave some indication. Does anyone know of this article or any other source concerning the present recovery rate experienced by AA? Thanks.... In His Service Johnny H. Fayetteville, NC "Remember, Bill, let's not louse this thing up. Let's keep it simple" Dr. Bob's last words to Bill. [107] has notified the sender that this message has been received. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1987. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Recovery rate. From: Mel Barger . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/24/2004 5:01:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi All, I appreciate Arthur's thoughts on this subject of determining recovery rates. For some time now, various people have insisted that AA's success rate is very low. I don't think it was ever very high if you just use the numbers of those who drift in temporarily for various reasons but do not have that burning desire to change their lives. I'd like to see success rates determined from a population of members who have at least stayed sober a year. I think the percentage of recoveries would be much higher. And it is true that many people stop attending AA meetings but continue to stay sober and relatively happy. I have known some of them, and they continue to credit AA for their sobriety. They should be counted in the success category. Mel Barger. ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger melb@accesstoledo.com ----- Original Message ----- From: Arthur Sheehan To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, August 23, 2004 1:22 PM Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Recovery rate. Hi This topic has been addressed previously and I'd like to resubmit most of the same reply I did last time. ----- Pinning down success rates is not a trivial proposition. My concerns relate to the statistical validity of the sampling method that goes into the construction of quoted rates and whether it rises to a level that yields statistical confidence in the numbers produced. Even today with the membership surveys that are conducted by AA, I have concerns with the sampling method used. The deadly characteristic of alcoholism is the inclination of the alcoholic to repeatedly return to drinking even in the face of compelling evidence that shows they have no business taking a drink (the jay walker analogy in the literature is right on). A fair number of alcoholics will fall into the "unsuccessful" tally a number of times, hit bottom, and then move into the "success" tally. All too often an underlying presumption exists that if somebody doesn't participate in AA any longer then they are likely to have returned to drinking. That is just flat out wrong. There are many paths to spiritual living and being helpful to others. I think the Achilles heel of quoted rates lies not in the determination of the number of folks who are around and sober, but in pinning down the number of folks who are not around and have returned to drinking. Those who stay sober in AA are clearly 100% successful and that population can be approximately determined. As for the determination of the number of those who have come to check out AA and then departed to drink again, each member will have their anecdotal account but in terms of coming up with a statistically valid census, I really have my doubts if it can be done. Other things that increasingly cloud today's figures are "chemical dependency" folks that enter AA with no drinking history who undergo a metamorphosis into an alcoholic (usually because that don't want to attend NA and want to go to AA instead). On the plus side, this subject always provides a really good discussion item. Cheers Arthur PS - I'm struggling to understand what white and blue chips have to do with recovery rates. ----- Original Message ----- From: Johnny Hughes To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2004 9:55 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Recovery rate. Hello all you history lovers.... Somewhere I read an article about someone doing research on the present recovery rate and they had secured information from a large intergroup source concerning the number of white chips purchased by local groups and the number of blue chips purchased by local groups which gave some indication. Does anyone know of this article or any other source concerning the present recovery rate experienced by AA? Thanks.... In His Service Johnny H. Fayetteville, NC "Remember, Bill, let's not louse this thing up. Let's keep it simple" Dr. Bob's last words to Bill. [107] has notified the sender that this message has been received. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This message was scanned by GatewayDefender [4] 6:48:24 PM ET - 8/23/2004 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1988. . . . . . . . . . . . Clarification of Post 1983 From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/24/2004 6:03:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Post 1983 says in part: "Others who also experimented with LSD were Father Dowling, the Rev Sam Shoemaker and Lois Wilson. Marty Mann, Bill's mistress, Helen W, and Nell wing also joined the experimentation in NY (re "Bill W" by Francis Hartigan pgs 9 and 177 - 179 and "Grateful to Have Been There" by Nell Wing pgs 81 - 82)." This has been misread by at least one member of the list to mean that Marty Mann was Bill's mistress. "Bill's mistress" refers to Helen W., not Marty Mann. I apologize for letting this slip by. Nancy Olson Moderator IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1989. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Recovery rate. From: Klaus Mäkelä . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/24/2004 11:07:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII What follows are excerpts from the abstract and discussion of the following article: Mäkelä, Klaus. (1994). Rates of attrition among the membership of Alcoholics Anonymous in Finland. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 55(1), 91-95. Klaus Mäkelä ABSTRACT Anniversary announcements published in the national AA newsletter are used to analyze membership turnover in Finnish AA. Of the total membership with at least one year of sobriety, close to 90 per cent continue as sober members for another year. Of those having one year of sobriety, about two thirds survive to the next year. The survival rate of members with between two and five years of sobriety is about 85 %. Among members with more than five years of sobriety, the survival rate is above 90 per cent. There are no gender differences in survival rates. DISCUSSION Our data shed no light on the attrition occurring before the first full year of sobriety. Those who reach one year of continuous abstinence are of course a highly selected group compared to the clinical populations for which success rates usually are presented. If we look at the turnover from a mutual-help movement perspective, however, we can conclude that the sober membership of AA is exceptionally stable. It should be pointed out that dropping out of AA does not necessarily mean a relapse in drinking. Former members may continue to be sober, and natural death takes its toll among the oldest cohorts. On the other side, continued membership does not always mean frequent meeting attendance. Many among the older members go to meetings very infrequently. Although the risk of dropping out is quite low among members with at least a few years of sobriety, it nevertheless is large enough to be experienced as a real threat and to provide support to the conviction that meeting attendance should continue for the whole lifetime. The threat is strengthened by the fact that relapses of AA oldtimers provide dramatic material for gossiping. ----- Original Message ----- From: Mel Barger To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2004 1:01 PM Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Recovery rate. Hi All, I appreciate Arthur's thoughts on this subject of determining recovery rates. For some time now, various people have insisted that AA's success rate is very low. I don't think it was ever very high if you just use the numbers of those who drift in temporarily for various reasons but do not have that burning desire to change their lives. I'd like to see success rates determined from a population of members who have at least stayed sober a year. I think the percentage of recoveries would be much higher. And it is true that many people stop attending AA meetings but continue to stay sober and relatively happy. I have known some of them, and they continue to credit AA for their sobriety. They should be counted in the success category. Mel Barger. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1990. . . . . . . . . . . . Dates on the 20 questions From: butterfly2479 . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/23/2004 4:35:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The 20 questions are often sited and used in various re-written forms...I am aware that AA has Its' use of them copyrighted now, and contained in one of its' pamphlets. But it appears to have been used by varying sources for many years before this. Can anyone verify the ORIGINAL date on the JOHN HOPKINS TEST FOR ALCOHOLISM. And what are your sources please? thanks JP IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1991. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Earliest Printing of Twenty-Four Hours a Day From: Dennis Mardon . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/24/2004 6:29:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Thanks to Glenn C. for posting that history of the early writing, printing and distribution of the Twenty-Four Hours a Day book by Richard W. I seem to remember that prior to or maybe concurrent with the Hazelden opportunity there was consideration given to the book becoming the property of AA publishing. In fact, I believe it may have been considered more than once by the General Service Conference in the early 1950's. I don't have a copy of Advisory Actions handy. Can anyone shed more light on this? Dennis M. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1992. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Recovery rate. From: R. Peter Nixon . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/24/2004 5:32:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hello, In response to Johnny's question, the following is an excerpt from an article entitled, *'Don't Drink and Go to Meetings''. *The entire article may be found on the Primary Purpose Group of Dallas, Texas' website: *http://www.ppgaadallas.org/aa_articles.htm* * * * bold;"> * In love and service, Peter N. Vancouver, BC …''Let's take a look at what appears to be happening as is reported in one of our major cities in the Southwest (Houston). NUMBER OF CHIPS SOLD BY THE INTERGROUP OFFICE IN 1996 Desire---------------------24, 246-----------------100% 30 days---------------------8,839-------------------36% 60 days---------------------5,960-------------------25% 90 days---------------------5,019-------------------21% 6 mos.-----------------------3,370-------------------15% 1 yr.--------------------------2,102---------------------9% 2 yr..-------------------------1,170---------------------5% 5 yr..----------------------------707---------------------3% 10 yrs.--------------------------560---------------------2% 20 yrs.--------------------------143-------------------0.6% 30 yrs.---------------------------26--------------------0.1% For the year 1997, the number of 'desire chips'' sold was reduced to 22,191. For 1998, the number dropped to 19,504. For 1999, 16,285 Desire Chips were sold. The other statistics remained the same. So how well is your group doing? A very disturbing observation from the 1998 statistics is that 592 medallions were purchased for AA's celebrating 10 years of sobriety. The total number of folks taking 'desire chips'' in 1988 was in excess of 40,000. Did only about 1.5% apply our Program?'' * bold;"> * -----Original Message----- *From:* Johnny Hughes [mailto:drofjoy@nc.rr.com] *Sent:* Sunday, August 22, 2004 7:56 PM *To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Subject:* [AAHistoryLovers] Recovery rate. Hello all you history lovers.... Somewhere I read an article about someone doing research on the present recovery rate and they had secured information from a large intergroup source concerning the number of white chips purchased by local groups and the number of blue chips purchased by local groups which gave some indication. Does anyone know of this article or any other source concerning the present recovery rate experienced by AA? Thanks.... In His Service Johnny H. Fayetteville, NC "Remember, Bill, let's not louse this thing up. Let's keep it simple" IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1993. . . . . . . . . . . . Keep It Simple From: Danny S . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/25/2004 7:59:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Dr. Bob has long been credited with saying "Remember, Bill, let's not louse this thing up. Let's keep it simple," as his last words to Bill Wilson. While Dr Bob is widely quoted as referring to AA as a whole and the AA Program of recovery (12 Steps), he may have been referring to Bill's work in helping form the Conference. Can anyone verify the actual conversation within context, as to what the actual "it" to which he was referring was? What was it that Dr Bob thought Bill should keep simple? Thanks Peace, Danny S IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1994. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Recovery rate. From: AC . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/25/2004 9:50:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII At 03:32 PM 8/24/2004, you wrote: > >A very disturbing observation from the 1998 statistics is that 592 >medallions were purchased for AA's celebrating 10 years of sobriety. The >total number of folks taking "desire chips" in 1988 was in excess of >40,000. Did only about 1.5% apply our Program?" > I'm no math whiz but, with respect, there is a huge logical flaw in this question. The implied assumption is that each "desire chip" represents a unique individual. Thus, that out of 40 thousand plus who "tried out" AA, less than 600 stuck around for a decade. In practice, I suspect the ratio is far smaller. If you live in an area where "desire chips" are distributed, how many folks do you know who accumulated a drawer full of those "white chips" before they ever managed to achieve 30 days? And how many "30 day wonders" bounced in and out of this program for two or three years, picking up 90 here, 30 there and there, maybe even six months once before they finally "got" that part about not taking the First Drink? Best, Ace Santa Cruz "There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics." --Benjamin Disraeli IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1995. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Recovery Rates & chips From: t . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/25/2004 12:58:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Peter, To those unfamiliar with actual membership in AA, I think it may well have made sense to compare number of chips sold as a elementary attempt to compare numbers of those who start the program to numbers who achieve sobriety ... unfortunately, in real AA life there are complications inherent in that ... How many 'desire chips' are picked up by any one individual? How many members claim to have collected a 'drawer full' before achieving sobriety? How many pick up a 'desire chip' each day/meeting for first week/month or more? ...And that doesn't even address the question of how many replacement desire chips sober members may pick up. [How many desire chips have I taken during my time in the program? Many more than the number of yearly chips. I can quickly count at least three that I have right now. To me personally, a desire chips mean so much more than any other I might have no matter how many X's, V's or I's it might have] ... How many folks stay sober but have quit picking up yearly/birthday chips? How many pick up multiple 'birthday chips' -celebrating at different groups? How many yearly celebrants receive an old chip from their sponsor and group doesn't have to buy them a new one? There's also the question of whether to count all yearly chips or just the 1-year chips? The underlying assumption that a one-to-one correspondence between chips -- members starting the program, or achieving a year's sobriety-- just is not there in practice in our groups [at least not anywhere I've attended meetings]. And I'm not sure how one could come up with quantifying just what sort of number relationship there might be between those two chips. There's an added problem of comparing desire chips to yearly chips --the growth factor of the fellowship. ... [if we could really compare them] you would not compare desires chips given this year with yearly chips given this year. You would need to somehow go back and compare desire chips given last year to yearly chips given this year, or desire chips given in 1974 to 30-year chips given this year. As far as the decline in numbers of desire chips ... how much of that is based on folks not qualified for the program being referred, or going 'on their own', to more appropriate sources for help? How much is based on the push in the 90's to quit the practice of offering them to sober members for 'a little extra emotional support'? [remember when groups did that?] Probably not all the decline is due to those or other similar reasons, but I personally believe that a rather large part are. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1996. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Re: Earliest Printing of Twenty-Four Hours a Day From: Arthur Sheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/25/2004 6:33:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Dennis I found 3 references in the listings of Conference Advisory Actions. 1953: Delegates weigh this question for submission to the 1954 Conference: Does the Conference feel it should depart from its purely textbook program by printing non-textbook literature such as the "24 Hour Book of Meditation"? (Literature Committee) 1954: The publication rights of Twenty-Four Hours a Day not be accepted. (Floor Action) 1972: The Twenty-Four Hour Book not be confirmed as Conference-approved literature. (Literature Committee) Cheers Arthur ----- Original Message ----- From: Dennis Mardon To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2004 6:29 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Re: Earliest Printing of Twenty-Four Hours a Day Thanks to Glenn C. for posting that history of the early writing, printing and distribution of the Twenty-Four Hours a Day book by Richard W. I seem to remember that prior to or maybe concurrent with the Hazelden opportunity there was consideration given to the book becoming the property of AA publishing. In fact, I believe it may have been considered more than once by the General Service Conference in the early 1950's. I don't have a copy of Advisory Actions handy. Can anyone shed more light on this? Dennis M. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1997. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Recovery rate. From: Arthur Sheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/25/2004 6:38:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII This doesn't make sense and it comes across a lot more as mythology rather than history. We are supposed to be a history group. The data circulated are not even subjected to the barest minimum of analysis and scrutiny. The mere fact that a Group puts something on a web site, or that an Intergroup Office publishes a paper, does not automatically endow the data with accuracy and relevance. Flawed data gathering techniques, and flawed assertions of cause and effect, remain flawed regardless of where they reside or who constructed them. Historical analysis is supposed to consist of some measure of scholastic scrutiny coupled with some minimal attempt at verification or refutation of the accuracy of the data observed. The example cited for the Houston data illustrates its own flaws. Desire chips sold in 1996 are used to represent the number of members coming into the Fellowship that year. Ten year chips are used to represent the number of members who have stayed in the Fellowship for ten years. This then is used in a formula where the number of 24 hour desire chips sold that year are divided into the number of ten year medallions sold that year and that somehow produces a "success rate" for Houston, TX for that year. Aside from a dubious premise, the rounding of the results of the arithmetic performed is flawed. 707 divided by 24,246 yields .029 (which would approximate 3% not 2%). Also 707 divided by 40,000 yields .0176 (which would approximate 2% as opposed to 1.5%). It seems that the numbers are rounded down to exaggerate failure. Other considerations that make what the data are purported to reflect quite suspect are: 1. Members picking up desire chips are presumed to pick up one and only one. This serves to exaggerate the presumed number of people coming in (perhaps exponentially). How many AA folks have you heard say "I have drawer full of desire chips." 2. The number of members presumed to be celebrating ten years is likely substantially understated. If someone who stayed sober for a decade moved away from the Houston area, and didn't purchase a ten year medallion in Houston, it would be inferred as a failure even though they may be quite happily sober wherever they moved to. 3. Likewise, if someone stayed sober without attending AA any longer it would also be inferred as failure. There are other little factors such as mortality rates where over the ten year period someone dies (sober) of natural causes it too would be inferred as failure. In addition, if someone who started ten years ago slipped and sobered up again, and is counted in one of the other annual groups, it would also reflect as a failure for the 10 year group. Many of the postings of "success rates" in AAHistoryLovers seem to have a flair for the dramatic and notions of impending doom. A number of people seem hell-bent on knocking down the success achieved by AA by using flawed data, flawed arithmetic and flawed presumptions and conclusions. When AA started in 1935 it did so with two members. Today, after almost 70 years, world-wide membership is conservatively projected at 104,589 groups and 2,066,851 members (per the 2004 Conference report). Instead of celebrating the obvious (i.e. a rather remarkable demonstrated track record over seven decades) there seems to be a fixation of pursuing both the morbid and obscure (i.e. using the sale of chips and medallions to infer how many people are failing to stay sober). Cheers Arthur ----- Original Message ----- From: R. Peter Nixon To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2004 5:32 PM Subject: RE: [AAHistoryLovers] Recovery rate. Hello, In response to Johnny's question, the following is an excerpt from an article entitled, "Don't Drink and Go to Meetings". The entire article may be found on the Primary Purpose Group of Dallas, Texas' website: http://www.ppgaadallas.org/aa_articles.htm In love and service, Peter N. Vancouver, BC ..."Let's take a look at what appears to be happening as is reported in one of our major cities in the Southwest (Houston). NUMBER OF CHIPS SOLD BY THE INTERGROUP OFFICE IN 1996 Desire---------------------24, 246-----------------100% 30 days---------------------8,839-------------------36% 60 days---------------------5,960-------------------25% 90 days---------------------5,019-------------------21% 6 mos.-----------------------3,370-------------------15% 1 yr.--------------------------2,102---------------------9% 2 yr..-------------------------1,170---------------------5% 5 yr..----------------------------707---------------------3% 10 yrs.--------------------------560---------------------2% 20 yrs.--------------------------143-------------------0.6% 30 yrs.---------------------------26--------------------0.1% For the year 1997, the number of "desire chips" sold was reduced to 22,191. For 1998, the number dropped to 19,504. For 1999, 16,285 Desire Chips were sold. The other statistics remained the same. So how well is your group doing? A very disturbing observation from the 1998 statistics is that 592 medallions were purchased for AA's celebrating 10 years of sobriety. The total number of folks taking "desire chips" in 1988 was in excess of 40,000. Did only about 1.5% apply our Program?" -----Original Message----- From: Johnny Hughes [mailto:drofjoy@nc.rr.com] Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2004 7:56 PM To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Recovery rate. Hello all you history lovers.... Somewhere I read an article about someone doing research on the present recovery rate and they had secured information from a large intergroup source concerning the number of white chips purchased by local groups and the number of blue chips purchased by local groups which gave some indication. Does anyone know of this article or any other source concerning the present recovery rate experienced by AA? Thanks.... In His Service Johnny H. Fayetteville, NC "Remember, Bill, let's not louse this thing up. Let's keep it simple" IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1998. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Dates on the 20 questions From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/27/2004 12:21:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Dear JP, I don't think A.A. ever copyrighted those questions, nor could they have if they came from the medical faculty at Johns Hopkins. I don't know when the earliest version was drawn up at Johns Hopkins, but the Test Questions began appearing in A.A. literature at a very early date. In terms of the dates when they first began to be used in A.A., these Test Questions, which were always credited to Johns Hopkins University Hospital to the best of my knowledge, appeared for example in the Detroit Pamphlet entitled Alcoholics Anonymous: An Interpretation of the Twelve Steps, also known as the Washington D.C. Pamphlet (editions were also published in Oklahoma and on the west coast of the U.S.). See http://hindsfoot.org/Detr0.html and especially http://hindsfoot.org/Detr1.html The Detroit/Washington Pamphlet gives 35 Test Questions, a longer version than the 20 Test Questions that you have discovered. This pamphlet was clearly not used in Detroit until after they began holding their first beginners meetings on June 14, 1943. Bobby Burger at the New York A.A. office refers to the pamphlet in its Washington D.C. version in a letter to Barry Collins in Minneapolis dated November 11, 1944. See pages xiii-xiv of Bill Pittman's Foreward to Hazelden's 50th Anniversary Edition of The Little Red Book for the full text of her letter. I believe on the basis of my own research so far that the Detroit A.A. people originally wrote the pamphlet (presumably using it at first in a mimeographed version) but it seems fairly clear that Washington D.C. published the first printed version. If this is so, the Detroit/Washington Pamphlet was written somewhere in the year and a half period between June 1943 and November 1944, although closer to the beginning of that period than to the end. Jack H. (Scottsdale, Arizona) emphatically disagrees with me on this. He believes that pamphlet originally came out of Minneapolis, just like The Little Red Book. Jack does have a mimeographed Instructor's Manual from the Nicollet Group in Minneapolis which gives one of the short versions of these Test Questions, and he believes strongly that this version went back almost to the very beginning of A.A. in Minneapolis, since beginners meetings were conducted there, he says, even before the Nicollet Group was formed. The first group in Minneapolis was formed in November 1940, and the Nicollet Group was not founded until December 1943. So in terms of the dates you asked for, we have one A.A. version which I know of which probably went back to the second half of 1943 (or not much later) and another A.A. version which may have been used as early as 1941. Other members of the AAHistoryLovers may be able to come up with earlier examples of these Test Questions being used in A.A. writings prior to that time. Hopefully someone could come up with some sort of date for when someone at Johns Hopkins first drew up these questions. Modern mental health professionals scoff at these Test Questions and do not regard them as scientifically valid. At the practical level though, it is quite amusing to see a newcomer who is still in partial denial about being an alcoholic take this test, noting the expression on the person's face when the person comes to the end of the test and realizes how it is scored. Many A.A. people like the test because they take a kind of humorous pleasure in having a test where they can point proudly to a score of 100% without even having to study for it. Glenn C. (South Bend, Indiana) butterfly2479 wrote: The 20 questions are often sited and used in various re-written forms...I am aware that AA has Its' use of them copyrighted now, and contained in one of its' pamphlets. But it appears to have been used by varying sources for many years before this. Can anyone verify the ORIGINAL date on the JOHN HOPKINS TEST FOR ALCOHOLISM. And what are your sources please? thanks JP ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/219olB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: AAHistoryLovers-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 1999. . . . . . . . . . . . Richmond Walker and New York 1953-1954 From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/26/2004 11:30:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Dennis M. and Art S. have both written about the decision in New York in 1953-4 not to help Richmond Walker publish and distribute Twenty-Four Hours a Day, and Art cited the Conference Advisory Actions involved, which was the ultimate outcome of Rich's request. In fact it was never even seriously considered in New York at that time for financial reasons. It was an impossibility. New York was so desperate to come up with the money to publish the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions in 1953, as we remember, that they had to make a deal where a commercial publisher published some of the books on the commercial market in return for printing other copies for the New York A.A. office. I have heard people try to explain why this did not really violate the Twelve Traditions, which forbid ANY kind of entanglement between A.A. and outside interests, particularly outside commercial interests, but I have never found it truly convincing. At any rate, the New York office was absolutely desperate to somehow get Bill Wilson's book out in print. They certainly didn't have the money to take on any additional books even if they had wished to do so. I'm sure the feeling in New York at that point was that Richmond Walker was doing a whole lot better than they were, by far, because he had managed to keep Twenty-Four Hours a Day in print since 1948. Not only had he not gone into serious debt, he was sometimes making a slight profit (which he of course promptly figured out how to send to the New York office to help keep it going). Why was he asking them, of all people, for help? If I understand correctly, there is speculation that Bill Wilson called the First International Convention to meet in Cleveland in 1950, in part to preempt plans which were being laid elsewhere (in Texas, if I remember correctly) to hold an international AA convention there. At any rate, it is clear that in the early 1950's, Bill W. was working very hard to try to establish New York as the international A.A. center. Dr. Bob's death in 1950 meant that Akron A.A. could no longer claim to be headed by one of the two co-founders. It seems pretty clear that, by the early 1950's, Bill W. was not interested in being too helpful to anyone who might appear to be competition to New York's primacy. In fairness to Bill, there were in fact forces at that point, when the A.A. organizational structure was still almost wholly anarchic, which were threatening to fragment A.A. into numerous rival recovery groups by a kind of centrifugal force. It was in fact necessary to pick somewhere to be the central office, and to fight (if necessary) to keep A.A. unified around some viable center. The one surviving co-founder was in New York City, so that seemed the obvious choice at that time. Things did change though in all sorts of ways once past the year 1950. In the late 1940's, for example, the New York A.A. office regularly bought numbers of copies of The Little Red Book from Ed Webster in Minneapolis (according to Jack H. in Scottsdale, Arizona, who found the invoices among Ed Webster's papers). We must assume that these were then sold from the New York A.A. office. The Little Red Book of course was Dr. Bob's baby -- he gave Ed Webster lots of help in phrasing parts of the book, sent copies of it various places (e.g. a number of copies to Florida A.A. people at one point) -- and otherwise tried to promote it everywhere. And as Bill Pittman discovered, we also have letters from the New York office all the way down to November 1950 saying that The Little Red Book was a very good and helpful book for A.A. people everywhere. Ed Webster had also figured out ways to print and distribute copies of The Little Red Book all over the United States and Canada without going in the red. It was the New York A.A. office at that point which couldn't figure out the financial side of how to get a book published. After the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions was finally published in 1953, Bill Wilson still had to worry about selling enough copies to break even. So I don't think he was in any kind of mood to do anything to help "the competition" at that point, such as Twenty-Four Hours a Day, and particularly The Little Red Book, which was a straight rival to Bill's new book. Did Bill Wilson go a little bit overboard at that point in trying to squeeze out any possible competition to his own book? Opinions among modern A.A. historians seem to vary greatly on that question. Those A.A. historians who identify themselves with Akron A.A., or Cleveland A.A., frequently feel that Bill was going to great and sometimes unfair lengths to squeeze out any competition and to minimize the contributions of anyone who had not been part of his own narrow circle in New York. If this were so, it would be a great shame, for this was totally unnecessary. I don't see how anyone who has worked the Twelve Steps could deny that the Big Book and the Twelve and Twelve represent the inspired core of A.A. thought. If we don't read those two books over and over again, all our lives, we will never be able to truly grasp the really profound depths of the program. In my own estimation, the other twelve-step groups (N.A., O.A., Emotions Anonymous, and so on) are greatly weakened by not having anything truly equivalent to the Big Book and the Twelve and Twelve. But this doesn't mean that nobody in A.A. is allowed to read anything other than those two books. The important thing to remember is that the traditional understanding in genuine old-time A.A. was that any book which was sponsored by one A.A. group (the Daytona Beach groups sponsored Twenty-Four Hours a Day and the Nicollet Group in Minneapolis sponsored The Little Red Book) was automatically considered O.K. for any other A.A. groups to read from and use in their meetings, if they chose to do so. The question of exactly why New York refused to take over the responsibility for keeping the former book in print in 1953-4 is not in fact an important issue. People today who want us to stop reading these books are trying to cut A.A. off from its historical roots in a way which will ultimately be very dangerous to the program -- like trying to go to sea on a sailing ship without enough ballast in the bottom -- the first high wind will capsize the vessel for it has no weight of tradition to keep it upright in the face of the stormy blasts. That is what is important about the Archival Movement which sprang up in the 1990's -- a grassroots realization among A.A. people all over the world -- which saw that it was necessary to keep the traditions of good old-time A.A. alive if we were to be a vital force in the present. The AAHistoryLovers, the National Archives Workshops (the ninth one is going to be held in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, next month), the annual conference in Bristol, England, and so on, were the product of this new awareness which began developing all over the world, an awareness that we have to keep A.A. firmly grounded in its foundational period, the era of the Good Old-Timers, in order to keep it healthy in our own period. Glenn C. (South Bend, Indiana) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2000. . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Questions From: Jim Blair . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/27/2004 9:02:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Here is an email posted some time ago by an archivist in Northern CA. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Juliet from our local Intergroup has come up with some interesting facts about the 20 questions. Below is a snippet from an e-mail I received from a contact from Johns Hopkins' media relations department: This is from a faculty member in our Psychiatry dept. "The Johns Hopkins Twenty Questions: Are You An Alcoholic? was developed in the 1930s by Dr. Robert Seliger, who at that time was a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. It was intended for use as a self-assessment questionnaire to determine the extent of one's alcohol use. It was not intended to be used by professionals as a screening tool to help them formulate a diagnosis of alcoholism in their patients. We do not use this questionnaire at any of the Johns Hopkins substance abuse treatment programs. To the best of my knowledge, there have never been any reliable or validated studies conducted using the Hopkins Twenty Questions. I advise you to consider using other instruments such as the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test or the CAGE -- both of which have proven reliability and validity as reported in the scientific literature." So, the questions should be attributed to Dr.Robert Seliger of Johns Hopkins (in the 1930s), not to Johns Hopkins itself as they no longer advocate their use. I note as well that the e-mail I sent to you all earlier from the Literature Desk at GSO stated that the hospital had requested that GSO not attribute those questions to their institution in the pamphlet "Memo to an Inmate Who May Be an Alcoholic." If you know anyone who would like permission to reprint this piece, I have a contact at Johns Hopkins to whom I can refer them. I have been in contact with the faculty member who knew the history of this document and who recommended that we not use it. She was very adamant about it--in a second e-mail to me, she said that she'd grant permission to any AA group who wanted to use it, but that she really recommended that we don't. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2001. . . . . . . . . . . . Rule 62 From: Jack Frost . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/27/2004 7:10:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Anyone know in what literature are there references to Rule 62, and when it was originally used? Thanx! IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2002. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Dates on the 20 questions From: Dean @ e-AA . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/27/2004 10:18:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII butterfly2479 wrote: "The 20 questions are often sited and used ... Can anyone verify the ORIGINAL date on the JOHN HOPKINS TEST FOR ALCOHOLISM. And what are your sources please? Somewhere, and I can't put my finger on it now, there was a post about this. It could have been on another list. However, the substance was that there was correspondence between GSO and Johns Hopkins University about this questionnaire. The university replied that a faculty member had developed the questionnaire but it was not approved or used by the university -- and the university doesn't/didn't use it. (Additionally, they suggested using something other than the questionnaire.) I'll try to find that email. I know I still have it ... somewhere. -- Dean Collins Monterey Peninsula, California IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2003. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Rule 62 From: Russ S . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/28/2004 9:31:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII "When A.A. was still young, lots of eager groups were forming. In a town we'll call Middleton, a real crackerjack had started up. The townspeople were as hot as firecrackers about it. Stargazing, the elders dreamed of innovations. They figured the town needed a great big alcoholic center, a kind of pilot plant A.A. groups could duplicate everywhere. Beginning on the ground floor there would be a club; in the second story they would sober up drunks and hand them currency for their back debts; the third deck would house an educational project - quite noncontroversial, of course. In imagination the gleaming center was to go up several stories more, but three would do for a start. This would all take a lot of money - other people's money. Believe it or not, wealthy townsfolk bought the idea. There were, though, a few conservative dissenters among the alcoholics. They wrote the Foundation * , A.A.'s headquarters in New York, wanting to know about this sort of streamlining. They understood that the elders, just to nail things down good, were about to apply to the Foundation for a charter. These few were disturbed and skeptical. Of course, there was a promoter in the deal - a super-promoter. By his eloquence he allayed all fears, despite advice from the Foundation that it could issue no charter, and that ventures which mixed an A.A. group with medication and education had come to sticky ends elsewhere. To make things safer, the promoter organized three corporations and became president of them all. Freshly painted, the new center shone. The warmth of it all spread through the town. Soon things began to hum. To insure foolproof, continuous operation, sixty-one rules and regulations were adopted. But alas, this bright scene was not long in darkening. Confusion replaced serenity. It was found that some drunks yearned for education, but doubted if they were alcoholics. The personality defects of others could be cured maybe with a loan. Some were club-minded, but it was just a question of taking care of the lonely heart. Sometimes the swarming applicants would go for all three floors. Some would start at the top and come through to the bottom, becoming club members; others started in the club, pitched a binge, were hospitalized, then graduated to education on the third floor. It was a beehive of activity, all right, but unlike a beehive, it was confusion compounded. An A.A. group, as such, simply couldn't handle this sort of project. All too late that was discovered. Then came the inevitable explosion - something like that day the boiler burst in Wombley's Clapboard Factory. A chill chokedamp of fear and frustration fell over the group. When that lifted, a wonderful thing had happened. The head promoter wrote the Foundation office. He said he wished he'd paid some attention to A.A. experience. Then he did something else that was to become an A.A. classic. It all went on a little card about golf-score size. The cover read: "Middleton Group #1. Rule #62." Once the card was unfolded, a single pungent sentence leaped to the eye: "Don't take yourself too damn seriously." Thus it was that under Tradition Four an A.A. group had exercised its right to be wrong. Moreover, it had performed a great service for Alcoholics Anonymous, because it had been humbly willing to apply the lessons it learned. It had picked itself up with a laugh and gone on to better things. Even the chief architect, standing in the ruins of his dream, could laugh at himself - and that is the very acme of humility." * In 1954, the name of the Alcoholic Foundation, Inc., was changed to the General Service Board of Alcoholics Anonymous, Inc., and the Foundation office is now the General Service Office. pgs 147-149 Twelve Steps & Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Jack Frost [mailto:jfrostburien@yahoo.com] Sent: Friday, August 27, 2004 8:11 AM To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Rule 62 Anyone know in what literature are there references to Rule 62, and when it was originally used? Thanx! IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2004. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: 20 Questions From: Mel Barger . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/28/2004 8:11:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Since the 20 questions were used for years and atrributed to Johns Hopkins, it's rather embarrassing to learnh that they didn't really have backing from the Johns Hopkins Hospital. But we no longer need them. AA has 12 questions in the pamphlet "Is AA for You?" which should suffice very well. Just walk a newcomer through those 12 questions and it should be immediately clear whether there's a serious drinking problem there. Mel Barger ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger melb@accesstoledo.com ----- Original Message ----- From: Jim Blair To: AA History Lovers Sent: Friday, August 27, 2004 10:02 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] 20 Questions Here is an email posted some time ago by an archivist in Northern CA. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Juliet from our local Intergroup has come up with some interesting facts about the 20 questions. Below is a snippet from an e-mail I received from a contact from Johns Hopkins' media relations department: This is from a faculty member in our Psychiatry dept. "The Johns Hopkins Twenty Questions: Are You An Alcoholic? was developed in the 1930s by Dr. Robert Seliger, who at that time was a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. It was intended for use as a self-assessment questionnaire to determine the extent of one's alcohol use. It was not intended to be used by professionals as a screening tool to help them formulate a diagnosis of alcoholism in their patients. We do not use this questionnaire at any of the Johns Hopkins substance abuse treatment programs. To the best of my knowledge, there have never been any reliable or validated studies conducted using the Hopkins Twenty Questions. I advise you to consider using other instruments such as the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test or the CAGE -- both of which have proven reliability and validity as reported in the scientific literature." So, the questions should be attributed to Dr.Robert Seliger of Johns Hopkins (in the 1930s), not to Johns Hopkins itself as they no longer advocate their use. I note as well that the e-mail I sent to you all earlier from the Literature Desk at GSO stated that the hospital had requested that GSO not attribute those questions to their institution in the pamphlet "Memo to an Inmate Who May Be an Alcoholic." If you know anyone who would like permission to reprint this piece, I have a contact at Johns Hopkins to whom I can refer them. I have been in contact with the faculty member who knew the history of this document and who recommended that we not use it. She was very adamant about it--in a second e-mail to me, she said that she'd grant permission to any AA group who wanted to use it, but that she really recommended that we don't. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This message was scanned by GatewayDefender [4] 9:55:16 AM ET - 8/28/2004 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2005. . . . . . . . . . . . 1940 AA/mexicanMemberCleveland From: Gilbert Gamboa . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/29/2004 9:04:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII This question is for anyone who can direct me in the direction of info on Dick P the mexican AA member who joined in 1940 in Cleveland I believe..Mel B you might recall all this,but I believe him to be the key figure in the translation of the Big Book into spanish words???..all info on this would be greatly appreciated,and although the hard work has been done in translating this book to spanish,there is yet a harder piece Ive encountered and that is to pronounce the words correctly and put an exact definition to the meaning in spanish.... seek,Trust,and serve Gilbert G.-Dallas,TX. Mel Barger wrote: Since the 20 questions were used for years and atrributed to Johns Hopkins, it's rather embarrassing to learnh that they didn't really have backing from the Johns Hopkins Hospital. But we no longer need them. AA has 12 questions in the pamphlet "Is AA for You?" which should suffice very well. Just walk a newcomer through those 12 questions and it should be immediately clear whether there's a serious drinking problem there. Mel Barger ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger melb@accesstoledo.com ----- Original Message ----- From: Jim Blair To: AA History Lovers Sent: Friday, August 27, 2004 10:02 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] 20 Questions Here is an email posted some time ago by an archivist in Northern CA. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ Juliet from our local Intergroup has come up with some interesting facts about the 20 questions. Below is a snippet from an e-mail I received from a contact from Johns Hopkins' media relations department: This is from a faculty member in our Psychiatry dept. "The Johns Hopkins Twenty Questions: Are You An Alcoholic? was developed in the 1930s by Dr. Robert Seliger, who at that time was a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. It was intended for use as a self-assessment questionnaire to determine the extent of one's alcohol use. It was not intended to be used by professionals as a screening tool to help them formulate a diagnosis of alcoholism in their patients. We do not use this questionnaire at any of the Johns Hopkins substance abuse treatment programs. To the best of my knowledge, there have never been any reliable or validated studies conducted using the Hopkins Twenty Questions. I advise you to consider using other instruments such as the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test or the CAGE -- both of which have proven reliability and validity as reported in the scientific literature." So, the questions should be attributed to Dr.Robert Seliger of Johns Hopkins (in the 1930s), not to Johns Hopkins itself as they no longer advocate their use. I note as well that the e-mail I sent to you all earlier from the Literature Desk at GSO stated that the hospital had requested that GSO not attribute those questions to their institution in the pamphlet "Memo to an Inmate Who May Be an Alcoholic." If you know anyone who would like permission to reprint this piece, I have a contact at Johns Hopkins to whom I can refer them. I have been in contact with the faculty member who knew the history of this document and who recommended that we not use it. She was very adamant about it--in a second e-mail to me, she said that she'd grant permission to any AA group who wanted to use it, but that she really recommended that we don't. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This message was scanned by GatewayDefender [108] 9:55:16 AM ET - 8/28/2004 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Do you Yahoo!? Win 1 of 4,000 free domain names from Yahoo! Enter now [106] . IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2006. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: 1940 AA/mexicanMemberCleveland From: Mel Barger . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/30/2004 1:16:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Gilbert, I called the Cleveland Central Office re your request. The gentleman was Dick Perez and he and his wife both translated materials into Spanish. Dick passed away in 1988, about seven years after retiring from the Central Office. His wife is also deceased. My source for this information is Elvira A., who has worked at the central office in Cleveland for 28 years. She is getting together information about Dick. You may call her at (216) 241-7387. I do recall talking by phone with Dick in 1980, a short time before he retired. I was trying to interview Cleveland oldtimers for "Pass It On," and he gave me some leads. Mel Barger ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger melb@accesstoledo.com ----- Original Message ----- From: Gilbert Gamboa To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, August 29, 2004 10:04 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] 1940 AA/mexicanMemberCleveland This question is for anyone who can direct me in the direction of info on Dick P the mexican AA member who joined in 1940 in Cleveland I believe..Mel B you might recall all this,but I believe him to be the key figure in the translation of the Big Book into spanish words???..all info on this would be greatly appreciated,and although the hard work has been done in translating this book to spanish,there is yet a harder piece Ive encountered and that is to pronounce the words correctly and put an exact definition to the meaning in spanish.... seek,Trust,and serve Gilbert G.-Dallas,TX. Mel Barger wrote: Since the 20 questions were used for years and atrributed to Johns Hopkins, it's rather embarrassing to learnh that they didn't really have backing from the Johns Hopkins Hospital. But we no longer need them. AA has 12 questions in the pamphlet "Is AA for You?" which should suffice very well. Just walk a newcomer through those 12 questions and it should be immediately clear whether there's a serious drinking problem there. Mel Barger ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger melb@accesstoledo.com ----- Original Message ----- From: Jim Blair To: AA History Lovers Sent: Friday, August 27, 2004 10:02 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] 20 Questions Here is an email posted some time ago by an archivist in Northern CA. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- Juliet from our local Intergroup has come up with some interesting facts about the 20 questions. Below is a snippet from an e-mail I received from a contact from Johns Hopkins' media relations department: This is from a faculty member in our Psychiatry dept. "The Johns Hopkins Twenty Questions: Are You An Alcoholic? was developed in the 1930s by Dr. Robert Seliger, who at that time was a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. It was intended for use as a self-assessment questionnaire to determine the extent of one's alcohol use. It was not intended to be used by professionals as a screening tool to help them formulate a diagnosis of alcoholism in their patients. We do not use this questionnaire at any of the Johns Hopkins substance abuse treatment programs. To the best of my knowledge, there have never been any reliable or validated studies conducted using the Hopkins Twenty Questions. I advise you to consider using other instruments such as the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test or the CAGE -- both of which have proven reliability and validity as reported in the scientific literature." So, the questions should be attributed to Dr.Robert Seliger of Johns Hopkins (in the 1930s), not to Johns Hopkins itself as they no longer advocate their use. I note as well that the e-mail I sent to you all earlier from the Literature Desk at GSO stated that the hospital had requested that GSO not attribute those questions to their institution in the pamphlet "Memo to an Inmate Who May Be an Alcoholic." If you know anyone who would like permission to reprint this piece, I have a contact at Johns Hopkins to whom I can refer them. I have been in contact with the faculty member who knew the history of this document and who recommended that we not use it. She was very adamant about it--in a second e-mail to me, she said that she'd grant permission to any AA group who wanted to use it, but that she really recommended that we don't. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This message was scanned by GatewayDefender [108] 9:55:16 AM ET - 8/28/2004 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Do you Yahoo!? Win 1 of 4,000 free domain names from Yahoo! Enter now [106] . ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This message was scanned by GatewayDefender [4] 9:32:02 AM ET - 8/30/2004 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2007. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: 1940 AA/mexicanMemberCleveland From: Bob McK . . . . . . . . . . . . 8/31/2004 6:24:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;">The March 1946 Cleveland _Central Bulletin _had this article on pg. 4: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;">THE BOOK IS TRANSLATED 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;"> Ricardo P. of the Mexican Consullate[sic] in Cleveland, and 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;">tremendously impressed with the work of AA, has trans- 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;">lated the entire AA book in the Spanish language, and it 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;">will soon be printed in Mexico for the benefit of its people. 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;">Ric is to be commended for this fine demonstration of 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;">The 12th step. 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy;"> ----- *From:* Mel Barger [mailto:melb@accesstoledo.com] *Sent:* Monday, August 30, 2004 2:16 PM *To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Subject:* Re: [AAHistoryLovers] 1940 AA/mexicanMemberCleveland 12.0pt;"> Hi Gilbert, I called the Cleveland Central Office re your request. The gentleman was Dick Perez and he and his wife both translated materials into Spanish. Dick passed away in 1988, about seven years after retiring from the Central Office. His wife is also deceased. My source for this information is Elvira A., who has worked at the central office in Cleveland for 28 years. She is getting together information about Dick. You may call her at (216) 241-7387. I do recall talking by phone with Dick in 1980, a short time before he retired. I was trying to interview Cleveland oldtimers for "Pass It On," and he gave me some leads. Mel Barger ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger 13.5pt;">melb@accesstoledo.com ----- Original Message ----- *From:* Gilbert Gamboa *To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Sent:* Sunday, August 29, 2004 10:04 PM *Subject:* [AAHistoryLovers] 1940 AA/mexicanMemberCleveland 12.0pt;"> 12.0pt;">This question is for anyone who can direct me in the direction of info on Dick P the 12.0pt;">mexican AA member who joined in 1940 in Cleveland I believe..Mel B you might 12.0pt;">recall all this,but I believe him to be the key figure in the translation of the Big Book into spanish words???..all info on this would be greatly appreciated,and although the hard work has been done in translating this book to spanish,there is yet a harder piece Ive encountered and that is to pronounce the words correctly and put an exact definition to the meaning in spanish.... 12.0pt;"> seek,Trust,and serve 12.0pt;"> Gilbert G.-Dallas,TX. 12.0pt;"> _Mel Barger _ wrote: Since the 20 questions were used for years and atrributed to Johns Hopkins, it's rather embarrassing to learnh that they didn't really have backing from the Johns Hopkins Hospital. But we no longer need them. AA has 12 questions in the pamphlet "Is AA for You?" which should suffice very well. Just walk a newcomer through those 12 questions and it should be immediately clear whether there's a serious drinking problem there. Mel Barger ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger 13.5pt;">melb@accesstoledo.com ----- Original Message ----- *From:* Jim Blair *To:* AA History Lovers *Sent:* Friday, August 27, 2004 10:02 AM *Subject:* [AAHistoryLovers] 20 Questions 12.0pt;"> Here is an email posted some time ago by an archivist in Northern CA. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -------- 12.0pt;"> Juliet from our local Intergroup has come up with some interesting facts about the 20 questions. Below is a snippet from an e-mail I received from a contact from Johns Hopkins' media relations department: This is from a faculty member in our Psychiatry dept. "The Johns Hopkins Twenty Questions: Are You An Alcoholic? was developed in the 1930s by Dr. Robert Seliger, who at that time was a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. It was intended for use as a self-assessment questionnaire to determine the extent of one's alcohol use. It was not intended to be used by professionals as a screening tool to help them formulate a diagnosis of alcoholism in their patients. We do not use this questionnaire at any of the Johns Hopkins substance abuse treatment programs. To the best of my knowledge, there have never been any reliable or validated studies conducted using the Hopkins Twenty Questions. I advise you to consider using other instruments such as the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test or the CAGE -- both of which have proven reliability and validity as reported in the scientific literature." So, the questions should be attributed to Dr.Robert Seliger of Johns Hopkins (in the 1930s), not to Johns Hopkins itself as they no longer advocate their use. I note as well that the e-mail I sent to you all earlier from the Literature Desk at GSO stated that the hospital had requested that GSO not attribute those questions to their institution in the pamphlet "Memo to an Inmate Who May Be an Alcoholic." If you know anyone who would like permission to reprint this piece, I have a contact at Johns Hopkins to whom I can refer them. I have been in contact with the faculty member who knew the history of this document and who recommended that we not use it. She was very adamant about it--in a second e-mail to me, she said that she'd grant permission to any AA group who wanted to use it, but that she really recommended that we don't. 12.0pt;"> ------------------------ This message was scanned by GatewayDefender [108] 9:55:16 AM ET - 8/28/2004 12.0pt;"> ----- 12.0pt;">Do you Yahoo!? Win 1 of 4,000 free domain names from Yahoo! Enter now [109] . ------------------------ This message was scanned by GatewayDefender [4] 9:32:02 AM ET - 8/30/2004 12.0pt;"> IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2008. . . . . . . . . . . . How It Works. From: WCompWdsUnl@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/2/2004 2:30:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Would anyone who has any information on the sequence of events that led to the changing of the manuscript for How It Works, provide this information. I am interested in knowing what sources of AA History, besides AA Comes of Age provide information as to the actual events that led to the "flying back and forth between New York and Akron consultation during the book writing process" and decisions to revise the original submission by Bill Wilson. Why was the edited version approved by the first 100, instead of the original submission? I am mainly concerned with what the reasons were for the consultation and editing? Why was the original submission edited during consultation? Sincerely Larry W. Atlanta, Georgia IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2009. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: How It Works. From: Arthur . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/2/2004 10:41:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Larry The progressive development of the Big Book is mapped out in a number of historical writings. The book 'Not God'' is a valuable companion reading to AA Comes of Age. However, when it comes to outlining many of the underlying reasons 'why'' the Big Book developed as it did, AA Comes of Age is hard to beat in answering those questions. Below is a timeline sequence extracted from the reference sources noted. I'll also send you a separate e-mail that contains a transcript of a 1954 talk in Fort Worth, TX by Bill W on how the Big Book was developed. Cheers Arthur *Reference Sources:* AACOA _AA Comes of Age_, AAWS AGAA _The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous_, by Dick B (soft cover) BW-RT _Bill W_ by Robert Thompson (soft cover) BW-FH _Bill W_ by Francis Hartigan (hard cover) DBGO _Dr Bob and the Good Old-timers_, AAWS GB _Getting Better Inside Alcoholics Anonymous_ by Nan Robertson (soft cover) GTBT _Grateful to Have Been There_by Nell Wing (soft cover) LOH _The Language of the Heart_, AA Grapevine Inc LR _Lois Remembers_, by Lois Wilson NG _Not God_, by Ernest Kurtz (expanded edition, soft cover) PIO _Pass It On_, AAWS SM _AA Service Manual and Twelve Concepts for World Service__,_ AAWS SW _Silkworth - the Little Doctor Who Loved Drunks_, by Dale Mitchell (hard cover) WPR _Women Pioneers in 12 Step Recovery_, by Charlotte Hunter, Billye Jones and Joan Ziegler (soft cover) www *Internet Sources* (e.g. Google, Microsoft Encarta, US National Archives & Records Administration NARA) *1937* Nov, Bill W and Dr Bob met in Akron and compared notes. 40 cases were sober (more than 20 for over a year). All once diagnosed as hopeless. In a meeting at T Henry Williams' home, Bill's ideas, for a book, hospitals and how to expand the movement with paid missionaries, narrowly passed by 2 votes among 18 members. The NY group was more enthusiastic. (AACOA vii, 76-77, 144-146, BW-RT 239-243, DBGO 123-124, NG 56-57, PIO 180, LOH 142) *1938* May 20, (PIO 193 and AACOA 153 say Mar/Apr) beginning of the writing of the Big Book at Hank P's office (Honors Dealers, 17 William St in Newark, NJ). Bill W wrote, edited and rewrote manuscripts at home on legal pads then dictated chapters to Ruth Hock (nicknamed 'Dutch'' - short for 'Duchess''). Most of the early hand-written Big Book manuscript documents were lost during a later move from Newark to NYC. (AACOA vii, 159, BW-RT 248-250, LR 197, BW-FH 115, PIO 193, 235, GB 55, LOH 106-107, WPR 79) Jun, Bill W wrote to Dr Bob 'By the way, you might all be thinking up a good title. Nearly everyone agrees that we should sign the volume _Alcoholics Anonymous_. Titles such as _Haven, One Hundred Men, Comes the Dawn_, etc. have been suggested.'' (NG 74-75, 333) Jun 15, Lois' recollection of the first use of the term _ italic;">Alcoholics Anonymous_. (LR 197) Jul 18, Dr Esther L Richards (of Johns Hopkins) stated in a letter that Bill W, at that time, was using the name _Alcoholics Anonymous_ both as the working title of the book and as the name of the Fellowship. (PIO 202) Jul 27, Dr William Duncan Silkworth wrote a letter of support for AA for use in fundraising for the book. The letter was incorporated into the chapter _The Doctor's Opinion_. (SW center-fold photo exhibits, AACOA 168) Dr Esther L Richards of Baltimore had suggested to Bill W to get a 'Number one physician'' in the alcoholism field to write an introduction. (NG 332) Sep, Board Trustee Frank Amos arranged a meeting between Bill W and Eugene Exman (Religious Editor of Harper Brothers publishers). Exman offered Bill a $1,500 advance ($19,400 today) on the rights to the book. The Alcoholic Foundation Board urged acceptance of the offer. Instead, Hank P and Bill formed Works Publishing Co. and sold stock at $25 par value ($325 today). 600 shares were issued: Hank and Bill received 200 shares each, 200 shares were sold to others. Later, 30 shares of preferred stock, at $100 par value ($1,300 today) were sold as well. To mollify the board, it was decided that the author's royalty (which would ordinarily be Bill's) could go to the Alcoholic Foundation. (LR 197, BW-FH 116-119, SM S6, PIO 193-195, AACOA 157, 188) Encouraged by Dr Silkworth, Charles Towns loaned Hank and Bill $2,500 for the book. It was later increased to $4,000. ($52,000 today). (PIO 196, SM S7, LOH 176, AACOA 13-14, 153-159) Oct, Bill W's recollection of the first use of the term _ italic;">Alcoholics Anonymous_. (AACOA 165, PIO 202) Dec, the Twelve Steps were written at 182 Clinton St (in about 30 minutes). Much argument (sometimes heated) ensued over their wording. (LOH 200, AACOA vii, 160-163, BW-RT 253, PIO 197-199, GB 55-57, AGAA 260) *1939* Jan, The draft book text and personal stories were completed. (AACOA 164, BW-RT 255) Jan, 400 multilith copies of the book were distributed for evaluation. Each copy was stamped 'Loan Copy'' to protect the coming copyright. (AACOA 165, LR 197, NG 74, 319, PIO 200) NY member Jim B (_Vicious Cycle_) suggested the phrases '_God as we understand Him''_ and '_Power greater than ourselves_'' be added to the Steps and basic text. Bill W later wrote 'Those expressions, as we so well know today, have proved lifesavers for many an alcoholic.'' (LOH 201) Note: Jim B later moved to Philadelphia, PA in Feb 1940 and started AA there. He also helped start AA in Baltimore, MD. (AACOA 17, BW-FH 140, GTBT 137, WPR 81) Feb/Mar (?), The distributed multilith copies were returned, but reader's comments produced few alterations in the final text. A major change did occur at the suggestion of a Montclair, NJ psychiatrist, Dr Howard, who recommended toning down the use of 'musts'' and changing them to 'we ought'' or 'we should.'' Dr Silkworth and Dr Tiebout offered similar advice. (AACOA 167-168 NG 67-77) Mar (?), The much changed book manuscript was turned over to Tom Uzzell. He was a friend of Hank P, an editor at _Collier's_ and a member of the NYU faculty. The manuscript was variously estimated as 600 to 1,200 pages (including personal stories). Uzzell reduced it to approximately 400 pages. Most cuts came from the personal stories, which had also been edited by Jim S (_The News Hawk_)a journalist from Akron, OH. (AACOA 164, BW-FH 126, PIO 203) Mar, (?), Bill W, Hank P, Ruth Hock and Dorothy S (wife of Cleveland pioneer Clarence S) drove to Cornwall, NY and presented a much altered manuscript to the printing plant of Cornwall Press. When the plant manager saw the condition of the manuscript, he almost sent them back to type a clean copy. Hank P persuaded the manager to accept the manuscript on condition that the group would examine and correct galley proofs as they came off the press. The group checked in to a local hotel and spent the next several days proofreading galleys. (AACOA 170-171, WPR 81-82) Apr, 4,730 copies of the first Ed. of _Alcoholics Anonymous_ were published at a selling price of $3.50 ($46 today). The printer, Edward Blackwell of Cornwall Press, was told to use the thickest paper in his shop. The large, bulky volume became known as the 'Big Book.'' The idea was to convince the alcoholic he was getting his money's worth. (AACOA viii, 170, NG 76, PIO 204-205, GB 59) Ray (_An Artist's Concept_) designed the 'circus color'' dust jacket. The book had 8 roman and 400 Arabic numbered pages. _The Doctor's Opinion_ started as page 1 and the basic text ended at page 174. The manuscript story of an Akron member, _ italic;">Ace Full - Seven - Eleven,_ was dropped (reputedly, because he was not too pleased with changes made to the first drafts of the Steps and text). 29 stories were included (10 from the east coast, 18 from the mid-west and 1 from the west coast - which was ghost written by Ruth Hock and later removed from the book) (www) ----- *From:* WCompWdsUnl@aol.com [mailto:WCompWdsUnl@aol.com] *Sent:* Thursday, September 02, 2004 6:31 AM *To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Subject:* [AAHistoryLovers] How It Works. 12.0pt;"> 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black;">Would anyone who has any information on the *sequence of events* that led to the changing of the manuscript for How It Works, provide this information. I am interested in knowing what sources of AA History, besides *AA Comes of Age** *provide information as to the actual events that led to the "flying back and forth between New York and Akron consultation during the book writing process" and decisions to revise the original submission by Bill Wilson. Why was the edited version approved by the first 100, instead of the original submission? I am mainly concerned with what the reasons were for the consultation and editing? Why was the original submission edited during consultation? Sincerely Larry W. Atlanta, Georgia 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:black;"> IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2010. . . . . . . . . . . . Steps done quickly? From: Robert Stonebraker . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/7/2004 3:08:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Arial;">Dear History Lovers, Arial;"> Arial;">There is an example of the "Six Step Process" being completed in "three or four hours" in Earl Treat's Story "He sold Himself Short." Arial;">(p.292 - 3rd edition of the Big Book). I believe this event took place in the summer of 1937. My question is this: Is there documentation of the Step process being done that quickly in later years after we had 12 Steps? I am referring mostly to the years of the early 1940s. Arial;"> Arial;">Thank you for documented response. Arial;"> Arial;">Bob S., from Indiana IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2011. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Steps done quickly? From: recoveredbygrace . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/9/2004 4:12:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Bob,One example I know of is Clarence S.`s story,Home Brewmiester. If you can get a tape of his talk,he describes the process Dr. Bob took him thru and how he did it untill he passed away. Another example is to research the " Little Red Book`s " history and you will see it came from beginners meetings from the 1940`s.The beginners were put thru 4 one hour classes where they took the 12 steps ,if at all possible.Some people took a little longer.After completing the classes and steps,they were invited to a official AA meeting. Hope this helps,Tom --- In AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com, "Robert Stonebraker" wrote: > Dear History Lovers, > > There is an example of the "Six Step Process" being completed in "three or > four hours" in Earl Treat's Story "He sold Himself Short." > (p.292 - 3rd edition of the Big Book). I believe this event took place in > the summer of 1937. My question is this: Is there documentation of the > Step process being done that quickly in later years after we had 12 Steps? > I am referring mostly to the years of the early 1940s. > > Thank you for documented response. > > Bob S., from Indiana IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2012. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Re: Steps done quickly? and history of the little red book From: big book lover . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/10/2004 6:21:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The Little Red Book comes out of Nicolette group and was published two years prior to the book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions. It was edited by Dr. Bob. Further documentation of the Little Red Book is in a discontinued published book by the same author called Our Devilish Alcoholic Personalities. I have a Xeroxed copy of that book. There are letters from Bill Wilson regarding the Little Red Book and his opinion on it. There are pictures of the primary author in Dr. Bob and the Good Old Timers. The Little Red Book was originally published by ? Merriam Cobb in Minneapolis in 1948. Hope this is of assistance. Stephanie Burgess Caledonia, Michigan -----Original Message----- From: recoveredbygrace [mailto:recoveredbygrace@yahoo.com] Sent: Thursday, September 09, 2004 5:12 PM To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Re: Steps done quickly? Bob,One example I know of is Clarence S.`s story,Home Brewmiester. If you can get a tape of his talk,he describes the process Dr. Bob took him thru and how he did it untill he passed away. Another example is to research the " Little Red Book`s " history and you will see it came from beginners meetings from the 1940`s.The beginners were put thru 4 one hour classes where they took the 12 steps ,if at all possible.Some people took a little longer.After completing the classes and steps,they were invited to a official AA meeting. Hope this helps,Tom --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.759 / Virus Database: 508 - Release Date: 9/9/2004 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2013. . . . . . . . . . . . Sister Ignatia and St. Thomas Hospital, Akron From: caseyosh . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/17/2004 8:39:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Dear History Lovers, Some time in the past I saw, in an unremembered text, a picture of a medallion or article that Sister Ignatia is reported as having given to alcoholics who passed through St. Thomas Hospital, Akron, during her activities thereat. I'd appreciate any information you could provide that would reconnect me with the source of that picture and the text wherein it is contained. Thanks much, Casey (7/19/75) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2014. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Sister Ignatia and St. Thomas Hospital, Akron From: James Bliss . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/18/2004 11:03:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I am not certain this is what you are looking for, but there is a picture of Sister Ignatia on page 186 of _DR. Bob and the Good Oldtimers_ and on page 195 it states: 'Sister Ignatia gave each of her newly released patients a Sacred Heart medallion, which she asked them to return before they took the first drink. She would occasionally give out St. Christopher medals as well, but she would tell the recipient not to drive too fast. "He gets out after 50 miles an hour," she warned' Hope that helps. Jim On Friday 17 September 2004 8:39 am, caseyosh wrote: > Dear History Lovers, > Some time in the past I saw, in an unremembered text, a picture > of a medallion or article that Sister Ignatia is reported as having > given to alcoholics who passed through St. Thomas Hospital, Akron, > during her activities thereat. > I'd appreciate any information you could provide that would > reconnect me with the source of that picture and the text wherein it > is contained. > Thanks much, > Casey (7/19/75) > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2015. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Steps done quickly? From: unclebearboy@yahoo.