He Blamed the World Until He Looked at His Own Responsibility – John W.

Old Florida, I'll give you John W. I have to get prepared here. I'm an alcoholic. My name is John. Hi everybody. Good to be here tonight. I've got a bad cold, but I'm going to try to make it anyway. I understand Patsy's not feeling too well. and in keeping with what Newt says maybe things are going to get better tomorrow I don't know I'll let you know right off the bat that you've heard about all the humor you're going to hear tonight so don't look for me for any jokes it's certainly good to be back to the North Florida-South Georgia Gratitude Weekend I started coming to these things the first year that they had them up here and I think I missed one possibly two and it's just good to be up here it comes at the right time of the year it seems to me it's right at the tail end of this gratitude month that we've had and it is the beginning of another season which is dear and special to most of us fantastic football weekend so I'm looking forward to it I've been looking forward to coming up here just to see and renew some friendships uh people i don't get to see that often and uh it's just good to be in jacksonville again i remember i'll share this ego with you i remember sitting here the first time i was here if it's been eight years ago i guess i was about a year sober when i came to my first one i remember standing there saying to myself boy i wished i could do what those folks are doing to stand up there and talk at one of these meetings i wonder if i'll ever be able to do that. And here it is, through God's good grace, I've got the opportunity and privilege to share a little bit of me with a whole lot of you. It's certainly good to be here. And I'll probably say that a few times. To know that I'm an alcoholic tonight is probably the best piece of information that I know about John Williams. I'll share with you the thing that I want to talk about tonight is not anything profound because I don't have anything profound. When I came to Alcoholics Anonymous, if you'd have seen me walking through these doors, you'd know that I had nothing to offer. Everything that I know has come as a result of good sponsorship, belonging to a home group, getting active in the group, and studying and reading conference-approved literature. So I don't have anything available to me that's not available to any other member of AlcoholicsAnonymous. So i don't know anything that perhaps you don't know I won't get into a long dissertation as to my drinking I used to do that when I first was given the opportunity and privilege to share it little discussion meetings for 15 or 20 minutes all I could talk about was drinking because that's all I knew about was drinking but as I have done the things that I mentioned to you a moment ago the thing that excites me today is sobriety and recovery the program of Alcoholics Anonymous and everything that it includes the steps and the traditions and the legacy of service. Those are the things that excite me today, so I won't dwell a lot on my insanity. Perhaps as I go through and tell you how I struggle with these 12 steps of recovery, I'll share some of the insanity with you. But to know that I'm an alcoholic is the best piece of information that I know about me. And to be able to admit that with gratitude and to say that I'm very grateful to know that I am an alcoholic. You know, I was thinking as I sit here, you know, one drink more or one drink less and I may not even have been here tonight. So if it took what it took, it took whatever it took and I am very grateful for every drink I ever had, for every dime or nickel I spent on it because it brought me to Jacksonville this December evening to be able to share and be with friends. I just, you talk about privileges coming Wesley's my sponsor, and a lot of you have heard his story maybe more than once or twice. But he says an awful lot of times that if you do the things you're supposed to do, some amazing things will happen in your life. And I'll just verify that that's absolutely true. I have found as a result of doing the best I can on a daily basis and trying to follow these simple instructions that I recently completed a three-week tour in Australia where I was privileged to go over there and share Alcoholics Anonymous with some fellow members in Australia along that east coast. And if anybody had told me when I came to the doors of Alcoholics Anonymous in 1972 and said to me, oh, yes, John, you're the guy that in 1983 you're going to go to Australia and talk about sobriety, well, I'd have turned around and left because I'd say, you're crazy. Nothing like that happens to me. But it did happen. And I'm grateful. I'll report to you that alcoholics in Australia are just like alcoholics in Florida or Georgia or California or New York or Pittsburgh or wherever. There's some good, strong AA there and then there's some of the boundary riders there. There are some who, through the grace of God, I guess have been able to stay