[00:00:00.820 – 00:00:01.340] Thank you.

[00:00:01.340 – 00:00:08.300] This is the breadth of AA, you know?

[00:00:08.300 – 00:00:10.859] It’s like, this is just amazing for me.

[00:00:10.859 – 00:00:14.279] I, I, I’m looking at the sign-in sheet, you know, forty-plus years.

[00:00:14.279 – 00:00:19.579] You know, I was in New Jersey and I was able to sign up at t- at twenty-five years ’cause you only needed twenty to be an old-timer.

[00:00:19.579 – 00:00:28.079] And I’m, I’m looking at this panel here, and this is j– as many, almost as many as I had there, and, um, what a gift.

[00:00:28.079 – 00:00:37.779] We have twenty-six folks that signed up, and we have a total of twelve hundred and forty-seven years of sobriety- -sitting right here.

[00:00:37.779 – 00:00:46.179] That’s an average of forty-eight years.

[00:00:46.179 – 00:00:47.979] Unbelievable.

[00:00:47.979 – 00:00:50.179] Again, tell you the format.

[00:00:50.179 – 00:00:53.880] Everyone is– everyone on, up here is going to get to speak.

[00:00:53.880 – 00:00:56.960] Uh, we, we averaged it at about three minutes.

[00:00:56.960 – 00:00:59.259] Uh, Dennis is gonna be my timer.

[00:00:59.259 – 00:01:01.439] I’m going to be the bell ringer.

[00:01:01.439 – 00:01:04.340] I get to ring the bell.

[00:01:04.340 – 00:01:05.890] Sure, ring the bell.

[00:01:05.890 – 00:01:08.060] And Woody is going to pass the mic around.

[00:01:08.060 – 00:01:18.099] We’re going to just go right down the line and pass the mics around so that we can actually get to get– make sure we waste no time in getting to hear the message from all of these wonderful

[00:01:18.099 – 00:01:18.359] people.

[00:01:18.359 – 00:01:19.019] Thank you.

[00:01:19.019 – 00:01:28.000] I think I’m gonna start upstairs first.

[00:01:28.000 – 00:01:31.159] Ha.

[00:01:31.159 – 00:01:37.640] Who would’ve thought that I was one of the last ones to sign up?

[00:01:37.640 – 00:01:40.920] My name is Judy and I’m an alcoholic.

[00:01:40.920 – 00:01:42.510] Judy.

[00:01:42.510 – 00:01:47.620] And, um, my sobriety date is January twenty-fourth, nineteen seventy.

[00:01:47.620 – 00:01:50.120] I was five or six maybe.

[00:01:50.120 – 00:01:52.900] Um, maybe a little older.

[00:01:52.900 – 00:02:00.739] But three minutes doesn’t give me time to tell much, but I’ll tell you a story that will tell you a lot about me.

[00:02:00.739 – 00:02:10.780] Um, I was, in nineteen seventy-four, I think, um, dragged by a couple of friends

[00:02:10.780 – 00:02:11.080] of mine.

[00:02:11.080 – 00:02:14.360] I, I grew up, grew up in northern New York, and I had friends up there.

[00:02:14.360 – 00:02:23.360] And they came down to Syracuse, where I was living at the time, and took me to Saranac Lake or Lake Placid, one of those two, I think it was Saranac, though.

[00:02:23.360 – 00:02:28.419] And because I had to hear this woman speak, she was so fantastic.

[00:02:28.419 – 00:02:30.479] I said, “All right,” you know.

[00:02:30.479 – 00:02:32.539] It’s probably winter when we went.

[00:02:32.539 – 00:02:34.319] It’s always winter when you go on a trip.

[00:02:34.319 – 00:02:40.520] So, uh, we got there, and, uh, the person who was speaking was Liz B.

[00:02:40.520 – 00:02:48.019] And, um, so I took that opportunity to ask her to come and speak in Syracuse, which she did.

[00:02:48.019 – 00:02:56.740] And, um, she spoke there the day before Father’s Day, and she stayed with my husband, my then husband, and myself.

[00:02:56.740 – 00:03:06.780] And the next day, I got a phone call from my mom telling me that my dad died, and that was something that I always thought from the time I

[00:03:06.780 – 00:03:09.240] was a kid, if my dad died, that I would die.

[00:03:09.240 – 00:03:18.539] And so it was a wonderful thing that there was, um, someone like Liz there for me at that moment.

[00:03:18.539 – 00:03:28.569] And, um, zip forward about sixteen years and divorce, and I decided to go back

[00:03:28.569 – 00:03:29.000] to school.

[00:03:29.000 – 00:03:34.879] So I left Syracuse and moved to, uh, Coral Gables, Florida, and went to University of Miami.

[00:03:34.879 – 00:03:37.360] And I wanted to be there.

[00:03:37.360 – 00:03:42.699] It was a good thing to do, but I– it was a big changes, the first move I’d had in sobriety.

[00:03:42.699 – 00:03:52.599] It was, um, first time in– since I was twenty years old that I hadn’t had a job and, uh, going back to school and blah, blah, blah.

[00:03:52.599 – 00:03:56.139] And they didn’t know anything about how to do AA meetings there.

[00:03:56.139 – 00:03:57.979] I mean, it was just rough.

[00:03:57.979 – 00:04:04.259] And so one of the gals there said to me, “Well, why don’t we go over to Miami Beach?

[00:04:04.259 – 00:04:10.000] They’re having a dinner or something rather going on over there.” And I, “I don’t want to go to that meeting over there.

[00:04:10.000 – 00:04:19.740] I’m no– nobody likes me anyway, and I don’t like AA, and nothing’s gonna work out for me.” And, you know, this is sixteen years of quality sobriety.

[00:04:19.740 – 00:04:27.339] So- We went, and then I got there, and, uh, a great speaker, Liz B.

[00:04:27.339 – 00:04:32.339] And seven or eight people from Syracuse.

[00:04:32.339 – 00:04:34.480] So how did that happen?

[00:04:34.480 – 00:04:34.959] Who knows?

[00:04:34.959 – 00:04:41.720] Well, a few la- years later, I moved to California, and I really wanted to move to California, and I was quite happy there.

[00:04:41.720 – 00:04:47.579] But they didn’t do AA right out there either, and it was such a big move, and I w– you know.

[00:04:47.579 – 00:04:53.180] And now I’m sober even longer, and so I’m, you know, I’m getting so mature apparently.

[00:04:53.180 – 00:05:04.420] And, uh, my friend said, “There’s a conference over in,” who knows where it was, at some place, an hour or so away, “and we ought to go over there.” So

[00:05:04.420 – 00:05:06.500] we went there, and who was speaking?

[00:05:06.500 – 00:05:07.540] Liz B.

[00:05:07.540 – 00:05:12.259] So now I don’t wait for somebody to tell me to go to any place.

[00:05:12.259 – 00:05:13.060] I just go.

[00:05:13.060 – 00:05:14.810] If they say Liz B, I’m there.

[00:05:14.810 – 00:05:22.220] And I’m here today because of that, and, um, she’s been a guiding light for me for a long time.

[00:05:22.220 – 00:05:24.060] So thank you very much.

[00:05:24.060 – 00:05:30.459] Hi, everybody.

[00:05:30.459 – 00:05:32.480] My name is Maureen, and I’m an alcoholic.

[00:05:32.480 – 00:05:34.089] Maureen.

[00:05:34.089 – 00:05:35.819] And I came in at five.

[00:05:35.819 – 00:05:39.879] And not much after that, honestly.

[00:05:39.879 – 00:05:48.860] I’m really nervous, and I know this is totally in God’s hands and you really can’t say too much in three years.

[00:05:48.860 – 00:05:54.800] What I really can say is that God has been so wonderful to me and has totally blessed me.

[00:05:54.800 – 00:06:02.800] I had– from my first dr– uh, drink, I drank in a blackout- And continued it for seven years.

[00:06:02.800 – 00:06:10.279] And I, uh, I have ha- I have six children, and I had them all sober, and what a blessing.

[00:06:10.279 – 00:06:14.240] You know, none of, none of them have ever, ever seen me drink.

[00:06:14.240 – 00:06:17.620] And I have everything, really.

[00:06:17.620 – 00:06:23.319] The, the journey that I have been on, I’ve had a lot of pain, but to me, pain is a touch on the progress.

[00:06:23.319 – 00:06:26.399] The steps are the answer to me in this program.

[00:06:26.399 – 00:06:30.379] Uh, helping another human being, trusting God, and passing it on.

[00:06:30.379 – 00:06:33.019] Um, I just love this program.

[00:06:33.019 – 00:06:39.980] I have a wonderful, wonderful husband who’s 38 years sober, and I can’t believe I’m 46 years sober.

[00:06:39.980 – 00:06:44.660] Just, it just doesn’t seem possible a day at a time.

[00:06:44.660 – 00:06:49.540] But the journey I’ve been on is, as I say, is just incredible.

[00:06:49.540 – 00:06:53.379] I I’m really nervous.

[00:06:53.379 – 00:06:54.079] God help me.

[00:06:54.079 – 00:07:00.978] I, I really believe that, um, this program is, is really all God.

[00:07:00.978 – 00:07:11.660] It’s such a spiritual, spiritual program, and it’s almost hard for me to believe that if people really don’t have God in this life, in their, in their heart, and

[00:07:11.660 – 00:07:16.759] they’re able to pass it on, that this program would almost fail.

[00:07:16.759 – 00:07:19.339] I’ve done some awesome things.

[00:07:19.339 – 00:07:29.379] I, I was telling Alicia, that I just met here, who was just so wonderful, that I’ve spoken at, like, at a lot of places, and one time I was speaking with Eric Torney, you know, who used to,

[00:07:29.379 – 00:07:32.139] um, be with g- um, Jackie Gleason.

[00:07:32.139 – 00:07:39.279] I was so terrified, and he said, “Maureen, I’m just another drunk, just like you are.” And thank you so much for listening.

[00:07:39.279 – 00:07:44.680] Hello, I’m Jerry.

[00:07:44.680 – 00:07:45.500] I’m an alcoholic.

[00:07:45.500 – 00:07:49.420] My so-sobriety date is January 9th, 1969.

[00:07:49.420 – 00:07:51.899] Uh, I was a teenage alcoholic.

[00:07:51.899 – 00:07:55.079] I could, could’ve qualified to come here a lot earlier, but I didn’t.

[00:07:55.079 – 00:07:59.480] But, uh, I DUI at 16 and another one at 18.

[00:07:59.480 – 00:08:05.220] But anyway, I went from California to Erie, Pennsylvania to get sober with the geographical cure.

[00:08:05.220 – 00:08:11.819] And, uh, uh, it was kind of a– I had, like, six months there, a wonderful sobriety.

[00:08:11.819 – 00:08:20.240] I was just a real young guy, and, uh, I loved everything about AA, but I think I kinda skimmed the cream off the top and I really didn’t digest the program.

[00:08:20.240 – 00:08:22.259] I was kind of on a pink cloud.

[00:08:22.259 – 00:08:32.259] So my sponsor told me, “Always stay in dry places and don’t toy with your allergies.” But I thought I knew better, so I went back to California where I did all my drinking as a teenager.

[00:08:32.259 – 00:08:36.720] I’d go in bars when I was 16 and sometimes drink two, three days and…

[00:08:36.720 – 00:08:42.480] But, uh, so I went ahead and went out to California and I took– picked up a drink.

[00:08:42.480 – 00:08:44.159] I went with my wife to San Francisco.

[00:08:44.159 – 00:08:46.379] On the top of the Mark, I, I had a beer.

[00:08:46.379 – 00:08:50.320] And she had been married to an alcoholic before, and you know, I couldn’t get another beer.

[00:08:50.320 – 00:08:53.759] She was really upset about me taking the beer after being sober for six months.

[00:08:53.759 – 00:09:01.279] Well, all the way back from, uh, Los Angeles– or San Francisco to Los Angeles, every time I went by a bar I was salivating.

