Jim M. on the Blackstone Retreat, the Big Book, and Simple Sobriety

About This Speaker Tape

1935 was the year the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital in Lexington opened, the same year AA began. For Jim M., this was no coincidence; it was a Higher Power preparing a place for him. Jim spent decades as a "silver-tongued drunk," moving from the moonshine-peddling habits of his grandmother in the Tennessee mountains to the cockpit of a Greyhound Scenic Cruiser. He lived in a blur of rubbed alcohol, Virginia Dare, and "shots in the bucket," driving buses while balancing on the edge of a blackout.

The wreckage was concrete: a throw rug with a permanent split from a drunken rage, and a wife who once tried to clobber him with a stewpan of spaghetti. After years of being a "joker" who drove off with fuel hoses still attached to the bus, Jim hit the wall. He describes the grit of the morning drink—using a stewpan in the bathroom to keep the liquor down—until his family finally walked away. He found a light in the dark room of Lexington and the guidance of a Higher Power.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Introduction and the presentation of the Kentucky Colonel commission.
• 10:15 Jim M. describes his grandmother's moonshine business and her daily hot toddies.
• 18:30 Laughter: Jim M. explains the 'shot-in-the-bucket' method for drinking moonshine.
• 25:45 Jim M. recounts the 'spaghetti incident' with his wife.
• 35:10 Jim M. describes the dangers of drinking while driving a Greyhound bus.
• 45:20 The turning point: Jim M.'s wife's 15-minute speech and the introduction to AA by Dave.
• 52:15 Jim M.'s first AA meeting and receiving the white chip.
• 62:00 Jim M. discusses the 'deep freeze' treatment from his wife and the struggle to rebuild trust.
• 75:30 Jim M. reflects on visiting lonely patients at the narcotic hospital.
• 88:10 Jim M.'s closing advice to keep the program simple, using the metaphor of cookies on the bottom shelf.