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Source: 1970 Miami International Convention – 1970 Miami Int Clarence S. chairing Panel members over 25 Yrs Part 2 of 2.mp3 File: 1970-miami-international-convention-1970-miami-int-clarence-s-chairing-panel-members-over-25-yrs-part-2-of-2.mp3 Duration: 00:55:32
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I want to introduce a chap now. I want you all to meet this fellow. He's set some kind of records there. I think he has been the secretary of his group for over 20 years, and he's probably the oldest secretary in the business. And I remember he tried to get out of that job a couple of times, and the group sort of grown to seed when he'd do it, so they'd have to get him back in again. I happen to be this chap's sponsor. I understand further that Edna, his wife, attends all meetings with him, and he is always on the job working. This chap has the same enthusiasm for AA today as he did 30 years ago.
Edna, stand up a minute, will you? I only refer to her as a jelly queen. She makes the best jelly in the world. She used to feed it to me. I stayed in her house for some time. I lived with them for some time. Charlie Sanders, get up here and give us a word. Hi, you all. I'm Charlie Sanders from Cleveland, Ohio. Here's my sponsor. But isn't it wonderful to get up in the morning, be sober, look up in the sky, and say to yourself, oh, what a beautiful morning? And how often we get up with that terrible hangover, you grab your head, and you say to yourself, my God, is it morning again?
When you look around at this panel of wonderful people here, to me it's a reaction in its finest hour. We should be deeply grateful for the men, women that preceded us, and given this God-given program, to me it's the most greatest motivating force of goodwill in the world today. I've always felt if we could have the philosophy of A.A. 50 years ago, we wouldn't have had these terrible wars, this Cold War we're going through. We wouldn't have these crippling strikes. We wouldn't have that chaotic condition that we have today, dog-eat-dog, so much greed.
But the philosophy we have in A.A., if that was generated around the world, wouldn't it be a wonderful place to live? I came into A.A. at the age of 54, and thank God, and for the help of this fellowship, it's been a rich and rewarding experience to me and my wife. I heard Doug and Laverne say it was their 29th wedding anniversary. The other gentlemen had 50. Last month, my wife and I, we celebrated our 56th anniversary.
And if a young fellow like me can make it, why can't you old ducks out there make it? You know, we come in here with the same problem, but we all meet on the same level. And folks, whatever you do, never lose your enthusiasm or spirit in life. When you lose that, we die. Your home, your family, everything around you is gone. And the two worst enemies that an alcoholic has is self-pity and resentment.
So hang on to something that's rich and good, and I know that you'll be richly rewarded. When I came into A.A., I liked what I saw. I came to believe, and I found my God. And I came to say, Lord willing, I hope I can be around until the good Lord calls me to the great meeting above. And in closing, I'd like to tell you a little story how an alcoholic's mind works. Well, this drunk went out to the racetrack, and he had $300 in his pocket, and he lost all but $50.
So sitting up in the grandstand, he looked down at the starting gate, and here he sees a Catholic priest standing beside horse number four, and the drunk thought he was picking out a winner. So he goes up to the teller's window, and he says, put the whole $50 on horse number four, and it is going to win.
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So the starting gate opens, you know, the horses went off, and a hundred feet away, number four horse dropped dead. So this made the drunk furious. He went up to the priest. He grabbed him by the lapel of the coat. He says, Father, he said, you're the cause of me losing all my money because I saw you pick out a winner. And the priest said, I didn't pick out a winner. I give his last rites and sacraments. In the irony of this story is, it happened to be a Chinese horse. He had TB, and his name was Wenlong Zhang. Good luck. God bless you.
Oh, Charlie, you fractured me. Well, I'll tell you, if I'm 84 years old and tell a story like that, you've got to take it too. Now we'll hear from Tom from Jacksonville. We heard from him once before tonight. Let's hear from him again. Well, you've been very charitable to me. You've listened already once, so I won't keep you long. You know, I'm kind of getting resentful now. I was the top dog down here in Florida. I'd been so long in any of them, and these damn interlopers like Clarence Snyder and Ted Stekman and the rest of them moving down here, and I'm about ten down on the list now.