[00:09:01.279 – 00:09:03.240] I could just taste that one beer that I had.

[00:09:03.240 – 00:09:07.399] And the very next morning I had a drink, and I drank for two weeks.

[00:09:07.399 – 00:09:17.460] But the interesting thing about it and the good part is, is, uh, I went to a meeting in Long Beach at 8:30 in the morning and Chuck Seeger– Chuck Chamberlain was speaking there, and that’s

[00:09:17.460 – 00:09:23.960] the first time I heard about the physical allergy of, of, uh, of the problem and not just the mental obsession.

[00:09:23.960 – 00:09:29.519] And, uh, I, I could really relate to that because I could go by a bar and salivate.

[00:09:29.519 – 00:09:33.580] I mean, I just– You know, and if I had just one drink, warm glow in my stomach.

[00:09:33.580 – 00:09:34.419] I could taste it.

[00:09:34.419 – 00:09:38.179] And I can’t ever remember having a drink when it was possible.

[00:09:38.179 – 00:09:42.399] Maybe when I was at a wedding, I couldn’t have one or something, then I didn’t get drunk.

[00:09:42.399 – 00:09:43.879] Just the way it was.

[00:09:43.879 – 00:09:46.679] And I had every intention on not doing that.

[00:09:46.679 – 00:09:47.730] I worked on a farm.

[00:09:47.730 – 00:09:49.220] My dad had turkey farms.

[00:09:49.220 – 00:09:58.820] And, uh, I, uh, w- hard worker and did everything pretty much right, except when I took that first drink, I just couldn’t stop.

[00:09:58.820 – 00:10:04.320] But, uh, when he talked about that physical thing, I think it really helped me a lot.

[00:10:04.320 – 00:10:08.580] And, uh, I, I did have another slip after that and came back in.

[00:10:08.580 – 00:10:10.799] Since 1969, it’s history, so.

[00:10:10.799 – 00:10:15.720] But I wanna thank everyone for being here, all the wonderful speakers, the volunteers.

[00:10:15.720 – 00:10:19.039] I enjoyed Liz this morning, and it’s just been a great venue.

[00:10:19.039 – 00:10:19.980] I met Pat here.

[00:10:19.980 – 00:10:22.159] I hope we become good friends.

[00:10:22.159 – 00:10:24.120] A couple friends over here I sponsor.

[00:10:24.120 – 00:10:28.480] Another young guy over there we’re trying to talk to and get him in the program.

[00:10:28.480 – 00:10:30.179] So it’s just a g- great program.

[00:10:30.179 – 00:10:31.200] Thank you very much.

[00:10:31.200 – 00:10:38.059] Hi, my name is Pat, and I’m an alcoholic.

[00:10:38.059 – 00:10:41.899] Uh, sobriety date is August 15th, 1970.

[00:10:41.899 – 00:10:45.379] Uh, my drunk story was very simple.

[00:10:45.379 – 00:10:46.559] I drank like a pig.

[00:10:46.559 – 00:10:50.740] So just supply your own details, and you know what kind of drinking I was capable of.

[00:10:50.740 – 00:10:59.440] Any case, I come out of four generations of alcoholics, and, uh, they either died with their shoes on or they, uh, managed to get into AA.

[00:10:59.440 – 00:11:05.960] Any case, uh, I was blessed with a, uh, sponsor.

[00:11:05.960 – 00:11:12.860] Uh, he was not only a big guy, he had white hair, and he looked like a higher power should look like.

[00:11:12.860 – 00:11:20.580] So when I get out of hand, he would look at me and say, “Shut up, kid.” And, uh, that’s the way it went for me.

[00:11:20.580 – 00:11:27.340] Any case, over 40 years, he was my sponsor, and everything I knew about AA came from my interaction with him.

[00:11:27.340 – 00:11:34.379] When I needed problems about my children growing up, uh, he was the guy that would, uh, give me the simple answer.

[00:11:34.379 – 00:11:40.980] Like, uh, “Show up and shut up and stop giving sermons to the kid and lead them.” Stuff like that, you know.

[00:11:40.980 – 00:11:51.220] In any case, over the years, uh, it slowly began to d- get into me as I listened to my sponsors in my home group,

[00:11:51.220 – 00:12:00.120] is that the purpose of all this thing is not to hide out in churches, but to bring this pr- great process that we have, this sobriety, home.

[00:12:00.120 – 00:12:02.500] Uh, I’m also a member of Al-Anon.

[00:12:02.500 – 00:12:07.500] I joined that as well, and, uh, that’s been a tremendous aid to me over the years.

[00:12:07.500 – 00:12:17.615] I’ve come to believe for me that, that this process is one of learning to accept the love of God, the grace of God, and the ways in which my life has

[00:12:17.615 – 00:12:18.155] changed.

[00:12:18.155 – 00:12:23.456] I have, uh, two of my three sons are sober twenty-two years apiece.

[00:12:23.456 – 00:12:26.735] I have daughter-in-laws that are sober twenty-some-odd years.

[00:12:26.735 – 00:12:37.056] And I have– My older brother married a lovely lady in Al-Anon, and he had a, um, a really love story of thirty-eight years until he passed on sober.

[00:12:37.056 – 00:12:38.375] Thirty-eight years sober.

[00:12:38.375 – 00:12:42.096] So we come now as a family of s– of a lot of sobriety.

[00:12:42.096 – 00:12:52.275] And the reason that continues is that the most important single thing I got from my sponsor was ask God

[00:12:52.275 – 00:13:02.416] every morning, “Please God, keep me safe from that first drink.” And I’ve added a few things to the next part: “Please God, keep me safe

[00:13:02.416 – 00:13:07.596] from doing stupid.” Now, that covers all the range of stuff that you can do during the course of a day.

[00:13:07.596 – 00:13:17.615] But in any case, at the end of the day, I say, “Thank you, God, for keeping me safe from this first drink.” And there are occasional times when I have to confess to crying.

[00:13:17.615 – 00:13:25.416] Crying with a, a sense of gratitude about what AA has done for me, for my family, and the generations.

[00:13:25.416 – 00:13:28.936] I also have seven grandchildren that think the world of me.

[00:13:28.936 – 00:13:31.796] They’ve never seen me drink, and that’s a good thing.

[00:13:31.796 – 00:13:34.355] And, uh, that’ll be enough out of me.

[00:13:34.355 – 00:13:34.836] Thanks.

[00:13:34.836 – 00:13:43.196] My name is Gordon.

[00:13:43.196 – 00:13:44.155] I’m an alcoholic.

[00:13:44.155 – 00:13:48.216] My sobriety date is March eighteenth, nineteen sixty-six.

[00:13:48.216 – 00:13:55.515] And, uh, I got sober in Connecticut, so if anybody here from Connecticut might raise a hand.

[00:13:55.515 – 00:14:02.875] Um, anybody here in their first year stand up so I can say thank you for keeping AA alive for me.

[00:14:02.875 – 00:14:07.235] All right.

[00:14:07.235 – 00:14:17.475] Right after Hurricane Andrew, I went to a, a sobriety

[00:14:17.475 – 00:14:24.696] countdown at the, uh, Gratitude Dinner in Miami-Dade County and, uh, saw my first sobriety countdown.

[00:14:24.696 – 00:14:30.875] And, uh, when it was time for me to sit down in a room full of a thousand people, there were five or six other people still standing.

[00:14:30.875 – 00:14:36.855] And the thought hit me like a ton of bricks: What if people stopped coming into AA when I got sober?

[00:14:36.855 – 00:14:45.495] Thank God y’all keep coming back because you keep the meeting rooms open for me so that I can continue my sobriety a day at a time.

[00:14:45.495 – 00:14:51.035] My first twenty-three years in AA are characterized as being stark raving sober.

[00:14:51.035 – 00:15:01.056] A-And on the nineteenth of September in eighty-nine, when I finally got a picture of what had happened in my childhood between my mother

[00:15:01.056 – 00:15:01.416] and I…

[00:15:01.416 – 00:15:11.275] I thought I was gonna die that day, but I didn’t.

[00:15:11.275 – 00:15:19.816] And I learned that my past would kill me if I didn’t go back and deal with it.

[00:15:19.816 – 00:15:24.755] And I did a lot of– I’ve done a lot of therapies over the last twenty-three years.

[00:15:24.755 – 00:15:32.975] And, uh, and then I came to Florida after Hurricane Andrew and things got better.

[00:15:32.975 – 00:15:42.716] And then I realized what, what a kind boss I had had when I was up in Maine trying to struggle through the memories of my childhood, that he hadn’t let me go.

[00:15:42.716 – 00:15:44.855] He’d kept my financial base strong.

[00:15:44.855 – 00:15:49.436] And I got to go back and thank him for that.

[00:15:49.436 – 00:16:00.556] And, uh, two years ago, a little, little under two years ago, I moved back to Florida after being in Kentucky for six years, and

[00:16:00.556 – 00:16:10.556] I started going to a meeting at the Boulevard Club in Miami-Dade County and, uh, a-and met a gal who initially had a little resentment

[00:16:10.556 – 00:16:14.596] of me because now she wasn’t the longest sober in the Something Happens group.

[00:16:14.596 – 00:16:21.235] And then we got to know each other a little better, and then we went out looking for a computer.

[00:16:21.235 – 00:16:25.655] And, uh, January seventh this year, we got married.

[00:16:25.655 – 00:16:33.035] And she’s just a little ways behind me.

[00:16:33.035 – 00:16:41.155] She’s got thirty-four years, and so between the two of us, we’ve got eighty years, and we think probably we can work out the relationship if we pay attention to each other.

[00:16:41.155 – 00:16:45.336] We came down here just for the day.

[00:16:45.336 – 00:16:55.375] We went through the list of things that were possible for this event and decided on today so we could be here at this old-timers gathering because it’s

[00:16:55.375 – 00:16:56.615] always a treat for me.

[00:16:56.615 – 00:17:00.716] And is somebody ringing a bell, or is that just a clock going off?

[00:17:00.716 – 00:17:07.715] Thanks to the committee that put this thing on and, um…

[00:17:07.715 – 00:17:09.215] She’s telling me to sit down.

[00:17:09.215 – 00:17:16.895] I’m an alcoholic.

[00:17:16.895 – 00:17:21.215] Uh, my home group is the Oakland Park group in Fort Lauderdale, and my name is Lynn.

[00:17:21.215 – 00:17:27.276] Hi, and I’m very, uh, you know, very grateful to be at this, uh, event this weekend.

[00:17:27.276 – 00:17:31.076] It’s, uh, really giving me a lot of emotional support that I need.

[00:17:31.076 – 00:17:39.816] And, uh, you know, when I came to program of Alcoholics Anonymous on April twenty-fourth of nineteen seventy-two, I thought that I was, uh, morally ill.

[00:17:39.816 – 00:17:42.596] I didn’t realize that I had a spiritual sickness.

[00:17:42.596 – 00:17:47.935] And, uh, I heard people say to get a sponsor, and so I got a sponsor right away.

[00:17:47.935 – 00:17:52.635] And, uh, not because I wanted one, but was– that was what I was told to do.

[00:17:52.635 – 00:17:57.236] And I’m grateful that I did that because he gave me a lot of good advice.

[00:17:57.236 – 00:18:05.976] And, uh, the first thing he told me was to, uh, every morning when I got up, to, uh, ask God to keep me sober that day.

[00:18:05.976 – 00:18:11.125] And if I’d been successful at the end of the night, to have the common courtesy to tell him thank you.

[00:18:11.830 – 00:18:17.970] And those were two things that were completely foreign to my nature, to ask for help and say thank you, but I did them.

[00:18:17.970 – 00:18:22.410] Uh, the other thing he did is he used to tell me to call him every day.

[00:18:22.410 – 00:18:25.150] And, uh, you know, why should I call him?

[00:18:25.150 – 00:18:27.190] I was still the center of the universe.

[00:18:27.190 – 00:18:34.930] And so I would be sitting at home, and my phone would ring, and I’d pick it up, and he’d say, “I’m waiting for you to call me,” and then he would hang up.

