Kirk Road, when you mentioned the Finnish group, was sort of a takeoff on, uh, what was originally known as the Scandi group. In January 1960, I w- was going from meeting to meeting, and I observed about 15 people of Finnish and Scandinavian background. And in those days, discussion groups weren’t as many as there are today, and I enjoyed discussion groups. There was one on Friday nights, um, central group, and I enjoyed that. And I felt it was important to get one started. This way, they would get involved in the 12 steps, and they would get involved in a Big Book, which both of these I use as material, the Big Book and the 12 Step, 12 and 12. So I went to each one personally in January 1960, and I said, “How would you like to start a discussion group?” And they were all for it. And I made one mistake. I put the name Scandi on there, and that was, I found out later, that didn’t go over. So we met at a home on 10th Avenue, first meeting, February 1st, I don’t know, Monday night, 1960.

And then we met in different homes for the first month. And finally, uh, there were five or six of us. After the first 15, they dwindled off. You know how everybody’s great for starting a new group, and then they fall out by the wayside. There were five or six of us about a month later. And we were calling each other up, finding out where the group was to meet this week. So finally, one of the members belonged to a church on 10th Avenue, Kirk Road, across Memory Gardens, and he says, “How about if I go to the pastor and find out if we could use their Sunday school?” I said, “Gee, that’s a great idea.” I always believed in a central location. I didn’t just.. I spoke earlier about the cottage groups, and, you know, they would meet in different homes. So this was great. And then I began to advertise our group meeting on Monday night because there were five or six of us in the first year or two.

We had told each other our stories, and we were starting to lie to each other because we ran out of topics to talk about. So I finally figured we need new blood. So I advertised it personally to different ones, and they said, “Well, we can’t speak Finnish.” So I said, “This is in English. I’ll have a Scandi group.” So in desperation, finally at one meeting Monday night in this church, Kirk Road, I brought it up. We should change the name of this group. I says, I felt that the name Scandi was a sort of liability. I couldn’t get anybody else to come there. So Fred Hoffman, who’s since passed on, he says, “How about naming it Kirk Road? We’re on the corner of Kirk Road and 10th. Name it Kirk Road Group.” So that’s what it is to this day. And to show you the growth, in that year, Speedy came in 1962, February. And at that same time, I still had Lakewood Group, which I was supporting and setting up and making coffee, et cetera.