sober a long time and are telling some of these new folks that come in, well, you don't have to do all that stuff. You don't take in 12 steps. I'm sober 16 years and I ain't take them yet. Never have read the big book. Well, they think that's kind of unique over there until I tell them I've heard the same stories over here. So I tell him not to worry, just to get busy and get into that big book and build a strong base. But that's just one of the many things that have happened to me as a result of sobriety. And all I'm going to do tonight is to validate and to echo, because that's all I am. I'm just an example of what Alcoholics Anonymous can do for somebody, good, bad, or indifferent. But at least today, I'm sort of in tune with life because when I came to AlcoholicsAnonymous, I was certainly out of step with life. I didn't know anything about what life was all about. I was living in chaos, utter blackness, utter desperation, wondering why it is I had so much bad luck. And I wondered why nobody understood John Williams. Why did all the fates keep dealing me a bad hand? Thirty-six years old, ten years out of college, and there I was sitting on a construction job cleaning stairwells with a steel wool and a putty knife. Somehow or another it conjured up in my mind that I thought life should be better than that. I had gone to college to have some opportunities and to get ahead. Ten years later there I Was doing that kind of work. I'm not putting labor down, but I just say for John Williams that I kind of expected a little bit better. I remember thinking why I was in such a position. And the initial thoughts were that it was somebody else's fault. It was my wife or nobody understood me. It was where I lived. It was all those outside circumstances that I wanted to blame everybody else for and I never wanted to look inside at the responsibility. I do remember as that day approached or as I was thinking about it that day that I remembered thinking that perhaps drinking had something to do with the situation that I was in. But boy, I pushed that one to the back of my head real fast. I didn't want to think things like that. Shortly thereafter, I had an opportunity to go on the wagon and I went on the wagon and it didn't succeed. I tried the noble experiment of trying to quit on my own and it didn't work. A friend of mine quit with me. He went into AA and I was out there left to my own devices and I failed. But it was through those set of circumstances that I was privileged to come to Alcoholics Anonymous. Came under duress, knowing full well that I didn't belong to Alcoholic Anonymous, I knew what an alcoholic was. You see, I'd been to New York City and I had been then to the Bowery as part of this tour that I Was on and I remember the driver pointing out the alcoholics and I knew What They Look Like. And for somebody to suggest that I come to a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous, I knew that I was going to the wrong place. But you know, I was growing out of desperation. I had run out of excuses and alibis. I didn't have anywhere else to turn. And the situation was so hot and desperate in my home that I submitted and consented to come to AlcoholicsAnonymous out of desperation because I needed to quieten that situation down, and I'd have done anything to quieting it down. So I came to Alcoholics Anonymous in September of 1972, and I stayed with you for a couple of years. I had a very weak program going. I guess the obsession and the compulsion to drink left me, and i'm sure it was by the grace of God because I did nothing about that. I started hanging with AA members. I starting going to one meeting a week whether wanted me here or not i was there one week one night in a week and uh i started accumulating non-drinking friends and so i guess i was sort of like when in rome do as the romans do that was about as spiritual as i got i saw an article in the recent issue of grapevine that i like like even better than that it's sort of monkey see monkey do uh and that's that's kind of program I had. If I'd have been hanging with some strong AA members, and I'm not putting these folks down, but just where I happen to light into Alcoholics Anonymous, you know, some of us are very lucky sometimes when we come into Alcoholic Anonymous that we get tied up with some good strong members and sometimes we don't get tied Up with some Good Strong Members. But I was hanging with those folks and I was able to abstain from alcohol for two years and have to go back out again because I wasn't an alcoholic. I'd never taken the first step. I thought I had, but I hadn't really. You see, I was an alcoholic, but I didn't like the idea of being one. I was a alcoholic because that's the way the evidence pointed. It was sort of like the guy who was picked up by the police and he's set under the white light and he knows that the facts speak for themselves and he is guilty, but he doesn't want to be guilty. And that's how I felt about being an alcoholic. I was, but didn't want