Well, good evening, everybody. Good evening. My name is Henry Walmer, and I’m a recovering alcoholic. Hi, Henry. I, at the beginning, I would just like to, uh, say that in addition to being an alcoholic, I’m also single and available. And, uh, I would like to get that straightened out, too. You know, this has been a great, great experience, uh, for me. I’ve heard of, uh, uh, Blackstone for a good many years, and I, I never came down here. Uh, it was always, uh, well, the 10, 11 hours to drive down, 11, 12 hours to drive back. For some reason or other, I never, never came down. But, uh, I’ve heard so many things, uh, uh, about, uh, about Blackstone. I met Tommy up at, uh, uh, Cook’s Forest, and I’ve met many of your, uh, trustees in different places, and I, I’ve always wanted to come here. And so I want to thank you, and I’m very grateful because I think that, uh, I’ll take an awful lot away, uh, with me, uh, from, from Blackstone.

It’s been a, just a great, great experience, uh, for me. Now, I know, uh, how much time, and I know, uh, I, I know we’re long-winded up here, uh, particularly, uh, uh, people from Cleveland, but being a lawyer from Cleveland is something else. And in addition to my, uh, my story, uh, the last, uh, oh, the last 20 years of my life, I have been traveling, uh, to various parts of the world, uh, as a hobby, uh, visiting AA clubs. And so, uh, AA clubs, AA members, and, uh, and I’ve been to Africa several times and Australia three times, and, uh, England and Scot.. well, all over the world. I let them– I spoke at a meeting in, in Bombay, India, for example, and I went to the meeting in Singapore, and, uh, uh, just all over the world. Well, a lot of experiences have come about, uh, because of this traveling, and so I, I could very easily, very easily shift gears and go into a second lead, you see. So I have to be very careful.

It’s like a man leading a meeting for an hour and then say, “And now I’m coming to the first step.” Well, you sit back and say, “Well, that’s another hour, isn’t it?” If you can give a good 12-step talk in an hour, you’re lucky. I am, anyway. And so, uh, at the outset, I would like to tell a little experience I had in Toronto in 1965. I was asked by Eve, uh, I was, uh, asked if I would speak, uh, on, uh, or at the international meeting on AA around the world from a, an AA traveler, traveling member’s, uh, uh, point of view. And I wrote back and said, “Yes.” In fact, I think I called them up and told them I’d be very happy to. And, uh, she wrote back, uh, or called me long distance again and said she want me to write out a speech. Well, I never wrote out a speech in AA, and so I, I ducked that one, and I wrote back, and I said, “No, I won’t write a speech, but I’ll give you a little outline.” Well, the outline would take probably a half hour.