I think every drunk needs to make their nest, and I’m making mine. I’ve been.. Excuse me. I’m Evelyn Coger, and, uh, I’m an alcoholic. Hi, Evelyn. And by the grace of God, I’m attempting to follow the things that I’ve learned through the medium of this program, and with your help and people like you, I haven’t had a drink since November 17th, ’51, and I’m real grateful. You know, that’s a long time, baby, between drinks, I’ll tell you. I am delighted to be here. Miriam and Alex and, and, uh, Todd, and all, all of you have been so friendly and warm and nice, and, um, uh, that’s the reason we had to keep finances out of this. I thought maybe, you know, I might pas- pass a little personal plate through, but no, they have to read the traditions. Uh, no, this, this.. what a treat. What a treat for an old country gal. Garden variety drunk. Honey, you ain’t gonna hear a, a big.. anything that’s gonna stir you up. I’m really garden variety. Um, and I’m, I, I’m just overwhelmed at being here.

I am darn sure overwhelmed at this crowd. Uh, my group is about 20. And we have something special that’s close to 100, so you can tell that I am really not accustomed to, uh, uh, this group. But I, I, I’m delighted to, um, that you have these. Uh, and California h- is special to us in Texas because a lot of you come to Texas to talk for us, and we just love it. We just love it. Um, I didn’t come in here because I was singing too loud in church. It just.. That, that’s not how I got here. Uh, I got here because I’d drank too long, too much, and, uh, as Barney said, went crazy. I wanna tell you something. If Marie and Ray didn’t set the tone for this thing, I don’t know who did. You know, they screwed up enough that.. It’s made me so comfortable, I haven’t had sense enough to, to be nervous. I love it. I love it. That’s Alcoholics Anonymous, as far as I’m concerned.

You know, we just get so dogmatic sometimes, and, and gosh, if it doesn’t go just right, and somebody screw up, and nobody cares. You know. If you do, you better get, get yourself, b- join the Rotary Club or something. Yeah. I, um, started drinking pretty young. Not seriously at all, uh, but drank long, and I’d drunk occasionally, but this was not, this was not.. That was a fun drinking, and, and it was worth hurting over. You know, uh, social drink, get drunk, have a little hangover, or a bad hangover, serious hangover, but it is all right. You weren’t gonna drink again for a while. Not me. And, uh, I was in love with an old boy, and I ran him right on into Alcoholics Anonymous, I’ll tell you that. I never let that boy go, and he wanted out lots of times, but nah. So you see, I’m a stayer. I’m a stayer. I, um.. I, uh, drank with him or without him or, uh, I just loved to be a part of. I loved to be a part of. I don’t guess I’ve changed too much from that. I really haven’t.