[00:00:00.420 – 00:00:01.360] You’re okay now.

[00:00:01.360 – 00:00:03.799] Hi, I’m George, and I’m an alcoholic.

[00:00:03.799 – 00:00:06.570] Hi, George.

[00:00:06.570 – 00:00:07.940] I’m delighted to be here.

[00:00:07.940 – 00:00:11.039] At my age, you’re delighted to be anywhere.

[00:00:11.039 – 00:00:21.100] I came into

[00:00:21.100 – 00:00:22.940] AA when I was 40 years old.

[00:00:22.940 – 00:00:26.940] That was on July 1st, 1950.

[00:00:26.940 – 00:00:30.199] Save yourself the trouble, I’m 79.

[00:00:30.199 – 00:00:38.340] I wanna tell you about a sweet moment I had last month, and I tell you for a reason.

[00:00:38.340 – 00:00:40.840] I was in California.

[00:00:40.840 – 00:00:50.920] I saw my oldest son, who is a minister, marry my grandson, his son, while I sat next

[00:00:50.920 – 00:00:52.140] to my great-grandson.

[00:00:52.140 – 00:01:02.500] That’s a sweet moment, and those are the kinds of moments that I’ve had in the last 39 years in

[00:01:02.500 – 00:01:04.079] my association with you.

[00:01:04.079 – 00:01:07.040] I thank you so much.

[00:01:07.040 – 00:01:16.799] Good afternoon, everyone.

[00:01:16.799 – 00:01:20.040] My name is Kay Hurley, and I’m definitely an alcoholic.

[00:01:20.040 – 00:01:20.489] Hi.

[00:01:20.489 – 00:01:22.478] There’s no two ways about that.

[00:01:22.478 – 00:01:32.519] Now, and, um, my, uh, sobriety date was April Fool’s Day, April the 1st, 1962, but I turned out to

[00:01:32.519 – 00:01:33.579] be the biggest fool.

[00:01:33.579 – 00:01:43.840] I attended my first meeting in McCutcheon, and I liked it very much, and I admitted and accepted it that night, ’cause I wanted

[00:01:43.840 – 00:01:50.359] something, and that was what I want: you people and to help people, and that’s what I wanted.

[00:01:50.359 – 00:02:00.379] Then I joined the Perth Amboy Tuesday night group, the Grace Lutheran Church, I have to give them a boost, and I’ve been in that group for

[00:02:00.379 – 00:02:02.239] 27 and a half years.

[00:02:02.239 – 00:02:06.439] I also had the same sponsor for that length of time.

[00:02:06.439 – 00:02:09.659] I have two sons, wonderful sons.

[00:02:09.659 – 00:02:13.539] I’m divorced for 42 years, but I accepted that.

[00:02:13.539 – 00:02:19.520] I wanna tell you a little poem that I wrote when I was in AA about three months.

[00:02:19.520 – 00:02:20.629] AA.

[00:02:20.629 – 00:02:25.580] Now AA, as we all know, we should have found a long time ago.

[00:02:25.580 – 00:02:32.400] Because if we never took that old first drink, we would have more money and be able to think.

[00:02:32.400 – 00:02:41.959] Now, if you only try it one day at a time, physically, mentally, and spiritually, you will start to feel fine.

[00:02:41.959 – 00:02:45.840] You know easy does it, and first things first.

[00:02:45.840 – 00:02:50.599] Just try it for 24 hours and it can’t get any worse.

[00:02:50.599 – 00:02:59.080] Now, some of us were in hospitals, institutions, and jails, but AA works when everything fails.

[00:02:59.080 – 00:03:03.400] By Kay, who badly and truly needed AA from PA.

[00:03:03.400 – 00:03:03.930] Thank you.

[00:03:03.930 – 00:03:04.949] All right.

[00:03:04.949 – 00:03:16.360] Hi,

[00:03:16.360 – 00:03:17.000] everybody.

[00:03:17.000 – 00:03:19.419] My name is Pat, and I’m an alcoholic.

[00:03:19.419 – 00:03:20.479] Hi.

[00:03:20.479 – 00:03:20.810] Hi.

