I Was Sure I Was Going to Be the 1989 AA Rookie of the Year – Joe F.

About This Speaker Tape

Joe F. shares his story at the Central Orlando Group Saturday night meeting, opening with a powerful contrast between two churches — one where he stood in 1988 as a broke, barely-employable lawyer watching his second marriage-by-pregnancy collapse, and another where he married his current wife of 20 years in a moment of grace he never thought possible. A former DUI prosecutor who got arrested for DUI himself, Joe traces the progression of his disease from his first drink as a high school basketball player in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania through law school at Florida State, where he went from top of his class to barely graduating because bars kept interfering with morning classes.

Joe's drinking cost him three jobs in rapid succession, two marriages, his house (foreclosure), his car (repossessed), and ultimately led to bankruptcy. He describes the pivotal 12-step call from Joe R., a lawyer who handed him a white chip in 1984 — a seed that didn't sprout for five years. After a failed six-and-a-half-month attempt at white-knuckling sobriety that ended at an all-inclusive resort in the Bahamas, Joe kept drinking until 1989, when he found himself digging through apartment dumpsters looking for half-empty beer cans. That night he called Joe R., who said "come on over, right now" — and brought him to the Central Orlando clubhouse.

Even after getting to AA, Joe kept relapsing for nearly a year, secretly planning a bender in Aruba where he woke up in a gutter covered in vomit — his moment of pitiful and incomprehensible demoralization. He stayed sober after May 10, 1990, but stalled on Steps 1-3 for two years, convinced removing alcohol would fix everything. Instead, his life got worse: he contemplated jumping off a cliff at a ski resort. Choosing the Fourth Step over suicide, Joe worked through the steps with deep skepticism — and found the Ninth Step Promises coming true exactly halfway through his amends. Twenty years later, he is a partner at the same law firm that nearly fired him, married to the same woman for two decades, with a daughter in law school, marveling that the same person cannot get from where he was to where he is without the program of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Meeting opening — Central Orlando Group Saturday night, Serenity Prayer, Doctor's Opinion reading
• 5:30 Joe F. introduced as speaker, mentions sobriety date May 10, 1990 — discusses AA lineage and sponsorship through Chuck D. and Bill Oakley
• 10:00 Story of sponsoring the chairman Joe — from the guy who said he wouldn't kill his wife to chairing meetings two years later
• 15:00 Two churches contrast — 1988 marrying the daughter of Satan while pregnant versus 2006 wedding to his current wife of 20 years
• 20:00 First drink as a junior basketball player in Harrisburg, PA — wrecked dad's car, couldn't wait to drink again
• 27:00 DUI arrest as lead DUI prosecutor — Orlando Sentinel reporter shows up on police scanner, forces cops to arrest him
• 35:00 Six-and-a-half months white-knuckling sobriety, relapse at all-inclusive resort in the Bahamas — disease worse after the break
• 40:00 Dumpster diving for half-empty beers, midnight call to Joe R. who said come on over right now — brought to Central Orlando clubhouse
• 48:00 Aruba rock bottom — planned glamorous James Bond casino night, woke up in a gutter covered in vomit, moment of total surrender
• 55:00 Two years sober but stalled on steps — suicidal at ski resort, chose Fourth Step over jumping, Ninth Step Promises came true halfway through amends