[00:18:34.930 – 00:18:39.230] And I used to think, “I’ve really picked the wrong sponsor.

[00:18:39.230 – 00:18:41.170] He’s kinda dumb,” you know?

[00:18:41.170 – 00:18:47.930] Uh, but, you know, what he told me was that I needed to get involved in service in Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:18:47.930 – 00:18:52.890] And I’m very grateful that he did that because service kept me sober for a long time.

[00:18:52.890 – 00:19:01.590] And when I was first getting sober, I was very confused about the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous and the program, and I thought they were the same thing.

[00:19:01.590 – 00:19:03.750] And I thought, “Why are they using two different words?

[00:19:03.750 – 00:19:13.770] They’re just trying to confuse me.” And, uh, I also used to hear people at meetings say, “If you try– take a drunken horse thief and get him sober, all you’ve got is a sober

[00:19:13.770 – 00:19:23.790] horse thief.” Well, I came to when I was sober two years, and I realized I was just as unhappy sober as I’d been drinking, and that

[00:19:23.790 – 00:19:28.910] was when I realized the difference between the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous and the program.

[00:19:28.910 – 00:19:34.470] And the fellowship had kept me sober for the first couple of years, but I was miserable.

[00:19:34.470 – 00:19:43.670] And if I wanted to be happy in my sobriety, I had to work the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, and that’s when I got busy in working the program.

[00:19:43.670 – 00:19:51.310] And what I realized is I came here because I had a drinking problem, but I’ve stayed because I’ve got a thinking problem.

[00:19:51.310 – 00:19:59.370] And, uh, you know, I, I think I’m a lot smarter than I really am, and I thought that, uh, that problem would go away, but it hasn’t.

[00:19:59.370 – 00:20:06.210] So, thanks for letting me keep coming to these meetings so that my thinking problem can still keep straightened out.

[00:20:06.210 – 00:20:10.490] Because left to my own devices, I’m still real dangerous, so thanks a lot.

[00:20:10.490 – 00:20:16.690] Good afternoon, everybody.

[00:20:16.690 – 00:20:18.890] My name is Jim Reedy, an arrested alcoholic.

[00:20:18.890 – 00:20:19.900] Hi, Jim.

[00:20:19.900 – 00:20:25.010] My sobriety date is February the fifth, nineteen hundred and fifty-seven, and I haven’t had a desire to take a drink since.

[00:20:25.010 – 00:20:29.660] I’m one of the fortunate alcoholics that I came into this beautiful program today.

[00:20:29.660 – 00:20:31.410] I never had any problems.

[00:20:31.410 – 00:20:37.530] I always want to remember my first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in the Forest Hills group in Long Island.

[00:20:37.530 – 00:20:40.350] When I walked in, a little old gentleman greeted me at the door.

[00:20:40.350 – 00:20:42.830] He too– put his hand out to me.

[00:20:42.830 – 00:20:43.710] He shook my hand.

[00:20:43.710 – 00:20:44.670] He threw his arms around me.

[00:20:44.670 – 00:20:46.490] He says, “Welcome to Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:20:46.490 – 00:20:52.250] Nice to see a young fella like you come inside the doors of AA.” I was always grateful for that.

[00:20:52.250 – 00:20:55.290] And today, I greet people at the door when they come in.

[00:20:55.290 – 00:21:05.330] You know, and I– And in my home group and wherever else I go to other groups, I go around saying hello to everybody because I’m very grateful to what happened to

[00:21:05.330 – 00:21:08.890] me when I come into AA, that I was able to grasp this program right away.

[00:21:08.890 – 00:21:11.410] Had a good sponsor.

[00:21:11.410 – 00:21:15.110] He taught me well, and those old-timers taught me well.

[00:21:15.110 – 00:21:18.870] And there was none of this stuff here of bib, bib, bib, bib.

[00:21:18.870 – 00:21:19.790] You had to do it.

[00:21:19.790 – 00:21:28.210] And, uh, one of the, the old-timers told me, you know, when I, when I– if I got offhand, they’d, they’d be right behind me to help me.

[00:21:28.210 – 00:21:30.370] And thank God I listened to him.

[00:21:30.370 – 00:21:35.930] And I listen, listen to learn, to learn to listen, and that’s what I’ve done, and I still do it today.

[00:21:35.930 – 00:21:42.170] One of the most important things, you know, when you, when you come into Alcoholics Anonymous is get a sponsor.

[00:21:42.170 – 00:21:46.850] Get a home group and join that home group and work in that home group.

[00:21:46.850 – 00:21:49.670] Just don’t come in and go to meetings and don’t do nothing.

[00:21:49.670 – 00:21:50.750] Get involved today.

[00:21:50.750 – 00:21:54.610] That’s what I had to do, and I got involved right away.

[00:21:54.610 – 00:22:02.470] I think it was about the third meeting that I came, they got me right away, and the next month, I was putting ashtrays out and s-setting up the tables and doing everything else.

[00:22:02.470 – 00:22:11.430] As I went along in Alcoholics Anonymous, you know, I always remember when my sponsor told me one day that I had to go down in the group office.

[00:22:11.430 – 00:22:13.170] He took me down to answer phones.

[00:22:13.170 – 00:22:18.430] I was answering phones, and one day a gentleman walked in, and everybody was making a fuss over him.

[00:22:18.430 – 00:22:20.099] Hello, and hello, hello.

[00:22:20.099 – 00:22:28.090] And he passed by me at, by where I was sitting, and he said, “It’s nice to see a young fella come in the doors of AA.” He says, “Keep up the good work and pass it on,” and walked away.

[00:22:28.090 – 00:22:33.430] So, when he walked away, everybody, and he went somewhere else, I don’t know, in another office.

[00:22:33.430 – 00:22:42.010] And I said to the woman behind me, “Excuse me.” I said, “Who was that gentleman?” She said, “That’s Bill W.” I said, “Who the hell is Bill W?” I didn’t know.

[00:22:42.010 – 00:22:46.030] But I got to meet him later at, at a convention.

[00:22:46.030 – 00:22:50.890] You know, the, the thing that I always– You gotta have an attitude of gratitude.

[00:22:50.890 – 00:22:53.990] When you come into Alcoholics Anonymous, you change your attitude.

[00:22:53.990 – 00:22:57.670] You don’t wanna be the pity party then or anything like that.

[00:22:57.670 – 00:23:04.030] You gotta get involved in working out and be able to reach out and help other alcoholics as you go along.

[00:23:04.030 – 00:23:07.610] Be a sponsor and help that person out.

[00:23:07.610 – 00:23:09.749] You know, and there’s so many of these people.

[00:23:09.749 – 00:23:15.010] I see young people coming in and going back out and coming in, going back out, and I could never understand that.

[00:23:15.010 – 00:23:18.550] And I always tell them when I see them, I say, “Oh, what happened to you?” You know.

[00:23:18.550 – 00:23:23.810] “Uh, I, I wasn’t ready for this program.” The same thing I heard when I came in.

[00:23:23.810 – 00:23:29.630] There was a lot of young people, and we used to go to different meetings and speak, and next time I go over there, they’re gone.

[00:23:29.630 – 00:23:39.690] But thank God, you know, that I had the opportunity of growing slow in this program, and I’m able to stand here today and say thank you,

[00:23:39.690 – 00:23:40.490] and God bless you.

[00:23:40.490 – 00:23:46.670] And another thing, too, I reach out every day.

[00:23:46.670 – 00:23:51.130] When I get up, I reach out my hand, and I ask God for help and guidance in my life.

[00:23:51.130 – 00:23:58.330] The other hand, I can reach out to another sick and suffering alcoholic and help him along with his life or her life, whatever it may be.

[00:23:58.330 – 00:24:03.390] And when I greet people at the door, especially the ladies, I tell some how lovely they look.

[00:24:03.390 – 00:24:12.930] You know, and I do that for a reason because some I’ve seen when they, when they were really bad, and today they’re nice and pretty and things are getting better beyond their fondest dreams.

[00:24:12.930 – 00:24:14.570] Thank you, and God bless you all.

[00:24:14.570 – 00:24:20.966] Tommy Maher, alcoholic.

[00:24:20.966 – 00:24:22.376] Tommy.

[00:24:22.376 – 00:24:24.226] Member of the Monday Night Speakers group in St.

[00:24:24.226 – 00:24:24.866] Petersburg.

[00:24:24.866 – 00:24:30.406] My sobriety date is January 31st, 1964.

[00:24:30.406 – 00:24:34.106] I was 23 when I came to Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:24:34.106 – 00:24:36.226] They asked me if I was an alcoholic.

[00:24:36.226 – 00:24:41.366] I said, “Absolutely not.” They asked me if I like what happened to me when I drank, and I hate it.

[00:24:41.366 – 00:24:44.226] I was scared to death.

[00:24:44.226 – 00:24:46.006] I was too young to be an alcoholic.

[00:24:46.006 – 00:24:48.346] I didn’t like what happened to me when I drank.

[00:24:48.346 – 00:24:51.526] I tried to stop drinking every time I drank.

[00:24:51.526 – 00:24:55.266] I tried to stop drinking the next day, and alcohol had a hold of me.

[00:24:55.266 – 00:25:00.486] And, uh, you guys loved me enough t-t-tolerated my…

[00:25:00.486 – 00:25:05.686] I don’t say I’m a bad guy, but we embellish about how bad we are, and we’re really not that bad.

[00:25:05.686 – 00:25:07.426] Alcohol’s the thing that kicks our butt.

[00:25:07.426 – 00:25:17.546] So 30 days after being in AA, I decided to tell my sponsor I was an alcoholic, and I waited till 10:30 that night ’cause the meeting got over

[00:25:17.546 – 00:25:21.046] at 10, 10 o’clock, and I was gonna– I should’ve told him at, at 8.

[00:25:21.046 – 00:25:26.986] And I had to wait all day the next day to tell him, and I’m gonna tell you, I didn’t wanna tell anybody I was an alcoholic.

[00:25:26.986 – 00:25:33.826] And then he s– I said, “Arthur, I’m an alcoholic.” He said, “Big deal.” “You know what big deal is?

[00:25:33.826 – 00:25:41.246] What do you wanna do about being an alcoholic?” I had a sponsor in my life for 47 years in AA, saw me do everything.

[00:25:41.246 – 00:25:44.566] I have my sponsor right there today who’s got 49 years.

[00:25:44.566 – 00:25:47.206] Sponsorship is the best thing in the world for me.

[00:25:47.206 – 00:25:50.746] I love Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:25:50.746 – 00:25:52.086] I love what it has given me.

[00:25:52.086 – 00:25:58.546] I’m free from most things, and it takes a long time to be free, I can tell you that.

[00:25:58.546 – 00:26:06.646] I do some stupid things, even sober 48 years in AA, I do, uh, but I take care of them real quick, you know?

[00:26:06.646 – 00:26:14.966] I don’t know what else, uh, to say other than, uh, uh, you guys have given me my life.

[00:26:14.966 – 00:26:25.286] I would have never been able to show up in AA and do the things that allow me to, uh,

[00:26:26.326 – 00:26:26.906] be free.

[00:26:26.906 – 00:26:29.306] I don’t have to win.

[00:26:29.306 – 00:26:30.425] I don’t have to play.

[00:26:30.425 – 00:26:34.326] I have to show up and, and do what you’ve asked me.

[00:26:34.326 – 00:26:40.726] I have to surrender to a God of my understanding, uh, to help me be the person that He wants me to be.

[00:26:40.726 – 00:26:44.185] I quit running the show ’cause it doesn’t work.

[00:26:44.185 – 00:26:47.426] If you’re new in AA, don’t drink.

[00:26:47.426 – 00:26:48.586] Get a sponsor.

[00:26:48.586 – 00:26:50.626] Join a group because you’re a loner.

[00:26:50.626 – 00:26:52.366] Don’t isolate.

[00:26:52.366 – 00:26:55.466] And if we can stay sober, you can.