me to be. And I thought that I was so charming and intelligent that the only thing I had done was develop some bad drinking habits. And that the only way to overcome that, you see, is I'll abstain from alcohol for a period of time and then I'll go out and re-educate my drinking habits. But boy, that sounded logical. I just, you know, it made so much sense to me. And so I developed a five-year program in which I was going to stay here for five years and that would give me enough time, you See, to get some information about not drinking and it would be completely out of my system and thenI would go outand re- educate my drinking habit again. And I thought that that was possible. and it didn't work that way. And we have some competition tonight. I'm going to have a drink of water while I think about that one. But as it turned out, it was pretty fortunate that I went out for those 90 or 100 days that I was out there living hell on earth as far as I'm concerned. I never want to get that close to hell again. It was the most desperate situation I've ever been in. I knew what the problem was, but yet I couldn't do anything about it. I couldn'T get off of it. I couldn' t stop drinking. I just couldn' T do anything. I couldn'' T get the idea of drinking out of my head, and I drank all day. And having been sober for a couple of years and thinking about that, the pride and the ego and the false sense of being let down and everything was so heavy I couldn't stand it. And sing them if you know the words. One thing I haven't been able to do in sobriety is not to be distracted so easily. I'm still very sensitive to the extent if somebody gets up to get coffee while I'm talking, I'm saying to myself silently, I wonder what I said to make them mad. Still somewhat insecure. But when I came back into Alcoholics Anonymous after that noble experiment, and I'll tell you how I came back in. I came to in a blackout. It must have been the last day of January, 1975. I was standing in my bedroom and I was crying and I had a bottle in my hand and my wife was standing right there standing in front of me. Now I don't know what I was trying about, but I was just coming out of a black out. I can only tell you what I remember. She had the saddest look on her face I've ever seen on a woman, especially on her face. One of utter desperation, hopelessness, just absolute pity. And then just a few minutes later, and I don't know the time element here, but I know that shortly thereafter I prayed another prayer, something apparently different than I had been doing, because I said to God, if not for me, at least for my wife and children, let me get sober or take me out of this life. I wanted to either to get sober, I wanted to die. The very next morning, I go to the post office, as is my habit, and I run into my sponsor, the fellow that ultimately became my sponsor. It was his habit to go to post office every morning. I don't know why our eyes hadn't met each other before this particular moment, but it was only hours after I'd uttered that prayer. He saw me, and I saw him. We exchanged pleasantries, and he says, how are things going? And I guess I kind of shrugged my shoulders the wrong way and he says would you like to go to a meeting tonight and i said yes sir i sure would and that's how i got back into alcoholics anonymous through a prayer not so much a selfish prayer not just for me to get relief but at least for the family or somebody else and then i was directed to wesley the following morning and i came back into alcoholic synonymous and wesley's been my it's been my sponsor he's beenmy teacher he'sbeenmy tutor he'sbenmyadvisor he's ben And, you know, everybody ought to have a sponsor like this guy. And I'm not blowing Wesley's whistle, but that's just the way it works for me. If it hadn't been for him, and I guess I got the kind of sponsor that he talks about, what he had with Chris, one that loved him and wanted only the best for him and wanted him to have out of life what he has. And he got me into the big book Alcoholics Anonymous real fast. He started teaching me as I needed to be taught. I submitted myself to Alcoholics Anonymous because after that 100 days or 90 days, whatever it was, the fight was gone out of me. I utterly and completely gave myself to alcoholics anonymous. I submitted. I put the ring in my nose and gave it to Alcoholic Anonymous and said, you can leave me anywhere. And that's just the way I came back to AA. No arguments. I don't argue with anything in the big book Alcoholics Anonymous nor any of our other conference approved literature boy that music is pretty kind of hard here but remember they said tomorrow night it gets better so there is hope but coming back into alcoholics anonymous with good sponsorship and with uh belonging to a home group and doing all the things that i had been told i needed to do in order to get sober i just began to do those things and uh and i began to get sobre i began to get some information wesley asked me within about a week or