At this time, I want to give you Ab from Tulsa with his first step sign, Ab. Hi, folks. My name is Ab Abster and I’m an alcoholic. Eleven years ago, the twenty-seventh day of this month, I found myself in a mental institution in Oklahoma City. They call it, I call it, Coin College of Costly Knowledge. I had been in a number of hospitals that year because that was my bad year. I’d had trouble several years before, but that was really my bad year, nineteen forty-four. A young fellow called on my house, at my house on the twenty-seventh day of October, nineteen forty-four, and gave me a little pamphlet. It was an AA pamphlet. He told me about a little fellowship. I said, “Hell, I don’t want a fellowship. I want to go to a hospital. I want to find a hospital that can sober me up and keep me sober.” I was sitting there with my jug. He knew it wasn’t any use to talk to me about AA or explain this to me.

He says, “I know a good hospital in Oklahoma City that really does wonders for folks that go there. I don’t know whether I can get you in or not, but I’ll try if you want to go.” And I said, “I sure got to go someplace. I can’t sober up here.” He phoned me back in an hour or two and told me he could get me in. So they got me liquor and took me to the train. I went to Oklahoma City. They got the message mixed up. They said to the phone over there, “That redheaded woman with a drunk getting off the train about four o’clock, please meet him because he’ll need a lot of help.” But you know, I was drunk about a pint going over to Oklahoma City, and I just, on my two feet, I got off the train, carried my bag. I went after this fine, fine hospital. At first, I wasn’t looking around very much to see what was going on, but they locked the doors behind me. I’d never had that to happen to me. But I’m very grateful today that, uh, he lied to me about this fine hospital.

Because when I went there, I was very, very confused. I didn’t know what an alcoholic was. I knew I had a drinking problem. The doctors were fine to sober me up, but they never told me that I had a disease. I found out about it in this hospital. And then my sponsor, they called me old First Step Ab, and I hope I carry that to my grave. Because about the third or fourth day, before I was e-even able to read or remember what they told me, they brought the founder of the Oklahoma City group into this Coin College of Costly Knowledge, and one of my sponsors come out that night and I said, “John, this thing won’t work.” He said, uh, “What’s the matter?” I said, “They brought the founder of your group out here this afternoon drunk. He’s right in the next room.” And he said this to me. He says, “Oh, hell, he hasn’t got that first step.” Well, that left an impression on my mind. I didn’t know whether there’s one step or forty steps in this program.