The 12 Traditions and Fellowship Survival – The Twelve Traditions – Part 1 of 2 – Sandy B.

Hi, everybody. My name is David A. I am an alcoholic, and only because of God's grace is America Alcoholics Anonymous. I have not found it necessary to, and I haven't taken a drink of an alcoholic since April 20th, 1967. And for this, I am thankful. And first of all, I want to thank whoever is responsible for allowing me to come and share me with you and you with me. And so we have a lot of time this afternoon, and we'll have a lot of fun if you want to have a lot of fund when we get into our traditions in Alcoholics Anonymous a lot of times a lot our members they say oh no you know good god that's something else and but basically one of the reasons is a fact that those who do that believe it or not and this is not inventory taking as is they're still miserable in Alcoholics Anonymous, and they really don't enjoy what has brought all this about. And, you know, I love to go and look in there and see when the book came out to Arkansas and things like that. And many members of AlcoholicsAnonymous, we're, you Know, we're satisfied, a lot of us, in going to our meetings and, you Now, coming a little ahead of time and then doing a few 12-step calls and then going out and eat ice cream, you know. God, if you don't have coffee at a meeting, you've got the most disgruntled folks in the world and I can understand it. I do because I love the coffee myself and particularly a drunk, if he's got a dollar in his pocket and he owes that dollar and he's promised someone he's going to pay that dollar the next morning at 8 o'clock but if ice cream comes first and it doesn't make a bad difference and you know it's a funny thing they talk about hypoglycemia hyperglycemia have you ever seen them eat ice cream they go in and they say now i want nuts and i want every kind of sauce you got four dips and everything else and that's a drunk and that'S just the kind of folks we are And so when we get into our traditions, you know, a lot of times, as I say, they, for some reason or other, whatever it may be, they feel rather uncomfortable. Now before I start, and since this is on tape, I want to make sure it's on tape. And I think it is necessary that we have it on tape that no one speaks for Alcoholics Anonymous as a whole. No one has that right. No one has that authority, and no one has been delegated as such. We just merely share our experiences. And I hope that I share my experiences with you, and as a result of my life, as a resultado of traditions in Alcoholics Anonymous, or in any part of AlcoholicsAnonymous, and not our opinions, because let's share our experience and not Our Opinions, because opinions kill people. And the most precious commodity that we've got to offer any human being becomes Alcoholics Anonymous for the alcoholic is life itself. And you know, you get to playing around with people's heads and we talk about how many lies we say but we don't talk about how many we've killed with misinformation telling them things will happen to them. We don't know it'll happen to us, you know. And everybody's got the freedom to be ourselves as we are. Now, every meeting we hear it on a daily basis and we read it a lot of times and the Alcoholics synonyms is a fellowship many women who share their experience strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others recover from alcoholism which is nothing more than a combination of tradition one and five the only requirement for membership is desire to stop drinking tradition three uh there are no dues or fees for a membership where self-supporting contributions tradition seven a is not allied with any sect denomination politics organization your institution tradition six neither endorses nor opposes any causes tradition 10 our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety tradition five and so you know in every member of alcoholics anonymous that comes to a today is given three legacies in the first legacy it wasn't that way when a first started and it wasn'T that way until our traditions were adopted uh and uh in 1950 basically although they were written in the 40s by bill and at the first international convention in cleveland in 1950 and and then later in 1955 at the international convention uh then our third legacy was adopted although the general service conference basically on an experimental basis for the first four to five years was 1951 and so every every member of alcoholics anonymous that comes to our every alcoholic who comes to a rather today is given three legacies as a gift and the first legacy is recovery and the second legacy is unity or tradition then the third legacy is service which basically is the authorization and creation of our general service conference and then after that why the 12 concepts were written over 12 concepts for world service and so when we come to a and a lot of them you know and so our our The second legacy, our unity, our traditions. And hey, we hear it all the time and it's read how it works, but the traditions we have come to find out why it works. And also, we're going to have most of the afternoon to do this, and so if there's any questions that any of you would like to ask, feel free to do it. There is no question that too little or too insignificant to anybody in Alcoholics Anonymous, us even though you may feel that it may be you know controversial in nature or whatever it is but you have to remember we are controversial in natura period that's the reason we're here you know that's a reason we' re here we're hear cause nobody else wanted us that's the reason why and they got started because nobody wanted them drunks and they found out if they could want each other then they could spread this message to those that nobody wanted we're kind of like the unwashed you know and this is about the way it is and so very implicitly throughout aaa's traditions is the admission that our fellowship has its defects and the reason for it because it's composed of nothing but 100 defects you know we're not here because of you know ?? ?? ????? ?????? ?? ????? ???? of defects of character and our willingness is to have them removed under the power and love and guidance of a power greater than ourselves. So when you've got a fellowship that's composed of 100% sick people, with all our little petty grievances and our resentments and our hates and our angers and our feeling sorry for ourselves and boo-hoo, then it spreads into the fellowship. And so we admit that we not only have character defects as a society, but these defects threaten us continuously. So our traditions are a guide the better ways of working and living and they're