so after i came back he said do you know what your problem is, John? And I said, well, yes, I'm an alcoholic. He says, but do you really know what your problem in that? Yeah, I can't drink. Then he said, I want you to take the big book Alcoholics Anonymous. I want to read the doctor's opinion. And he said then we'll talk about it. Well, after I read the doctors opinion, I began to get an idea of what my problem was. I found out that I had an allergy to alcohol. It made sense to me that when I put alcohol into my system, it compelled me to drink against my will. Now, that didn't happen to every other drinker. And I often wonder why it was I drank different from everybody else but it was there that i found the answer or at least had the problem described to me because wesley had said that you can't solve a problem unless you first know what the problem is so that's where i found out about alcoholic alcoholism and the doctor's opinion he directed me to read bill's story which was an example of what the doctor had talked about then i got into the there is a solution you know i thought about there's a solution when i got to Australia, because it's that first portion of the chapter which talks about we are people who would ordinarily not mix. If I'd been an alcoholic or a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, no way would I've ever been in Australia and met all those beautiful people over there. We would ordinably not mix, people in this room would ordinally not mix except that we have a common problem and a common solution. That's what draws us together. And I thought about it, you know, sometimes they refer to American A.I.ers and Australian A.A.ers, but I found out that we're all alcoholics. Alcoholism is an equal opportunity disease. It has no respect for economy, color of skin, education, intelligence. Doesn't have anything to do with any of those things. Alcoholism as an inside job. I've got it right down in here. And my recovery is going to have to start right down in here inside of me and come out and I found out through the beautiful 12 steps that we have that allow us to recover on a daily basis from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body and the beauty of it all is that it's really not that difficult and it's a very simple operation simple evolution which takes place if any of you are in the steps and there are progressing yourself through these 12 steps if you're at a particular place and you don't understand it i could only suggest to you that you don t have to understand it just do it and the knowledge will come i don't look at the 12 steps today as i looked at them when i first approached them i first approach them as perhaps tasks obstacles to overcome etc etc but now through the beautiful evolution of the 12th steps in which there is a oneness to the twelve they they're interwoven and they're all part of one thing. They're all part of recovery that one cannot do without the other, and they need to be taken in the sequence in which they're suggested. The first step of recovery is to admit powerlessness over the alcohol. And if you can't make any progress, or at least I couldn't until I got to that point, until I was truly convinced that I was utterly powerless over alcohol. And it didn't take much smarts to figure out life was unmanageable for John Williams. And it didn't take much time in Alcoholics Anonymous and listening to you beautiful people tell me what had happened to you and how you recovered, to know that if I wanted what you had, I was going to have to come to believe in a power greater than myself that would give me some ability to think straight. At first with respect to alcohol, but now with respect a lot of things that I find that I'm powerless over. Third step, I thought when Wesley finally got me there, and it didn't take a long period of time, I knew that when I got to the third step, I was in for a rest, you see, because I'd met a lot of people in AA that were sober four, five, six, seven years. What step are you on? I'm still on step number three. So I figured, well, if you get there, you get the rest of a while. So when we finally got there and Wesley and I took that third step together, as the book suggests, I said, you know, silently, I thought, oh boy, this is good. Now I can, now I've got a little while to develop this perfect relationship with God and then I can perhaps look at an inventory. story but Wesley turned the page on me and he's pointed races look here John it says although your decision was a vital one it would have little or no effect unless you had once begin your house cleaning he said the proof in your decision is you're going into the getting rid of the obstacles or uncovering and discovering the obstacles which have been blocking you from the power source that you've decided to turn your life over to damn that made sense wonder why I figure that out. That's why you need somebody who is a time-tested carrier the message to sponsor you. I know some people have got sponsors