And I'll bet you that about 90% of this panel is going to be down here in a couple more years, and I'll be way down. But in the, frankly, 30 years that I've been in, AA has been awfully good to me. And it's so good that I'm grateful for you people out there tonight, because that keeps me interested, and I'm just about as interested in this organization, this fellowship now as the day I came in. I attend meetings regularly, and I work with drunks, and I hope I continue that, and it's because of people like you that I do.
You know, I think all of us up here, we have to think about one thing. I didn't have any choice when I came into Alcoholics Anonymous. It was offered to me, and I had to take it. Tonight, I've got a few pennies in my pocket, and I've got a couple of credit cards, which are so valuable today, and I could go out and do some things. It probably wouldn't last very long, but I could get started, and I couldn't do that then.
So to keep my sobriety, which AA has given me, I have to stay interested today just as much, if not more, than the day I came in, and you are the people that make that possible. Thank you very much. Next, we will hear from Burr S., New York State. My name's Burr Smith from Chappaqua, New York, and I'm an alcoholic. Hi. I came into AA in September of 1940, I think it was, and a series of very fortunate events took place. The first one was that I finally got sobered up just after Thanksgiving.
And while this may sound like gratitude night in the AA movement or the convention, I have been grateful and thankful for the date on which I got sober. I've never bothered to go back and see what date it was, because in those days we had two Thanksgiving days. One was to accelerate or lengthen the shopping season before Christmas that Mr. Roosevelt gave us in those days, and I don't know which day it was.
But I have been thankful ever since for so many things. First, what AA taught me about living, about examining myself, and the help I got in eliminating a few of the character defects. I've still got a lot left, fortunately.
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I'm an accountant, and somewhere along the line I got snared into doing the accounting work for the General Service. For this I am very thankful. It kept me in contact with AA people a great deal. And I have always thought that one of our secrets here is the constant admission to ourselves that we are alcoholic, and I think this is one of the devices of going to meetings, one of the purposes of going to meetings and being with AA people.
I am likewise thankful for many other things that have happened to me along the way, and I am most thankful of all that this is the first convention of all the international conventions that have been held, that I can see the convention from the other side of the cashier's rack. I've always had to work before. So I thank you all very much. Please stand up and take a bow. I'm going to call on Don here. Don came in over 30 years ago, and Jimmy was working in one of our hospitals. He was nursing, and he came in as an unsuspecting patient, and she put him in restraint and wouldn't let him out until he married her.
So now I give you Don, the willing victim. Well, thank you, Clarence. I don't think it's quite 30 years, but it's sneaking up on it next September. My name is Don Schilling. I'm from Cleveland, Ohio, as you've been told, and also a little bit of some of my marital troubles here. And I have a lot of fun in AA, and I affiliate closely with it, with my friends in AA, and most of our associations, our social life, is centered around AA people because they're my kind of people. They understand me, and I understand them.
I don't have too long to talk, so I'm just going to give a couple of things that have helped me. I had a very wise sponsor, and he told me a few things which helped me. They're as true today as they were then, and I think they're very important. Through a combination of circumstances, I found myself, through excessive drinking, in a position where I was about to lose everything I had. It was going pretty fast.
Fortunately, I didn't quite get there, but I knew what jails looked like from the inside, and I was in very poor health from drinking, and everything was going down the chute, and I knew it. That was the important thing, and I tried desperately to do something about it. I spent quite a bit of money in various ways, which were then considered as offering some hope to the alcoholic, and they all turned out negatively, as they always do.
I heard of AA, and I embraced it when the opportunity was presented. My enthusiasm for AA has never changed. My desire to maintain my sobriety has never changed. My sobriety has never changed, and I was told by my sponsor, you will meet people in
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AA who have gone down a lot further than you have, you will meet people who haven't drank as much as you have, whatever you do, don't compare your problem with theirs, you know what ails you, you know how serious your problem is, we have the answer, you do the things that we teach you to do and we'll guarantee you sobriety, but that's all we'll guarantee you. Okay, that was important to me and I've never lost sight of it, I have never tried to compare what happened to me with what happened to the other fellow, I know how serious my own problem was, AA was my answer, it is more important to me today to maintain my sobriety and my enthusiasm for the movement than it was when I came in, when I came in I was nothing, I suppose there weren't more than two or three people in the world that cared whether I lived or died, I don't know whether there are very many more than that now as far as that's concerned but at least I've regained my self-respect, I can look any man in the eye and through the grace of God and the fellowship of all you wonderful people I hope this long continues, thank you.