[00:26:55.466 – 00:27:03.446] I’m an alcoholic.

[00:27:03.446 – 00:27:04.686] My name is Pete.

[00:27:04.686 – 00:27:06.536] Pete.

[00:27:06.536 – 00:27:16.306] I was, uh, born, uh, in 1942, and it took me to 19, uh, 71 to sober up.

[00:27:16.306 – 00:27:20.826] I sobered up in A-Akron, Ohio, with the East Akron group.

[00:27:20.826 – 00:27:25.346] And, uh, I didn’t think I was an alcoholic.

[00:27:25.346 – 00:27:27.346] My wife knew I was.

[00:27:27.346 – 00:27:30.966] And, uh, I– You know, I started going.

[00:27:30.966 – 00:27:40.966] At first meeting I went to, I thought, “Boy, I can’t wait for this to get over.” It was down in the basement of a, uh, uh, a Daughters of America, and I couldn’t wait to get out of there ’cause I, I had booze at

[00:27:40.966 – 00:27:42.526] home, and I was gonna go have a drink.

[00:27:42.526 – 00:27:44.726] And you know, I got out of there.

[00:27:44.726 – 00:27:50.426] I couldn’t wait to get out of there, and when I got home, I kept pacing back and forth and going to that car to get it.

[00:27:50.426 – 00:27:54.226] And I went to– I just gave up, and I went to bed.

[00:27:54.226 – 00:28:03.126] And when I pulled the covers over me, I realized I hadn’t drank for one day, and I hadn’t done that in a long, long time.

[00:28:03.126 – 00:28:12.146] And I said, “I’ll drink tomorrow.” And the guy that picked me up the first time, uh, I got home from work, and I was sick, and I was gonna drink after I had supper.

[00:28:12.146 – 00:28:15.146] And I looked out the window, and there that son of a bitch was.

[00:28:15.146 – 00:28:18.576] And, uh, we went to another meeting.

[00:28:18.576 – 00:28:20.136] He done that for 30 days.

[00:28:20.136 – 00:28:27.766] And, uh, then he pushed me on someone else, and I decided to, to, to join the East Akron group, and I did.

[00:28:27.766 – 00:28:33.376] And, uh, uh, you know, I d- I couldn’t fathom what they were doing.

[00:28:33.376 – 00:28:39.315] And, y- you know, they just took me, and, and they, they helped me and showed me how to stay sober.

[00:28:39.315 – 00:28:44.326] You know, they made me do things that I, I didn’t do, that I couldn’t do.

[00:28:44.326 – 00:28:45.766] They made me give.

[00:28:45.766 – 00:28:48.206] They made me do things I didn’t wanna do.

[00:28:48.206 – 00:28:50.866] And you know, God bless them, oh man.

[00:28:50.866 – 00:29:00.326] You know, I go back home every year, and I go to that same room, and I look, and I can see them.

[00:29:00.326 – 00:29:10.396] And I get all melancholy, and then I come in a room like this, and I see every one

[00:29:10.396 – 00:29:10.926] of them.

[00:29:10.926 – 00:29:15.066] In you people, I see every one of them.

[00:29:15.066 – 00:29:18.446] And you know, I’m, I’m the luckiest man in the world.

[00:29:18.446 – 00:29:23.486] God let me give this or not give it to them but show them the way.

[00:29:23.486 – 00:29:30.686] I have a daughter that’s sitting in this, in this room that has 10 years of sobriety.

[00:29:30.686 – 00:29:32.446] My son.

[00:29:32.446 – 00:29:42.496] And y- you know, that’s one of the greatest gifts beside what he’s ev– he’s given me, and, uh, a life

[00:29:42.496 – 00:29:45.306] I can’t, I can’t compare to none.

[00:29:45.306 – 00:29:49.086] I’ve met wonderful, wonderful people in this program.

[00:29:49.086 – 00:30:00.146] You know, so I, it, it– I say God bless the people in this room, God bless Al-Anon, and

[00:30:00.146 – 00:30:01.906] God bless AA.

[00:30:01.906 – 00:30:02.906] Thanks.

[00:30:02.906 – 00:30:09.766] I’m J.C.

[00:30:09.766 – 00:30:10.726] I’m an alcoholic.

[00:30:10.726 – 00:30:16.206] Um, my sobriety date is, uh, November 12th, 1970.

[00:30:16.206 – 00:30:22.606] And, um, I wanted to come to the old-timers meeting today to hear what they had to say.

[00:30:22.606 – 00:30:25.006] I didn’t know I was gonna be one, you know?

[00:30:25.006 – 00:30:28.630] You know, and that’s pretty much how my sobriety has worked.

[00:30:28.630 – 00:30:30.110] You, you show up, you know?

[00:30:30.110 – 00:30:36.070] I’m sitting over there, and I ask that guy in a blue shirt, “Hey, what’s going on?” He said, “Well, you have over 40 years of sobriety.

[00:30:36.070 – 00:30:39.850] You’re supposed to be up there.” “Oh, okay.” You know, and here I am.

[00:30:39.850 – 00:30:46.390] Um, I approached AA, uh, through a guy I worked with.

[00:30:46.390 – 00:30:54.970] I told him a little bit about my l-life, and he told me about AA, and he said he would take me to a meeting, and I decided to think it over.

[00:30:54.970 – 00:30:58.270] Uh, I thought it over for about four years.

[00:30:58.270 – 00:31:04.670] Uh, but when I– when the time came and the chips were down, I knew where to go, thank God.

[00:31:04.670 – 00:31:12.510] And, uh, I showed up, and I didn’t do anything right other than stay sober, which is the only right thing you can really do around here.

[00:31:12.510 – 00:31:20.350] Uh, when I was sober around two years, uh, I finally got a f-a sponsor, and I started to tell him a little bit about myself.

[00:31:20.350 – 00:31:22.920] And, uh, we got into this God business.

[00:31:22.920 – 00:31:25.330] And I said, “Uh, I don’t know about God.

[00:31:25.330 – 00:31:31.030] I, I feel like a hypocrite and a liar.” He said, “You’ve been a hypocrite and a liar all your life.

[00:31:31.030 – 00:31:32.550] What’s one more day,” you know?

[00:31:32.550 – 00:31:38.990] Uh, when I was sober about 16 or 17 years, I hit the wall.

[00:31:38.990 – 00:31:40.870] Um, my life shredded.

[00:31:40.870 – 00:31:49.350] Everything that I was going after fell apart, and I had to go back to AA and start reading the big book all over again.

[00:31:49.350 – 00:31:59.350] And, and, uh, I won’t drag this out, but what happened was, uh, I had to really rearrange what my priorities were in

[00:31:59.350 – 00:31:59.770] my life.

[00:31:59.770 – 00:32:03.570] And from there, my, my life changed completely.

[00:32:03.570 – 00:32:05.610] At 55, I went back to school.

[00:32:05.610 – 00:32:09.190] I got a master’s degree in psychology.

[00:32:09.190 – 00:32:11.490] Uh, I joined a concert band.

[00:32:11.490 – 00:32:17.050] I took up the clarinet and, um, uh, I looked adorable in my tuxedo.

[00:32:17.050 – 00:32:27.050] Um- I– Since then, I worked in the prison system for about 20 years, and, uh, I, you know, I’ve been able to,

[00:32:27.050 – 00:32:28.570] um…

[00:32:28.570 – 00:32:31.230] There’s not a whole lot they can tell me that we haven’t lived.

[00:32:31.230 – 00:32:35.070] And, uh, I’ve been very, very fortunate.

[00:32:35.070 – 00:32:38.390] I– My, my kids think the world of me.

[00:32:38.390 – 00:32:43.490] And, uh, I was with someone playing bingo the other night.

[00:32:43.490 – 00:32:44.910] It’s what we do in Florida, I guess.

[00:32:44.910 – 00:32:50.330] But- These two ladies, their father w-died an alcoholic.

[00:32:50.330 – 00:33:00.470] And, uh, I said, “How old, uh, was he when he died?” And they said, “He was in his 60s, and he didn’t die soon enough.” And I was thinking, without AA, my

[00:33:00.470 – 00:33:02.370] children would be saying that about me.

[00:33:02.370 – 00:33:10.590] You know, uh, uh, so, you know, here I am speaking, and I, uh, just came to listen.

[00:33:10.590 – 00:33:11.230] Thank you.

[00:33:11.230 – 00:33:20.070] You, uh, you said three minutes, huh?

[00:33:20.070 – 00:33:25.170] I, I, I’m an alcoholic.

[00:33:25.170 – 00:33:26.590] My name is Carl S.

[00:33:26.590 – 00:33:28.179] Carl.

[00:33:28.179 – 00:33:33.190] I, I got sober in the North Buffalo Group in Buffalo, New York.

[00:33:33.190 – 00:33:43.430] Moved down here and re– after teaching retirement to Port Charlotte, and more recently, I found a swell group, uh, the Monday

[00:33:43.430 – 00:33:44.610] night group in St.

[00:33:44.610 – 00:33:47.110] Pete’s, and boy, do they swing.

[00:33:47.110 – 00:33:57.380] I, I had the pleasure of being in the Marine Corps, drafted and

[00:33:57.380 – 00:34:00.990] stationed with an armored division in Korean conflict.

[00:34:00.990 – 00:34:11.030] Uh, now with those, those big guns and the heavy artillery, this kind of went, and this machine in here that the government gave

[00:34:11.030 – 00:34:13.910] me really doesn’t work too well.

[00:34:13.910 – 00:34:19.990] As a matter of fact, I can be speaking to someone, and I’ll say, “Oh.

[00:34:19.990 – 00:34:21.170] Oh, really?

[00:34:21.170 – 00:34:23.399] Oh, that’s nice,” you know?

[00:34:23.399 – 00:34:31.530] He could have been telling me, you know, that he lost his wife or his job, and I, I didn’t know the best of it.

[00:34:31.530 – 00:34:41.649] Joe T., my first sponsor, c-came in, uh, at Myrna Memorial Hospital alcoholic ward in April

[00:34:41.649 – 00:34:44.390] 25th, 1956.

[00:34:44.390 – 00:34:54.490] And by the grace of God, and you find people all over the Atlantic Seaboard, I’ve been blessed not to have

[00:34:54.490 – 00:34:55.830] a drink since then.

[00:34:55.830 – 00:35:03.610] I– When I joined the North Buffalo Group, they were old-timers, you know, 40 years and over.

[00:35:03.610 – 00:35:07.650] And when I was 27, I thought they were ancient.

[00:35:07.650 – 00:35:17.750] And I thought, “Well, this young whippersnapper, he’s too young to be an alchie.” But then after they heard me speak for the first

[00:35:17.750 – 00:35:27.890] time, they said, “You know, Carl, maybe you better stick around after all.” I landed in the right place thanks

[00:35:27.890 – 00:35:37.890] to Joe T., God rest his soul, and later Leo Machi from Boston, Sculley– uh, who– They both were refugees of

[00:35:37.890 – 00:35:39.730] Scollay Square in Boston.

[00:35:39.730 – 00:35:43.110] Believe me, they knew what booze was about.

[00:35:43.110 – 00:35:48.710] More importantly, they knew what it was not about, and they conveyed that to me.

[00:35:48.710 – 00:35:59.470] And by some miracle, ever since then, I guess it goes back to the mid-50s when they said, “A desire

[00:35:59.470 – 00:36:07.930] to stop drinking,” and then they inserted the word sincere desire, and I guess that hit me.

[00:36:07.930 – 00:36:14.770] And ever since then, I, I’ve never seriously contemplating using alcohol as an escape for anything.

[00:36:14.770 – 00:36:21.870] I’d just as soon jump off the Bay Bridge, you know, ’cause it would be tantamount to the same thing.

[00:36:22.965 – 00:36:23.585] When Joe D.

[00:36:23.585 – 00:36:34.645] saw my home in Cheektowaga, East Buffalo, and I took him into the woodshed, some of you may have heard this, and

[00:36:34.645 – 00:36:39.725] in those days, they had an old coal bin about eight foot square cube, you know.