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/19/2004 8:38:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII This is how Sister Ignatia did it: Day 1 - Admit to hospital, Detox 2 - Day of Recognition (Steps 1-3) 3 - Day of Moral Inventory 4 - Day of Resolution 5 - Plans for the future ________________________________ The article is copied here, but better to view here ==> http://www.midlandaa.org/AAhistory/care_of_alcoholics.html ________________________________ THE CARE OF ALCOHOLICS St. Thomas Hospital And A.A. Started A Movement Which Swept The Country By Sister M. Ignatia, C.S.A. St. Thomas Hospital, Akron, Ohio From the October 1951 issue of "Hospital Progress" (the official journal of the Catholic Hospital) Nearly 12 years ago, one of the co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous (Dr. Bob) was on our staff. He was a skilled proctologist, and was on our staff five years before we knew that he had a drinking problem. We would not have known it then had he not volunteered the information. Dr. Bob often discussed the problem of alcoholism with us, with regard to auto accidents and other tragedies caused by excessive drinking. Many of these cases had to be admitted to the hospital even though they were intoxicated. After talking with members of the families of these compulsive drinkers and realizing the suffering brought into the homes of these afflicted people because of drink, we became deeply interested in the plan which Dr. Bob unfolded to use. This was in 1939, just about the time we were trying to pull out of the depression. Hospital beds were at a premium, without any prospect of adding to our bed capacity. There was very little enthusiasm around the hospital about admitting who were imbibing too freely in those days. However, prompted by the grace of God, we very cautiously admitted one patient, with the diagnosis of acute gastritis, under the care of Dr. Bob. The patient was placed in a two-bed room. The next morning Dr Bob came to the admitting office and very timidly requested that the patient be moved to a spot where the men who came to visit him might talk with him privately. The only available space we could think of was a small room across the hall called the "flower room", where patients' flowers were changed and arranged. We pushed the alcoholic's bed into this room. It was there that he received his first A.A. visitors. The men who came to visit him were such respectable, dignified-appearing men that we could hardly believe they had ever been addicted to alcohol. We then set aside a two-bed room, then a four and later a six-bed room ward. Today our A.A. ward has eight beds, adjourning a corridor which serves as a lounge. The corridor opens the gallery of our chapel. Our alcoholic ward is not a great problem. It is simply a large room with accommodations in one end for eight beds. The other end of the room is a small lounge with comfortable chairs, a davenport, a "bar", a coffee urn, and an ice-box. To the rear of this ward-lounge is a room with a lavatory and shower into which the new man is brought for admission to the ward. An important point is that he is helped out of his street clothes and into hospital attire BY OTHER PATIENTS IN THE WARD. The advantage for the new patient is that, from the first, he is in the care of understanding friends. The advantage for the older patients who perform this duty is that they are thus able to see themselves again as they were upon admission. Administratively, an economy is effected by thus eliminating the need for hard-to-get employees. Directly across the hall from our ward-lounge is the choir-loft of our chapel, which permits A.A. patients to hear Mass every day if they wish and to make visits in hospital attire when they so desire - all in complete seclusion. Bearing in mind always that the alcoholic is a person who is sick spiritually as well as physically. The ready access he is thus given to the source of spiritual healing is a powerful factor in his recovery. To return to the mechanical operation of the ward, it can be stated that it is almost wholly self-operating. A nurses' aide comes in to make beds and an A.A. employee does the heavier cleaning. The cleaning of ashtrays, the making of coffee - the coffee urn is in operation 24 hours each day - the washing of coffee cups, all of this is done by the patients themselves. Usually they welcome these small opportunities to busy themselves and thus keep their minds off their problems. Activity eliminates brooding, and the volume of such work is never great at any time. The function of the lounge is to provide a place where the patient can chat with A.A. visitors and listen to informal talks. A secondary value, but a most important one to the former patient is that by visiting current A.A. patients the former patient helps to perpetuate his own sobriety. It is axiomatic that the alcoholic is never "cured"; his ailment is simply arrested but it is positively arrested if he perseveres in the program. The visitors' lounge (which is supplemented by chairs in the hallway that divides the ward from the choir-loft) helps not only to aid the current patient to sobriety but also to preserve and perpetuate the sobriety of former patients. The ice-box is kept stocked with food and particularly with milk and citrus juice, for the alcoholic is frequently an undernourished person. The patients are encouraged to eat at will. The coffee urn and bar are the A.A. equivalent for the brass rail and bottles of the drinking days. The A.A. visitors perform a multitude of chores for the current patients. Sometimes they secure a job or effect a family reconciliation or pacify a creditor pressing for payment of a bill. These and other services are done by A.A.'s for the dual purpose of showing true Christian brotherhood and as a means of perpetuating and insuring their own sobriety. HOSPITAL PROCEDURE We begin where reality begins for the alcoholic. Reality for the alcoholic is drinking. It is most important that the approach be made through another alcoholic - a sponsor. The sponsor speaks the language of the alcoholic. He knows "all the tricks of the trade", because of personal experience. Those of us who have anything to do with admitting these patients would do well to have the humility to rely upon the judgment of the sponsor. Let him decide when the patient is ready for the program. We do not accept repeaters! Sponsors know this, hence they are very careful to qualify the person before bringing him into the hospital. Above all, he must have a sincere desire to stop drinking. Wives, relatives, friends, and well-meaning employers may try to high- pressure the alcoholic into accepting the program. Someone may even persuade the family doctor to use his influence with the hospital, so that the prospect may be admitted into the alcoholic ward. The role of the sponsor is not an easy one. He leaves nothing undone to clear away all the ill felling , indignation, and resentment that have accumulated in the path of his patient. The sponsor acts as a catalytic agent in combating all adverse forces. He tries to appease an exasperated wife, talks with the employer, landlord, creditors, and others. He explains the program, tells them that this is not simply another "sobering up process". This time he is being treated not only physically but morally and mentally as well. The sponsor assures them that with God's grace, their cooperation and the help of his fellow A.A.'s, his charge will be given a real opportunity to make a complete recovery. THE PATIENT ADMITTED TO THE HOSPITAL After registration the sponsor escorts his patient to the A.A. ward. The ward is virtually self-governing. Two or three of the senior patients in the ward take over and welcome the new patient. They check his clothes and prepare him for bed. (Many of these patients are in such good condition that they sit in the lounge and join in the conversation). Nothing is left undone to make the new man feel at home. This reception inspires hope in his heart. It also gives the A.A. patients a splendid opportunity of doing twelfth-step work, namely, helping others. The alcoholic is ill, in body, mind, and soul; hence we begin with the physical care. SECOND DAY - THE DAY OF RECOGNITION The physical condition of the patient is usually much improved on the second day. His mind is beginning to clear. He feels encouraged because everyone seems interested in him. Visitors call on him, telling him "This is how I made it". Some of the visitors may be men with whom he used to drink. The power of example is a great incentive to the patient. He begins to say to himself, "If he can do it - so can I. But how am I going to make it?" At this point he generally has a "heart to heart talk" with his sponsor. He acknowledges his utter powerlessness over alcohol. He honestly admits that he has tried innumerable times to drink normally and has always failed. He is finally ready, honestly and humbly, to admit defeat. His sponsor is delighted to know that his patient is really honest about his drinking. The sponsor says, "Good! We can help you since you are humble and honest". This is the grace of God at work in the soul of the patient - to admit helplessness and to seek help outside of self. This may be the first time the patient has admitted the fact that he is powerless to help himself. The next step is humbly to turn to God: "Ask and you shall receive." Patients have often said that is the first time they sincerely prayed. The "Our Father" takes on a new meaning at this point. They feel that they really belong. THE DAY OF MORAL INVENTORY The patient makes a searching and fearless moral inventory. He faces the past and honestly admits to God, to himself, and to another human being the exact nature of his wrongs. He is finished with alibis and reservations. "I am an alcoholic, what a joy to be honest! The truth will make me free." Now he is sincerely asking God's help and the help of his fellow man. FOURTH DAY - THE DAY OF RESOLUTION "Give us this day our daily bread." This is interpreted by the alcoholics to mean, "I surely can stay sober today." This is usually followed by an act of complete surrender to God. The past is finished. "I am heartily sorry." "I'll try to make amends." This means confession, repentance and firm purpose of amendment. Many Catholics return to the Sacraments after years of negligence. Scripture says, "There is more joy in heaven over one sinner doing penance than 99 just who need not penance." He used to drink because he felt like it. He permitted his emotions to run away with him. Now, with God's help and the help of his fellow A.A.'s, with his clear thinking, he can control his feelings and emotions. Reason now governs his life. Strong convictions are given him as to why he cannot take that first drink. He has learned from his fellow alcoholics that it is more blessed to give than to receive, and that it is a privilege to help others. What a joy, too! He is kept so busy helping others that he does not have time to even think about a drink. What a transformation takes place in the lives of these men and women! FIFTH DAY - PLANS FOR THE FUTURE As he leaves the hospital he must now face him problems. The way has been paved by the sponsor. The future is in God's hands. He has learned to say, "O God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference." He is urged to guard against pride, self-pity, resentment, intolerance, and criticism; to attend meetings, to do twelfth-step work, and to visit the hospital. Before leaving the hospital the patient is given a FOLLOWING OF CHRIST by Thomas A. Kempis. During his stay in the hospital he learns the significance of the Little Sacred Heart Badge. He requests one, with a thorough understanding of conditions implied: that it must be returned before he takes the first drink. PATIENTS FROM ALL OVER THE NATION We have hospitalized well over 4,000 A.A. patients at St. Thomas Hospital. They have come to Akron from Alabama, South Carolina, Michigan, Maryland, Texas, and many other distant parts. They would not have had to travel so far if their local hospitals made it possible for them to receive the program nearer home. Time and finances prohibit many from making such a long trip. Many may be forced to accept treatment under less favorable circumstances. Our Policy is not to accept alcoholics for re- hospitalization. We've learned from experience that in institutions where the majority of the inmates are repeaters the program is defeated for the new man, because it creates an atmosphere of pessimism and discouragement. The patient often gives up in despair. It might have been quite different had he been given the proper exposure to the program in a spiritual atmosphere as provided in a local Catholic hospital. Alcoholics Anonymous is a tremendous movement. According to figures from the New York office, new members are registered at the rate of about 1,500 per month. At present there are about 112,000 active members and some 4,000 chapters scattered throughout the United States, Canada, Latin America, and 36 other countries. A priest once told me that the AA program is the most fruitful source of conversions. It is perhaps the best means by which the work of the hospital can be interpreted to the community. It gives the hospital a good name not only with the reformed drunkard, his family, friends and neighbors; but the whole community can point to something constructive which the hospital has done. These people are seeking truth, in other words, they are thirsting for God. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON ALCOHOLICS CARE IN ST. THOMAS HOSPITAL QUESTION: Does admission of inebriated patients cause interference with hospital routine? ANSWER: While patients are admitted under the influence of alcohol, they must be clear enough to acknowledge the fact that alcohol has become a problem in their lives which they cannot solve without help. Patients may be noisy for a short time but they usually respond to treatment and therapy; A.A. patients are frequently less disturbing than the average patient admitted to the hospital. QUESTION: How is medical and nursing service provided for the patient? ANSWER: Patients are taken care of by one of the staff men who formerly worked with Doctor Bob and took over during the doctor's illness. He continued the work after Doctor Bob died. The ward is so located that the general duty nurse on the floor takes care of patients and carries out the doctor's orders. The nurses' aide stays about an hour each morning making beds. A member of A.A. is employed in the ward eight hours a day, where his services are invaluable. QUESTION: How is psychiatric care provided for these patients? ANSWER: If a patient requires the services of a psychiatrist the family and sponsor are notified and are asked to call a psychiatrist of their own choice or one on the hospital staff. The patient is moved from the A.A. ward and placed according to the advice of the psychiatrist. QUESTION: What are the charges to the patient for hospitalization? ANSWER: The approximate charge for a period of five days is $75. All hospital plans accept A.A.'s since we admit them but once for treatment. QUESTION: What does the medical treatment consist of? ANSWER: There is no absolute routine treatment. Each patient is evaluated according to his needs. An attempt is made to obtain from the family or sponsor a medical and personal history concerning the patient. Ideally, it is best for a patient to be admitted after abstinence from alcohol for several days so that he may be given five days of the A.A. program. Most of the time it is necessary to give some medical treatment so that the patient may regain all his faculties and be responsive to the A.A. treatment. The following methods, here briefly summarized, have been used and have been found successful, almost routinely: 1. Spirits of frumenti two ounces; Chloral Hydrate two drams - every four hours for 24 hours if necessary. A definite attempt is made to withdraw alcohol completely within 48 hours. 2. Fluids - intravenously. 3. Vitamin B complex - 2 cc daily. 4. Sedation: Sodium Luminol grains two may be given every six hours the first day and sometimes on the second day. It is given hypo- dermically so that the patient does not know that he is receiving a barbiturate. N.B. Barbiturates Are Dangerous to the Alcoholic. A. HMC No. 1 - We have used HMC several times when the patient becomes quite unruly and craves alcohol constantly. Usually one administration is sufficient. 5. Tolserol: Tolserol is used mostly when there are severe nervous symptoms and the patient complains of inward tension following adequate fluid intake, abstinence from alcohol and adequate diet. 6. Adrenal Cordex: We have had some degree of success with adrenal cortex. We have used the lipotropic cortex - 1 cc every eight hours - first and second day; once daily thereafter during the hospital stay, Cortalex in tablet form may be used after leaving the hospital - two tablets three times daily. The patients state that they have a sense of well-being, following administration of the above, but the cost prohibits routine use when the patient responds to other forms of treatment. --- In AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com, "Robert Stonebraker" wrote: > Dear History Lovers, > > There is an example of the "Six Step Process" being completed in "three or > four hours" in Earl Treat's Story "He sold Himself Short." > (p.292 - 3rd edition of the Big Book). I believe this event took place in > the summer of 1937. My question is this: Is there documentation of the > Step process being done that quickly in later years after we had 12 Steps? > I am referring mostly to the years of the early 1940s. > > Thank you for documented response. > > Bob S., from Indiana IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2016. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Steps done quickly? WHAT''S THE HURRY? lol! From: unclebearboy@yahoo.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/19/2004 8:37:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII This is how Sister Ignatia did it: Day 1 - Admit to hospital, Detox 2 - Day of Recognition (Steps 1-3) 3 - Day of Moral Inventory 4 - Day of Resolution 5 - Plans for the future ________________________________ The article is copied here, but better to view here ==> http://www.midlandaa.org/AAhistory/care_of_alcoholics.html ________________________________ THE CARE OF ALCOHOLICS St. Thomas Hospital And A.A. Started A Movement Which Swept The Country By Sister M. Ignatia, C.S.A. St. Thomas Hospital, Akron, Ohio From the October 1951 issue of "Hospital Progress" (the official journal of the Catholic Hospital) Nearly 12 years ago, one of the co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous (Dr. Bob) was on our staff. He was a skilled proctologist, and was on our staff five years before we knew that he had a drinking problem. We would not have known it then had he not volunteered the information. Dr. Bob often discussed the problem of alcoholism with us, with regard to auto accidents and other tragedies caused by excessive drinking. Many of these cases had to be admitted to the hospital even though they were intoxicated. After talking with members of the families of these compulsive drinkers and realizing the suffering brought into the homes of these afflicted people because of drink, we became deeply interested in the plan which Dr. Bob unfolded to use. This was in 1939, just about the time we were trying to pull out of the depression. Hospital beds were at a premium, without any prospect of adding to our bed capacity. There was very little enthusiasm around the hospital about admitting who were imbibing too freely in those days. However, prompted by the grace of God, we very cautiously admitted one patient, with the diagnosis of acute gastritis, under the care of Dr. Bob. The patient was placed in a two-bed room. The next morning Dr Bob came to the admitting office and very timidly requested that the patient be moved to a spot where the men who came to visit him might talk with him privately. The only available space we could think of was a small room across the hall called the "flower room", where patients' flowers were changed and arranged. We pushed the alcoholic's bed into this room. It was there that he received his first A.A. visitors. The men who came to visit him were such respectable, dignified-appearing men that we could hardly believe they had ever been addicted to alcohol. We then set aside a two-bed room, then a four and later a six-bed room ward. Today our A.A. ward has eight beds, adjourning a corridor which serves as a lounge. The corridor opens the gallery of our chapel. Our alcoholic ward is not a great problem. It is simply a large room with accommodations in one end for eight beds. The other end of the room is a small lounge with comfortable chairs, a davenport, a "bar", a coffee urn, and an ice-box. To the rear of this ward-lounge is a room with a lavatory and shower into which the new man is brought for admission to the ward. An important point is that he is helped out of his street clothes and into hospital attire BY OTHER PATIENTS IN THE WARD. The advantage for the new patient is that, from the first, he is in the care of understanding friends. The advantage for the older patients who perform this duty is that they are thus able to see themselves again as they were upon admission. Administratively, an economy is effected by thus eliminating the need for hard-to-get employees. Directly across the hall from our ward-lounge is the choir-loft of our chapel, which permits A.A. patients to hear Mass every day if they wish and to make visits in hospital attire when they so desire - all in complete seclusion. Bearing in mind always that the alcoholic is a person who is sick spiritually as well as physically. The ready access he is thus given to the source of spiritual healing is a powerful factor in his recovery. To return to the mechanical operation of the ward, it can be stated that it is almost wholly self-operating. A nurses' aide comes in to make beds and an A.A. employee does the heavier cleaning. The cleaning of ashtrays, the making of coffee - the coffee urn is in operation 24 hours each day - the washing of coffee cups, all of this is done by the patients themselves. Usually they welcome these small opportunities to busy themselves and thus keep their minds off their problems. Activity eliminates brooding, and the volume of such work is never great at any time. The function of the lounge is to provide a place where the patient can chat with A.A. visitors and listen to informal talks. A secondary value, but a most important one to the former patient is that by visiting current A.A. patients the former patient helps to perpetuate his own sobriety. It is axiomatic that the alcoholic is never "cured"; his ailment is simply arrested but it is positively arrested if he perseveres in the program. The visitors' lounge (which is supplemented by chairs in the hallway that divides the ward from the choir-loft) helps not only to aid the current patient to sobriety but also to preserve and perpetuate the sobriety of former patients. The ice-box is kept stocked with food and particularly with milk and citrus juice, for the alcoholic is frequently an undernourished person. The patients are encouraged to eat at will. The coffee urn and bar are the A.A. equivalent for the brass rail and bottles of the drinking days. The A.A. visitors perform a multitude of chores for the current patients. Sometimes they secure a job or effect a family reconciliation or pacify a creditor pressing for payment of a bill. These and other services are done by A.A.'s for the dual purpose of showing true Christian brotherhood and as a means of perpetuating and insuring their own sobriety. HOSPITAL PROCEDURE We begin where reality begins for the alcoholic. Reality for the alcoholic is drinking. It is most important that the approach be made through another alcoholic - a sponsor. The sponsor speaks the language of the alcoholic. He knows "all the tricks of the trade", because of personal experience. Those of us who have anything to do with admitting these patients would do well to have the humility to rely upon the judgment of the sponsor. Let him decide when the patient is ready for the program. We do not accept repeaters! Sponsors know this, hence they are very careful to qualify the person before bringing him into the hospital. Above all, he must have a sincere desire to stop drinking. Wives, relatives, friends, and well-meaning employers may try to high- pressure the alcoholic into accepting the program. Someone may even persuade the family doctor to use his influence with the hospital, so that the prospect may be admitted into the alcoholic ward. The role of the sponsor is not an easy one. He leaves nothing undone to clear away all the ill felling , indignation, and resentment that have accumulated in the path of his patient. The sponsor acts as a catalytic agent in combating all adverse forces. He tries to appease an exasperated wife, talks with the employer, landlord, creditors, and others. He explains the program, tells them that this is not simply another "sobering up process". This time he is being treated not only physically but morally and mentally as well. The sponsor assures them that with God's grace, their cooperation and the help of his fellow A.A.'s, his charge will be given a real opportunity to make a complete recovery. THE PATIENT ADMITTED TO THE HOSPITAL After registration the sponsor escorts his patient to the A.A. ward. The ward is virtually self-governing. Two or three of the senior patients in the ward take over and welcome the new patient. They check his clothes and prepare him for bed. (Many of these patients are in such good condition that they sit in the lounge and join in the conversation). Nothing is left undone to make the new man feel at home. This reception inspires hope in his heart. It also gives the A.A. patients a splendid opportunity of doing twelfth-step work, namely, helping others. The alcoholic is ill, in body, mind, and soul; hence we begin with the physical care. SECOND DAY - THE DAY OF RECOGNITION The physical condition of the patient is usually much improved on the second day. His mind is beginning to clear. He feels encouraged because everyone seems interested in him. Visitors call on him, telling him "This is how I made it". Some of the visitors may be men with whom he used to drink. The power of example is a great incentive to the patient. He begins to say to himself, "If he can do it - so can I. But how am I going to make it?" At this point he generally has a "heart to heart talk" with his sponsor. He acknowledges his utter powerlessness over alcohol. He honestly admits that he has tried innumerable times to drink normally and has always failed. He is finally ready, honestly and humbly, to admit defeat. His sponsor is delighted to know that his patient is really honest about his drinking. The sponsor says, "Good! We can help you since you are humble and honest". This is the grace of God at work in the soul of the patient - to admit helplessness and to seek help outside of self. This may be the first time the patient has admitted the fact that he is powerless to help himself. The next step is humbly to turn to God: "Ask and you shall receive." Patients have often said that is the first time they sincerely prayed. The "Our Father" takes on a new meaning at this point. They feel that they really belong. THE DAY OF MORAL INVENTORY The patient makes a searching and fearless moral inventory. He faces the past and honestly admits to God, to himself, and to another human being the exact nature of his wrongs. He is finished with alibis and reservations. "I am an alcoholic, what a joy to be honest! The truth will make me free." Now he is sincerely asking God's help and the help of his fellow man. FOURTH DAY - THE DAY OF RESOLUTION "Give us this day our daily bread." This is interpreted by the alcoholics to mean, "I surely can stay sober today." This is usually followed by an act of complete surrender to God. The past is finished. "I am heartily sorry." "I'll try to make amends." This means confession, repentance and firm purpose of amendment. Many Catholics return to the Sacraments after years of negligence. Scripture says, "There is more joy in heaven over one sinner doing penance than 99 just who need not penance." He used to drink because he felt like it. He permitted his emotions to run away with him. Now, with God's help and the help of his fellow A.A.'s, with his clear thinking, he can control his feelings and emotions. Reason now governs his life. Strong convictions are given him as to why he cannot take that first drink. He has learned from his fellow alcoholics that it is more blessed to give than to receive, and that it is a privilege to help others. What a joy, too! He is kept so busy helping others that he does not have time to even think about a drink. What a transformation takes place in the lives of these men and women! FIFTH DAY - PLANS FOR THE FUTURE As he leaves the hospital he must now face him problems. The way has been paved by the sponsor. The future is in God's hands. He has learned to say, "O God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference." He is urged to guard against pride, self-pity, resentment, intolerance, and criticism; to attend meetings, to do twelfth-step work, and to visit the hospital. Before leaving the hospital the patient is given a FOLLOWING OF CHRIST by Thomas A. Kempis. During his stay in the hospital he learns the significance of the Little Sacred Heart Badge. He requests one, with a thorough understanding of conditions implied: that it must be returned before he takes the first drink. PATIENTS FROM ALL OVER THE NATION We have hospitalized well over 4,000 A.A. patients at St. Thomas Hospital. They have come to Akron from Alabama, South Carolina, Michigan, Maryland, Texas, and many other distant parts. They would not have had to travel so far if their local hospitals made it possible for them to receive the program nearer home. Time and finances prohibit many from making such a long trip. Many may be forced to accept treatment under less favorable circumstances. Our Policy is not to accept alcoholics for re- hospitalization. We've learned from experience that in institutions where the majority of the inmates are repeaters the program is defeated for the new man, because it creates an atmosphere of pessimism and discouragement. The patient often gives up in despair. It might have been quite different had he been given the proper exposure to the program in a spiritual atmosphere as provided in a local Catholic hospital. Alcoholics Anonymous is a tremendous movement. According to figures from the New York office, new members are registered at the rate of about 1,500 per month. At present there are about 112,000 active members and some 4,000 chapters scattered throughout the United States, Canada, Latin America, and 36 other countries. A priest once told me that the AA program is the most fruitful source of conversions. It is perhaps the best means by which the work of the hospital can be interpreted to the community. It gives the hospital a good name not only with the reformed drunkard, his family, friends and neighbors; but the whole community can point to something constructive which the hospital has done. These people are seeking truth, in other words, they are thirsting for God. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON ALCOHOLICS CARE IN ST. THOMAS HOSPITAL QUESTION: Does admission of inebriated patients cause interference with hospital routine? ANSWER: While patients are admitted under the influence of alcohol, they must be clear enough to acknowledge the fact that alcohol has become a problem in their lives which they cannot solve without help. Patients may be noisy for a short time but they usually respond to treatment and therapy; A.A. patients are frequently less disturbing than the average patient admitted to the hospital. QUESTION: How is medical and nursing service provided for the patient? ANSWER: Patients are taken care of by one of the staff men who formerly worked with Doctor Bob and took over during the doctor's illness. He continued the work after Doctor Bob died. The ward is so located that the general duty nurse on the floor takes care of patients and carries out the doctor's orders. The nurses' aide stays about an hour each morning making beds. A member of A.A. is employed in the ward eight hours a day, where his services are invaluable. QUESTION: How is psychiatric care provided for these patients? ANSWER: If a patient requires the services of a psychiatrist the family and sponsor are notified and are asked to call a psychiatrist of their own choice or one on the hospital staff. The patient is moved from the A.A. ward and placed according to the advice of the psychiatrist. QUESTION: What are the charges to the patient for hospitalization? ANSWER: The approximate charge for a period of five days is $75. All hospital plans accept A.A.'s since we admit them but once for treatment. QUESTION: What does the medical treatment consist of? ANSWER: There is no absolute routine treatment. Each patient is evaluated according to his needs. An attempt is made to obtain from the family or sponsor a medical and personal history concerning the patient. Ideally, it is best for a patient to be admitted after abstinence from alcohol for several days so that he may be given five days of the A.A. program. Most of the time it is necessary to give some medical treatment so that the patient may regain all his faculties and be responsive to the A.A. treatment. The following methods, here briefly summarized, have been used and have been found successful, almost routinely: 1. Spirits of frumenti two ounces; Chloral Hydrate two drams - every four hours for 24 hours if necessary. A definite attempt is made to withdraw alcohol completely within 48 hours. 2. Fluids - intravenously. 3. Vitamin B complex - 2 cc daily. 4. Sedation: Sodium Luminol grains two may be given every six hours the first day and sometimes on the second day. It is given hypo- dermically so that the patient does not know that he is receiving a barbiturate. N.B. Barbiturates Are Dangerous to the Alcoholic. A. HMC No. 1 - We have used HMC several times when the patient becomes quite unruly and craves alcohol constantly. Usually one administration is sufficient. 5. Tolserol: Tolserol is used mostly when there are severe nervous symptoms and the patient complains of inward tension following adequate fluid intake, abstinence from alcohol and adequate diet. 6. Adrenal Cordex: We have had some degree of success with adrenal cortex. We have used the lipotropic cortex - 1 cc every eight hours - first and second day; once daily thereafter during the hospital stay, Cortalex in tablet form may be used after leaving the hospital - two tablets three times daily. The patients state that they have a sense of well-being, following administration of the above, but the cost prohibits routine use when the patient responds to other forms of treatment. --- In AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com, "Robert Stonebraker" wrote: > Dear History Lovers, > > There is an example of the "Six Step Process" being completed in "three or > four hours" in Earl Treat's Story "He sold Himself Short." > (p.292 - 3rd edition of the Big Book). I believe this event took place in > the summer of 1937. My question is this: Is there documentation of the > Step process being done that quickly in later years after we had 12 Steps? > I am referring mostly to the years of the early 1940s. > > Thank you for documented response. > > Bob S., from Indiana IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2017. . . . . . . . . . . . Traditions match with Steps? From: unclebearboy@yahoo.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/20/2004 3:08:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Is it true that Bill put each of the Traditions in specific sequence in order to match-up with its corresponding step? For example, consider Step Two & Tradition Two: "God," "Ultimate Authority ... or Step 12 & Trad. 12: "spiritual, principles, practice." If so, did Bill speak/write about his intention? Thanks in advance! ~ bill ps: I just took over moderation of the Yahoo! AA12n12 Group. <== Click here if interested http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AA12n12/ IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2018. . . . . . . . . . . . 2nd Edition Forward From: Joanna Whitney . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/20/2004 7:49:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hello: I have been talking with archivists at GSO re: the changes made to the 2nd Edition Forward, first the typographical changes regarding the switching around of paragraphs and later the actual changes made to the wording describing the growth rate of AA and then the change back to the original printing in 1955. Can anyone shed some light on who would have made such decisions to change an historical document in this manner and why? GSO was helpful in letting me know when the changes were made and what the changes were but were very unhelpful in helping me to understand why the changes were made and by whom. Thanks, Joanna W. Saugerties, NY IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2019. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Traditions match with Steps? From: Diz Titcher . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/20/2004 9:44:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Bill had a unique way of writing and others have expressed it. The first Step, Tradition and Concept spells out the problem and the 2nd one of each gives us the solution, 3-11 we work for a spiritual event as stated in each twelfth one. Diz ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Sent: Monday, September 20, 2004 4:08 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Traditions match with Steps? > Is it true that Bill put each of the Traditions in specific sequence > in order to match-up with its corresponding step? > > For example, consider Step Two & Tradition Two: "God," "Ultimate > Authority ... or Step 12 & Trad. 12: "spiritual, principles, > practice." > > If so, did Bill speak/write about his intention? > > Thanks in advance! > ~ bill > > > ps: I just took over moderation of the href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AA12n12/"> > Yahoo! AA12n12 Group. <== Click here if interested > > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AA12n12/ > > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2020. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Traditions match with Steps? From: Arthur Sheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/21/2004 12:53:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Bill You'll find many of the basic principles that were carried into the Twelve Traditions in the foreword to the first edition Big Book. Bill later wrote a series of articles in the AA Grapevine regarding the Traditions starting with an August 1945 article titled "Modesty One Plank for Good Public Relations." In an April 1946 Grapevine article titled "Twelve Suggested Points for AA Tradition" Bill defined what would later come to be called the "long form" of the Traditions. In 1947, a pamphlet titled "AA Tradition" was distributed throughout the Fellowship and members were advised that they each could get one copy free from the NY office. Much of the material, I believe, can be found in the contemporary pamphlet titled "AA Tradition How it Developed by Bill W." Bill continued to write Grapevine articles on the Traditions (or subject matter related to the Traditions) up to November 1949 when the entire edition of the Grapevine was devoted to the Traditions for the coming 1st International Convention held in 1950 in Cleveland, OH. The November 1949 Grapevine contained the first publication of the short form of the Twelve Traditions (2 wording changes were subsequently made to version published). The Traditions were approved unanimously by attendees at the 1950 International Convention. Much of the of the Grapevine material that Bill wrote on the Traditions from 1945 to 1949 was used in the books "Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions" and "AA Comes of Age." The Grapevine Traditions essays are preserved in the book "Language of the Heart." "AA Comes of Age" gives a very nice history (straight from the original author) of how the Steps and Traditions came to be. I can find no suggestion in AA literature that Bill had any kind of strategic intention for the ordinal construction of the Steps and Traditions to somehow correspond based on content. So I believe your basic premise does not stand under scrutiny. Simple examination of the Steps and Traditions, on their face, challenges one to come up with either a formula for correspondence or some matching criteria without making a real reach into the esoteric. You may find the same words here and there but I believe context should take precedence. Your example dissolves in substance when trying to find contextual equivalency in Steps 3 through 11 and their correspondingly numbered Tradition. There is a great deal of imaginative thinking in our beloved AA Fellowship. Unfortunately it can stimulate a revisionist historical perspective on matters that really should be fairly straightforward and shaped by common sense. For example I've attended Step meetings where members would go into long, elaborate dissertations on why the term "defects of character" was used in Step 6 and the word "shortcomings" was used in Step 7 and what the presumed significant differences were in their meaning. It was very entertaining discussion but hardly factual. When Bill W was questioned on the matter of the choice of words in the two Steps he stated that he simply did not want to use the same words in succession. All too often "information" is ignored and "imagination" dominates. From my studies, the primary matching quality I can discern between the Steps and Traditions is that they both were shaped by trial and error experience as opposed to some mystical design. One set of principles was designed for recovery, the other was designed for unity. As an aside, I am NOT from the school that asserts that "the Traditions are to the group what the Steps are to the individual" if that is what is driving your search. Groups are made up of members and if the members wish to be unifiers instead of dividers they should learn and practice the Traditions. If members want to get sober and stay sober, they should learn and practice the Steps. Cheers Arthur ----- Original Message ----- From: unclebearboy@yahoo.com To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, September 20, 2004 3:08 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Traditions match with Steps? Is it true that Bill put each of the Traditions in specific sequence in order to match-up with its corresponding step? For example, consider Step Two & Tradition Two: "God," "Ultimate Authority ... or Step 12 & Trad. 12: "spiritual, principles, practice." If so, did Bill speak/write about his intention? Thanks in advance! ~ bill ps: I just took over moderation of the Yahoo! AA12n12 Group. <== Click here if interested http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AA12n12/ IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2021. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Sister Ignatia and St. Thomas Hospital, Akron From: caseyosh . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/22/2004 10:00:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII AAHistoryLovers, Re my previous post regarding Sr. Ignatia, to which James responded as below... I have rediscovered the text wherein I saw a picture of the Sacred Heart medallion that the good Sister gave to alcoholic patients at St. Thomas Hospital, Akron, when they left the facility. It is in the book "Slaying the Dragon" by William L. White, in the picture section following page 224. Happy 24's, friends... Casey O --- In AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com, James Bliss wrote: > I am not certain this is what you are looking for, but there is a picture of Sister Ignatia on page 186 of _DR. Bob and the Good Oldtimers_ and on page 195 it states: > 'Sister Ignatia gave each of her newly released patients a Sacred Heart medallion, which she asked them to return before they took the first drink. She would occasionally give out St. Christopher medals as well, but she would tell the recipient not to drive too fast. "He gets out after 50 miles an hour," she warned' Hope that helps. Jim IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2022. . . . . . . . . . . . Big Book Printed From: Tom Hickcox . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/21/2004 9:46:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I am interested in the number of Big Books in each of the printings of the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Editions. Could someone point me towards the data? Tommy in Baton Rouge IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2023. . . . . . . . . . . . James Houck Article From: Lash, William \(Bill\) . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/24/2004 6:00:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII So close yet so far. This James Houck article made the online issue of Time magazine, but not the circulation copy in magazine stores. It can be found at www.time.com: TIME BONUS SECTION OCTOBER 2004: GENERATIONS Living Recovery A man who knew the founder of A.A. has had a 70year quest to help other problem drinkers By Melissa August/Towson -From the Sep. 27, 2004 issue of TIME magazine It was on a cold day in 1934 that James Houck hit bottom. Newly wedded and living in Frederick, Md., he was getting drunk every weekend -- and sometimes even during the week -- on home brew. He had recently been in a drunken-driving accident in his employer's car, and his drinking had estranged him from his wife Betty. "We were not married a month," Houck says, "before I told her I was sorry I ever saw her." Houck had begun drinking early, at age 5, when he would sneak sips from his mother's bottle of dandelion wine, then make up the difference with water. Although he grew up in the middle of Prohibition, his drinking problem only got worse as the years passed. On Dec. 11, a friend who thought Houck needed to make some changes took him to a meeting at the local YMCA of the Oxford Group, an evangelical society founded in Britain by Frank Buchman that was prominent in the 1920s. Houck was immediately drawn to the group's teachings, which were based on four principles: honesty, purity, unselfishness and love. He was especially moved by the concept of "two-way" prayer: the group taught that if you spent quiet time every day listening to God, he would provide guidance. You were also encouraged to make restitution, to "put right what's wrong in your life," says Houck. It was at those Oxford Group meetings that Houck befriended Bill Wilson, a.k.a. Bill W., a chronic drinker who would go on to co-found Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) in 1939. Houck joined the Oxford Group and became sober on Dec. 12, one day after Wilson did. Today, at 98, Houck is the only living person to have attended Oxford Group meetings with Wilson, who died in 1971. Houck remembers Wilson well, and after a 40-year career as an electrical engineer and salesman, he has made it his mission to bring the Oxford Group's teachings to a new generation of recovering alcoholics. In the early 1970s, he started working with longshoremen on the Baltimore docks, and until recently, he traveled every six weeks or so, giving talks to members of 12-step programs, including A.A., around the country. Houck continues to provide counsel to recovering addicts who telephone from around the world. He still appears at meetings held within driving distance of his home in Towson, Md., and shares the inspirational story of his recovery and the early days of the Oxford Group with out-of-town gatherings via teleconferencing. Houck wants to restore the old methods the Oxford Group used, in particular its spiritual aspects, which he believes are stronger and more effective than the ones currently practiced in A.A. The principles of the group live on in the Back to Basics organization, which follows a 12-step program similar to that originally used by A.A. Houck has been trying to apply Back to Basics techniques in federal and state prisons and is working directly with 300 prisoners in the Henrico County Jail East, in Richmond, Va. Houck knows how much a group like this can mean to someone. After he decided on Dec. 12, 1934, that he would never drink alcohol again, he made restitution with his wife and others he had harmed. "I started telling my wife what kind of a fellow I was," he says. "I did this for three nights to get all of the garbage out. I wanted to be honest about everything in my life." He says his wife was grateful for the talk and then understood his behavior. "Now we could start our family and raise the children with the same guidelines. We had family quiet time every day. That's the way we raised the whole family." Houck lost his wife to cancer in 1988, but believes the lessons learned from the Oxford Group gave him a life he had not been sure was possible. "A marriage that wasn't supposed to last one year lasted 57 years." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2024. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Big Book Printed From: Arthur Sheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/24/2004 9:42:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Tommy I gleaned the following from the final report of the 2002 General Service Conference (pg 15). Big Book distribution 1st edition - 300,000 copies were distributed from 1939 to 1955 2nd edition - 1,150,000 copies were distributed from 1955 to 1976 3rd edition - 19,550,000 copies were distributed from 1976 to 2002 In 2002, the Conference approved publication of the 4th edition Big Book. More than 2,000,000 copies of the 4th edition have been distributed so far. The price of the 4th edition was initially set at $5.00 as a special introductory price. It returned to its regular price this year. Cheers Arthur ----- Original Message ----- From: Tom Hickcox To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 9:46 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Big Book Printed I am interested in the number of Big Books in each of the printings of the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Editions. Could someone point me towards the data? Tommy in Baton Rouge IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2025. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: James Houck Article From: johnpine@comcast.net . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/24/2004 10:09:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Has Houck ever been a member of A.A. or identified himself as a recovering alcoholic in his talks? Thanks. John Pine, Richmond, VA -------------- Original message -------------- So close yet so far. This James Houck article made the online issue of Time magazine, but not the circulation copy in magazine stores. It can be found at www.time.com: TIME BONUS SECTION OCTOBER 2004: GENERATIONS Living Recovery A man who knew the founder of A.A. has had a 70year quest to help other problem drinkers By Melissa August/Towson -From the Sep. 27, 2004 issue of TIME magazine It was on a cold day in 1934 that James Houck hit bottom. Newly wedded and living in Frederick, Md., he was getting drunk every weekend -- and sometimes even during the week -- on home brew. He had recently been in a drunken-driving accident in his employer's car, and his drinking had estranged him from his wife Betty. "We were not married a month," Houck says, "before I told her I was sorry I ever saw her." Houck had begun drinking early, at age 5, when he would sneak sips from his mother's bottle of dandelion wine, then make up the difference with water. Although he grew up in the middle of Prohibition, his drinking problem only got worse as the years passed. On Dec. 11, a friend who thought Houck needed to make some changes took him to a meeting at the local YMCA of the Oxford Group, an evangelical society founded in Britain by Frank Buchman that was prominent in the 1920s. Houck was immediately drawn to the group's teachings, which were based on four principles: honesty, purity, unselfishness and love. He was especially moved by the concept of "two-way" prayer: the group taught that if you spent quiet time every day listening to God, he would provide guidance. You were also encouraged to make restitution, to "put right what's wrong in your life," says Houck. It was at those Oxford Group meetings that Houck befriended Bill Wilson, a.k.a. Bill W., a chronic drinker who would go on to co-found Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) in 1939. Houck joined the Oxford Group and became sober on Dec. 12, one day after Wilson did. Today, at 98, Houck is the only living person to have attended Oxford Group meetings with Wilson, who died in 1971. Houck remembers Wilson well, and after a 40-year career as an electrical engineer and salesman, he has made it his mission to bring the Oxford Group's teachings to a new generation of recovering alcoholics. In the early 1970s, he started working with longshoremen on the Baltimore docks, and until recently, he traveled every six weeks or so, giving talks to members of 12-step programs, including A.A., around the country. Houck continues to provide counsel to recovering addicts who telephone from around the world. He still appears at meetings held within driving distance of his home in Towson, Md., and shares the inspirational story of his recovery and the early days of the Oxford Group with out-of-town gatherings via teleconferencing. Houck wants to restore the old methods the Oxford Group used, in particular its spiritual aspects, which he believes are stronger and more effective than the ones currently practiced in A.A. The principles of the group live on in the Back to Basics organization, which follows a 12-step program similar to that originally used by A.A. Houck has been trying to apply Back to Basics techniques in federal and state prisons and is working directly with 300 prisoners in the Henrico County Jail East, in Richmond, Va. Houck knows how much a group like this can mean to someone. After he decided on Dec. 12, 1934, that he would never drink alcohol again, he made restitution with his wife and others he had harmed. "I started telling my wife what kind of a fellow I was," he says. "I did this for three nights to get all of the garbage out. I wanted to be honest about everything in my life." He says his wife was grateful for the talk and then understood his behavior. "Now we could start our family and raise the children with the same guidelines. We had family quiet time every day. That's the way we raised the whole family." Houck lost his wife to cancer in 1988, but believes the lessons learned from the Oxford Group gave him a life he had not been sure was possible. "A marriage that wasn't supposed to last one year lasted 57 years." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2026. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Big Book Printed From: wilfried antheunis . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/25/2004 3:30:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Tommy, I should have sent this earlier, was looking for more information and someplace on my computer (or maybe on another one that crashed!) it is there - printings and number of copies printed. But this relates to the first and second edition. If I find more, I will post it. ciao wil Printing History of the First Edition ************************************* First Printing, April, 1939 Second Printing, March, 1941 Third Printing, June, 1942 Fourth Printing, March, 1943 Fifth Printing, January, 1944 Sixth Printing, June, 1944 Seventh Printing, January, 1945 Eighth Printing, February, 1945 Ninth Printing, January, 1946 Tenth Printing, August, 1946 Eleventh Printing, June 1947 Twelfth Printing, October, 1948 Thirteenth Printing, February, 1950 Fourteenth Printing, July, 1951 Alcoholics Anonymous Second Editions Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, First Printing 1955, (28,000 Printed) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Second Printing 1956, (23,000 Printed) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Third Printing 1957, (21,000 Printed) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Fourth Printing 1960, (20,000 Printed) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Fifth Printing 1962, (Quantity printed is unknown) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Sixth Printing 1963, (Quantity printed is unknown) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Seventh Printing 1965, (Quantity printed is unknown) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Eighth Printing 1966, (Quantity printed is unknown) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Ninth Printing 1967, (Quantity printed is unknown) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Tenth Printing 1969, (Quantity printed is unknown) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Eleventh Printing 1970, (Quantity printed is unknown) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Thirteenth Printing 1972, (Quantity printed is unknown) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Fourteenth Printing 1973, (Total 1973 Printings 1,000,000) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Fifteenth Printing 1973, (Total 1973 Printings 1,000,000) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Sixteenth Printing 1974 ----- Original Message ----- From: Arthur Sheehan To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 10:42 AM Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Big Book Printed Hi Tommy I gleaned the following from the final report of the 2002 General Service Conference (pg 15). Big Book distribution 1st edition - 300,000 copies were distributed from 1939 to 1955 2nd edition - 1,150,000 copies were distributed from 1955 to 1976 3rd edition - 19,550,000 copies were distributed from 1976 to 2002 In 2002, the Conference approved publication of the 4th edition Big Book. More than 2,000,000 copies of the 4th edition have been distributed so far. The price of the 4th edition was initially set at $5.00 as a special introductory price. It returned to its regular price this year. Cheers Arthur ----- Original Message ----- From: Tom Hickcox To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 9:46 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Big Book Printed I am interested in the number of Big Books in each of the printings of the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Editions. Could someone point me towards the data? Tommy in Baton Rouge IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2027. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: James Houck Article From: billherold1017@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/25/2004 12:05:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII This is Bill H from Baltimore. I have been in the program 21 years and am currently chairperson for Archives for Maryland General Service Archives. I interviewed Mr. Houck about 2 months ago and he is quite a gentleman. He is indeed sober however, it was not through AA nor has hever considered himself a member of AA. The purpose of the interview was to gain a better perspective on the atmosphere that was present when AA was started. He met Bill and Fitz Mayo (our southern friend) when they used to attend Oxford group meetings in Frederick Md. Bill used to come down occasionally and visit Fits May and his wife on the weekend at Fits's house just sout of annapolis. Bill used to come into the meeting and ask if there were any drunks there. Bill took the concepts from the oxford group and with the help of the original members molded them into the 12 steps and the foundation of this program. Fits Mayo was the son of a minister and along with his best friend Jim Burwell helped start AA in Baltimore Philadelphia , Washington DC and Northern Virginia. Fits and Jim were also in the middle of the big debate over God in AA with Fitz leaning to chritisnity influence and jim leaning to no God (Aetheist). From my interview with Mr. Houck, he was never in AA nor a firm believer so much as an admirer of the program. Hisa thouhgts and belief lie strictly in the christian foundation of the Oxford movement. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2028. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: James Houck Article From: Bernadette MacLeod . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/25/2004 5:47:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I met James Houck at the Wilson House in East Dorset, Vermont at a seminar he participated in and he told me he was never a member of AA. Bernadette ----- Original Message ----- From: johnpine@comcast.net To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 11:09 AM Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] James Houck Article Has Houck ever been a member of A.A. or identified himself as a recovering alcoholic in his talks? Thanks. John Pine, Richmond, VA -------------- Original message -------------- So close yet so far. This James Houck article made the online issue of Time magazine, but not the circulation copy in magazine stores. It can be found at www.time.com: TIME BONUS SECTION OCTOBER 2004: GENERATIONS Living Recovery A man who knew the founder of A.A. has had a 70year quest to help other problem drinkers By Melissa August/Towson -From the Sep. 27, 2004 issue of TIME magazine It was on a cold day in 1934 that James Houck hit bottom. Newly wedded and living in Frederick, Md., he was getting drunk every weekend -- and sometimes even during the week -- on home brew. He had recently been in a drunken-driving accident in his employer's car, and his drinking had estranged him from his wife Betty. "We were not married a month," Houck says, "before I told her I was sorry I ever saw her." Houck had begun drinking early, at age 5, when he would sneak sips from his mother's bottle of dandelion wine, then make up the difference with water. Although he grew up in the middle of Prohibition, his drinking problem only got worse as the years passed. On Dec. 11, a friend who thought Houck needed to make some changes took him to a meeting at the local YMCA of the Oxford Group, an evangelical society founded in Britain by Frank Buchman that was prominent in the 1920s. Houck was immediately drawn to the group's teachings, which were based on four principles: honesty, purity, unselfishness and love. He was especially moved by the concept of "two-way" prayer: the group taught that if you spent quiet time every day listening to God, he would provide guidance. You were also encouraged to make restitution, to "put right what's wrong in your life," says Houck. It was at those Oxford Group meetings that Houck befriended Bill Wilson, a.k.a. Bill W., a chronic drinker who would go on to co-found Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) in 1939. Houck joined the Oxford Group and became sober on Dec. 12, one day after Wilson did. Today, at 98, Houck is the only living person to have attended Oxford Group meetings with Wilson, who died in 1971. Houck remembers Wilson well, and after a 40-year career as an electrical engineer and salesman, he has made it his mission to bring the Oxford Group's teachings to a new generation of recovering alcoholics. In the early 1970s, he started working with longshoremen on the Baltimore docks, and until recently, he traveled every six weeks or so, giving talks to members of 12-step programs, including A.A., around the country. Houck continues to provide counsel to recovering addicts who telephone from around the world. He still appears at meetings held within driving distance of his home in Towson, Md., and shares the inspirational story of his recovery and the early days of the Oxford Group with out-of-town gatherings via teleconferencing. Houck wants to restore the old methods the Oxford Group used, in particular its spiritual aspects, which he believes are stronger and more effective than the ones currently practiced in A.A. The principles of the group live on in the Back to Basics organization, which follows a 12-step program similar to that originally used by A.A. Houck has been trying to apply Back to Basics techniques in federal and state prisons and is working directly with 300 prisoners in the Henrico County Jail East, in Richmond, Va. Houck knows how much a group like this can mean to someone. After he decided on Dec. 12, 1934, that he would never drink alcohol again, he made restitution with his wife and others he had harmed. "I started telling my wife what kind of a fellow I was," he says. "I did this for three nights to get all of the garbage out. I wanted to be honest about everything in my life." He says his wife was grateful for the talk and then understood his behavior. "Now we could start our family and raise the children with the same guidelines. We had family quiet time every day. That's the way we raised the whole family." Houck lost his wife to cancer in 1988, but believes the lessons learned from the Oxford Group gave him a life he had not been sure was possible. "A marriage that wasn't supposed to last one year lasted 57 years." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2029. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Big Book Printed From: jacqueline belgium . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/26/2004 1:50:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi ! Thanks for the info re BB printings. I would like to know how much copies of the BB have been printed in French ! Thanks. Jacqueline - Brussels-Belgium >From: "Arthur Sheehan" >Reply-To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com >To: >Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Big Book Printed >Date: Fri, 24 Sep 2004 09:42:38 -0500 > >Hi Tommy > > > >I gleaned the following from the final report of the 2002 General Service >Conference (pg 15). > >Big Book distribution > > > >1st edition - 300,000 copies were distributed from 1939 to 1955 > >2nd edition - 1,150,000 copies were distributed from 1955 to 1976 > >3rd edition - 19,550,000 copies were distributed from 1976 to 2002 > > > >In 2002, the Conference approved publication of the 4th edition Big Book. > >More than 2,000,000 copies of the 4th edition have been distributed so far. > >The price of the 4th edition was initially set at $5.00 as a special >introductory price. > >It returned to its regular price this year. > > > >Cheers > >Arthur > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Tom Hickcox > To: >AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com > Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 9:46 AM > Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Big Book Printed > > > > I am interested in the number of Big Books in each of the printings of >the > First, Second, Third, and Fourth Editions. > > Could someone point me towards the data? > > Tommy in Baton Rouge > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Sponsor > ADVERTISEMENT > > > > > > >----------------------------------------------------------------------------- - > Yahoo! Groups Links > > a.. To visit your group on the web, go to: > >http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/ > > b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > >AAHistoryLovers-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com > > c.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of >Service. > _________________________________________________________________ Téléchargez les plus grands succčs ŕ partir de € 0.80 !! http://divertissements.fr.msn.be/musique/musicclub IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2030. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: James Houck Article From: kilroy@ceoexpress.com> . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/26/2004 5:21:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I met James Houck in Philadelphia PA when he was 93 yrs.old. He was with Wally P. and they were doing the Back to Basics talk. He did say that he was at one time drunk but he also said that "he got sober in the Oxford Group and that he did not leave the Oxford Group to go with Bill W. Kilroy W Philadelphia PA --- "Bernadette MacLeod" wrote: I met James Houck at the Wilson House in East Dorset, Vermont at a seminar he participated in and he told me he was never a member of AA. Bernadette ----- Original Message ----- From: johnpine@comcast.net To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, September 24, 2004 11:09 AM Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] James Houck Article Has Houck ever been a member of A.A. or identified himself as a recovering alcoholic in his talks? Thanks. John Pine, Richmond, VA -------------- Original message -------------- So close yet so far. This James Houck article made the online issue of Time magazine, but not the circulation copy in magazine stores. It can be found at www.time.com: TIME BONUS SECTION OCTOBER 2004: GENERATIONS Living Recovery A man who knew the founder of A.A. has had a 70year quest to help other problem drinkers By Melissa August/Towson -From the Sep. 27, 2004 issue of TIME magazine It was on a cold day in 1934 that James Houck hit bottom. Newly wedded and living in Frederick, Md., he was getting drunk every weekend - and sometimes even during the week - on home brew. He had recently been in a drunken-driving accident in his employer's car, and his drinking had estranged him from his wife Betty. "We were not married a month," Houck says, "before I told her I was sorry I ever saw her." Houck had begun drinking early, at age 5, when he would sneak sips from his mother's bottle of dandelion wine, then make up the difference with water. Although he grew up in the middle of Prohibition, his drinking problem only got worse as the years passed. On Dec. 11, a friend who thought Houck needed to make some changes took him to a meeting at the local YMCA of the Oxford Group, an evangelical society founded in Britain by Frank Buchman that was prominent in the 1920s. Houck was immediately drawn to the group's teachings, which were based on four principles: honesty, purity, unselfishness and love. He was especially moved by the concept of "two-way" prayer: the group taught that if you spent quiet time every day listening to God, he would provide guidance. You were also encouraged to make restitution, to "put right what's wrong in your life," says Houck. It was at those Oxford Group meetings that Houck befriended Bill Wilson, a.k.a. Bill W., a chronic drinker who would go on to co-found Alcoholics Anonymous (A.A.) in 1939. Houck joined the Oxford Group and became sober on Dec. 12, one day after Wilson did. Today, at 98, Houck is the only living person to have attended Oxford Group meetings with Wilson, who died in 1971. Houck remembers Wilson well, and after a 40-year career as an electrical engineer and salesman, he has made it his mission to bring the Oxford Group's teachings to a new generation of recovering alcoholics. In the early 1970s, he started working with longshoremen on the Baltimore docks, and until recently, he traveled every six weeks or so, giving talks to members of 12-step programs, including A.A., around the country. Houck continues to provide counsel to recovering addicts who telephone from around the world. He still appears at meetings held within driving distance of his home in Towson, Md., and shares the inspirational story of his recovery and the early days of the Oxford Group with out-of-town gatherings via teleconferencing. Houck wants to restore the old methods the Oxford Group used, in particular its spiritual aspects, which he believes are stronger and more effective than the ones currently practiced in A.A. The principles of the group live on in the Back to Basics organization, which follows a 12-step program similar to that originally used by A.A. Houck has been trying to apply Back to Basics techniques in federal and state prisons and is working directly with 300 prisoners in the Henrico County Jail East, in Richmond, Va. Houck knows how much a group like this can mean to someone. After he decided on Dec. 12, 1934, that he would never drink alcohol again, he made restitution with his wife and others he had harmed. "I started telling my wife what kind of a fellow I was," he says. "I did this for three nights to get all of the garbage out. I wanted to be honest about everything in my life." He says his wife was grateful for the talk and then understood his behavior. "Now we could start our family and raise the children with the same guidelines. We had family quiet time every day. That's the way we raised the whole family." Houck lost his wife to cancer in 1988, but believes the lessons learned from the Oxford Group gave him a life he had not been sure was possible. "A marriage that wasn't supposed to last one year lasted 57 years." Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ADVERTISEMENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links a.. To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/ b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: AAHistoryLovers-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com c.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. _____________________________________________________________ A Member of CEOExpressSelect - www.ceoexpress.com IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2031. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Big Book Printed From: Robert Stonebraker . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/26/2004 8:40:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Dear History Lovers, There were two more printings of the first edition than listed below, sixteen in all. 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;">The fifteenth printing was, January, 1954 and the sixteenth printing was August, 1954. Please see the attachment from my sixteenth printing of the first edition. . Bob S. -----Original Message----- *From:* wilfried antheunis [mailto:wilant@sympatico.ca] *Sent:* Saturday, September 25, 2004 3:30 PM *To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Subject:* Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Big Book Printed Hi Tommy, I should have sent this earlier, was looking for more information and someplace on my computer (or maybe on another one that crashed!) it is there - printings and number of copies printed. But this relates to the first and second edition. If I find more, I will post it. ciao wil *Printing History of the First Edition* ******************************************** First Printing, April, 1939 Second Printing, March, 1941 Third Printing, June, 1942 Fourth Printing, March, 1943 Fifth Printing, January, 1944 Sixth Printing, June, 1944 Seventh Printing, January, 1945 Eighth Printing, February, 1945 Ninth Printing, January, 1946 Tenth Printing, August, 1946 Eleventh Printing, June 1947 Twelfth Printing, October, 1948 Thirteenth Printing, February, 1950 Fourteenth Printing, July, 1951 * 12.0pt;color:black;font-weight:bold;">Alcoholics Anonymous Second Editions* Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, First Printing 1955, (28,000 Printed) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Second Printing 1956, (23,000 Printed) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Third Printing 1957, (21,000 Printed) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Fourth Printing 1960, (20,000 Printed) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Fifth Printing 1962, (Quantity printed is unknown) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Sixth Printing 1963, (Quantity printed is unknown) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Seventh Printing 1965, (Quantity printed is unknown) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Eighth Printing 1966, (Quantity printed is unknown) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Ninth Printing 1967, (Quantity printed is unknown) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Tenth Printing 1969, (Quantity printed is unknown) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Eleventh Printing 1970, (Quantity printed is unknown) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Thirteenth Printing 1972, (Quantity printed is unknown) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Fourteenth Printing 1973, (Total 1973 Printings 1,000,000) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Fifteenth Printing 1973, (Total 1973 Printings 1,000,000) Alcoholics Anonymous Second Edition, Sixteenth Printing 1974 ----- Original Message ----- * From: * Arthur Sheehan *To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Sent:* Friday, September 24, 2004 10:42 AM *Subject:* Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Big Book Printed Hi Tommy I gleaned the following from the final report of the 2002 General Service Conference (pg 15). Big Book distribution 1st edition - 300,000 copies were distributed from 1939 to 1955 2nd edition - 1,150,000 copies were distributed from 1955 to 1976 3rd edition -19,550,000 copies were distributed from 1976 to 2002 In 2002, the Conference approved publication of the 4th edition Big Book. More than 2,000,000 copies of the 4th edition have been distributed so far. The price of the 4th edition was initially set at $5.00 as a special introductory price. It returned to its regular price this year. Cheers Arthur ----- Original Message ----- *From:* Tom Hickcox *To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Sent:* Tuesday, September 21, 2004 9:46 AM *Subject:* [AAHistoryLovers] Big Book Printed I am interested in the number of Big Books in each of the printings of the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Editions. Could someone point me towards the data? Tommy in Baton Rouge IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2032. . . . . . . . . . . . Bill''s Detox from Seconal From: jimmy . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/27/2004 12:12:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I recently was listening to a taped interview of a deceased longtimer in my area. He mentioned in the interview that four members (Al Marino, Chuck Chamberlain, and two others) went to New York to detox Bill Wilson off of a five year long addiction to Seconal. Can anyone corroborate or refute this second-hand information? Jimmy Los Angeles IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2033. . . . . . . . . . . . more information on first editions From: bikergaryg@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/27/2004 2:11:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII since we are on the subject of big books! can any one break down how many of each first editions where printed, to include how many green, light blue and dark blue in the first of four printings. why the 1st Ed, 7th printing {Seventh Printing, January 1945} so rare? one rumor, most where sent overseas and sunk on a supply ship. I could be wrong {please correct me}but I was told 4,750 of the big red {1st edition 1st printing} and then 5000 each until the 11th printing. thanks for your help collecting old big books does not keep one sober, it keeps one broke. Gary IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2034. . . . . . . . . . . . The Common Sense of Drinking (1930) Part 1 of 3 From: Lash, William \(Bill\) . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/29/2004 9:28:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The following book was part of the source material for the writing of the Big Book in 1938. For instance, on page 59 of the Big Book it says, "Half measures avail us nothing." What a coincidence, in "The Common Sense of Drinking" it says, "Halfway measures are of no avail." On page 32 of the Big Book it tells the story of "A man of thirty...made up his mind that until he had been successful at business and had retired, he would not touch another drop (of alcohol)...after a successful and happy business career he then fell victim to the belief that he could drink like other men...he went to pieces quickly and was dead within four years." What a shocker, "The Common Sense of Drinking" includes a story, "Some years ago there lived a man who decided to give up drinking until he could make a million dollars, at which time he intended to drink in moderation. It took him five years - of sobriety - to make the million; then he began his 'moderate' drinking. In two or three years he lost all his money, and in another three he died of alcoholism." These are just two examples of many so read on. - Barefoot Bill The Common Sense of Drinking By Richard R. Peabody Boston: Little Brown and Co. (1930) INTRODUCTION In the twentieth century, with its high-pressure demands on nervous systems which have not yet become adapted to big business, mass production, telephones, automobiles, high economic standards, - in fact, bigger, faster, and noisier living conditions, -alcohol has come to play an ever-increasing part as a narcotic, rather than a mere social stimulant. Because so many can use it in moderation, and because of its social aspect, alcohol is seldom thought of as a drug -not, at least, until it has done its ruinous work on certain organisms that have proved unable to resist it. I propose in this book to define the alcoholic, to show how he arrived at this condition, and by what method he may rid himself of his habit once and for all. While aimed primarily at the chronic inebriate the subject will, I think, be of interest to all who drink, more especially as it may show them where they stand on the line that separates moderation from excess. Several years' experience in treating chronic alcoholism has shown me that it is perfectly possible to cultivate abstinence under certain conditions. It is a far easier task than the alcoholic has any idea of, provided that a scientific approach is made to the problem. Vague theories based on undirected will power are ineffective in the long run. Above all it must be remembered that eradication of the habit and temporary abstinence represent two totally different states of mind. This book is in no way concerned with the arguments for and against Prohibition, which roar louder and louder throughout the land. Needless to say, after ten years of the Volstead Act there still seem to be a great many men who are unable to regulate properly their consumption of the liquor they so easily obtain. Drinking is a manifestation of the wish to escape from reality. The illusory charm of drink comes from the fact that the mental reactions to alcohol are extremely satisfying to certain basic psychological urges. Let any man reflect on his sensations subsequent to taking a drink and I think he will agree that the resultant feelings consist (1) of calmness, poise, and relaxation; (2) of self-satisfaction, self-confidence, and self-importance. While the satisfaction of the demands for peace of mind and ego-maximation by alcohol may be legitimate for the average man who can control the use of it, certain individuals, normal in other ways, have an abnormal reaction to drinking. It is too fascinating to them. It poisons their nervous systems. Those who react in this manner must eliminate drink from their lives or suffer very serious consequences. If they are willing, these people can be shown how to train their minds so that they no longer wish to drink. They can learn to relax and to satisfy their egos in a manner that is constructive and permanent. I have taken care to omit from my discussion all moralizing, knowing full well that the uncontrolled drinker is surfeited with it already, however true and justified it may be. He must be aware of all the reasons that his well-meaning friends and relatives have given him in regard to the harm that he is doing himself, to say nothing of his neglected obligations toward others. Neither is the subject approached from the physiological side. Much authoritative information has already been written upon the destructive effects of alcohol on the bodily tissues. If these books should not be accessible to the individual seeking such information, a short conversation with a physician will shed sufficient light upon this important phase of the subject to leave no doubt in his mind of the harm that results from persistently subjecting the body to large and continuous doses of alcohol. The explanation of excessive drinking lies in the field of abnormal psychology rather than in that of physiology or ethics. As a background to almost every case of chronic alcoholism there exists an inner nervous condition akin to the " unreasonable" feelings of anxiety and inferiority suffered by the abnormally nervous. It is precisely this condition - of which moderate drinkers and other so-called normal people are fortunately unaware - that makes hard and persistent drinking (on the part of those who cannot stand it) so incomprehensible. If friends and relatives wish to be of assistance, they must learn to realize that the nervous person with "imaginary" troubles is just as much in need of help as if he had an acute organic malady. Indeed, those who have experienced both forms of suffering would prefer to repeat the physical rather than the mental if they had to choose between the two evils. It is for the former alone, however, that they customarily receive sympathy. The more the problem is imaginary, unreasonable, illogical, the harder it is to bear, because the individual suffering from it has neither the respect nor the sympathy of the outside world. What is worse, he has lost caste in his own eyes: he criticizes himself mercilessly, so that the resulting state of mind is one of fear and depression often bordering on terror. While the alcoholic in many cases may not seem to be deserving of pity, he nevertheless to some extent belongs to an unhappy class of neurotics, however much he may keep his mental discomfiture from the outside world or try to pretend to himself that he is free from it. It does him no good to be told that his troubles are his own fault and that all he has to do to get over them is to stop drinking. Though in a sense this may be true, it is of no help, because he is often motivated by inner forces of which he is unaware and over which, without scientific assistance, he has no sustained control. The world is gradually coming to understand the importance of caring for the mind as intelligently as it does for the body, and that the pain resulting from a broken spirit should no more be faced courageously alone than that resulting from a broken leg. Yet what could be more indicative of a broken spirit than the perpetual attempt to escape from reality through excessive drinking ? Reality must be faced unaided by alcohol or any other drug. For the more. Responsible concerns of life, a state of mind wherein the individual actually doe; not want to drink must be attained. Such a possibility may seem so remote to a man who has been habitually drinking to excess that its mere suggestion is sufficient to make him shrug his shoulders in contemptuous skepticism, even though he would be free to admit that his present way of life is far from satisfactory. Yet it has been demonstrated over and over again that, in spite of the desires of the moment, sincere men and women anxious to work faithfully toward the goal of not drinking because they do not want to can create this relatively serene attitude of mind with far less hardship than they probably imagine. CONTENTS PREFACE INTRODUCTION I THE CONDITION 1 THE PERSONAL PROBLEM 2 THE "ALCOHOLIC" DEFINED 3 TYPES OF DRINKERS 4 THE EFFECT OF INHERITANCE 5 THE EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENT 6 THE ATTITUDE OF MIND 7 DANGER SIGNALS II DIAGNOSIS 1 A TYPICAL CASE 2 SELF-ANALYSIS 3 THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE 4 WINE WOMEN AND INTERIORITY 5 PSYCHOANALYSIS III FIRST STEPS 1 SURRENDER 2 FUTURE DRINKING 3 ECONOMIC FREEDOM 4 THE FAMILY 5 THE PATIENT 6 SELF-PERSUASION IV THE CURE MADE EFFECTIVE 1 THE MIND 2 OCCUPATION 3 THE BODY 4 RELAXATION AND SUGGESTION 5 READING AND WRITING 6 LIVING BY SCHEDULE 7 THE NOTEBOOK AND WILL POWER 8 PITFALLS 9 THE GENERAL EFFECT SUMMARY I THE CONDITION I. THE PERSONAL PROBLEM Not long ago I interviewed a man who had decided that alcohol as a beverage had reduced him to a condition that lay somewhere between inefficiency and discontent, on the one hand, and potential ruination on the other. He could not confine his drinking to the occasion of which it was supposed to be a part, but continued it for at least one and often more successive days. In other words, he belonged to a class of people known as alcoholics. Though emotionally out of hand, he was intellectually honest, and therefore he had no delusions as to his ability to confine his indulgence within normal time limits. One drink always led to another, and, what was far more serious, one night almost invariably led to another day. Every so often, medical intervention was necessary. He said to me, " I know I cannot stand alcohol. I must confess that an infrequent and short sojourn on the 'water wagon' is all that my efforts to control my habit amount to. I have been admonished until I am sick of it, although what has been said to me is perfectly true and unquestionably deserved. Much of it has been said by people whose opinions I respect, people who in most instances themselves drink. While I have been severely criticized a few times, to be sure, I have as a rule met with more kindness than I have a right to expect. Furthermore, I have given myself many talks in the same vein which seem to me to be even better than those I have listened to. I have made resolutions not to drink at all as well as to drink with various limitations, but, except for an occasional month or fortnight spent 'on the wagon' in discontented sobriety, I never seem to get anywhere. Once I stayed on for six months, but I have never wanted to try to repeat the experience, if for no other reason than that I don't think I could. Needless to say, I fell off with a crash and started making up for lost time, though it had not been my original intention to do so." Because he had ability as a salesman, a position which did not require daily attendance at the office, he kept his job. Because he was attractive, made money, and was always kind even under the effects of alcohol, he kept his wife. Because he was endowed with a strong physical constitution, he apparently kept his health. Nevertheless he unquestionably stated the truth when he said, " If I keep this life up much longer, I don't see how I can fail to lose everything." This individual, while Intelligent and educated, is nevertheless a typical drunkard of the somewhat milder variety. He might drink even less and still be classed as a chronic alcoholic, but on the other hand he has by no means reached the lowest depths of disintegration as a result of his habit. While genuinely anxious to allay a condition that has become alarming, he does not in truth understand his present situation or Its potentialities for the future, nor is he understood by his fellow beings. By his family, friends, and the public in general he is condemned out of hand as being a moral delinquent who could perfectly well control himself if he wanted to do so. In their criticism moderate drinkers, often show less sympathetic understanding of his condition than teetotalers. This the sufferer from alcoholism puts down as hypocrisy, when in reality it is misunderstanding. His actions are quite naturally considered at their face value without regard to inner impulses and their causes. "Why can't that fellow handle liquor the way I do?" is the comment of the normal drinker. "There is no need for anyone to make a fool of himself once he has had enough," he adds, and forthwith proceeds to instruct the alcoholic in how to drink moderately, not realizing that he is attempting to teach what can never be learned. Ignorance and good intentions often work closely together. The conduct of the alcoholic need not be condoned, but his personality and his problems must be understood if he is to be helped. 