I Hid Bourbon Inside the Vacuum Cleaner and He Thought I Was Cleaning the House – Sally R.

About This Speaker Tape

Sally R. is a military chaplain's daughter who grew up attending eighteen different schools in eleven years of public schooling, desperately wanting to belong. She discovered pills in college that dissolved her shyness overnight — "when that drug hit this bloodstream, I was the setup for it" — and after marrying Jim, she crossed from massive pill addiction to alcohol when a pharmacist finally cut her off. She went to the liquor store, bought two bottles of bourbon, hid one for herself, and never drank socially again.

What followed was years of alcoholic insanity that only another drunk would understand. Jim tried to teach her to drink like a lady — she practiced all day while he was at work. She hid bourbon inside the vacuum cleaner so he'd think she was cleaning. Her own mother told Jim to take the children and "get rid of her because she's no good." She tried Antabuse and sipped cooking sherry just to test it, nearly killing herself in front of her five-year-old daughter.

After psychiatric wards, a year and a half of on-and-off AA, and a pivotal Christmas locked up at St. Jude's Hospital, Sally finally accepted Step One — not just admitted it, but accepted it. "People who manage their lives don't get locked up at Christmastime in alcoholism wards." She found a Higher Power through the love of her AA group and sponsor, and got sober on April 19, 1972.

The turning point came months later when her five-year-old daughter Jody said, "Mommy, I like you." Sally says it hit harder than "I love you" ever could — because for the first time, she was becoming someone her own children could like. Recorded at the Monteagle Roundup in 1984 with twelve years of sobriety.

Topics

Timestamps

• 00:02:00 Coleman introduces Sally, describes her work in AA and as Alabama state delegate
• 00:05:00 Growing up as a military chaplain daughter, eighteen schools in eleven years, the desperate need to belong
• 00:10:00 First encounter with amphetamines in college — the shy girl disappears and she talks all night
• 00:15:00 Marriage to Jim, birth of first son, the prescription tranquilizers that started the real addiction
• 00:20:00 Jim gives her drinking lessons and she practices all day while he is at work
• 00:25:00 Hiding bourbon in the vacuum cleaner and the search-and-seizure games with Jim
• 00:30:00 Her mother arrives during pregnancy and says get rid of her, she is no good
• 00:35:00 The Antabuse experiment — cooking sherry nearly kills her, Jim takes Jody to the birthday party
• 00:40:00 Sonny Patterson visits and shares his story — the first time anyone talked with her instead of at her
• 00:45:00 Locked up at Christmastime at St. Jude Hospital, finally takes Step One for real
• 00:48:00 Jody says Mommy I like you in the dark at the campground — the spiritual experience that changed everything
• 00:52:00 Heart attack in 1982 forces her back to Step One, finds gratitude through pain and the freshwater shrimp at Stone Mountain