[00:36:39.725 – 00:36:49.925] And when he looked at that, “My God, you know, what is that?” And he gazed upon

[00:36:49.925 – 00:36:51.925] a pile of– a stack of bottles.

[00:36:51.925 – 00:37:02.025] On the bottom, there were, you know, there were some whiskey bottles when things were a little better with me, and as the pile deepened,

[00:37:02.025 – 00:37:05.425] it was nothing but white glass, white glass.

[00:37:05.425 – 00:37:07.465] Sneaky Pete, they called it.

[00:37:07.465 – 00:37:08.885] Wine.

[00:37:08.885 – 00:37:11.605] Ninety-eight cents a jug.

[00:37:11.605 – 00:37:12.405] Oh, boy.

[00:37:12.405 – 00:37:15.445] And I was in never-never land for that night.

[00:37:15.445 – 00:37:16.925] Ninety-eight cents.

[00:37:16.925 – 00:37:20.665] Uh, I guess you know I’m an old-timer.

[00:37:20.665 – 00:37:31.085] He, he says, “J-Carl” Thank

[00:37:31.085 – 00:37:31.285] you.

[00:37:31.285 – 00:37:37.805] He looked at that, at that stack of bottles.

[00:37:37.805 – 00:37:45.645] He said, “Carl, if you’re not an alcoholic, you’ll do till one comes along.” That’s a good one.

[00:37:45.645 – 00:37:47.905] Good one.

[00:37:47.905 – 00:37:54.485] Thank you, honey.

[00:37:54.485 – 00:37:57.105] My name is Camila.

[00:37:57.105 – 00:37:58.725] I am a sober alcoholic.

[00:37:58.725 – 00:38:05.685] My, uh, anniversary date, the October the 23rd, 1970.

[00:38:05.685 – 00:38:10.605] So I’m gonna be close– pretty soon two years in the program.

[00:38:10.605 – 00:38:14.095] Uh, my home group is 2250 in St.

[00:38:14.095 – 00:38:14.825] Petersburg.

[00:38:14.825 – 00:38:25.005] I just first wanna say, uh, thank you for the committee because this is a beautiful, beautiful, uh,

[00:38:25.005 – 00:38:25.625] convention.

[00:38:25.625 – 00:38:29.525] Very spiritual, very good speakers, and I enjoy every moment of it.

[00:38:29.525 – 00:38:35.425] My sponsor told me before he passed on to stay green, and I get every word.

[00:38:35.425 – 00:38:37.405] Thank you.

[00:38:37.405 – 00:38:40.025] Thank you, all of you that work very hard in this committee.

[00:38:40.025 – 00:38:50.225] And, uh, when I came to Alcoholics Anonymous, um, you think I have an accent now.

[00:38:50.225 – 00:38:56.965] I wish you had hear me forty-two years ago.

[00:38:56.965 – 00:38:57.875] You know?

[00:38:57.875 – 00:39:01.695] I came in really late 1960.

[00:39:01.695 – 00:39:02.505] I just didn’t stay.

[00:39:02.505 – 00:39:03.325] I wasn’t ready.

[00:39:03.325 – 00:39:09.465] And I came back in 1970 with the rigorous honest desire to stop, to stop drinking.

[00:39:09.465 – 00:39:16.425] And only by the grace of God, I have been able to make this program.

[00:39:16.425 – 00:39:18.985] Only by the grace of God, I am sober.

[00:39:18.985 – 00:39:28.985] And, uh, I have to learn how to speak the language, how to read the book, because there was nothing in Spanish from St.

[00:39:28.985 – 00:39:31.685] Petersburg to Orlando.

[00:39:31.685 – 00:39:36.614] There was Spanish meetings in Miami, but I live in St.

[00:39:36.614 – 00:39:37.325] Petersburg.

[00:39:37.325 – 00:39:47.325] So I am very grateful that I was able to be open-minded, um, be teachable, like my sponsor told me, and I still hear

[00:39:47.325 – 00:39:51.245] him in my ears yet saying, “Stay green.

[00:39:51.245 – 00:39:59.445] Everything green, continue growing.” So thank you for my sobriety, Father, and thank you for my sobriety, all of you.

[00:39:59.445 – 00:40:08.005] My name is, uh, Dennis, and I’m a grateful alcoholic.

[00:40:08.005 – 00:40:18.045] And originally, I got sober in Chicopee, Mass, which was called Boys Town Group because like somebody just said, all them guys that dragged me around were all

[00:40:18.045 – 00:40:20.305] old, in their forties, thirties.

[00:40:20.305 – 00:40:27.244] And, uh, I came in here twenty-three years old after drinking from the age of twelve and a half to twenty-three.

[00:40:27.244 – 00:40:32.885] Twenty-three, I lost everything, including myself, and I didn’t have much to start with.

[00:40:32.885 – 00:40:37.465] Uh, I was– had the DTs and cirrhosis and Levi hanging out on here.

[00:40:37.465 – 00:40:47.485] And, uh, this, uh, priest come into the hospital and talked about a new way of life, and a doctor that had been pumping me out every once in

[00:40:47.485 – 00:40:49.045] a while talked about a new way of life.

[00:40:49.045 – 00:40:54.805] And these guys took me to my first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous in June of 1968.

[00:40:54.805 – 00:41:05.045] And the first speaker that I heard, that I only heard him say, was, “Alcoholics Anonymous doesn’t promise you a new shirt or tie, but it promise

[00:41:05.045 – 00:41:08.065] you a new way of life.” And it was the third time.

[00:41:08.065 – 00:41:12.025] And from that i– night on, I went to meetings every night of the week.

[00:41:12.025 – 00:41:22.425] And about a year and a half sober, I walked in my sponsor’s house and I says, “I’m getting married.” And yeah.

[00:41:22.425 – 00:41:30.545] And, uh, October seventh– October sixth of 1970, the bank and I had a new truck.

[00:41:30.545 – 00:41:31.665] Her and I had an apartment.

[00:41:31.665 – 00:41:33.065] She was working, I was working.

[00:41:33.065 – 00:41:38.735] And a little thing said on my– little guy said on my shoulder, he says, “You know, you’re got twenty-five years old.

[00:41:38.735 – 00:41:40.005] You got everything you never had.

[00:41:40.005 – 00:41:48.565] Why do you wanna go to all them meetings?” And I went out on a one-night stand that night, and I come back in about two hours later puking on the floor.

[00:41:48.565 – 00:41:55.945] And thank God my ex-wife had been to meetings and, and heard stories, and she ran to the phone and called Jimmy C.

[00:41:55.945 – 00:42:06.025] And Jimmy C co– uh, gr– says, “When he’s done cleaning up, put him on the phone.” And he put me on the– I got on the phone, and he says, “Die you little B

[00:42:06.025 – 00:42:13.705] because, uh, just don’t drink.” And, uh, the next morning, like somebody said, I get up at six thirty.

[00:42:13.705 – 00:42:14.805] I thought she was sleeping.

[00:42:14.805 – 00:42:20.005] I snuck out the door to the truck, and there he was with his crooked nose, his Irish face, and his pipe.

[00:42:20.005 – 00:42:22.765] “Where you going, kid?” Now, he knew where I was going.

[00:42:22.765 – 00:42:25.665] But, you know, one call was made to AA that day.

[00:42:25.665 – 00:42:34.653] Our group, and they had 12 people who gave of themselves for another three weeks around the clock to make sure Dennis wouldn’t drink again.

[00:42:34.653 – 00:42:44.733] And yet a call was made to my ex-wife telling her to come home at 5:00, be home– he’ll be home a little after 1:00 after the bars close, and you stay up and make sure he don’t leave.

[00:42:44.733 – 00:42:52.153] And you know, again, and from that day to this day, I haven’t had a drug or a substitute– I mean, a drink or a substitute.

[00:42:52.153 – 00:42:55.033] And, uh, I never did drugs except in a hospital.

[00:42:55.033 – 00:42:56.673] I was very fortunate.

[00:42:56.673 – 00:42:59.653] Uh, you know, life goes on.

[00:42:59.653 – 00:43:01.653] We had a little girl in ’74.

[00:43:01.653 – 00:43:05.493] Uh, ’79, I had all the answers.

[00:43:05.493 – 00:43:07.733] I’d see you on the street, I’d walk across the street.

[00:43:07.733 – 00:43:12.113] And, uh, you know, I got back active, and I’ve been sober since.

[00:43:12.113 – 00:43:13.413] And I wanna thank everybody here.

[00:43:13.413 – 00:43:13.813] Thank you.

[00:43:13.813 – 00:43:22.033] My name is Nick, and I’m an alcoholic.

[00:43:22.033 – 00:43:23.143] Hey, Nick.

[00:43:23.143 – 00:43:28.033] And by God’s grace, my sobriety date is February 4th, 1967.

[00:43:28.033 – 00:43:35.253] I attended my– I’m gonna say that God works in mysterious ways, and I’ll tell you why.

[00:43:35.253 – 00:43:43.493] I attended my first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1947 with my father in a little town called Fairfield, Vermont.

[00:43:43.493 – 00:43:50.853] They had a windup Victrola, and they used to, uh, play records from New York, and they would discuss them.

[00:43:50.853 – 00:43:54.353] The whole family at that time went to Alcoholics Anonymous.

[00:43:54.353 – 00:43:59.793] We thought we were there for my father, but my father hung himself in a church when I was 13.

[00:43:59.793 – 00:44:02.833] Um, we were really there for me.

[00:44:02.833 – 00:44:09.473] Um, just didn’t know it because in 1967 I was gonna need a place to go.

[00:44:09.473 – 00:44:13.993] I took my first drink in Rouses Point, New York.

[00:44:13.993 – 00:44:18.333] Well, you could drink in New York if you could see over the bar in those days.

[00:44:18.333 – 00:44:21.153] It was Four Roses.

[00:44:21.153 – 00:44:22.553] I mixed it with Pepsi-Cola.

[00:44:22.553 – 00:44:25.193] I had a blackout.

[00:44:25.193 – 00:44:28.993] I had a fight, a little trouble with the police.

[00:44:28.993 – 00:44:31.833] It was previews of coming attractions.

[00:44:31.833 – 00:44:41.233] ‘Cause my future was going to hold many blackouts and trouble with the police, and I never won a fight.

[00:44:41.233 – 00:44:50.933] Um, I came to Alcoholics Anonymous in 1967 in, uh, Danvers, Massachusetts.

[00:44:50.933 – 00:44:53.993] I heard somebody say Scollay Square.

[00:44:53.993 – 00:44:58.133] I’ve been to meetings in Scollay Square, and none– there is no Scollay Square anymore.

[00:44:58.133 – 00:45:07.393] Um, and that’s the reason I come to all these old-timers meetings is ’cause the only place that I can go that I know if they have a race, I can win.

[00:45:07.393 – 00:45:12.743] I look around at all these guys, you know?

[00:45:12.743 – 00:45:22.953] It says in Alcoholics Anonymous that God could and would if He were sought.

[00:45:22.953 – 00:45:26.233] What Nick does is he looks for God.

[00:45:26.233 – 00:45:31.033] I don’t know that I’ve ever found Him, but I don’t have to find Him.

[00:45:31.033 – 00:45:36.093] What I have to do is I have to look for Him, and I see God right here in this meeting.

[00:45:36.093 – 00:45:38.483] I can find God in everything.

[00:45:38.483 – 00:45:45.323] Whether it’s something that I really like or something that really don’t, if I look hard enough, I can find God.

[00:45:45.323 – 00:45:55.373] My wife and I were trying to sell our house, and I get– I tell you one little story about this, and I was– I don’t want this lady to come up– She’s not big enough to take this microphone

[00:45:55.373 – 00:45:56.933] away from me, so I don’t wanna have to come up here.

[00:45:56.933 – 00:46:04.313] But my wife and I were trying to sell a house in Apalachicola, Florida.

[00:46:04.313 – 00:46:06.073] And we couldn’t sell this house.