2. THE "ALCOHOLIC" DEFINED What is a "'drunkard," " inebriate," or " alcoholic " ? In the use of alcohol as a beverage there is a descending scale of mental as well as physical reaction, increasingly pathological, beginning with almost total abstinence and ending with delirium tremens, alcoholic dementia, and death. Just where on this scale chronic alcoholism begins is open to a variety of opinion, but for practical working purposes I draw the dividing line between those to whom a night's sleep habitually represents the end of an alcoholic occasion and those to whom it is only an unusually long period of abstention. The former class, which will be referred to as normal, includes the man who limits himself to a casual glass of beer, as well as the man who is intoxicated every evening. But at worst they are hard drinkers, going soberly about their business in the daytime, seeking escape from social rather than subjective suppressions, and to be definitely distinguished from the morning drinkers, who are, to all intents and purposes, chronic alcoholics, inebriates, or drunkards. There are normal men who occasionally indulge in a premeditated debauch, and who sometimes start the next day with a drink; but, by and large, the men who can drink and remain psychologically integrated avoid it the next day until evening (midday social events excepted). More than one drunkard has told me that the first drink "the morning after"' was by all odds the best of all. They say it makes them feel as if they were coming back to life, as if they were no longer going crazy, and so forth. Such sentiments as these are absolutely incomprehensible to the normal drinker, to whom the idea of an "eye-opener" is almost always repulsive, no matter how much liquor he may have had before going to bed. I recognize, of course, that there is a small group of men who drink slowly and steadily day in and day out without any apparent psychic deterioration. Physically, they almost always break down in the long run, but, as this book does not deal with the physiological side of drinking, we shall disregard them except to say that their drinking is so methodical, their systems are so adapted to it, that as far as pleasure goes it does little more than bring them up to "par," actually a state somewhat below that in which they would be if they did not drink at all. If by chance they want to get a real "kick," they have to drink a prodigious quantity. Then there is a very much larger group than the one just referred to, who from time to time go on a premeditated spree, such as a class reunion or a New Year's week-end, and yet who by no stretch of the imagination can be considered alcoholics. Lastly, there are a very few exceptions to the general rule who do take a drink the next morning to lessen the punishment resulting from a hard night, but who do not increase the dosage as time goes on. In spite of these exceptions, however, I think we may be justified in making the statement that those who can use alcohol successfully generally terminate the drinking of any particular occasion when they go to bed at night. On awakening, such sickness as alcohol may have caused them is of the body; their unimpaired nervous system sets up no cry for more. They are content to pay the price of their "good time" because the price is not unendurable; it has not changed much, if any, from their early drinking days. But the drunkard with his nerves on edge is in a different plight. Once he has taken a drink he is quite rightly said to be 'offagain." When his friends are going to their offices, enduring such hangovers as they may have, he is back at the 'speakeasy.'' If he appears at his work at all, it is only after he has been heavily 'braced'' to avoid the nervousness and depression of a 'morning after,'' which he has become too cowardly to face. At lunch time he imbibes again to avoid the hardships of the afternoon. At five o'clock he can hardly wait to shake up his cocktails, and by late evening he is drunk again. Sooner or later, depending upon his particular stage of disintegration, he is unable to carry on his business at all until he has passed through a somewhat painful period of "drying out.'' Shortly after such a recovery the cycle recommences, with the alcoholic periods becoming longer and more intense. The resulting worry and feeling of guilt give the mind no rest when sober, in consequence of which these intervals become shorter and the nervous system receives no chance at all for recuperation. The victim is caught in an increasingly vicious circle. Drunkenness, acute nervous hangover, remorse, feelings of inferiority; then drunkenness again. A sanitarium may check temporarily the outward expression of this state of mind, but the inner urge continues to exist. 3. TYPES OF DRlNKERS What sort of people reach this unfortunate condition and by what route? It is interesting - if somewhat disheartening for the purposes of determining causes - to note that the group which may be designated as "pathologically alcoholic " comprises persons from all walks of life, reared under the most varied conditions and undergoing the most diverse experiences. Racially, we might say that the Slavs, Teutons, and Anglo-Saxons are less able to control their consumption of alcohol than the Latins and Orientals, even though we should of course expect individual exceptions to the rule. Geographically, those living in the cooler climates seem more disposed to abuse liquor than those situated nearer the equator, though for some peculiar reason northerners who move south are apt to drink more than anybody else. The idea suggests itself that, inasmuch as drinking can be reduced to terms of nervous instability, it tends to be predominant among those who have a larger surplus of easily stimulated nervous energy and hence feel the need of something that in the last analysis soothes far more than it elates. When we investigate any particular group, we find the most strikingly contrasted persons succumbing to excessive drinking. The rich and the poor, the highly intellectual and the ignorant, the frail and the robust, the shy and the apparently bold, the worried and the seemingly carefree, all furnish their quota of inebriates. We find that this unhappy group includes people of accomplishment as well as those who achieve nothing, the religious and the unbeliever, those with an interest in life and those without one, those who love and are loved, and those who are alone in the world. Among all these opposites and the many that come between we find a relatively small percentage, but a large actual number, whose nervous system cannot withstand alcohol in any quantity whatsoever. While there are enough apparently confident and successful individuals who succumb to alcoholism to make impossible any hard and fast limitations to a particular type of personality, still the large majority of cases are found among those who are shy, egocentric, and shut in. Jung has designated these people as introverts. They are ably described by Dr. Abraham Myerson in his book, The Foundations of Personality: "There are relatively normal types of the heavy drinker - the socially minded and the hard manual worker. But there is a large group of those who find in alcohol a relief from the burden of their moods, who find in its real effect the release from inhibitions, a reason for drinking beyond the reach of reason… "And so men with certain types of temperament, or with unhappy experiences, form the alcoholic habit because it gives them surcease from pain; it deals out to them, temporarily, a new world with happier mood, lessened tension, and greater success… "Seeking relief from distressing thoughts and moods is perhaps one of the main causes of the narcotic habit. The feeling of inferiority, one of the most painful of mental conditions, is responsible for the use not only of alcohol but also of other drugs, such as cocaine, heroin, morphine, etc." The italics are mine. 4. THE EFFECT OF INHERITANCE Unfortunately we can give no scientific explanation for the creation of alcoholics. Exceptions to any closed system of causal relationship would stare us in the face at every turn. The study of many inebriates, however, has given definite clues to certain features which have a distinct bearing on the majority of situations, so that within limits we can recognize the forces that have an influence on the shaping of an alcoholic career. The first question to be considered is inheritance. To what extent are parents responsible for the development of this trait in their offspring through the transmission of the germ plasm? Without going into Statistics a cursory examination of this situation shows, first, that among the children of alcoholics there is seldom more than one in a family with this propensity. Secondly, that a much greater number have children who drink normally and in no sense as drunkards. Conversely, a great many alcoholics are born of parents who are temperate in their use of alcohol, in some cases being total abstainers. This would seem to indicate that a man does not acquire chronic alcoholism from his father or mother. Many inebriates use inheritance as an excuse, because it has become a sort of prejudice or credo to do so, but when they are carefully questioned they do not consider that they have any inborn taste or craving for liquor, once they have completely sobered up. At all events, whatever the validity of inheritance as a cause, it has been definitely proved over and over again that it offers no insurmountable obstacle, or, for that matter, any additional impediment, to the overcoming of the habit once a man has definitely made up his mind to do so. What unquestionably is inherited is a nervous system which proves to be nonresistant to alcohol, though this same nervous system is more often acquired from neurotic parents who have expressed their nervousness in some other manner than that of chronic intoxication. just as a disposition to weak lungs is inherited and not tuberculosis itself, so I believe is a nervous system transmitted which is highly susceptible to alcohol and which may manifest itself in a variety of symptoms regardless of the original manner of expression. An investigation of the inheritance of alcoholics indicates in almost every case a neurotic history at least on one side of the family, and often to an extreme degree. While parents may be exonerated as far as the direct inheritance of alcoholism is concerned, they cannot escape the blame for an injudicious early environment which they themselves have created. For many parents the bringing up of a child should require study and instruction from those who have made a business of treating children from the psychiatric point of view, particularly if the child presents difficult problems at an early age. Because a woman has had six or seven children does not mean that she has been an intelligent mother, as the lives of many members of large families bear witness. Mothers and fathers with the best intentions in the world can ruin a child's future because of a silly superstition that nature endowed all women, and some men, with a superior instinct for performing a very difficult task - namely, the efficient rearing of children. I am reminded of Dr. Austin F. Riggs's statement in his book, Intelligent Living: "The relation of grown-ups to children is second to none in importance, whether the grownups be parents, foster parents, or teachers. Obviously the future of civilization depends upon its children. The responsibility which they present to their parents and all other grown-ups is both immediate and absolutely non-transferable." Certain features in the lives of many patients have stood out so clearly that it is pertinent to set forth what seem to be a few but indisputable instances of bad bringing up. Too much prudishness and restraint either break a child's spirit so that he is never free from parental authority or, as a slightly better choice of two evils, drive him into open revolt. His mind must either become a vassal to that of his more dominating parent, or he must over-assert himself to prevent this surrender. If to preserve his own personality he has been on the defensive with his family, he may in later life become unconsciously hostile to the restrictions of society without being in the least a misanthrope, and may feel that he is satisfying a morbid desire for self-assertion (freedom) by an over-indulgence in alcohol. The spoiled child, on the other hand, receives no discipline at all, and so is unprepared to meet the world on anything like a give-and-take basis. Confronted with reality and finding it unfriendly compared to the unrestrained solicitude of his doting parents, he has a tendency to seek refuge in a parent substitute, something that will dull his hyper-sensitiveness and make him feel in harmony once more with an unsympathetic environment. It is for this reason that the majority of alcoholics are recruited from the ranks of only children and youngest sons. In his study, The Structure and Meaning of Psycho-analysis, Dr. William Healy makes an interesting observation. "Rigel," he says, "makes much of a matter which comes frequently to the front in the modem child guidance clinic. He says that all sorts of considerations make it clear that normal psychic development depends upon the gradual emergence from a condition of parental authority. Failure in such a development will result in a relatively feeble adult personality. More dangers lie in the direction of too great rather than too little dependence on the efforts and guidance of the parents or their substitutes. However too sudden or too complete revolt from parental guidance and tradition may be productive of a bias against every kind of authority and convention." Again, if the parents have been of equal influence and have taken opposite attitudes, or if the more influential has frequently changed his or her attitude, the individual grows up with a twofold ideal of self. He is of unstable temperament because he does not know whether to think of himself as a saint or a sinner, a success or a failure. One minute he has overconfidence and the next none at all. Now he may be elated for no particular reason, and now unduly depressed. These feelings may be semiconscious or they may be entirely unconscious and only demonstrate themselves in behavior. However, when confronted by situations calling for mature judgment or courage, a person brought up in the manner outlined is unequal to the occasion and, having already tasted alcohol as a matter of social custom, he flies to it as a refuge, knowing that for the time being he can have the courage and poise that he craves and that temporarily he will have compensation for his deficiencies. Brutality, neglect, and the deliberate teaching of pernicious doctrines are so obviously detrimental to a child's welfare that they do not merit discussion. Rather, I shall conclude this all-important phase of parental influence by summoning to my argument four important quotations, the first two from Dr. Karl A. Menninger's The Human Mind and the latter two from Dr. Alfred Adler's Understanding Human Nature. "The neurotic personality," says Menninger, "is one whose primitive instincts have been modified to meet social demands only with painful difficulty…This difficulty arises because of the prejudices, misapprehensions, shocks, rebukes, experiences, and parental examples of early childhood. Hence the neurotic personality is very definitely a product of the childhood environment and depends largely on the individual's parents… "The man was reliving a childhood situation in which fear had been instilled into him by an over-anxious fear-ridden mother, who robbed her son of his self-confidence. Or it may have been a hard-boiled, blustering, storming father, well-meaning perhaps, but intimidating. Some parents intimidate by silent disapproval, others by example, and still others by attack. Fears are educated into us, and can, if we wish, be educated out." "It will be difficult," says Adler, "to mobilize a child who has grown up in a family where there has never been a proper development of the feeling of tenderness. His whole attitude in life will be a gesture of escape, and evasion of all love and tenderness… "Education accompanied by too much tenderness is as pernicious as education which proceeds without it. A pampered child, as much as a hated one, labors under great difficulties. Where it is instituted, a desire for tenderness arises which grows beyond all boundaries; the result is that a petted child binds himself to one or more persons and refuses to allow himself to be detached." 5. THE EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENT The temptation to drink, regardless of the parental attitude, does not appear as a problem until late in adolescence. At the earliest it comes up for consideration in the last year or two of school life, more generally upon arrival at college, or, for those who do not continue their education further, at the commencement of work. Obviously the family is still influential throughout the period which separates childhood from maturity, though as the boy grows older it is more and more modified by outside forces, sometimes in one direction and sometimes in another. These forces may be corrective or they may intensify the original trend. For instance, boarding school may give a child the assurance gained through relative independence that he could never have attained at home, or he may be overwhelmed by it through failing to survive among the fittest. For some, probably the large majority, boarding schools are of great benefit if for no other reason than that they remove boys from a too close contact with their families, but for the handicapped child who needs skillful Individual attention they are apt to be harmful. Schools differ so much, however, that it would probably be unfair to some to make sweeping statements about them as a class. Just how much harm these schools can do in the creation of alcoholics is a matter of varying opinion. My own theory is that in some of the most fashionable ones, where the discipline is apt to be of a severe order, a great deal is inadvertently done toward working up a thirst in the minds of the upper school so that, when left to themselves, they are more or less prepared to take up drinking as a serious business. This I think is due to two contributing causes. First, the discipline just mentioned is too confining, particularly as graduation approaches. The upper classes are not allowed much more leeway in choosing for themselves than the youngsters of the lower school. This results in an exaggerated sense of freedom upon arrival at college, a making up for lost time as it were. A super-abundance of energy has resulted from the suppression of liberty with little experience in self-determination to control it. Secondly, there are the school graduates who return from the universities to see their younger brothers and friends in the classes one or two years behind them. From this source the schoolboys hear many lurid tales of dissipation, the suggestion being that the fast life is the one to lead and that anyone who objects to it is a "bluenose" whose opinion is not worth considering. It does not take much to make a boy of sixteen or seventeen feel that drinking is the smart thing to do. When a somewhat natural impression has been reinforced by the thrilling experiences of an "old grad" it is not hard to see what a boy's future aspirations will be when he once gets free from his preparatory-school confinement. However, while this school life, with the graduate influence, is unquestionably a determinant in making a young man "hit things up" in the beginning, it is at its worst much more conducive to creating drinkers who eventually learn to control themselves than to the actual production of alcoholics. There are many forces working at this time, seemingly remote from alcoholism, which may be much more effective in producing that state than the gaudy tales of graduates. They are a part of growing up, and are independent of any single set of surroundings. These are the successes and failures, the accomplishments and disappointments, of the young boy and adolescent. Are events shaping themselves in his life so that he becomes self-reliant and confident of his ability to mingle on an equal footing with his friends; or has failure in studies, in athletics, or in achieving reasonable popularity driven his thoughts inward so that he becomes shy, moody, or resentful at life ? While the major responsibility for an unsatisfactory adjustment lies in the atmosphere of the home during the first ten years, the next ten can do much toward the amelioration or elimination of it. A more careful study of the growing boy as an individual rather than as a relatively insignificant member of a group is almost as important as it was in the case of the child. In other words, if more individual psychology could be brought to bear in the formative years, the neurotic troubles of later life could probably be forestalled, in all but the most extreme cases. Upon his entrance into the world, which takes place upon graduation from the secondary schools, the boy would find himself prepared to take up his responsibilities with mature judgment rather than with undirected emotions in control. In that provocative volume, Why We Misbehave, Dr. Schmalhausen remarks: On the high authority of Dr. William A. White, we are told that "many mental breakdowns, perhaps the majority of them, occur during adolescence or in early adulthood, and that systematic help extended to the youths in our schools and colleges would be of inestimable value in preventing such breakdowns." Initial drinking generally takes place upon arrival at college. Now, whatever the prudes may think, a certain amount of drinking and even drunkenness at college is due to nothing more than a normal declaration of independence at coming of age, a youthful desire to be grown up, and an anxiety to be considered one of the boys. Most young men go through this stage none the worse for it, capable of taking up their responsibilities as they appear, with the drink problem well under control for the rest of their lives. In spite of spasmodic excesses they always have been and always will remain social drinkers, using alcohol as a stimulant to make a good time more enjoyable, and for the most part having the quantity consumed suitably adjusted to the occasion. To the truth of this statement the lives of the overwhelming majority of college graduates bear testimony. On the other hand the individual of strong neurotic tendencies is undoubtedly weakened and prepared for a maladjusted life by a prolonged and intensive period of wild oats, whether the milieu be a college or a fast social set. Though he may show no signs at the time that he is to become a chronic alcoholic, subtle changes are taking place within him which may appear later in life. At an impressionable age he has formed a dangerous connection in his mind between happiness and rum. This criticism sums up the worst that can be said against the colleges; a not very damaging statement, when it is considered to how relatively few individuals it applies. Most men are going to drink something and many of them a considerable quantity. The amount, so long as it remains within normal limits, may to some extent depend upon the direct alcoholic suggestion received in one form or another. But the point I wish to make clear is this. Whether or not a man becomes an alcoholic as the term is defined in this book depends on character traits deeply rooted in his personality, and not primarily on exposure to an alcoholic environment. 6. THE ATTITUDE OF MIND Such influences as I have mentioned are usually accompanied by an attitude of mind, which more than any other factor changes the individual from a hard drinker into a true alcoholic. While this transition is often so gradual as to be scarcely noticed, I think, as I have said, that the decisive moment comes when a man finds out that a drink the next morning is soothing nerve medicine for the excesses of the night before. I recall the case of a man who in his college days was faced with the problem of having to go to a lecture in an extremely nervous condition due to his drinking on many previous evenings. A graduate who happened to be in his club at the time asked him if he had had anything to drink that morning. When told, "No," he evinced surprise that the boy should be willing to suffer "unnecessarily," and suggested to him that what he needed was a stiff drink of brandy to remove any unpleasant feelings of nervousness that he might experience during the lecture. This was a distasteful idea to the younger man, as it had never occurred to him before to drink medicinally. But rather than put up with his nerves any longer he gulped down what was offered to him. In the course of a few minutes alcohol had its narcotic effect and the lecture presented no difficulties whatsoever. That drink was the beginning of the end for him, although he did not realize it until several years later. As he expressed it to me, "The handwriting was on the wall from that moment on, though of course I didn't realize it at the time." Then and there he conceived the idea that he could drink all he wanted to in the evening and take care of the resulting nervousness with a stiff bracer the next morning. For a year or two he stuck to his one drink in the morning after nights of excessive indulgence. But as he grew older, and his nerves were progressively weakened, additional drinks throughout the day became "'necessary," until he was having one every two or three hours. In a few more years he had reached the final stage of disintegration, where he would remain in an intoxicated condition for several days following a 'party." He invariably thought that he was tapering off, but in reality he was gathering headway faster and faster, until he was drunk a large part of the time. Respites unfortunately only resulted in a physical recuperation that gave him the needed strength to repeat the performance. After a period of sobriety the alcoholic wants his first drink for the same reason that his more moderate friends do - that is, to escape from reality. But in most cases he does not really want to continue drinking for the sole reason that prompted him to start in the beginning. Or perhaps it might be better to say that, while the same reason may be functioning to some extent, it is completely overshadowed by a greater one. He invariably claims that he is 'easing'' himself out of his condition, until he is entirely under the influence of drink again, and he is speaking the truth as far as his desires are concerned no matter how much his conduct and appearance may belie his statement. But he simply cannot stand the emotional disorganization that even a limited indulgence has created, and, although he realizes in the bottom of his heart that each drink is making matters worse, he postpones the ordeal of a hangover as long as he possibly can. Are we to conclude from this that there is no such thing as the purely vicious alcoholic, that they one and all sincerely wish to recover from their habit? If we disregard the few moral delinquents whose mentality is practically psychotic, - that is, insane, - and those whose failure in life has been so glaring that they are willing slowly to commit suicide, I think we might answer the question in the positive; the reason being that the genuine alcoholic, however he may twist and turn, is undergoing a very unhappy experience most of the time. His ethics may be nil, but he is getting so little out of life except downright suffering that he casts longing looks, not at abstinence to be sure, but at a successful career of hard but controlled drinking. As he can never attain this state again, whatever he may have been able to do in the past and no matter how hard he may try, and as he is unable even to visualize a life free from alcohol, he prefers what in his fatuousness he considers to be the lesser of two evils. To this extent only I think we may say that some drunkards wish to remain in their condition and refuse all offers of assistance which might show them a way out of it. 7. DANGER SIGNALS From what has been said thus far it might be gathered that prolonged sprees lasting from two days to several weeks are the only form of drinking to be considered pathological and hence in need of formal curative measures. While this type of reaction is the most conspicuous, it is by no means the only manifestation of the fact that alcohol has disintegrated a man psychologically. In the first place there is the partial or potential drunkard who follows out the procedure of the individual outlined above part of the time, and the other part seems to drink in a fairly normal manner. If he is not slowly but surely increasing his dosage, he is at least rather uncertain of the outcome of any given alcoholic occasion, and as a result he keeps those who are dependent on him in a perpetual state of anxiety. His problem, if he wishes to stop his habit, is easier in one way than that of the out-and-out inebriate, because alcohol has not entirely absorbed his attention, but it is more difficult in another, because heroic measures do not seem to him to be so imperative and his tendency to rationalize on his ability to control himself has enough truth in it to prevent him from making a sincere effort. He is a drunkard every so often and a social drinker the rest of the time, but except as an aftermath of a disastrous occasion he bolsters up his self-esteem by thinking of himself as a social drinker, and it sometimes takes a genuine catastrophe to bring him to his senses. Then there is the man who restricts his indulgence to the social event where it started, but who, during this time, runs amuck either habitually or at unexpected intervals. He may develop a maniacal viciousness which seriously menaces all who cross his path, or he may, with the best intentions in the world, perform insane acts which endanger himself and those about him. It is indeed far from unknown for an apparently mild person to commit a murder in a drunken rage without the slightest provocation, without, needless to say, premeditation, and without any remembrance of what he has done after he sobers up. I knew a man who for no apparent reason developed a streak of madness while under the influence of alcohol which led him to run his horse full gallop at an eight-foot stone wall, killing the animal and all but killing himself. This extreme sort of behavior in certain individuals may occur regularly until death or the law intervenes, or it may come infrequently "out of the blue" as it were; in which case a certain amount of luck may permit the offender "to get away with it" for some time. As a matter of fact this horseman acted normally under the influence of drink a large proportion of the time, but occasionally he became temporarily insane, and at those times nobody knew what he would do- least of all himself. Alcoholic indulgence for this type of person is a more dangerous activity than it is for many out-and-out inebriates. Of a similar nature, but to a modified degree, are the people who, while not actually dangerous, are morose, disagreeable, or disgusting, so that they make enemies, while drinking, through their slanderous remarks or vulgarity. As often as not these people are perfectly pleasant and gentlemanly when sober, though it is hard not to believe that there is a strong antisocial sentiment within them which comes to the surface when alcohol has removed the inhibitions. It behooves them not to irritate this abnormal streak, especially in a manner that makes them irresponsible when they are doing it. Many, though not all, of these obnoxious drinkers have considerable remorse when they sober up, particularly if they are confronted with and are about to suffer in some concrete manner from the harm that they have done. This naturally leads to brooding, an unhealthy activity for any mind, and such an unpleasant one that sooner or later alcohol in larger quantities is resorted to as a means of forgetting it. While some degree of alcoholic depression following even a successful "party" is natural, a few carry it to an unwarranted extreme. These people are probably predisposed to a morbid state of mind in sobriety, and are living temporarily and in miniature what they may come to live permanently even to the point of a pernicious depression if they do not mend their ways. Their reaction to alcohol is a danger signal which should not go unheeded. Unfortunately these various manifestations of drinking may be combined in the same man. At any rate those missing are in many instances latent and will probably develop under sufficient provocation. I knew an inebriate, whose conduct was for a long time condoned because of his humor and amiability, suddenly to become rude, obscene, and sometimes actively hostile. Another man with these unpleasant qualities to begin with always prided himself upon his ability to be at his office early the next morning in a state of sober efficiency. In the course of time he became a continuous drinker; he lost his habit of quick recovery, but he did not lose any of his disagreeable traits. Once the nervous system has begun to react pathologically to liquor we can be sure of one thing only - it is going to maintain this form of "action, but in what way, and to what degree of intensity, time alone will tell. Certain forms of conduct, as we have seen, are latent in the alcoholic, and we might suggest that they are latent in many more people than is realized. Whether such a manifestation actually appears or not may be entirely fortuitous, depending upon the nervous strains to which the persons are subjected. The strongest systems have a limit to what they can withstand. A certain number, if hard enough pressed, will take refuge in excessive alcoholic indulgence, though they had for years thought of themselves as immune to abnormal drinking. Nor is it always disaster that produces the crisis. Success, particularly when it is financial, and thus permits a life of luxurious leisure, has been frequently known to create the same slavery to alcohol that is so often attributed to misfortune alone. By this statement, however, I by no means imply that alcoholism is a probable or even possible outcome of the moderate drinking of the large majority. Far from it, as the life histories of an overwhelming number of men show. What I do mean is this - there are enough alcoholic breakdowns late in life to show us that there is a considerable group who only need a strong and easily accessible stimulation to force them from moderate drinking into chronic alcoholism. II DIAGNOSIS 1. A TYPICAL CASE BEARING fully in mind the somewhat restricted picture that any particular case history can give of the whole problem, let us at this point sketch a typical alcoholic personality. This man, after thirty-six years of living and approximately sixteen of drinking, has definitely proved to his own conviction that he cannot use alcohol without abusing it, and that by his own efforts he is equally powerless to stop his indulgence. While we need not discuss the characteristics of the grandparents, a short description of the father and mother will not be out of place. The father is a reserved sort of person with a keen mind, though shy, and given to mild periods of despondency due to a lack of success in a business to which he was never suited. His mother is domineering and prudish. He describes her as somewhat suspicious and fearful of the future, and he believes that she was mildly resentful of the quiet life which her marriage compelled her to lead, though she would never admit this and always referred to her husband in the highest terms. The family life centered about her. Our patient, in speaking of her attitude, says that she spoiled him in a negative sort of way - nagging him and making him think a great deal too much about himself. Everything seemed to be reduced to terms of right or wrong. Furthermore, he was made to feel in one way or another that the world was a difficult place to live in, and that nervousness was the rule rather than the exception. He thinks that the death of his older brother at an early age was partly responsible for her peculiar states of mind. Sometimes she had temper tantrums, which were apt to be directed at him if he were present. These were followed by remorse and a desire to compensate by being temporarily over-solicitous. He never felt quite sure what her attitude was going to be, and, as his father considered it much easier to agree with whatever she said than to dispute it, he often felt very much misunderstood and friendless. However, he wishes me to understand that on the whole he received kind and generous treatment, and, while he does not look back on his childhood as something he would like to repeat, he does not feel that it was so very difficult. Alcoholic drinks were served at the house as a matter of course, without any particular attitude being taken toward the subject. He does not consider that such drinking as he saw in his home has any bearing at all on his present problem. His elementary schooling was completed without any occurrences worthy of comment having taken place. He went to boarding school, where he mixed well with the other boys, though he had a distinct feeling of inferiority which he thinks now came from being less mature as well as from a lack of ability in athletics. As he was small and not very strong, the others did not hold this against him, but nevertheless he was envious and admired greatly those who were more successful than he. There was little difficulty if any with the faculty, as his work was above the minimum required for passing and his conduct was somewhat better than the average, though he assures me that he was by no means a goodygoody. Them was no particular temptation to drink while at school. Three or four of his friends did so during the vacations, but it was so obviously done in an effort to be smart that he did not feel the least urge to imitate them. In college his first two years were moderate in all directions, in spite of the freedom that he felt in getting away from school. His puritanical prejudices did not yield immediately to his newly acquired liberty. Furthermore he was not overburdened with money, and as a result he associated primarily with one or two rather conservative individuals who had been his intimates at school. He made friends easily despite his shyness. Eventually he joined a fraternity, and it was this influence more than any other that started him drinking. However, he does not hold his fraternity or the club system in general responsible, as them was no drinking allowed in the house and them were a few members at least who were total abstainers and more who drank in moderation. Nevertheless the friendships that he made at this time resulted in many trips to a neighboring small city, which invariably ended in drinking to excess. At this point it might be well to state that he is not conscious of ever having had any trouble with his sex life. To be sure, the information he received on the subject from his family was scanty, but his friends supplied this deficiency rather adequately and in plenty of time to prevent any morbid introspection. Of course at this period drinking did not seem to be any problem to him whatsoever. Custom soon adapted his physical system to it, and he had few hangovers. He maintained his ability to enjoy non-alcoholic occasions, though he noted a slightly progressive decline in this respect during his senior year. It was then, too, that he first began to experience nervousness, though on only one occasion did he notice the sedative effects of alcohol. This was inadvertent, a prolonged spree having been planned in advance to celebrate the end of examinations. It made a distinct impression on him, however ("that wonderful feeling," as he expressed it, "of being picked out of the depths so quickly in the morning"), but he did not deliberately use alcohol as medicine until some months later. He was in no sense an alcoholic at any time during his college career, nor was there any reason to believe from his conduct or from his mental attitude that he would ever become one. He said there were several boys who gave more evidence of becoming drunkards than he did, though as far as he knows only one lived up to expectations. Upon graduation he enlisted in the aviation corps. He did not go overseas, but as he chose a particularly dangerous branch of the service he quite naturally had no feeling of inferiority in regard to his war record. He enjoyed flying and does not remember that he was ever particularly frightened by it. After fatal accidents, which happened often enough at the flying field, he became temporarily nervous and apprehensive, but to no greater extent than his brother officers. He thinks that his nerves suffered relatively little from his war-time experiences, but, as his excessive drinking began shortly after his discharge from the army, he is perfectly willing to admit that this may not be so. During this period he drank all that he could get his hands on, but except on one or two occasions this was never very much. While in the service he married a girl to whom he had long been attached and who has since made him a very good wife, the only source of friction being his abnormal drinking. Even here he feels that she has been, to use his own words, "a damn good sport." An analysis of his married life seems to disclose nothing to excuse his exaggerated indulgence in alcohol. He thinks if he were single it would be worse, if that were possible. After the war he moved to another city to enter a business that was soon to prove extremely successful. This gave him a superficial self-assurance which he unfortunately misused. Almost immediately he became associated with a "country club" crowd who spent most of their spare time drinking. While in the beginning he "carried" what he drank pretty well, he became increasingly nervous on the "morning after," and within a year of his discharge from the army he was bracing himself by pouring two fingers of gin into his coffee at breakfast. Furthermore he was sneaking additional drinks at the weekend parties - a totally unnecessary performance, as almost all his friends were drinking openly a great deal more than they could hold. Sunday afternoons he generally became intoxicated again, and it was not long before he was decidedly under the influence of liquor from Friday night until Monday morning. This naturally required an additional dose of "medicine" to get him back to the office. Soon he found that, if a drink at breakfast helped out the morning, another one at lunch saved the afternoon. So, slowly but surely, with infrequent periods on the wagon which were invariably terminated prematurely, he arrived at a state where one drink meant a twoor three-day debauch. This would have cost him his job but for the leniency of his employer and his own ability as a salesman during his sober periods. I say "sober periods" because he felt that, while some business success could be attributed to artificial conviviality, he would have accomplished a great deal more in the long run if he had let the other fellow do all the drinking. 2. SELF-ANALYSIS Having ascertained in a preliminary interview that this man sincerely wanted to stop drinking once and for all, and would work seriously to that end, I asked him to set forth in writing his reasons for drinking. Not being a student of abnormal psychology, he was not expected to unearth any hidden causes behind his reasons unless they came freely into his mind. His account of himself is interesting, however, as he was an intelligent person and, like the great majority of alcoholics, an honest thinker when sober. He was cautioned to avoid the petty excuses that all drinkers are wont to make in order to give themselves some flimsy moral justification. His short thesis on "The Causes, Reasons, and Excuses for My Drinking," as he entitled it, is quoted in full: - When I think of what liquor does to me and how much it makes me suffer, I sometimes feel as if I didn't know why I drank, as if any reason sounded too foolish to bother with. Then again when I concentrate on the problem it seems as if there were reasons or impulses, some of which are obvious, and some of which are vague and hence hard to explain. In the first place my environment is a distinctly alcoholic one; even business seems to demand a certain amount of drinking, either to land a sale or to be congenial with the men in the office after hours. The country dub where my wife and I spend most of our spare time is of course wringing wet, and it seems as if I were forever expected to shake up a drink for someone else or that one was being shaken up for me. Of course I don't want to make a goat out of my environment. Only one of my intimate friends drinks as hard as I do and he is a rich bachelor, and many of them do not drink hard at all When it comes right down to it I have reached such a state now that I would probably try to drink all I could get in any environment. When I start to sober up the next day I fed nervous and depressed, and I can't get it out of my head that one good drink won't set me up for the day the way it used to. So I take it and of course it doesn't, then I take another and the game starts A over again. I really don't want to stay drunk, whatever people may think; in fact I don't even feel that I am drinking in the same manner or for the same purpose that I do at the beginning of a party. After I have been sober, say, for a week, a part of me seems to be trying to fool the other part, and I begin to think that the next time things am going to be different. Though I really know in my heart that this is not so, still I am fool enough to think that it is. If by any chance I do make a success of it, which is very rare, I use it as an excuse for the next three months, forgetting the hundreds of other times where my schemes and resolutions for "drinking like a gentleman" have come to nought. When I do stay off it, I become envious of those who are drinking, and that makes me cross. I don't say much of anything to them, because I wouldn't get away with it, but every so often I take it out on my wife, which makes me ashamed of myself. I hate to admit that I can't handle liquor the way my friends do and the way I used to be able to, and at times I will think up the queerest systems of reasoning rather than admit that I am licked. Then my wife likes to go out or entertain at home, and I like it myself as long as I can drink. She does n't we why I can't drink moderately and always suggests that I have a cocktail or two and stop there, which of course I never can do because all one drink does is to make me want another. Furthermore them are the celebrations which have to be taken care of, such as football games, weddings, ushers' dinners, class reunions, and so forth. Sometimes it seems as if every Saturday and holiday came under this head. More and more lately I have been using it as a sort of refuge from worry and troubles in general. If the market goes down, or if I have to entertain someone who bores me, I take a few drinks to forget it. As a matter of fact I get bored more and more easily, whereas after a drink or two I enjoy everything and everybody. I have no real interest outside of business and drinking. I don't mean by that that I don't like my home, because I do and I would feel like hell if anything happened to my wife. Also I like golf, and fishing, and shooting, but when it comes right down to it I would rather sit around and drink with a congenial companion or two than anything I know. While I have never tried to get away from a wet environment, still I feel sure if I did stop drinking and went anywhere else I would find practically no one my own age who wasn't drinking something, generally enough to make him feel pretty good, even though he might not be actually drunk. It's hard when you are bored without it, and you see everyone else doing it, not to say to yourself that you will just take one and that won't do you any harm, even though you secretly know it is a lie. As far as the next day goes that is different, nobody is doing it then and I get no support or sympathy, but I can't help going on. Another reason that goes with my grouchiness, when I am sober and see others drinking, is that I feel sort of out of place, tongue-tied, too tired at times to compete with their alcoholic wit. I guess you would call it an inferiority complex, though perhaps I am not using those words correctly. That seems to be about all the reasons I can think of now, though perhaps some others will come into my head later. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2035. . . . . . . . . . . . The Common Sense of Drinking (1930) Part 2 of 3 From: Lash, William \(Bill\) . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/29/2004 9:29:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 3. THE ROOTS OF THE TROUBLE The individual described here is a fairly typical example of a man who, by his own admission, has passed through the different stages from normal drinking to habitual drunkenness, although he has not yet reached a state of complete demoralization, nor has he committed any act or reached a frame of mind which makes the prognosis for a cure unfavorable. He has already found out that he cannot learn to drink normally, because he has exhausted all known methods in an effort to control his habit, nor has he even been successful in keeping it within limits satisfactory to an extremely liberal, if not actually dissipated, social group. While he feels that no irreparable harm has been done so far, he is convinced that his habit is progressive, and that if he keeps it up he will be down and out within a very few years. What does an examination of this man's history disclose? What does an analysis of the past show as a cause for his inability to drink as his friends do, and what prognosis may be made for the future? (Incidentally I should like to state that it is very unwise to make any prognosis whatsoever until at least two or three months of consultation have elapsed. "Hopeless cases" sometimes show remarkable aptitude in rehabilitating themselves, and "excellent prospects" fail to measure up to what is expected of them.) The most marked feature of this situation is the comparative normalcy of this man's life. There have been no obvious reasons why he should be unable to control his drinking within reasonable social limitations. He has not had a hard time in the world, nor has he experienced any severe shocks; in fact there was almost nothing until the end of the war that might give an inkling of the deterioration that he was to undergo. However, bearing in mind what has already been said in regard to inheritance and early environment, an analysis of his family relationship may not leave us so much in the dark. His father, it will be recalled, was a reserved type of man afflicted with moods of mild despondency. His mother was prudish, domineering, and subject to tantrums - symptoms of an attempt to cover up her pronounced fear of the world. The characteristics of both parents inclined the child toward self-consciousness, for children unwittingly absorb and reflect the attitudes of those who bring them up. How much of this parental influence was imparted through inheritance and how much through precept and suggestion we will leave to the "Inheritance School" and the "Environmentalists" to decide. An any rate a hypersensitive nervous constitution was inherited, and an unfavorable home atmosphere in the early years of the child's life combined to create a personality ill-adapted to facing life with stability. Of the two influences I believe that the environment plays a more important part; but, from whichever angle the subject is approached, the resulting character is the fault of the parents, though in our use of the word "fault" we do not wish to conjure up an ethical concept so much as one of ignorance and lack of self-control - an ignorance which would be less excusable nowadays, in the light of modern knowledge, than it was at the time of this man's childhood. Our patient does not seem to recall very clearly his youthful mental reactions save a fear of his mother - not of being abused. but rather of being interfered with and misunderstood. Also he was in a continuous state of uncertainty as to what her attitude was going to be on any given question, and how soon it would change to the opposite for no apparent reason. He made a particular point of avoiding her whenever he had something that he especially wanted to do, for fear of being thwarted, though very often his desires were perfectly harmless and natural. He would sneak down the back stairs and hide in the cellar until she went out, so that she would not have an opportunity to spoil his plans, a performance in which it seemed to him she specialized. At other times he would run from the house yelling at the top of his lungs to drown out the sound of her voice should she attempt to recall him. This man as a child was unquestionably stubborn, and his mother was not always at fault except in so far as her lack of tact and control was originally responsible for creating stubbornness in her offspring. Our patient had unconsciously to choose between becoming a timid mother's darling, completely surrendering his own personality, or putting up an exaggerated opposition. Of the two he unquestionably chose the wiser course, though as a result he has had an antagonistic attitude toward life in general ever since. In fact, a neurotic, whether his neurosis takes the form of alcoholism or not, is generally reacting to life as he formerly did to his immediate family when it comprised his entire world. Where this child-world was consistent, poised, and mature, where it demanded a system of conduct which was justified by its own example, we expect to find resulting personalities who can adjust themselves to an ever-changing environment without remaining fixated in or regressing to an infantile state the minute they are confronted with the complexities of life. Where we have a different kind of child-world we must be on the lookout for individuals who have never matured and who will be tempted to adapt themselves through a stimulant-depressant medium, or take refuge in some other form of neurotic behavior. It was pointed out to this man that he probably grew up with a twofold conception of self, largely unconscious, to be sure, but which gave him a feeling of insecurity because of the changing mental states of superiority-inferiority which his mother's attitude had produced in him. What else can we find in this life history that has contributed to an emotionally unstable condition? I say contributed, because we have already had the seeds of the trouble sown in childhood, and they only needed the benefit of certain experiences in college and the war to make them sprout and flourish. But I want to emphasize that unless the seed had been there, and by seed I mean a disposition to react neurotically to life, the condition would never have developed, as the overwhelming number of normal college graduates and war veterans bear witness. It should be noted, parenthetically, that the attitude toward drinking in some of our colleges does not help matters for the nervously inclined individual. This attitude, though seldom openly expressed, seems to be that drinking should consist of a "party." In other words, if you drink at all, you are supposed to become intoxicated. One of my patients, a man who had graduated from one of our largest and most celebrated universities, told me that it was considered almost degenerate to take one or two drinks unless they consisted of beer. You were supposed to leave it alone entirely or make a thorough job of it. This point of view, it goes without saying, was as unsuited to an unstable personality as it was nonsensical from the point of view of logic. Had this boy grown up under Continental influences, his reaction to alcohol might have been very different; drink would probably have been an accessory to other interests and not an end in itself. To revert, however, to the case before us, we should observe the part played by aviation in the further weakening of our patient's nervous system. The war seems to have had a marked effect on the nerves of many men, including some who never saw the front-line trenches. "Shell-shock" often began its work on some organisms the minute they donned a uniform five thousand miles and many months away from the front. There were nervous breakdowns, in some cases reaching the point of suicide, on the part of men to whom the question, "Shall I be brave when the time comes?" occurred with morbid intensity even though it was doubtful if they would ever be put to the test. When this war state of mind was attained through aviation, it was increased a hundredfold, for an aviator did not have to go to the front to have his life in jeopardy a good proportion of the time. Few failed during their training course to see at least one, and sometimes many more, of their friends crash to the ground. Whether this fear of not being brave was conscious or whether it was largely repressed seems to have made little difference as regards its effect on the nervous system. In the case of our patient, while it cannot be considered as a fundamental cause of his intemperate conduct after the war, it most certainly precipitated matters. He undoubtedly would have been an unsuccessful drinker in the long run, but his army experience reduced the time limit by a considerable amount. Another feature of military life that tended to make the soldier - and even a junior officer - irresponsible was the lack of initiative required in his daily life. The government told him what to wear, what to eat, and where and when to move about; in fact, his whole life was passed in carrying out carefully prescribed instructions. Superimposed upon this irresponsibility was an - annoying confinement, so that when at last he was discharged it was not unlike being released from an honorable jail. The boarding-school-to-college change was in a sense repeated without the youthful nerves to withstand the shock, and, for an unfortunate few, without any increased maturity. So, with his nerves frayed by aviation, with a feeling of escape from an absolute discipline, with a justified sense of having done his duty (and hence being entitled to allowances), and with a young wife anxious to have a good time, our patient found himself in a large city among strangers. There followed a period of business success, partly due to the intrinsic ability of the individual, partly due to post-war prosperity, and partly due to luck. The list of friends grew and the social demands kept pace; but the nervous system began to crack, and in order to keep it going, drink was used in larger and larger quantities as medicine. It was a social stimulant in the beginning, but, as hangovers could no longer be faced philosophically, a sedative was required to steady the jangling nerves. One had to work, one had to eat, and one had to sleep; drink unfortunately gave temporarily the strength on the one hand, and the relaxation on the other, to accomplish all these things. This man had in reality become a species of drug addict by carrying to excess a normal social custom. He would have been horrified at the idea of a hypodermic, yet alcohol had become a powerful narcotic for him without his having the slightest idea that he was an addict to any form of dope whatsoever. 4. WINE, WOMEN, AND INTERIORITY In view of what has been said, it is clear, I think, that the real causative factors are those which induce a nervous condition first, and that this condition in turn induces alcoholism. In other words, alcoholism does not directly result from an event or a series of events in the manner that fever results from an infection. Drinking, or an isolated debauch, may follow a specific stimulation, but chronic alcoholism is a pathological method of life and not a mode of revenge, diversion, or even of suicide. The majority of men - and this must necessarily include a goodly number who are none too brave -simply do not choose that means of facing their troubles or of ending their life. Says Dr. Myerson in his Foundations of Personality: "Not all persons have a liability to the alcoholic habit. For most people, lack of real desire or pleasure prevented alcoholism. The majority of those who drank little or not at all were not in the least tempted by the drug. 'Will power' rarely had anything to do with their abstinence, and the complacency with which they held themselves up as an example to the drunken had all the flavor of Pharisecism. To some the taste is not pleasing, to others the immediate effects are so terrifying as automatically to shut off excess. Many people become dizzy or nauseated almost at once and even lose the power of locomotion or speech." Anything that creates fear in a person creates uncertainty, timidity, inferiority; and so I firmly believe that the inferiority complex of the Adlerian School of abnormal psychology goes much further in explaining the origin of alcoholism than the pansexualism of Freud. I agree with Dr. Schmalhausen when he says: "The ego is more pervasive as a human reality than sex. Human natures that harmonize on the ego level can contrive to put up with sex disharmony; but sex harmony cannot cope with the problem of disharmony rooted in a maladjustment of egos. The Adlerian theme runs deeper in human life than the Freudian, though the latter, because of its dramatic and sensational components, gives the impression of being more fundamental." Inasmuch as Dr. Schmalhausen's book, Why We Misbehave, is very far from being hostile to much that has been written by Freud, this remark is quite significant. At any rate I have yet to find a case of alcoholism which seemed to rest on suppressed sexual desires either normal or abnormal, unless all uncalled-for violence is to be interpreted as Sadism and all exaggerated friendliness is reduced to terms of homosexuality which does not seem reasonable to me. Nor does this opinion arise from any prejudice against Freud in favor of Adler or from any a priori reasoning. As a matter of fact, it came somewhat as a surprise in my experience that alcoholics should be so free from sexual disturbances past and present. As I do not explore the unconscious by psychoanalysis or hypnotism, I cannot make an unqualified statement that there is not a deepseated relationship that can be discovered by these methods. It has, however, seemed unnecessary to go to such lengths to procure satisfactory results. On the other hand, sex can function as a conscious or semiconscious stimulation to drink under certain conditions as contrasted with a fundamental instinctive urge. Men who are self-conscious in the presence of women find it easier to accomplish their purpose if their timidity is removed by alcohol (though "satyrs" never allow any blunting of their sensibilities to interfere with their pleasure). Furthermore, many men have more of a conscience than they realize. Alcohol will suppress this inhibiting force during the event and give them an excuse ("I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't been drunk") to dispel remorse after it is over. Thirdly, the crudities of coarse, inferior women are obliterated if men of sensibility drink a sufficient amount. Thus for many a bachelor, unable to find a woman of his own class, the old association of "wine, women, and song" consciously or unconsciously recommends itself. For the man who is going to stop drinking, this association must be broken up. There is no biological urge for drink such as there is for sex, and only vicious custom has given them a connection. If this break cannot be made, then 'women' must be avoided until the alcoholic habit has been definitely overcome. An inebriate's entire life depends on the successful outcome of the treatment; so it will not do him any harm if he finds he has to do without women until this has taken place. In contrast to the sexual theme, them always appears inferiority in some form or another, often to a marked degree and in most cases fully admitted, although sometimes a compensatory mechanism is at work, disguised under a bold front. Alcohol, with the "Dutch courage" that it temporarily supplies, is a logical antidote for inferiority. Some of the causes of this inferiority, in addition to the early environment already referred to, are shocks, humiliations, accidents, failures in athletics and scholarships as well as in business, disappointments in love, inability to make friends, and the doing of some act which, even if unknown to the outside world, degrades the individual in his own eyes. According to Dr. Myerson, "' Dutch courage' drove from many a man the inferiority and fear that plagued his soul. True, it drove him into a worse situation, but for a few moments he tasted something of the life that heroes and the great have. If we can ever find something that does not degrade as it exalts, all the world will rush to use it." The italics are mine. A case might be mentioned of a man becoming a drunkard as a result, so he thought, of having his heart broken in a love affair. This individual had always been lacking in self-confidence, but his girl had temporarily given him the feeling of power that he had abnormally craved. When she terminated their relationship he collapsed. A short analysis soon showed him that it was his ego that was broken and not his heart. Sad he was, without question, but it was humiliation and not sorrow that "drove" him to excessive drinking. Just as we speak of a vicious circle of cause and effect which moves faster and faster as drinking continues, so we can with equal validity refer, in the case of inebriates, to the cessation of drinking as a benign circle where confidence and poise follow sobriety, inferiority disappears, and so sobriety itself is made easier. Self-respect is substituted for degradation. While the eliminating of drink itself has been the factor in determining this restored state of mind, still there may be other forces at work which will determine whether or not the alcoholic is going to be able to complete satisfactorily his treatment. If he is leading, apart from his drinking, a life which causes him to lose caste in his own eyes, it is almost certain that he will conceive of himself as too weak or vicious to give up the drink habit, though this low opinion of himself may be partly repressed into the unconscious. The most ready illustrations of the above condition are the sexual irregularities on the part of married men. Many men, as has been mentioned before, have more of a sex conscience than they realize. Some, of course, though they would collapse under the remorse following a petty theft and are in many other directions anything but conscienceless, have no immorality conscience at all. On the other hand, there are a great many men who pretend to this irresponsibility, whereas in reality they are unable to escape the traditions of their inheritance and bringing up. I have had two cases which have involved extramarital sexual relationships. In each case I replied that, as long as it did not lead to drinking directly through emotional contagion or indirectly through a feeling of guilt which produced inferiority, it was their own problem to decide. However, these men voluntarily came to the conclusion that, inasmuch as their wives were doing all that they could to make the home a happy one, they would make a clean sweep of their entire irregular life. They found that fundamentally they did feel conscience-stricken, and that in addition the fear of being caught had a demoralizing effect upon them. I have known of other men in this predicament who, because of the difference of their natures, did not require the adjustment of this factor in their treatment and cure. But sex is by no means the only cause for an enervating and demoralized self-ideal, nor is it necessarily the most important one. It was merely used as a convenient illustration. Any form of behavior which lowers a man in his own eyes, whether the outside world knows about it or not, will obviously prevent a vigorous, sustained, and undiverted concentration on the giving up of the alcoholic habit. Lying furnishes another excellent illustration of destructive conduct. A man who lies to those who have a right by nature of their position to know of his affairs is soon motivated by the feeling that if he is not man enough to tell the truth to those who are endeavoring to help him he is not man enough to give up drinking. While he may not consciously formulate this relationship in so many words, the effects - that is, his actions - soon testify to its validity. A man quite naturally has feelings of inferiority at the beginning of his treatment because of the effect that alcohol has had upon him, and so he should do all in his power to eliminate anything that fosters a lack of self-respect, whether it appears on the surface to pertain directly to the question of drinking or not. "If," writes Professor McDougall in his Outline of Abnormal Psychology, "a unitary personality is to be achieved, the various sentiments must be brought into one system within which their impulses must be harmonized, each duly subordinate to the higher integration of which it becomes a member. This higher integration is what we call 'character'; it is achieved by the development of a master sentiment which dominates the whole system of sentiments, subordinating their impulses to its own…The only sentiment which can adequately fulfill the function of dominating and harmonizing all other sentiments is the sentiment of self-regard, taking the form of a self-conscious devotion to an ideal of character… "A firm or strong or well-knit character, one that can resist all disintegrating influences, is one that can face all problems, all critical alternatives, and can make a decision, can choose one of the alternatives and give that line of action an assured predominance over all others; and this capacity depends upon the organization of the sentiments in an ordered system dominated by a master sentiment; and of all possible master sentiments the most effective is a sentiment for an ideal of character, an autonomous self, a reflective self that can control, in the light of reason and moral principles, all the promptings of other sentiments as well as the crude urgings of instinct and appetite." Another factor in the background of alcoholism, which is common to all neurotics, but which might escape those uninitiated to abnormal psychology, is the fact that by his conduct the alcoholic is making himself important in his own eyes. Prevented by his habit from living a constructive life, he is unconsciously anxious to make a stir in the world, even though this stir is of a purely destructive nature. Anything is better than oblivion, and so all the fuss that is made about him, as well as the fact that he is a "serious problem," is not as distasteful to him as he may imagine. In fact, he often considers himself a heroic villain or martyr. Those who have had dealings with drunkards have noticed the phase of self-pity wherein they expatiate at length about the curse that is laid upon them. They delight in relating how they are drinking themselves to death; it seems that they cannot help this unfortunate procedure, since, owing to inheritance or some other bugaboo, they are in the clutches of a " vice" which is more powerful than they are. Often this discourse is accompanied by drunken temperance lectures. In a weepy manner they implore their audience not to follow in their footsteps, and state with great emphasis that, had they their lives to lead over again, they would never touch a drop. This is, of course, 100 per cent hocus-pocus, and nobody realizes it more than the man who has given up the habit "he couldn't help"' and has learned to satisfy his craving for attention in a legitimate manner. 