Page 75 Has Ten Promises Nobody Talks About — Including the One Where the Obsession Gets Removed Right There – Ted H.

About This Speaker Tape

Ted H. from Palos Verdes, California shares his story at what appears to be a Southern California AA event in 1985, with roughly 17 years of sobriety dating from April 1, 1968. He opens by describing his deeply AA-involved life — skiing with his 13-year-old daughter who has never seen her parents drink, attending Chuck Chamberlain's memorial, supporting women's recovery homes with his wife, and visiting Friendly House where he encounters a young woman he once held as a child, now facing murder charges after a drunk-driving crash on New Year's Eve.

Ted's drinking story spans from childhood fortified wine prescribed by his mother through 23 years of progressive alcoholism. He drank two fifths a day by the end, chasing the blood alcohol level where his insides matched the outsides and the world felt round and smooth. His doctor at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica wept while listing his conditions — cirrhosis, hemorrhagic pancreatitis, bleeding ulcers, seven pints of blood transfused — and Ted promised to quit, only to be drunk again ten days later.

His turning point came on his knees in a concrete basement in Silver Lake, remembering an old-timer who told him about a magic place where he could live comfortably with unsolved problems without ever drinking again. Ted found that magic place at a meeting near Roxbury Park in Beverly Hills, where old-timers with 20 and 30 years wore their sobriety like a crown. That night, April Fool's Day 1968, Higher Power removed the obsession to drink and it never returned.

The heart of Ted's message is a passionate walkthrough of the Big Book's step sequence, with special emphasis on page 75 and its ten promises. He describes fear of heights dissolving after six or seven years, allowing him to ski and fly again — ultimately handing the controls of an airplane to his young daughter over Catalina Island. He stresses that steps four through seven, repeated through step ten, will replace any disturbance with the nothingness of total serenity, and closes with a prayer that every person in the room will someday brush the face of Higher Power.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Introduction of Ted H. from Palos Verdes, California
• 2:30 Ted describes his AA-filled life — skiing with his daughter, Chuck Chamberlain's memorial, recovery home support
• 6:00 Visiting Friendly House and finding a young woman he once held as a child, now facing murder charges
• 9:00 Born an alcoholic — childhood drinking, social drinker jokes, professional-grade devotion to alcohol
• 14:00 First martini at 16, twenty-three years vanish in a blackout, waking up in St. John's Hospital
• 19:00 Doctor lists fatal conditions — cirrhosis, pancreatitis, hemorrhaging — promises to quit, drunk again in ten days
• 24:00 On his knees in a Silver Lake basement, remembering the old-timer who described AA as a magic place
• 29:00 Returns to Roxbury Park meeting in Beverly Hills, April Fool's Day 1968 — obsession removed forever
• 34:00 Passionate Big Book walkthrough — page 75 promises, steps four through seven, inventory as daily practice
• 42:00 Flying over Catalina with his daughter at the controls, Palm Springs roundup 1980, closing prayer for the fellowship