[00:46:06.073 – 00:46:11.312] We– No matter what we did, no matter how, how far we lower, lowered the price or anything else, we could not sell this house.

[00:46:11.312 – 00:46:21.353] And I said, “God, you need to help me sell this house.” And, and what God did was is he got Missy’s mama sick, or M- or Missy’s mama got sick, and we had to come

[00:46:21.353 – 00:46:22.153] back down to Florida.

[00:46:22.153 – 00:46:23.533] We were up in Vermont at the time.

[00:46:23.533 – 00:46:28.253] We had to come back down to Florida, and we had to spend the winter in Florida.

[00:46:28.253 – 00:46:31.033] And I’m not gonna spend the winter in Florida without a football game.

[00:46:31.033 – 00:46:40.833] And so I went out and bought a big television set to go with the only piece of furniture I had, which was a recliner, and I stuck that big, that big fifty-six inch TV in the end of the room.

[00:46:40.833 – 00:46:50.873] And, um, anyway, after a period of time, it was time to go back to Vermont, and I’m too damn lazy to pack the TV, so I put a cover over

[00:46:50.873 – 00:46:51.813] it and left.

[00:46:51.813 – 00:46:55.493] And some weeks later, get a phone call.

[00:46:55.493 – 00:46:57.993] Somebody had broken into the house and stolen my TV.

[00:46:57.993 – 00:47:03.193] And I said, “Darn, they stole my TV.” Called the insurance company.

[00:47:03.193 – 00:47:07.853] I got a twenty-five hundred dollar deductible, so they’re gonna send me four hundred dollars.

[00:47:07.853 – 00:47:13.513] In the meantime, my wife had fired the real estate agent because he was letting some guy on a bicycle come and look at the house.

[00:47:13.513 – 00:47:17.973] I think God sent him too.

[00:47:17.973 – 00:47:23.313] Anyway, we fired the real estate, so now I don’t have to pay a commission.

[00:47:23.313 – 00:47:29.273] The cop comes to investigate the break-in, ends up buying the house.

[00:47:29.273 – 00:47:39.653] And I know there’s a lot of people around here having a problem selling a house, so I’m gonna tell you a secret.

[00:47:39.653 – 00:47:42.833] If you wanna sell a house, buy a TV.

[00:47:42.833 – 00:47:51.233] We got people up here that say they don’t wanna speak.

[00:47:51.233 – 00:47:53.373] When I come to Alcoholics– She’s coming after me.

[00:47:53.373 – 00:47:59.193] When I come to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, I always wanna speak.

[00:47:59.193 – 00:48:05.273] If you’re new in the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, go to one meeting today.

[00:48:05.273 – 00:48:11.433] Go to a meeting, get a sponsor, ask for help, believe you’re gonna get it, and look for God.

[00:48:11.433 – 00:48:12.013] You’ll find Him.

[00:48:12.013 – 00:48:12.773] Thank you.

[00:48:12.773 – 00:48:16.473] Thank you.

[00:48:16.473 – 00:48:20.653] Hi.

[00:48:20.653 – 00:48:22.633] You’ve stolen there my time already.

[00:48:22.633 – 00:48:29.593] But anyhow, my name is Pauline Brown, and I’m a very grateful alcoholic.

[00:48:29.593 – 00:48:37.097] My, uh, sobriety date is- Um, same day as my birthday because I was working in a winery.

[00:48:37.097 – 00:48:45.217] Only job I could get with a college education was hauling manure for a minery and– winery, and I’m all right.

[00:48:45.217 – 00:48:47.357] I’m just a little upset about all this.

[00:48:47.357 – 00:48:57.597] Anyhow, um, I was– I planned a big birthday party because my boss and, and my ex, uh, boyfriend had,

[00:48:57.597 – 00:49:04.137] um, always had a big birthday party and invited a hundred people, and they gave him lots of presents.

[00:49:04.137 – 00:49:14.537] So my birthday was coming up, and I thought, “I’ll have a birthday party.” But he had kicked me out of his, of the job as his wife sorta, and, um,

[00:49:14.537 – 00:49:20.957] so I sent out a hundred invitations and nobody came because he told everybody, “Don’t come.

[00:49:20.957 – 00:49:25.797] She doesn’t work there anymore.” And, um, so that was a good excuse to get drunk.

[00:49:25.797 – 00:49:32.637] So I had changed from beer to champagne, working for a winery, and, uh, pink champagne.

[00:49:32.637 – 00:49:33.097] I got…

[00:49:33.097 – 00:49:43.277] I, my date, anniversary date is June twenty-sixth, nineteen sixty-one, and I became ninety-four on that date,

[00:49:43.277 – 00:49:51.877] and I started my last drunk, and I wound up in a mental hospital, tried to commit suicide s- well, not once, but twice.

[00:49:51.877 – 00:49:54.077] I do everything, you know, lots of numbers.

[00:49:54.077 – 00:49:58.357] I’ve had seven husbands, uh, five- …

[00:49:58.357 – 00:49:59.937] five bankruptcies.

[00:49:59.937 – 00:50:02.317] I’ve been in every business in the world.

[00:50:02.317 – 00:50:03.377] I’ve done everything.

[00:50:03.377 – 00:50:04.057] You’ve done it.

[00:50:04.057 – 00:50:04.757] I’ve done it.

[00:50:04.757 – 00:50:05.137] You’ve…

[00:50:05.137 – 00:50:07.497] But I’ve stayed sober.

[00:50:07.497 – 00:50:09.497] That’s the only thing I’ve been successful at.

[00:50:09.497 – 00:50:11.497] But I wanna tell you about my…

[00:50:11.497 – 00:50:19.737] In, in the minute I have left, I wanna tell you about my stay in the mental hospital and, and what happened there.

[00:50:19.737 – 00:50:20.657] I, I was…

[00:50:20.657 – 00:50:23.597] The alcohol took my brain, took it completely.

[00:50:23.597 – 00:50:25.577] I was totally insane.

[00:50:25.577 – 00:50:32.437] They, they told my mother there was no hope for me, that I would never get out of the hospital ’cause I was brain dead.

[00:50:32.437 – 00:50:37.357] And, um, she believed them, of course, so she gave all my stuff away.

[00:50:37.357 – 00:50:46.597] And, uh- So anyhow, um, the, the psychiatrist, God bless her, she saved my life.

[00:50:46.597 – 00:50:50.957] She said, “You gotta go to an AA meeting.” And I says, “I’m not going.

[00:50:50.957 – 00:50:56.357] I’m not an alcoholic.” This is after six months there, where I’d had shock treatments and everything.

[00:50:56.357 – 00:51:06.427] And so she said, “You’re going to an AA meeting.” I said, “I’m not an alcoholic.” And she says, “Well, your record shows you plainly are, so you’re going to an AA meeting.” I says, “I am

[00:51:06.427 – 00:51:13.617] not!” So she put me in a wheelchair, put tape over my mouth ’cause I was very noisy- …

[00:51:13.617 – 00:51:17.647] and had an attendant in a straightjacket too.

[00:51:17.647 – 00:51:18.697] I had that in my arms.

[00:51:18.697 – 00:51:23.197] And, and I was wheeled into that AA meeting.

[00:51:23.197 – 00:51:24.877] And you…

[00:51:24.877 – 00:51:27.197] I had no choice.

[00:51:27.197 – 00:51:29.377] And you know what?

[00:51:29.377 – 00:51:31.137] I haven’t had a drink since.

[00:51:31.137 – 00:51:39.547] Get ’em.

[00:51:39.547 – 00:51:39.657] Get ’em.

[00:51:39.657 – 00:51:44.277] Hold this for a minute.

[00:51:44.277 – 00:51:49.017] It takes two hands.

[00:51:49.017 – 00:51:49.047] Sure.

[00:51:49.047 – 00:51:49.677] I’m Betty.

[00:51:49.677 – 00:51:51.157] I’m an alcoholic.

[00:51:51.157 – 00:51:51.387] Hi, Betty.

[00:51:51.387 – 00:51:53.277] Getting up is half the fun.

[00:51:53.277 – 00:52:03.437] I came to Alco-Alcoholics Anonymous in nineteen sixty-three on April twenty-fifth, and I have not had

[00:52:03.437 – 00:52:04.557] a drink since.

[00:52:04.557 – 00:52:14.597] However, about six months, I don’t know, maybe it was eight, two friends of mine, Janet

[00:52:14.597 – 00:52:18.037] and Ben, were concerned about my drinking.

[00:52:18.037 – 00:52:20.117] And Janet had gone to AA.

[00:52:20.117 – 00:52:24.137] She met this old dude, Ben, and she married him.

[00:52:24.137 – 00:52:27.617] And, uh, they said, “Come on with us.

[00:52:27.617 – 00:52:35.597] We’re going to a meeting this Sunday afternoon.” And, uh, it was in Flushing, and we went to that meeting.

[00:52:35.597 – 00:52:42.557] And I got very nervous when I get– and I start– The, the shaking would overcome me, you know.

[00:52:42.557 – 00:52:48.677] And this woman came up to me, and she handed me a handful of literature.

[00:52:48.677 – 00:52:51.657] She said, “Baby, you keep coming back.

[00:52:51.657 – 00:52:57.456] Baby, come back.” It was Liz Bailey who handed me that literature.

[00:52:57.456 – 00:53:07.557] And I went home, and I thought, “They were very nice there, and I’m gonna read this.” And I ha– I mixed a drink and sat down

[00:53:07.557 – 00:53:09.477] to read the literature, you know.

[00:53:09.477 – 00:53:19.217] So it took me about another six months to join AA in, uh, Northport Huntington area in Long Island.

[00:53:19.217 – 00:53:23.237] I have been very, very fortunate in my sobriety.

[00:53:23.237 – 00:53:33.497] Fast-forward, uh, I had the opportunity of working at the general service office in New York City for nineteen to twenty

[00:53:33.497 – 00:53:33.977] years.

[00:53:33.977 – 00:53:44.037] And it was– I had the opportunity to travel all over the United States and Canada, excuse me, and, uh,

[00:53:44.037 – 00:53:47.317] attend things like this and speak at them.

[00:53:47.317 – 00:53:57.597] And in the, the, that job, you were the person carrying the message of what the General Service Board was doing

[00:53:57.597 – 00:54:03.467] and the conference was doing and how AA as a whole was growing and coming together.

[00:54:03.467 – 00:54:05.757] And that was perfectly marvelous.

[00:54:05.757 – 00:54:09.677] I’ve also made some terrible mistakes in AA.

[00:54:09.677 – 00:54:13.957] I fell madly in love, and his wife didn’t like it at all.

[00:54:13.957 – 00:54:24.497] And, um, and I laugh about that today, but let me tell you, it was not so funny then for anybody

[00:54:24.497 – 00:54:25.257] concerned.

[00:54:25.257 – 00:54:33.567] And, but, and my point in telling you all of this is to say that no matter what happens to you in sobriety, if you-

[00:54:33.960 – 00:54:37.040] Don’t drink and go to meetings, you’re gonna be all right.

[00:54:37.040 – 00:54:41.080] And in the last year, my brother died.

[00:54:41.080 – 00:54:46.820] We had one conversation before he died, uh, about death.

[00:54:46.820 – 00:54:57.000] And he said, “Are you afraid?” I said, “No, I’m not.” A- he said, “Why?” I said, “Because I think I’ve done what God wanted me to do here.

[00:54:57.000 – 00:55:07.200] It’s done now, and I’m not afraid to go.” And he said to me, “Wow, Betty, that must be a marvelous feeling.” He died

[00:55:07.200 – 00:55:09.680] a few months later, and it’s been hard.

[00:55:09.680 – 00:55:19.400] But I know that every, every night, and they do come, I’m living in a, um, a retirement home.

[00:55:19.400 – 00:55:20.860] I call it the home.

[00:55:20.860 – 00:55:28.100] And there are lots of people who can’t get out of chairs and can’t hear the bell ringing and all that.

[00:55:28.100 – 00:55:31.960] Lots– I’m in very good company.