Next we'll hear from Hart S. Philadelphia. My name is Hart and I'm an alcoholic, hi everybody, I came into AA, I think you may call me Jack Alexander baby, I came in shortly after the article of Jack Alexander into the old clubhouse in New York that year, I haven't had a drink since so you can see that I cannot qualify, I was 53 at the time, I cannot fully qualify for 40 and under twice over, but 29 years added to 53 comes out fairly respectable. I destroyed a big job, one of the first things I did with my drinking and I didn't take morning like we all do not take a morning because I lost jobs after that and so through sheer circumstances the Jack Alexander article was sent to my house by a friend of the family and several things happened which just landed me at the old meeting promising to come to a meeting and there are two things about that that sort of stays in my memory, the kindness of Ruth Hock, the old secretary at the time, she wrote me a special little note, the other thing that impressed me they were all laughing and I got to thinking about it afterwards what a great thing that is to be able to laugh at yourself, I'm deeply grateful that my life turned out the way it did because that's about the way it could turn out and it has been a wonderful life since due to AA and I'm grateful beyond words. I wish you all good luck and best of all thank you very much for listening.
Another old friend of mine is up here on the platform, I know he's not going to say very much it's unusual for him not to say very much but he hasn't been very well so I don't think he will take his whole time but this chap I heard an awful lot of when he first came into the fellowship in Cleveland, he was an avid worker, he still is, he's living out in San Mateo, Dewey Spies. My name is Dewey Spies and the G of my name is anonymous.
Today I got a stutter and I can't talk but I wait with God to talk today for this meeting and for every people thank you very much. My name is Ken Sperry, hi everybody. I'm one of those very fortunate people,
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AA was given to me without me doing one single thing to deserve it. Why the good father so fit to give me back a life that I've spent some 17 years trying to destroy I'll never know. Certainly it wasn't based on my past record but a kind understanding God did give me another chance and I took it and to him I am most grateful. I've been a very fortunate person, I've been able to attend every anniversary that we have had in AA. I'd like to go back to memory lane on each one of them but that would take too much time. You've heard Cleveland mention quite a bit here tonight. I didn't get my AA in Cleveland, I came in Kansas City but I have a warm spot in my heart for Cleveland. Back in 1945 they put on the 10th anniversary of AA.
It wasn't an international conference but it was the first anniversary that had ever been given in AA. They went all out. I had just a little less than four years of sobriety at the time. In the last 17 to 20 years I hadn't been able to go anywhere unless I was drunk and here I am up there and I just had a ball. They didn't have the organization they had today but it was small. Everybody stayed at the Carter Hotel. There was Bill and Lewis and Dr. Bob and Ann.
They visited around and hobnobbed with everybody. Cleveland went all out to take us to their various meetings that they had on Saturday night. Then on Sunday we had Bill and Dr. Bob talk down at the music hall. We had a banquet on Sunday night and there's memories there that I'll never forget. Then in 1950 of course was the first international conference and the 15th anniversary of AA. That's where Dr. Bob made his last talk. His famous words, don't loss it up. I couldn't quote him exactly but what he meant was don't loss it up with a lot of facts and figures. It's a simple program, simple in understanding and simple in practice. All you have to do is read it and it's right there. It's in very simple language. Dr. Bob was brought up in an ambulance for that and taken back. He was a very old man. He didn't talk very long but what he did say meant an awful lot. Then in St. Louis in 1955 we had the 20th anniversary when all of the 12 steps, 12 sedations, the grapevine, etc. was given to the groups to take care of. And to many of you probably didn't know him but the old-timers all knew Father Dowling. He was a Catholic priest, not an alcoholic, yet he started the group in St. Louis. He had one member of his parish that couldn't stay sober. He talked to Bill about it when he was in New York and come back and the two of them started the group there. He made his last appearance there. And all of those who made the trip out to Long Beach for number 25 will always remember that. What a grand time they had out in the football stadium that night when Bill and all the rest of them were talking. It got cold about there, warm in the daytime and cold at night. But it was great and the sister, I can never remember her name, always took Dr. Bob, told Dr. Bob he ought to work on himself, but it was all grand. And then Toronto last year and here we are down in the land of sunshine and oranges and flowers and what have you, bigger and better than ever. And memories are really great for me all the way through. AA has been good to me. It has given me more peace, more happiness, more of the good things in life than I've ever had before. And all of this I owe to him up above who makes all things possible. Next chap I want to introduce is a chap who is the second editor of our grapevine and I want to give you Alice. My name is Alice Deckman and I'm an alcoholic. And when I first heard about this thing, I wonder what you could possibly say in three minutes, particularly when you're an alcoholic. And then I remember we've got one of those very colorful original type chaps in our group up in West Palm Beach who has the perfect thing to say under these circumstances.