5. PSYCHOANALYSIS In the foregoing I have had occasion to refer to psychoanalysis. Owing to the profound influence that Freud and his followers have had on abnormal psychology and the justified interest that the public has taken in the popularization of his works, the relationship between this most important study of the human mind and alcoholism should be made clear. When the large number of inebriates seeking help is contrasted with the relatively small amount of space that the psychoanalysts have devoted in their works to this phase of abnormal psychology, the thought occurs that possibly psychoanalytic procedure in this direction has not been as productive as it has been with hysteria, anxiety, and obsessional neuroses. In Dr. William Healy's recent publication, The Structure and Meaning of Psychoanalysis, which Dr. Wittels of Vienna has referred to as a "'Bible of Psychoanalysis," less than two pages out of 480 are devoted to alcoholism. Nevertheless, since psychoanalysis has done more than anything else to illuminate for me the abnormal processes of the human mind, this form of treatment at the hands of an expert is most sincerely recommended when stringent methods seem necessary. I do not question the fact that the fundamental motivating cause of alcoholism may often be a conflict buried in the unconscious, but experience has shown others besides myself that methods more or less similar to those set forth in this book are in general adequate for cure without more intricate psychoanalytical investigation. Of course I do not mean in the least to imply that exploration is neglected. The patient, as I have described, is encouraged to talk at length on every conceivable topic that interests him from his earliest childhood to the present time, and past as well as present problems are given special attention from the point of view of "confession" or catharsis. This, to many psychiatrists who are by no means inimical to psychoanalysis, constitutes sufficient analysis. Let me here refer to The Human Mind. "One very useful method," (of treating nervous disorders) says Dr. Menninger, "is a combination of expression (analysis) and suppression (persuasion). Sometimes it is called reeducation. It amounts to this. The physician learns as much as he can about his patient, in all the ways he can, but chiefly by as much mental catharsis and as much environmental investigation as possible. These he puts together, consults his knowledge of the principles of mental functioning and mental disease, and his experience with other cases; and on this basis he gives advice, adjuration, enlightenment, encouragement." III FIRST STEPS 1. SURRENDER THE first essential requirement for successful treatment is the sincere desire to be helped on the part of the alcoholic himself. Nothing constructive has ever been accomplished or ever will be with men who are dragged or pushed toward curative measures by friends or relatives. In fact, sometimes actual harm is done by such a procedure. A man will often reject premature persuasion, and, once having rejected it, may maintain his attitude for all time. He should be informed that professional assistance is available and then left undisturbed to seek it on his own initiative. I can well understand from the point of view of the family that "premature" may hardly seem a suitable word to apply to a person who has been drinking to excess for many months and possibly years--, but in spite of this fact, I repeat, he should be given the idea as a suggestion and then left alone to think it over. Nothing may ever come of it, to be sure, but on the other hand he may be much more concerned with the matter than appears on the surface. No action may result until some particularly depressing series of events has brought vividly home to him the futility of trying to continue drinking and the apparent impossibility of giving it up unaided. If he should have a friend who has been successfully treated and in whom he has confidence some pressure may be applied by this friend, but even here tact and suggestion should be relied on more than persuasion or exhortation. Alcoholics are apt to be extremely stubborn people; in fact, it might be said with much truth that the therapeutic problem consists in redirecting this stubbornness from destructive to constructive ends. One man, who now no longer drinks anything, when first informed by an ex-alcoholic that there was a systematic method for treating inebriety, did nothing about it for a year, although it had long been obvious to even his most dissipated friends that he simply could not withstand alcohol. Matters naturally went from bad to worse, but this seemed to be necessary in order to convince him that his habit had definitely gotten the upper hand. When at last he awoke to his condition, he allowed his friend to bring him in for an interview. Before very long he was a successful case himself, though both he and the friend who introduced him had looked upon the situation as hopeless before the treatment. However, he did want to stop, or, to use his own phraseology, he "wanted to want to stop," which is all that can be desired in the uninitiated. The surrender to the fact that alcohol can no longer be indulged in without bringing disastrous results is of such importance that it requires extremely thoughtful consideration. This surrender is an absolute starting point as far as the conscious mind is concerned. Experience has shown, however, that an intellectual surrender by no means settles the question, because there are unconscious motivations working in opposition which the patient must be made aware of and upon which he must devote considerable reflection in order that a distorted pride may be expelled from the deepest recesses of the mind. The alcoholic, in company with all other drinkers, started his habit with the idea of being smart or manly as one of the main impulses. Although this idea is supposed to pass away with the coming of maturity, in reality it does not do so. It still lingers in the unconscious as a sort of credo and accounts for much of the driving force which operates against a graceful surrender to the inevitable. In some cases it is fully conscious, and the individual frankly admits that he hates to say "no forever," for reasons which are hard for him to explain because they seem to be apart from an actual desire to drink. When he is confronted with the 'manly" or "freshman" complex, as I often call it, a certain illumination is shed on the question, though often it takes a little analysis and "planation for the idea to become a conviction. If he will face this problem and bring to bear on it the counter idea (which is, of course, only too obvious) that it is the manly thing to give up drinking because weaklings cannot do it, he will accomplish a great deal in the correcting of a very deep-seated obstruction to the cure. It is driving home platitudes as if they were profundities over and over again that actually unifies the emotional system with the intellect so that the latter has complete and permanent domination. Another reason for not wanting to surrender is that the patient visualizes such a step in the light of an irrevocable pledge which he might some day want to retract. The sooner he takes this "'pledge" by himself, the better off he will be, but he is not asked to do so, and a little reflection should show him that as long as he remains in a civilized community there is nothing to prevent a retraction if he really wants to make it. A third way of expressing this will-not-to-surrender is in terms of bogus freedom. The alcoholic wishes to feel "free" to do as he likes; he does not want to bow to the will of his family, his friends, the prohibitionists, or his own better self. This demand for free self-expression may be logical for the man who has drink under control. He may be justified in resenting the interference of those who wish by legislation to interfere with customs which are as old as civilization. But the drunkard should realize that he is in search of a larger freedom which rises far above the influence of man-made law. He has become a slave to something which can in the long run only be used by those who remain masters of it. In reality he has not known what freedom was since he first tried to limit his drinking and found himself unable to do so. The only freedom he can enjoy is that derived from an abstinence which gives him assurance and self-respect in his own eyes. When he knows each day what he has done, what he wants to do, and when he feels within himself the power to do it, then and then only can he understand the true meaning of the word "freedom," as well as the absolute bondage that he was in when he tried to express himself "freely" by drinking all the alcohol that he could lay his hands on. These various theories for not surrendering are often supported by actions clearly showing unconscious motivation: such, for instance, as persistent attendance at very wet parties (though the patient was "absolutely sure of himself" before he went to them), quarrels with relatives and friends inducing self-pity, the distortion of theories designed for the elimination of drinking so that they come to permit of light drinking once in a while. This unconscious resistance against surrendering - that is, being cured is nowhere better demonstrated than by avoiding work and being late for or breaking appointments, apparently always with the best of reasons. There is a telling paragraph in Dr. Sigmund Freud's Introduction to Psychoanalysis: "If you were to come in contact with neurotics as a physician, you will soon cease to expect that those who complain most woefully of their illness are the ones who will oppose its therapy with the least resistance or who will welcome any help. On the contrary, you will readily understand that everything contributing to the advantage derived from the disease will strengthen the resistance to the suppression and heighten the difficulty of the therapy. We must also add another and later advantage to the gain of illness which is born with the symptom. If a psychic organization, such as this illness, has persisted for a long time, it finally behaves as an independent unit, it expresses something like self-preservation, attains a kind of modus vivendi between itself and other parts of psychic life, even those that are fundamentally hostile to it."' Of course a man cannot be expected to agree to do something until he knows of what it consists. Therefore one who has not been entirely convinced that he needs or wants help might be interested in a preliminary interview so that he can have first-hand information that may be of use to him some day, or that might entertain him as pure theory. The attitude taken with such an individual is simply to answer his questions as fully as possible, discussing drink from any angle that he may wish. The accounts of changes in the lives of others more or less similarly situated may catch his attention and it may be possible thus inadvertently to "convert" him as to the advisability of seeking a cure. He is definitely informed that he is not interviewing an evangelist, so that whether he wants to stop drinking or not is most decidedly his own business. There is not the slightest desire or even willingness on my part to settle anybody's moral problems for them. If a person thinks he can drink, let him continue to do so. He may be right, and at any rate it is his own concern, whether he is or not. If his condition is extreme, not from the point of view of prudes, but from that of his drinking friends, and he does not wish to correct it, then he is either insane or a moral delinquent, in which case his problem belongs in another field. When, however, a man is doing something that his more intelligent self (which he would like to have as a permanently directing force) knows to be the height of inexpediency; and when he admits, furthermore, that he can do relatively little about checking this something in spite of his desire to do so, then and then only is the prospect favorable. A person in the beginning cannot be expected to say that he wants to give up drinking in the broadest sense of the word, because if this were true he would promptly give it up without any difficulty and without any assistance, as obviously nobody compels him to drink. But on the other hand he can say that he would like to be shown how to reconstruct his mental processes so that in due time he will no longer want to drink. This is what I mean by the necessary "surrender." 2. FUTURE DRINKING The patient's point of view in regard to future drinking is a second essential for successful treatment. He must have as his goal, no matter how fantastic the idea may seem in the beginning, the complete renunciation of the use of alcohol as a beverage in any quantity, however small for all time. No man who has ever passed from normal or hard drinking to chronic alcoholism, or who has shown persistently a disposition to act in an antisocial manner when under the influence of intoxicating beverages, can ever expect to be shown how to drink in a controlled manner, or to learn how by himself even after long periods of abstention. The very concept of eventual drinking, however remote, seems to be fatal to satisfactory results. The going-on-the-wagon point of view and the giving-it-up-forever point of view have little or no relationship. The first is only a stop-gap. Sober conduct, to be sure, may temporarily result from it, but the alcoholic conflict continues in the mind and sooner or later results in action. Dr. Elwood Worcester, a pioneer in the psychological treatment of inebriates, tried in the early days of his work to teach drunkards to drink "like gentlemen." He told me that in spite of his best efforts he was 100 per cent unsuccessful. Because of Dr. Worcester's skill and experience this would seem to be convincing testimony of the futility of trying to teach the art of drinking to one who has ever reached the point where it has become a pathological problem. Mr. Courtenay Baylor, after seventeen years' successful work with alcoholics, is most emphatically of the same opinion. Why it is that certain persons have a morbid reaction to alcohol after a period of fairly normal indulgence has been indicated in the first part of this book. Whether some day the microscope will disclose physiological deteriorations now unknown is a matter of mere conjecture. Nevertheless, lack of specific knowledge on this interesting point, however helpful it might be, does not seem to stand in the way of successful treatment. Once the mental conflicts, at least those within reach of the conscious mind, have been broken up, the outlook is forward rather than back. Suffice it to say, once a drunkard always a drunkard -or a teetotaler! A fairly exhaustive inquiry has elicited no exceptions to this rule. Of course a man who has had long periods of abstinence may on a few occasions be able to manage things pretty well when he resumes drinking, but sooner or later, depending some what on outside conditions, but still more on the stage of psychological deterioration that he has reached, he will crash harder thin ever. One of the reasons that may make it difficult for an inebriate to reform permanently is an idealization of the past, which he futilely believes he can revive, a belief often unexpressed with which he fools himself over and over again. "This time it is going to be different," you may hear him say, but if you know him well you will smile. There are plans made to drink slowly, to take small drinks, to stick to beer (the most futile of all), to prime first with olive oil, and not to drink before or after certain hours; all in the long run are of no avail. Then there are the occasions; at first only the big ones will cause the vows to be broken, but before long the little ones am getting their full share of alcoholic attention, and eventually they are deliberately invented. Just as the glow of the first cocktail cannot be repeated on any given party no matter how many may be imbibed, so the carefree days when the nerves were strong are gone forever for the man who has abused his nervous system through long periods of excessive indulgence. He has exhausted all but the most fleeting pleasures that can be derived from drinking, and he must understand that he can never recall them. 3. ECONOMIC FREEDOM Some degree of economic freedom is necessary to assist in carrying out the cure. It is futile to attempt a systematic character reorganization with a man who does not know where the next meal is coming from, or whether he is going to have a bed to sleep in that night. The idea of reform is obviously appropriate, but the development of the idea so that it becomes expressed in sustained action requires sufficient freedom from the basic demands of self-preservation to allow the drink problem, intrinsically so important in itself, not to appear to be relatively insignificant before the larger quest. It would seem as if destitution would act as a powerful deterrent to alcoholism, but, as is well known, the reverse is only too often the case when unstable personalities are involved. For this reason, among the poor only those who are at least assured of room and board while they are seeking employment are suitable subjects for reeducation. However, the rich and poor alike cannot await the ideal moment for taking up treatment, since it would doubtless never come. Many of the reasons why the present is unbearable for the alcoholic are derived directly from his drinking and will only be intensified by its continuance. Putting off treatment until this or that trouble disappears is just another way of saying one intends to continue. Experience has shown that the habit has been gotten rid of by many people whose lives were by no means a bed of roses at the time they started to work, but tended toward that ideal state in some degree when they took a mature attitude toward their self-improvement. If drink could permanently remove worry, most of the world would probably be more or less drunk a fair share of the time. But liquor as a diversion is definitely a two-edged sword, as the temporary oblivion gained from its use is unfortunately overcompensated for by an intensified and morbid remembrance when a state of sobriety is regained. Incidentally, if a person is going to drink to any extent he should do so when he is in a happy frame of mind. The men who "get away with it" use alcohol in this manner because it does not require an increasing amount to make an environmental adjustment that is becoming more and more difficult. Some may claim that they know drunkards who only drink, or at least start drinking, in this manner, - to celebrate rather than to seek refuge, - and have the testimony of the drunkards themselves in support of their statement. It seems hard to believe, however, that an otherwise sane person will deliberately ruin his life against his own best judgment for the sake of a most immature form of enjoyment unless he is motivated by a strong compelling force of which he is unaware and from which he is at times trying to escape. Because he picks his time for escaping at moments when his friends are celebrating, he is led to believe that he is doing as they are; but, with the full knowledge of his unfortunate reaction to alcohol, he would not attend these celebrations at all, or would not indulge if he did, if he were not motivated by an abnormal mental condition. 4. THE FAMILY Unless a prospective patient is entirely on his own, a preliminary interview with his family or most intimate friend is most important. Much instructive material may be obtained from them which the patient cannot give, no matter how willing and honest he may be. Frequently what he says and does when drinking is a valuable source of information. The inhibitions are lowered and the resulting speech and action may show clearly the repressions, somewhat in the manner of a dream but without its symbolization. Inasmuch as the family interview often takes place after the patient has been treated several times, it must be stated plainly that the latter's private affairs can be told to nobody without his express permission and that he is only being discussed for his own good. If this were not clearly understood, most people would disclose nothing of an intimate nature, and as a result the work would have to consist of persuasion devoid of analysis, with rather doubtful prospects of success. Of even more importance than the information received are the suggestions which should be given the family to enable them to cooperate with the patient to the best advantage. Another serious concern is the readjustment of the patient to his surroundings, of which The family is obviously the focal point. Where this is impossible, the surroundings themselves must be changed- a more difficult and less constructive performance, as it is often synonymous with hospitalization or permanent rustication in some remote spot. I am using the word 'changed" in its most comprehensive sense minor changes in the environment are nearly always necessary, and generally the most important of these is the facing of the problem by the individual's family and intimate friends in an intelligent and cooperative manner. In the first place, it must be understood that the immediate results of the treatment are far from satisfactory to the layman. There may be relapses throughout the first six months and sometimes these discouraging episodes are numerous and extreme. I say "discouraging" because that is the logical reaction of the uninitiated, but for those who have had experience with alcoholics these falls from grace are discounted in advance as being part of the normal procedure. In nearly every case the individual is slowly weaned from his habit. He is not instantly checked. During this weaning process the change in the fundamental attitude toward drink is often further advanced than would appear in actual conduct, though it is of course recognized that conduct in the long run is the only criterion. In two extreme instances which I can recall no sustained progress was made during the first year of effort. Then suddenly both individuals completely eliminated their habit. As there was no sudden shock in either situation, the complete change of heart can only be explained on the grounds that the effects of the persuasion and the suggestion were accumulating in a mind that had been opened up by analysis, and when these suggestions became sufficiently strong the old habits yielded to them. The first stage in the cure is reached when the patient abandons alcohol as a way of life, so that his upsets are actually mistakes and not a continuation of his former method of environmental adaptation. In the beginning the conduct itself may often be indistinguishable, but unless the patient is a liar (this trait is rare among alcoholics when they are sober, and when it exists the prognosis is very bad) it is easy enough to find out his fundamental attitude by asking him. Relapses may continue after this important change has been made, but on recovery the patient reaches a different point of view: he has a sincere disgust at having been so stupid as to drink, a realization that the best part of his mind at least did not intend to do so, and a feeling that he got little or no satisfaction out of his "party" save in the early stages. Moreover, if with this new state of mind goes a recognition that he has had long periods of contentment without recourse to alcohol, the temporary reversion to former conduct may be discounted. But if after two or three months of work the patient feels that his basic attitude has not changed, that such temperance as he may have shown has been purely a matter of annoying restraint, then it would be worth while considering if a continuation of the treatment were warranted. This situation has not arisen yet. What should be done with the liquor in the house is apt to be one of the first questions asked. The answer is that such dramatic gestures as pouring it away are futile. There is always plenty more obtainable around the corner. It is better to fight the battle out on the firing fine, unless the patient definitely feels that it would be easier to have as dry surroundings as possible during the first part of his rehabilitation. If he does react in this manner he must say so frankly and without feelings of inferiority, for many first-class men have taken that attitude in the beginning, and it is only the stupid or insincere who force themselves beyond their limit. But most men prefer to continue serving their friends in the customary manner. They get a certain stimulating satisfaction in refraining from drinking when there is plenty of it under their noses. Best results are obtained, however, where this liquor is used in moderation as the sober view of "drunken parties" is apt to bore the non-drinking alcoholic just as much as it does any other non-participant. As an escape from such boredom and as a result of concentrated negative suggestion the patient may be tempted to take refuge in the fatal "small one" as a means of adjusting himself to an annoying situation. The inebriate who is attempting to overcome his habit must be given his way in regard to all things pertaining to an alcoholic environment. If he does not want liquor in the house, then obviously it should be removed. Furthermore, if he wishes to give up going to the houses of others, or to any function where it may be served and which would bore him when sober, then those who are primarily interested in him must arrange matters so that he has his way without making him feel that he is selfish and narrow. On the other hand, in this modern age, there is no reason why a wife who is well known in a community should not be free to enjoy herself as much as possible by carrying on her social life alone if necessary. Because the alcoholic chooses, perhaps wisely, to withdraw temporarily or even permanently from wet social functions, there is no reason for his becoming a dog in the manger. (Incidentally this is not a common trait in alcoholics when they have made up their minds to stop once and for all.) A woman may not want to leave her husband alone continually, but much of the time he should be glad to have her amuse herself in the manner to which she has been accustomed. Whether a woman who drinks in moderation should become totally abstemious just because her husband cannot indulge himself without going to excess is a question to be decided on the merits of each particular case. A woman under the influence of liquor is naturally of no help to a man who is trying to give up the habit. On the other hand, the last thing that most inebriates desire is to feel that because they themselves cannot take one drink without eventually becoming saturated their wives must forgo such pleasure as can be derived from one or two cocktails. If a woman is actually dissipated she had better part company with her husband until he has had time to acquire a foundation of new habits. However, I have not yet known of a situation where a relapse was brought about because of a mild indulgence on the part of the wife. While, as I have stated, the inebriate in process of reconstruction must unquestionably be yielded to in matters that immediately concern drink, he should not consider himself a hero and a martyr, and as a result use his praiseworthy efforts as a rod of iron with which to rule the home. Nor should he expect that just because he has stopped drinking everybody with whom he comes in contact is forthwith going to renounce all annoying traits and moods in deference to his change of heart. After all, he is only doing the sensible thing from which he himself will derive the most profit, and he must realize that his relatives' troubles and worries do not cease with his temperance, no matter how much his former course of conduct may have contributed to their aggravation. On the other hand, the alcoholic should always be dealt with honestly, even when he is under the influence of liquor, as he is apt to remember a deception in a way that will react unfavorably upon those who are trying to help him, even though the latter may feel with justification that their relative or friend while drinking has no "'rights." For instance, if in order to get him home the alcoholic is told that he can have what he wants to drink when he gets there (provided he will stay there), then it should be given to him even if some friend has to go in search of another bottle. This arrangement, of course, could not go on forever, but a physician can generally induce sleep before the individual has gone much further in drunkenness. I know of a case where an alcoholic went to an institution voluntarily on the condition that the doctor in charge would agree to his having four or five drinks on the day following his arrival and two or three the day after, a not unreasonable request. The doctor, however, deliberately broke his word. The result was that the cure of the patient, which eventually took place elsewhere, was indefinitely postponed because of the hostility engendered at what was justly considered the dishonest treatment received at the hospital. 5. THE PATIENT At the expense of some repetition, I wish to consider the treatment as it directly affects the patient. The alcoholic is first shown that there are two types of men whose reaction to drink is so extreme, so abnormal, and so detrimental to themselves and to those about them that they cannot afford to indulge any longer in the habit unless they are willing to sacrifice their life to it. These types are the continuous drinker and the 'bad actor." The difference between the normal or hard drinker and the alcoholic is carefully described to the patient, as well as by what route the transformation between the two is made. The influence of inheritance and the influence of early environment on his nervous system are pointed out as being causative but by no means compulsive factors. He is told that practically every inebriate has had some such background as a cause of his trouble, and that if these were insurmountable obstacles to a cure, nobody would ever recover. Then the patient is informed with all the emphasis that can be brought to bear that the sum total of experience to date has shown that if a man has ever definitely been unable to drink in a normal way (in using the word "normal" plenty of leeway is allowed for a good deal of dissipation) he can never again drink anything containing alcohol without the ultimate results being disastrous. He may do so "successfully" for a few times after long periods of abstinence, but there is a wealth of evidence to show that in the long run (and it may not be very long, either) he will become an addict again. If an individual insists that he is the exception to this rule, then the best thing for him to do is to go out and prove (or disprove) it, for there is nothing so convincing as personal experience, and there is very little use trying to persuade a man who his had an insufficient amount of it. If he is only a partial drunkard or an occasional malefactor, he will not be convinced that his problem is a vital one demanding solution unless he is unusually farsighted. The average man must learn the truth from his actions even though these actions may bring disaster in their wake. On the other hand, if a man is a definite alcoholic and yet will not admit that there is anything the matter, he is serving notice to the world to leave him alone, which is the only thing it can do until such time as his conduct necessitates incarceration - or he changes his mind. Once the alcoholic takes up treatment, he must be absolutely honest in giving an account of his thoughts and actions, and he must take great precautions against lying ingeniously (rationalizing) to himself. "To be frank and honest in all relations," writes Professor McDougal, "but especially in all relations with oneself, is the first principle of mental hygiene." A lie obviously does not hurt the instructor, but it creates such a conflict in the mind of the student that progress is at a standstill until it is uncovered. That a man will lie when drunk or when trying to sober up in order to get more liquor goes without saying. Furthermore, he may lie to his wife or to anyone else whom he fears, in order to cover his tracks and avoid a scene, but it is a very different thing to lie to the person who is treating the situation in a professional manner. As no promises are ever exacted, and as no one is ever ridiculed or scolded, there is no particular reason for untruthfulness save an unnecessary feeling of shame. If a person goes to a doctor with a pain in his stomach, he does not tell him that it is in his head if he wants to get well. While on the subject of honesty we might mention that there seems to be a feeling among some people that secret drinking is a particularly reprehensible form of indulgence. As a matter of fact, if a drunkard is going to drink at all, there is nothing peculiar in his sneaking drinks in an environment which is naturally hostile. It shows rather more of a social consciousness than if he did blatantly what he knows is the part of folly. But on the other hand, where there seems to be no reason why a person should not drink in company and where he has plenty of opportunity to do so, then a preference to drink in solitude would probably indicate an abnormal personality. 6. SELF-PERSUASION A man must make up his mind to do everything in his power to cooperate in such work as there is to be done. Halfway measures are of no avail. Even if a patient is interviewed every day, it is obvious that one hour of instruction, analysis, and persuasion could not be effective should a man have an adverse or indifferent state of mind during the other twenty-three. He may listen dutifully while he is in the office and agree with what is being said to him, but if the subject leaves his mind until the next appointment, or if it is counterbalanced by destructive ideas which he could control, then his visits are doing him little good. An alcoholic should always realize that he himself does the actual work which produces the cure, though he may well need to be shown how to do it, and often be encouraged to carry it on. There is no wand to wave over his head wafting away by magic his undesirable habits. Two eminent Frenchmen, Dr. Dejerine and Dr. Gaukler, write thus of their patients: "We give them the desire to be cured, but it is they themselves who work the cure. This is the very thing which constitutes, we think, the great superiority of psychotherapeutic methods by persuasion. They develop in people the feeling of personality and responsibility, they increase their intellectual control, they accustom them to plan their lives and direct their energies by themselves." The patient should view the process as he would a course, say, in medicine or technology. He knows perfectly well if he worked hard the first month or two at a medical school or engineering institute and loafed the rest of the time, or if he worked three days a week and knocked off for the other four, he would be neither a doctor nor an engineer. just because there are no lectures where attendance is taken, no laboratories where specimens can be looked at under a microscope, and no written examinations to be passed, the man who is going through a process of reeducation cannot afford to take his work lightly or informally. In reality he is undertaking the most important problem with which he has ever been faced, and unless it is solved in a satisfactory manner his life will be a total failure. A man must be impressed with the fact that he is undergoing treatment for his own personal good and because he believes it to be the expedient thing to do. In other words, he is doing it selfishly as far as the guiding motive goes, though the results, if he is successful, will of course be anything but selfish. Others cannot help but profit by his change of conduct, and if that is the case, so much the better. But the minute a man seeks to reform for somebody else, no matter how deeply he may care for the other person, he is headed for failure in the long run. The old habits are for a long time trying hard to assert themselves, and as the work proceeds their attacks become more and more subtle. If he can lay the blame for failure at someone else's door, he will surely find a means of doing it. Consider the case of a man who tried to give up drinking for the sake of a wife to whom he was most devoted. Drunk or sober, he was a very peaceable individual, but under special conditions these characteristics did not prevent him from picking an acrimonious argument with his wife one evening. When she quite naturally retaliated, he said, "All right! I've given up drinking for you and it 's a damned hard thing to do, and now see how you treat me! I'll show you that I 'm not going to stand for that sort of thing." He soon showed her by going out and getting drunk. As he had his pockets picked of two hundred dollars which he could ill afford to lose, he incidentally showed himself something, too. The motivating forces behind this performance were entirely unconscious, but when brought to his attention were readily admitted. He simply wanted to get drunk, but, as the old excuses about being cold and tired no longer held good, his unconscious invented what he thought at the time was a " real good reason.'' The problem of drinking for the alcoholic is so important that it cannot afford to be contingent upon other people. If a man must avenge himself for real or imaginary wrongs, then there are plenty of ways for him to do so and still remain in a reasonably integrated state of mind. If, however, he takes a drink, he must realize that he is doing it solely because he wants to drink and not as a response to an external stimulation, whatever form this stimulation may take. The weather, physical fatigue, football games, New Year's Eve, and slumps in the market are typical "good" excuses. But, as I have said, the results of drinking are so disastrous for a chronic alcoholic that there can be no such thing as a good or bad excuse for drinking at all. This, of course, means that an attitude of forethought must be maintained. Should the idea that the problem is after all not a vital one take root in the mind, the work might just as well be given up. The conviction of its supreme importance is an absolute necessity. The frequent inability to give up minor habits by those who have conquered alcohol is an excellent illustration of this point. By contrast the temptation is insignificant, but because these minor habits are very properly held to be relatively unimportant, no genuine sustained effort is put forth to suppress them. Certain moments may be "seductive" if they are allowed to be, but the "'seduction" can be frustrated nine times out of ten by an advance mental preparation, and on the tenth (the unforseen) occasion forceful common sense can be hastily summoned to a mind that has had methodical training in visualizing the problem in its true light. Because surroundings are highly respectable and the cocktail is very mild, the idea that "it won't do any harm to take it just this once," must not be allowed to take root in the mind for an instant. If this dangerous thought so much as shows itself, it must be swamped under an avalanche of positive suggestion. The intellectual idea of abstinence is not of itself adequate to carry on the cure conscientiously over a sufficient period of time. It takes sustained effort to unite the intellectual concept which led the alcoholic to seek help with that consistent form of action which is an expression of an automatic attitude rather than a monument to will power. Sound theory is an absolutely essential point of departure, but the statement that hell is paved with good intentions was never better applied than to the alcoholic who, almost more than anyone else, has become a specialist in avoiding life. Whatever may be the theoretical desire and intention, the old habits do not die as quickly or as easily as one could wish, nor are they dead and buried as soon as the patient considers them to be. In periods of emotional stimulation, whether pleasant or unpleasant, they may suddenly appear to the bewilderment of the person who had supposed himself to be cured "in record time." The habits of five, ten, and perhaps twenty years' standing are not going to pass out of the picture in as many days or even weeks, no matter how intelligent or conscientious a man may be in his application to the work. He has got to keep on directing his mental processes in a formal and definite manner for at least a year after his last debauch. The second year should be regarded as postgraduate work, during which the subject requires a modicum of attention. After that his new habits of thinking - that is, a genuine and automatic desire for abstinence - should have become permanent. But for the rest of his life he must allow himself just one thought in connection with drinking - under no circumstances can he ever drink anything intoxicating again. And "anything" most certainly must include light wine and beer, however harmless one may consider them to be. A man will usually act according to his desires if it is possible for him to do so. Therefore my work is based on the idea that if a permanent cure for alcoholism is to be accomplished the mind must be trained so that in the course of time it ceases to want to drink. This for the drunkard, who has proved by his conduct that drinking is disastrous, is a normal goal which does not require any exotic ratiocination or mental gymnastics to be brought into harmony with logic. When it has been attained, he is no longer in a state of conflict, and his energies become released for other worth-while interests and activities. This I think constitutes the all important difference between going on the wagon, even for long periods, and permanently effacing the mental attitude behind the habit. A man who is on the wagon may be sober physically, but mentally he may be almost as alcohol-minded as if he were drunk. He is sorry for himself (a disastrous state of mind for anybody to be in) and he is envious of his drinking friends. He is constantly wondering if he cannot find an excuse for "falling off," and he is daydreaming of how happy and lucky he will be when the days of abstinence are finished. If he is not actually on the wagon, but is trying to curtail his drinking, he wastes his time attempting to devise various impossible schemes for making his drinking successful. Furthermore, he is doubtless depressed because of some fiasco that he has made of a recent party, he wonders why he did it, and whether he will do it again. He dreads what people are saying about him, and he knows in his heart, however much he may try to whoop up his courage by rationalization, that things are going from bad to worse. Nevertheless, life without liquor seems hopelessly stupid. Looked at with a sense of relativity, to say nothing of a sense of humor, this is sorry stuff to obsess the mind of a supposedly mature man with normal obligations and responsibilities. Yet "obsession" is no exaggerated term to apply to the mental state of the individual who is trying to temporize with alcohol once he has exhibited a pathological reaction to it. Obsessions are arrived at generally after a long and intense application of erroneous thinking, and therefore it is no exaggeration to say that thoughts are most decidedly potent influences in determining people's lives. Constructive thinking must be stimulated in order that values be properly determined and desirable action set in motion. Therefore to prevent a continuous conflict, to prevent denial being a matter of will power, though power should be brought into play whenever logic will permit it. Says Dr. Myerson, "Thought is powerful, words are powerful, if combined with appropriate action, and in their indirect effects. All our triumphs are thought and word products; so, too, are all our defeats." Let the alcoholic, then, become accustomed to talking to himself in some such manner as this: "The most sensible part of me, the part that I consider my best self and should like therefore to think of as my directing force, does not want to drink any more because much experimentation has proved it to be a most unsatisfactory way of living. Furthermore, it is my belief from what I know of the history of other alcoholics (whom I have no particular reason to believe differ materially from myself) that after a course of treatment, from which I learn in a scientific manner how to rid myself of the habit, I shall be very much happier than I can possibly be as long as I persist in trying to beat what has already beaten me soundly. Moreover, this satisfaction will be true from a purely selfish point of view, regardless of the happiness it may or may not bring into the lives of others. Of course I realize that there is a part of me, perhaps a large part in the beginning, that wants to drink. If this were not true it would be unnecessary for me to take formal action about it. But there is no use lying to myself any more or trying further to suppress my unfortunate desires in other words, pretending that this temptation does not exist. However, it does seem logical and reasonable to me that, if I really try consistently, I can reorient my opinion on the subject, which after all has been emotional, so that it coincides with my intelligence. This I have already admitted is the best part of me - the part which certainly should be in control of my destiny, and the part which secretly agrees with the world in thinking that I cannot and should not go on drinking." This is the most important element in the work - the control and direction of the thoughts toward the ultimate logical goal. It is for this reason more than any other that treatment even with those whose theoretical desires (regardless of their conduct in the beginning) are sound must be patiently carried on over a long period of time -long, that is, by comparison with the time required for an intellectual understanding of the treatment. It does little good for a man to endeavor to eliminate his habit until he considers it a sound, sensible, and desirable thing to do; something he would like to accomplish for his own sake, however difficult it may seem. Incidentally, for a man who is willing to buckle down to work the "difficulty" is always exaggerated in the beginning, as successful patients, without exception, have testified at the conclusion of the treatment. On the positive side, then, the patient must keep before him the idea that his most mature intelligent self wants to stop drinking, and whenever he thinks of the subject he must drive this point home with as many masons as he can muster from his experience to support it. On the negative side, all destructive daydreaming about the enjoyment of bygone parties as well as imaginary ones in the future must be checked as near its inception as possible. That these undesirable thoughts will appear, particularly in the beginning of the treatment, goes without saying, but if their presence prevented eventual cure nobody would ever get well. The all-important point is how they are to be treated when they do come to the mind. The negative thoughts must be stopped, but the subject must not be repressed or even dropped from consciousness until it has been pursued to its logical conclusion with as many positive thoughts as possible. When at length the mind is diverted, the unconscious, which is supposed to retain all memories, must be left with a true picture of the whole situation and the individual's intellectual attitude toward it, so that it holds as a conclusion the idea that, whatever may have been done in the past, total abstinence is the only possible and hence desirable solution of the future. The following example will clarify any doubt as to what is meant by the control and correction of stupid and dangerous reflections and imaginings. A man who had successfully rid himself of alcoholism, and who had learned thoroughly how to guide his mind so as to maintain willingly his new attitude toward life, was walking along the street one spring evening. He heard a radio playing an old song which through association carried him back to his drinking days - in fact, to one particularly "glorious party." Before he realized what he was doing he had mentally relived the entire scene. But, even though cured, it would have been a mistake for him to leave his mind in this condition. Being aware of the danger of negative suggestion, he reviewed briefly his alcoholic history: all the trouble of which this party, among many others, had been the forerunner, and the recent debauches, with their painful recoveries - in other words, what a mess he had made of his life because of alcohol. Then he recounted how he had pulled himself together, just about in time, and how entirely different his life had become since he had given up drinking. By this procedure he overcame any tendency to action that might in the long run have resulted from his preliminary pleasant recollections. He had suppressed nothing, nor had he in any way lied to himself, but the final vivid impression left on his mind was that drink was something that he very definitely did not want to bother with again. For emphasis I repeat; It is of supreme importance that positive thinking be employed whenever the subject comes up until the cure is complete, and that negative thinking be restricted to that small amount which automatically occupies the mind before the attention is aroused to combat it. Negative thoughts, given the chance, arise all too swiftly. As the individual's adult life has been built around alcohol, it has naturally become an accompaniment to many of his instinctive urges - particularly his ego or willto-power urge, as has already been pointed out. It is his refuge in trouble and boredom as well as an apparent necessity at times of pleasurable excitement, because for the inebriate there is in reality little or no enjoyment without it. As soon as his intellectual control is shaken at all, and it takes very little to shake it, his emotions immediately take charge, which is almost the same as saying that alcohol takes charge, if there is any available. While in this condition he wants happiness and relaxation (of which I shall come to speak) and he wants them as soon as he can get them. When treatment is under way, the patient is less liable to give in to these emotional states, as he has been forewarned of their probable appearance and has received instructions in handling them. Furthermore, he has taken a definite mental and a more matured emotional attitude toward them. This does not prevent, however, what are called conditioned reflexes - or, better, conditioned responses - from causing a certain amount of peculiar reactions until the mental processes are proof against them. Sometimes these stimuli are perfectly obvious, as would be the case when an alcoholic attends a wedding or dance or any other occasion where formerly he was accustomed to drink. But there are other unperceived stimulations which are connected in his mind with alcohol. When these are received by his senses, they may set in motion his former processes of thinking. Under this head might come certain faces, places, or sounds which are not consciously associated with dissipation although the relationship could be established if enough analytical association were employed. The purpose of mentioning these conditioned responses is, first, to show why it is that a person who is trying his hardest to forget the subject of alcohol may so frequently think about it at unusual times; and, secondly, to explain certain annoying character traits which may crop out for apparently no reason, and which the patient in his bewilderment may at times think are almost as bad as the habit itself if they are to become permanent. These traits are moodiness, depression, and sometimes anger, which apparently are without reasonable provocation. The inebriate misses his accustomed refuge, and furthermore he does not like to surrender to the fact that he must forgo what his friends apparently can indulge in. Moreover, he has in sobriety a surplus energy which he has been in the habit of deadening rather than utilizing. As nothing of a worth-while nature is at hand to which he can devote his attention the minute he sobers, up, the same discontent that he felt between parties is carried over into sobriety, but because he is no longer drugging himself he is more conscious of it. There is a feeling of emptiness and lack of accomplishment even though he may be rather proud of his ability to resist his temptation. Also, he is beginning to realize that this change might have been accomplished sooner, and that on the whole he has been stupid to insist on prolonging his excessive drinking until the last possible moment. Now these phenomena are sometimes entirely unconscious, and are activated to symbolic expression by seemingly irrelevant or insignificant events. That does not prevent them, however, from being a motivating force in the destruction of mental peace and emotional equability. The alcoholic must understand that the initial period of treatment is a transitory state, but that when his creative instinct is satisfied and he has had time to form new associations of ideas his negative moods will pass. Parenthetically I should like to add that, if the patient has a tendency to be disagreeable while drinking, this will be intensified should he suffer a relapse. He will be conscious that he is doing something that he has taken very definite measures against, and that these measures were taken because his intellectual self had come to a realization that drinking for him was the height of inexpediency. This being the case, the alcoholic hates himself for his stupidity in a manner that he never did before he declared himself formally against the habit, and so in drunkenness this self-hatred is almost sure to be projected on to others. One alcoholic found himself unreasonably disagreeable on returning from football games which he attended sober. It was the first autumn in many years that he had gone without liquor, and football had formerly furnished a particularly suitable excuse for intoxication. Apparently he thought little about his problem either during or after the games; in fact, he claimed to have enjoyed them almost as much as ever., and he could think of no reason to account for his ill nature. Then he was shown that, inasmuch as he only began treatment in the middle of September, his old habit system, which he had not had time to eliminate, was still seeking its accustomed manner of expression. He was repressing this desire into the unconscious, and it was vicariously seeking satisfaction in the form of a temper outburst when he returned to his home. When this displacement of affect was analyzed, the after-game tantrums vanished. While we have justly stressed the direct control of thinking and shown its supreme importance, we must add that such action is often best approached and accomplished by a combination of the direct with the indirect. The mind is never a vacuum - it is contemplating something at all times. Hence the elimination of an undesirable system of thought cannot be achieved alone by dwelling on the fact that such and such ideas (with their tendency to action) can be changed or kept out of the mind by concentration alone. The surest, as well as the easiest, way to keep the mind in a healthy state is to have it filled with constructive and diverting thoughts which occupy it because of their intrinsic interest and appeal. In other words, the sooner an alcoholic can become genuinely interested in some worth-while activity, the more of an outlet he will have for his creative urge, and hence the more easily he will rid himself of a bad habit without conscious effort. I have known of cases where men have accomplished their purpose without becoming interested in other phases of life until much later; but when a new interest can go hand in hand with the treatment the results of the work are quicker, surer, and more pleasurable. There is so much excitement attached to alcohol, whereby the stupidest things become vitally interesting, that in moments of temporary sobriety the drunkard is apt to feel that nothing is of any consequence without it. He thinks that he has become so jaded that his power to enjoy simple pleasures, or even complicated ones, without artificial stimulation has gone forever. But this is true only temporarily. Quite naturally, upon first sobering up, the inebriate finds nothing in his life of constructive interest. Though his over-stimulated imagination will put a damper on every idea in the beginning, he should give anything which may have a spark of attraction for him an honest trial. Time after time it has been shown that this interest achievement is no insurmountable task for a person of reasonable intelligence and the will to succeed. For instance, in the matter of conversation, the alcoholic will find that the same "intense philosophications" with which he was wont to bore bartenders and taxi drivers while amusing himself can in sobriety be carried on with people of his own level of intelligence; only, instead of nonsense repeated over and over again, they will become interesting and instructive exchanges of ideas. Consider, for example, a young man whose chief interest in life was to become intoxicated and then discuss art, poetry, and literature with an equally drunken friend. He thought liquor and criticism were indivisible because without the former the discussion seemed to lack stimulation. Knowing that he had not taken the treatment seriously and would therefore again succumb to temptation, I dropped the hint that a review written under the influence of liquor (a time when he thought his mind was working exceptionally well) might be illuminating. The result was pathetic; in fact, so much so that I had difficulty in getting him to show it to me, although he was not as a rule a person who minded a laugh at his own expense. Then I persuaded him to do some literary work while sober, as he had a good mind and a keen critical sense. One night he undertook to write a thesis for one of those athletes who are too busy to perform such work for themselves. He started at 10 P.M. and it was 4 A.M. before it was completed and he realized the lateness of the hour. He said, "'For the first time in many months' " I was really taken out of myself mentally; for the first time since I began drinking I got a thrill out of life sober." This was for him an epoch-making discovery. Though very young, he was a real cynic; his cynicism was not a pose, as it is with so many young people. Therefore it was hard to convince him of the truth of anything that he had not himself experienced, and it was even harder to get him to experience anything in a state of sobriety. The effect of this writing can well be imagined. There is in every man a disposition to create, and this disposition has the force of a fundamental instinct; whether its expression takes the form of painting pictures or selling bonds makes little difference so long as it brings satisfaction. When this creative urge, through laziness or inner conflict, is suppressed, it is bound to break out in some form of abnormal behavior. When a man is drunk, he somehow feels that he is expressing himself, regardless of how preposterous this feeling or its form of expression may be from the point of view of logic. The psychoneuroses, of which alcoholism is one manifestation, are often unsatisfactory substitutes for doing nothing or for perpetually doing something that is distasteful. (An exception to this statement is a person who has been doing something to his taste, but has been grossly overdoing it. This form of causation is, however, very rare indeed.) Thus it behooves the alcoholic who has been vividly demonstrating his discontent with life - or perhaps it would be better to say with himself - to seek a field of self-expression in which he may utilize his superabundant energy, which heretofore he had been drugging to the point of oblivion. Dr. William Healy writes: "Jung views the neurosis as the result of a lack of a positive goal or value in life and as really an attempt (unsuccessful) toward a new synthesis of life." A debauch for the man who knows he cannot drink is nothing but an acute and vivid form of neurotic outbreak. While the satisfaction of this creative urge is most necessary for neurotics, it is particularly requisite for the alcoholic, because' contrary to opinion, he has in the majority of cases an unusual capability if he will avoid rum long enough to become acquainted with his own mind. If the energy and ingenuity that he has shown in becoming intoxicated are directed toward some more legitimate activity, he is more apt than not in the long run to go further than his sober competitor. In other words, his temperament is a powerful force for good or evil; it will take him far toward success and happiness, or it will consign him to hell. The mind must be free of alcoholic doubts and conflicts, so that it can be devoted to the mature interests of life. There are different ways of freeing the mind, and it is important that the right one be selected. It has just been shown that an interest-diversion is most helpful in hastening and consolidating the cure, but the alcoholic must not become so absorbed in this interest that he forgets what actually is his main problem during the first year of treatment, a problem which before all else must be solved. Where drink is forgotten too soon because of its unimportance relative to something else, - a sound enough idea, to be sure, - it sooner or later returns to consciousness as being such a negligible factor that one or two drinks cannot make any difference. "Now that I have this new, interesting, and responsible position,"' says the pseudo-ex-alcoholic to himself, "I can handle the liquor problem in a normal manner. My energies are concentrated elsewhere, and my former reasons for excessive indulgence no longer exist." The only fault with this reasoning is that it does not result in either temperance or moderation, for when a drunkard resumes drinking it is never very long before alcohol again rules supreme. Some years ago there lived a man who decided to give up drinking until he could make a million dollars, at which time he intended to drink in moderation. It took him five years-of sobriety - to make the million; then he began his "moderate" drinking. In two or three years he lost all his money, and in another three he died of alcoholism. The alcoholic, then, who is so fortunate as to have an absorbing interest during his period of reorganization must find time to carry on the work that is prescribed, otherwise his "old"' habit will appear to him as something so far away and incapable of returning that it really makes no difference whether he has a small cocktail or not. So he invariably has one, and the results before long are in no way different than they were before he took up his new interest. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2036. . . . . . . . . . . . The Common Sense of Drinking (1930) Part 3 of 3 From: Lash, William \(Bill\) . . . . . . . . . . . . 9/29/2004 9:29:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IV THE CURE MADE EFFECTIVE I. THE MIND WE have seen that alcoholism and the psychoneuroses have for the most part the same fundamental bases though alcoholism is a rather more natural form of symptomatic behavior because of the social approval that accompanies moderate drinking. It is not surprising that what has been a social custom throughout history in all parts of the civilized world should be the natural method of relief for those of an unstable nervous condition who unwittingly crave a narcotic, but who are unfortunately unable to withstand its soothing influence. Because drinking alcoholic beverages is considered to be normal up to a certain point, the inebriate finds himself a "drug addict" without being made aware of his deterioration in the same sense that he would have been if he had taken morphine. Because of this similarity between the more commonly accepted neuroses and alcoholism, much of the treatment that has been found beneficial in the former is applicable to the latter. Even before the advent of psychoanalysis, one of the cardinal methods of approach to functional disorders of the mind has been through an analysis of the patient's past and present life to the end that the afflicted may unburden themselves, and that as much light as possible may be shed on the underlying motivations through expression. Furthermore, an intimate discussion with a sympathetic listener whose opinion is believed to be authoritative generally brings distinct relief to a troubled mind, even though no advice is given. Frequently I have been thanked at the close of an interview for the assistance I have rendered, when that assistance has consisted merely in being an interested audience. Unconsciously the patient has drawn off his emotional pressure, the driving force behind his undesired state of mind and the conduct resulting from it. If there is live steam in the boiler, it must either go into the cylinder or escape through the safety valve. If the engine cannot revolve and the safety valve is jammed, the boiler bursts. This is an apt if somewhat crude simile of what happens to the neurotic, though the bursting may be expressed in symptoms ranging from a fear of subways to chronic drunkenness. 2. OCCUPATION While the past is doubtless responsible in one way or another for present conditions, the future is going to determine whether or not these conditions are to be changed. To be more explicit, the pursuit of suitable work and the enjoyment of interesting hobbies are without doubt the easiest and surest method of substituting sensible ideas for stupid ones. The discovery of an interesting occupation to which the nervous system is suited is certainly one of the most important goals to be striven for in the reeducation of alcoholics. If a suitable occupation can be selected in advance, much effort, often useless, in trying to adapt a personality to an unsuitable one can be avoided. A man with an unstable nervous system cannot successfully carry on a business which perpetually worries him even though it may be interesting. As an incitement to seek the relief of alcohol, invariably go worry, boredom, and discouragement. An occupation may be in itself distasteful; lack of future opportunity may produce a sense of futility. The energy, both physical and psychic, that a person can expend beneficially depends much less on the quantity of the work than on the quality of the emotional reaction to it. Where a person is continually performing a disagreeable task, he is in a constant state of conflict, though he may be unaware of it because of repression. The greater the conflict and the longer its duration, the more the individual feels himself to be trapped. If he reasons, as he generally does, that his condition is no fault of his own stupidity, then he is sure to feel that he is entitled to forget his troubles in intoxication. To combat alcoholism without making every effort to combat what may well be one of the chief external causes is putting undue emphasis on psychological persuasion,, which may naturally be unable to carry the whole load in the face of too great an obstacle. If possible, a man should leave a distasteful job for one which holds out a natural appeal even if the transfer involves a temporary reduction of financial return. This is much easier to write about than to put into effect, but, in general, plans can at least be made for an eventual change so that the individual substitutes for the trapped feeling a more philosophical acceptance of a status which he has come to regard as temporary. Where a change seems to be impossible, depression can often be alleviated by the development of some hobby to be pursued in the evenings and over the weekend. If a man has something to look forward to at the end of the day, time passes more quickly and with considerably less bitterness. Dr. Myerson comes to my support here. "A hobby, or secondary object of interest," he writes, "is therefore a real necessity to a man or woman battling for a purpose whose interest must be sustained. It acts to relax, to shift the excitement, and to allow something of the feeling of novelty as one reapproaches the task." The italics are mine. Where the predominating conscious conflict in a man's life revolves around another personality rather than around a material object, a radical change in the relationship should be deferred if possible until the drink problem has been settled, when a man will act according to the ideas resulting from a free functioning intelligence rather thin those of an unstable alcoholic emotionalism. It is true that he may consider with justification that the other personality, when most displeasing, is a distinct stimulus to his habit. Nevertheless he cannot be sure of his opinions until he finds out by actual trial to what extent both the conduct of this person and his own ideation are a result of chronic drunkenness, occasionally interspersed with grouchy and uncertain periods on the water wagon. (One of my patients who recovered eventually from alcoholism bitterly regretted a divorce which he had prematurely precipitated because of a disorganized state of mind.) An inebriate does not know his own true self. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that this knowledge does not come in its entirety for many months after a man has been sober on a " for-all-time" basis. The chances are that his drinking started in late adolescence, and thus he has never known either the extent or the direction of his adult potentialities. Therefore all important decisions, other than that definitely to stop drinking, should be postponed until the treatment is well on its way to a successful culmination. 3. THE BODY Although this book does not discuss the physiological results of excessive drinking, the attention given the body during the period of mental reeducation requires brief consideration. In order successfully to make over certain processes of the mind, the organic system should give all the assistance that it can. It should be kept in the best possible condition, and to that end the elements of a normal physical hygiene should be faithfully followed. A medical examination by a competent physician is a wise point of departure to find out what corrections, if any, are necessary to enable the patient to carry on his work with a feeling of physical well-being. A moderate amount of daily exercise - walking is as good as any other - is a requisite for the average person's health. (Anything more strenuous should follow the doctor's advice.) A person who is taking up the reorganization of his mind should employ every means possible to assist him, and quite naturally the condition and training of the body are not the least important. Because of its extreme obviousness, this essential phase of the work is given only the briefest mention, but that does not mean that it can be slighted -indeed, it must receive the most careful consideration. 4. RELAXATION AND SUGGESTION The next phase of the work is that of relaxation and suggestion. This well-known method of psychotherapy has a twofold purpose. First, to remove the emotional tenseness from the conscious mind; second, to educate the unconscious so that it will function in harmony with the desires of the conscious. Relaxation, or the elimination of tenseness, comes first. If people accustomed to the use of alcohol will reflect, they will probably agree that the pleasurable state of mind resulting from the first few drinks is due primarily to two mental states - a feeling of self-importance, and an accompanying feeling of calmness, poise, or relaxation. We have already indicated that "self-importance" can be created legitimately and maintained permanently without recourse to alcohol. Relaxation can as easily be achieved by natural methods, and experience has shown over and over again that when this has been the case, a most important blow has been struck at the fundamental causes of excessive drinking. This tension, which is largely emotional, can express itself in a variety of ways; fear, worry, and, most commonly, boredom. Unhappily, for many men, alcohol for a short space of time removes tension most effectively, and so the person disposed to these states of mind has a tendency to resort to it as a narcotic (a quieting drug having strong habit-forming propensities). That alcohol is no real solution to nervous tension is shown when drinking is carried to its extreme limit (delirium tremens). But, whatever the final results may be, the initial effects are so satisfactory that the individual is tempted to seek this method over and over again for want of a better one, with full realization of the eventual suffering that he must endure. On the other hand, if he can find a method which will prevent the accumulation of this excess tension, if he can learn to face life calmly and quietly, he will not feel the need of what he thinks of as a stimulant but what in reality is a sedative. Men, if necessary, can resist a stimulant; but once they employ alcohol as a narcotic they have great difficulty in controlling themselves. When the narcotic employed is very powerful, as is the case with morphine and cocaine, the problem is practically insoluble outside of the four walls of an institution. Relaxation, however, can be achieved without alcohol if a person will take the time to study the method. Let us consider for a moment the physical aspect. When a man can go through the day using only those muscles which he needs at the time and to the extent that the situation demands and can permit them to recuperate the rest of the time through relaxation, he is far more efficient in business and far less fatigued when the day's work is over than he is if, for example, he sits at his desk with his legs rigid and his toes dug into his shoes or walks home at the end of the day with his Jaws and fists clenched. From the mental point of view, if this same man can train himself by methods of relaxation to avoid displays of temper, baseless apprehensions, shyness, and other unpleasant moods, not by attempting to suppress them, but by finding out why they exist and anticipating occasions which might create them, he has begun to get at the roots of his drinking in a manner that he never did when he was putting the blame on his inheritance, the bad start he got in college - or the weather. Now let us consider the phenomena of suggestion. The existence of the unconscious (sub-conscious or co-conscious) and the fact that it can be affected, without even the knowledge of the conscious, were definitely proved long ago by hypnotism. Thus if all in need of it could be hypnotized, and if the effects of hypnotism were permanent, the whole problem of alcoholism would be solved by this method of treatment. Unfortunately, however, many persons cannot be hypnotized (this is particularly true of introverts, who make up the largest group of alcoholics), and those who can are in most cases only temporarily relieved of their ailments. In fact, it was because of the limitations of hypnotism that Freud was impelled to seek other methods to treat successfully the psychoneuroses, and thus finally evolved psychoanalysis. He was perfectly capable of putting many of his patients in a state of hypnosis, and of giving them, while in that state, suggestions that were of the utmost benefit for the time being, but because of the ultimate recurrence of the malady he was dissatisfied with it as a means of psychotherapy. On the other hand, it has been found by many practitioners that a deep though fully conscious relaxation (what the late Dr. Morton Prince called a state of abstraction) followed by suggestion seems to give the unconscious mind the stimulation and direction that it needs. As the patient is well aware of what is taking place, the results of this suggestion are not as quick and spectacular as they are when amnesia is induced, but they are surer and in the long run their effect is out of all proportion to the energy spent in practicing them, provided the work is carried on systematically over a sufficient period of time. Let him who is skeptical about this suggestion commit to memory two verses of poetry-one in the morning to recite in the evening, and the other just before going to sleep to recite on the following morning. He will soon discover that the latter gives better results with a minimum of effort expended. The relaxation procedure is as follows. The patient is instructed to recline in a chair and think of himself as being numb, heavy, limp, and relaxed. He is told that the chair and the floor are holding him up and that there is no need for him to make any effort whatsoever. He need not even keep perfectly quiet if it is difficult for him to do so. If other ideas than those he is being given enter his mind, he is warned not to try to resist them but to let them come into his field of thought and then quietly pass out of it again. He takes a long deep breath in the beginning which is slowly exhaled, and thereafter the breathing is rhythmical and slow as in sleep. In a voice that is even and monotonous the instructor enumerates the more prominent muscles of the body, such as the arms, legs, shoulders, and back, which are to be relaxed, and the patient is informed many times that he is becoming drowsier and sleepier, and that his mind is following his body into a state of relaxation. When at the end of four or five minutes a state of drowsiness has been attained, simple suggestions are given; but these suggestions must under no circumstances conflict with ideas which are acceptable to the individual when he is in alert condition. He is then instructed to relax himself at night in much the same manner, though he is at perfect liberty to invent any method of his own which he may find more effective in treating himself. For instance, one patient discovered that relaxation could best be induced under conditions of extreme tension by first making the muscles all over the body as taut as possible while slowly inhaling, and then very slowly relaxing while exhaling, the process to be repeated more and more slowly as often as necessary. The suggestions given to the patient during the relaxed state are in general to the effect that he is going to be more calm, poised, and relaxed on the following day, that he is slowly but surely building up a well-poised mature personality, and that as his nervous tension passes away the desire for alcohol will go with it; furthermore, that through a relaxed attitude he will develop a sense of relativity so that he can distinguish the true values of life from the false, and that, what is all-important, having distinguished them, he will be able to develop them in a sustained manner. Alcohol itself is referred to as briefly as possible because of the danger of employing negatively suggestive words, but in the beginning it is necessary to mention it if the subject is to be done sufficient justice in the patient's estimation. If, on retiring, a person is already relaxed and ready for sleep, the artificial method can be dispensed with, but the suggestion must never be omitted as the ideas in the mind at that particular moment are more potent in influencing the personality than at any other time. A whole book might be - and indeed has been - written on the energy wasted and the exhaustion produced by living in a contracted state of mind and body. Bodily tension, except where it is willed for the accomplishment of some task, is always the result of a nervous state of mind, though the latter can exist apparently independent of physical expression. For those who are interested in the physiological side of this problem I recommend Progressive Relaxation, by Dr. Edmund Jacobson. It is rather technical for a layman, but it shows in a convincing manner the far-reaching results of relaxation. I appreciate that this relaxation-suggestion phase of the treatment may sound like hocus-pocus to those who have never tried it. But I have never yet seen a person - and alcoholics are much more apt to be skeptical than credulous - who did not admit receiving very distinct benefits from it, once they had given it a fair trial. It must be clearly understood, however, that relaxation is the direct opposite rather than the counterpart of laziness and slouchiness. (The sporting columns of Mr. Grantland Rice have made much of relaxation as an all-important element in a successful athletic career.) Relaxation is, in fact, the antithesis of laziness, in that by conservation of energy greater efficiency is promoted, and hence more successful work can be accomplished. Catching a baseball is a good simile to illustrate the difference between the tense and relaxed attitude towards life. A novice holds out his hands rigidly; the ball strikes them, stings, and is probably muffed. A trained player extends his hands to meet the ball, but brings them back at the moment of contact; there is no pain, and the ball has been caught, because relaxation has taken place at the proper moment. To substantiate the theory I have described, quotations from Mr. Courtenay Baylor's book, Remaking a Man, are pertinent. "I recognized," he writes, "that the taking of the tabooed drink was the physical expression of a certain temporary but recurrent mental condition which appeared to be a combination of wrong impulses and a wholly false, though plausible philosophy. Further, I believed that these strange periods were due to a condition of the brain which seemed akin to a physical tension and which set up in the processes a peculiar shifting and distorting and imagining of values; and I have found that with a release of this `tenseness' a normal coordination does come about, bringing proper impulses and rational thinking." And again, "Underlying and apparently causing this mental state (fear, depression, or irritability), I have always found the brain condition which suggests actual physical tenseness. In this condition a brain never senses things as they really are. As the tenseness develops, new and imaginary values arise and existing values change their relative positions of importance and become illogical and irrational. Ideas at other times unnoticed or even scorned become, under tenseness, so insistent that they are converted into controlling impulses. False values and false thinking run side by side with the normal philosophy for a time; and then with the increasing tenseness the abnormal attitude gradually replaces the normal in control. This is true whether the particular question be one of drinking or of giving way to some other impulse; the same indecision, changeability, inconsistency, and lack of resistance mark the mental process. In fact, the person will behave like one or the other of two different individuals as he or she is not mentally tense." We must not overlook one very important but little-recognized stimulus to drinking. Emotional instability (tension) can be created by legitimate excitement (such as attending a football game where the home team is victorious or, for that matter, by any other form of pleasant emotional stimulation) just as surely as it can by worry and unhappiness. In fact, it would be no exaggeration to say that the alcoholic has to learn to withstand success just as assuredly as he does misfortune, strange as this statement may seem. Many drunkards claim that they do not use alcohol as a refuge but as a means of celebration, and they are probably right as far as their conscious minds are concerned. Why a man under pleasant emotional stimulation seeks narcotic escape from reality in the same manner as he does from unpleasant emotions is an interesting question but difficult to answer. My own theory is that a neurotic is unconsciously, and possibly consciously, afraid when his emotional equilibrium is disturbed, no matter what the quality of the disturbance may be. When he is in a state of euphoria (happiness) he evidently feels the need of a stabilizer to the same extent as he does in dysphoria (unhappiness), just as he is bored when he looks inward, so he is frightened when he looks outward, if the customary scene has changed even a little. Stekel, the psychoanalyst, throws some light on this question when he writes in his volume, The Beloved Ego: "There has always remained a bitter sediment in every joy, a secret fear that Is the gods wish to destroy us,' that happiness would be followed by misfortune, and that the contrast would make the inevitable misfortune appear all the greater. Is this the right form of teaching? Happiness should not make us reckless; but should our happiness be poisoned by the thought of its inevitable end? " Is it not possible that this "bitter sediment" is overdeveloped in the alcoholic, even if it is entirely unconscious ? Finally, we must remember that most people enjoy being emotional, and would like to express themselves in this instinctive manner much more often than is possible under normal living conditions, and the resistance to such expression for lack of opportunity is a contributing cause of tension. When men drink, the self-critical inhibitions are lowered and an emotional discharge easily takes place. "Now of all the intellectual functions," says Professor McDougall, "'that of self-criticism is the highest and latest developed, for in it are combined the functions of critical judgment and of self-consciousness, that self-knowledge which is essential to the supreme activity we call volition or the deliberative will. It is the blunting of this critical side of self-awareness by alcohol, and the consequent setting free of the emotions and their instinctive impulses from its habitual control, that give to the convivial drinker the aspect and the reality of a general excitement."' The individual under the influence of alcohol does what he wants to do, - that is, in some way exercises his emotions, - and he is happy doing anything so long as he can have this emotional outlet. It matters very little from the point of view of a good time whether he laughs or cries, and, for that matter, whether he cries over the death of a friend or the blowing out of an automobile tire. If tears and sobs are any indication of his grief, they both furnish the same amount of sorrow. In other words, alcohol not only permits an emotional discharge, but also it never fails to provide an instantaneous incitement to whatever new emotional form of expression comes to mind. However ridiculous this incitement and its form of expression may be from the sober point of view, they are satisfying to the drinker. He has his "cause" and he is going to have his emotional spree about it. (The word "emotion" is used in a wide sense in this particular paragraph. For instance, to be very serious-minded and persuasive about nothing at all would certainly be an emotional rather than an intellectual proceeding.) While the release of the emotions through alcohol may be of benefit to the normal drinker who has an occasional "party," it in no sense releases the alcoholic, but on the contrary precipitates him into a worse mental condition than he was in at the beginning. The moment he regains sobriety a new series of depressive nervous thoughts are in attendance to take the place of the boredom or worry that was supposed to have been the cause of the first drink. So the alcoholic must learn, not to eliminate or repress, but through relaxation to prevent the accumulation of emotional tension unaided by alcohol. There are certainly times when the emotions should be enjoyed to the limit, and the person who is always restrained and judicial is apt to be a dull pedant. But once a legitimate emotional situation is over, a man must learn to revert willingly to the realm of reason until another normal moment for emotionalism presents itself. These occasions should not be prolonged or created on a whim by indulging in a drug which is too stimulating in the beginning and far too depressing for a long time thereafter. The results in the long run are as futile as they are when this same substance is used as a refuge from trouble. As a matter of fact, one of the most interesting features to observe about drink, and the one that more than any other has made it an alluring social custom, is its apparent soothing and yet stimulating effects acting simultaneously. These attributes seem to have a fatal fascination for those whose nervous systems are not suited to being stimulated or relaxed by an artificial medium. Coffee will stimulate and sleeping powders soothe, but neither of them creates a feeling of elation, whereas alcohol in its earliest stages seems to possess both the "desired " qualifications. Of course these effects are only temporary. It is common knowledge that the stimulation resulting from liquor is so short-lived and so quickly turns to exhaustion that nobody contemplating prolonged effort considers employing it as an aid. Even more deceptive is the soothing quality, for, as has been stated, the continued drinking of unlimited quantities of alcohol results in delirium tremens, the very peak of physical and mental tension. 