Bill Put His Arm Around Ebby at the Subway and Said I Don’t Know What You Got Kid but I Want to Get It – Ebby T.

About This Speaker Tape

Ebby T., introduced as the man who first carried the message of recovery to Bill Wilson, shares his remarkable firsthand account of the events that led to the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous. Speaking in Memphis in 1958, Ebby describes growing up in Auburn, New York, starting to drink while in school, getting expelled, and working in his father's iron foundry. He traces his progressive alcoholism through the collapse of the family business in 1922, the deaths of both parents, and years of increasing trouble with the law.

The pivotal summer of 1934 arrives when Ebby, facing a third arrest for drunkenness in Vermont — which meant six months in Windsor State Prison — is visited by two old drinking companions, Steve McGraves and Chet Cornell, who had found help through the Oxford Group. They ask him a simple question that changes everything: had he ever thought of letting Higher Power run his life? Roland Hazard intervenes with the judge, and Ebby is released. He describes a small but powerful moment of victory — carrying six bottles of ale from his cellar to his neighbor rather than drinking them before his court date — and the weight that lifted from his shoulders.

Ebby then recounts the historic evening he visited Bill Wilson at 182 Clinton Street in Brooklyn. Bill was drinking but listened as Ebby talked until one o'clock in the morning. Walking Ebby to the subway afterward, Bill put his arm around him and said, "I don't know what you got, kid, but you got something, and I want to get it." Days later, Bill showed up drunk at Calvary Mission where Ebby was living, and shortly after entered Towns Hospital. Ebby emphasizes his belief that once you start carrying the message to someone, you must stick with them through tough spots and victories alike.

With characteristic honesty, Ebby acknowledges his own struggles — slipping after two years and seven months, cycling through periods of sobriety and relapse over the years, and ultimately finding stability in Dallas, Texas, where AA members took him in. He closes with a passionate appeal to stay active in AA and never forget where sobriety came from, warning that retiring to the country club and abandoning meetings is like stopping your medicine.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Dick introduces Ebby as the man who first brought the message to Bill Wilson, calling him 'our founder'
• 2:30 Ebby tells the Texas rancher 'bull shippers' joke to warm up the Memphis crowd
• 5:00 Early drinking history — expelled from military school, father puts him to work in the iron foundry
• 9:00 Family business collapses in 1922, stock market crash wipes out inheritance, living alone in empty Vermont house
• 12:00 Summer 1934 — two old drinking companions from the Oxford Group visit and ask if he has considered letting Higher Power run his life
• 16:00 Explains the Oxford Group origins — Frank Buchman, the name from Oxford University reporters, not a group focused on alcoholism
• 19:00 The ale in the cellar — Ebby's internal battle and small victory carrying six bottles to his neighbor before his court date
• 24:00 The historic visit to Bill Wilson at 182 Clinton Street — Bill says at the subway, 'I don't know what you got, kid, but you got something'
• 30:00 Bill shows up drunk at Calvary Mission, leans on the piano to speak; days later enters Towns Hospital in late November 1934
• 38:00 Ebby's own relapses and recovery in Dallas — arriving broken, the Love Field moment, and finding five years of sobriety in Texas