I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the committee and all those responsible for being here this weekend for the twenty-second session by the sea. It’s been a great experience. Like I said yesterday, I was surprised. But it is good to be here. It’s good to see old friends and meet new friends. And now that we have all the announcements out of the way, you know, it’s nice to stand up here on Sunday morning. Sometimes you begin to say, “Well, what can you say? It’s all been said,” and you begin to have illusions about maybe just cutting your throat and sit down. But it is just wonderful to stand up and know that you own this speaker and everything’s ready to go and you want to get it over with. And it reminds me of a story that I’ve told many times, and I think it’s appropriate that I tell it this morning. Some of the old-timers in my part of the country tell me about a convention they had many years ago.

And they had one of these long-winded speakers, and there’s some of them around. And he began to talk, and he talked about the Twelve Steps for about an hour. And then another hour, he got into the Twelve Traditions. And then in the third hour, he went into the three Legacies of Alcoholics Anonymous. And after three hours and a half, people begin to leave. And the real leavers were found that out one night. But there was one fellow that just kept sitting on the front row. He just kept looking at the podium. And the speaker began to get concerned. And he wound up his talk, ran down from the podium, grabbed the man by the hand, says, “I want to ask you one question.” He says, “Everybody left but you. What did you stay?” And he says, “Hell, I’m the next speaker.” So it’s good to be here this morning. I’m an alcoholic, and my name’s Dave Cook. Hi, everybody. Hi. I’m a member of the Big Book group in Roanoke, North Carolina, which I think is the finest group in the whole wide world.

And if you don’t think the same thing about your home group, I suggest you find another home group. When I first got sober, I had trouble with groups. But by God’s grace, because this program worked for me, I haven’t found it necessary to take a drink or any tablets since the day I came to Alcoholics Anonymous. And that day was September the twelfth, nineteen fifty-seven. For this sobriety, I’m very grateful. I’ve had a lot of help in my sobriety. I found a good group of sponsors. I’ve had three sponsors. And all these sponsors left me with a kindly trained hand. And as a result of this program, I found a, a loving wife. It had a lot to do with my sobriety. And then there’s people like you. Now, all of them in this room this morning, this had a lot to do with my sobriety. And if everything goes right, and I can get through this deal this morning, and I can make that ride back to Washington this afternoon with the fellow that brought me down here.