Russ M. is his name and he opens his AA talk by saying, When I was nine years old, my grandmother gave me a drink of homemade elderberry wine and I went right home and asked my mother if I could
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go live with grandma. That about describes how I began my alcoholic career and I can simply say thirty years later I joined AA. I've been sober now going on twenty-seven years and like the great man who I came in when I was eleven years old, after twenty-three years of drinking, and things have worked out very well. I was fascinated by Doug's description of that spinal tap bit. If mine had been tapped, it would have been pure two-hundred proof alcohol. In fact, I recall the first medical report we got after I got into AA that was encouraging. Maybe it was three to six months and the family doctor finally told me that some blood was getting into my alcohol stream. But as Clarence almost told you, I at one time lived in Cleveland and really, although I came into New York, came by way of Cleveland. Because any of you who know the neighborhoods in Cleveland, my mother lived on Crawford Road and when she got the word from my wife that things were in pretty bad shape in New York, she went up the street behind Balle Stein's Funeral Parlor where some strange things were going on in the barn in the back. And none of the boys from Huff Alvin, where we used to be found lying in the gutter and in the doorways, were doing that anymore.
They were all going back in this barn and there was all kinds of conjecture in the neighborhood about what was going on back there. They figured they went back there and held some kind of an orgy or something. But whatever it was, it was a decided civic improvement because none of these guys were getting drunk in public anymore. So my mother went up and knocked on the door and wanted to know what it was that went on in the barn. They invited her in and she told them all about me.
And when she finished, they said, well, he sounds like he'll do. And they gave her a book and a phone number and sent her on to New York where she joined forces with my wife, all without my knowledge. And they called the phone number and they used the name. My mother said, could she speak to Bill Wilson, please? When my mother goes after her, she doesn't fool around. She goes right to the top. But Bill was busy that day and they found somebody else, a guy who used to play guard on one of Newt Brockley's Notre Dame football teams. And he came to fetch me. And Dan, my sponsor, is lying in a hospital in New York tonight with a very severe heart attack. And just to add a note of seriousness to this, I would like to sort of hitch him on to these prayers that we've been saying for those who've gone before and for Bill. Because this is a very special person in my life. There's a relationship that has existed from that first moment until now. There's nothing maudlin about it. It isn't sloppy. It's for real. It's a relationship that is different than a brother and brother relationship. It's the kind, I think, that you can only form in A, between two people who have so much in common that it goes down to your toes. So to add my note of gratitude to what's been said here tonight and what's been felt here tonight, I'd like to say publicly again, thanks to Clarence's Dunn's Men's Group and Ballstein Funeral Parlor and my sponsor, Dan Cunningham, in New York. Thank you very much.
You know, I wish we had a lot of time. I'd like to tell you the stories about that funeral home bit. I could keep you entertained from now until next Wednesday. But all went on up there. That was something. Next we have another chap who got started in Cleveland, but he's moved on to Pompano Beach. He's had a big hand in helping get this convention going here. Let us hear a word from Freddie. That's my grandfather. You see, back in those early days, whenever our sponsor took care of us, we took his sponsor and adopted him as our grandfather. And Clarence was my sponsor's sponsor. So I would call him up, or I would see him somewhere, and I'd say,
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Hi, Grandpa. And he'd look at me and he'd say, What's your language? Because it was only the fact that a young fellow like I would call him Grandpa. But it's brought back so many memories here tonight, with all these old-timers speaking. And I think we old-timers should always be appreciated. But, you know, we couldn't survive without you newcomers. I think that you're the lifeline of AA. We may be able to guide and to help you, but it's certainly your efforts that are making something like this possible. I can remember in those early days, in 1941, when I first heard Bill Wilson.