[00:55:31.960 – 00:55:42.020] But, uh, you know, I, I, I would sit there and say, “How the hell did I end up in a place like this?” Or I can go to a meeting and say, “Aren’t

[00:55:42.020 – 00:55:52.040] I lucky to be this well in a really fine place like this?” And that’s what we have to offer everyth- single one

[00:55:52.040 – 00:55:52.360] of you.

[00:55:52.360 – 00:55:53.280] Thank you very much.

[00:55:53.280 – 00:56:03.480] That’s what happens

[00:56:03.480 – 00:56:04.300] when you get old.

[00:56:04.300 – 00:56:07.200] Have an old woman helping me get up.

[00:56:07.200 – 00:56:17.219] Well, I, I don’t– I’m Tom

[00:56:17.220 – 00:56:18.500] Ivester, an alcoholic.

[00:56:18.500 – 00:56:19.919] An alcoholic.

[00:56:19.919 – 00:56:23.420] I walked into my first meeting February 2nd, 1957.

[00:56:23.420 – 00:56:25.720] Had no earthly idea what AA was.

[00:56:25.720 – 00:56:28.020] Knew I didn’t want it, but I’ve been here ever since.

[00:56:28.020 – 00:56:31.020] And and a life beyond imagination.

[00:56:31.020 – 00:56:32.000] The, uh…

[00:56:32.000 – 00:56:42.560] When I came in, I was twenty-four years old, which is not remarkably young now, but at that time I was the youngest member in every meeting I attended

[00:56:42.560 – 00:56:44.080] for a bunch of years.

[00:56:44.080 – 00:56:48.780] I got so doggone tired of just people patting me on the back and telling me how lucky.

[00:56:48.780 – 00:56:53.000] I didn’t feel lucky at all to be in a old folks home when I’m twent- twenty-four.

[00:56:53.000 – 00:57:02.840] And, uh, the, uh– I started the first young people’s group in North Carolina, and, uh, but I’ve never been a member of it.

[00:57:02.840 – 00:57:04.040] I wasn’t a member of the group then.

[00:57:04.040 – 00:57:05.880] I just started it ’cause I thought we needed one.

[00:57:05.880 – 00:57:08.520] I’m not a specialty group guy.

[00:57:08.520 – 00:57:09.740] I’m a mainstream guy.

[00:57:09.740 – 00:57:11.880] I’m a home group type of guy.

[00:57:11.880 – 00:57:16.920] And so that– I’ve gone from the y- the youngest member in my state.

[00:57:16.920 – 00:57:20.120] I’m now the oldest member in my state.

[00:57:20.120 – 00:57:28.300] And, uh, there’s one lady that’s a, a senior too, she’s in a nursing home, not able to be active, but if she was, she’d be pushing me around.

[00:57:28.300 – 00:57:31.830] So if you stay here long enough, the wheel turns.

[00:57:31.830 – 00:57:36.500] And I’m delighted to be here with a, a bunch of older members.

[00:57:36.500 – 00:57:46.880] ‘Cause one of the things that I fret about is, uh, I, I travel a great deal and, and the, um– almost always, I’m the oldest rat in the barn.

[00:57:46.880 – 00:57:48.840] Except when Liz is there.

[00:57:48.840 – 00:57:50.880] The …

[00:57:50.880 – 00:57:53.540] But I’m usually the oldest rat in the barn.

[00:57:53.540 – 00:57:56.840] And a lot of times I wonder, where the heck are my buddies?

[00:57:56.840 – 00:57:59.160] And unfortunately, many of them are gone.

[00:57:59.160 – 00:58:02.500] Many of them just retire or just g- go away.

[00:58:02.500 – 00:58:09.180] And, uh, so I’m just very, very grateful to have had such a marvelous, marvelous life, and it’s just starting.

[00:58:09.180 – 00:58:10.280] I’m r- getting ready to go.

[00:58:10.280 – 00:58:13.000] Thanks, Tom.

[00:58:13.000 – 00:58:20.220] Uh, good afternoon.

[00:58:20.220 – 00:58:21.580] Uh, my name’s, uh, Paul.

[00:58:21.580 – 00:58:23.789] I’m an alcoholic, and I’m, uh- An alcoholic.

[00:58:23.789 – 00:58:24.780] -grateful to be here.

[00:58:24.780 – 00:58:29.580] I’m a member of, uh, the Back Porch Lunch Bunch in, uh, Largo, Florida.

[00:58:29.580 – 00:58:35.320] And, uh, my sobriety date is, uh, February 23rd, 1963.

[00:58:35.320 – 00:58:45.700] And, uh, I’m forever grateful to, uh, Alcoholics Anonymous and, uh, the grace of God, which I, I owe my sobriety, and the people that were here

[00:58:45.700 – 00:58:49.720] when I got here that loved me until I learned how to love myself.

[00:58:49.720 – 00:58:55.360] And, uh, love is one good part about program, and it’s very contagious.

[00:58:55.360 – 00:59:01.400] And the first ones that catch it is your family, and I’m very fortunate in that respect.

[00:59:01.400 – 00:59:06.440] I got five grown children and seven grandchildren that, uh, that love me.

[00:59:06.440 – 00:59:11.120] And I’m having a great journey, and I hope everybody else is too.

[00:59:11.120 – 00:59:21.209] And, uh, last time I celebrated my anniversary, uh, after the– at the end of the meeting, some guy I never seen before come up to me and he says,

[00:59:21.209 – 00:59:26.920] uh, “How old were you when you got here, fifty?” So, um, you know, I just shook it off.

[00:59:26.920 – 00:59:36.440] I told him, “Hey, thank you very much.” But, uh, the reason I mention that is, you know, don’t take yourself serious, you know?

[00:59:36.440 – 00:59:39.700] S- uh, serious is a lot of sobriety and everything.

[00:59:39.700 – 00:59:43.600] Years go by, weeks go by, but it’s all about one day.

[00:59:43.600 – 00:59:45.660] To me, it’s all about today.

[00:59:45.660 – 00:59:48.100] You know, I’m staying sober today.

[00:59:48.100 – 00:59:51.740] When tomorrow becomes today, I’ll stay sober today.

[00:59:51.740 – 00:59:53.040] That’s what they taught me here.

[00:59:53.040 – 00:59:54.740] Don’t drink a day at a time.

[00:59:54.740 – 01:00:04.800] And, uh, not to be repetitious, but, uh, you know, to stay sober, which was mentioned before, you don’t drink, you go to meetings, you ask for help, you get

[01:00:04.800 – 01:00:08.440] a sponsor, you join a group, and you get active with your group.

[01:00:08.440 – 01:00:10.640] So, uh, thank you very much.

[01:00:10.640 – 01:00:16.660] I’m Simone, and I’m an alcoholic.

[01:00:16.660 – 01:00:17.510] An alcoholic.

[01:00:17.510 – 01:00:21.860] And my sobriety date is April the 25th, 1967.

[01:00:21.860 – 01:00:23.279] I got sober in California.

[01:00:23.279 – 01:00:26.240] And 40 seems to be a number for me.

[01:00:26.240 – 01:00:32.960] Uh, I used to go to a young people’s meeting in Laguna Beach when I first got sober on Friday night.

[01:00:32.960 – 01:00:34.760] And Chuck Chamberlain lived there.

[01:00:34.760 – 01:00:42.300] And the format of that young people’s meeting was you could come to our meeting, but if you were over 40, you couldn’t share.

[01:00:42.300 – 01:00:44.732] Just the opposite is here.

[01:00:44.732 – 01:00:54.772] And, um, I didn’t know who Chuck Chamberlain was at the time, but if he was ha-wasn’t speaking all over the world, he would come to that young people’s meeting.

[01:00:54.772 – 01:00:56.272] And of course, we wouldn’t let him share.

[01:00:56.272 – 01:01:02.752] But he would take the 12 of us to his house after the meeting, and we weren’t able to share.

[01:01:02.752 – 01:01:04.572] He would talk and talk and talk.

[01:01:04.572 – 01:01:08.492] But it was good ’cause I was a bar drinker, and it was a place to go on Friday night.

[01:01:08.492 – 01:01:18.692] Um, my home group here in Florida is, uh, the Friends of the Pelican on, uh, Anna Maria Island in Bradenton or off of Bradenton.

[01:01:18.692 – 01:01:24.532] I, uh, have served you as a delegate from Alaska.

[01:01:24.532 – 01:01:26.872] I spent 30 years in Alaska.

[01:01:26.872 – 01:01:35.032] After I was 10 years sober, I moved there and, uh, met my husband that I have today, this cute young man over here.

[01:01:35.032 – 01:01:38.232] And we’ve been sober for twen-28 years.

[01:01:38.232 – 01:01:49.262] Uh, you know that I did not– I wanted the fellowship to be recovery, and I– after five years of going to meetings, I

[01:01:49.262 – 01:01:51.672] was put in a mental institution.

[01:01:51.672 – 01:01:52.872] Untreated alcoholism.

[01:01:52.872 – 01:01:59.192] And I know today that the recovery from alcoholism is the 12 steps.

[01:01:59.192 – 01:02:09.262] My sponsor has always told me, “Simone, if you’re not taking somebody new through the steps, you’re, you’re not sharing this.” She says,

[01:02:09.262 – 01:02:19.312] “People that get some time, they have sponsees, but their sponsees are sober 20, 30 years.” She says, “You’re– you will grow and continue to change by taking

[01:02:19.312 – 01:02:23.872] a new person through the steps.” And that has been the best thing for me.

[01:02:23.872 – 01:02:25.692] We moved here about five years ago.

[01:02:25.692 – 01:02:31.752] And in Alaska, there’s 3,000 members in AA through the whole state.

[01:02:31.752 – 01:02:33.212] Through the whole state.

[01:02:33.212 – 01:02:41.592] Being delegate, I got to travel the whole state and go to a lot of the Eskimo villages and stuff, but, you know, it’s hard to find that sponsee.

[01:02:41.592 – 01:02:44.812] And if you have a sponsee, you want them to sponsor.

[01:02:44.812 – 01:02:54.852] So out here, when we moved here, there’s lots and lots of, of, uh, service out here, and I’ve learned that I am an– I wanna be an active

[01:02:54.852 – 01:02:56.052] member of AA.

[01:02:56.052 – 01:03:05.012] Uh, when I was two years sober– no, two years without drinking, untreated alcoholism, they forgot to put my name on the cake.

[01:03:05.012 – 01:03:13.572] And I called this woman up, still didn’t have a sponsor, hadn’t read any books, had married one already, and an-another one on the way.

[01:03:13.572 – 01:03:23.712] And, uh, this woman said– I said, “How could they not for- how could they forget my name after I’ve washed all your cup- coffee cups and all your ashtrays?”

[01:03:23.772 – 01:03:27.312] And she said, “I doubt that you’re gonna stay sober for three years, Simone.

[01:03:27.312 – 01:03:36.132] But if you do, take the cake to that meeting and tell them thank you for putting up with you.” So I’ve been doing that for the last 42 years.

[01:03:36.132 – 01:03:36.612] Thanks.

[01:03:36.612 – 01:03:44.852] I’m an alcoholic.

[01:03:44.852 – 01:03:47.292] I’m Kiki McLaughlin.

[01:03:47.292 – 01:03:50.232] I’m really grateful to be sober.

[01:03:50.232 – 01:03:54.412] I’d like to thank the committee, all the wonderful speakers, everybody here today.

[01:03:54.412 – 01:03:58.992] But most of all, I want to thank my God.

[01:03:58.992 – 01:04:03.792] I should be dead.

[01:04:03.792 – 01:04:14.152] I want to thank AA, and I want to thank my husband that stayed with me through the worst of times and is still with me today in the best of times.

[01:04:14.152 – 01:04:16.372] Sixty years next year.

[01:04:16.372 – 01:04:20.492] You know, I knew about AA in my twenties, and I wasn’t that bad.

[01:04:20.492 – 01:04:26.252] I came into my thirties, I was getting worse, but still didn’t think I needed to stay.