that haven't gone beyond the third step. I think that's a tragedy. I really do, but I can only take care of me. Thank God I had good sponsorship. Somebody that wanted me to have what this program has to offer and knew what it had to offer. So I began to work on the fourth step I didn't get a chance to rest and it was there that I began to gain some faith because I was willing to look at John Williams as I really was to find out what really had been blocking me from this power source you know when I came to Alcoholics Anonymous I thought I was an agnostic I really did I thought so for two reasons one is because I thought I was an agnostics but I didn t really know what it was except I heard a good definition in which it says that an agnostic is one who who claims to believe in God but acts as though there is no God and that's the way I was I wouldn't get it I wouldn't argue with you about the existence of God but I acted as though their was none and besides that I thought that once you saw the progress I was making and then I said I was an agnostics when I came in and you'd say oh look how that boy's doing he's doing so good come a long way hadn't he used to be an agnotic and now listen to him talk about God well I found out what my problem was one morning as i was riding around in pompano listening to a station that came out of miami they had two rabbis on the on a talk show and they had been giving some dissertation after their religion i hadn't paid much attention until they started the call-ins and first guy that called in says i'm an agnostic and one of the rabbis stopped him and said well let me ask you a couple questions about this rabbi says have you ever studied the old testament to try to understand things of this nature. And the guy says, no, I haven't done that. He says, well, have you ever taken any religious instruction so that you could understand things of this nation? The guy says no, I haven' t done that either. And the rabbi says, well son, you're not an agnostic, you're an ignoramus. And when he said that, the light went off in my head and I knew what my problem was with respect to God. I just hadn't, I didn't have any information. Perhaps had a closed mind about such things. but as I processed myself through these steps things began to happen and I began to understand and I'm one of those fortunate members because I had good sponsorship and I belonged to a home group Wesley said to me one day said son you look like good political material I think we're going to run you for GSR and I it sounded pretty good then I had to look up what the initials were but It was general service representatives, and I said, well, that sounds pretty good. Of course, I had proven myself. I had the ability to make coffee, andI would show up on a regular basis. And, you know, apparently they thought that I was a pretty good gamble to represent that group, and it was pretty nice of them to offer that to me. I didn't have any competition. The vote was simple. And I was elected, and l began to get active in service. And it was there that I began toget active also in tradition as I'm processing myself through these 12 steps. I became a whole member, and thank God for that. I became, you know, I took to Alcoholics Anonymous like I took to those bottles of alcohol. I don't know about you, but sometimes when I'd get down to the last squig of that bottle, I'd run some water through there to make sure I didn't miss anything. You know, shake it up real good. And I feel the same way about my program. I don' t want to miss nothing since AlcoholicsAnonymous has got to offer. And I would have no idea what AlcoholicsAnenomous had to offer if i didn't have a good home group that follows the handbook to the best of their ability takes an inventory occasionally does what it's supposed to do support the center group at general service office has business meetings on a regular basis all these i'm i became educated enough i really did and i think it's uh it's a fantastic thing as i said sometimes when i'm privileged to be able to do what i'm doing i say to myself how can this be possible john just remember what you were like in 1972 when you approached these doors nobody was asking you to come anywhere i mean they were they didn't want anything to do with you and then through the amazing evolution of recovery and the program of alcoholics anonymous to be asked to share a weekend like this to me just blows my mind i mean it just just seems out of sorts makes me want to cry sometimes but think that these things can happen and alcoholics anonymous and they do happen all the time i feel very fortunate and i'm very grateful to this program as i uh continued with the steps and as i got active in these other things i as i say became became what i think is a pretty well-rounded member of alcoholics anonymous i found out that in alcoholic anonymous you can't get away from politics because as long long as you got people you've got politics and uh it's okay i've been in gfr meetings