[00:03:20.810 – 00:03:30.919] Every year that I’m here, I swear that I’m gonna be calm, collected, and not get ner– this is the most awesome– I don’t know how you feel out there

[00:03:30.919 – 00:03:34.259] about looking up here, but you should be up here looking out there, and you will.

[00:03:34.259 – 00:03:37.599] I mean, I want you to really– s-several people have said that.

[00:03:37.599 – 00:03:38.800] You will.

[00:03:38.800 – 00:03:40.539] And I believe that.

[00:03:40.539 – 00:03:46.379] I believe that, because I couldn’t be up here if AA didn’t work.

[00:03:46.379 – 00:03:55.060] I crawled into Alcoholics Anonymous, and I didn’t know what I was crawling into, on October the 22nd, 1957.

[00:03:55.060 – 00:04:05.120] And God willing and the creek don’t rise, as they say in Texas, yeah, on October the 23rd of this month, I will have

[00:04:05.120 – 00:04:09.520] 32 years of continuous sobriety, for which I am so grateful.

[00:04:09.520 – 00:04:11.349] Thank you.

[00:04:11.349 – 00:04:11.620] Thank you.

[00:04:11.620 – 00:04:14.699] I did not get pushed in the door.

[00:04:14.699 – 00:04:18.160] There was nobody left in my life to push me.

[00:04:18.160 – 00:04:21.480] I did not get coaxed into the door.

[00:04:21.480 – 00:04:27.519] There was nobody that cared enough to coax me, and they couldn’t have if they tried.

[00:04:27.519 – 00:04:28.680] They had given up.

[00:04:28.680 – 00:04:32.158] But the main thing is that I had given up.

[00:04:32.158 – 00:04:38.319] You know, we talk about failure as when you just give up, when you just stop trying.

[00:04:38.319 – 00:04:48.379] Thank God I was a failure at everything I was doing when I walked into this program, ’cause if I hadn’t have been, I would’ve still thought

[00:04:48.379 – 00:04:52.540] I could do some of those things, and I knew I couldn’t.

[00:04:52.540 – 00:04:55.759] I was a practicing atheist.

[00:04:55.759 – 00:04:59.860] I’ve heard people say that when they came– I’m shaking so hard I can’t hold this microphone.

[00:04:59.860 – 00:05:04.199] That when they came into the program, that they walked in the doors and everybody was Irish.

[00:05:04.199 – 00:05:06.220] Well, let me tell you something.

[00:05:06.220 – 00:05:09.220] I came in in Phoenix, Arizona, and everybody was Jewish.

[00:05:09.220 – 00:05:10.600] So it’s the other way.

[00:05:10.600 – 00:05:12.199] That’s where everybody goes, you know.

[00:05:12.199 – 00:05:14.459] And either there or Florida.

[00:05:14.459 – 00:05:15.300] And I came in in AA.

[00:05:15.300 – 00:05:16.620] I drank in Florida.

[00:05:16.620 – 00:05:21.040] I drank in 17 states by the time I was 17 years old.

[00:05:21.040 – 00:05:22.879] I ran away from home.

[00:05:22.879 – 00:05:32.939] The only thing I have never run away from in my entire life is the Fellowships of Al- Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous, because I love it, because it

[00:05:32.939 – 00:05:36.199] saved my life, and because I revere it.

[00:05:36.199 – 00:05:38.160] I cherish it.

[00:05:38.160 – 00:05:45.399] I also cherish my husband, who, by the way, God sent into my life to teach me about patience and tolerance.

[00:05:45.399 – 00:05:47.939] Gotcha.

[00:05:47.939 – 00:05:51.259] And today is my 17th wedding anniversary.

[00:05:51.259 – 00:05:52.300] God love you.

[00:05:52.300 – 00:05:53.120] Thank you.

[00:05:53.120 – 00:06:01.879] My name is Eddie, and I’m an alcoholic.

[00:06:01.879 – 00:06:10.396] And I haven’t had to take a drink of alcohol or any of its substitutes since the third of September, nineteen sixty-two.

[00:06:10.396 – 00:06:20.456] I’m, uh, sitting here listening to the old-timers speak and share, and I’ve been thinking of other old-timers who are

[00:06:20.456 – 00:06:21.016] not here.