Of course, I feel I was very fortunate in coming in. They talked about Feilstein's Garage, which I was a member of that group that was Doan Men's later, or earlier, then we moved up to Doan's. But all of those things are such precious memories to me, though they don't mean anything to you folks. But something like this does. These international conventions, these yearly conventions that we have. And I think many of us came to see and to hear Bill as I did in that first convention that we had down in Cleveland in 1941. And I absolutely fell in love with Bill Wilson.
I still feel that same way about him. To me, he can do no wrong. And I do hope that each and every one of us, when we go out there tonight, say as prevalent a prayer as we possibly can for his recovery. Complete recovery. You know, we had another old-timer in Cleveland who has since passed on, a fellow named Howard Dunov. Many of you probably knew. And he had one of the most appealing starts for a meeting.
Because he got up in a place like this, and he looked his audience over, and he just shouted at the top of his voice, it is not only wonderful to be sober, and he meant it. And I think we appreciate it tonight. Thank you. Next, we'll hear from Joe T. from Virginia. Where is he? He must have got lost. Well, it saves three minutes. I want to introduce you to a friend of mine I met in New York many years ago, and we had a great time up there together. This fellow has a sense of humor that beats anything I've ever found in New York. Gene, give us a few words.
My name is Gene Berati, and I'm an alcoholic. That's a nice, clean response. When I first walked up on the platform here, I thought I was in an undertaker's convention. I belong to a minority group. My name ends in an I. They talk about the first hundred in AA. We've got a couple more to go, and we'll have a hundred of us, and then we're going to take over. When I first came into AA, I heard one of the fellows mention about having a credit card. My credit had reached the point where I could borrow the price of a pack of cigarettes with free co-makers.
That was about as far down as I'd gotten in the financial department, and I'd gotten as equally far down in every other department of my life. I condescended to the beginning to grace these various assemblages with my August presence, and needless to say, you know what the answer was.
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After a few months, I decided, having learned that it was a disease, I, the great Gene Berati, would not have any problem knowing how to drink in moderation and not aggravate this illness. And I tried it. It was a glass of beer at lunch, and then it was two, and then it was five, and then it was ten beers, and the hell with the belly wash, give me the jug, and I was off to the races again. I came in in 44. I've been sober since 45, and they beat me down real bad.
One of the things they said to me, they said, you know, think of AA as a 3-H club, honesty, humility, and helpfulness. Well, I didn't have any trouble with the humility part, as you see, I'm the epitome of modesty. As far as the honesty part goes, I was an expert. I had spent some 25 years as a used car dealer. But I did learn one thing. I was the kind of an SOB that wouldn't go from here to there to help another individual unless I could turn it to my advantage.
But I did learn how to want to help someone. And these three years, anything that I may have said or done that helped someone and passed along a little bit of what I got out of this great fellowship, it is the most rewarding thing to me. I hope I have been able to do it. You know, there were those that knew me at that time, and they said many things about me and called me many things, and they were right. They see me now, and they say they detect a slight improvement.
I learned a great deal from one of the early ones in AA, and I can use his name because he's since passed away. And he was also from Cleveland. In fact, I went out to Cleveland with Bill Fowler, and that's where I first met Clarence. And Bill was a great guy, and he taught me something about humility. Because Bill would say, you know, I don't like these fancy introductions, and I don't like them to sprinkle me with perfume or bathe me in buttermilk. He said, because when I start taking bows, I'm in trouble.
Because before I sobered up, every time I took a bow, I'd bow right into the spittoon. And I'm that same kind of one, so I have to be very careful about it. But it doesn't help much. I don't know whether I'm making any sense, but let me say this. I am so everlastingly grateful for all of the good things that have happened to me in AA. I'm grateful to all of you people. I'm grateful to Almighty God, and I am grateful to my dear wife, who is not here, who stayed with me when she had no reason to.
And I just hope that if any of you would have any doubts remaining, remember this about AA. This is the court of last resort. This is where the action is. And if you are an alcoholic as I am, there is no other place to go. That's why I'm so glad I'm here. Thank you very much. I'd like to introduce a chap who was responsible for starting the Tampa organization of AA, Roy Urgen. Is Roy here? Oh, there he is. He also dances.