in which we've had some real knock down and drag out but you know when the meeting was over we held hands and said lord's prayer together we were all friends again we disagreed with one another but we weren't disagreeable and it was through those 12 traditions that i learned to live in harmony with my fellow man you know it's kind of nice to get sober and and go go a day at a time without drinking, but it's kind of difficult if you're always at odds with your fellow man and you can't allow him his right to be himself. So I found out that the traditions are the 12 more spiritual tools that I can use to allow me to live in harmony with my fellow man. I sometimes wonder as I stand up here and talk, who's having more fun? Just kind of get a hankering, don't you? Say goodnight going over there. well we're going to do that after this is over so be patient we're gonna do a little foot stomping ourselves and we're gone and we'll go and do it sober, thank God I'm going to I'm gonna cut this thing short tonight it's just kind of difficult for me stand up here and compete my mind's wandering and the music sounds good but let me just say one or two things before I close no matter where you are in this program grab a hold of it the only reason that we exist in Alcoholics Anonymous is to perpetuate and hand what we have to somebody else that's the only reason we exist and that's our primary purpose We don't have any other reason for existence except for the alcoholic who still suffers. You and I individually and collectively have a responsibility, I think, and I'm not preaching but I just feel this way. I'm about to become a grandfather in February. You know that kid's liable to need AA in about 20, 25 or 30 years. And I wouldn't want to think that I'd do anything to harm this program. I don't want water it down. I don' t want to dilute it. I want to remember all the time that it's a single-minded fellowship, that we're not all things to all things. I know that we deal with alcohol, and we do real good with that. So let's not get ourselves involved in some other things. But take a hold of this thing because we do have a responsibility because of those who went before us starting in 1935, made sure that we had it when we got ready. And the least we can do is to make sure that it is ready for your kids and your grandchildren. And it's not too difficult. The joy of sobriety is to be able to share recovery with another human being, to sit there and see them on that bed or on that chair sobbing, wanting to get over with it, and knowing you've got something that you can offer them. You've got nothing to do with whether they take it or not, but at least you know that you're going to take it. That you can bring them to a meeting and get them headed in the right direction. and that's what AA is all about and it's a fantastic experience don't be a boundary rider get in here get in there get in with both feet sobriety is fun it's joyful it's rewarding it's total living and we got I believe what the world needs and it don't cost nothing can you believe that? a lot of good lessons have been learned and by those who preceded us. They've made all the mistakes. They went through all of it. We don't have to do that. All we have to doing is to avail ourselves to the information that's available to us, to our literature. There ain't no problem that AA hasn't had before that's not been solved. So don't get yourself concerned if you've got a group that seems to be having a problem. When in doubt, go all the way to the direction. The group handbook will probably answer your problem. Twelve traditions are available. The history of AA is available. I challenge anybody to read AA Comes of Age and not have a mother's love for this fellowship because when you read that book, you find out how close we came sometimes to not having what we got and you know that the divine hand of God was in there. So it's been fun. I've enjoyed it. God's been good to me and I want to just say this in closing that I love each and every one of you. I hope we get a chance to share a little bit before the weekend is over. Thanks for being here. It's fantastic to stand here and look at these happy faces. Thanks to the people who are responsible for putting on this weekend because I know from personal experience there's an awful lot of effort that goes into putting these things on. For dedication, but they're dedicated and work hard because they too want to transmit that what's been given to them, I believe. Thank you very much. I've heard one of John's tapes, and he makes a fantastic talk, and you can't imagine how embarrassed I am at this. We didn't know we were going to have this larger crowd. We were goingto have a double wall between us and this music, supposedly. So, I'll tell you, we're going to give John a chance to talk again. And not this weekend, but we promise you that. We'll also promise you that we won't have this problem tomorrow because we're gonna have that room too. And we won' t have this problem