[00:06:21.016 – 00:06:25.435] And I have to say just a few words about them.

[00:06:25.435 – 00:06:26.456] I’m compelled to.

[00:06:26.456 – 00:06:29.935] When I came to AA, I was twenty-eight years of age.

[00:06:29.935 – 00:06:31.096] I was in the Armed Forces.

[00:06:31.096 – 00:06:33.755] I had a fat lip and a black eye.

[00:06:33.755 – 00:06:36.016] That was my usual disguise.

[00:06:36.016 – 00:06:46.036] I had, uh, I had the shakes, and I was an Air Force officer, and I was under arrest.

[00:06:46.036 – 00:06:56.536] And there were four sergeants that belonged to the old Fort Dix group: Joe, Huck, Andy,

[00:06:56.536 – 00:06:56.975] and Rick.

[00:06:56.975 – 00:06:59.055] Four are all dead.

[00:06:59.055 – 00:07:04.675] Who reached their hand out to me and passed the message.

[00:07:04.675 – 00:07:13.956] From the perspective of the now time, I see them as the keepers of the flame, and they kept it well.

[00:07:13.956 – 00:07:22.016] And they passed it to me, and I’ve tried to keep it well, and it’s passed to you.

[00:07:22.016 – 00:07:24.596] And keep it well.

[00:07:24.596 – 00:07:25.896] Thank you.

[00:07:25.896 – 00:07:38.156] Isn’t

[00:07:38.156 – 00:07:38.855] that amazing?

[00:07:38.855 – 00:07:41.755] Sixty-eight speakers in about an hour and forty minutes.

[00:07:41.755 – 00:07:44.456] Can’t believe it.

[00:07:44.456 – 00:07:54.935] For those of you who are interested in numbers,

[00:07:54.935 – 00:08:01.675] the years combined up here today is, is two thousand one hundred and twenty-two years.

[00:08:01.675 – 00:08:12.346] Yeah.

[00:08:12.346 – 00:08:15.815] The average length of recovery is thirty-one point two years.

[00:08:15.815 – 00:08:16.896] Isn’t that amazing?

[00:08:16.896 – 00:08:19.536] It’s, it’s really a miracle.

[00:08:19.536 – 00:08:26.435] I think in my case, it was a miracle that I lost the desire to drink and have maintained that one day at a time.

[00:08:26.435 – 00:08:31.036] I think it’s also a miracle that we can get sixty-eight speakers off in an hour and a half.

[00:08:31.036 – 00:08:32.096] That blows my mind.

[00:08:32.096 – 00:08:33.995] But we did do it.

[00:08:33.995 – 00:08:36.916] Uh, just a couple of, uh, housekeeping chores.

[00:08:36.916 – 00:08:43.216] The Marriott banquet will be held in this hall, the Ukrainian Hall, at seven PM this evening.

[00:08:43.216 – 00:08:49.696] And there are keys to a blue Ford van that are up at the front desk.

[00:08:49.696 – 00:08:54.135] I don’t know how they know it’s a blue Ford van, but they, they know.

[00:08:54.135 – 00:08:55.035] Somebody knows.

[00:08:55.035 – 00:08:59.716] At any rate, uh, it has been extraordinary for me.

[00:08:59.716 – 00:09:09.176] Uh, these are the people who kept AA going from, uh, June of nineteen thirty-five through to today.

[00:09:09.176 – 00:09:13.755] Uh, and now it is up to all of you to keep it going.

[00:09:13.755 – 00:09:14.916] Thank you very much.

[00:09:14.916 – 00:09:17.975] We’re closing the usual way with the AA prayer.

[00:09:17.975 – 00:09:22.645] Our Father.

[00:09:22.645 – 00:09:26.635] Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

[00:09:26.635 – 00:09:32.635] Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

[00:09:32.635 – 00:09:41.416] Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

[00:09:41.416 – 00:09:45.956] And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

[00:09:45.956 – 00:09:50.936] For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever and ever.

[00:09:50.936 – 00:09:51.696] Amen.

[00:09:51.696 – 00:09:53.515] Keep coming back.

← Back to Speaker Collection