5. READING AND WRITING It is often helpful in influencing the trend of thinking to read books of a constructive nature whether they bear directly on the problem, as would be the case with those of a philosophical or psychological nature, or whether the appeal is through inference. Books which would influence in this manner are biographies or autobiographies of men who have become successful. Lives of such men as Napoleon, Lincoln, Lee, Washington, Pasteur, and Disraeli cannot fail to act as an inspiration to a man who is endeavoring to get rid of an undesirable habit. Conversely, literature which deals with the charms of hedonism, which expounds a philosophy of "Eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we die," or which glowingly describes dissipation, should be carefully avoided until the patient is definitely cured. Of those books which deal directly with the problem of character integration in a popular manner I know of none better than The Human Machine, by Arnold Bennett. There are, of course, others written in a similar vein, and if the alcoholic will give a little attention to the bookstores and libraries he will be able to find sufficient reading material to keep his mind constructively occupied throughout the period of treatment. How much, if any, investigation of abnormal psychology should be made depends upon the individual reaction to the subject. For instance, some men are quite interested in the theories of psychoanalysis and can read its more simplified expositions with considerable benefit, while others are disturbed by it, or merely disinterested. Such books as interest the patient must be read in a careful manner, and the ideas which particularly appeal to him should be marked. This does not mean that an abstract is to be made as proof that the book has been read with understanding, but rather that the patient is to gather together a group of ideas which will contribute to the construction of a new philosophy of life. If a few helpful suggestions can be culled from pages of platitudes, then reading the book has been worth while. For this reason a person should show some degree of perseverance in searching through a book which may not stimulate him in the beginning. On the other hand, if he has a definitely unpleasant reaction to it, he should drop it instantly. Writing as well as reading is of benefit to the patient. It helps to crystallize in his mind the ideas that he has received. He may write an exposition of his personal reaction to the treatment so far as he has progressed in it, or he may write a letter to an imaginary friend describing how the alcoholic habit can be eliminated. If this latter way is employed, the patient is for the moment playing the role of teacher, and there is no way of learning that is half as effective as teaching. Writing incidentally will disclose how many of the ideas have been thoroughly understood and retained in the patient's mind, how many have gone in one car and out the other, and how many have been twisted so that they are more in line with emotional wish fulfillment than with an intellectual disposition of the problem under consideration. Many people who are apparently listening with the closest attention are in reality only considering what they themselves are going to say when it comes their turn to do the talking. Whatever the method of approach to the composition, the cure will be clarified, objectified, and in a sense intensified by an occasional thesis of not less than two pages. If an individual is willing to write more often and at length, so much the better. The following is a sample theme of the autobiographical type, written by a man for whom alcohol had become a serious problem because of his occasional antisocial reaction to a normal amount, rather than because of prolonged debauches. He felt with some reason that this latter manifestation was latent. The cure for alcoholism, as given me during the last nine months, has left me with the following impressions. When I began the cure, I had just reached the point when alcohol had become a narcotic. The periods during which I was "on the wagon" were becoming shorter and shorter, and in the ensuing "hangovers" I had already reached the point when I felt that I needed rather than wanted a drink the next day. My shame and depression from the periodic outbreaks was becoming a dull and ever present misery. I had for some time known that Peabody was making a business of successfully curing alcoholics, and after an especially severe debauch I called him in on the theory that it was at least worth while for me to hear about how other people had been cured. The first, and one of the most important, things that I got out of his explanation was a brand new thought to me - namely, that habit of thought is more powerful than will. This thought immediately reduced the cure from an intangible exercise of will power to a definite course of mental training, and made the cure seem to me not conceivable but probable. It made the cure seem more like learning algebra than learning to love Art. Starting from the basic idea that, although it involved a great deal of effort, it was possible, I then considered the question of whether it was worth while to make the effort. The answer was obvious. The answer to the next necessary decision to be made by me was equally obvious. If I was to change my habit of thought, learn to want not to drink, I must give up alcohol for all time, as only by doing so could I eliminate any conflict of thought on the subject. From this point on the cure became an exercise of mental gymnastics, the overrunning of old habits of thought by new habits of thought. You cannot obliterate tracks in the mind any more than you can hoof-prints in a muddy road, but you can overrun those old tricks in the mind until they are no longer important in the same way that you can overrun hoof-prints in a muddy road by the tire tricks of an automobile. One of the tasks I was set seems very important to me - the making out of a daily schedule, which, once made out, had to be lived up to. This issuance of small commands to myself and my obedience to them rapidly restored my self-respect. Incidentally my efficiency in my daily work was enormously increased, which increased the respect for me of other people. This reacted favorably on my confidence in myself. In other words, by perfectly mechanical means I was enabled to rum what had been a vicious circle into a beneficent circle. The more pride I was able to take in myself the less need I had of the rallying effect of alcohol when I went out. Besides the schedule, another aid was available and equally important. Almost all impulses originate in the unconscious mind. It is necessary therefore to change the habit of thought in the unconscious mind. This is perfectly possible. Peabody used to - and still does - relax me, physically as well as mentally, and when I am in a relaxed condition, talks to me. What thoughts he expresses at that time are sowed in my unconscious mind. He has taught me to do the same thing for myself. The result is that when I am offered a cocktail, instead of instinctively saying "Yes" I instinctively say "No." I have been able to put the application of this method to work in my daily life downtown. All this sounds pretty easy. It is not easy for several reasons. First, that it takes a certain amount of courage to admit that you, yourself, cannot do what others can apparently successfully do, namely, drink. Secondly, that it takes a long time to overrun with new habits of thought the old habits of thought in the mind, and a certain amount of will power is necessary to carry you through the long grind. After my common sense told me that the cure was possible, - in fact, if the work be done, inevitable, - I went to Peabody on the same theory that I would have gone to in instructor of mathematics had I found it necessary to learn calculus. Probably I could learn calculus by myself out of books, but it would take me a great deal longer than if I went to a competent teacher. I keep referring to mathematics because the whole cure seems to me similar to addition. If you add two and two you get four. If you add one and two you don't get four, you only get three. What you put into your mind you take out. If, over a long period of time, you have put things into your mind which are bad for you those same things come out, and the reason that I am so much better off to-day than I was nine months ago is that the right things that I have been putting into my mind have largely nullified the wrong things that I had put in the past. 6. LIVING BY SCHEDULE The therapeutic problem is one of mental and emotional reintegration, which implies obviously that a disintegration of personality is found to some extent in each patient at the beginning of the work. This disintegration shows itself in laziness and inefficiency, even when the alcoholic is sober. This it is absolutely necessary to correct. Of course there are some inebriates who from time to time introduce bursts of efficiency into an otherwise disordered life. Then there are those who concentrate upon one form of "efficiency" so that it is almost a fetish. Neatness is a case in point. I have known drunkards who prided themselves upon their personal appearance at all times (except when they were so drunk that they did not know what they were doing), even though their life was crumbling about their cars. But by and large the excessive drinker has lost his sense of values; he has no goal in life; he is entirely concerned with drinking, sobering up, and drinking again. Everything else is of so little importance that it receives at best only a half-hearted consideration, and, more often, none at all. The "conscientious" acts performed when under the influence of liquor would have been better left undone until sobriety was-again attained. The individual who leads this sort of inefficient existence, even when he is not an alcoholic, is flying in the face of an urge having almost instinctive force, for whenever we observe nature we note an orderly system. This same methodical urge to be integrated exists in our characters. In olden times this question of conduct was such an obsession that the word "integrity" itself, which originally meant orderliness, came to assume a definitely ethical meaning. Nowadays to be well organized is recognized as a concrete means of existence rather than an abstract principle with religious overtones. Dr. Jelliffe and Dr. White, in the chapter on the Manic-Depressive psychoses in their book, Diseases of the Nervous System say, "The efficiency of one's relation to reality is the measure of one's normality." Our problem is to substitute a benign for a vicious circle, and the key to this substitution is the employment of a method whereby a relative degree of efficiency will be achieved. The drunkard must naturally sober up first; but, this having been accomplished, a new and more vigorous point of view must be injected into that period which heretofore has consisted in marking time between "'parties," to take the place of indifference, remorse, or hopeless discouragement. If, during this interim, the reaction to life can be changed even slightly for the better, if some concrete action can be introduced into the daily attempt at normal adaptation which will give the patient the feeling, "Here is something constructive (dynamic and new)," then the cure may be said to have started. I say "concrete" action because wise planning is a comparatively easy task for most people. In fact, it is so easy that all but the most vicious inebriates have been as full of lofty and sensible ideas as they have been of liquor, long before they have taken any constructive action about their problem. But it is the execution of the plan that determines whether or not the initial theories were of any value. There must be action -forceful, purposive, intelligent, and sustained; and there is no better way to produce this action than to plan and execute one's life according to a self-imposed, prearranged schedule. To be explicit: before going to bed the patient should write down on a piece of paper the different hours of the following day, beginning with the time of arising. Then, so far as can be determined beforehand, he should fill in these hours with what he plans to do. Throughout the day notations should be made if exceptions have occurred in the original plans, and it should be indicated whether these exceptions have been due to legitimate or rationalized excuses. The latter must be avoided at all costs. Small as well as large activities that are taken up should not be dropped until completed unless they are in a sense unknown quantities, entered upon for purposes of investigation only. Just how detailed the schedule should be depends somewhat upon the individual personality, for it is the spirit in which it is carried out rather than the letter of the law that is important. Some people are made nervous by looking at the clock, and so they have better results if they merely put down what they intend to do in a semblance of order. The time method is the best, however, although it is desirable that the commitments should not be treated from a petty point of view, such as might create only an annoying reaction. For instance, when a person his set aside the hours from three to five for reading, he is not supposed to close his book promptly at five o'clock if a few minutes more will give him sufficient time to finish the chapter. Moreover, there are business as well as social interests which cannot be terminated at any hour known in advance, as they depend upon other people who are not in any way interested in a schedule. Obviously, under these conditions, question marks will have to be substituted for definite time limits, but this need not prevent the schedule from doing all that it is intended to do if such things as can be done are carried out in the proper spirit. The schedule must be thorough; on it goes everything - not only work and duty, but pleasure and rest, though the rest should be of a definite nature and not just loafing about. At least one thing which must be done eventually, but which has been procrastinated because it is distasteful, should be included in each day's plan until all the pieces of an inefficient past have been picked up. As far as notations go, I wish to repeat for emphasis that these will be determined by common sense, checked by the utmost personal honesty that can possibly be attained. Most people in their hearts cannot really fool themselves unless they wish to. So the alcoholic should have no trouble in determining honestly whether a change in the schedule has been made for sensible and necessary reasons or whether it has come about through the reassertion of the old habits of laziness, if logical, it should be made without hesitation, for the schedule has reason as its basis and not fanaticism; but ingenious as well as feeble excuses must be stringently suppressed. The schedule contributes to the reintegration of character in three ways, all of them important. First, it prevents idleness. This advantage is so obvious that I shall let a quotation from Dr. Stekel suffice for further comment. "Earthly happiness," he writes, "or that condition which we call happiness, is primarily dependent upon our relationship to time. People who have no time, but, in spite of that, find time for everything they wish to do, are the happiest. There is no need for them to kill time. They never get so far as to become conscious of it - they know no boredom. Boredom is nothing else than consciousness of time." Second, the schedule brings to the attention of the alcoholic the fact that he is doing something concrete about changing his condition, something more than mere discussion and reflection. One of the chief difficulties of the treatment is its seeming vagueness outside of the central theme (abstinence), and so the more reality that can be brought into the work, the surer and quicker the favorable outcome. As has been stated before, the alcoholic is more of a student than a patient, and he should never be allowed to forget that he is taking a course. The third and most important of all reasons for employing the schedule is the training that it gives the individual in executing his own commands. It stands to reason that if ten or twenty times each day a person carries out a self-imposed direction, even though each of these directions may in itself be infinitesimal, a definite contribution has been made to the formation of a new character. In battle it has been proved over and over again that large hordes of individually brave but untrained men can accomplish little when opposed by a smaller but disciplined military group. It takes plenty of close order drill before a regiment can go over the top, though the commands of that drill are never by any chance used in modern warfare. So with the alcoholic and his temptation. He cannot expect consistently to conquer his enemy in every drawing-room and country-club porch if he has made no advance preparation. He must do something more than theorize, important as that is, if he is going to pass through a cocktail barrage unscathed. In the end, to be sure, his abstinence will be the result of his not actually wanting to drink, but to reach that end successfully requires a disciplined personality. That this training, if carried out over a sufficient period of time, will have ultimate results far exceeding that of mere sobriety goes without saying, but we will reserve discussion of that important "by-product" for a later period. From my own point of view the schedule gives a very good indication of what may be expected from each particular patient. A man who cannot or will not carry out such an important element of the work may be strongly suspected of being unsuitable material upon which to spend time and energy either because of his constitutional makeup or because of lack of sincerity. 7. THE NOTEBOOK AND WILL POWER Keeping a notebook is another helpful means of objectifying the work. As a basis for this book I have collected some sixty statements pertaining to the elimination of the alcoholic habit. These ideas, which average about one hundred and fifty words each, are set down on separate sheets of paper, one of which the patient takes home with him, after it has been carefully discussed, and transcribes in his own handwriting. He is cautioned to do this work only when he has sufficient time to give the point under consideration considerable reflection. If he can expand the idea, or if he can express it, without changing the sense, in words that make more of an appeal to him, so much the better. He also copies into his notebook those ideas which he has marked in the books that he has read. Thus he creates a personal reference book which should stimulate him by precept, warning, or inference toward better control and more mature behavior. This book he should turn to frequently for the purpose of refreshing his mind with his new system of philosophy and as a means of correcting any negative suggestion which he may have absorbed. Of course it is the spirit with which the notebook is kept that is important, not the perfunctory copying out of so many words in an uncritical and unreflective frame of mind. If the alcoholic cannot see the help to be derived from this procedure, as in the case of the schedule, he should not be coerced into taking it up. But the conscientious student who wishes to make the most of his time will be anxious to employ all the elements that have assisted others toward reconstruction. There are too few of these aids as it is, and it is hardly fair if one or two are neglected, particularly as the one that is slighted is presumably the one that is most necessary. "Many patients," writes Dr. Menninger, "show their resistance by doing everything imaginable in the name of treatment, except the thing most likely to cure them." For example, if exercise is avoided, the mind has to work against, rather than with, a body which at least should be pulling its own weight. If, again, the pre-sleep suggestion is forgotten, the unconscious is not being trained to cooperate with the conscious, and thus one of the strongest methods of attacking the problem is omitted. I have emphasized the right spirit in which the work should be undertaken and maintained. Anticipation is a powerful aid to this proper frame of mind. The alcoholic must continually suggest to himself that he is going to carry on the work just as conscientiously and seriously in the future as he did in the beginning until he has had a year of uninterrupted sobriety behind him. If he faithfully faces the future in this manner, he will be well armed against overconfidence or laziness, (if he is sane and sincere, there is no chance of an "about face" as regards his intellectual attitude.) In the beginning he is particularly apt to get good results, because, although he is very near to the latest expression of the habit he is endeavoring to conquer, the treatment is colored with novelty and enthusiasm. When this wears off, as it is bound to do, he may become lazy and uninterested if he has not taken pains to prepare his future mental attitude, though the method that this laziness will take will be a premature conviction that he is already cured. Experience has shown that relapses come about in this way and not because of the accumulation of an irresistible thirst through a period of abstinence. As a matter of fact, in no case yet where a relapse has occurred has the patient told me that it resulted from overwhelming temptation in spite of conscientious work. In each and every instance it was frankly admitted that the carrying out of the therapeutic measures had been allowed to slacken some time before a drink was actually taken. There have been a few instances which might be considered an exception to this statement in its narrowest sense. These occurred very early in the treatment and were the sudden expression of rage or grief which gave the neophyte the "justification" he was looking for. Before finishing the discussion of the treatment, there is one point which I should like to bring home. So much has been said about methods for overcoming the alcoholic habit other than the old-fashioned one of straight will power that the reader may be wondering if this does not enter into the work at all. On this point there should be no misunderstanding. Will power is most decidedly necessary, but after the first month or two it is used chiefly as a force to compel the patient to carry on his work. It is much more effective if applied in this manner than if it is blindly directed against the habit itself. The latter method might be described as will power fighting with its bare fists, and the former as will power armed with an assortment of weapons with which to coerce an errant mind. If the will is used without any imagination in a headlong and unscientific attack, if all effort is concentrated on the control of the habit and none on the redirecting of the desires, sooner or later will power will lose and a long (?) period on the wagon will be the best that can be said for the energy expended. But while the new habits are forming, the will must be used without stint whenever necessary. The treatment is founded on common sense and sound psychological principles rather than magic, and there is no known means for removing instantaneously the desire for alcohol forever. At later periods also there may be times when, in spite of all his efforts, the patient frankly wants to drink. But he will be tempted less intensely as time passes and far less frequently, so that it can do him no harm to fall back on will power to tide him over his occasional "crises," conscious that his temptation will be short-lived and in the end entirely eliminated. The question of will power has been stressed because one or two individuals have conceived the idea, probably as a result of wish-fulfillment, that the treatment would instantly remove the desire for drink and that will power did not enter into the matter; that therefore if they really wanted to drink they might do so, leaving the future change in point of view to some transcendental power. They were right about will power not entering into the matter after the cure has been completed, but to try this theory at the beginning of the treatment when they were naturally full of thirsty associations was the worst form of sophistry and rationalization. 8. PITFALLS It is, I believe, desirable to warn the alcoholic of certain pitfalls. While we cannot say that such a caution is synonymous with prevention, nevertheless knowledge of motives and reactions is certainly of great help in the science of controlling the emotions. These ideas, which might be called a mental defensive preparation, are not necessarily linked together except as they apply to the central theme, nor are they set forth in order of importance. It would hardly seem necessary to devote space to the discussion of "systematic drinking" at this late period in the book if an attempt to utilize the treatment as a means of drinking moderately had not actually been put in practice by an unusually intelligent and sincere patient. At the time, to be sure, his reasoning was unconscious, and so there was no reversal of policy toward drinking as an accepted way of life, but when the smoke of a temporary explosion had cleared away, it would seem that the philosophy evolved was as follows: "I have learned how to stop drinking and am happy without it. Two or three times a year, however, I should like to drink moderately during the evening. I am so satisfied without liquor and have such a good system for directing and controlling emotional thinking that I am sure I shall be able to restrict my indulgence to the amount stated." This was a beautiful theory, and those who are not aware of the insidious power that alcohol has over certain organisms might be disposed to find it logical. The trouble with this 'reasoning" was that the results were very different from those intended, for the patient frankly and voluntarily admitted that after a six months' trial it was a complete failure and that his drinking was more of a fiasco than it had ever been before. The alcoholic cannot make plans and set limitations for the use of alcohol, for once he has taken a drink he ceases to be himself in a much deeper meaning of the phrase than would be applicable to the average man under the influence of liquor. To be sure, this does not always show at the beginning of a "party." In fact, it is perfectly possible that on occasions the alcoholic may take his normal drinking friend home and put him to bed. But the behavior on succeeding days proves the truth of the statement that alcohol for inebriates acts as a mental-nerve poison in a manner that it does not for the normal drinker, regardless of the comparative condition of the two in the early stages of what is to be an evening's dissipation for one and a debauch for the other. As has been mentioned before, alcoholism is a disease of immaturity, regardless of the actual age of the individual suffering from it. The drunkard is not only a child, but a spoiled child. He has far too keen a sensibility for likes and dislikes, chiefly the latter. By trying to avoid everything unpleasant and make what he cannot avoid artificially enjoyable, he reaches a state wherein he likes nothing when sober. He must be reeducated in a manner that will show him that, while a diversity of interests is desirable, it is not necessary to like everything, nor is it possible to escape entirely from unpleasant duties. Many of these tasks could perfectly well be done automatically -that is, without endowing them with any emotional consideration whatsoever. They are not important enough to either like or dislike. As far as the pleasures go, if an ex-alcoholic finds under a sober regime that he dislikes certain things that he enjoyed while drinking, he need not be surprised, but may feel certain that these same things have no genuine interest for him or it would not be necessary for him to whip up an agreeable reaction to them with alcohol. For instance, if, at the age of thirty-five or forty, he finds that he does not like dances when sober, all well and good. Dances are not a criterion of intelligence or necessary as a diversion, and he does not have to attend them. If he objects that staying at home leaves him "out of things," reflection, when he regains his sense of relativity, should show him that he is not 'out of'' very much, and that a mind functioning soberly over a sufficient period will unquestionably provide a substitute which will make life more interesting and vital for him than formal social activity. Naturally, the more means people have of amusing themselves, the better - and this most certainly includes a social life! But where pleasure cannot be enjoyed unstimulated, and for its own sake, it may be eliminated without self-pity or disparagement. It is most important that a person who is conscientiously endeavoring to reorganize his morale should understand that 100 per cent results are not necessarily expected. Lapses are bound to occur, but these are seldom serious if immediately checked. (When I say "lapses," I do not refer to actually taking a drink, but rather to a careless, lazy form of behavior.) The worst that can be said of the great majority of such slips is that they tend to create a precedent for future conduct. A whole day or even a week may be wasted because of such an idea as this: "I have made a bad beginning this morning, so I might just as Well wait until tomorrow to turn over a new leaf." We all know people who are always waiting for New Year's Day or the first of the month to make a fresh start. They have good intentions, but they never accomplish their purpose. If a slip is checked instantly, however, and a vigorous attitude intervenes the minute the error is recognized, no harm has been done; if a laissez faire policy is adopted for the rest of the day, actual drunkenness may result before nightfall. Of course, this theory of the harmlessness of a lapse in conduct must not be used as the basis for deliberately creating mistakes, or a very different light would be shed on the picture. The initial mistake is inconsequential only if it is immediately checked and when it has not been premeditated. For an individual to feel that he could err in small ways whenever he happened to feel like it would be flying in the face of common sense, but such twisted ratiocinations are not uncommon to the most intelligent and sincere. Victories over temptations lead of course to ultimate success, but they must be watched carefully or they may be turned into temporary defeats of a most unexpected, discouraging, and bewildering nature. One man, attending a class reunion, apparently enjoyed the first two days completely sober. He was delighted to find that he did not want to drink, and, in fact, was having "a damn good time without it." Toward the end of the third day, he suddenly and for no good reason, as he thought, became hopelessly drunk. Another man went through an entire New Year's celebration without a drop, only to find himself getting drunk alone on the second of January when all his friends had finished their carousing. Both of these men were very much upset and amazed at their behavior, though they had heard of others who had done the same thing. The causes of this apparent strange reversal of conduct are in reality not so obscure and peculiar as they seem at first glance. In the first place, these individuals, whose new habits were by no means crystallized, were undergoing a great deal of concentrated alcoholic suggestion, and they used little constructive reasoning to counteract its effect. In the second place, they were putting up much more resistance of the tense, repressive type than they had any idea of. After the victorious fight was over, they completely dropped their guard; but their opponent was still on his feet, and before they knew it they themselves were taking the count. An alcoholic who has won a victory may congratulate himself all he wants to, but let his success make him particularly careful of his subsequent behavior. Liquor is always obtainable, and if a man really wants to drink he does not care a hoot whether it is New Year's or any other day. Because of the power of suggestion, a person should not expose himself to too strong and lengthy temptations during the first six months or so of his treatment. Some people retire from social activity completely, but this is not recommended unless it is proved necessary since there is a happy medium between complete retreat and overexposure. If the individual in process of ridding himself of drinking attends wet parties, he must give himself plenty of positive suggestion before, during, and afterwards, lest what he has seen, heard, and smelt shall cause him to reverse his conduct when such an "excuse" for drinking as there might have been in the beginning has passed away. In addition to negative suggestion and fatigue, overconfidence can also enter into the situation in a destructive manner. A cured alcoholic may well take satisfaction in his achievement, but he cannot afford to become "cocky"" about his temperance until it is a settled question of many years' standing. As a matter of fact, at that time he will not bother to become "cocky" about it. When he thinks of his drinking career he will merely wonder how he could have been such a fool, he will be glad that he gave it up before it was too late, and he will expend his pride on those things that he achieved as a result of his sobriety. It is important to add that these preparations can be carried to such an extreme that the occasion itself receives the concentration of attention rather than the preparation. Imaginary dragons should not be created for the purpose of slaying them, for they may possibly slay their creator. If parties cannot be approached with confidence, with such a statement as "Of course I shall not be such a fool as to drink" being said and meant, then the inebriate must stay away from them until he has trained his mind sufficiently so that he can say it with conviction. When a man feels that he cannot spend a few hours in sobriety with others who are drinking, he has lost all sense of proportion. He may have to attend a large dinner now and then for business reasons. If it proves to be a rather wet occasion, what of it? What are two or three hours out of a lifetime? At worst he will be bored, but that is nothing to unbalance a properly adjusted comprehension of reality. If he drinks he is a fool, but if he remains sober he is neither a hem nor a martyr, but just an ordinary mortal using the most elemental common sense. It is much easier, having recognized thoroughly the situation, to react to it as a fleeting fraction of a lifetime, unimportant so long as it is passed in sobriety, than it is to conceive of it as a battle-ground upon which an exhausting combat is to be waged. Excessive drinking is so generally thought of in terms of wickedness or weakness that its most salient characteristic is completely ignored. This is its supreme stupidity. For a man deliberately to seek pleasure by methods which he knows are going to bring only suffering is such a farcical performance that the drinker himself (for drinkers have an unusually good sense of humor) would be the first to hold his sides laughing if he saw a parallel waste of energy on the part of anyone else outside of the field of alcohol. Just as all normal boys are anxious not to be considered incompetent in athletics, so to be thought stupid is the last thing that a full-grown man with any pretense to normality wishes. This is one of the chief contributions to the inferiority complex which is such a marked characteristic of excessive drinkers. In their hearts they cannot hide from themselves their own crass stupidity. Even in prisons drunkards are held in low repute by criminals because they are where they are as a result of an inferior intelligence rather than a distorted moral point of view. The others have at least a certain misguided skill and courage. 9. THE GENERAL EFFECT The alcoholic patient, and the general public as well, should disabuse their minds of any ideas they may have that it is only strong characters who are able to complete the treatment satisfactorily. As a matter of fact, it is only the pathologically weak who fad. Obviously a person should have a normal amount of common sense, an ability to persevere, and enough breadth of mind to admit the truth when his own experience confronts him with it. But for the overcoming of alcoholism these qualities are found to a sufficient degree in the average man if he sincerely wants to exercise them. He is not asked to warp his mind to fit any exotic theories, nor is he compelled to undergo any hardships of a mental or physical nature. He is merely shown how to train his intellectual processes so that they have enough control over his emotions to enable him to lead a mature normal life. A person does not need a great deal of perspicacity to recognize that the advantages to be derived from a cure pass far beyond a mere cessation of drinking. That is, of course, an absolutely necessary preliminary, but the overcoming of the habit by a system, and the application of that same system to other weaknesses of character as well as to the making of new and better adjustments to life, will in the long run carry the individual to a point of efficiency and contentment of which he had little or no realization in the dark days when he was seeing the world through a whiskey bottle. A number of men have said that the principles of relaxation, when applied to their business, have been worth many thousands of dollars, to say nothing of the benefit to their state of mind and the increase in their physical efficiency and endurance. Just as they have learned to handle liquor in the only manner possible for them (by complete elimination), so they have learned to handle life instead of letting life handle them. Because of their peace of mind, their increased stamina and self-confidence, depression, moodiness, irritability, and anxiety tend to disappear. Even when they are faced with problems which make these unpleasant states a normal reaction, their poise and judgment prevent the complete demoralization and despair which accompanied them only too easily in their drinking days. To the beginner this may sound like a Utopia impossible of realization, for the past may seem to have set an ineffaceable seal on the future. As is to be expected, excessive indulgence, long pursued in the face of common sense and frequent warning, often brings one or more concrete disasters in its wake - loss of position, the breaking up of the home, and the alienation of many if not all friends. But experience has shown over and over again that few of these losses are irretrievable. Of course the world at large cannot be blamed for being slow to recognize the reform of the inebriate. He in particular, and his kind in general, have fooled the public too often with their short intervals on the wagon, from which it was so easy to fall. When, however, people become convinced-and they only become so through the observation of concrete results that the individual really means business, the past is definitely forgotten and forgiven. In fact, the ex-alcoholic will at times be embarrassed at the lavishness of the praise he receives for merely adjusting himself to life in an obviously expedient manner. Often the very people who were most disparaging of him during his drinking days will be his warmest supporters and admirers, once he has convinced them that he has stopped for good and all. But the recognition and appreciation of friends and the discovery of a suitable occupation take time, so the former inebriate must have patience. A certain price has to be paid for his past stupidity and weakness, though in most cases it is not nearly so large as it might have been; and it is at least insignificant compared to the disaster that awaits him if he persists in seeking the impossible - that is, adaptation to life through the medium of drink. Therefore, let him who feels that he is lost in an impenetrable maze pause a moment to reflect. Disaster awaits him if he continues in his present way of living. He cannot standstill, as he has a driving force within which will compel him to move in one direction or another. The way out, which many men have found to their everlasting satisfaction, lies open to him. It might be worth his while to seek for it. Much has been made in this book of the desirability of undertaking the treatment only with those who clearly recognize the seriousness of their problem and who sincerely wish to do everything in their power to overcome the habit. This is essentially true, and the cases where the work can be started with a reasonable prognosis of success should be selected with some discrimination. However, there is this much to be said for those who at first refuse to see "the light of day" of their own accord. They are sometimes interested in an academic discussion of the subject, and it happens every so often that these academic discussions, without being in the least evangelical or proselyting, induce the alcoholic to investigate the situation more thoroughly. He may lose a few weeks of drinking, but he may decide that, after all, life holds too much to spend it under the influence of what has become for him a pernicious drug. SUMMARY For the sake of those who wish to keep my argument in mind, I have summarized below the salient points in my exposition. THOSE WHOM ALCOHOL POISONS An abnormal drinker is either a man who habitually behaves in an asocial, i.e. dangerous or disgusting manner, when under the influence of liquor, even though the time spent in this condition be restricted to reasonable limits; or one who, unlike his normal drinking friends, is unable or unwilling to face a return to reality. For these people a night's sleep is only a particularly long interval of abstention. This type is the true alcoholic. Sometimes both these characteristics of abnormal drinking are present in the same man. If not, the missing one is apt to be latent. THE GENESIS OF THE HABIT An individual becomes an alcoholic for three main reasons: 1. As a result of inheritance he possesses a nervous system which is non-resistant to alcohol. (in no sense is a direct craving transmitted from parent to offspring.) 2. By mason of his early environment. Through the ignorance of his parents or from their own nervous constitution the alcoholic was either spoiled or neglected. He was not brought up to face the world courageously. He is lacking in self-reliance no matter how physically brave he may be or how bold he may appear on the surface. Psychologically he is unable to stand on his own two feet. As a result of this he unconsciously craves a stimulant-narcotic. 3. Because of the effects of his later environment. That is to say, school, college, economic and social competition, marriage, and, for one generation at least, the World War. TO WHOM RE-EDUCATION IS APPLICABLE Scientific treatment for the eradication of the drink habit can be successfully applied to sane men who have come to realize that drink has definitely disintegrated them to a point where they am no longer able to control themselves, but who would sincerely like to eliminate the habit if they could be shown how to do so. THE TREATMENT The treatment consists in instructing a man how to train his mind so that he carries out a sustained course of conduct consistent with the theories of his most mature intellectual self, how to form new habits and stick to them, and conversely how to eliminate the unsatisfactory method of trying to adapt himself to his environment through the medium of alcohol. The reeducation is comprised of the following steps: 1. A mental analysis is made wherein the drinker learns that certain actions and systems of thinking, past as well as present, have directed him on the unfortunate course he has been pursuing, by creating doubts, fears, and conflicts. When these are removed his energy is free to take up more interesting and constructive occupations. 2. Various factors contribute to an abnormal state of tension which drink temporarily releases, only to aggravate it in the long run. This tension can be permanently removed by learning formal relaxation and suggestion. 3. The unconscious mind can be influenced by suggestion so that it cooperates with the conscious to bring about a consistent, intelligent course of action. 4. Actions (where they are not mere reflexes) are the direct result of thoughts. Experience has proved over and over again that thoughts can be definitely controlled and directed when it seems desirable to do so. 5. As the body and mind are indivisible parts of the same organism, the mind is naturally much more efficient in the vigorous execution of new ideas if it is functioning in a sound body. To this end the elements of a normal, healthy hygiene should be followed. If there is any actual or suspected disability it should be attended to by a competent physician. 6. The alcoholic is to a large extent demoralized and disintegrated. To overcome this condition a direct attack must be made on the small habits of daily inefficiency. Alcohol is too strong an enemy to fight with untrained forces. To this end living by a self-made and self-imposed schedule will accomplish three very important results: (a) The individual is continuously occupied; (b) he is conscious that he is doing something concrete about his problem (in contrast to mere intellectualizing); (c) he trains himself constantly in minor ways to obey his own commands. This develops an ability to say "Yes" when he means "Yes," and "No" when he means "No." 7. Various unexpected pitfalls into which people have previously slipped are carefully explained so that the drinker is forewarned and forearmed as much as possible against the future. 8. Some means of self-expression, some outlet or hobby to satisfy the urge to create, some means of absorbing the will-to-power must be energetically sought. The mind cannot dwell on the subject of not drinking all the time, important as it may be. It must be diverted, intrigued, and, if possible, inspired. This does not always happen until the cure is completed, but if it can take place earlier it i sa great assistance to rapid recovery. 9. The individual is only an inferior person as long as he continues to drink. The same driving force that has brought disintegration, if given a chance under conditions of sobriety, will carry him beyond the level of achievement attained by his average contemporary. He has an energy within which must be utilized constructively or it will destroy him. What Dr. Milton Harrington says of people with strong instinctive tendencies seems to be equally applicable to alcoholics. Instinctive tendencies, he says, "drive some upward to success, while in others, who are unable to direct them into satisfactory channels, they are dammed up, find outlet in unhealthy ways, and so, instead of doing useful work, react on the mind to distort and destroy it." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2037. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: The Common Sense of Drinking (1930) Part 3 of 3 From: cliffhammond . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/3/2004 9:26:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I read this on a number of occassions but had to acquire it through the interlibrary loan system. How did you transcribe it? -cliff H balmorhea, texas --- In AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com, "Lash, William \(Bill\)" wrote: > IV > > THE CURE MADE EFFECTIVE distort and destroy it." IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2038. . . . . . . . . . . . An Evening with Bill W. & Dr. Bob, Morristown NJ, 10/23/04 (Cost Update) From: Lash, William \(Bill\) . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/4/2004 10:11:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII JOIN US FOR AN EVENING WITH BOTH A.A. CO-FOUNDERS BILL W. & DR. BOB S. TELLING THEIR STORIES ON SATURDAY OCTOBER 23rd, 2004 AT THE CHURCH OF RELIGIOUS SCIENCE 331 Mount Kemble Avenue Morristown, New Jersey PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE: 5:00pm - 6:30pm "...Moments..." An Evening with Bill W. A Play in One Act Performed by Bill McN. 8:00 pm- 9:30pm "Scapedream" Dr. Bob: Pure & Simple A Play in One Act Performed by Bill McN. DIRECTIONS: -From Route 287 going South - get off exit 33 Harter Road (this exit is a few miles South of Route 24), at the stop sign make a left onto Harter Road and go to the end, turn left onto Mt. Kemble Avenue (which is also Route 202 South), the church is ahead about 300 yards on the right. -From Route 287 going North - get off exit 33 Harter Road, make the first two left turns and now you are on Harter Road, follow Harter Road to the end and turn left onto Mt. Kemble Avenue (which is also Route 202 South), the church is ahead about 300 yards on the right. COST: We will be passing the basket. If there are any questions, please call Barefoot Bill at 201-232-8749 (cell) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2039. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: The Common Sense of Drinking From: ny-aa@att.net . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/4/2004 11:34:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The complete text of the book is available online as a PDF file. It doesn't preserve the page breaks but original page numbers are indicated. It includes an image of the dustjacket. http://aabibliography.com/common_sense_of_drinking.htm IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2040. . . . . . . . . . . . 10th Annual National Archives Workshop From: jlobdell54 . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/5/2004 10:55:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Does anyone know the location and date of the 10th Annual National [AA] Archives Workshop? -- Jared Lobdell IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2041. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: 10th Annual National Archives Workshop From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/6/2004 12:36:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 10th Annual National [AA] Archives Workshop in 2005: The vote at the 9th Annual Archives Workshop (two weeks ago) was to hold the 2005 get-together in New Orleans, Louisiana. Laissez les bons temps roulez as they say down there in New Orleans (let the good times roll)! The 9th Annual National [AA] Archives Workshop was held in Murfreesboro, Tennessee (near Nashville) on Sept. 23-26, 2004, just two weeks ago. It was well-attended, with people from all over the country coming to the conference, from California to the East Coast. Gail LaC. from Akron, Ohio, gave an illustrated talk as the keynote address, Don F. from Florida gave an excellent talk on copyright law as it affects AA historians and archivists, there were hands-on sessions on restoring and preserving old documents led by a real expert in the field, there was a talk by an archival librarian at Vanderbilt University on how to set up and organized an archives, and so on -- too much good stuff to list everything. There was a tour of the building which serves as the Tennessee A.A. Archives, which is one of the best set-ups in the country for a state or Area A.A. archives. The place in Nashville, Tennesse, where the Upper Room is published was open for tours on the Friday of the workshop, which was a deeply moving experience for everyone who went. It put us in contact with a part of A.A. beginnings which none of us had ever experienced before. (The Upper Room began being published in 1935, at almost the same time when A.A. began, and was used by a majority of A.A. members for their morning meditation until Twenty-Four Hours a Day was published down in Florida by A.A. member Richmond Walker in 1948.) jlobdell54 wrote: Does anyone know the location and date of the 10th Annual National [AA] Archives Workshop? -- Jared Lobdell ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/219olB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: AAHistoryLovers-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2042. . . . . . . . . . . . Error in Pamphlet F-107, Special needs From: Cherie'' Pulliam . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/9/2004 1:31:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hello everyone, Cherie' here, alcoholic and grateful member of AA. There is an error in one of the pamphlets from NY. The pamphlet, "Serving Alcoholics With Special Needs" F-107 has an error in two places. On page 3, directly above the text: Alcoholics who are blind........it reads: Online Intergroup of Alcoholics Anonymous intergroup-approval@world.std.com This text also appears on the last page, middle of page. The correct contact information for the Online Intergroup of Alcoholics Anonymous is: http://aa-intergroup.org At this email address you will find a help button, lists of online AA groups and much more info. Please pass this important information along at your face to face meetings. I plan to make little stickers with the correct info, and when I see pamphlets, put the correct info on them. Thanks Hugs, Cherie' DOS April 26, 2004 One Day At A Time IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2043. . . . . . . . . . . . Success Rate in The First Year From: ny-aa@att.net . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/11/2004 5:39:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Following the 1989 Triennial Survey of Alcoholics Anonymous, a paper was written for A.A. providing some analysis of the of the 1977, 1980, 1983, 1986 and 1989 Surveys. One graph has been misiniterpreted by some A.A. critics as showing a low 5% recovery rate. That is NOT what it shows at all. Actually, 56% of those who stay for three months stay for a full year. C-1 "Percent of Those Coming to AA Within the First Year Who Have Remained the Indicated Number of Months." Month .. % 1 ... 19 2 ... 13 3 ... 10 4 ... 9 5 ... 8 6 ... 7 7 ... 7 8 ... 6 9 ... 6 10 .. 6 11 .. 6 12 .. 5 The second (percent) column is the distribution of the people who were present at the randomly selected groups on the day of the survey. The first column is what month "number" they were in. For example Line "3" says that 10% of the people in the sample (attending A.A. for less than a year) had been coming for two months but less than three months. You can see the attrition here but the second column is not the percent those staying that length of time. If nobody dropped out, every number of months would have 1/12th or 8.3% of the people. Since we often tell newcomers to take three months to decide if they are alcoholics, I multiply by 11.1 to create a third column with 100 in the 4th month. Month . % . Adjusted 1 ... 19 .. 210 2 ... 13 .. 144 3 ... 10 .. 111 4 ... 9 ... 100 <--- 5 ... 8 ... 89 6 ... 7 ... 78 7 ... 7 ... 77 8 ... 6 ... 67 9 ... 6 ... 67 10 .. 6 ... 66 11 .. 6 ... 66 12 .. 5 ... 56 Of those who were in their first month, about half decided they were not alcoholics or that A.A. was not for them and didn't stay for three months. It is reasonable to say that those who stay three months are interested in our program of recovery. Of these, over half stay active in A.A. at least a year. Visiting an A.A. meeting does not mean someone is an alcoholic. Leaving A.A. does not mean someone has returned to drinking. _______ Tom E IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2044. . . . . . . . . . . . Success Rate in The First Year From: ny-aa@att.net . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/14/2004 12:28:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi, AAHistoryLovers: Rewritten to answer some questions... Every three years, A.A. "takes its inventory" by conducting a survey. This is done with a random sample of about six to ten thousand members at randomly selected groups during one week. Following the 1989 Triennial Survey of Alcoholics Anonymous, a paper was written for A.A. providing some analysis of the 1977, 1980, 1983, 1986 and 1989 Surveys. One graph in that paper (C-1 of Appendix C) has been misiniterpreted as showing a low 5% recovery rate in the first year. Critics of A.A. jumped on that but even friends misunderstood. That is NOT what it shows at all. Actually, 56% of those who stay for three months stay a full year. C-1 "Percent of Those Coming to AA Within the First Year Who Have Remained the Indicated Number of Months." Month Dist . New . 3mo 1 ... 19 ... 100 2 ... 13 .... 68 3 ... 10 .... 53 4 .... 9 .... 47 . 100 <=== Over 3 months 5 .... 8 .... 42 .. 89 6 .... 7 .... 42 .. 83 7 .... 7 .... 36 .. 77 8 .... 6 .... 34 .. 72 9 .... 6 .... 32 .. 68 10 ... 6 .... 30 .. 64 11 ... 6 .... 28 .. 60 12 ... 5 .... 26 .. 56 The first column is the "Month" number that people in the survey were in if they had been coming for less than a year. The second "Dist" column is the distribution as a percentage of the people in this sample on the day of the survey. For example Line "3" says that 10% of them had been coming for two months but less than three months. It is easy to see how the graph could be misunderstood by someone who hadn't read the whole article. The title of C-1 doesn't match the data. The original graph was scaled in terms of the "Dist" column here. Except for rounding, this column adds up to 100%. If the same number of people came to A.A. every month and none of them left, then a random sample would find the same number of people with each number of months. Every line in "Dist" would have 1/12th or 8.3% of the people. I have derived two columns to clarify the meaning. The "New" column is scaled to set 100% for the new people in their first month. Of those people, about half later decided they were not alcoholics or that A.A. was not for them (at that time) and dropped out with less than three months of attendance. It is reasonable and customary to say that those who stay three months are interested in the A.A. program of recovery. The "3mo" column shows that over half (56%) of those who keep coming to A.A. for three months stay active in A.A. at least a year. * Visiting an A.A. meeting does not mean someone is an alcoholic. * Visiting an A.A. meeting does not mean someone wants to get sober. * Leaving A.A. does not mean someone has returned to drinking. * The only factor that graph C-1 reports is attendance at meetings. * The data is the averages of five surveys 1977 through 1989. _______ Tom E IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2045. . . . . . . . . . . . Dr. Bob''s Nightmare Punctuation From: rogerwheatley2004 . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/16/2004 1:36:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I recieved the digest of conference advisory actions in the Grapevine a few months ago. One action was that the conference recommended the punctuation in Dr. Bobs Nightmare be restored in the 4th Edition of the Big Book as it appeared in previous editions. I compared 4th and 3rd edition and did not recognize the difference. Anyone know what punctuation change this action refers to? Roger W. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2046. . . . . . . . . . . . Frank Buchman Keswick church...? From: John G . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/17/2004 8:58:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Does anyone know the name of the Keswick church (in England's Lake District) where Oxford Group founder Frank Buchman had his spiritual experience in 1908? I have a chance upcoming to visit the area, and would like to stop by. John G. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2047. . . . . . . . . . . . Statement about the Big Book Question. From: Robert Stonebraker . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/17/2004 10:59:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Arial;">Dear AA History Lovers, Arial;"> Arial;">A statement was made in praise of the Big Book which indicated: "It's not what was put in it, but what was left out that made it so great." I think this came from either Reverend Samuel Shoemaker or Father Ed Dowling. Arial;"> Arial;">A documented answer would be much appreciated. Arial;"> Arial;">Thanks in advance, Arial;"> Arial;">Bob S., from Indiana IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2048. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Dr. Bob''s Nightmare Punctuation From: Jan Baldwin . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/16/2004 10:22:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Another that I found was on the second page of the story. There is a comma after Sunday School in the 4th edition and no comma in the third edition. Jan ----- Original Message ----- From: "rogerwheatley2004" To: Sent: Saturday, October 16, 2004 1:36 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Dr. Bob's Nightmare Punctuation > > > I recieved the digest of conference advisory actions in the > Grapevine a few months ago. One action was that the conference > recommended the punctuation in Dr. Bobs Nightmare be restored in the > 4th Edition of the Big Book as it appeared in previous editions. > I compared 4th and 3rd edition and did not recognize the difference. > Anyone know what punctuation change this action refers to? > > Roger W. > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2049. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Frank Buchman Keswick church...? From: corafinch . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/18/2004 11:58:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII --- In AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com, "John G" wrote: > Does anyone know the name of the Keswick church (in England's Lake District) > where Oxford Group founder Frank Buchman had his spiritual experience in > 1908? I have a chance upcoming to visit the area, and would like to stop > by. > > John G. In "Streams: The Flow of Inspiration from Dwight Moody to Frank Buchman", Mark Guldseth gives the name as Titheburn Chapel. May or may not still be there, of course. Have a good trip! Cora IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2050. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Frank Buchman Keswick church...? From: Mel Barger . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/18/2004 8:13:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi John, I can't find a name but it is described as a "little stone-built chapel" in Garth Lean's "On the Tail of a Comet." You might look around Keswick for such a building that was standing in 1908. The woman whom Buchman credited for turning him around was an evangelical preacher named Jessie Penn-Lewis. Mel Barger, Toledo ~~~~~~~~ Mel Barger melb@accesstoledo.com ----- Original Message ----- From: John G To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, October 17, 2004 9:58 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Frank Buchman Keswick church...? Does anyone know the name of the Keswick church (in England's Lake District) where Oxford Group founder Frank Buchman had his spiritual experience in 1908? I have a chance upcoming to visit the area, and would like to stop by. John G. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2051. . . . . . . . . . . . Keswick Chapel & Buchman From: ny-aa@att.net . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/18/2004 8:55:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII In 1906, Rev Frank N. D. Buchman started a settlement home for boys in Philadelphia. He wanted it to be as much of a true home as possible and he succeeded. When the Board of Directors wanted to cut expenses, he threatened to resign if they went through with it. They accepted his resignation. That was not what he had in mind. So, in 1907, he took his resentments on a tour of Europe. After quite some time, a visit to a chapel in Keswick, England, changed his life. In response to a sermon, he realized the burden his resentment was causing him. He wrote a letter of apology to each Board member confessing his own ill-will. The release this gave him was so great that he passed it on to others. This eventually led to creation of the Oxford Groups. Indirectly through Bill W and Dr Bob, that same message came to Alcoholics Anonymous. Here is some information about that event and the chapel as it appears in a 534+ page biography of Buchman. It seems the Keswick Tithebarn Rd. chapel was in use until 2003. I have some pictures which I can send on request. ---------------------------- ON THE TAIL OF A COMET - THE LIFE OF FRANK BUCHMEN (c) Copyright 1988 by Helmers & Howard, Publishers, Inc., P. O. Box 7407, Colorado Springs, CO 80933 USA Originally published in Great Britain by Constable and Co. Ltd under the title FRANK BUCHMAN: A LIFE (c) copyright 1985 Garth Lean Between Pages 116-117: Photo 5. right 'A little stone-built chapel in Keswick. Photo 6, below 'Thirty years later, Buchman recalls his experience in the chapel in 1908. Page 30: In Germany, still sick at heart despite the outward liveliness, Buchman went to see von Bodelschwingh again. By July he was in Britain and decided to attend the Keswick Convention, an annual gathering of evangelical Christians. His hope was to see the reputed Congregational minister, F. B. Mayer, whom he had met at Northfield and who he believed might be able to help him. Meyer, however, was not there, and Buchman kept himself busy attending meetings and walking the Lakeland countryside. Then, one Sunday, on a whim, he dropped in on a service in a little stone-built chapel. It was sparsely attended - a congregation of only seventeen - and a woman was leading the service. She was the evangelist Jessie Penn-Lewis, whose husband was a descendant of the fmily of William Penn. She spoke about the Cross of Christ. It was hardly a new subject to Buchman. He had heard the doctrine of the Atonement exponded on a score of occasions at Mount Airy, taken notes on it, answered examination questions on it, preached about it. This woman, however, spoke so movingly about the Cross that, for the first time, it became a living and life-giving experience for him. 'She pictured the dying Christ as I had never seen him pictured before,' he recalled later. 'I saw the nails in the palms of His hands, I saw the bigger nail which held His feet. I saw the spear thrust in His side, and I saw the look of sorrow and infinite suffering in His face. I knew that I had wounded Him, that there was a great distance between myself and Him, and I knew that it was my sin of nursing ill-will. 'I thought of those six men back in Philadelphia who I felt had wronged me. They probably had, but I'd got so mixed upin the wrong that I was the seventh wrong man. Right in my conviction, I was wrong in harboring ill-will. I wanted my own way and my feelings were hurt. 'I began to see myself as God saw me, which was a very different picture than the one I had of myself. I don't know how you explain it, I can only tell you I sat there and realised how my sin, my pride, my selfishness and my ill-will had eclipsed me from God in Christ. I was in Christian work, I had given my life to those poor boys and many people might have said' how wonderful', but I did nto have victory because I was not in touch with God. My work had become my idol.' Pages 167-168: Arthur Strong, a young and successful professional photographer, spent a weekend with hm and his secretary, Michael Barrett, in the English Lake District in the lage 1930s, partly with the aim of finding and photographing the chapel in Keswick where Buchman had had his decisive eperience in 1908. BUchman was now aged 60. 'Frank's gaity is immense and he chips Mike like a schoolboy,' Strong recorded in his diary. 'We had constant laughter... In the car going there FB sang and whistled, he was so happy not to have any plans and engagements for two whole days. He sang old hymns and it was then that I reliised his age. To Keswick. . . Then the chapel. There were several possibilities... Frank warned us it was an ordinary place with nothing particular to distinguish it. Found the Tithebarn Methodist (Primitive) Church; opposite it is a bus depot. 'He sat where he had done thirty years before; then read the News Chronicle - he'd already read six other papers that day... Back at the hotel we changed for tennis and I played Frank. His energy was amazing; he serves well and has a good eye. He ran too. ---------------------------- A more recent view of the Keswick chapel at Tithebarn Road can be found at: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/kcmethodists/primitivemore.html That article also explains the Methodist (Primitive) Church. ---------------------------- Tithebarn St, Keswick In the 1830s a Primitive Methodist minister, Rev R Lyon, visited Keswick and tried to start a cause there. It began with great numbers, and by 1833 there were 40 members. However the Society was led by the White family and when they left in 1836 the cause collapsed. By 1840 a new attempt had begun, but shortly after lapsed. Another cause, more permanent this time, arose in the mid-1850s. They met over a stable in Head's Lane, and by 1869 they built a church, in a visible place in the town. In 1894 a Sunday School was attached to the church. It is reputed that Frank Buchman, the founder of Moral Re-Armament, was converted during the Keswick Convention at a service at Tithebarn St in 1908. The members reluctantly agreed to close in 2003 and Methodism now focuses all its energies on the remaining site in Keswick at Southey Site IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2052. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Dr. Bob''s Nightmare Punctuation From: Buzz . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/20/2004 1:10:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII This comes from the background materials I received as Literature chair for my District: 3rd Edition Large Print 4th Edition Large print Page 172, line 7 Page 172, line 7 Sunday School (no comma) Sunday School, (comma added) Page 175, line 3 Page 175, line 3 I did, my (comma) I did my (comma removed) Page 175, line 9 Page 175, line 9 Finally my (no comma) Finally, my (comma added) Page 175, line 29 Page 175, line 29 old habits (no comma) old habits, (comma added) Page 176, line 23 Page 176, line 23 cellar and (no comma) cellar, and (comma added) Page 177, line 11 Page 177, line 11 tight and (no comma) tight, and (comma added) Page 178, line 25 Page 178, line 25 interested and (no comma) interested, and (comma added) Page 179, line 4 Page 179, line 4 afternoon, saying (comma) afternoon saying (comma deleted) Page 179, line 22 Page 179, line 22 dinner and (no comma) dinner, and (comma added) Page 180,line 4 Page 180,line4 write nearly (no comma) write, nearly (comma added) Buzz At 01:36 PM 10/16/2004, you wrote: >I recieved the digest of conference advisory actions in the >Grapevine a few months ago. One action was that the conference >recommended the punctuation in Dr. Bobs Nightmare be restored in the >4th Edition of the Big Book as it appeared in previous editions. >I compared 4th and 3rd edition and did not recognize the difference. >Anyone know what punctuation change this action refers to? > >Roger W. > IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2053. . . . . . . . . . . . Success Rate in Later Years From: ny-aa@att.net . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/25/2004 9:02:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII How long have members of A.A. been sober? That is one of the questions in the survey among randomly selected groups in the U.S. and Canada every three years. Surveys are all done during a one to two week period. Everyone who is at a particular meeting of each of those groups is asked to participate. Following the 1989 Triennial Survey of Alcoholics Anonymous, a paper was written for A.A. providing some analysis of the 1977, 1980, 1983, 1986 and 1989 Surveys. One table showed the percentage of surveyed members who had been sober varying lengths of time and the average sobriety in years. <1 ... Less than one year sober 1-5 .. One year but less than five years >5 ... Five or more years sober Entries with dates beginning ** here are from that paper. This article continues that with information from later editions of "(P-48) Alcoholics Anonymous 19xx Membership Survey" LENGTH OF SOBRIETY IN ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS Survey Year ... <1 ..... 1-5 .... >5 ..... Average **77 ... 37.3% .. 38.0% .. 24.7% ... 4 years **80 ... 36.4% .. 37.2% .. 26.4% ... 4 years **83 ... 37.7% .. 36.9% .. 24.9% ... 4 years **86 ... 32.8% .. 38.4% .. 29.0% ... 4+ years **89 ... 34.6% .. 36.4% .. 28.9% ... 4+ years 1989 ... 34% .... 37% .... 29% ..... 4+ years 1992 ... 31% .... 34% .... 35% ..... 5+ years 1996 ... 27% .... 28% .... 45% ..... 6+ years 1998 ... 27% .... 26% .... 47% ..... 7+ years 2001 ... 30% .... 22% .... 48% ..... 7+ years Per the 1989 Survey: 41% of those sober <1 year stay sober and active another full year. 83% of those sober 1-5 years stay sober and active another full year. 91% of those sober >5 years stay sober and active another full year. This 40/80/90 had been reasonably consistent through previous surveys. The average years of sobriety has increased since 1989. For those unfamiliar with Alcoholics Anonymous, sobriety in A.A. means continuous and complete abstinance from alcohol in any form. This table represents only those who are sober and still attending meetings. Someone who got sober in A.A. and who is staying sober by some other means would not appear in the survey. ___________________ En2joy! Tom En2ger IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2054. . . . . . . . . . . . Sad News from GSO From: AC . . . . . . . . . . . . 10/29/2004 6:22:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII MEMORANDUM October 28, 2004 To: Area Registrars/Secretaries General Service Conference Members From: Greg Muth, General Manager General Service Office, New York RE: Elaine Soroka We are saddened to inform you that our dear friend and colleague, Elaine Soroka, passed away on Sunday, October 24, 2004. Elaine had been working at G.S.O. since 1993. As Manager of Support Services at G.S.O., which also included the Records and Files departments, Elaine interacted on a daily basis with Area Registrars/Secretaries throughout the U.S. and Canada. Her dedication to Alcoholics Anonymous will always be remembered and her friendship will be missed by many. I know you all join us here at G.S.O. in sending our condolences to Elaine's family and friends. Condolences may be sent to: Family and Friends of Elaine Soroka 191 73rd Street, Apt. #264 Brooklyn, N.Y. 11201 IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2055. . . . . . . . . . . . Old black and white movie on Bill Wilson From: the_alky . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/4/2004 9:44:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I hope you will be inclined to lend some assistance. I need to get in contact with someone who can help track down some information about a TV movie that I saw while stationed with HHB 2/6 field Artillery 3rd Armored Division Hanau Germany 1986 - 1988. It was a black and white film on the life and formation of Bill Wilson and Alcoholics Anonymous. This movie (whose title I only remember a fragment of) has eluded my ability to locate it via the WWW. I believe the title had something to do with a mirror, IE: The mirror looking back or something like that. It is definitely a black and white film. Thanks, Tor IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2056. . . . . . . . . . . . The Oxford Group is Not Gone From: ny-aa@att.net . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/5/2004 1:12:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The Oxford Group never completely disappeared as some seem to believe. Many of its principles led to the formation of Alcoholics Anonymous. The name changed as its primary purpose evolved. Other organizations and fellowships have spun off of it, each with its own purposes. The Oxford Group principles are alive today in "Initiatives of Change" and the "WorldSmart Leadership Program" and in the spin-off fellowship of "Alcoholics Anonymous." Other names used recently but less frequently today are "Moral Re-Armament" or "MRA" and "Up With Poeple." Here are some of the names by which the work of Frank Buchman has been known and still is known. "Buchman Clubs" (1915) Early work with seamen by Buchman and his teams led to the formation of several Buchman Clubs on ships and in port cities. "A First Century Christian Fellowship" (1922) Frank Buchman described his fellowship as "first century Christianity." He was bothered by the sterility of many organized religions in not turning their messages into actions. This name never amounted to much more than the name itself. It applied to a small group who gathered around Buchman, but most didn't use this name for their society. NOT "Buchmanism" (1926) Those following Buchman's methods had an enthusiasm that was naturally attractive. There were enough of them that it appeared to others that they were attempting to take over a conference. The name "Buchmanism" sometines was used by critics as a term of derision. It was intended to imply that the work came from his ego. "Oxford Group" (1928) An evangelical movement developed and teams traveled the world spreading their message. It was never associated with the University at Oxford, England, but many students there were particulary active. One group was traveling in South Africa in 1928 when a railway porter hung a sign saying "Oxford Group" to identify their rail car. News reports of their activities started using this name. Without much of a deliberate decision, it became their name by default. They eventually, ten years later, took it as the official legal name to make it possible to receive bequests as a non-profit organization. NOT "Oxford Movement" (1833-1845) The similarity of the name to "The Oxford Movement" led to some confusion. The Oxford Movement was an attempt around 1833 through 1845 by Anglican priests at Oxford University to restore some Roman Catholic doctrins and rituals to the Church of England. The Oxford Group avoided attaching the term Movement to their name. NOT "The Oxford Pledge" (1933) The Oxford Debating Society of the Oxford Union was known for what was called the "Oxford Pledge" or the "Oxford Oath" in which members of that organization vowed "not to fight for King or country." This was seen as pacifist and possibly Communist. The Oxford Group was not related to the Oxford Debating Society but the confusion brought undeserved criticism and suspicion. "Alcoholics Anonymous" (1935 or 1939) Both A.A. co-founders Bill W and Doctor Bob were active with the Oxford Group before they met. Early A.A. was "The Alcoholic Squad" of the OG. In 1939 it took on the name Alcoholics Anonymous from its book. A.A. eventually went its own way and separated from the Oxford Group. While some in both fellowships were bothered by the split, others welcomed it. This happened about the time that public pressures and criticism against the Oxford Group was leading to a name change for that fellowship. The separation proved beneficial to both organizations. "Moral Re-Armament" (1938) "MRA" (1938) There were critics who objected to Buchman's work and methods. Some of it was by misunderstanding. Some of it was that his teams tended to sweep in and gather up the willing "sinners" from under the noses of other Christian organizations. Others objected to the freedom with which some included details of their faults in telling their stories of having been changed. The mission evolved from saving sick souls to saving a sick world. Some at Oxford University objected to the use of the Oxford Group name. Frank Buchman made some comments about Hitler that were taken out of context and misinterpreted in the press and he was labeled as a Nazi-lover. In 1938, with World War II on the horizon, the Oxford Group took on the name of "Moral Re-Armament" or simply "MRA." As the west re-armed militarily in preparation for the impending war, the Oxford Groupers said it would be necessarily to re-arm morally to be able to work together for that cause. "Up With People" (1965) "WorldSmart Leadership Program" (2002) The "Up With People" singing groups were a side development supported by MRA. These teams of energetic wholsome young people started in 1965 to counteract the negativity in the United States at that time. They carried a message of love, tolerance, and understanding. Up With People recently evolved to include the "WorldSmart Leadership Program" which provides international opportunities for young people. "Initiatives of Change" (2001) "IofC" (2001) In 2001, the name "Initiatives of Change" was adopted by what was left of MRA to reflect the further evolution of MRA's purpose and methods. They believe that changing personal lives leads to improved international understanding. _____________________ En2joy! Tom En2ger IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2057. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Old black and white movie on Bill Wilson From: Joe Petrocelli . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/5/2004 9:48:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hope this will be of some help. Try to contact Bill Pittman at Hazelden. He is the Director of Hazelden Historian Infomation. His email is as follows bpittman@hazelden.org His tel3 is 1 800 328 9000 ext 4364. that may not be the correct ext number but the tel operator will connect you to him. Again hope it will help--he has a wealth of historical data available. Joe Petrocelli 14 Pine Rd Belmont, Maine 04952 jopet34@yahoo.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Check out the new Yahoo! Front Page. www.yahoo.com IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2058. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Old black and white movie on Bill Wilson From: t . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/6/2004 4:27:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII AA movies 'Lost Weekend' 1945. Strictly fiction but many details resemble Bill's story. 'Days of Wine and Roses' Des Moines A.A.s had a professional movie camera crew record activities at one of their regular Saturday night open house parties at their newly-painted clubhouse. The showing (for members and friends only) was scheduled for July 1946. 