also the medicine for our various group sicknesses and don't kid yourself that groups don't get sick oh they get sick whole groups get drunk you know when at one of the early days of a there was a group which is now informed out in southern california and the first group out there and and uh they didn't have about 12 14 15 members and they got a call from a gal and she's out there in one of them tourist courts now that dates me you know and so they didn't have any women in aa so they the one of volunteered to go well he never should come back so they went out to check on him well he enjoyed her company so much he started drinking with her you knowand so they sent a third one out there and he didn't come back so they sent another one and all three of them were drunk the fourth one never come back and then finally the whole group went the whole group got drunk and they all started they all got sober together and that's how they got basically the first gal sober in Alcoholics Anonymous in lower California you know and nobody wanted her and they're the only ones that joined in with her so she had no choice but pick up her mattress and go with them, you know, and that's the way it was. And so as a result of it, you know, and the groups get sick. They get real sick. The get to arguing about money and they get to argue about, you know, if you got to have a smoke eater and then they got to argue. One of the worst arguments I've ever been in a group was if they're going to move the telephone from that wall over to this wall. And, you know, that's how new groups get started. You know, when you got two cats fighting all you're going to have is more kittens that's the way it works in a and that's how we spread and so the 12 traditions are to group survival and harmony what a is 12 steps are to each member's sobriety and peace of mind but the 12 predictions also point straight at many of our individual defects for by practical application they ask for personal as well as group sacrifice they ask us never to use the a name in any quest for personal power or distinction of money and the traditions guarantee the equality of all members and the independence of all groups thank god thank god that aa is all inclusive and not exclusive and each group has the freedom to be itself as it is just like every member of alcoholics anonymous is given after sobriety we are given the greatest freedom as a human being that the world has ever known and we can be ourselves as we are before i come to alcoholics anonymous all almost died drunk people would say why don't you be like your daddy like your mama like your brother like your neighbor like your enemy like this that and the harder i tried the worse it got and the worst it got the harder I tried and I come to Alcoholics Anonymous and they said David you don't have to be like anybody else just be your stinking rotten sober self and I said are you kidding and they said no because nobody can punish you nobody can sentence you nobody can make you do penance nobody can force you to believe anything if you don?t drink alcohol one day at a time and you say you're a member you're in that's all there is to it and that's almost impossible to believe because out there in that world out there they don't operate that way and after we get sober and hey we can't stand that freedom we want to change it we want to put rules and regulations who can belong who can't belong you know whether they're polka dotted whether they are straight whether they are crooked whether they are gay whether they are half and half or whether or whatever it is you know whether they're closeted uncloseted rooftops where don't make no name everybody's got to start doing a little picking we can't stand the freedom to be ourselves or to let anybody else be ourselves and so they they'll so the they ask us never to do those things because they show us that traditions also show us how we can best relate ourselves to each other to the outside world and the traditions also indicate how we can best function in harmony as a great whole and so for the sake of the welfare of our entire society the tradition just simply is pardon me that every member every group every district every area every region every country in aa shall lay aside all desires ambitions and unwanted actions that could bring among us a serious division or lose from us the confidence of the world. At large, many, many members do not realize how well AA is respected. Maybe that is Alcoholics Anonymous and what it stands for. Maybe some of our members are not well respected in the world, but then after all, you know, we're not clean. and as a result of it back in the old days when the United Nations moved from San Francisco to its present site and United Nations headquartered in New York City why the one of the first ones to address the United Nation was former President Herbert Hoover and he got up and for 20 minutes he talked to them about the united nations and the conditions in the world and he also but for most of the 20 minutes he spoke to the united nations on the subject about he found that there was a fellowship with a set of principles and the fellowship was called alcoholics anonymous and if the world would live by the principles that aa has for its recovery program and its fellowship and its philosophy that the world would be the finest place in the world to live in now this is back in the days when television was in its infancy and most of the communication media in the world in those days was radio and there's always a bunch of drunks that are sitting around doing nothing buying railroads and airlines and all this and all that and they were listening to the radio and they said you'd hear what that that man just said herbert hoover why he was telling the united nations that this would be the greatest world to live in if they lived if the world would live by the principles of alcoholics anonymous and they says well we're the only one let's go up and tell bill and back when bill was alive uh bill they'd go to bill for everything and so they borrowed somebody else's car they borrowed some money to put gas in somebody else'S car they borrowed some moneY for some cigarettes and off they went up to west earth county up to bedford hills and they come running in there and bill was back in his little house where he used to do his writing and they ran up there and they were wild-eyed looking and Bill says what's up boys and meanwhile the story had changed from the time they'd left downtown New York till they got up to Bedford Hills you know us drunks we don't lie we just embellish a little bit and it said Bill old Herbert now he went from former president