[01:04:26.252 – 01:04:32.372] But finally, again, through the grace of God, came in in my forties.

[01:04:32.372 – 01:04:35.372] I came in full of hatred.

[01:04:35.372 – 01:04:37.692] When I say a loving God, this is the miracle.

[01:04:37.692 – 01:04:38.732] I hated God.

[01:04:38.732 – 01:04:40.312] I hated my mother.

[01:04:40.312 – 01:04:42.072] I hated AA.

[01:04:42.072 – 01:04:44.772] I hated my darling husband at that time.

[01:04:44.772 – 01:04:46.452] He wouldn’t let me drink the way I wanted to.

[01:04:46.452 – 01:04:48.292] But most of all, I hated me.

[01:04:48.292 – 01:04:51.712] I had tried to kill myself two, three times.

[01:04:51.712 – 01:04:56.392] The shame, uh, that I felt and the self-disgust and the remorse.

[01:04:56.392 – 01:05:01.232] I’d become a liar, a thief, a cheat, an unfit mother, and I betrayed my husband.

[01:05:01.232 – 01:05:10.932] I really didn’t want to live anymore, but I had three kids, and I saw their faces, and a couple of them, uh, just– they couldn’t look at me.

[01:05:10.932 – 01:05:17.652] And I was going to either kill myself or make an effort and go back into AA and give it my really best shot.

[01:05:17.652 – 01:05:19.772] And I did.

[01:05:19.772 – 01:05:26.732] I went back, and God put a loving sponsor who taught me how to love myself.

[01:05:26.732 – 01:05:29.012] She told me I was worth saving.

[01:05:29.012 – 01:05:33.332] She told me one day I’d be useful to carry the message.

[01:05:33.332 – 01:05:37.472] And I really tried to do that, and I owe AA for the rest of my life.

[01:05:37.472 – 01:05:40.152] I love that license plate, I owe Bill W.

[01:05:40.152 – 01:05:41.272] I’ve seen it.

[01:05:41.272 – 01:05:49.612] They got it before I did, but, uh, when it’s missing on the missing list, when maybe they’re too old and they’ve gone to the big AA in the sky, I’ll get one.

[01:05:49.612 – 01:05:55.392] But however, I do owe AA, I owe God, and I owe my husband.

[01:05:55.392 – 01:06:00.632] And that means not to be a doormat, but I need to make amends the rest of my life and to my children.

[01:06:00.632 – 01:06:04.352] The best of times have happened to me in my recovery and the worst of times.

[01:06:04.352 – 01:06:08.812] We lost a child, but she told me I never had to drink again, and I didn’t drink.

[01:06:08.812 – 01:06:09.832] I divorced.

[01:06:09.832 – 01:06:13.652] My middle son and his wife, uh, all hell broke loose.

[01:06:13.652 – 01:06:23.812] Little granddaughter of four said, “Nana, why are doing this– why are they doing this to me?” And the most awful things, uh, you know, with the kids and illnesses and sicknesses, but I didn’t

[01:06:23.812 – 01:06:24.092] drink.

[01:06:24.092 – 01:06:27.092] I cried a lot, but I didn’t drink, and I went to a lot of meetings.

[01:06:27.092 – 01:06:33.652] I’m still a meeting maker, and I’ve started meet-meetings, and I c-take a message to the local jail.

[01:06:33.652 – 01:06:41.152] I have done for about seventeen years, and it’s funny, when I go up the stairs, I was a younger woman in those days, and I feel– but I still get up them.

[01:06:41.152 – 01:06:42.652] I refuse to take the elevator.

[01:06:42.652 – 01:06:43.712] I plod up the stairs.

[01:06:43.712 – 01:06:49.452] And, uh, but my love of this program, my love of God, this is the miracle.

[01:06:49.452 – 01:06:53.672] I’m a lover today, a lover, and that’s a m- a bleeding miracle.

[01:06:53.672 – 01:06:54.212] Thank you.

[01:06:54.212 – 01:07:03.844] The motor’s still running.

[01:07:03.844 – 01:07:09.544] I’d like to say good afternoon to each and every one.

[01:07:09.544 – 01:07:16.463] I wanna take this opportunity to thank every one of you sitting up here.

[01:07:16.463 – 01:07:19.464] You were h- I was here when you got here.

[01:07:19.464 – 01:07:21.064] Think about it.

[01:07:21.064 – 01:07:26.284] I came in July the 11th, 1952.

[01:07:26.284 – 01:07:28.744] I haven’t been anywhere since.

[01:07:28.744 – 01:07:37.764] And I have been privileged to do very nice things in AA.

[01:07:37.764 – 01:07:46.304] I was raised very well in AA, but I must tell you, I’m one of the most grateful alcoholics you ever laid your eyes on.

[01:07:46.304 – 01:07:49.844] It just means that I’m allergic to alcohol.

[01:07:49.844 – 01:07:58.824] I have been dis-at-ease with myself, and I used to start off speaking by the little old lady sitting down in front of me.

[01:07:58.824 – 01:08:08.944] I said, “If you drink alcohol, you’re doomed to die,” and she said, “Amen.” I said, “If you smoke those cigarettes, you’re doomed to die,” and the little old lady

[01:08:08.944 – 01:08:13.984] would say, “Amen.” “Now, if you chew tobacco…” She said, “Look at that.

[01:08:13.984 – 01:08:24.044] He done stopped preaching and gone to meddling.” So I would go to meddling, and that’s how I would hit most all of you, by going

[01:08:24.044 – 01:08:30.564] and telling about how I used to be like, what I was like, how I got to AA.

[01:08:30.564 – 01:08:40.564] And my God, July 15th– August 15th, now, I will make 91 years old, and I’ve been here.

[01:08:40.564 – 01:08:45.324] 60 years.

[01:08:45.324 – 01:08:53.224] I just celebrated July 15, ’cause I had– can’t celebrate i- in the rooms anymore.

[01:08:53.224 – 01:08:56.644] The roo– this room wouldn’t hold the people that come to my anniversary.

[01:08:56.644 – 01:08:59.644] I’ve been on the beach now, Jones’s Beach.

[01:08:59.644 – 01:09:02.164] I’m a member of Jones Sunrise Beach.

[01:09:02.164 – 01:09:07.904] I’ve been there for 20 years this year, on the beach celebrating every July.

[01:09:07.904 – 01:09:13.324] God knows, without you, there would be no me.

[01:09:13.324 – 01:09:17.904] I never could stay sober on my own before AA.

[01:09:17.904 – 01:09:20.484] I tried it many, many times.

[01:09:20.484 – 01:09:23.684] I was always full of guilt and remorse.

[01:09:23.684 – 01:09:24.664] Why?

[01:09:24.664 – 01:09:29.204] Because I’ve done it again, and I didn’t wanna do it again.

[01:09:29.204 – 01:09:35.924] And I wanted to be in the 50% bracket of staying sober, and that’s where I stayed.

[01:09:35.924 – 01:09:38.224] 25 couldn’t make it.

[01:09:38.224 – 01:09:40.184] 25 dabbled.

[01:09:40.184 – 01:09:42.424] But I stayed in the 50%.

[01:09:42.424 – 01:09:44.203] Hang out with the winners.

[01:09:44.203 – 01:09:46.064] Don’t deal with deadheads, please.

[01:09:46.064 – 01:09:47.524] Don’t deal with them.

[01:09:47.524 – 01:09:49.684] They’ll pull you down before you know it.

[01:09:49.684 – 01:09:52.524] And deal with people that are going and doing.

[01:09:52.524 – 01:09:55.404] That’s why I hang out with Dennis, young man.

[01:09:55.404 – 01:09:58.284] I got me another one, uh, Brandon, the rest of the…

[01:09:58.284 – 01:10:01.284] A guy told me, “Boy, you done switched your men already.” Yeah, I did.

[01:10:01.284 – 01:10:03.404] I switched to Brandon a few minutes ago.

[01:10:03.404 – 01:10:06.204] Yeah, I hang out with them young dudes.

[01:10:06.204 – 01:10:07.744] They keep me moving, baby.

[01:10:07.744 – 01:10:10.604] I ain’t got no time for no re-recliner.

[01:10:10.604 – 01:10:13.044] I don’t– I was afraid to buy a recliner.

[01:10:13.044 – 01:10:14.824] I was afraid I’d get stuck in it.

[01:10:14.824 – 01:10:15.784] I’m not stuck in it.

[01:10:15.784 – 01:10:16.974] Mm-mm.

[01:10:16.974 – 01:10:19.284] I get a telephone call.

[01:10:19.284 – 01:10:20.864] One might cancel me.

[01:10:20.864 – 01:10:23.344] Why, as soon as I’m canceled, another one books in.

[01:10:23.344 – 01:10:25.284] And thank God for AA.

[01:10:25.284 – 01:10:26.544] Is that my bell?

[01:10:26.544 – 01:10:29.204] Huh?

[01:10:29.204 – 01:10:30.524] No.

[01:10:30.524 – 01:10:34.984] You know, so come in here, like I said this morning, to live.

[01:10:34.984 – 01:10:36.844] This is all about living.

[01:10:36.844 – 01:10:38.804] Alive again, AA.

[01:10:38.804 – 01:10:40.724] Alive again.

[01:10:40.724 – 01:10:43.764] And it’s only done one day at a time.

[01:10:43.764 – 01:10:47.784] I’m quite sure you can stay sober one moment at a time.

[01:10:47.784 – 01:10:50.124] And now I live in the moment.

[01:10:50.124 – 01:10:57.264] ‘Cause I just said to Kiki, “Sometime I feel that my days are numbered.” I just came out of a hospital.

[01:10:57.264 – 01:10:58.544] I’m gonna close with this.

[01:10:58.544 – 01:11:01.203] I made two hospitals this year.

[01:11:01.203 – 01:11:11.644] And, um, I had ma-made three states in a month, and I overdid it, changing the food and going, hopping the planes.

[01:11:11.644 – 01:11:14.664] Hopping the planes are not as easy as it used to be.

[01:11:14.664 – 01:11:17.784] You’ve gotta go through a process that’s a process.

[01:11:17.784 – 01:11:21.604] But I don’t mind giving that $5 and getting the wheelchair, baby.

[01:11:21.604 – 01:11:23.884] Let them wheel me all over the place.

[01:11:23.884 – 01:11:27.504] And they don’t wanna let me go, ’cause I give them $5.

[01:11:27.504 – 01:11:29.904] And they wanna hold onto me.

[01:11:29.904 – 01:11:34.024] I said, “No, drop me and go make money.” I send them to go make money.

[01:11:34.024 – 01:11:40.704] And so what happens is that I keep going, and I wanna keep going as long as my God lets me go.

[01:11:40.704 – 01:11:46.084] But I thought I had died this year, and I was down in a tunnel.

[01:11:46.084 – 01:11:50.464] And I come up, and woke up and looked around my hospital room.

[01:11:50.464 – 01:12:00.694] I said, “Oh, I’m not dead.” I said, “My God, God, you got more work for me to do.” And I looked at my daughter sitting there, and I said, “Aisha,”

[01:12:00.694 – 01:12:02.444] ’cause I do have a AA baby.

[01:12:02.444 – 01:12:07.904] I named her after AA, Adrienne Anita, ’cause without AA, that chick woulda never been around.

[01:12:07.904 – 01:12:08.524] You know that.

[01:12:08.524 – 01:12:09.894] See?

[01:12:09.894 – 01:12:11.844] But she is a God’s gift to me.

[01:12:11.844 – 01:12:13.164] God’s gift.

[01:12:13.164 – 01:12:19.964] I only have two children left, 72 and 56, and like I said before, 24 grandchildren.

[01:12:19.964 – 01:12:22.544] I don’t babysit, don’t plan to.

[01:12:22.544 – 01:12:25.764] I s- I see them by appointment only.

[01:12:25.764 – 01:12:27.744] I tell you.

[01:12:27.744 – 01:12:31.044] Thank you so much.

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