'Problem Drinkers'. [adapted from a March of Time newsreel to a movie] 1946 [first public film record of AA work - according to Grapevine Aug 1946. may be same as mentioned above from Des Moines] Hal H. Wallis, motion picture producer, cancelled plans to make a full-length motion picture about Alcoholics Anonymous. [according to Grapevine June 1947] 'Smash-Up' -prepared with assistance from NCEA [date unknown, sometime late 40's] 'I am an Alcoholic' movie short [sometime in late 40's] A report was rumored from Hollywood ...a super movie is being made and will be called "Love Inside AA" ... bottle fugitives build Love's bonfire while saving souls ... hear thrilling true confessions as drunks tell all. ... ... the movie company spent vast sums and precious time to change a shallow script into an adult and honest picture [revised title not given] [from Grapevine article, Public Relations, in Nov 1951 on things that 'almost happened' in AA] 'Come Back, Little Sheba' 1952 'Bills Own Story' produced by AAWS in early 1960's to preserve Bill telling his story for archival purposes and 'Bill Discusses the 12 Traditions' produced by AAWS about a year later. Has Bill speaking to a group of GSO people around a conference table. Both these were reportedly home-movie quality, and somewhat disapointing to the Conference - never received Conference-approval, though available from GSO as service material. They are both restricted to use within the fellowship only. 'Mr & Miss Anonymous' proposed name of a movie a large motion-picture producer wanted to make, portrayed A.A. lopsided, rewritten and changed name, A.A. thought of suing, didn't (mentioned in AA Comes of Age p.126) [may be same as 'Love Inside AA' mentioned above] IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2059. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Old black and white movie on Bill Wilson From: Warren Kegebein . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/8/2004 5:41:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII In the 50's or early 60's Lutheran Social Services sponsored and produced stories of a spiritual nature which were aired on Sunday mornings. I vividly recall one in which William Shatner starred as Bill Wilson. I believe the hotel lobby experience was actually filmed in Akron. I saw the film one time in treatment in 1973 and have been trying to track it down ever since I got a computer. Seeing it in treatment triggered the memory of seeing it in my late teens or early twenties. As I recall AA wasn't mentioned or if it was it was only at the end. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2060. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Re: Old black and white movie on Bill Wilson From: Pittman, Bill . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/11/2004 2:00:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Voice In The Mirror Universal Pictures 1958 Black & White Richard Egan & Julie Andrews -----Original Message----- From: Warren Kegebein [mailto:MRGOTROCKS@aol.com] Sent: Monday, November 08, 2004 4:41 AM To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Re: Old black and white movie on Bill Wilson In the 50's or early 60's Lutheran Social Services sponsored and produced stories of a spiritual nature which were aired on Sunday mornings. I vividly recall one in which William Shatner starred as Bill Wilson. I believe the hotel lobby experience was actually filmed in Akron. I saw the film one time in treatment in 1973 and have been trying to track it down ever since I got a computer. Seeing it in treatment triggered the memory of seeing it in my late teens or early twenties. As I recall AA wasn't mentioned or if it was it was only at the end. Yahoo! Groups Links IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2061. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: Re: Old black and white movie on Bill Wilson From: michael oates . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/11/2004 4:30:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII How do we get a copy of this movie. We need it in our Archives Michael Oates --- "Pittman, Bill" wrote: > Voice In The Mirror Universal Pictures 1958 Black & > White > Richard Egan & Julie Andrews > > -----Original Message----- > From: Warren Kegebein [mailto:MRGOTROCKS@aol.com] > Sent: Monday, November 08, 2004 4:41 AM > To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com > Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Re: Old black and white > movie on Bill Wilson > > > > > > In the 50's or early 60's Lutheran Social Services > sponsored and > produced stories of a spiritual nature which were > aired on Sunday > mornings. I vividly recall one in which William > Shatner starred as > Bill Wilson. I believe the hotel lobby experience > was actually filmed > in Akron. I saw the film one time in treatment in > 1973 and have been > trying to track it down ever since I got a computer. > Seeing it in > treatment triggered the memory of seeing it in my > late teens or early > twenties. As I recall AA wasn't mentioned or if it > was it was only at > the end. > > > > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2062. . . . . . . . . . . . conceptions From: NORMANSOBRIETY@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/17/2004 4:18:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Dear history lovers, I sent you an e-mail on the 8/11/2004. Regarding the conceptions I have not had a reply so far. I was at a meeting about two weeks ago and the conceptions of 1935 were read out I have never heard of them before. Does anyone know any thing about them? Yours in the fellowship Norrie F. Oban Sunday night Scotland U.K. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2063. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: conceptions From: GitaByte@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/17/2004 6:18:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Norrie - I think you are actually refering to the 12 Concepts for World Service which Bill W. delivered at the 10th General Service Conference in 1960. For historical info please try this link; http://www.aaprimarypurpose.org/BillW12Concepts.htm For the 12 Concepts list go here; http://www.aaprimarypurpose.org/12concepts.htm Hope this helps - Peace, Gita In a message dated 11/17/2004 10:15:13 AM Eastern Standard Time, NORMANSOBRIETY@aol.com writes: Dear history lovers, I sent you an e-mail on the 8/11/2004. Regarding the conceptions I have not had a reply so far. I was at a meeting about two weeks ago and the conceptions of 1935 were read out I have never heard of them before. Does anyone know any thing about them? Yours in the fellowship Norrie F. Oban Sunday night Scotland U.K. ----------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links · To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/ · To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: AAHistoryLovers-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com · Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service [1] . IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2064. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: conceptions From: Charles Bishop, Jr. . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/17/2004 9:48:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Norrie F.: please send copy of the "conceptions" to the AA Hist. Lovers site. thanks, Charlie Bishop, Jr. ----- Original Message ----- From: NORMANSOBRIETY@aol.com To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2004 10:18 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] conceptions Dear history lovers, I sent you an e-mail on the 8/11/2004. Regarding the conceptions I have not had a reply so far. I was at a meeting about two weeks ago and the conceptions of 1935 were read out I have never heard of them before. Does anyone know any thing about them? Yours in the fellowship Norrie F. Oban Sunday night Scotland U.K. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2065. . . . . . . . . . . . EARLY A.A. PRISON GROUP (1944), Part 1 of 6 From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/20/2004 8:43:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII EARLY A.A. PRISON GROUP (1944), Part 1 of 6, INDIANA STATE PRISON AT MICHIGAN CITY, Glenn C. (South Bend IN) Editor's introduction: The A.A. prison group at Michigan City in Indiana (founded in 1944) together with the A.A. prison group at San Quentin in California (founded in 1942) were the two best known groups for alcoholic convicts in the United States during the early years. The one at San Quentin (where Clinton T. Duffy was the warden) was the first, and there were additional successful attempts to set up groups at other prisons during the following two years, but Warden Alfred F. "Al" Dowd at the Indiana State Prison highly publicized the enormous success of the Indiana group among the prison wardens all over the country, and raised the Indiana program to national prominence. The major part of the story is told here by Nick Kowalski, one of the best story tellers and most important spiritual teachers of early Hoosier A.A., who had been sent to the Indiana State Prison for a murder which he committed in a confused alcoholic rage in a house of prostitution located in the seamy district along South Michigan Street in South Bend where a good many of the city's bars and places with nude dancers could be found. He had been brought up in an orphanage and had a deformed chest from the vitamin deficiency disease called rickets which he had developed from the inadequate diet at the orphanage. Not long after the last of several suicide attempts, Nick became one of the founding members of the little A.A. prison group, but only because they got him to that first meeting by promising him a piece of raisin pie smuggled from the prison kitchen. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Sources: The following material is taken from the Northern Indiana Archival Bulletin, Vol. 1 (1998) No. 2. Published by the A.A. Archives Committee for Northern Indiana Area 22 (c/o Michiana Central Service Office, 814 E. Jefferson Ave., South Bend, IN 46617). For further background information on Nick Kowalski and early South Bend A.A., see the two-volume series on Lives and Teachings of the A.A. Old Timers put together by Glenn C. (South Bend, Indiana) for the Michiana Conference held to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the bringing of A.A. to northern Indiana. This work is due to come out in a second edition at the beginning of 2005, with the two volumes entitled The Factory Owner & the Convict and The St. Louis Gambler & the Railroad Man. ================================================ THE PRISON GROUP AT MICHIGAN CITY Nick K.'s Lead: How the Group Was Begun in 1944 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This material is transcribed from the tape recording of a lead given by Nick Kowalski at Ann Arbor, Michigan on February 26, 1976, contributed by Molly S., who lived with Nick in the last years of his life. Nick was in prison for murder at the time the A.A. group was started there, joined the new group, and became one of their first big success stories. After his release from prison, he not only continued to work with ex-cons for the rest of his life, but was also for many years a major leader and spiritual guide within the A.A. program in the South Bend/Mishawaka area. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Editor: In 1944, the new A.A. group in South Bend, barely a year old, was presented with a unique challenge -- a request by Tim Costello, a convict at the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City, to bring the A.A. program to him there at the penitentiary. As far as the people in South Bend knew, there were no other such programs, and this was a journey onto completely uncharted ground. We must also remember that early A.A., coming out of the Oxford Group, was definitely slanted at that time towards the upper social groups. Bill W. had been a wealthy Wall Street stockbroker before the Great Depression, and Dr. Bob was a skilled surgeon. Of the two founders in South Bend, Ken Merrill was a well-to-do factory owner and a widely published author, and Soo Cates was an engineer who served as a sales representative for a major firm. Could a program tailored to people like these make sense at all in the totally different context of hardened convicts incarcerated in a state penitentiary? But the South Bend A.A. people came through, and Ken Merrill along with another early member of the South Bend group, Harry Stevens, both began visiting Warden Dowd until they wore him down, and got him to let them set up an A.A. group at the penitentiary. One of the prisoners who joined the new group was Nick Kowalski, who later earned his release and eventually became one of the legendary figures in A.A. in South Bend and the St. Joseph river valley. Since few people could tell a tale better than Nick, perhaps it is best to let him relate the story of the beginnings of the A.A. prison group in his own words: "In 1944, a guy named Tim Costello, long dead, tore a fascinating, wonderful, God-gifted trail through the prison's A.A. program . . . . And I got to talk to you a little about Tim, because he showed me what God gives everyone: "In this room tonight, there're people here who never seem to accomplish much in the world, because they're always busy around here, washing the dishes and cleaning up, and putting things together. And you get mad at 'em, a lot of the time, 'cause they've got pretty strict ideas about how the program works, and they'll argue, and talk to you about the things you should do, and the things you shouldn't do. And you raise hell with 'em, and say 'Lousy no good so-and-so's,' and this and that. But they're always here. "About two weeks after they're dead, you realized they saved your life maybe fifty times. Hadn't have been for their sternness with themselves, and with you and me, their candid honesty that we need from time to time -- if you're like me, clear up to tonight, including tonight -- I'd have often gone off the deep end. "We need 'em and we love 'em. And those of them that are here would know that nothing you say to 'em can pay them back, because God pays them for doing that. They don't need things from us, they need [only] the spirit of God. In the sobriety they obtain, and their companionship, and even telling you the candid truth, they gain a kind of grandeur that God gives few people on the face of the earth. "But I think sometimes we should remember them while they're alive, and give them thanks, because if it wasn't for them, we might wouldn't be here tonight. "And Tim was one of these people. And God provides them, you know that. He's got one for you and one for me, and here's a consummate value." Editor: On March 1, 1941 an issue of the Saturday Evening Post appeared all over America, with Jack Alexander's story as its lead article: "Alcoholics Anonymous: Freed Slaves of Drink, Now they Free Others." The article gave the New York A.A. address to which people could write for more information. Now, three years later, Tim Costello, a convict in the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City, read that article in an old copy of the magazine that was lying around, and realized that this was the only thing that could save his life. "Tim went to the warden and asked if he could write a letter to A.A., and the warden said, 'What's that?' He said, 'Well, it tells you here, read the article.' And the warden said, 'I ain't reading no article about alcoholics, I got a whole damn prison full of 'em!' [Laughter] Well Tim says, 'Can I write a letter?' 'Hell no, they're not related to you. This is a maximum security prison. The only people you can write to are relatives.' "So Tim went back to his cell, and wrote a kite -- some of you know what a kite is, it goes under the wall. It went out -- in this case, the priest is dead too -- it went out through a Catholic priest, then to New York. And then they got it in New York, and they sent it to South Bend, where there were four men sober -- I could name 'em for you, God love 'em, here right now. "One was named Harry Stevens. God provides that second guy, that guy for assistance -- the little, mild-mannered man, who like the fish in the dam, keeps butting against the wall. Couldn't turn his head. Harry Stevens just died a few years ago, had a stack of cards this high. If he ever got a call from you -- ever -- he wrote your name, address, and phone number down. Once a month, he sat down and wrote you a postcard. Said, 'I was just setting down here tonight thinking about you, wondering how you are. If you ever feel like it, give me a call, I'd like to see you again.' Didn't make any difference, [if] some of them guys [wouldn't respond at first]. He wrote them cards for years. Lots of guys, four or five years later, when they got ready to come, they knew who to call. He'd be there, he'd come, he'd go. He didn't worry about himself, he put together a pretty good life. "He come up to the prison, said that 'I'd like to talk to an inmate named Tim Costello.' The warden said, 'How do you know him?' He said, 'I got a letter from him.' [Laughter] The warden said, 'No, you can't get a letter from him.' He says, 'I can't? I got it right here.' So the warden went in, and he said to Tim, 'How'd you get that letter out, Tim?' Tim said, 'Hell, I'd never get another one out if I tell you that.' [Laughter] And he said, 'You're going into the hole.' And in the hole he went, three days in the hole. "Seventy-two hours later, he comes out, walks around the prison saying, 'I don't know what the hell went wrong,' sat down and wrote another letter. [Laughter] To New York, went back to Harry Stevens. Harry Stevens gets the letter, he comes up to the prison, he says, 'Warden, I got to talk to that guy, I got another letter from him.' [Laughter] 'By gosh, you did, you're not gonna see him.' Goes inside, threw Tim back in the hole. [Laughter] When you was a real bad guy, they used to shave your head -- shave your head, and they put you in a big checkered wool suit, and they put a little red card on your cell. That meant you were a bad man. And they locked your cell before you went out for privileges, whether it was recreation, you know, or visitors. Four months without privileges. Had lots of time, so he wrote another letter. [Laughter] God gave us some wonderful power! "You know, a lot of people in this room once thought they were junk. And they tried to make junk out of a pretty damn good piece of equipment. You beat it to death, you ran it over a cliff, you busted up cars, you busted yourself up, you got in tragic situations. Still works pretty good! He didn't make junk. When you turn yourself over to him, he'll make you a talented man. "And he needs every one of you, and brings you here because he needs you. And he needs you here, not to be me or somebody, or Jack or Jim or somebody, but to be YOU. Because of a special quality you have, he brings you to these tables. It ain't something that I aren't or you aren't -- he brings you here 'cause he needs that quality [which you already have]. The difference in your fingerprints and mine. And he wants you to bring it, and put it on the table, and talk about it, and converse with it, and work with us, so that there will be, between us, the quality that's open to everybody. "So Tim writes another letter -- goes to New York, comes back to Harry Stevens, Harry opens the letter, it said, 'I don't know what you guys are doing, but don't do that, you're killing me!' [Laughter] That's the kind of innocence we talk about in A.A., that kind of wonderful openness, that we do things that people will not try. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2066. . . . . . . . . . . . EARLY A.A. PRISON GROUP (1944), Part 2 of 6 From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/20/2004 8:53:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII EARLY A.A. PRISON GROUP (1944), Part 2 of 6, INDIANA STATE PRISON AT MICHIGAN CITY "Harry comes back up to the warden, he says, 'I can't sleep, I got to see that guy.' The warden says, 'You better learn to sleep, 'cause you ain't gonna see him.' Harry says, 'Well, I'd like to talk to 'im.' "The warden later became a fan of ours. He says, 'That damn Harry Stevens showed up at my house every night, quarter of five. I'll go home at five o'clock, my usual evening, watch the radio, boob tube, whatever. Then I go to sleep. He comes, he's standing out on the porch waiting for me when I come home. I tried being late, he's still there; get there early, he's still there. Can't miss. I'm not gonna give him anything. He can't take my martinis -- he'll think I'm one of these damned drunks he's always talking about! [Laughter] I'm not gonna feed him!'" Editor: Although Nick apparently did not know about it, Ken M. was also going a number of miles over to Michigan City every weekend to work on Warden Dowd too. Harry S. and Ken M. together finally wore him down, and he agreed to let Tim try to get an A.A. group together there in the prison. Nick himself was one of the original group whom Tim assembled. Nick was in the prison hospital at the time -- this presumably was the result of his last, almost successful, suicide attempt. "Tim was trying to bleed me away from that, so he come talked to me. When I got out of the hospital, he said, 'We're gonna have a meeting in the prison hospital, about Alcoholics Anonymous.' And I said, 'What the hell is Alcoholics Anonymous? I'm doing a life sentence in penitentiary, I hate going anyplace, I don't give a damn what I am. I should worry about Alcoholics Anonymous?' He said, 'Please come.' "He said, 'I've been trying to work with you, and I think you owe me a favor.' And he said, 'I'll tell you two things. One: if you don't go, I'm gonna take you off of them other books you had charged to the library, and put you back on western stories. [Laughter] And secondly, if you do come,' he said, 'I got a connection in the prison dining room for raisin pie.' "I still have a passion for good raisin pie. And he said, 'I'll get a raisin pie, and we'll have it at the meeting.' And this guy, he would go and take two packs of Camels [cigarettes] to the guy in the kitchen, one of the other kind, to make him a raisin pie. They're illegal as hell!!! [Laughter] Now Tim's gotta get in there, and get this pie -- some of you cons know how that goes -- and get back to the education department without getting caught. And [the pie's still] hot. And he goes in there, and opens his shirt, and puts that pie down there. [Laughter] "And they had a screw there named Cokey Joe, who was crazier than Tim -- he went around like that naturally. [Laughter] And . . . Cokey Joe called him over, and said, 'Come over here, Tim.' And he stands there talking to him. [Laughter] You know, how the White Sox are doing, who's gonna win the election, and Tim's standing there. And finally, when he gets done talking to him, 'See you later buddy,' and he reaches out to hit Tim on his belly. [Laughter] And so he almost took off like an arrow, from that raisin spreading, took off for the education department!!! [Laughter] "So I went to my first meeting, because . . . to get a cut of that pie, and to keep from getting put back on [having nothing to read but those cheap western pulp novels]. "It sounds like crazy things, but the important thing is, you know, you hear in A.A., 'don't come unless you have an honest desire to stop drinking.' Don't do that! Come, dammit, just come! If you have a drinking problem, come! And don't put in your mind classifications or rules or regulations, JUST COME! 'Cause I didn't think this thing was gonna work. Never once. I was in A.A. in prison nine years before I got out, it never occurred to me I was gonna stay sober. But I tell you what it done -- I told you, I couldn't do that time." Editor: When he first started going to the A.A. meetings that Tim Costello had set up, Nick says, "I sat on the end, because I'm a big shot. And down this side they'd go, [after] they'd propose the subject. I'm sharp, you know! This guy talks -- hell, I could top that! When they come to me, I'm gonna be the biggest thing of the year -- nothing to it! "And it comes along here, gets down to the end. And they say, 'Nick,' I say 'Pass.' [Laughter] 'You keep at it, coming to the meeting, can't you even say your name, you know?' [Laughter] 'Damn it, you said I could pass, and I pass.' [Laughter] "Down [the other side of the table, after this] I don't hear nothing. 'Cause you know why? Inside I'm saying to myself, 'God! Can't you say something? You know they're nice guys, they're trying to help you. Can't you be friendly? Can't you just open up and help 'em out?' So I didn't hear a word [past that point]. Be talking to myself, inside." Editor: They rotated chairing the meeting each week, going around to each person in turn until everyone there had chaired a meeting, then starting over again. So the week would come when they would remind Nick that it was going to be his turn to be the chairman for the next meeting, and poor Nick was plunged into a week of agony. Whose turn it was next was an automatic, unavoidable process, done in a preestablished rota, and everyone was expected to do his share. "You couldn't do anything, [but] I had to escape next week, you remember. They say, 'Nick, next week is your week to be chairman, you know, something on the fifth step.' 'O.K., fine. Next week I can do it.' "All week long: we're gonna have the biggest meeting, it's gonna be a drag 'em out, kill 'em dead meeting, man! Best in the world! Wrote stuff, planned stuff, read stuff -- never got up there! [Laughter] Skipped the meeting. If I could, developed influenza, or a cold or something. "They come around and say to me, 'Why don't you come to the meeting?' I 'd say, 'I'm too smart. You guys are dumb. Don't you see that Costello making notes down there all the time? And you're sharing all that good stuff about the banks and the filling stations and the robbery? When you get done doing this time, baby, you gone get some time!' [Laughter] 'Tim is a stool pigeon! He's turning all that junk in.' "You know, I was afraid I'd admit the truth. It's always somebody else's fault. So they'd say to me, 'Well, come on back.' Tim never worried about that. He'd come talk to me, 'Come on up there.'" Editor: But Nick kept coming to meetings-- as long as it was not his turn to chair! -- and (as he stressed in his lead) if newcomers keep coming back, making meeting after meeting after meeting, sooner or later the same thing always happens. The right person comes along -- sent by God when you're finally ready -- and you finally make that fundamental breakthrough. "[Sooner or later] you get that guy or that girl, so hang in there! And the guy come one day. And we're setting at meeting, they had an open meeting, and had a speaker. "And the guy said, 'I got to tell you this, fellas. I don't give a damn about you, I don't care about your condition, I don't care about your position . . . . don't! I don't want it, I don't care nothing about it. UNLESS you're so sick and tired of being sick and tired that you're contemplated SUICIDE.' "And I thought, 'Maybe he knows a way that don't hurt?' [Laughter] So I listened. AND HE DID. "He said, 'Take this little twelve-step card that pretty lady read, on how it worked and twelve steps. Take this twelve-step card into the quiet of your own mind. Sometime, you phony so-and-so, take the card and get away from everybody you're onto next, and read it. And when you read it,' he said, 'if you're like me, you're gonna get down through there, you're gonna say, "Well, that might be all right for them ordinary drunks. But that won't help me." "'But don't worry about that. If you've exhausted all the other possibilities of change, say to yourself, for one day I'm gonna pretend that this damn card is true, that somewhere there's a force, a force of creation, that cares about me. Not how, or why, just that it does. For some reason, it cares about me. It put me here for a purpose. And for that one day, I'm going to ask that force, without question, for twenty-four hours of sobriety, guidance, and direction. And then, in the process of the day, I'm going to talk to at least one other person who is attempting to walk this quiet life, about what happened. Whether it happened, or whether it don't happen. Because I've exhausted all the other possibilities, try -- pretend -- one day at a time. "'Do three things,' he said. We had just got a couple of copies of the Big Book. He said, 'Take this, read this Big Book. Ask God for twenty-four hours of sobriety, guidance, and direction before you leave your cell. You let God talk to you, by reading in the Big Book. There's a story! That's God's story to us, about these first hundred people, how they learned to stay sober. Read a little in there, and respond somehow to what you read. Even if it's a page a day. That's God talking to people like you and me. And then you share this by talking about the results -- honestly, without pretense -- with one other person who's attempting to walk this quiet way. "'I'll tell you what's gonna happen before you start. If you'll do this one day at a time, and just pretend: one day you'll get a day, you go to bed at night, and you have a feeling inside with which you're kind of satisfied. Somehow you feel like the day has somehow been satisfied. "And he said, 'If you're like me, you never had one. You won't know what it is till you get one. Not "Mom ain't satisfied," or the kids, or the warden. You somehow will feel that the day has been satisfied. "'You go on a little bit further, just pretending, saying the prayers because the people who bring the message to you say that's what you do. And pretty soon, you'll get one day in which you'll feel there's a reasonable reason for being alive. "'Did you ever sit on the side of an accident, everybody bloody and running, and you been driving the car, and you ain't got a scratch? You say, how come (to yourself inside) all this guilt you got? How come all these nice people are hurt, and I ain't hurt? You know, I done that. You know? And you can swap that for a day in which you feel that there's a reasonable reason for being alive. "And he said, 'Just keep pretending.' He said, 'If you're like me, you're great at pretending. You've been playing roles all your life. And you can pretend this one as well. You're one of the best actors in the world. Part of the way we survive. About the only marketable quality we had was the ability to pretend. "'So you can. And one day you'll look at the chair you occupy tonight, and realize you put to sleep those qualities which are making suicide necessary, in this hour. To sleep! And that you don't have to give them life again, unless you personally climb back. You climb back. "'Now,' he said, 'if you mistrust yourself and you disbelieve in God and you hate your fellow man -- give thanks! You've got a lot less to unlearn. Because this program positively guarantees that if you practice the proper motion, you'll create the proper emotion. If you practice the proper motion, you'll create the proper emotion.' "So I went to my cell that night, I read the card, I said, 'Hell, I'm insane, I'm not an alcoholic. That can't help me. I know I'm insane. Hell, I'm crazier than a fruitcake. It'll never help me. But I ain't got nothing else to try. Ain't got a friend in the world. There's nobody I can talk to, nobody I communicate with. In A.A., I'm playing all the roles, trying to be everybody's man. Can't be myself. Men can't do that.' "Telling God to change me. And I don't have to change me, all I have to do is let me open up and turn me loose. "Can't do that. Can't do it. "So I decided to try. It's been a long time ago. That's the reason I'm here tonight, and the only reason. "I'm not a professional do-gooder. I don't run around the world trying to change people. But I owe Tim, and all those guys who brought me to this day, the obligation to pass that word on. It'll work for anybody in this room." Editor: This particular lead was being given by Nick at an Al-Anon conference, so he wanted to stress that this program worked for the Al-Anon as well as it did for someone like himself who was primarily an alcoholic. Nick was probably thinking of drug use here as well: he said that he himself preferred alcohol when he was not in prison or jail, but that it was impossible to get alcohol in the quantities he needed when he was behind bars. So while he was at Michigan City, he stayed off prison booze and used homemade drugs instead, fearsome mind-bending substances prepared by prison "chemists" from cleaning chemicals and things like that. "And I don't really give a damn whether you're an alcoholic or not, whether you're an addict of any form -- any form of addiction. If you take that first line and change it [to say, 'We admitted we were powerless over WHATEVER WE ARE STUCK ON,' and] try to work with somebody who has a like problem, and follow down through the inventory steps into the knowledge and experience with God, you can get free of that problem. 'Cause you won't need it. You just won't need it any more. "What it done for me, was helped get it possible to do the time. I'm still doing time. I'm sent for doing time: God's time NOW. "Before we done our own time. I done what I wanted, when I wanted, right now, soon as I wanted, and it kept me caged so I couldn't do nothing! "But now I do God's time, and I come down here and talk to you people, and meet a few nice people, and we have a nice dinner together, and somehow life is rich and rewarding. That's it: it helped me to do time." ================================================ IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2067. . . . . . . . . . . . EARLY A.A. PRISON GROUP (1944), Part 3 of 6 From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/20/2004 8:58:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII EARLY A.A. PRISON GROUP (1944), Part 3 of 6, INDIANA STATE PRISON AT MICHIGAN CITY ================================================ ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS AS A CORRECTIONAL TECHNIQUE by Warden Al Dowd Indiana State Prison at Michigan City ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Editor's introduction: The following is an article by Alfred F. Dowd, "Alcoholics Anonymous as a Correctional Technique," The Prison World, Official Publication American Prison Association and National Jail Association, Vol. 14, No. 4 (July-August 1952), pp. 12-14 and 31. Warden Dowd was the one who ran the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City when the A.A. group was started there -- it had now become one of the two most famous A.A. prison groups in the United States. He wrote this article in 1952; eight years had passed since the A.A. group had been started at his prison, and he had now been converted to a complete believer in the program -- a highly vocal friend of A.A.'s whose enthusiasm was only surpassed by his occasional ignorance of what the principles and traditions actually meant. One of the more outrageous suggestions he made in this article was for parole officers to attend A.A. meetings regularly, both within prison and outside. If anybody ever dreamed up a better way of totally stultifying the open and honest exchange of thoughts and feelings at an A.A. meeting it would be hard to imagine!!! The issue of the Prison World containing his article was included in a scrapbook belonging to C. W. Mackelfresh, Secretary of the Fellowship Group, Indiana State Prison, Post Office Box 41, Michigan City, Indiana. The inch-thick scrapbook contains a number of valuable archival documents dealing with the prison A.A. program in 1952. This book was donated to our archival project by Ed C. -- Ed and his wife Carla are A.A. members from the Elkhart, Indiana, area. Ed believes the scrapbook had been saved by his grandfather, Willard C., who had been one of the founders of A.A. in Elkhart during the 1940's. Prison World editor's note at beginning of article: Upon request of the editors, Warden Alfred F. Dowd of the Indiana State Prison, Michigan City, prepared the following comment based on the recent First Regional Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous Prison Groups held at the Indiana State Prison. In attendance were many outstanding wardens and correctional personnel, and the group was honored by the presence of Governor Henry F. Schricker of Indiana. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All over the country, in both federal and state fields of penal jurisdiction, there is a great and gratifying growth of interest in the rehabilitation of alcoholic inmates. This broadening hope for alcoholics has also reached out to the city and county jails, road camps and other levels of penal institutions to which alcoholics are sentenced. As a direct result of proved successes, the Alcoholics Anonymous program has been inaugurated in 134 prisons and penal institutions, an increase of 63 during the last 12-month period. The founding of the Michigan City AA group in 1944 In April, 1944, a short time after Warden Clinton T. Duffy offered the AA program to the alcoholic inmates of San Quentin, the AA group was formed at the Indiana State Prison. For most the intervening eight years, I have watched with considerable interest the influence of the AA precepts and philosophy on inmate life. At first, we, the institution, could not fully understand what Alcoholics Anonymous was all about, so we went content to simply sit and watch. That point of view could be expected when we consider how few outside the top medical profession and AA members themselves possessed an understanding of the alcoholic malady and its effective treatment. Indiana State Prison AA group at Michigan City held back by overly restrictive prison rules Shortly after my return from Japan in 1949, I found that our ISP-AA group had made little progress, despite the fact that, through widened education, a vigorous assault was being made in combating alcoholism, our fourth major public health problem. AA making enormous advances worldwide AA was not only sweeping the United States, but was encircling the world. The World Health Organization, a United Nations agency, created a sub-committee on alcoholism; 39 states and the District of Columbia passed alcoholic legislation offering medical care, research and rehabilitation. The Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. recognized alcoholism and gave Alcoholics Anonymous wholesale approval in its advertising. The American Medical Association issued a general statement to physicians accepting responsibility of the problems of alcoholism. Industry became seriously concerned with alcoholism and many plants set up special programs to reclaim alcoholic workers and aid the manpower shortage by cutting down absenteeism and accidents. Society became awakened to the growing destruction of family and community life caused by the alcoholic. It was then that many theologians, philosophers, sociologists, psychologists, employers and political scientists approached AA to see how its principles and structure might fit into their fields of work and meditation. Indiana State Prison study begun: positive practical effects of AA programs In finally acknowledging the reality that alcoholism was a disease as a result of this universal, broadened education, we penologists also resolved to cope with it to the best of our abilities, the same as we do with other disorders coming within our sphere of jurisdiction. Our interest at the Indiana State Prison intensified and we began a comprehensive study of the AA program and its relative merit in prison environment. As a result we found, in almost every instance, that AA is the greatest rehabilitation program ever inaugurated behind the walls. We learned that many of our so-called incorrigibles and troublemakers, who sincerely and honestly embraced the AA program, became quiet, orderly inmates. The self-discipline of the AA group was by far more effective than other forms of corrective treatment we had used in these cases. Varying results from AA programs at different prisons, and (afterwards) with different parole officers In the breakdown of all available information from other prison groups, we found that some boasted larger membership than other prisons of equal inmate population. We also learned that the ratio of men who entered inside groups and continued with the AA program while incarcerated varied, in most cases, as did the percentage of AA parolees who continued with the AA program when released. We became aware that some parole officers were more fortunate than others in their work with the alcoholic parolee. These and other variations came to light during our research, and thus it became imperative that all prison groups should pool their common experiences with the AA program and share them with one another for the common good. Midwest prison administrator conference on AA groups On this premise, the First Regional Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous Prison Groups of Midwest States was formulated, and to everyone participating it proved a highly enlightening and educational experience. We discovered that prison administrators had barely tapped the great AA reservoir of dynamic power and help available to aid in work with the alcoholic prisoner. We visioned for the first time the many overall benefits to be derived by putting the program on a practical basis. We, as well as the other prisons which participated, profited by this mutual exchange of experience and found ways to improve the AA structure at ISP. These changes will gradually be made until the program is permanently set up as a substantial part of our inmate welfare work. Rules which conflicted with AA traditions kept groups from being effective A great many of the differences in our findings were attributable to the restrictions and rules of each prison and their accompanying influence upon the manner in which the program functioned. Our experience at ISP is that the AA program is a self-contained program, and unlike other rehabilitation programs which can be processed by varying supervisory opinions and dogma, the only way for AA to flourish and properly function in any prison environment is within the framework of the AA 12 Steps and 12 Traditions. During the past 15 months we have proceeded, hesitatingly at first, to relax a few prison rules which were as old as the prison itself. To our deep gratification, nothing unusual happened, except the inmate AA cherished and zealously guarded these small privileges. We have continued to further grant more privileges to the AA group as they earn and deserve them, and the spirit of honest cooperation on the part of the inmate holds deep significance for us. We learned, too, that the other maximum security prisons which participated in the conference had like experiences and not one reported a violation of any privilege accorded their respected AA group. The State Prison of Southern Michigan, Jackson, Mich., which could not actively participate because of recent disturbances, reported, however, that not one single member of their AA group was involved in the recent rioting. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2068. . . . . . . . . . . . EARLY A.A. PRISON GROUP (1944), Part 4 of 6 From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/20/2004 9:02:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII EARLY A.A. PRISON GROUP (1944), Part 4 of 6, INDIANA STATE PRISON AT MICHIGAN CITY Topics at the midwest conference The picture of the future for prison AA that is visualized as a result of the conference is a composite one and the many direct benefits will become apparent in the days ahead. The four morning panel meetings were, in reality, full and open discussion periods on problems that seem to be common to all prison AA groups. Here are some of the topics discussed, in brief: WARDENS' MEETING 1. Outside literature for inside AA groups. 2. The value of inmate AA publications. 3. What part officialdom whould take in active participation and supervision of their AA groups. 4. The benefits of small daily meetings in addition to one large weekly meeting as compared to only one large weekly meeting. 5. Whether election of secretaries, etc., best serves the group purpose or the program in prison environment. As an alternate it was suggested that selection could be made by officials from a panel of men submitted by the entire group. 6. The importance of outside AAs attending inside meetings and the advantages of good outside leadership. 7. The need for contact with the AA groups in every community within the individual state and major cities surrounding. On the subject of official supervision, Warden Joseph E. Ragen told of the Joliet plan of appointing a civilian AA member as a full-time coordinator of their AA group. He stressed the many advantages of this type of setup, particularly its value with working in conjunction with outside groups. He said that, with the help of the AA Joliet Committee of the Illinois Fellowship of Alcoholic Prisoners, the coordinator was chosen and would continue to be, as any other method would be a detriment. He cited that Joliet had early recognized that any money needed and available for the use of the AA program would have to be without strings and without administrative interference. Governor Schricker of Indiana also commented at this meeting that the AA work was too important to be cramped for the want of a little money for any purpose. The round-table discussions clarified many points for each warden and created new plans for the AA program within the prisons. These plans will gradually unfold in the near future. A part of the overall plan, as visioned here in Indiana as a result of the conference, will become a reality on June 26 when we form the Indiana Fellowship of Alcoholic Prisoners. The Indiana institutions which will actively participate in the benefits of this fellowship include: the Indiana State Prison, Michigan City; the U.S. Penitentiary, Terre Haute; the Indiana Reformatory, Pendleton; the Indiana State Farm, Greencastle, and the Indiana Women's Prison, Indianapolis. A solid core of 23 Citizens of AA, representing 21 AA groups in Indiana, will serve as the planning committee, with an ultimate fellowship roster of 200 to 300 other Citizens of AA. Full details of the Indiana Fellowship of Alcoholic Prisoners, as well as the already existing Illinois Fellowship, are available for other interested prisons. PAROLE OFFICERS' MEETING A closely-knit working unity between parole authorities and AA groups in their localities was unanimously endorsed and approved. J. C. Copeland, director of the Division of Corrections, and Maurice O. Hunt, administrator of the Department of Public Welfar of Indiana; Joseph D. Lohman, chairman of the Illinois Board of Parole; and Glenn R. Klopfenstein, chief of Probation and Paroles in Ohio, have advocated, and in some instances have begun, indoctrination program on alcoholism and AA for parole officers. Parole officers should attend AA meetings Parole officers were urged to attend AA meetings inside the prison, as well as AA meetings in free society, to learn the nature of the work which the alcoholic AA inmates are doing to prepare themselves for readjustment upon release. It was agreed that this integration of parole officers with AA inmates should encourage better understanding on the part of both as to their mutual and common problem. (Walter C. Hock, parole supervisor for northern Indiana, was guest speaker at the June 8 AA meeting at ISP. The many benefits to be derived from continuing such association were apparent after this first appearance.) The problem of parole rules prohibiting any association with former felons The value of enlisting the help of an AA parolee who is making the program work in a substantial way, to aid the new alcoholic parolee, was also discussed and taken under advisement. The merit of the plan was recognized, but, as permitted association of ex-inmates is prohibited by provisions in existing parole rules, no definite action could be taken. (We would like to mention that several other institutions have permitted former inmates to visit with outside AA groups and have found this experiment most beneficial. Wallkill Prison in New York, and the Westchester County Penitentiary at East View, New York, have both made use of this procedure. Wardens Wallack and Brown are continuing this practice with selected former inmates. The Editors). CITIZENS OF AA Free society has for too long rejected the inmate and shunned him upon release because of the stigma attached to his having served time. The genuine interest of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of citizens of AA who daily visit the alcoholic prisoners in jails and prisons everywhere is of immeasurable value in removing that stigma. To have society accept a part of the ever increasing load of prisoner rehabilitation is eviden[ce] that here, at long last, is the help that prison administration has been needing so badly. The outside AA s, by their attendance at inside meetings, offer the inmate AA a human understanding, a companionship and an acceptance that he had long forgotten existed. This integration instils hope, faith and confidence in the inmate and holds definite promise for his future well-being upon release. These men, in the most part business and civic leaders, offer wise counseling and understanding, based on their kinship of common suffering, and because of this fact, there are no class barriers. There, but for the grace of God, go I Many of our visitors say that the program of carrying hope and help through barred windows comes from an old AA recipe for successful accomplishment -- man hours of persistence. And they say that each meeting with their incarcerated fellow-men reminds them of an old familiar motto which hangs in every AA meeting room. It reads . . . "But, for the Grace of God!" The Indiana State Prison's ties with the outside AA s and AA groups will be strengthened and the fullest use made of their tremendous help through the formation of the Indiana Fellowship of Alcoholic Prisoners. The significance of the conference just held At the beginning of his talk at the afternoon conference meeting, Governor Schricker said, "This conference has been the highlight of my official career . . ." I, too, can say that it was indeed a privilege and a highlight in my 30 years in penal work. It was inspiring to witness this gathering of authorities and free world society, to see them offering in true Christian charity their wholehearted, unbiased help and encouragement to their less fortunate fellow-man, the alcoholic prisoner. Here, without guard supervision, 800 free and imprisoned men had gathered for but one common purpose. The tavern owner, the bartender, the police officer, the prosecutor, the judge, the sheriff, the warden, the parole board member, the parole officer, the Governor, and free society from all walks of life and eight midwestern states, from beginning to end, the people and the agencies which are directly concerned in the life of an alcoholic prisoner, were represented. Where before has such a comparable and significant meeting taken place and under what other auspices could it be possible? I honestly believe that through good leadership, both inside and outside, the Alcoholics Anonymous program should and will become an integral part of every prison system. It most certainly will prove to be our greatest ally in combating the growing problem of alcoholism and its indirect cause for crimes resulting in prison sentences of all types. This is of great portent when we consider that over 60 per cent of all men entering admit to an excessive use of alcohol. The prison administrators and other authorities who attended the conference now see only a wide, clear road ahead for the AA program as it unfolds behind prison walls and thence into the free world. We vision the day, in the not too distant future, when Alcoholics Anonymous, through closely-knit co-ordination of the efforts of prison administrators, parole authorities, judges, free society, Citizens of AA, the alcoholic's family and the alcoholic himself, will establish new concepts of penal work and new heights of prisoner redemption and salvage. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Editor's note: So we see that in the 1950's, just as today, there were sincere and well-intentioned people within the criminal justice system who admired and respected what A.A. was able to accomplish, but whose immediate response was to attempt to co-opt A.A. and turn it into just another of the cogs in their own machinery. Judges who nowadays send people to A.A. meetings under court order, and counselors at treatment centers who want to sit in on closed A.A. meetings, come out of the same mindset. Non-alcoholics have lived lives so different from that of alcoholics that they simply cannot understand exactly how and why A.A. must remain an entity apart, with no outside involvements or linkages whatever, in order to accomplish what it does do so well. ================================================ IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2069. . . . . . . . . . . . EARLY A.A. PRISON GROUP (1944), Part 5 of 6 From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/20/2004 9:05:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII EARLY A.A. PRISON GROUP (1944), Part 5 of 6, INDIANA STATE PRISON AT MICHIGAN CITY ================================================ HARRY S. RESIGNS AS SPONSOR OF THE PRISON A.A. GROUP Harold E. Stevens, letter to C. W. Mackelfresh, June 18, 1952 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Editor's note: In a protest against what Warden Alfred F. Dowd was doing with his regional conference there in 1952, Harry Stevens resigned from his role as principal outside sponsor of the Michigan City Prison A.A. group, the job he had faithfully carried out since the program was begun in 1944. In the following letter, dated June 18, 1952, Harry wrote to C. W. "Mac" Mackelfresh and explained his reasons for doing do. The letter was received at the warden's office at the Indiana State Prison at Michigan City on June 21, 1952, according to the prison date stamp at the top, and passed on to Mac. The letter is preserved in the latter's scrapbook (along with Warden Dowd's article in Prison World, see above). Harold E. Stevens and his wife Pearl lived at 127 E. Marion, Apt. 316, in South Bend, Indiana, according to that town's city directory for 1943. Harry was listed there as a traveling salesman by occupation. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ June 18, 1952 Dear Mac: Thank you for your letter of June 6th inviting me to attend a meeting on June 29th or July 13th. I regret that I'll be unable to attend. I have never been one, I hope, to seek glory or tributes for any help or service I may have given in A.A., and a meeting for that purpose would only be embarrassing to me. If, in the past, I have been of help to anyone in the prison group -- or anywhere else -- that fact alone is reward enough. I am happy and grateful for having been given such an opportunity. Your letter stated that you were advised by authoritative sources that I had decided to withdraw from the prison group because of my health and increasing business demands. At this time I would like to clarify this situation by explaining the actual reasons for my withdrawal. At the time of my withdrawal, I gave my reasons to Warden Dowd and Bob Heyne and am positive that I made no mention of health or business in my explanation. I also gave a letter to Walter Kelley in which I stated the same reasons and, at that time, I also mentioned that, healthwise, it was probably a good thing for me. My decision to withdraw was made when it became very obvious and evident that my sponsoring and services were no longer needed or required. I think it is only fair to all concerned to quit "playing ostrich" and get their heads out of the sand. Let's face facts, look at the record and then it will be clear as to why I decided to withdraw. In my opinion, things had become too involved and, under the trying circumstances, I thought it was best for me since, as an alcoholic, I cannot afford to repeatedly get upset. Further, I was truly upset and concerned when you told me you were sending several press releases out before the meeting, as well as having a lot of pictures taken at the time of the meeting. My thinking on this procedure was that A.A. neither needs nor benefits by this sort of publicity. Not wishing to act entirely on my own feeling in this matter, I discussed it with others who had many years of A.A. experience behind them and found they agreed with me. In turn, I called Warden Dowd and informed him that, unless the press releases were stopped and pictures banned, I would have no part of the meeting, other than to continue to get the invitations out and aid in getting visitors into the prison. I felt that I simply could not go along with all the publicity and "hullabaloo" that was building up. At that time the Warden seemed fully in accord with my thinking. However, he apparently deemed it necessary to further confer on the issue with Kelley or someone else and ultimately reversed his decision. During the past eight years, as the recognized A.A. sponsor of the prison group, I have always felt a great deal of a sense of obligation to the prison group, to the outside groups and to individual members. One of the prime objects of this feeling of obligation has been to protect the anonymity of the members I invited to the prison. Conscientiously, I feel that anonymity is of the utmost importance to many of us. Without it, A.A. may not survive. I must stand by my convictions and the traditions of A.A. as I understand them, even if, in so doing, I am forced to disagree with some of you. By this time I had begun to feel that the Warden had ceased to value my judgment on the issue of publicity. Consequently, I felt my services were no longer wanted and there was little else to do but step aside in favor of someone whose judgment would be valued a little more. In the second paragraph of your letter, you mentioned that you all regretted that I had been unable in the past year, because of my health, to be as active in your A.A. group as previously -- that you have missed that outside contact so necessary to the life blood of te group. With the exception of the two months I spent in Arizona, I had been more active, due to the daily meetings, during the past year than ever before. I thought I had left the group in good hands and well taken care of at the time I went away. In fact, on my way to Arizona, I made it a point to stop at the prison to arrange for the changing of the time of the Sunday meetings from mornings to afternoons, in order to make it easier to get the Sunday visitors there. I would like to make the suggestion that you refrain from using the expression "outcasts of society." Since you have become associated with A.A., it seems that you have been exaggerating this subject and ultimately you and your fellow inmates will really begin to believe it a true expression. You will no doubt recall that you were gravely criticized at the sponsors' meeting for stating that no member of A.A. would be seen walking down the street with an ex-convict. They not only walk down the street with them, but many A.A.'s have seen fit to take ex-convicts into their homes to mingle with their families in order that the ex-convicts may regain confidence in themselves. This remark was greatly resented by those members who have gone "all out" for the discharged or paroled member. Frankly, we can't think of a single case where a released man, if he wanted A.A., was not treated with the greatest care. Even those of us who have been taken in financially would gladly do it over again, hoping that the next man would be the one who would make the grade. With reference to the forming of the Fellowship of Alcoholic Prisoners, I don't believe anyone would have objections to that. However, outside of an impressive sounding name, it would seem to gain little more than you already have. Actually, all you have to do is give the man the name of the Secretary in the city to which he is going. If the discharged man makes the contact, he will, without a doubt, receive the help and guidance needed where his alcoholic problems are concerned. The rest is up to him. If I'm not mistaken, this procedure was followed long before you entered Michigan City. If this has not been the case, it's been due to neglect on the part of someone. I expect to carry out my twelfth step work regardless of my health or business, as it is a "must" with me and I cannot afford to relax with my A.A. activities. With kindest regards to all -- Sincerely, H. E. Stevens ================================================ IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2070. . . . . . . . . . . . EARLY A.A. PRISON GROUP (1944), Part 6 of 6 From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/20/2004 9:10:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII EARLY A.A. PRISON GROUP (1944), Part 6 of 6, INDIANA STATE PRISON AT MICHIGAN CITY ================================================ LETTERS FROM BILL W. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Editor's note: In the Mackelfresh scrapbook (where the copy of Prison World and the Harry Stevens letter were preserved) there are also two letters and a note from Bill Wilson. In the first letter, Bill gives the planning of a Prison AA Conference his approval as an experiment. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ February 20, 1952 Mr. C. W. Mackelfresh, AA Secretary P.O. Box 41, Michigan City, Indiana Dear C. W., Thanks very much indeed for your cordial letter of February 7th, telling me of the very interesting proposal for the first Regional Prison AA Conference. This idea seems to me, from where I sit, to have immense possibilities. I do hope your outfit and the others will be able to go through with it. Of course, there is no reason in A.A. Tradition why you should not. Moreover, you really need never ask my permission in these things. After all, I am just a drunk trying to get along like the rest of you. As long as any action taken is reasonably within the framework of the Twelve Steps and the Twelve Traditions, please always feel free to experiment. As you may know, the principle of "trial and error" is a part of A.A., also. In this case, it seems to me you have everything to gain, nothing to lose. And, in this connection, please carry my best to Warden Dowd. He is but one more proof that A.A. could never have been, or functioned at all, without friends such as he. Now about my coming out there. It is with the utmost reluctance that I shall have to take a raincheck. My next main job is that of serious writing. Excepting for a few pamphlets, the whole AA story and its lessons of the last twelve years has scarcely been put on paper at all. Though no greybeard, I'm not so young as I used to be. And most of my friends agree that I had better spend most of my time on this sort of thing for the next few years. This will, I am sorry to say, almost entirely prevent further traveling. Then there is also the long standing difficulty. If I were to make a special appearance at your Conference, I would get hundreds of prison and group invitations at once which I would be obliged to decline. Then the places I didn't visit would be disconsolate -- the alcoholic temperament, you know. Please, though, keep me posted on your progress with this Conference. When the time comes, if you will remind me, I shall be glad to send a word of greeting and best luck. Please carry my best to all my friends behind your walls. And take the same for yourself. Devotedly, Bill Wilson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Editor's note: In a second letter, a month later, Bill W. seems still quite willing to send a letter of greeting, put something in the Grapevine about the conference, and so on. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ May 20, 1952 Mr. C. W. Mackelfresh P.O. Box 41, Michigan City, Indiana Dear C. W., We are eagerly looking forward to a report of the First Regional Conference of Alcoholics Anonymous Prison Groups. I'm so very glad the Grapevine is going to run such an account. I sincerely hope I did not slip up in sending you a word of greeting. It seems to me that I wrote Mr. Dowd well before the Conference date and gave him a greeting from me to be read. I truly hope that was the case. Meantime, please carry my greetings and congratulations to all AAs in your good part of the world. Devotedly, Bill Wilson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Editor's note: There eventually however seems to have been a reaction in New York to some of Dowd's ideas, though phrased more diplomatically than Harry Stevens' letter. Eve Lum, Secretary of the Alcoholic Foundation, sent a letter to Warden Dowd on September 10, 1952, praising the conference which Dowd had organized and the article in Prison World. Nevertheless, in the midst of this fulsome praise, New York headquarters also inserted a paragraph politely but clearly pointing out (1) that A.A. was pleased to continue cooperating with what Dowd was doing as long as it remained clear that there was no organizational relationship between A.A. and Dowd's own special programs, (2) that A.A. did not officially endorse Dowd's efforts, and (3) that what Dowd was doing had to be construed as falling outside the framework of the Twelve Traditions. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Letter from Eve Lum, Secretary of the Alcoholic Foundation Your complete understanding of our A.A. Traditions and the attendant appreciation of what we are equipped to do and what we cannot do, is gratifying indeed. For example, the new Indiana Fellowship of Alcoholic Prisoners, which in itself is such a tremendous stride forward, is properly launched when you state so vividly in the preamble: "The Fellowship is not related, nor is it endorsed, by Alcoholics Anonymous as a whole, and not necessarily by any A.A. group. It functions independently and in the same manner as any activity not coming within the framework of the A.A. Twelve Traditions." In this way we can stick to our primary purpose, that of helping the sick alcoholic recover through our Twelve suggested Steps and yet we can continue to cooperate with you whenever you feel that we can be helpful. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Editor's note: To help take the sting out of this backing away from Dowd's activities, Bill W. himself added a personal postscript. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Postscript from Bill Wilson Dear Warden Dowd, I'd like to enclose with Eve Lum's letter a further word in praise of the magnificent occasion that the First Regional Conference of A.A. Prison Groups was. After reading the accounts of it, I find myself more deeply impressed and moved than I have been in years. Which, my friend, is saying a great deal! Please carry my best to all who participated in making that historic occasion a thing of such great moment. Devotedly yours, Bill ================================================ IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2071. . . . . . . . . . . . Date of Bill W.''s Spiritual Experience From: Jim Burns . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/22/2004 12:32:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII "Pass it On," refers to Bill entering Towns for the last time on December 11th and being discharged on December 18. Is there a documented date in which Bill had his " white light" spiritual experience? Jim California ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Meet the all-new My Yahoo! [112] - Try it today! IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2072. . . . . . . . . . . . "Fellowships Similar To A.A. From: chris fuccione . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/22/2004 1:21:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Can anyone provide the publishing history of the AA service piece "Fellowships Similar To A.A."? I have it dated back to January 1986. I was wondering if it went back further and any other infomation on the development of it. Thanks Chris F. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2073. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Date of Bill W.''s Spiritual Experience From: Arthur Sheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/23/2004 1:29:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Jim In his autobiography "Bill W My First 40 Years" (pg 141) Bill states "One morning, the fourteenth of December, I think, Ebby appeared in the doorway of my room ..." This book also provides the most elaborate description of Bill's experience. I checked several other books but Bill's autobiography is the only one I found that offers a date. Cheers Arthur ----- Original Message ----- From: Jim Burns To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 11:32 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Date of Bill W.'s Spiritual Experience "Pass it On," refers to Bill entering Towns for the last time on December 11th and being discharged on December 18. Is there a documented date in which Bill had his " white light" spiritual experience? Jim California ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Do you Yahoo!? Meet the all-new My Yahoo! [112] - Try it today! IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2074. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Date of Bill W.''s Spiritual Experience From: Tom Hickcox . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/25/2004 12:33:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The July 1953 issue of "The Grapevine" has an article by Bill W. titled "12 Steps in 30 Minutes." The following is from it: Two or three weeks later, December 11th to be exact, I staggered into the Charles B. Towns Hospital, that famous drying-out emporium on Central Park West, New York City. I'd been there before, [snip] In my case it was of course Dr. Silkworth who swung the sledge while my friend Ebbie carried to me the spiritual principles and the grace which brought on my sudden spiritual awakening at the hospital three days later. I immediately knew that I was a free man. Three days later than Dec. 11th would be Dec. 14th and affirm the date Arthur Sheehan reported. Tommy in Baton Rouge At 00:29 11/23/2004 , Arthur Sheehan wrote: Hi Jim In his autobiography "Bill W My First 40 Years" (pg 141) Bill states "One morning, the fourteenth of December, I think, Ebby appeared in the doorway of my room ..." This book also provides the most elaborate description of Bill's experience. I checked several other books but Bill's autobiography is the only one I found that offers a date. Cheers Arthur ----- Original Message ----- From: Jim Burns To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004 11:32 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Date of Bill W.'s Spiritual Experience "Pass it On," refers to Bill entering Towns for the last time on December 11th and being discharged on December 18. Is there a documented date in which Bill had his " white light" spiritual experience? Jim California Do you Yahoo!? Meet the all-new My Yahoo! [112] - Try it today! Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ADVERTISEMENT ------------------------------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links · To visit your group on the web, go to: · http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/ · · To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: · AAHistoryLovers-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com · · Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service [1] . IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2075. . . . . . . . . . . . Early Black AA -- Part 1 of 5 From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/30/2004 10:58:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Early Black AA -- Part 1 of 5 EARLY BLACK A.A. ALONG THE CHICAGO--GARY--SOUTH BEND AXIS The Stories and Memories of Early Black Leaders Told in Their Own Words Editor's introduction: Some of the earliest black A.A. groups in the United States were formed c. 1945-48 along an axis running from Chicago eastward through Gary to South Bend, Indiana. These three cities were linked by an interurban rail line called the South Shore Railroad which made it easy for people to travel back and forth. We know much more at present about early black A.A. in this area than we do about any other part of the United States. Source: Materials gathered for the Northern Indiana Archival Bulletin, published by the Archives Committee of Northern Indiana Area 22 of Alcoholics Anonymous, and printed in South Bend (contact the Michiana A.A. Central Service Office, 814 E. Jefferson Ave., South Bend, IN 46617). For further background information: Detailed material about four of the early black A.A. leaders who played a role in this story (Bill Hoover, Jimmy Miller, Brownie and Goshen Bill) can be found in the two-volume series on Lives and Teachings of the A.A. Old Timers in the St. Joseph valley region (northwestern Indiana and southwestern Michigan) put together by Glenn C. (South Bend, Indiana) in 1993-96. This work is due to come out in a second edition at the beginning of 2005, with the two volumes entitled The Factory Owner & the Convict and The St. Louis Gambler & the Railroad Man. Check the http://hindsfoot.org website in January or February 2005 (or the online bookstores) for further information. =================================== INTERVIEW WITH BILL WILLIAMS EVANS AVENUE A.A. GROUP IN CHICAGO ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EDITOR'S NOTE: On Saturday, July 17, 1999, three people came from Chicago -- Evans Avenue Bill W. (recently turned ninety-six years old), Jimmy H., and a younger man -- and met at the lakeside home of Frank N. a few miles south of Syracuse, Indiana, a little before lunch time, along with two people from South Bend: Glenn C. and Raymond I., who had arrived a little earlier and had been sitting outside enjoying the serenity of the lake, and watching a family of Canadian geese paddling around the edges. This is the story of early black A.A. Frank and Glenn were the only two white people there, present simply to tape record the conversations. Bill Williams ("Evans Avenue Bill W.," Chicago) was born in 1904 and spent his early years in East Texas. He eventually ended up in Chicago, where he came into A.A. in 1945, when he was around forty-one years old. At the time of this recording (transcribed below), he had just turned ninety-six. Fifty years earlier, in 1948 and 1949, he had helped the two earliest black members of A.A. in South Bend, Bill Hoover and a woman named Jimmy Miller, at the time when the A.A. program was just getting established in that town. Jimmy H. (Chicago) is well-known as a dynamic and colorful speaker, who frequently travels to various parts of northern Indiana to give leads. Two weeks earlier he had been one of the featured speakers at the Fourth of July hog roast at Chic L.'s farm along the Elkhart River outside of Goshen, Indiana -- a major annual event which often draws almost a thousand people, traveling from as far away as Ohio to eat, chat, play horseshoes, go on hayrides, and so on. Raymond I. (South Bend, Indiana) had also come. He first began attending A.A. meetings in 1974 and had been extremely close with the first two black people to enter the A.A. fellowship in South Bend, Bill Hoover and his wife Jimmy Miller. Bill Hoover became his sponsor in 1975. Most people in South Bend A.A. know Raymond, who is the "elder statesman" at Brownie's at 616 Pierce Street, just off Portage Avenue near downtown South Bend. Brownie's (named after one of the other major black leaders in early South Bend A.A.) is the basement meeting room below a children's daycare center, where numerous A.A. meetings are held every week. Frank N. (Syracuse, Indiana) came up with the idea of this get together after talking with Jimmy at Chic's hog roast. Frank had come to the event to socialize and enjoy, along with three other members of the Indiana Area 22 Archives Committee -- Floyd P. (Frankton), Klaus K. (Fort Wayne), and Glenn C. (South Bend) -- when he suddenly realized that the elderly Bill W. whom Jimmy was talking about was the same man who had come to South Bend to speak fifty years ago to help get the first black A.A. members in South Bend fully accepted. Glenn C. (South Bend, Indiana) came along to help Frank tape record and edit the information which Bill Williams and Jimmy H. were going to provide. When the group was all assembled, everyone sat down in a room with large glass windows looking out over the lake. Frank had trays of cheese and cold cuts and vegetables out on his dining room table, and asked who wanted coffee or a soft drink or something else. Jimmy H., who is a vegetarian and studiously avoids being around cigarette smoke, said he would just fix himself some hot water, while Bill W. asked if Frank could give him a cup of hot tea. When the tape recorders were turned on, Glenn C., to start things going, read from a transcript of Jimmy Miller's story, and then asked Bill Williams what he himself remembered about those events. Now some background needs to be given here: the first A.A. group in north central Indiana was founded in South Bend on February 22, 1943, by Ken Merrill and Joseph Soulard "Soo" Cates, and quickly began spreading into the surrounding parts of Indiana and Michigan, but it remained a totally white organization until 1948, when two black people in South Bend, Bill Hoover (who died in 1986) and Jimmy Miller (an erect, impressive black woman who was still living at the time of this meeting) asked for help. =================================== JIMMY MILLER'S STORY THE FIRST LADY OF BLACK A.A. IN THE ST. JOSEPH RIVER VALLEY ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EDITOR'S NOTE: Jimmy Miller (South Bend, Indiana) was born in Wayne, Arkansas, in 1920, but her family moved to South Bend when she was only three months old, so she is essentially a South Bend person. In March of 1993, Raymond I. arranged for Glenn C. to go over to Jimmy Miller's house and tape record some of her reminiscences for the A.A. archives, including the story of how she and Bill Hoover (South Bend, Indiana) became the firs two black A.A. members in that part of Indiana. After they came into the fellowship, Bill and Jimmy eventually got married, so Jimmy was able to talk at length about Bill's A.A. career as well as hers. She died around two or three years ago, so we can give her full name now. (This entire conversation is transcribed in Glenn C., The Factory Owner & the Convict, which is due to come out in a second edition in early 2005, see http://hindsfoot.org) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ JIMMY MILLER: I was a periodic drinker. Very much so. When I went out, I stuck to my 7-Up, my Coke. I drank at home. I was a loner. If I had a week's vacation from a job, I stayed drunk that whole week. I mean drunk! -- go into D.T's, had to go to the doctor. We had an alcoholic doctor .... I found out about this doctor, and I'd go get a shot, and I'm all right. But I ... that was my pattern. Maybe I would go a year without a drink, because I knew better, because then I would be drunk anywhere from one week to two weeks. But I would make sure it was during my vacation -- never lost a job, never got into financial trouble, no kind of way. But then I knew I had this time to stay drunk. RAYMOND: It's cunning, it's baffling, and it's powerful. JIMMY MILLER: But I knew I'd get drunk, because I know there was something wrong. The reason I didn't drink when I'd get out, go out: I knew better. I was going to get drunk! I knew that I would be clear drunk for at least a week, so I had to plan these things. And I used to tell my mother, that I knew better. She said, "Oh honey, you don't need no help. You just drink sometimes." So she would go and get, like, get the neighbor to go get me two or three pints of whiskey, and I'm quite young, maybe seventeen, sixteen, and when I started drinking she would hand me a pint. I'd go on up to my room. She'd check on me, or she'd bring me soup to eat. And I said, "Mama, I've got to be an alcoholic." And she said, "Naw, my baby gone stop one day." But she was .... RAYMOND: ... Enabling. JIMMY MILLER: She never .... No, I think she did the best thing she could do. When I drank the whole fifth of vodka, that was my last drink. I decided to go to drink me a fifth of vodka, it was just coming out [on the American market]. So I drunk this fifth, I was working at the cleaners. I blundered at work that morning, the temperature was about 115 [degrees Fahrenheit] in there. I worked for a solid week, without anything on my stomach but a drink of water. I'd get off from work, I'd make it as far as getting on the floor and I would stretch out. It almost killed me. I didn't have no more afterwards. But like Ray Moore say [he was an Irishman, who became Jimmy and Bill's sponsor when they came into A.A.], he was surprised by me being a periodic drinker. To know that I was an alcoholic. And you know, then I went to send and get all this literature. I was ecstatic at something. Then I couldn't get into A.A. EDITOR'S NOTE: Jimmy made a phone call to the A.A. number in South Bend, but this was 1948, and she was told bluntly over the telephone that Alcoholics Anonymous was for white people only. However, unknown to her, Bill Hoover (who was also black) had also called the South Bend A.A. number about the same time, so a certain amount of soul searching had begun among a few of the A.A. leaders. Jimmy did not know that Bill had also phoned the A.A. number, but she did know who Bill was. JIMMY MILLER: I had known Bill since '36 or '37. He and one of my brothers was strong alcoholics, so they was running buddies. They used to just say, "Mama, I'm going to sleep on the porch" (in them days you slept on the porch) and him and Bill would drink all night long. You know, I had known Bill for years, never thinking that we would ever marry. RAYMOND: Talking about [your brother] Luxedie? JIMMY MILLER: No, my brother Jesse. He was a "sophisticated drunk." JIMMY MILLER: Bill and I had called in three days apart .... they didn''t have any set up for colored people (that's what we were called) .... [first Bill phoned them for help, and then] I called in, and they also told me they didn't have any setup for "colored people." And at the time that Bill called in, Ray Moore was there, and he heard this remark -- they didn't have anything for colored people -- so he said, "That's all right, I'll take it." So they tried to discourage him, but anyway, he made the call on Bill. Three days later I called in, so he brought Bill over to my house, and he said, well he would sponsor us. Only they told him -- they didn't have any set up for colored whatsoever -- we couldn't come to the open meetings or the closed meetings, so Ray had brought two of his friends with him. GLENN C.: He was an Irishman? JIMMY MILLER: Uh-huh. Dunbar [came with him], and the other one was Ken Merrill. So in the meantime, they decided we could meet from house to house, so we met at my house, Bill's house, [and at the homes of] Ken Merrill and Dunbar. EDITOR'S NOTE: Bill Hoover, and Raymond I. (whom he later sponsored), were convinced that it was not simply coincidence, but the power of God at work, that made these two particular people -- Jimmy and Bill -- call into A.A. at the same time. And Bill Hoover was convinced that it was the power of God at work that made Ray Moore, an otherwise perfectly ordinary Irishman who had a job at the Bendix plant, insist on making the twelfth step call on these two black people in spite of the stiff opposition from within the A.A. group itself. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2076. . . . . . . . . . . . Early Black AA -- Part 2 of 5 From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/30/2004 11:11:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Early Black AA -- Part 2 of 5 JIMMY MILLER: When Ray Moore called on me, he was really surprised that I [already] had the ... Alcoholic Anonymous book. I was determined. He say two or more, but it's just a coincidence the way Bill and I called in. My husband [Bill Hoover] used to tell me, used to tell me that he had a slip. I said, not really. 'Cause after Ray Moore called on him that evening, he drank the next day, and never had a drink since. So you really -- I couldn't even call that a slip, could you? He called on him that day, he didn't know enough about the program -- bad handled -- so he drank that night, never no more! Said he was just determined. We really went through a lot .... I said, well you couldn't really call that a slip, because the man just come over and talked to you, you didn't know anything about the program. But I came in thinking I knew quite a bit -- which I did, 'cause I had read the Big Book. I read any and everything! Like my Grapevines [the A.A. periodical]. I run through 'em, and then I put 'em right here, and I read 'em over. EDITOR'S NOTE: Getting someone in the South Bend A.A. group to make a twelfth step call was only the first of many barriers that would have to be surmounted. Ray Moore -- who has been dead for many years now, Jimmy said -- continued to come through for her and Bill, and served as their sponsor during those earliest years, hearing their fifth steps, and advising and counseling and supporting them and fighting for them every step of the way. But when Jimmy and Bill came into A.A., it was still 1948, and the terms on which help was offered them by the South Bend A.A. group at first was incredibly humiliating and demeaning, in often unbelievably petty ways. The closed meetings were still normally house meetings in those days, and when Jimmy and Bill went to one of the few white homes where they would be admitted at all, they were promptly sent back to the kitchen like household menials, and could hear only as much of the people speaking as would travel back to that distant part of the house. JIMMY MILLER: So when Bill would walk it, they would invite us into the kitchen. The women took time to give us some broken cups! And they decided to give us broken cups, so we just took it. Ray told us, no matter what, be calm about it, so we sit in the kitchen, where we could hear from the family room, living room, whatever. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Side Note: BROWNIE TOLD THE SAME STORY EDITOR'S NOTE: Even in 1950, two years later, when Brownie (Harold Brown) came into the South Bend A.A. program, he said that he, as a black man, was also at first given the broken-cup treatment when he went to A.A. meetings at white people's homes. (This is taken from a tape recording of a lead he gave around 1972.) BROWNIE: When I come on the A.A. program, my people wasn't welcome. They was meeting in the homes at that time. I had to drink coffee out of a broken cup because they refused to give me a decent cup! Yes, I've sat in some of'em's homes, where they put their finger in their nose at me, then they buck at me. In other words, want me to get out of there. But I wasn't particular about being with them. What I wanted is what you had. I was trying to get sober. All I wanted to do was to learn it. They couldn't run me away. The rest of 'em were behind me pushing, saying "Brown, push on!" and they kept pushing me, and I kept going. It's to say, oh, look it! It wasn't easy for me to make the A.A. program. But I come here [into this hostile situation], a thought come to me: if they open the door, I get it myself. And I begin to study this A.A. program. And when I mean study it, I know it. I don't need you to tell me about it. I knows everything, in the steps and everything, what it says. And they told me that this was a spiritually program. Well now, if this is a spiritually program, ain't got no business being prejudiced. My God tells me, "I have no respect for persons." Alcohol ain't prejudiced. It don't give a damn who it tear down. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EDITOR'S NOTE: So the tales of black people being given only the chipped and cracked coffee cups to drink from in early South Bend A.A. are amply documented, as embarrassing as this fact is to many present-day white A.A. members in this area. But to get back to Jimmy Miller and her story: Although Jimmy and Bill Hoover were allowed to attend closed A.A. house meetings as long as they could tolerate this deeply offensive treatment, it was six or seven months before the white members would allow them to go to open meetings at all. Even then, it was not until two black A.A. members from Chicago came over to South Bend to give leads at the South Bend open meeting on several occasions, that the black people in the South Bend A.A. program began to be treated with at least a measure of ordinary social respect. The two black A.A.'s from Chicago were Earl Redmond and Evans Avenue Bill W. (Bill Williams), so being able to record some of Bill's memories of those long ago events was a special privilege for the two members of the Area 22 Archives Committee. JIMMY MILLER: So then, we still couldn't go to an open meeting. So we just kept meeting, and then, one or two more blacks called, and we met that way, and then Ray got real worried, and Bill's wife [at that time] called her cousin in Chicago: Earl Redmond. So Ray had a hard time getting permission for him to speak at an open meeting .... We still wasn't allowed to go to an open meeting, but we went anyway, so when he finished talking -- now this is a good six, seven months later -- they opened up, and said we could come to an open meeting. We could come to the group, and Ray told us don't be talking, just listen, and learn, and that's the way. And after we got about five more blacks . . . . that's the way the group got started. But we were treated real coldly at the open meetings, and finally -- like several of the speakers, we tried to shake their hands, and they would just turn and walk off -- [but] after Earl Redmond come down about three times, then they started shaking hands. Hey Raymond, what's the other gentleman, Bill's other cousin in Chicago? RAYMOND: [Evans Avenue] Bill Williams. JIMMY MILLER: Bill Williams, he come down, and after he made a talk it really opened up for us. RAYMOND: Fourth black man to make A.A. in Chicago. JIMMY MILLER: And I'm telling you! But we held on. RAYMOND: Do you remember being at the talk, that Earl Redmond made, to help you all get in? JIMMY MILLER: Yes I do. He said, you know, this was basically formed: no race, creed, religion, or anything. And then if you read it out the Big Book, it's all [a matter of] if you had the desire to stop drinking, that's all that's required. =================================== RACE RELATIONS IN THE NORTHERN UNITED STATES During the 1930's and 40's and afterwards Any black person in South Bend old enough to remember the world before Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will tell you that the humiliating treatment given to Jimmy and Bill at first was simply typical of the period, and that such treatment was a daily part of every black person's life. Many white people in the United States to this day believe that racial discrimination against black people only happens in the southern states, but every black person I have ever talked to who has lived in both parts of the country, has told me that racial discrimination is equally bad in both north and south. All of my own observation of life in the north (Chicago, the upper Midwest, Massachusetts, New York City, and so on) shows that they are totally correct. Black people who began leaving the south to live in northern cities around the mid twentieth century moved because that is where the jobs were, in the factories and foundries, not because there was less prejudice there, or any less likelihood of being beaten or killed by white people. King's Problems in Chicago Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. did not begin his work until several years after the first black men and women came into A.A. in Chicago and South Bend (which was around 1945-48). Dr. King's first major protest was the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955. This took place in the south, in Alabama, as did the major integration campaign he carried out later on in Birmingham, in 1963. It was only after this that Dr. King went north to work in Chicago, where his marchers were met by white mobs led by uniformed Neo-Nazis and Ku Klux Klansmen, in an even more violent and vicious opposition than he had encountered in the south. When King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, it could be argued that Chicago still stood as a partial failure for him: that city had proven to be far more resistant than the cities of the American south to truly basic change in racial attitudes at the public and political level. A.A. in Chicago and South Bend So the world inside A.A. circles in Chicago and South Bend was in fact twenty years ahead of the world outside of them on racial issues: getting black people into some of the closed meetings (on any terms) was a miracle for the 1940's, and getting them into the open meetings was a further miracle, and putting an end to at least some of the discriminatory treatment was yet another miracle. Young people today often do not realize (until they look back at how bad things were in the 1930's and early 40's) how much was actually accomplished in eliminating the worst kinds of racism in A.A. in the years which followed, and how difficult it was to bring this about. It was done by attacking the issues at the fundamental spiritual level, and by insisting that the spiritual principles of the program had to take precedence over personalities, and personal likes and dislikes, and politics, and blind cultural taboos. It also took a handful of people, both black and white, who had an astonishing courage, and a willingness to speak lovingly, but boldly and honestly, when basic spiritual principles were at stake. =================================== BACK TO JIMMY MILLER'S STORY EDITOR: But to return to Jimmy's story. At one point, Raymond asked her what she remembered of some of the details of that open meeting where Earl Redmond, the first black speaker the South Bend A.A. group had ever had, came over from Chicago. RAYMOND: Well 'd Ken Merrill play the piano or something -- didn't he play the piano for you all? JIMMY MILLER: Yeah. RAYMOND: And ... I mean when Earl Redmond and them came in? JIMMY MILLER: Yes. But Ken .... RAYMOND: And I think Earl Redmond made a statement like Bill [Hoover] used to tell me, said when Earl came down he made such a powerful talk. He said the same whiskey that'll make a white man drunk, will make a black man drunk. JIMMY MILLER: That's right, he explained all of that. It was a talk you just -- it kept everybody spellbound. And it opened the doors for us. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2077. . . . . . . . . . . . Early Black AA -- Part 3 of 5 From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/30/2004 11:22:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Early Black AA -- Part 3 of 5 =================================== KEN MERRILL PLAYS THE PIANO Celebrating a victory over racism Ken Merrill (the founder of A.A. in South Bend) opened the meeting in a way that had never been done before, by sitting down and playing the piano for all the people who were assembled. This was one of Ken's more unexpected talents: he had been a professional church organist for part of his life, and (on a piano) could play everything from the latest jazz to truly difficult classical pieces, almost totally by ear. Raymond commented later on in this recording that this symbolic gesture was a way for some of the white people in South Bend A.A. to begin making amends for the wrong they had done to the black members, and to extend the olive branch of peace by turning this first visit by a black speaker into a day of jubilee, if you wish. It was something special offered by the white people who were leading that meeting, to show that they too now realized that this was a very special welcoming, where they wanted to pull out all the stops and do something far beyond the ordinary for this meeting. Earl Redmond did his job too. Soon everyone in the room found themselves swept into the power and sincerity of his lead. And the white people discovered that, once you stopped making external comparisons and started listening to the message of the heart, black alcoholics suffered and felt exactly the same things as white alcoholics, but could also use the twelve steps to live in and through God's power to arrive at the same sobriety and serenity that some of the white people were beginning to achieve. When Bill Williams subsequently came over from Chicago to give his lead at the South Bend open meeting, the effect (as Jimmy Miller remembered it) was even more powerful. So being able to actually listen to Bill himself talking about his memories of his part in those same events is a special treat, because (although he was now 96 years old) he still remembered clearly his trips to South Bend some fifty years earlier. =================================== BILL WILLIAMS' STORY COMING FROM CHICAGO TO SPEAK TO THE WHITE A.A.'s IN SOUTH BEND EDITOR'S NOTE: Glenn C. read aloud from the preceding transcript of Jimmy Miller's story, and then asked Evans Avenue Bill W. (Bill Williams) if he could tell all of us some of his own memories of those events. GLENN: Now Bill, that's where your name came into this thing. Do you remember anything about that at all? BILL WILLIAMS: Uh huh. I remember it all. Most of that. Not all of it, but most of that. See, that was the problem, that's the reason I came over here, at the time. See, happened my wife was related to Bill [Hoover]'s, some of Bill's family, and they had told her about it, told them about it. So I came over here. I came over here, I brought four other members from my group, over here from Chicago. Myself -- see, this all happened before some of that, what you was reading, was happening. See, at the time, Bill couldn't go to the meetings. He could go to some of the meetings, but especially he couldn't go to the open meetings. And I came. So fortunately, my wife was a distant relative to him, and so that's the way I met Bill. I didn't know him before. So with about five of the members of my group, we came over here one Sunday, and talked at Bill [Hoover]'s house [at 1242 Howard St. in South Bend]. And after we met, that's [when] they told him it's all right, but you can't go to the big meeting, on a Sunday. So then I asked why. Then they begin telling, "Well you see, our wives wouldn't like that." And I listened to them talking. When they got through, I says, "Listen," I said, "if I had to go to Chicago from here in the morning -- I lived here, I got to go to Chicago. Wasn't but one train go, one bus go to Chicago, and I had to be there. And if I was on the train, and you got on ... because I was on there, and I was black, you wouldn't get off! Because you had to go to Chicago too." I said, "By the same token, if I go to the meeting, your wife cares less than a damn about me. She's there interested in you. So she's not gone go leave the meeting because I come. Because I'm going there for a purpose, and she's there to help you." So one of the fellows said it, he laughed, he said, "Well that's true." I said .... "By the same token, if I go to this meeting, your wife isn't going to leave -- it's an open meeting -- because she cares less than a darn about me. She's there for interested in you. And she's not gone leave because I get here. So if Bill [Hoover] goes to that meeting, it's not gonna affect your meeting at all. Cause all of you are going there -- all the alcoholics -- are going there for one particular purpose, and the non-alcoholic -- her husband, his wife -- is going there on account of you ...." "My wife would be the same thing about you. She wouldn't care anything about [you]. She would only be there because she's interested in me, and she want to find out what makes me tick. So when I got through -- see, before -- before that, they didn't want Bill [Hoover] to come to the open meeting. Well, I knew the reason. I'm from Texas, and I know the reason. GLENN: O.K., so am I, yeah, so am I. BILL WILLIAMS: I know the reason that they didn't want Bill [Hoover] to come to the meeting. Say, all right, say right now [pointing to the only empty chair in Frank's lakeside room]: it's only one chair sit here now. If I'm sitting right there, and this man is sitting here -- black -- your wife come in, that's the only seat. She's gone sit down there. She ain't gone leave because she just got her one seat, cause she's interested in you. She cares less than a doggoned about me. It was only him." I said, "Now it's only you guys that don't [want] your wife to sit in a chair close to me .... I can understand that. I know that .... But that isn't the point .... The point is that we're all here for one particular purpose. The alcoholics are here to mend their alcoholism. Your wife is here to learn what makes me tick." "See, the non-alcoholic -- the husband or wife -- don't know why we drank. They don't know that alcohol makes us THIRSTY. [Laughter] Now this tea -- see, this tea -- it quenches my thirst. See, I drank this, and this'll be about all I want. I might would like another cup an hour or so from now .... but you see, it quenches my thirst. But if this was alcohol -- and I am an alcoholic -- it makes me thirsty. GLENN: For more. BILL WILLIAMS: .... See, when Hoover came in, the fellows would go over to his house and talk, but they didn't want him, or none of us, to come to the open meeting .... They said, "We'll come to your house to the meeting, but you can't come to .... they was meeting in the church. Raymond, are they still meeting in that church? And anyways, they were meeting in the church -- that was an open meeting, where the husbands and wives were there. They didn't want them to come there, and they come and talking about, "Well, you see our wives gone to complain." I listened, to a while, until they begin to do things to me inside. I said,"Listen, let me tell you something, you further something ...." =================================== SOUTH BEND A.A. IN THE 1940's AND THE OPEN MEETING AT ST. JAMES CATHEDRAL ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ EDITOR'S NOTE: Let us interrupt Bill Williams at this point to talk about South Bend A.A. (which was started on February 22, 1943) and the big weekly open meeting they were holding in St. James Cathedral by 1948. It will also be wise, for the sake of younger people, to describe some of the primitive racial taboos in the United States in the 1940's. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ An article in the South Bend Tribune in 1964 (marking the twenty-first anniversary of the A.A. movement in that city) explains how the site of the big weekly open meeting was moved around during that twenty-one years. Beginning in October 1943, they held them for a while as occasional breakfast sessions at the LaSalle Hotel, which was at that point one of the city's two major hotels, located on Michigan Street in downtown South Bend. Late in 1944 however, they turned it into a regular Sunday afternoon meeting held at the former South Bend Civic Planning Association building on East Madison Street. Late in 1945, they set up the first Alano Club in the basement of that building. People were already coming from all over the surrounding areas of northern Indiana and southern Michigan -- places like Mishawaka, Elkhart, Goshen, Plymouth, LaPorte, Niles, Dowagiac, Benton Harbor, and St. Joseph -- learning how to set up an A.A. program from the people in South Bend, and then going back and setting up similar groups in their own home towns. So South Bend's example in dealing with problems like this one had an impact that extended far beyond its own city limits, up and down the St. Joseph river valley and around the southeastern coast of Lake Michigan (one of the five Great Lakes which divide the United States from Canada). At some point -- it is difficult to reconstruct the exact date, but probably sometime between 1946 and 1948 -- they moved the big weekly open meetings from the Madison Street building to St. James Episcopal Cathedral on Main Street in downtown South Bend, where they used the meeting room in the church basement for their weekly get together. Ken Merrill, the factory owner who was the founder of A.A. in South Bend, was a member of that church, and presumably used his influence to help secure this site. (Although Ken Merrill, when he was a teenager, had been kicked out of high school in Chicago for fighting, he educated himself past that point, and not only rose to become the president and co-owner of a very successful factory operation in South Bend, but also was a highly talented musician, and wrote short stories which appeared in the major national magazines of the period. His factory produced industrial pipe fittings which were sold all over the world, including the British Isles and France. He was a church goer, but he was typical of that branch of early A.A. which emphasized the psychological aspects of the program. For more about his life and his interpretation of the program -- people came from cities and towns many miles away to hear his beginners lessons on the steps -- see The Factory Owner & the Convict.) The dispute over whether black members would be allowed to attend the open meeting dates from this point when it started being held in the basement of St. James Cathedral. This is where the Anglican (Episcopalian) bishop for that part of Indiana presides. It is a small but quite beautiful Gothic style church where you can easily imagine you are back in a rather high church setting in old England: in the main sanctuary, which has a quiet, medieval Catholic feeling, the bishop dons his miter and ceremonial robes to preside over mass, while the choir chants the ritual and clouds of incense billows from burning censers. They have the Stations of the Cross on the walls, and people cross themselves with holy water on entering the sanctuary and genuflect before taking their seat in one of the pews. The meeting room in the church basement is underneath the sanctuary: although the ceiling is fairly low, the room is quite large and can hold a large number of people on folding chairs, arranged around long tables or however one wishes. This basement room was the site of the weekly open meeting which was now the point of controversy: some of the white A.A.'s did not want Bill Hoover, Jimmy M., or any other black people coming to that gathering. Now Bill Williams was aware that the real issues here were arising from a set of strange taboos that still dominated racial relations in the United States back in the 1940's, a set of deeply felt but primitive and irrational superstitions which operated somewhat like the rules of the caste system in ancient India. In the north, it was not formalized in the way of the American south, with signs posted indicating separate drinking fountains for black and white people, separate waiting rooms in train and bus stations, and so on, but many white people still felt this to a degree down at a visceral level. This taboo applied both to eating and drinking from the same cups and plates and glasses, and sitting in chairs right next to one another. Bill was also aware of the bizarre myth, believed by many whites in both north and south, that all black men continually lust in their hearts after white women. This sexual myth was embarrassing to talk about openly, but it was not only nonsense, it was dangerous nonsense -- the fuel that had fed more than one anti-black lynch mob. Evans Avenue Bill had decided that spiritual principles required that the black and white A.A.'s gathered in Bill Hoover's house bring these taboos and myths out into the open, and discuss them in the light of the spirit, and in terms of the basic principles of the program. They could not "talk around" the real issues forever, and ever hope to heal any of the wrongs that were being done. =================================== IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2078. . . . . . . . . . . . Part 4 of 5 From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/30/2004 11:44:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Part 4 of 5 BILL WILLIAMS CONTINUES HIS STORY BILL WILLIAMS: I said, "The thing of it is, and I know -- I ain't dumb, I ain't stupid -- I may be dumb, but I'm not stupid. The point is, if there's only one seat here -- that's just this one seat that's open -- your wife come to this meeting, you don't want her sitting there close to me." I said, "That's it." The guy looked at me! And .... I said, "She's not thinking about me, and I'm not thinking about her. I got my wife at home. I'm not thinking about [your wife]." So further come to further. Look at me, and they smile. They say, "Yeah," said, "that's it, Bill." I said, "I know it is ...." JIMMY H.: And that made it better there in South Bend when you guys got together. GLENN: Do you remember? -- does anybody know? -- were they having the open meetings at St. James church at that point, or was it at the Hotel LaSalle? RAYMOND: Bill [Hoover] said it was at St. James Cathedral. JIMMY H.: Yeah, I think he told me that -- that was later on. When did he die? Bill, Bill -- cause I met Bill Hoover. RAYMOND: He just die about '85, '86. JIMMY H.: Yeah, cause I was up there before he died. And he came to that meeting -- that was Brownie -- but didn't they have a meeting named after him there, didn't they have a . . . ? BILL WILLIAMS: Bill Hoover? JIMMY H.: Bill Hoover. BILL WILLIAMS: Yes, there's a group named after Bill Hoover. RAYMOND: "Interracial Group." =================================== THE INTERRACIAL GROUP & BROWNIE'S Two early South Bend answers to racism The two most influential black leaders in South Bend A.A. during the early period were Bill Hoover, who died in 1986, and Brownie (Harold Brown), who came into A.A. around 1950, shortly after these events, and died in 1983. Brownie Brownie was a quite flamboyant speaker who did powerful leads, spent more time doing things with the white A.A. members, and was perhaps better known by them. There was a weekly group meeting in South Bend which was known even after his death simply as "Brownie's meeting." Bill Williams and Jimmy H. were partially confusing Brownie and Bill Hoover. But Brownie was also extremely important. The large basement meeting room at 616 Pierce Street, just off Portage Avenue near downtown South Bend, is currently referred to as "Brownie's," because of its linkage with Harold Brown's heritage. One can see the old barber's chair (no one remembers where it originally came from) in which Brownie would sit during meetings. There are a number of A.A. meetings held there every week, attended by a relatively equal mix of white and black people. There are also A.A. groups still making month-long pilgrimages to Brownie's every year from many miles away, to do honor to him and Nick Kowalski (a Polish brick layer and ex-con who had found A.A. while imprisoned in the Indiana state penitentiary at Michigan City for murder). These are white A.A.'s, who received the message either from Red K., who had had Brownie and Nick as his sponsors, or from some of the people whom Red in turn had sponsored. The spiritual message which one heard from Brownie (who was black) and his friend Nick (who was white) was so powerful that it could bring alcoholics from drunkenness and anger to sobriety and serenity of life even at second and third hand. There is a group from Ann Arbor, Michigan, making this pilgrimage every year, as well as several groups from Chicago and its suburbs. There is also a group in Lansing, Michigan, which sometimes comes to South Bend, and another group in Bloomington in southern Indiana, which invites people from Brownie's like Raymond to speak to them. There are also supposed to be groups as far away as Florida and the New York City area composed of people who continue to honor Brownie's and Nick's memories. Bill Hoover and the Interracial Group The meeting with which Bill Hoover was most closely associated was officially called the "Interracial Group," to signal clearly, to anyone reading through the list of A.A. meetings, that there would be numerous black people present at that meeting. When there were enough black members in South Bend, they rented a building on Ardmore Trail and set up what they called an Interracial Club House, to continue the work that had been begun in the house meetings in Bill Hoover's home. A later version of the Interracial Group was revived around 1975, when some of the black A.A.'s in South Bend again were feeling unwanted and out of place in many of the white groups. Some blacks felt that they could not talk openly in white meetings about many of their deepest resentments and fears: as this faction among the black A.A.'s perceived it, the white dominated meetings allowed white alcoholics, especially if they were newcomers, to be angry and obnoxious on occasion (at least up to a point), whereas black members were expected to be genial, smiling Uncle Toms at all times. This revived Interracial Group continued on for a few years after Bill Hoover's death in 1986, but the last mention of it in the meeting list put out by the South Bend-Mishawaka A.A. Central Service Office was in 1990 -- it seems to have died off at the end, because certainly by the 1990's there were many A.A. groups in the area which had both black and white members and where everyone present felt comfortable talking about anything they wanted. Some had just a few black members, but there were other groups where some of the black members played the major leadership role and at least 40% of the people present would be black. A group which was specially labeled the "Interracial Group" seemed like an anachronism by then. =================================== SOUTH BEND IN 1948 AND 1949 Raymond and Jimmy H.'s Summary EDITOR'S NOTE: Raymond I. and Jimmy H. then summarized what they felt was the real significance of what happened in South Bend back in 1948 and 1949, based upon what they already knew, and what Bill Williams had talked about so movingly today. RAYMOND: Tell me, here's something I never got straight. Bill say it was either you or Earl Redmond, one of you all made the statement, "Same whiskey as get a white man drunk, 'll get a black man drunk." BILL WILLIAMS: Earl made that one. RAYMOND: That was Earl .... JIMMY H.: Yeah, one of the main reasons, I believe, after they came -- I'm just carrying around, cause he told the story already. But I'm just saying, after he came -- after they came -- and then they got in harmony, and they said "You're right," and so they got together, and I think they open up the doors. Everybody got in the spirit, and ... that's the main thing .... RAYMOND: After he left, after he came and talked, Ken Merrill, he played piano, and in playing the piano, this was the way of accepting blacks into the program -- Ken Merrill. I wasn't there now. BILL WILLIAMS: I was there. RAYMOND: But you said, after they played the piano, this was making the amends. JIMMY H.: And I hear what was said, and so I know now how it got started, how that integration came about -- spiritually -- not officially through politics. Because I found out something here today, and I've heard it leaped through, but I heard it talked though and lived through here. EDITOR'S NOTE: The small black (or actually interracial) A.A. group in Chicago was for two or three years an absolutely vital support to Bill Hoover and Jimmy Miller in South Bend, and the small group of black A.A.'s that started to form around them there in north central Indiana beginning in 1948, 1949, and 1950. Bill W. made a few more comments about that period, and how he and the Chicago people had helped. BILL WILLIAMS: Oh, about three years one of us came -- one, two, or three of us -- came over here every Sunday afternoon ... whatever time it was. GLENN: To support the people in South Bend. To support those people in South Bend. BILL WILLIAMS: Yeah. Cause, see at points it was just Bill and some woman -- I forget her name -- black woman. RAYMOND and GLENN: Jimmy. BILL WILLIAMS: That was the only two it was. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2079. . . . . . . . . . . . Early Black AA -- Part 5 of 5 From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/30/2004 11:57:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Early Black AA -- Part 5 of 5 =================================== CHICAGO IN 1945 The first black people to join A.A. EDITOR'S NOTE: Then Glenn C. asked Bill Williams to talk about something that happened a few years earlier: how the first black people came into the A.A. program in Chicago in 1945. GLENN: Now just to make sure I got it all straightened out, you were born in nineteen oh ... BILL WILLIAMS: Four. GLENN: 1904. Now what year did you come into A.A. in Chicago? BILL WILLIAMS: I think it 'uz, umn .... JIMMY H.: Forty-five .... It was December '45. Cause Redmond came in in March, you told me .... BILL WILLIAMS: But anyway, I know Redmond came in in March, and I came in that following December. GLENN: So when you came to South Bend, then, you had about four or five years sobriety behind you? You had a good program by then. BILL WILLIAMS: Oh yeah, I was pretty solid. I knew by that time that it was going to work. Cause the first -- see, when I first came in, it was my intention to only stay three years. [Laughter] And I knew that I would get it, and I would know anything to do in three years. Because I'm a tailor by trade, and I went to school, and they wanted me three years to finish tailoring. I finished it in one year. I said, if I can finish tailoring in one year, and I can make anything now to be made out of cloth -- and I still do a little of it -- well, I could get this in three years. So I figured in three years, I'd have this -- and I planned to stop going to the meetings! [Laughter] . . . . GLENN: And you're twenty-nine years old now [Bill had joked earlier that he told people he was twenty-nine], and you're still working at it! JIMMY H.: I'm still working on it! BILL WILLIAMS: See, this is -- see, Alcoholics Anonymous isn't something that you get. GLENN: Yeah. BILL WILLIAMS: It's a principle that we practice. I been in church since 1911. I been a member of a Baptist church since 1911. I still go to Sunday School and church every Sunday. I haven't finished it! GLENN: Yeah. BILL WILLIAMS: You can't complete that .... A.A. isn't something that you will get. It's a principle that we practice. And the word practice is we haven't completed it. You never heard a doctor yet -- how long he's been in business -- there's a sign up there, he's "practicing medicine." He's practicing. What Alcoholics Anonymous .... It's something said, and I hear people say, and you probably have heard it in your group, that they've been around a few years, and they're "cured." Ain't no such a thing as an alcoholic being cured! There is two incurable diseases, two known incurable diseases. There's alcoholism and ... diabetes .... They are arrested. If I was "cured," I could drink this alcohol now and go on and do all right. But see, alcoholism is one of the progressive, incurable diseases. The disease progress even though you don't drink. You don't have to drink to make it get worse! All we have to do is to stay alive [laugher] and it will get worse. Two diseases like that, alcoholism and diabetes. Nobody -- doctors are smart, but they've never found a cure for diabetes .... It's something with our system .... I can drink anything [else] I want to, but I can't drink alcohol .... GLENN: Now when you came into A.A. in Chicago, in 1945, did you hit trouble there too? Was there a color bar .... there in Chicago in 1945? I don't know anything about Chicago. BILL WILLIAMS: Oh yeah! Yeah, it was the same thing. It's still prejudiced, even now. GLENN: How did you deal with that? In Chicago, in 1945? BILL WILLIAMS: Well, I was born in Texas. RAYMOND: He's a cowboy! [Laughter] JIMMY H.: You all got into A.A., and you had to go out to Evanston, and Joe Diggles and all of 'em, and the guy said, Earl Treat, said and all, "Give us ninety days." Tell us about that .... =================================== CONCLUDING EDITORIAL NOTE Preserving the History of Early Black A.A. in Chicago and Gary, Indiana There is more discussion on this tape which has still not been transcribed. The Evans Avenue Group in Chicago, the first A.A. group in that city, is still in existence. Evans Avenue, where it was originally located, is near the lake, running north and south between 69th Street and the southern edge of the University of Chicago campus. Raymond I. took Frank N. and me to visit their present building -- they still call it the Evans Avenue Group, but it is now in a slightly different location -- and they have a lot of memorabilia from the days of early black A.A. in Chicago, which would be helpful in writing a fuller history. We have on tape Bill Williams' lead which he gave at the Kentucky State A.A. Convention (which Frank N. located for us), and also a tape recording of some of the profound things Bill said on spirituality at a regional conference held in South Bend, Indiana, several years ago. It would be extremely useful if someone in Chicago A.A. would write up an account of his life, and combine it with material about one of the great white A.A. figures from early Chicago A.A., Tex Brown. In Tex Brown's case, we not only have tape recordings of leads which he gave, and a good deal of information which his widow knows about his life, but also many of his writings, including one of the best descriptions I have ever read of how to engage in the kind of meditation where the mind is emptied (as far as possible) of all images, concepts, and words. This would be an extremely important and enormously valuable historical project. Jimmy H. in Chicago, who was one of the people at the meeting at Frank N.'s lake house, is still active -- he is going to be the main speaker at the New Year's Eve Dance in South Bend at the end of 2004 -- and Jimmy knows a good deal about early black A.A. in Chicago which needs to be tape recorded and/or put down in writing. The Northern Indiana Area 22 Archives Committee (and its Northern Indiana Archival Bulletin) have a tape recording of a lead given by John Shaifer, one of the great black old timers from Gary, Indiana. This was obtained by Beth M., a member of the Archives Committee, who also interviewed John and got that interview down on tape. He died not long after that, so we are very fortunate to have that material at all. Past Delegate Ben W., and Mozell (who runs a very successful A.A. meeting place in downtown Gary), have between the two of them a lot of information about early black A.A. in Gary which has never been recorded or transcribed. In the heyday of the great steel mills in Gary, airline pilots would find their way to Chicago's two airports and other places in the area by looking for the huge plume of smoke rising up into the air from the smelters, which could be seen from an enormous distance away. It was a very important industrial city. Jimmy Miller and Bill Williams have both died within the past three years. Raymond I., Frank N., Brooklyn Bob Firth (also now dead, a good Irish Catholic, see some of his sayings in The Higher Power of the Twelve Step Program: For Believers & Non-Believers), and Glenn C. represented A.A. at Jimmy's funeral. She left the special request that someone sing at her service, "I sing because I'm happy, I sing because I'm free. His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me." This was Jimmy's great spirit expressed perfectly. And we've lost that marvelous man Bill Williams now too. Raymond I., a younger man he sponsors named Charles, Frank N., and Glenn C. drove to Chicago to represent South Bend A.A. at Bill's funeral. So we are losing these people rapidly. Tape cassettes and pieces of paper get lost or damaged. One can only hope that one or two A.A. folks in Chicago and Gary will begin collecting and writing up this material while the people, the tape recordings, and the documents are still around. Otherwise the rest of this inspiring story will be lost forever. There are things that A.A. people all around the world can learn from the courage and dedication of Bill Williams, Bill Hoover, Jimmy Miller, Brownie, Goshen Bill, and their friends. It does not matter how badly you believe the cards are stacked against you when you come into A.A. You can get sober and your spirit can learn to soar to the heights. They showed us how to do it. Their lives were God's message to all of us. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2080. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: From: Corky Forbes . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/4/2004 12:07:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII "Courier New";color:black;"> Hi, 12.0pt;font-family:Verdana;">I'm a lurker and I hope I'm doing this right. Can anyone tell me who Verdana;color:navy;">was the minister's son in "We Agnostics"? (pg. 56.) Appreciate any help. Thanks. Verdana;color:navy;"> I appreciate all the posts as they have helped me understand so much about AA history. Also, I share them with my AA friends. God bless you and have a great day. Corky IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2081. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: RE: From: Tom Perdoni . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/4/2004 4:01:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Corky- I believe this was Fitz M. or John Henry Fitzhugh M. who was the 2nd man to recover from Towns Hospital in 1935. He was the author of "Our Southern Friend" story in the BB. Tom P. Corky Forbes wrote: Hi, I'm a lurker and I hope I'm doing this right. Can anyone tell me who was the minister's son in "We Agnostics"? (pg. 56.) Appreciate any help. Thanks. I appreciate all the posts as they have helped me understand so much about AA history. Also, I share them with my AA friends. God bless you and have a great day. Corky ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail [88] - Helps protect you from nasty viruses. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2082. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: RE: From: Corky Forbes . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/4/2004 5:10:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Thanks Tom, I appreciate your help. I read most of the posts from AAHistoryLovers; but, have trouble remembering them. Wingdings;color:black;">J :-) Keep up the great job your doing. God bless you and have a great day. Corky -----Original Message----- *From:* Tom Perdoni [mailto:tomper99@yahoo.com] *Sent:* Saturday, December 04, 2004 3:01 PM *To:* AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com *Subject:* Re: [AAHistoryLovers] RE: Corky- I believe this was Fitz M. or John Henry Fitzhugh M. who was the 2nd man to recover from Towns Hospital in 1935. He was the author of "Our Southern Friend" story in the BB. Tom P. _Corky Forbes _ wrote: Hi, I m a lurker and I hope I m doing this right. Can anyone tell me who was the minister's son in "We Agnostics"? (pg. 56.) Appreciate any help. Thanks. I appreciate all the posts as they have helped me understand so much about AA history. Also, I share them with my AA friends. God bless you and have a great day. Corky ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail [88] - Helps protect you from nasty viruses. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2083. . . . . . . . . . . . The Dr.`s Opinon From: Tommy . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/5/2004 6:26:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII On page xxix is the story of a man,hid in a barn determined to die. Is that man Fitz M.? Thanks,Tom IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2084. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: The Dr.`s Opinon From: Warren Pangburn . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/5/2004 8:42:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII No. Ebby, I believe. Tommy wrote: On page xxix is the story of a man,hid in a barn determined to die. Is that man Fitz M.? Thanks,Tom Peace & Love Warren Pangburn 6637 Gatehouse Lane Las Vegas NV 89108, 702-395-0172 "It's In The Book" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? The all-new My Yahoo! [112] - Get yours free! IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2085. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: The Dr.`s Opinon From: Arthur Sheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/5/2004 10:33:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Nancy - are you still moderating? These kind of messages should not be circulated. Ebby never spent any time in Towns Hospital. Simply pulling a name out of the air and circulating an opinion is not history. Is AAHistoryLovers going to be a chat room? Arthur ----- Original Message ----- From: Warren Pangburn To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2004 7:42 PM Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] The Dr.`s Opinon No. Ebby, I believe. Tommy wrote: On page xxix is the story of a man,hid in a barn determined to die. Is that man Fitz M.? Thanks,Tom Peace & Love Warren Pangburn 6637 Gatehouse Lane Las Vegas NV 89108, 702-395-0172 "It's In The Book" IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2086. . . . . . . . . . . . What old timers read, Part 1 of 6 From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/7/2004 12:16:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII INTRODUCTION The Books the Good Old-Timers Read Early A.A. in the St. Joseph river valley region of Indiana and Michigan in the 1940's and 50's A summary of their basic principles Number 1. When Brooklyn Bob Firth (a much loved old timer from South Bend) was asked whether there were any rules in good old time A.A. about what books A.A. people could and could not read, he just laughed and snorted, and said, "We read anything we could get our hands on that might get us sober!" That was a good summary of the first basic principle they followed. Good old-time A.A. was totally pragmatic ("what works?") and not an authoritarian system of countless doctrines and dogmas and endless rules which had to be followed blindly. Number 2. Nevertheless, it was usually assumed that any piece that was authored or sponsored by one A.A. group could automatically be used to read from in meetings by any other A.A. group which chose to do so. This was an extremely important principle, and meant that a number of books and pamphlets were automatically assumed to be appropriate for use without further discussion, such as the Big Book, Twenty-Four Hours a Day, The Little Red Book, and the Detroit or Washington D.C. Pamphlet. This was the official position taken by Bill Wilson and the New York A.A. headquarters (as recorded in letters from that period), in addition to being the common practice all across the United States and Canada. Number 3. The question of whether a particular book or writing was "conference approved" was irrelevant in old time A.A. Nobody ever talked that way. The rigid idea that nothing can be read in an A.A. meeting which is not conference approved was the invention of a small group of people later on -- it did not appear in any widespread fashion until the 1990's -- and it would totally destroy traditional A.A. if it were actually practiced. Number 4. In addition, one could read from works at A.A. meetings which were written even by non-A.A. authors -- people looked mainly to the wisdom of the more experienced A.A. members concerning which ones were useful and which ones were either trash or even outright dangerous -- and groups and intergroups had these books available for loan or sale. A special note for AAHistoryLovers This is a study which is primarily focused on early A.A. in the St. Joseph river valley region, which centers on north central Indiana but extends up into part of Michigan and the areas along the southeastern shore of Lake Michigan. Although it is a local study, many of these observations seem to have been typical of early A.A. all across the United States and Canada during the 1940's, 50's, and early 60's. Some names which may not be familiar to most readers are the names of the great old-timers from this St. Joseph river valley region: Ken Merrill, Nick Kowalski, Brownie, Bill Hoover and his wife Jimmy Miller, Ellen Lantz, Ed Pike, Goshen Bill, Brooklyn Bob Firth, Submarine Bill, and Raymond I. We did briefly meet several of these people though in the materials posted on the AAHistoryLovers about the early A.A. prison group at the Indiana state penitentiary and about early black A.A. along the Chicago-Gary-South Bend axis. For members of the AAHistoryLovers from other parts of the world, it is frequently easier to visualize what is going on when one has some idea of the geographical scale and distances involved. The state of Indiana is not one of the bigger states, but it is roughly the size of Ireland or Portugal or Lithuania, with a population about the same as Scotland. So I suppose that if it were transplanted to Europe, it could be a small country on its own, even if it does not feel like that big a place. People who live in Indiana are called "Hoosiers," although no one has the slightest idea where that word came from. Even though the people of Indiana are sweet, gentle, pleasant and friendly folk nowadays, at least for the most part, the name Hoosier may be a corruption of the word Hussar, a Hungarian word that originally meant freebooter or pirate and later referred to ferocious light cavalry units. The St. Joseph river valley area lies between the huge cities of Chicago on the west and Detroit to the east, but is a region all its own. The Potawatomi tribe (which still lives in the area) originally owned it, and then the French came in and used it as a bridge between their settlements along the Great Lakes in the north and the Mississippi river in the south. It was part of French Canada until the English won the French and Indian war and took it away from them in 1763. Otherwise the area would be French-speaking today. It has a chain of large industrial cities running along the river and the lake coast, with the rest of the area filled with green rolling fields of corn and soy beans, and fruit orchards filled with trees that become a mass of flowers in the spring. The countryside is dotted with countless individual farm houses and barns, and a number of small lakes which sometimes have along their shores some very expensive summer homes built by wealthy people from Chicago or elsewhere. There are also a large number of small towns, which in spite of their size are always guaranteed to have at least one or two bars and taverns serving alcoholic beverages well into the evening. In their own way, these establishments help to keep Hoosier A.A. meetings full and prospering. A few portions of this material have been posted on the AAHistoryLovers before, but this is an attempt to give a broad and comprehensive account of all the books which the good old-timers used in their meetings or gave to newcomers to read, so that we can get a general overview of the full range of material involved, and how they decided what to use and what not to use. One major concern here is to look at the reasons they had for using certain kinds of things and not using others. I apologize however for any small portions of this that may just seem like a repeat of something I have already posted. I do not want to seem like a fanatic who has only one drum upon which to bang away, however merrily. SOURCE: This posting is based on the appendix that will appear in the second edition of the two-volume work on Lives and Teachings of the A.A. Old Timers in the St. Joseph river valley region: The Factory Owner & the Convict and The St. Louis Gambler & the Railroad Man, due to appear in January or February of 2005. See http://hindsfoot.org The first edition was printed up for the groups in South Bend and Mishawaka as a single volume (in two columns with rather small type) for a memorial celebration of the founding of A.A. in this part of Indiana, held on October 26, 1996, at the Scottish Rite Temple in South Bend. One of the children of Ken Merrill, the founder, came out on stage to receive the first copy. All the A.A. people present rose to their feet almost simultaneously, in honor of her father's memory, for all of them knew that, directly or indirectly, he had saved their lives. ==================================== The Books the Good Old-Timers Read The Big Book In early A.A. in the St. Joseph river valley region, the book which completely surpassed all others in importance was always Alcoholics Anonymous, published in 1939 and referred to simply as the Big Book. In fact, it proved to be impossible to establish A.A. groups anywhere in Indiana until this work came out. One of the original Akron people actually came to Indiana in 1938, a year before the Big Book was printed. This was John D. Holmes (they called him "J.D."), who had gotten sober in Akron in September 1936, and was the tenth person to get sober in the new A.A. movement. When Dr. Bob's son Smitty came to speak in South Bend at our annual Michiana Conference a few years ago, I got to eat dinner with him, and I asked him whether he recalled J. D. at all. Smitty smiled with delight as the old memories returned, and told me that he not only remembered him very well and very fondly, but that he had been the one who had driven over and picked up J. D.'s wife Rhoda to bring her back to his parents' house when his father (Dr. Bob) made his first contact with the couple. J. D. came to Indiana in 1938 after the newspaper in Akron which he worked for was sold and he was left jobless. His wife Rhoda had originally come from Evansville, Indiana, and they decided to make a trip to visit her family there for the Memorial Day holiday which came at the end of May. He found a new job on the newspaper there and they simply stayed and did not go back. Evansville was a city on the Ohio river in the southern part of the state. Although Rhoda was not an alcoholic, she and J. D. held something like an A.A. meeting every Wednesday night in their home in order to help him keep sober. The Upper Room Like so many A.A.'s from the extremely early period, J. D. and Rhoda used a little work called The Upper Room for their private daily meditation and also to provide a discussion topic for this little Wednesday meeting. The spirit and philosophy of this meditational guide had almost as big an influence as the Oxford Group on early A.A. One can see this especially in the Big Book, where the ideas taught in The Upper Room shaped many of the most basic theological principles and assumptions. As far as is known, no one who played a shaping role in early Indiana A.A. was connected in any strong way with the Oxford Group or used any of their literature for A.A. meetings anywhere in the state. So the Oxford Group influence lay in the deep background in numerous ways, including the basic ideas behind many of the twelve steps, but was not an actual presence in Indiana A.A., even at its beginning. The Methodist Episcopal Church South had begun publishing this extremely popular devotional manual called The Upper Room in the Spring of 1935 in Nashville, Tennessee, about the same time A.A. itself was founded. The Upper Room was a product in part of the Protestant liberals of the early twentieth century, who drew inspiration from works like Adolf Harnack's What Is Christianity? (1900) and Horace Bushnell's Christian Nurture (1847). Bushnell argued in that book that although some Christians might be brought to faith by a sudden conversion experience of great emotional intensity (of the sort which were seen so often in the American frontier revivals of the early nineteenth century), that most Christians would gain spiritual awakening through a process which was more of the educational variety. The Upper Room was designed to provide that "educational experience." Each page had one day's meditation. There were bible verses and readings, and a meditation for that day, and a prayer. Most important of all, however, The Upper Room was shaped by the fundamental Wesleyan and Methodist belief that real spirituality was not a matter of outward, formal religion but "the religion of the heart" (NOTE 1). So The Upper Room was written in a way which could cross the normal denominational boundaries, and it talked about spirituality in a way which any sincere and tolerant person could appreciate, no matter what his or her religious background. It continued to be the work used for daily meditations by most A.A.'s in the United States down to 1948. J. D. made numerous twelfth step calls after he moved to Evansville, but was at first unable to get any other Hoosier alcoholic to join him. Things improved when Dr. Bob sent him a copy of the newly published Big Book right after it came off the press, and armed with this new tool, J. D. had a good deal more to work with than just his own claims about what their little group had accomplished in Akron. The first A.A. meeting in Indiana was held by him and a local surgeon, Dr. Joe Weldorn, after Dr. Joe's drinking finally landed him in the county jail in April or May of 1940, and he finally became willing -- sitting there in his cell staring at the bars -- to do something about his problem. A.A. quickly began spreading through Indiana from that point. On October 28, just a few months later, an A.A. group was started in Indianapolis, after Doherty Sheerin, a retired businessman there, traveled down to visit J. D.'s group and see how it was run. Dohr in Indianapolis and J. D. in Evansville continued working together through the years that followed, and eventually established A.A. groups over much of the rest of the state. Dohr was a good Irish Catholic, and on November 10, 1943, he brought a young priest named Father Ralph Pfau into the A.A. program. Father Ralph was not only the first Roman Catholic priest to get sober in A.A., he also became one of the four most published A.A. authors when he began writing his famous Golden Books, published under the pseudonym of Father John Doe. The only part of Indiana which did not initially receive A.A. from that Indianapolis-Evansville axis was South Bend in the north where A.A. got established when Ken Merrill (a factory owner) and Joseph Soulard "Soo" Cates (an engineer who worked as a sales representative for a large national corporation) started a meeting in South Bend on February 22, 1943, using just the Big Book for their guide. They do not seem to have had any contact during the first year or two with the Indiana A.A. groups further south. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2087. . . . . . . . . . . . What old timers read, Part 2 of 6 From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/7/2004 12:30:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Fulton J. Sheen Presumably many A.A.'s in South Bend and the surrounding St. Joseph river valley area continued to use The Upper Room for their daily meditations, and to provide meeting topics. But Marty Gallagher in Elkhart, whose memory went back further than any other old-timer in the area, said that other things were used too, and that some A.A. meetings, for example, would be set so that everyone could sit and listen to Fulton J. Sheen speak over national radio on the Catholic Hour. They would then use his talk to provide the discussion topic. Sheen, a Roman Catholic priest and theologian who taught at Catholic University, first went on the radio program in 1928. By the time A.A. came along, Father Sheen had over a million loyal listeners tuning in to hear him every week. He was eventually made a bishop in 1951. His style of preaching was attractive to A.A. people: Bill W. received instructions in Catholicism from him at one point, when Bill was flirting with converting to that faith (NOTE 2). It would be wrong to speak of Sheen as a liberal, but he knew how to speak about spiritual matters in a way which non-Catholics could also appreciate and understand. So his radio talks were useful for the same reason that the Upper Room was useful: it was a way of talking about spirituality which crossed many of the normal Christian denominational boundaries. The Move Away from Exclusively Christian Language Many A.A. people however eventually began to be uncomfortable with the use of meditational literature which was so exclusively Christian, even if it was a very liberal or non-denominational version of Christianity. Already in the Big Book, the name of Christ was only mentioned once, on page eleven, where he was referred to merely as "a great man" who had an excellent moral teaching which was nevertheless not always wholly practical. In the United States, going back at least as far as the New England Transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) and Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), there were many who believed that a serious pursuit of spirituality required going to all the great spiritual classics for inspiration and help. The Bible was one great spiritual classic, but there were many other equally ancient and inspired spiritual classics found around the world: the writings of Confucius, various Hindu religious works, and so on. And behind the Transcendentalists lay the great thinkers of the eighteenth century Enlightenment -- people like Voltaire, Kant, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson -- who believed that good spirituality had to reject the world of authoritarian religious doctrines and dogmas and infallible holy books, and speak in terms which would be intelligible to rational human beings anywhere in the world. A.A. from the beginning was deeply affected by the spirit of the Enlightenment and its morality of knowledge: it was fundamentally dishonest, it was believed, to ask intelligent people to take things on blind faith -- as dishonest as lying or stealing or trying to pass bad checks. Real knowledge always had to be based on either (1) rational explanation or (2) personal experience. Also, up until almost the middle of the twentieth century, most Americans and Europeans who had any kind of education past the simple grammar school variety were taught Latin, and the brighter ones learned Greek as well. So all educated westerners were also influenced by the spiritual teachings of the ancient pagan Greeks and Romans, and particularly by the philosophical ideas of Plato and the Stoics. Many early A.A. people were professionals, who had learned at least a little about the classics as part of their college educations, and they sometimes found some sort of Platonic or Stoic concept of God more congenial than what they were hearing in the Christian churches: the higher power was the divine unity of all things (in which our spirits too were participants), or the creative divine Mind or Reason of which this material universe was an expression. Twenty-Four Hours a Day In May 1942, a once wealthy Boston businessman named Richmond Walker who had lost everything due to his drinking, went to his first A.A. meeting and never had another drink again in his life. The little Boston A.A. group which he joined had barely gotten started, and had just split off from the Jacoby Club, to which it had been closely attached at the beginning (NOTE 3). Rich also had a home in Daytona Beach, Florida, where he was also actively involved in the A.A. movement. He began writing some meditations for himself on little cards, which he would carry around with him, and finally in 1948, the Florida A.A. people persuaded him to print these up in book form. He printed some copies, under the sponsorship of the Daytona Beach A.A. group, and began distributing them from his basement. He gave it the title Twenty-Four Hours a Day. Rich had been educated at a private school and then at Williams College, an old East Coast men's college (founded in 1785), located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, just a few miles from the Vermont border. He was an honors student who won a gold medal in classical Greek, and not only knew a good deal about the New England Transcendalists and nineteenth century German idealism, but also had a thorough knowledge of the philosophy of both Plato and Kant. His meditational book started with a quotation from a Hindu author and made no reference to Christ or to any specific Christian doctrines. His idea, as he said in his Foreword, was to produce a book which expressed "universal spiritual thoughts" and carefully avoided using too much language which was too closely tied to any particular one of the world's religions. It was a book designed to be read and appreciated by intelligent people from any part of the globe. The book was first printed just for the program people in Florida, but A.A. members from all over the country quickly began requesting copies. Jimmy Miller, who came into the program in South Bend in 1948, could not remember ever using any other meditation book. Publication figures show that there were soon probably more A.A. people in the United States as a whole who owned their own personal copy of the Twenty-Four Hour Book than there were people who owned a Big Book. At least half the A.A.'s in the country had their own copy of the little meditational book. The two basic A.A. books All the old-timers in the St. Joseph river valley who came in after 1948 report that they got sober on two books: the Big Book and the Twenty-Four Hour Book. The first book gave them the steps, bu this also of course included the eleventh step: "Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out." It told us to pray, but did not tell us how. The Twenty-Four Hour book told us how. It showed in its little daily readings how to do all three things mentioned in the eleventh step: improve our conscious contact, obtain guidance as to God's will for us, and draw upon the power of the divine grace. Many early A.A.'s in the St. Joseph river valley carried the little black book around with them everywhere they went. Partly this was because it was so much smaller than the Big Book editions of those days, and could be slipped into a pocket or a small purse. But probably the most important reason was because when mental upsets occurred -- resentment, anxiety, fear, despair -- and they felt their spirits beginning to fall to pieces, the little black book contained the kind of message which could, as a kind of instant spiritual first aid, often calm the troubled soul better even than reading in the Big Book. They read from both the Big Book and the Twenty-Four Hour Book in their meetings, and regularly used the Twenty-Four Hour book to provide topics for discussion meetings. The Little Red Book The Little Red Book (originally titled An Interpretation of the Twelve Steps of the Alcoholics Anonymous Program, first published in 1946) was also read from and used for topics in A.A. meetings in parts of the United States and Canada. It was written by A.A. member Ed Webster in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and sponsored by the Nicollet Group there. Dr. Bob helped Ed Webster write it and strongly supported it: we can learn a lot about Dr. Bob's strategies for working with beginners by studying this book. It was one of the four most read books in early A.A. It was not used for A.A. meetings in the St. Joseph river valley, but one old timer told me that there were strong supporters of this book in other parts of Indiana, such as in some of the A.A. groups in Fort Wayne, for example, and in Indianapolis. Like the Twenty-Four Hour book, it does not talk of prayer to Christ or obtaining salvation through Christ, but speaks always of praying directly to God or "the Power Greater than Ourselves." The A.A. program was never in any way hostile to Christianity (or to any other of the great religions of the world), but it was nevertheless a firmly held belief that A.A. books and A.A. meetings had always to use language which everyone could use, not just devoted Christians. The Detroit or Washington D.C. Pamphlet There was a little pamphlet, laying out a set of four beginners lessons for newcomers to A.A., which was also very important in many parts of the country. Its actual title was "Alcoholics Anonymous: An Interpretation of the Twelve Steps." Our best information is that it was put together in its commonly used form in Detroit by the North-West Group at 10216 Plymouth Road, which began conducting Beginners Meetings for newcomers on June 14, 1943, so it is often referred to in the midwest as the Detroit Pamphlet. The first printed version however was sponsored by the A.A. group in Washington, D.C., perhaps in late 1943 or the first half of 1944, so on the east coast it is often referred to as the Washington D.C. Pamphlet. It was also later reprinted under the sponsorship of various local A.A. groups in Oklahoma, over on the West Coast, and so on. In the 1990's, some of the old-timers in both South Bend and Elkhart used the Detroit Pamphlet for working with newcomers in A.A. meetings, and had a good deal of success. They regarded it as the best, clearest, and most effective set of A.A. beginners lessons they had ever seen. The South Bend Beginners Classes Early South Bend A.A. gave beginners lessons, but unfortunately no notes or handouts have survived. According to Nick's List, it started out as a set of three classes, then went briefly to four classes, but ended up as a set of five classes, where Ken Merrill did the fifth class. According to Ellen Lantz however, it was a three class series in the mid 1950's, each one lasting two or three hours, and Ken taught all three classes. However it was done, the early South Bend beginners lessons do not seem to have been simply duplicates of the four-class format used in the Detroit Pamphlet. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2088. . . . . . . . . . . . What old timers read, Part 5 of 6 From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/7/2004 1:11:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The old-timers in the St. Joseph river valley say that there was enormous excitement when Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age appeared in 1957. As one old-timer put it, a woman who remembers those days clearly, "it was the first chance we got to learn something about our history." But the interesting thing is, that although this book was approved by the delegates in New York and published by Alcoholics Anonymous World Services in New York, the A.A. people in South Bend met in small private groups in people's homes to read and study this work. The Third Principle In other words, in early A.A. in the St. Joseph river valley, A.A. meetings which were listed on the official meeting schedule would often read and study books which were not published by the central New York A.A. office, and on the other hand, they believed that some of the books which were published in New York and "conference approved," were nevertheless not appropriate for general A.A. meetings. What this meant was that the question of whether a particular book or writing was or was not "conference approved" meant nothing in and of itself about whether it might or might not be judged as appropriate for reading at A.A. meetings. Books by non-A.A. authors Going back to the very beginning of A.A. in the St. Joseph river valley, there were important books written by non-A.A. authors which good sponsors recommended to the people whom they sponsored, which were made available for loan or purchase by A.A. groups and intergroup offices, and which could be studied at private unofficial meetings in people's homes or at spiritual retreats. Ellen Lantz in Elkhart told a story which was similar to that of many other early A.A. members in the St. Joseph river valley. A book written by a non-A.A. author played a crucial role in enabling her to get sober and stay sober. In fact in her case, after she first came into the program, she had to go through three and a half years where she was having periodic relapses before she finally gained permanent sobriety in March of 1951. From the beginning apparently, she was reading Twenty-Four Hours a Day every morning (which she continued to do all the way down to her death in 1985). But then Ed Pike's wife Bobby started meeting with her regularly to read in Father Ralph's Golden Books, and then, in particular, they made a very thorough study of Emmet Fox's Sermon on the Mount. This helped Ellen finally turn the corner, and stop the continual relapsing. In South Bend, the Sermon on the Mount continued to be highly recommended by people like Grouchy John and Rob G., and a number of other good old-timers, all the way down to the 1990's. Emmet Fox was not an alcoholic. He was a Protestant pastor who was a major leader in what was called New Thought, a form of Christian spirituality which stressed the ways in which the thoughts which run through our minds shape our lives and can even affect our physical health and the material world around us, for good or ill. A.A. people found his writings uniquely effective in helping alcoholics learn basic spiritual principles, and free themselves from authoritarian and dogmatic forms of traditional religious teaching. Another book by a non-A.A. member which the old timers in Indiana and Ohio frequently mention is Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking, which came out in 1952. Peale came from a Methodist background, and combined New Thought principles with a very sophisticated knowledge of psychiatry and psychotherapy. He also believed that A.A. was the most important spiritual movement of the twentieth century, and was very impressed by the A.A. program. The Akron List In the A.A. program, Fox's book was the most widely known and recommended book written by a non-A.A. author, but there were also other important works. The Akron Manual, a pamphlet that was written and published in Akron in 1940 or thereabouts, and that was intended to be handed out to newcomers when they were admitted for detoxing at St. Thomas Hospital in Sister Ignatia's alcoholic ward, gave a list of ten works in all, which were recommended reading for beginners. At the top of the list came the Big Book of course, and then the Bible, with specific mention of certain key portions. In the New Testament, it was recommended that alcoholics going through detoxification read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), 1 Corinthians 13, and the letter of James. Then in the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament), the pamphlet advised reading and re-reading the 23rd Psalm and the 91st Psalm (both of which are very good for people who are scared to death and coming to pieces). The other eight works were all by non-A.A. authors: Henry Drummond, The Greatest Thing in the World. The Unchanging Friend, a series published by the Bruce Publishing Co. in Milwaukee. James Allen, As a Man Thinketh. Emmet Fox, The Sermon on the Mount. Winfred Rhoades, The Self You Have to Live With. Ernest M. Ligon, Psychology of Christian Personality. E. Stanley Jones, Abundant Living. Bruce Barton, The Man Nobody Knows. Mel B. from Toledo has just come out with a reprint of two of these books, the ones by James Allen and Henry Drummond (NOTE 8). Mel says that when he first came into the program back in 1950, these two works were made available for purchase by A.A. groups all over the country, and that when he started reading and studying them, they helped save his life. Again, early A.A. was flexible and pragmatic. Many of the good old-timers found that these particular books were extremely useful and helpful, and so they recommended them to beginners, and they went to the effort to make sure that newcomers could purchase them at their A.A. groups if they desired. Encouraging A.A. Members to Read The Detroit/Washington D.C. Pamphlet stated at the beginning of each lesson that studying their class material was not intended to eliminate the need for such things as "the careful reading and re-reading of the Big Book" and the "reading of approved printed matter on alcoholism." This reference to other printed materials on alcoholism meant that the good old timers who had discovered particularly useful things for alcoholics to read would take steps to make sure that this material was available for the other A.A. members to look at. This is the practice which is still followed today in A.A. in the St. Joseph river valley by both Mable (the secretary at the Michiana Central Service Office in South Bend) and Alice (the secretary at the Central Service Office in Elkhart). Mable and Alice work on the general principle that everyone in town does not have to agree that a particular book is good -- this is very important -- but that if a particular work is recommended by some at least of the wiser and more knowledgeable A.A. or Al-Anon old timers -- people with quality experience in the program -- they will carry the book. So they have a wide variety of volumes, including meditational books and materials on spirituality, works by both A.A. and non-A.A. authors, studies by psychologists and other experts on alcoholism, and important books on various topics in A.A. history. If it is a decent book you can almost guarantee that it will be available there, but if for any reason they do not have a copy in stock, they will cheerfully order one for you, and phone you the moment it arrives. Varieties of Spiritual Experience One book written by a non-A.A. author that was cited over and over again by A.A. writers from the very beginning, was a book by the psychologist William James called The Varieties of Religious Experience. He stressed the fact that there were a number of very different kinds of spirituality. There was a type based on a sudden highly emotional conversion experience. There were other types in which a long, gradual educational experience took place. There was the religion of healthy mindedness, as James called it (New Thought was one version of that), and another form designed to deal with what he called the torment of the divided self. In addition, James pointed out, at all points in religious history all over the world, there had been various kinds of spirituality involving mystical experiences of the divine realm which could be felt but not described in words. It was necessary to have different kinds of spirituality, James said, because human beings fell into different kinds of psychological types. A small percentage of people were of a psychological type which could only make a significant spiritual breakthrough by having a dramatic conversion experience. When psychologically tested, among other things, many of them tended to be people of the sort who were especially susceptible to post-hypnotic suggestion. But it was futile to try to produce a spectacular conversion experience of this sort among people of other psychological types. The attempt to make born-again Protestant revivalists or Catholic or Hindu mystics out of everyone was doomed to failure from the start. Any attempt therefore to enforce a rigid uniformity upon everyone in A.A., even if it were, for example, a meditational book where each reading was voted on by all the delegates assembled in New York, would either drive large numbers of people out of the program, or be so bland and trivial that it would be no more than a kind of pre-chewed spiritual baby food which would be of little help to people desiring real spiritual meat and potatoes. So when A.A. is healthy in any particular locality, there will be different kinds of A.A. meetings reading different things and using different approaches. To give a simple example, the first division in South Bend A.A. after it had begun was a split (involving the formation of a separate breakaway meeting) between those who followed Ken Merrill and preferred a type of A.A. which stressed the psychological aspects of recovery (NOTE 9), and those who followed Harry Stevens (NOTE 10) and wanted a variety of A.A. that was more oriented towards traditional religious language. This did not weaken A.A. in South Bend, but in fact helped it grow and flourish. Newcomers could decide which approach made the most sense to them. There are A.A. people who are round pegs, and others who are square pegs, and others who are triangular pegs. Trying to force square pegs into round holes, and so on, does nobody any good. The historical roots of A.A. Only a very small portion of the traditional A.A. reading matter was published by the New York A.A. headquarters. Attempts by a few people nowadays to create rules saying that only New York A.A. literature can be used in A.A. meetings or sold by A.A. groups or intergroups, are dangerous. They would, if they were successful, totally cut A.A. off from most of its historical roots. What would result would not in fact be A.A. anymore, at least not in any form which the good old-timers would have recognized. It would be some sort of dogmatic, rule-bound neo-fundamentalism. Following mechanical rules, no matter how well-intended the authors of these rules, never got anyone sober. People who turn to authoritarian fundamentalist systems are excessively fearful but also extremely lazy people who do not want to take personal responsibility for themselves or their lives. And alcoholics who refuse to deal with both their many fears and their aversion to hard work and taking responsibility for themselves do not get sober. With all its richness and variety, genuine old-time A.A. flourished and spread all over the United States and Canada, and then to all the other countries of the world. This was the period of A.A.'s rapid growth, and the period which saw incredibly high success rates in getting alcoholics sober and keeping them sober. If we want to see a true revival of the old A.A. spirit, one of the best ways to accomplish this is to sit at the feet of the good old-timers, and read what they read, and do the things that they report that they did. The good old-timer Ed Pike the railroad man probably put it as well as anyone. When he first started going to A.A. meetings, "I just made a deal with myself," he said, "that I will do anything that they tell me they do -- anything -- and if I'm big enough, I'll do it." ==================================== IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2089. . . . . . . . . . . . What old timers read, Part 6 of 6 (notes) From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/7/2004 1:25:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII NOTES NOTE 1: It is a serious mistake to regard all evangelicals as the same. Even at the very beginning, when the modern evangelical movement first began in the 1740's (in England and the Thirteen Colonies) there were two basic strands, which held many principles and practices in common, but nevertheless strongly disagreed on others. Jonathan Edwards, a Congregationalist pastor in colonial Massachusetts (who was elected president of Princeton University at the very end of his life), was the greatest early representative of the variety of evangelical thought which tended to be strongly Calvinist, and drew most of its fundamental assumptions from Augustine, the great African saint who wrote at the beginning of the middle ages. John Wesley, a priest of the Church of England who taught Bible and classical Greek and Latin at Oxford University in England, was the greatest early representative of the other kind of evangelical thought. He was strongly anti-Calvinist, regarded himself as a member of the Anglo-Catholic tradition instead, and drew most of his fundamental theological assumptions not from Augustine, but from the Greek and Syriac fathers of the early church: Clement of Alexandria, Macarius the Egyptian, Ephraim Syrus, and so on. (John Wesley could read and speak French, Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Syriac, and Aramaic, as well as the classical Arabic of the Koran, a book which he greatly admired. He also learned Spanish at one point in order to learn about Judaism from a group of Spanish Jews whom he met while trying to do missionary work among the Native Americans in colonial Georgia.) This Wesleyan tradition gave rise to the various Methodist denominations and influenced many other Protestant evangelical groups as well. This Wesleyan/Methodist tradition strongly rejected the Calvinist idea of predestination, and spoke instead of a synergistic (co-operative) relationship between God's grace and human will power, of the sort which one saw among the early Christian teachers from the eastern end of the Mediterranean in the first five or six centuries. We were healed by God's grace alone, but we human beings had to co-operate with God, and God gave us the power to reject his grace if we chose to do so, and go our own way. The Big Book characteristically speaks in this way, and Hoosier folks when talking to an A.A. group will often speak of being sober today due to "the grace of God, the help of you people, and a little bit of footwork on my part." The last phrase was the synergistic or co-operative element. The Wesleyan/Methodist tradition also emphasized that true religion was "the religion of the heart," not "outward formal religion." Scrupulously and legalistically following church rules and rituals, and mechanically believing in all the officially enforced doctrines and dogmas which my own particular church taught, was not real spirituality. Real spirituality arose down in our hearts, at the level of our deepest feelings and desires. What God was concerned with was what was going on in our hearts, not all of those outward things. John Wesley insisted (on well-argued New Testament grounds) that Jews and Muslims, for example, who loved God in their hearts, and who not only treated the other human beings around them with love at all times, but also were able to teach other people to love, had clearly done so only by the help of God's greatest of all gifts of grace (see 1 Corinthians 13 in context), which meant not only that they were saved, but that God loved them fully and unequivocally. These kinds of assumptions also helped to fundamentally shape the Big Book. The Upper Room came from this Wesleyan type of evangelicalism in its strongly Catholic-leaning old-time Southern Methodist variety, which celebrated sung eucharists every month with medieval chants, using Archbishop Cranmer's English translation of the full medieval Catholic Latin mass. Their ordained clergy, who were called "traveling preachers in full connection" (from the old frontier days when they were sent out on horseback into the wilderness as "circuit riders" searching for little settlements where they could preach) were under the iron rule of the Southern Methodist bishops, who could appoint them to any church post or send them into any missionary situation which they chose, and these pastors were informed quietly during their seminary training that they were priests, even though they were also expected to preach the gospel wherever they were sent. They were an interesting combination of things. They saw no reason why one could not combine the best of the Catholic tradition with the best of the Protestant tradition, although they were extremely liberal on most theological and social issues of the period, and the Catholicism was fairly low-key. During the early twentieth century, some American Methodist conferences went through a period when they officially denounced the capitalist system, and declared that socialism was the only political structure which true Christians could promote and defend. NOTE 2: See "Pass It On," the story of Bill Wilson and How the A.A. Message Reached the World (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1984), pp. 281-282 and 335. NOTE 3: Richard M. Dubiel, The Road to Fellowship: The Role of the Emmanuel Movement and the Jacoby Club in the Development of Alcoholics Anonymous, Hindsfoot Foundation Series on the History of Alcoholism Treatment (New York: iUniverse, 2004), pp. 132-135. NOTE 4: In the year 1944 "in New York City a few literary and newsminded A.A.'s began to issue a monthly publication. This original group consisted of Marty, Priscilla, Lois K., Abbott, Maeve, and Kay. Besides this, Grace O. and her husband turned up among its moving spirits." Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age (New York: Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, 1957), p. 201. NOTE 5: As quoted in Bill Pittman's Foreword to The Little Red Book: An Interpretation of the Twelve Steps of the Alcoholics Anonymous Program, 50th Anniversary Edition (Center City MN: Hazelden, 1996), pp. xiii-xiv. NOTE 6: Ibid., pp. xvi-xvii. NOTE 7: He died sober. His niece told me that a physician gave Ralph a shot for airsickness, and inadvertently used a contaminated needle. Father Ralph contracted hepatitis, and all the efforts made by the doctors at Our Lady of Mercy Hospital in Owensboro could not save him. NOTE 8: Mel B. (ed.), Three Recovery Classics: As a Man Thinketh by James Allen, The Greatest Thing in the World by Henry Drummond, and An Instrument of Peace the St. Francis Prayer, Hindsfoot Foundation Series on Spirituality (New York: iUniverse, 2004). NOTE 9: The best spokesman from the early days for this important strand of A.A. thought was Sgt. Bill S., a protege of Mrs. Marty Mann who got sober on Long Island in 1948. Bill was not an atheist or agnostic, but felt more comfortable talking about the principles of the program in psychological terms. See Sgt. Bill S., On the Military Firing Line in the Alcoholism Treatment Program, Hindsfoot Foundation Series on the History of Alcoholism Treatment (New York: iUniverse, 2003), which also describes how he and psychiatrist Louis Jolyon "Jolly" West, M.D., developed the Lackland Model for alcoholism treatment during the 1950's. NOTE 10: Harry Stevens, who had been one of the first four members of the South Bend group, was the outside sponsor of the A.A. prison group at the Indiana state penitentiary at Michigan City during its early years. See the earlier posting on Harry and Nick Kowalski and the A.A. prison program there. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2090. . . . . . . . . . . . What old timers read, Part 4 of 6 From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/7/2004 12:57:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII In other words, based on the principle of group autonomy, an A.A. group can in fact choose to read anything at its meetings which it wants to, if a group conscience has been held. Even if there are other A.A. groups which are convinced that they are wrong, a long-standing principle in the New York A.A. office, repeated over and over, is "the right of a group to be wrong." This is an extremely important principle which has even further ramifications: even if 51% of the A.A. groups in a particular area are convinced that the other 49% are wrong, they cannot force them to read what they want that minority group to read. Too many A.A. people came out of religious traditions where the leadership tried to stuff things down their throats in this fashion -- "you will read only what we order you to read" -- and they will not tolerate A.A. organizations trying to operate that same way. But if the book or pamphlet or reading was sponsored by some other A.A. group, it was especially true that any other A.A. groups in the country could borrow and use that piece without having to go into any long debate about its appropriateness. So the Twenty-Four Hour book, The Little Red Book, the Detroit Pamphlet, the Tools of Recovery, and Bar-less (the little magazine produced by the prison A.A. group) were sort of automatically considered as appropriate for reading at meetings if a particular group chose to do so. The Upper Room and Fulton J. Sheen's talks and other heavily Christian-oriented materials (such as God Calling by Two Listeners, the prayers of the Rosary, and so on) have continued to be employed by numerous A.A. people in the St. Joseph river valley for their own personal use. In fact nearly all of the most deeply spiritual members regularly use traditional religious materials in their private devotions and in their studies of spiritual issues. But things which were too obviously totally Christian, particularly if they spoke of salvation as only being possible through accepting Jesus Christ as one's Lord and Savior, stopped being used in meetings on the simple pragmatic grounds that it drove an excessive number of newcomers away, did not in fact prove to be necessary for getting people sober and leading them into the paths of true serenity and the greatest depths of love, and seemed to ultimately involve the group in too much pointless debate and endless hostile disputing over narrow Christian theological issues that did not help anyone get sober. The last time someone tried to set up an A.A. meeting in the St. Joseph river valley on an explicitly Christian basis, with Bible readings and scripture verses studied at the meeting, was around ten years ago, and the group did not even last a year. This was in spite of the fact that Indiana is often regarded as part of the American "Bible Belt." Everyone except the old-timer who started it finally quit or went out and got drunk. That is why I am skeptical about trying to run A.A. meetings that way today. But everybody agreed that the good old-timer who tried this experiment had a perfect right to do so. There may be places in America or elsewhere where it would work. It certainly did not violate any A.A. "rule," and if it had actually worked, we would now have additional meetings in northern Indiana, I am sure, organized in this way. A.A. is pragmatic, not doctrinaire. The St. Francis Prayer and the Lord's Prayer are still heavily used however, even though they were originally Christian prayers, because it is felt that they set out universal spiritual truths that any recovering alcoholic is in need of. A few people do not like the use of the Lord's Prayer at the close of meetings (an almost universal practice in the St. Joseph river valley), but some suspect that part of their objection is to the line which says "forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." It may be a very hard and uncomfortable teaching indeed, to be reminded constantly of this universal spiritual truth, but if we refuse to forgive, resentment will continue to fester in our hearts, and we will eventually end up going back out and drinking again. All the great spiritual traditions of the world -- Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Native American religion, and so on -- make clear that forgiveness and compassion and mercy and the restoration of harmony (different religions use different technical terms here) are necessary to living a good spiritual life. The Golden Books Ralph Pfau, who wrote under the pen name of Father John Doe, was one of the four most published A.A. authors. He was a Roman Catholic priest who got sober in Indianapolis on November 10, 1943. He conducted a weekend spiritual retreat for A.A. members on June 6-8, 1947 at St. Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana. Eleven people from the South Bend A.A. group attended the retreat, a very large contingent: Harry Stevens (who sponsored the A.A. prison group at the Indiana state penitentiary), Johnnie Morgan the barber, Ray G., Jack [Q?], Jim McNeil (who was extremely active in all sorts of A.A. service work), Art O. [A?I?], Russ S., Fred Clements, Joe R., Ed Young the newspaperman, and Les Beatty the electrician. Father Ralph gave everyone who attended, as a souvenir of the retreat, a 56-page pamphlet with a shiny gold foil cover, called The Spiritual Side, where he talked about how all of the twelve steps (except for perhaps the first step) were essentially spiritual in their nature. People who had not been at the retreat began asking for copies, Father Ralph had to do another printing, and over the years that followed, produced thirteen other pamphlets of this sort on different spiritual topics. They came to be called the Golden Books because of the gold foil covered cardboard covers which most of them had. He traveled all over the United States and Canada, giving talks and conducting weekend spiritual retreats, all the way down to his death on February 19, 1967, which caught him on the road in Owensboro, Kentucky (NOTE 7). One good old-timer, Larry W., told me that, in his early days in the program, those A.A. people in Michigan and Indiana whose serenity and sobriety most impressed him were invariably great fans of Father Ralph's books. Specialized meetings In the St. Joseph river valley, Father Ralph was certainly the third most read A.A. author. But a different kind of procedure was followed with his writings. Those members who were deeply interested in the spiritual life would form small private meetings in their homes to read and study the most recent Golden Book. Copies of these pamphlets were (and still are) sold at the Central Service Office in South Bend. Good old-timers like Submarine Bill would give copies to the people whom they sponsored, and tell them to read them carefully. But there was a kind of tacit understanding that it was not usually appropriate to read from one of the Golden Books or use it for meeting topics in official A.A. group meetings. Part of this arose from the fact that Father Ralph's books were not officially sponsored by the Indianapolis A.A. group. He wrote and published those totally on his own. Writings which were not sponsored by a regular A.A. group or intergroup were not automatically regarded as necessarily wise for other groups to use for official A.A. meetings. The Golden Books also were not for everyone in the program (some people liked them and others did not), and perhaps even more importantly, they dealt with fairly advanced issues in the spiritual life which would have probably been greatly confusing to a lot of newcomers who had just walked into their first A.A. meeting. We are talking here about the question of what sorts of things were appropriate to read in officially scheduled A.A. meetings, that is, those which were listed in the meeting directory for that town or county. These were meetings where one expected struggling alcoholics to stagger through the door, just having chosen a meeting at random off the list, seeking blindly for help, and too new and befuddled to understand anything except the most basic A.A. material. But there was in fact a whole tradition of specialized meetings which were not A.A. meetings in the formal sense -- particularly in the sense that they were not listed in the local meeting directories that were handed out to those who were brand new to the program. Private study groups meeting in people's homes were one sort of specialized meeting. For a long time, Submarine Bill had all the people whom he sponsored meet once a year to study the twelve steps, sometimes using a tape recording of Father Ralph's talk on the steps or something else of that sort to start off each session. A private study group of this sort could read any sort of book which the participants wanted to, and groups sometimes chose very interesting sorts of materials to read and study. The general understanding, for example, was that A.A. people needed to be familiar with all sorts of different kinds of spiritual works, from various religious traditions, and other things that were important to the understanding of A.A. history. I have heard of groups on the West Coast, for example, meeting to study the medieval spiritual writer Meister Eckhart, or my own book on The Higher Power of the Twelve-Step Program. In the St. Joseph river valley region, Father David G. Suelzer, O.S.C., Prior of the Crozier Fathers and Brothers at Wawasee, Indiana, conducted weekend spritual retreats for A.A. members. He was not an alcoholic himself, but he was a consultant at Hazelden during the 1960's and was very much a friend of the A.A. movement. There never were any rules saying that non-A.A. members could not speak to A.A. groups. Over the last ten or fifteen years, I have heard people try to claim that this was an ancient and sacrosanct A.A. rule, but that is just silly and historically ignorant. A closed A.A. discussion meeting is not supposed to have anyone present who does not have a desire to stop drinking (unless the group conscience decides otherwise), but this is not the same as an A.A. convention, conference, workshop, or international, which is an open meeting. Or, to mention a different kind of specialized meeting, a group of A.A. people might set up their own private weekend spiritual retreat. For the people in the St. Joe river valley region there were for a long time well-attended annual retreats of that sort at Fatima House retreat center at Notre Dame University and at the Yokefellow retreat center in Defiance, Ohio. In the 1990's, meetings began being set up, bringing people together from various parts of Indiana -- and also large meetings at the national level where people came from all over the United States and Canada -- to hear talks about A.A. archives and A.A. history. These were not necessarily sponsored by any particular A.A. group, intergroup, or Area organization, but were the ad hoc creation of a group of interested A.A. members. There were also workshops set up by the Elkhart intergroup at mini-conferences, where the A.A. people who attended could hear psychotherapists talk about specific psychological problems which recovering people often had to deal with, and where A.A. members could attend Al-Anon workshops and vice versa, and where all sorts of other topics could be discussed, on A.A. history and other subjects. In other words, real old-time A.A. was always pragmatic and flexible. About the only real rule which was followed, was that it was usually considered inappropriate to take an official weekly A.A. meeting which was listed in the official meeting schedule, and use any kinds of readings or topics except those which would be of general benefit to everyone in the program, including especially newcomers who had just walked in the door. On the other hand, the more specialized meetings which were intended for people who were beyond the newcomer stage, were often listed in monthly intergroup newsletters and on flyers which were distributed to all the groups in that city or county. Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions and Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age There are well-meaning people today who sometimes mistakenly think that the issue was whether or not a particular book or pamphlet was "conference approved." We remember that when Brooklyn Bob was asked about this, he simply snorted and laughed and said, "We read anything we could get our hands on that might get us sober!" When one says that a particular publication is "conference approved," all one really means is that a group of delegates meeting in New York decided to spend New York headquarters money on publishing it. New York never ever had enough funds to print everything that could be useful to alcoholics trying to get sober and stay sober. The principle of institutional poverty means that A.A. as such cannot set up a publishing house of the sort which one sees among various American religious denominations: the Methodists' Abingdon Press, the Lutherans' Fortress Press and Augsburg Press, and other such publishing houses which require a large investment in buildings and printing presses and large staffs of editors and so on, which are financially supported by denominational funds. With enormous difficulty, the New York A.A. office finally assembled enough money to print the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions in 1953. A number of A.A. meetings were subsequently created in the St. Joseph river valley called "step meetings," which would read through the part of the book dealing with one of the twelve steps every week, and then discuss that step as a group. Sometimes the traditions were also studied in the same fashion by the group. (It should also however be said that there are some good old-timers in Indiana who still believe that The Little Red Book -- which was Dr. Bob's baby -- and the Detroit or Washington D.C. Pamphlet are actually better introductions to the steps for newcomers. They believe that the material on the steps in the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions is too philosophical and complicated for newcomers, and that it just confuses alcoholics when they first come in.) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2091. . . . . . . . . . . . What old timers read, Part 3 of 6 From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/7/2004 12:46:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The A.A. Tools of Recovery A good old-timer named Don Helvey in Elkhart put together a short piece called the A.A. Tools of Recovery, which is still read at the beginning of many A.A. meetings in Elkhart, Mishawaka, South Bend, and other parts of the St. Joseph river valley region along with reading the twelve steps: "ABSTINENCE: We commit ourselves to stay away from the first drink, one day at a time. MEETINGS: We attend A.A. meetings to learn how the program works, to share our experience, strength and hope with each other, and because through the support of the fellowship, we can do what we could never do alone. SPONSOR: A sponsor is a person in the A.A. program who has what we want and is continually sober. A sponsor is someone you can relate to, have access to and can confide in. TELEPHONE: The telephone is our lifeline -- our meetings between meetings. Call before you take the first drink. The more numbers you have, the more insurance you have. LITERATURE: The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous is our basic tool and text. The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions and A.A. pamphlets are recommended reading, and are available at this meeting. SERVICE: Service helps our personal program grow. Service is giving in A.A. Service is leading a meeting, making coffee, moving chairs, being a sponsor, or emptying ashtrays. Service is action, and action is the magic word in this program. ANONYMITY: Whom you see here, what you hear here, when you leave here, let it stay here. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of our program." Many of the good old-timers, like Submarine Bill and Raymond I., believed that it was important to repeat these basic principles over and over, until newcomers had them instinctively drilled into their heads, and could repeat them almost like a litany. The first principle made it clear that the way an alcoholic kept from getting drunk was not to take even the first drink. The next five were the things that not only got people sober but kept them sober. Good sponsors like Bill and Raymond noted that those who relapsed and returned to drinking had almost invariably failed to do one or more of these five things in any serious and dedicated way. And the seventh principle was a constant reminder that A.A. meetings could not function properly unless members could talk about all of their feelings and anything that was bothering them, in an accepting and shame-free atmosphere, without worrying about whether it was going to be repeated outside of the group. That was a solemn pledge which the members of the group had to make to one another. If we want to ask what was the basic foundation of A.A. in the St. Joseph river valley, it was the Twelve Steps and the Seven Tools of Recovery. Everything else was based on these. The Grapevine and Bar-less In the 1950's, according to Ellen Lantz's reminiscences, they always read from something at the Elkhart closed discussion meetings, and frequently used this reading to provide the discussion topic. She said that it had become very common during this period to use an article from the Grapevine, the magazine which was published by the New York A.A. office (it first began coming out in 1944, under the editorial guidance of Marty Mann and some of her friends). (NOTE 4) But Ellen said that they would also sometimes use an article from Bar-less, the little magazine which was published by the A.A. prison group. Some of these articles were written by people who were not prisoners. Ken Merrill, for example, the founder of A.A. in South Bend, wrote a very good article for the magazine once, about the way alcoholics get locked into behavior patterns during their childhood years, and because of a traumatic event or a general dysfunctional family situation, are unable to grow past that stage, and continue to throw two-year-old temper tantrums, or become lost in ten-year-old daydreaming fantasies of romance and heroism, or whatever, even after they are adults. The First Principle When I asked Brooklyn Bob, one of the South Bend old-timers, whether there were any rules in good old-time A.A. about what books A.A. people could and could not read, he just laughed and snorted, and said, "We read anything we could get our hands on that might get us sober!" Good old-time A.A. was a totally pragmatic program, not an authoritarian system of doctrines and dogmas and endless rules which had to be followed blindly, and were imposed upon the membership by self-important people who thought they had the right to boss other people around ("for their own good" was these arrogant people's standard alibi). In early A.A., people simply experimented and tried various things, and if they worked, they recommended them to other members. As is always the case in A.A., the recommendations of people who had a good deal of time in the program were taken more seriously. Pragmatically, if they had that many years of sobriety, they must have been doing something right! So on matters of what sorts of books and writings should be read in meetings and made available for loan or purchase by groups and intergroup offices, people looked to the wisdom and experience of those who had time in the program and quality sobriety. The Central Service Offices in South Bend and in Elkhart both still follow that principle. They have a variety of books on spirituality, recovery, and A.A. history available for loan or purchase -- books printed by various publishing houses and usually (but not always necessarily) authored by A.A. members. There are Al-Anon books as well. But the selection of books which are provided is made on the recommendation of responsible people who have a good deal of quality time in the program. They do not have the sort of pop recovery books that can lead newcomers seriously astray or involve them in psychologically dangerous schemes (like one notorious book encouraging people to "get in contact with their inner child" in a way which actually produced in some cases total psychotic breakdowns requiring long hospitalization in mental facilities). But the South Bend office has carried some materials which were purely psychological, such as offprints (distributed by the National Council on Alcoholism) of scholarly papers written by Dr. Harry M. Tiebout for psychiatric journals and journals on alcoholism studies. Tiebout was not an alcoholic, but he was one of the most important of the handful of psychiatrists in the early days who appreciated and understood and backed the new Alcoholics Anonymous movement, and his statements about how A.A. works are still extremely insightful today. The commercial bookstore chains do not have good material for A.A. people on their shelves, and the small commercial operations which sell "recovery materials" such as t-shirts and coffee mugs cannot be totally depended upon to have quality literature for sale either. If groups and intergroups do not make good books available for A.A. members, no outside commercial venture is going to take over that responsibility. Learning that we have to be responsible for ourselves, instead of just depending on others and demanding "to be taken care of," is a vital part of recovery from alcoholism. The Second Principle The first principle was that A.A. groups and intergroups, as well as individual members, have to make their own responsible decisions about which books and writings are going to be helpful for recovering alcoholics. However, there was a generally assumed principle that seems to have been followed, not only in the St. Joseph river valley, but in early A.A. all across the United States and Canada: It was usually assumed that any piece that was authored or sponsored by one A.A. group could automatically be used to read from in meetings by any other A.A. group which chose to do so. That was also a guiding principle followed at New York A.A. headquarters. On November 11, 1944, for example, Bobby Burger, the secretary at the Alcoholic Foundation in New York (what is today called the General Service Office) wrote a letter to Barry Collins, who had helped Ed Webster in assembling and publishing the Little Red Book (NOTE 5): "Dear Barry, . . . The Washington D.C. pamphlet [a.k.a. the Detroit Pamphlet] and the new Cleveland "Sponsorship" pamphlet and a host of others are all local projects, as is Nicollette's "An Interpretation of the Twelve Steps" [the Little Red Book]. We do not actually approve or disapprove of these local pieces; by that I mean that the Foundation feels that each Group is entitled to write up its own "can opener" and let it stand on its merits. All of them have good points and very few have caused any controversy. But as in all things of a local nature, we keep hands off, either pro or con. I think there must be at least 25 local pamphlets now being used and I've yet to see one that hasn't some good points. I think it is up to each individual Group whether it wants to use and buy these pamphlets from the Group that puts them out. Sincerely, Bobby (Margaret R. Burger)" Bill Wilson felt the same way. In November 1950, he wrote a note to Barry Collins about The Little Red Book making the same basic point, only even more strongly. Such locally sponsored works "fill a definite need" and their "usefulness is unquestioned." Most importantly of all, Bill went on to say in that letter: "Here at the Foundation we are not policemen; we're a service and AAs are free to read any book they choose." (NOTE 6) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2092. . . . . . . . . . . . What old timers read, Part 3 of 6 From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/7/2004 12:46:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The A.A. Tools of Recovery A good old-timer named Don Helvey in Elkhart put together a short piece called the A.A. Tools of Recovery, which is still read at the beginning of many A.A. meetings in Elkhart, Mishawaka, South Bend, and other parts of the St. Joseph river valley region along with reading the twelve steps: "ABSTINENCE: We commit ourselves to stay away from the first drink, one day at a time. MEETINGS: We attend A.A. meetings to learn how the program works, to share our experience, strength and hope with each other, and because through the support of the fellowship, we can do what we could never do alone. SPONSOR: A sponsor is a person in the A.A. program who has what we want and is continually sober. A sponsor is someone you can relate to, have access to and can confide in. TELEPHONE: The telephone is our lifeline -- our meetings between meetings. Call before you take the first drink. The more numbers you have, the more insurance you have. LITERATURE: The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous is our basic tool and text. The Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions and A.A. pamphlets are recommended reading, and are available at this meeting. SERVICE: Service helps our personal program grow. Service is giving in A.A. Service is leading a meeting, making coffee, moving chairs, being a sponsor, or emptying ashtrays. Service is action, and action is the magic word in this program. ANONYMITY: Whom you see here, what you hear here, when you leave here, let it stay here. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of our program." Many of the good old-timers, like Submarine Bill and Raymond I., believed that it was important to repeat these basic principles over and over, until newcomers had them instinctively drilled into their heads, and could repeat them almost like a litany. The first principle made it clear that the way an alcoholic kept from getting drunk was not to take even the first drink. The next five were the things that not only got people sober but kept them sober. Good sponsors like Bill and Raymond noted that those who relapsed and returned to drinking had almost invariably failed to do one or more of these five things in any serious and dedicated way. And the seventh principle was a constant reminder that A.A. meetings could not function properly unless members could talk about all of their feelings and anything that was bothering them, in an accepting and shame-free atmosphere, without worrying about whether it was going to be repeated outside of the group. That was a solemn pledge which the members of the group had to make to one another. If we want to ask what was the basic foundation of A.A. in the St. Joseph river valley, it was the Twelve Steps and the Seven Tools of Recovery. Everything else was based on these. The Grapevine and Bar-less In the 1950's, according to Ellen Lantz's reminiscences, they always read from something at the Elkhart closed discussion meetings, and frequently used this reading to provide the discussion topic. She said that it had become very common during this period to use an article from the Grapevine, the magazine which was published by the New York A.A. office (it first began coming out in 1944, under the editorial guidance of Marty Mann and some of her friends). (NOTE 4) But Ellen said that they would also sometimes use an article from Bar-less, the little magazine which was published by the A.A. prison group. Some of these articles were written by people who were not prisoners. Ken Merrill, for example, the founder of A.A. in South Bend, wrote a very good article for the magazine once, about the way alcoholics get locked into behavior patterns during their childhood years, and because of a traumatic event or a general dysfunctional family situation, are unable to grow past that stage, and continue to throw two-year-old temper tantrums, or become lost in ten-year-old daydreaming fantasies of romance and heroism, or whatever, even after they are adults. The First Principle When I asked Brooklyn Bob, one of the South Bend old-timers, whether there were any rules in good old-time A.A. about what books A.A. people could and could not read, he just laughed and snorted, and said, "We read anything we could get our hands on that might get us sober!" Good old-time A.A. was a totally pragmatic program, not an authoritarian system of doctrines and dogmas and endless rules which had to be followed blindly, and were imposed upon the membership by self-important people who thought they had the right to boss other people around ("for their own good" was these arrogant people's standard alibi). In early A.A., people simply experimented and tried various things, and if they worked, they recommended them to other members. As is always the case in A.A., the recommendations of people who had a good deal of time in the program were taken more seriously. Pragmatically, if they had that many years of sobriety, they must have been doing something right! So on matters of what sorts of books and writings should be read in meetings and made available for loan or purchase by groups and intergroup offices, people looked to the wisdom and experience of those who had time in the program and quality sobriety. The Central Service Offices in South Bend and in Elkhart both still follow that principle. They have a variety of books on spirituality, recovery, and A.A. history available for loan or purchase -- books printed by various publishing houses and usually (but not always necessarily) authored by A.A. members. There are Al-Anon books as well. But the selection of books which are provided is made on the recommendation of responsible people who have a good deal of quality time in the program. They do not have the sort of pop recovery books that can lead newcomers seriously astray or involve them in psychologically dangerous schemes (like one notorious book encouraging people to "get in contact with their inner child" in a way which actually produced in some cases total psychotic breakdowns requiring long hospitalization in mental facilities). But the South Bend office has carried some materials which were purely psychological, such as offprints (distributed by the National Council on Alcoholism) of scholarly papers written by Dr. Harry M. Tiebout for psychiatric journals and journals on alcoholism studies. Tiebout was not an alcoholic, but he was one of the most important of the handful of psychiatrists in the early days who appreciated and understood and backed the new Alcoholics Anonymous movement, and his statements about how A.A. works are still extremely insightful today. The commercial bookstore chains do not have good material for A.A. people on their shelves, and the small commercial operations which sell "recovery materials" such as t-shirts and coffee mugs cannot be totally depended upon to have quality literature for sale either. If groups and intergroups do not make good books available for A.A. members, no outside commercial venture is going to take over that responsibility. Learning that we have to be responsible for ourselves, instead of just depending on others and demanding "to be taken care of," is a vital part of recovery from alcoholism. The Second Principle The first principle was that A.A. groups and intergroups, as well as individual members, have to make their own responsible decisions about which books and writings are going to be helpful for recovering alcoholics. However, there was a generally assumed principle that seems to have been followed, not only in the St. Joseph river valley, but in early A.A. all across the United States and Canada: It was usually assumed that any piece that was authored or sponsored by one A.A. group could automatically be used to read from in meetings by any other A.A. group which chose to do so. That was also a guiding principle followed at New York A.A. headquarters. On November 11, 1944, for example, Bobby Burger, the secretary at the Alcoholic Foundation in New York (what is today called the General Service Office) wrote a letter to Barry Collins, who had helped Ed Webster in assembling and publishing the Little Red Book (NOTE 5): "Dear Barry, . . . The Washington D.C. pamphlet [a.k.a. the Detroit Pamphlet] and the new Cleveland "Sponsorship" pamphlet and a host of others are all local projects, as is Nicollette's "An Interpretation of the Twelve Steps" [the Little Red Book]. We do not actually approve or disapprove of these local pieces; by that I mean that the Foundation feels that each Group is entitled to write up its own "can opener" and let it stand on its merits. All of them have good points and very few have caused any controversy. But as in all things of a local nature, we keep hands off, either pro or con. I think there must be at least 25 local pamphlets now being used and I've yet to see one that hasn't some good points. I think it is up to each individual Group whether it wants to use and buy these pamphlets from the Group that puts them out. Sincerely, Bobby (Margaret R. Burger)" Bill Wilson felt the same way. In November 1950, he wrote a note to Barry Collins about The Little Red Book making the same basic point, only even more strongly. Such locally sponsored works "fill a definite need" and their "usefulness is unquestioned." Most importantly of all, Bill went on to say in that letter: "Here at the Foundation we are not policemen; we're a service and AAs are free to read any book they choose." (NOTE 6) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2093. . . . . . . . . . . . To a moderator From: dan . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/7/2004 2:20:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I posted a question a couple of days ago about the examples in the chapter, "More About Alcoholism." and it never got posted. Was it not a good enough question to post? Did I do something wrong? I would appreciate a response from a moderator to let me know. Thanks- Dan IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2094. . . . . . . . . . . . Is there anybody there ???? From: jsto1958 . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/7/2004 3:06:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi my fellows history lovers, # 2 I posted a question a couple of days ago about the examples in the chapter, "More About Alcoholism." and it never got posted. Was it not a good enough question to post? Did I do something wrong? I would appreciate a response from a moderator to let me know. John S. Montreal cdn IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2095. . . . . . . . . . . . To the Moderator From: jedlevine . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/7/2004 8:23:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I also submitted a post a few days ago and it never got posted. If I wasn't within the guidelines (I think I was), then it would be helpful if I got that feedback so that I can be clear on what's appropriate and what's not. Thanks. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2096. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Is there anybody there ???? From: Arthur Sheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/8/2004 3:57:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Dear AAHistoryLovers Members I'm taking a bit of liberty in speaking up for our moderator Nancy O. In August Nancy distributed a posting advising the group of her terminal illness. In a recent message to me, dated December 6, she advised that she is currently in hospice care and is expected to live for only a short while. Let's send her messages of love and gratitude. She is a pioneer in helping to reform the US Federal Code to have alcoholism recognized as an illness, she is a distinguished author and speaker and she is the respected founder of this special interest group. Arthur ----- Original Message ----- From: jsto1958 To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Tuesday, December 07, 2004 2:06 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Is there anybody there ???? Hi my fellows history lovers, # 2 I posted a question a couple of days ago about the examples in the chapter, "More About Alcoholism." and it never got posted. Was it not a good enough question to post? Did I do something wrong? I would appreciate a response from a moderator to let me know. John S. Montreal cdn IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2097. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Is there anybody there ???? From: Joe Petrocelli . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/8/2004 6:53:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Arthur, I would be very happy to send Nancy O a message. Please tellme how to do it. have misplaced the instructions lon how to do this. Thanks and God Bless Joe Petrocelli jopet34@yahoo.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Easier than ever with enhanced search. Learn more. [113] IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2098. . . . . . . . . . . . (no subject) From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/4/2004 7:02:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi, Ernie Kurtz here. *Not-God,* which was researched 1974-1979 and published in 1979 (the later “revision” added only a chapter on AA’s history after Bill W’s death), is now very much out of date. I would like to think that my book was one thing that sparked the immense interest in AA history that we have seen since and especially recently. For the younger among you, when I was hunting through New England book barns during my research, I found many copies of first editions of the Big Book, priced from $.50 to $1.25. Of course I never bought one â€" I had my own copy already! This may perhaps explain why scholars are poor. Anyway: the ongoing research has uncovered many matters that I omitted or got wrong in *Not-God*” Bill W’s exact sobriety date, the shenanigans around the original stock certificates and other matters relating to finances, what happened in Akron after Dr. Bob’s AA left the auspices of the Oxford Group and began meeting at King School . . . . and many more. And many new resources have turned up: the Clarence Snyder and Sue Smith Windows papers now at Brown University, the Marty Mann papers at Syracuse University, the new information turned up in the Browns’ story of Marty Mann and Nancy Olson’s study of the politics behind alcoholism treatment reform, for just a few examples. It thus troubles me a bit when I hear *Not-God* referred to as “the authoritative history of AA.” Surely from a scholarly point of view that is not true: there is too much later knowledge that is available and should be part of any “authoritative history.” I am not sure who will undertake this task â€" it will almost certainly not be me. It may be Bill White or Rick Tompkins or one of our many younger hobbyist-historians. The choice of that individual will be made by the then-editors of the AAHistoryLovers and ASDH listservs and myself, though we may choose to include others in our deliberations. Anyone, of course, is welcome to try to be the updater, but because the original *Not-God* was a scholarly endeavor and accepted as such, we hope to preserve that credibility. What I am asking is that if you know of any errors or omissions in *Not-God,* you send a notice of them to me. I will try to be the node that gathers together all the new information. My present intention is to insert the new or revised information in brackets at approximately the place I think it may fit in the original manuscript (which I have on computer through the kindness of friends) so that someone else can construct a new book, a more accurate history of AA that will be as “authoritative” as we can make it in for AA's 70th birthday in 2005. [I do not require that the new book be titled “Not-Ernie.”] Please note that to achieve that end, the ultimate writer will need the source material behind your new information. Historians always ask: “1. What is my evidence? 2. Is there any other evidence that I am overlooking or ignoring? 3. What else was going on at the time â€" what is the context of this event?” Please be sure to answer at least the first question when you send your information submission. Please send your contributions and thought to either the AAHistoryLovers or the ASDH listserv and, I hope and ask, please, also directly to me at kurtzern@umich.edu. It is time to bring into general knowledge the many important things that so many of you have so devotedly worked to explore and discover. [To those few of you who received this as a "bcc" message, I ask that you please allow the listservs to take the initiative in replying.] ernie kurtz kurtzern@umich.ecu IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2099. . . . . . . . . . . . Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions From: pennington2 . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/9/2004 11:12:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII A recent discussion on another AA-related mail list brings about this query. I know that revisions and changes to the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions has not always been as closely as it appears to be today. Older printings of the Twelve and Twleve have such things as paragraphs ending in different places from other printings, words changing, punctuation changes, different pagination, and different pagination and paragraphs from the regular book to the "gift edition" even within the same year. Does anyone know when consistency was brought to the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, and was it a conference item, what are the guidelines, etc. Thank you for any information you can offer. Penny P. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2100. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: 12X12 New and old version? From: Jani . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/9/2004 11:52:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII  My name is Jani C. and I have been receiving AAHistoryLovers posts from all of you for quite some time, I just read and learn, no sharing, so thank you for all the information. I finally have a question: I had heard there is a "new" and an "old" version of the 12x12, 12 Steps and 12 Traditions book? Does anyone know this to be true? I heard the numbers of pages are different, I heard there is a "gift" version. Just very curious, because I love that book and am interested, not that it matters, well, I guess it does matter, because if I am missing out... Thanks in advance. Jani C. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2101. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: 12X12 New and old version? From: C. Cook . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/9/2004 5:37:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I have a 1973 edition of the 12x12. It is a little different. I found this out when I was looking for the part of step 10 that talks about 'nothing pays off like restraint of pen and tongue. I was looking on page 91 where I've always found it. In my book it's on page 93. So yes, the older books are a bit different. And yes there are 'gift' 12x12's. They are a little smaller than the regular hard cover, and a little bigger than the pocket sized soft cover. C. Cook Jani wrote: My name is Jani C. and I have been receiving AAHistoryLovers posts from all of you for quite some time, I just read and learn, no sharing, so thank you for all the information. I finally have a question: I had heard there is a "new" and an "old" version of the 12x12, 12 Steps and 12 Traditions book? Does anyone know this to be true? I heard the numbers of pages are different, I heard there is a "gift" version. Just very curious, because I love that book and am interested, not that it matters, well, I guess it does matter, because if I am missing out... Thanks in advance. Jani C. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - Find what you need with new enhanced search. Learn more. [114] IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2102. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions From: Arthur Sheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/9/2004 9:21:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Penny The reason the page numbers of early printings of the 12&12 are different from later printings is because the typeface (or font) was changed. Early and newer printings are about 2 pages off in their numbering as you progress through the books page by page. The 12&12 is still a "1st edition" with numerous printings. Most, if not all, other changes were to the book's dimensions. It took a fair amount of Conference activity to approve the small "gift edition" of the 12&12 as well as the "pocket edition" and the large print and soft cover editions. I don't believe there have been any wording changes to the book. The early 12&12 dust cover had a darker background color. Initially there were two publishers - one was Harper & Brothers for the books sold in commercial book stores - the other was what is today AAWS for books sold at a discounted price within the Fellowship. There is supposedly a project underway to write a preface to the 12&12 to respond to past requests to change its wording to be gender neutral and other matters of political correctness. The Conference, however, has maintained a position to keep the books that Bill W wrote worded the same way Bill W wrote them. Cheers Arthur ----- Original Message ----- From: pennington2 To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2004 10:12 AM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions A recent discussion on another AA-related mail list brings about this query. I know that revisions and changes to the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions has not always been as closely as it appears to be today. Older printings of the Twelve and Twleve have such things as paragraphs ending in different places from other printings, words changing, punctuation changes, different pagination, and different pagination and paragraphs from the regular book to the "gift edition" even within the same year. Does anyone know when consistency was brought to the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, and was it a conference item, what are the guidelines, etc. Thank you for any information you can offer. Penny P. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2103. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: 12X12 New and old version? From: Susan B . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/9/2004 9:37:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII  Hi Jani, I am like you - I read and learn. I have The Little Red Book For Women. It is the 12 steps and it is pretty much the same, but with some footnotes added. It is by Hazelden. Susan My name is Jani C. and I have been receiving AAHistoryLovers posts from all of you for quite some time, I just read and learn, no sharing, so thank you for all the information. I finally have a question: I had heard there is a "new" and an "old" version of the 12x12, 12 Steps and 12 Traditions book? Does anyone know this to be true? I heard the numbers of pages are different, I heard there is a "gift" version. Just very curious, because I love that book and am interested, not that it matters, well, I guess it does matter, because if I am missing out... Thanks in advance. Jani C. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2104. . . . . . . . . . . . Nancy O''s Desire From: Arthur Sheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/11/2004 10:13:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Dear AAHistoryLovers Members As you should now be aware, Nancy O, the founder and moderator of AAHistoryLovers, is in hospice care and expected to live for only a short while. When this was recently announced, many of you sent in messages asking for a way to send expressions of gratitude and love to her through an e-mail message or other means. After conferring with Nancy, she requested that no special action be taken and that the AAHistoryLovers forum not be used to distribute such e-mails. Although she very much appreciates the desire of the members to communicate with her, the best expression on our part would be to honor and respect her wishes. Thank you for your cooperation. Arthur S PS In keeping with Nancy's request, please do not reply to this message if it will be sent to AAHistoryLovers@aol.com. You can send direct replies to me if you wish, I'll volunteer to consolidate them with those I've received so far and keep Nancy informed about them. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2105. . . . . . . . . . . . "Large Community" BBook p.163 From: hjfree2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/11/2004 5:19:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Is the "Large Community" Known .. an AA member who lives in a large community... he found that the place probably contained more alcoholics per square mile than any city in the country" This is my first inqury so this might already be asked. blessed2bsober rob IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2106. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: "Large Community" BBook p.163 From: NMOlson@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/11/2004 4:49:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII The man was Hank Parkhurst who lived in New Jersey. It was probably Montclair, New Jersey, as that is where the doctor he referred to lived. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2107. . . . . . . . . . . . New Jersey AA History From: Ernest Kurtz . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/12/2004 2:50:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Does anyone have any contact with or know the whereabouts of Merton Minter? A New Jersey attorney some years ago, he was researching the history of AA in northern Jersey and especially Hank Parkhurst's contributions to AA. He took me around the old 17 William Street building just before they demolished it. None of the online people-finders have been helpful. I would appreciate any information at all that might help me get in touch with Merton. Along the same line, is there a published history of AA in New Jersey, by anyone? ernie kurtz kurtzern@Umich.edu NMOlson@aol.com wrote: > The man was Hank Parkhurst who lived in New Jersey. It was probably > Montclair, New Jersey, as that is where the doctor he referred to lived. > Yahoo! Groups Sponsor > ADVERTISEMENT > click here > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------ > Yahoo! Groups Links > > * To visit your group on the web, go to: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/ > > * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > AAHistoryLovers-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com > > > * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of > Service . > > IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2108. . . . . . . . . . . . Joe and Charlie Big Book Study Tapes From: caseyosh . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/14/2004 2:11:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Can a member of this group provide me with authentic documented research information concerning the original venue and date of the first time these tapes were used in an instructional format for AA members. Also, please supply the type format they were first recorded on. I am assuming they were first compiled on audiocassette tapes but would like confirmation of that assumption. Thanks, Casey O IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2109. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Joe and Charlie Big Book Study Tapes From: CBBB164@AOL.COM . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/14/2004 1:26:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII According to Joe McQ. & Charlie P., the first recording of them sharing their experience and knowledge of the Big Book was at an AA Group in Anadarko, OK. It was recorded on a reel to reel recorder. A taper in Little Rock learned of its existence and transferred the real to reel on to four cassettes. I am in possession of a set of that first "The Big Book Comes Alive" cassettes and they did a great job even back then. Cliff Bishop - The Primary Purpose Group - Dallas, TX IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2110. . . . . . . . . . . . Victor C. Kitchen''s "I Was A Pagan" From: Kim . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/19/2004 1:42:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Does anyone here have any excerpts from this book? Could you please tell me which parts of the Big Book were influenced by Kitchen besides the origin of the term "higher power?" Love, Kim IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2111. . . . . . . . . . . . Stools and Bottles From: Victor . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/19/2004 5:58:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII I was looking for info on the book titled "Stools and Bottles". I was wonder if anyone new who the author was and when it was first publish. Thank you in advance Victor F. Austin, Texas IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2112. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Stools and Bottles From: jst4tdy . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/25/2004 6:00:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Victor, The Book "Stools and Bottles" was copywrite 1955 as a companion to "The little Red Book"(c)1946 which evolved from The Crawford's Men's Training in Cleveland. There isn't credit given to any one Author in the editions I have. But they were both Coll-Webb Co. copywrites. Coll-Webb, PO Box 546, Minneapolis 40, Minnesota. Hope this helps. Bill M. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Victor" To: Sent: Sunday, December 19, 2004 4:58 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Stools and Bottles > > > I was looking for info on the book titled "Stools and Bottles". I > was wonder if anyone new who the author was and when it was first > publish. > > Thank you in advance > > Victor F. > Austin, Texas > > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2113. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Stools and Bottles From: Corey Franks . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/26/2004 8:18:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII HI. This is Corey. Look at our new webite at.... archivesinternational.org... under portraits and you will see for yourself Barry C. and Ed W. and what they and did and were as we move ahead with our website . We will be factually display what it is we have found for many of our Pioneers. Put this in your favorites and let us know also what you think of out site, with suggestions, comments, requests or whatever. THX! Corey F. Hi Victor, The Book "Stools and Bottles" was copywrite 1955 as a companion to "The little Red Book"(c)1946 which evolved from The Crawford's Men's Training in Cleveland. There isn't credit given to any one Author in the editions I have. But they were both Coll-Webb Co. copywrites. Coll-Webb, PO Box 546, Minneapolis 40, Minnesota. Hope this helps. Bill M. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Victor" To: Sent: Sunday, December 19, 2004 4:58 PM Subject: [AAHistoryLovers] Stools and Bottles > > > I was looking for info on the book titled "Stools and Bottles". I > was wonder if anyone new who the author was and when it was first > publish. > > Thank you in advance > > Victor F. > Austin, Texas > > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups SponsorADVERTISEMENT --------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: AAHistoryLovers-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2114. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Victor C. Kitchen''s "I Was A Pagan" From: spokann24@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/26/2004 6:51:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Merry Christmas, In reply to _sleuthgrrl@yahoo.com_ (mailto:sleuthgrrl@yahoo.com) 's email dated 12/26/2004--Does anyone here have any excerpts from this book? Could you please tell me which parts of the Big Book were influenced by Kitchen besides the origin of the term "higher power?" Love,Kim ---- I have a copy of Victor C. Kitchen's book, "I WAS A PAGAN," Harper & Brothers, New York and London, 1934. He dedicates it "To The Oxford Group...that disciplined army of life changers who helped to give my life new meaning." For your interest, here is an excerpt from the Chapter IX (titled "This Business of Living The Other Way Round"). I think it sounds in several places quite similar to our Big Book. “I WAS A PAGAN,” by V. C. KITCHEN Harper & Brothers New York and London 1934 An excerpt from pages 81-87 of CHAPTER IX "THIS BUSINESS OF LIVING THE OTHER WAY ROUND -- RE-DIRECTION" In the post-War days of dizzy peaks and dizzier slumps I decided I was living in a world turned upside-down. I now see, however, that it was I who was upside-down. In most areas of my life I let myself be guided by a force that was pulling in the very opposite direction from God. Forces working in opposite directions nullify each other. That, I think, is why the selfish indulgence of my desires cancelled out their own satisfaction. That is why my self-directed thinking led nowhere, either for myself or others. And, since both my senses and my understanding were continuously dulled by back-pedalling against God, they were never sharpened to the point of sensitivity needed for a spiritual experience. God handled these blocks in the physical area of my life by removing sensuous desire, as I tried to explain in my last chapter. He stopped the flow of my mis-directed forces and gave me His force to flow within me unopposed. I thus found the peace that comes when conflict ceases. And I found the joy that comes through sharpened senses and a righted under-standing when these subjects of the human will are subjected to God's will instead, and brought within the pattern of His plan and within the consciousness of His affection. I did not, however, stop there. The purpose of the Oxford Group is to hold one always to the highest, and they did not let me hesitate half-way. The Oriental mystic, for example, is content to submerge himself in God just to gain cessation of desire and the peace and joy that self-forgetfulness invariably brings. But the Oxford Group is a Christian body. And Christian mystics are working mystics. They “seek Godâ€"not joy” and they submerge themselves in God, not so much for the happiness that results as for the usefulness. They contact God in order to implant His purpose in and transmit His power to the lives of others and thus, individual by individual, to bring about regeneration of the world. I could not, therefore, stop with the mere cessation of my old desires, nor linger to bask in the new peace and joy thus gained. Identification with the Oxford Group meant my acceptance of the new desire Christ wanted to plant in place of the old. And it meant taking up the new direction He gave to my life when I permitted His force to flow unopposed. I became most definitely conscious of this new direction one night as I was praying some six months after my change. I realized that my prayer had been little but wishful thinkingâ€"that I had prayed God chiefly to bring about the things I wanted, in the way I wanted them to come. I then and there asked God to take over my prayer and guide it, so that I might pray for what He wanted to bring about and so that He might use me for that purpose instead of my trying to use Him. At that moment I became distinctly conscious of a force flowing through me. At first, while I was praying for the things I wanted, this force seemed to gather within me. It generated from the wish of my being and flowed upward and outward as though I were broadcasting my wish to God and asking Him to do something about it. The moment that I asked Him to take over, however, that flow definitely stopped. And then it started in the opposite direction. It was as though an idea generated outside of me had been broadcast from space, entering my mind and flowing downward to become the wish of my being. I was not only changed, but completely turned around. Before this, in other words, I had been passively obedient to god. I was now put actively and creatively to work for God. And while, with my first surrender, my life had been greatly altered, this new surrender completed the reversal and started me in a direction which lay absolutely opposite to all my old ways. I took up a re-directed path, not only in the physical or sensuous environment, but in all the social-intellectual and spiritual-volitional areas of life. In the physical area, as already suggested, I used to be guided only by the pull of my desire for a sensual indulgence. I would boorishly, for instance, refuse to give or to go out for an evening party unless I saw there some chance to excite my senses through conquests at bridge, to dull my senses through the conquest of more alcohol than others could drink, or to gratify my senses through flirting with some lady who was not my wife. To-day I give parties or go to them, not because I hope for sensual excitement, but because God has told me to do so. And He tells me to give or go to a party because, at that party, He has some definite and creative work for me to do. It may beâ€"much as in the old daysâ€"that He guides me to a party simply because He knows I need the rest or relaxation I will find there. I am seldom, however, as tired as in the old days. More often, I believe, God guides me to a party to show my old crowd that giving one’s life to God does not make one queer. It is to show them that working, “guided” Christians do not become down-in-the-mouth cranks, but that they actually outlive, outlaugh and outlove the pagans. Again (and this seems usually the case) God may guide me to a party because He knows some man or woman will be there who is in spiritual need. He knows that my experience and victories in Christ will help them. He guides me when to speak and whom to speak to, and thus uses me to win another person to His kingdom. Stupid as this may seem to those who have not tired it, I can assure you that going to a party to make a “conquest” for Christ is far more exciting, satisfying and gratifying than any of my old attempts to make a conquest of my own. I can even, these days, put on my dinner coat and go with a smile to parties that my wife used to have to drag me to if I consented to go at all. Following god’s guidance is by no means a drearily submissive form of obedience. It is something you can always do willingly and gladly. God, in fact, has never called upon me to do anything without giving me the power, courage, words, wisdom, money, love, patience, foresight, stimulation, or whatever else I might need to accomplish the desired result. Just as in my “B.C.” days I never faced unpleasant things without a hip flask to see me through, God never calls me to a difficult or boring task without giving me new spirit to take the place of that flask and to do a 1,000 per cent better job. This re-direction of old desires and substitution for old stimuli has extended not only throughout my sensual life, but into my social and intellectual life as well. It enters into all of my thinking and into all of my dealings with other people. When, for instance, I only thought about Godâ€"when He existed only in my mind as a beliefâ€"I could reach Him only as an intellectual conclusion. I concluded that there must be some Higher Power to account for all the things taking place in space much as scientists concluded that there must be an atom to account for all the things taking place in physics. Knowing Him only as a conclusion, however, I could only conclude what He wanted me to do in my relations with other people. And since these conclusions took place entirely in my own mind, I usually concluded that I was just about perfect, but that something should be done about other people to make the world a more comfortable background for my personal exploits, and to remove the various obstructionists who disturbed the even tenor of my ways. Even before I was married I had decided to “reform” my future wife. I decided, among many other changes obviously needed, that I would “ring her up to my intellectual level” in order that she might form an intelligent and complementary foil to my philosophical discourses during the (anticipated) “long winter evenings.” Once, however, she fell asleep as Iâ€"reading aloudâ€"waded through the fourth volume of a history of civilization. I decided to abandon the attempt and contented myself in later years with merely pointing out her faults. She should, I told her, check her tongue a bit. She should speak less sharply to the children. She should prove less diligent in inventing tiresome errands for me. She should look with greater tolerance on my drinking companions and with less interest on social affairs. She should spend less money on practically everything and keep the children from pounding the piano and playing the radio simultaneously while I was giving the world the benefit of my great wisdom and trying to write. Everything, I was sure, would turn out much better if she would correct these erroneous ways. And everything would have been much betterâ€"for my ego. Nothing, however, would have happened in the world I was so nobly trying to help. And nothing would have happened in my wife. Here, I think, has been my most conspicuous redirection. I see now the utter futility of trying to reform the other fellow without starting to reform myself. I see the utter uselessness of trying to work out systems which would solve the world’s economic and social problems if I myself am of such a nature that no systemâ€"other than self-satisfactionâ€"could work out for me. I therefore no longer tell my wife to check her tongue. I, as God directs and empowers me, check my own. And when I find myself, not my wife, speaking sharply to the children, I realize that it is because some element of selfishness is not yet dead within me and that I have further surrenders to make. When I see her spending too much money I realize that I have been too preoccupied to seek guidance in the matter with her. Or too utterly lazy to sit down with her and work out the budget by which God wants us to expend His funds. As for drinking companions, I no longer happen to drink while, as for society, we both have learned to think of people’s worth rather than to think how much they are worth, and to move in circles where God has use for us rather than with the people we think we can use. * * * * * * * * * * * The Table of Contents list the following chapters: I. THIS BUSINESS OF CHASING FALSE GODS: PAGANISM II. THIS BUSINESS OF THINKING THINGS OUT: PHILOSOPHY III. THIS BUSINESS OF MEANING WELL AND DOING BADLY: MORALS IV. THIS BUSINESS OF "MAKING CHARACTER": SCIENCE V. THIS BUSINESS OF THE SUPERNATURAL: METAPHYSICS VI. THIS BUSINESS OF THE OXFORD GROUP: APPLICATION VII. THIS BUSINESS OF BEING REBORN IN LIFE: TRANSFORMATION VIII. THIS BUSINESS OF GETTING NEW BEARINGS: ORIENTATION IX. THIS BUSINESS LF LIVING THE OTHER WAY ROUND: RE-DIRECTION X. THIS BUSINESS OF STARTING IN SCHOOL AGAIN: EDUCATION XI. THIS BUSINESS OF BEING REMARRIED: WEDLOCK XII. THIS BUSINESS OF MAKING A LIVING: ECONOMICS XIII. THIS BUSINESS OF "NEW DEALS": POLITICS XIV. THIS BUSINESS OF REMAKING THE WORLD: SOCIOLOGY XV. THIS BUSINESS OF GOING TO CHURCH: RELIGION XVI. THIS BUSINESS OF BEING OF USE TO PEOPLE: CREATIVENESS XVII. THIS BUSINESS OF GETTING AHEAD IN LIFE: GROWTH XVIII. THIS BUSINESS OF GETTING BACK TO GOD: DESTINY [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2115. . . . . . . . . . . . Trying to source hard to find material, please help. thanks From: mhaydenbiko . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/27/2004 10:51:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi, I am trying to source an elusive audiotape of Father Martins talk on the "Spiritual Aspects of Alcoholism". Kelly Productions which supplies AA related audio tapes has a version but it is not the version I'm looking for and I'm trying to find other sources? Kelly Productions told me they know of no other resources for Father Martin material. I know another version exists, it starts with the Zebra and Rhino's playing football (he uses that story in the Kelly Production version but this particular audiotape begins with that Zebra/Rhino story) (It's also before Ashley was built or opened, he refers to what Ashley will be like one day). It's a great tape and I've been looking all over the place for info. Please ask around and be as creative as possible to help source this material. It is a live audience talk on the "Spiritual Aspects of Alcoholism" (1 hour plus) and I've been searching for it everywhere. thanks P.S. (I tried mentioning it through a few chat rooms and people responded like I had three heads, I need some experienced assistance here. thanks) M. Hayden 973.452.9727 mhayden@opcenter.net IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2116. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Trying to source hard to find material, please help. thanks From: William Cox . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/28/2004 6:44:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Try this link http://www.sobrietytalks.com/Father%20Joseph%20Martin.htm mhaydenbiko wrote: Hi, I am trying to source an elusive audiotape of Father Martins talk on the "Spiritual Aspects of Alcoholism". Kelly Productions which supplies AA related audio tapes has a version but it is not the version I'm looking for and I'm trying to find other sources? Kelly Productions told me they know of no other resources for Father Martin material. I know another version exists, it starts with the Zebra and Rhino's playing football (he uses that story in the Kelly Production version but this particular audiotape begins with that Zebra/Rhino story) (It's also before Ashley was built or opened, he refers to what Ashley will be like one day). It's a great tape and I've been looking all over the place for info. Please ask around and be as creative as possible to help source this material. It is a live audience talk on the "Spiritual Aspects of Alcoholism" (1 hour plus) and I've been searching for it everywhere. thanks P.S. (I tried mentioning it through a few chat rooms and people responded like I had three heads, I need some experienced assistance here. thanks) M. Hayden 973.452.9727 mhayden@opcenter.net IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 2117. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Trying to source hard to find material, please help. thanks From: Mel Barger . . . . . . . . . . . . 12/29/2004 7:49:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Hi Folks, I suspect that this was a talk Father Martin gave somewhere at an anniversary or other AA affair. Have you tried Dicobe tapes out in Nebraska? They have 50,000 talks in their library and must certainly have something by Father Martin. Their toll-free is 1-800-999-3381. Mel Barger Mel Barger melb@accesstoledo.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "William Cox" Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2004 6:44 PM Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Trying to source hard to find material, please help. thanks Try this link http://www.sobrietytalks.com/Father%20Joseph%20Martin.htm mhaydenbiko wrote: Hi, I am trying to source an elusive audiotape of Father Martins talk on the "Spiritual Aspects of Alcoholism". Kelly Productions which supplies AA related audio tapes has a version but it is not the version I'm looking for and I'm trying to find other sources? Kelly Productions told me they know of no other resources for Father Martin material. I know another version exists, it starts with the Zebra and Rhino's playing football (he uses that story in the Kelly Production version but this particular audiotape begins with that Zebra/Rhino story) (It's also before Ashley was built or opened, he refers to what Ashley will be like one day). It's a great tape and I've been looking all over the place for info. Please ask around and be as creative as possible to help source this material. It is a live audience talk on the "Spiritual Aspects of Alcoholism" (1 hour plus) and I've been searching for it everywhere. thanks P.S. (I tried mentioning it through a few chat rooms and people responded like I had three heads, I need some experienced assistance here. thanks) M. Hayden 973.452.9727 mhayden@opcenter.net [1] http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ [2] http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=21608/*http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/ [3] http://g.msn.com/8HMBENUS/2737??PS= [4] http://www.gatewaydefender.com [5] http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=22055/*http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html [6] http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/member_detail?id=159412515 [7] http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/member_detail?id=99555652 [8] http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/member_detail?id=110319022 [9] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1590780671/qid=1077057160/sr=1-8/ref=sr_1_8/103-7991491-8647002?v=glance&s=books [10] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1931816026/qid=1077057595/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/103-7991491-8647002?v=glance&s=books [11] http://se.docs.yahoo.com/travel/index.html [12] http://www.incredimail.com/redir.asp?ad_id=309&lang=9 [13] http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mailtag_us/*http://antispam.yahoo.com/tools?tool=1 [14] http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mailtag_us/*http:/antispam.yahoo.com/tools?tool=1 [15] http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/message/135 [16] http://rd.yahoo.com/SIG=12ebij70i/M=286052.4612962.5777234.1695466/D=egroupweb/S=1705237878:LREC/EXP=1078416502/A=2024006/R=2/id=noscript/SIG=1149eljk6/*http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html [17] http://rd.yahoo.com/SIG=12es1enc2/M=277515.4347143.5590397.1695466/D=egroupweb/S=1705237878:LREC/EXP=1078848873/A=1936264/R=3/id=noscript/SIG=119u9qmi7/*http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/domains/ [18] http://rd.yahoo.com/SIG=12e1drfnr/M=281443.4460177.5870073.4343699/D=egroupweb/S=1705237878:LREC/EXP=1079620765/A=2055079/R=2/id=noscript/SIG=10tq1atd5/*http://www.mountainside.org [19] http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryLovers/post?postID=VqcYAMeO-t5Q3hNOzULGXzY6yWvAwkwc2rexNl37coXAm9fn4MaJeB6TefCHZdiRFrdaQyKi4XinS1-YGZkSJw [20] 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