anymore. We'll either have that rule or we'll have the whole works next time. So I'm just sorry. You know, I didn't know it was gonna be here. Maybe they didn't know we were gonna have such a crowd. But I just don't know what to do. I'm sorry as I can be, and I'm embarrassed, John. Let's hear it. Sorry about that. Well, I ain't embarrassed. I enjoyed it. I'll tell you something else. I sat in bar rooms where there's a whole lot more noise than that and heard every joke they told and laughed and got into fights and done everything else. And I'm sure you folks know what that's all about. Now, of course, when you get in AA, you get to do a lot of traveling, John. You get to go to different places and all that. And I was up in a part of this country where they have a bunch of folks, they call themselves friends, Quakers. And that's these kind of folks you know, they don't say no bad words. They wouldn't say a bad word if they had a mouthful. And them folks up there, one of them, I was leaning on this fence about half drunk, you know. And this guy was coming up a plow and a furrow, and he was talking to just had one mule hooked to this plow turning over a great furrow of dirt. And he said, come on, let's go rink. Come on, shorty. Hey, fight it. Get up in there red. Come on. Help that mule out. Go ahead on that. And it drunk me, you know? He said, hey, fella, you ain't got but one mure hooked to that fly, and you're talking to all the rest of them mules? He said, hush your mouth man, this mule don't know his own strength. And he think he got all the help in the world. And that's the way we are, and we're going to do something about that now. Because we've got some buckets here and we're gonna help. We're gonna help one another, and here come a man to do one bucket, here come another man to make another. You want to know? Oh, alright, you take all of it. You know, there's no registration fee. And so they figured that if they trusted you, that you would come up with more than they would charge you if they charged you a registration fee and if that didn't come out like I thought it was going to, well, we're talking less of the meeting. john that was a mighty good talk and under these circumstances i'll tell you uh my heart went out to you because uh i'll say when you're you're talking against that kind of music and i saw two or three people with a foot going But, you know, I've got faith. I don't believe there's one of you folks going to go and join them. I think you're going to stay here and dance with us. Because they didn't bring these git fiddles up here for nothing. We're going to have some splinter kicking foot stomping music right here in just a few minutes. You got anything else, Vicki? Oh yeah, we're going to give them some competition. Let's get to hollering and stuff like that. Let's show off. Have all those baskets been around? Man? Oh, all right, be sure. If you miss a basket, see me after the meeting. I would just like to remind everybody that the meeting in the morning at 10 a.m. is our Al-Anon speaker, Betty G., from Jacksonville, Florida, and the programs are outside on the registration table. Betty G. from Jacksonfield, Florida will be our Al-anon speaker at 10 am in the morning. 2 p.m., it's Guy W. from Meadow, Georgia. 7 p. m. is our Special Gratitude Banquet. 8.30 p. m., Pat C. R. Smyrna Beach, Florida. 9 p. m. It's our Saturday Night Dance. And Charlie and Barbara combo. And see y'all in the morning. Ken? They're having an in-and-out breakfast at the Methodist Hospital at 8 o'clock. Sure, tell us both about it. Keith, one of the chairmen or assistant chairmen of this weekend, reminded me that they're having the intergroup breakfast at Methodist Hospital in the morning. And by the way, Keith is going to make the talk, aren't you, Keith? And Keith makes a fine talk. if there are no further announcements let's all the tapes they announced the tapes they're going to be available if there aren't no further announcements let's stand and hold hands and pray together the Lord's Prayer Our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever amen Hey, hey wait a minute. We're having a drawing right now. We are going to draw for this clock Hey Robin, Robin, come here Reach in there and get me a ticket out of it. One ticket Thank you The number for the clock, 0-7-4-9, 1-9-7. 1-7 I wasn't on as loud as I could get. 0-7-4-9 1-9-7 Now listen to this! 0-749-197 Who's got it? All these people waiting on that man when he went in there to do whatever he's doing in yonder He better have it, or he'll have to go again. 197, isn't that it, Lou? 197. 197. Come on up here. Come on. Come on, up there. John, I'm so sorry. We don't have you. We're going to have to figure it out. I was thinking we were going to happen to stop the war. Oh, I ain't told him to do it. I haven't seen him in a long time. Look! That's from the world. We'll have you. Come on down and have a look at it. Oh, no! And the winner... is from Naples, Italy! Okay, that's a lot of time right there.