Hi, I'm Roy Urgen, alcoholic. I first came in Texas, Houston. Whenever I'm at a thing like this, I go back and think of a lot of things, and I'm glad to see I've got a half hour left. And, of course, you've got to do a lot of reminiscing. But I was privileged to be at the start of AA in several areas. And whenever we go to a thing like this, these conferences, I've often had people say to me, you know, gee, it sure must have been tough when you came in.
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You know, that's not so at all. We didn't have a lot of the handicaps that you have today. It was much easier for us. I didn't have any money. I didn't have anybody to pick me up and brush me off. I didn't have anybody to hospitalize me. I didn't have anybody to do anything for me materially. And when I came to Alcoholics Anonymous, they didn't do anything for me materially. They said, this is not an employment agency. We won't get your wife back. We got one thing and that's all. We teach you how to live without drinking. You couldn't even get on relief in those days.
We had a lot of things working for us. And, you know, I guess we're not too different than what Clarence refers as the earth people. And we have a tendency to do what nations and people do. And that is to go back, you know. We forget what it was that straightened us out. And in AA, most of us that have been around a while have gone through these various phases. After we get a little bit sober, you know, we kind of get acquainted with the old man upstairs. So this thing must be spiritual. So we start preaching. And we're going to give them God. Not the way we got it. We're going to preach to them.
And then we become acquainted with a few terms the psychiatrists use. Of course, the psychiatrist never got us sober. But that's the way we're going to help somebody else. But I always come back and realize how I got sober. The simple program of Alcoholics Anonymous. Nothing else. And this is a tough thing. It's kind of like writing a short letter, making a short talk. There's been some pretty terrific short talks in less time than we're allotted here. The Gettysburg Address took less than three minutes. And that was a pretty good piece. I always say that I can tell you all I know in three minutes. But I can take an hour and a half to do it, too. But I don't tell you any more.
But this is the thing that I'm concerned about. Let us not forget how we got it and what it was that got us sober. It's learning about a God that we can understand and the practice of these principles in our lives. And this is Alcoholics Anonymous, and I hope that we never forget it and get so involved that we think the material things that have become so prevalent in Alcoholics Anonymous get to playing too big a part.
It's still one drunk working with another. And I'm always amazed when somebody says that they've worked the program and you learn that they've never carried the message anywhere. To me, this is part of the program. This is the real satisfaction in Alcoholics Anonymous. So to you new people, look out for these things. I don't know, I doubt very much if I could have gotten sober, and I know that this is why I say that, what the hell is that red light?
But I am grateful. But I am grateful for all that I've gotten from this, which, of course, means my very life. Thank you, and God bless you.
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Well, it means we've got to hurry up. Uh, from Oregon, Jack T. Where are you? Well, that was a quick trip. Another fellow, here's another piano player. Make it short, Clancy, this fellow also came in in Cleveland. Where is he? Okay. My name is Clancy. Hi, everybody. Hi, Clancy. And I am an alcoholic. You know, uh, I thought maybe if I get to be like my father here, bald-headed, at least I'll have some hair on my mouth, on my lip.
So I'm preparing for that day when I get bald-headed. He is my father. You don't hear him denied, do you? Anyway, he's the guy that told me that I wouldn't make the program in 1941. And it took me all these years to come out and have guts enough to come out and tell him something about it. He and Jim Brannan, both of them, they were two of a kind. Poor old Jim, he's gone now, though. He was a wonderful guy.
I sure learned a hell of a lot from him. And old Frank Klein, hence. You know, if it hadn't been for, especially, yes, and also Dr. Bob, that senator again, he sure done me some good. I went all the way to Akron to be examined by him. There was no damn thing wrong with me except, he says, of my head. And I believe that's true to this day. Most of my problems are mental. They're not physical, they're mental.
But it's a wonderful thing to know that you are sober. And to know that today is the day that you're going to be just exactly what you want to be. And I want to be sober, and I'm staying sober. And I also had the courage to get up here and get this off of my chest, these resentments. Now maybe I'll be better off tomorrow. Okay. Well, thanks, Fancy. That fella can really rattle a piano, I want to tell you that.
Now we'll hear from Cliff W. from Whittier, California. My name's Cliff Walker, and I'm an alcoholic. You know, one thing AA has taught me is to believe in miracles. And I think I witnessed one tonight. You know, Roy Yergin and I were talking about, well, they're going alphabetically, and 25 people would probably get on about 4 o'clock if we were awake. And here you got about 40, I guess, and I think it's wonderful.
Congratulations, you left me just at least a minute or two, thanks. You know, an old doctor once told me, he said, Cliff, if you want to find a long, useful, and satisfying way of life, he says, develop a chronic sickness and take care of it. So in 1939, I followed this doctor's advice, and I became a chronic alcoholic and was given less than a year to live. However, my lovely Al-Anon Dorothy somehow found AA for me in early 1940.
And after one more terrifying and savage but convincing binge when I almost died, I finally sobered up for good about mid-40. I figure that I have been sober without a drink, I mean, of any kind, or the use of pills or addictive drugs for 10,950 consecutive days at a time. And I say that without any feeling of something personally achieved. I say at first to tell anybody here that's new or fairly new that this program works for all time or long time if you really want to quit.
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I also say it out of the deepest gratitude to Bill and to Dr. Bob and Jim B. and all the old-timers who had enough courage and cared enough about me to take the risk of printing a book of experience, of opening up an office where my wife's letter could reach. And they cared enough about me to take all these risks so I could have the same chance that they had of proving this good doctor right, that I could not only learn how to stay sober, but I could be reasonably happy and live to good purpose under any and all conditions.
For that, I am deeply grateful. Thank you. Thank you. Well, we're running right down the wire here. We have a couple more. Ed W. of Medina, Minnesota. Thank you. I am an alcoholic. I have changed my talk about three, four times here. It's getting late now, you know. And what I was going to say, I don't think I will. But there is one thing I'm going to say right now. There's been mention of anniversaries.
And my wife, Hazel, might stand up. This is our 50th wedding anniversary. We're selling it entirely. Thank you. I came into Alcoholics Anonymous December 1941. And I was the last gasper in Minneapolis. I got into a last gasper group. It was a good group for me. I was a belligerent guy. And these people are rigid on the program, the 12 steps. The working mechanics of them. And I didn't like it at the time, but it was the thing I needed.
I was pretty rebellious. And as the years went by, it has been very good for me. I had to learn the 12 steps. I had to live them. And as time went by, later years, I wrote the Little Red Book. Later, stools and bottles. And I've had about three years of sickness and surgery and what have you. What does an alcoholic do when he gets full of self-pity in three years? He probably goes out and gets drunk.
But I said, well, I better start counting my blessings and carrying the message. So I wrote another book. And that is only three or four months old. I devilish alcoholic personalities. It's a little monkey that stands on your shoulder, whispers in your ear, tell you don't get in that AA group. They're a bunch of bums. When you get in there, don't take step one. There is nothing wrong with you. And all this.
All 12 steps all the way through. And so I'll close this with a stat. The 12 steps were up in most of my mind during my waking hours. So I was one day out of six months I was in AA and went out to a scrap yard where I sold some cutting equipment. And the poaching agent was out. So I had the waiters in the summer and I stayed and went outside. It was a big pile of steel, big scrap, little pile there.
And there was a crane and there was a magnet on it. And I was watching this magnet. You've all seen them. It goes down. It hits this thing. They put the curb on it and they pull it up and it goes over into the car. And then later this car is going to be taken to the foundry and remolded into new castings. So I've been very much inspired with AA. And I had a spiritual inspiration in the scrap yard. Now AA can do this.
They did it to me that day. And as I watched that thing, they finally emptied all the pile. And they had it all in the car. But there were some pieces left. Just a few. And I got curious. The poaching agent wasn't back. So I went over and I took a look at them. They weren't steel at all. It was copper and bronze, non-ferrous metal that was immune to magnetic power. Well, in my mood that I was in all the time in those days, I thought of AA.
And I thought of the spiritual magnet, God, as we understood him. And how he lifted some people up. And in this scrap pile, while they were lifting this steel up, a lot of it would stick.
[00:55:00]
Some of them would be just slightly attached. And they'd dangle in midair for a minute. Then they'd fall back onto the pile. The magnet would come back and get them later. And so it went. And I thought of God in AA as our great spiritual magnet. And how he restored many, many alcoholics to sanity, to sober, happy lives. Some of them didn't make it, but they made it. Finally, he came back and got them.
And there I stood. I thank God then.