Herbert who's old Herbert old Herbert was down there at the United Nations and he was telling them that by God if the world didn't live by them that the world would blow up well that's lived by what he said the principles of a and bill we're the only ones that know anything about alcoholic synonymous and bill and and anna knew bill and met bill and heard bill and and and he was a real drunk yeah i mean a real just a real drug and smoke you talk about now now he now i'm gonna tell you something he had a he had a real smokers alcoholic smokers call one of them kind they would start at your toenails and come all the way up and you'd have an aftershock for five minutes you know just go on go on go on and old bill with that long turkey neck of his and smoking them cigarettes and he and he even got excited said well bill guess what if we're asked to run the world we're the only ones to know anything about a.a and we're going to be here we are we're gonna be in striped britches and we'll go to be in swallowtail coats and them celluloid collars you know with them wings turned up we'll be riding around in them big limousines with flags on the front having diplomatic community we can park in front of fire plugs and speed all we want to go through red lights and everything and bells he got excited can't you just see a bunch of drunks running the united nations you know and and you turn on your television in the morning and this announcer comes on and he's in shadow he said good morning world my name is david a and i'm an alcoholic and we're down here at the united nations and we're going to open this meeting this morning with a moment of silence followed by the serenity prayer and for you civilians who don't know the serentity prayer that words will come around the bottom of the screen and y'all say listen and after the serendity prayer we're gonna read a portion of chapter five how it works and the ambassador from russia is still having a tough time understanding it so we're going to ask him to read, of course, in Chapter 5 how it works. And then on the agenda today will be honesty, open-mindedness and willingness. And we'll be sure and return to this television station at five o'clock for a very important news announcement because we understand confidentially that the Ambassador from Iran is going to take his first step with the ambassador from Iraq, you know. And then Bill said, wait a minute, oh, wait a minute boys, wait a minute. They estimated about that time how many millions of alcoholics out in the world? Nine and a half, million and twelve, you know. They're kind of like AA membership, you know. We're kind of like the Baptist church, you know. Once we get on the road, you never get off, you know. Whether you're a sinner, saved sinner, died sinner, or flying sinner, don't make no different well hey we don't keep those kind of records because we really don't know we really don't when the sun went up all over the world this morning a lot of members are sober and they ate but when the son goes down at five o'clock this evening all over world a lot of them that woke up this morning the members of the a will be members of their a that's how little we know about stopping drinking you know and so bill got excited wait a minute wait a any boys he says you know what he said we're not all things for all people we've got all we can do to take care of our own kind and so the 12 traditions and and i'll tell you another experience of how the world and what the world thinks about us the heads of states and government at the world service meeting which was held in 1982 in mexico city outside of mexico City And I've had the wonderful experience of being your delegate to the World Service meetings, and the one in 1982 in San Juan del Rio, Mexico, and this past October in New York City. We have it every two years. And every fourth year is back in the United States. And every other year, every other fourth year, it's outside of the North American continent. And so, and delegates from all over the world attend that have a service structure. And as a result, when it was announced it was going to be in Mexico, one morning our general manager received a transatlantic telephone call from South Africa. And the two would-be delegates from South Africa were on the phone explaining to our general manager that they would not be able to attend the World Service meeting in Mexico because South Africa and Mexico did not have diplomatic relations due to their political climate that they have down there. And they wouldn't be able come. And while this conversation was going on, we had a visitor in the office, a member of AA, and Bob saw him. He said, and he listened to this conversation as after it was over with why this member asked Bob what's going on, and Bob explained to him about the fact of the World Service meeting. And these two delegates called about their concern that they could not come because of difficulty, couldn't get in. And that's all Bob said. And the member said thank you for sharing this thing with me, and he left and he went back to his job well he happened to be the second highest ranking paid permanent employee of the united nations and he when immediately to the ambassador to the united nation from mexico and he walked in and he said you know he said you know i'm a member of alcoholics anonymous you ought to know because we got that dingy son of yours sober and straight when nobody else won't fool with it and he said you know we've got this world service meeting in mexico city and we're not allied with any sect denomination politics organization and our two delegates that would can normally come to that from south africa can't come in because they can't clear immigration you have no diplomatic relations he said now i want you to call down there and get that thing straightened out he said well i'll have to call what corresponds to your secretary of state in the united states either we'll call him he did and the ambassador explained to the secretary of the state of mexico what situation what he says oh wait wait a minute uh-uh this will have to either take it'll have to go before that what we correspond the mexican legislature our presidential order and he said to him well at least see what the president of mexico will do it's urgent so the secretary of the state of mexico whatever it is he got a hold of portillo and he told portillo the situation hotel picked up the telephone and he called his friend and he says friend this is for teal are you still connected with that aa business well the gentleman that he called is a lawyer perhaps one of the outstanding international lawyers in the world a non-alcoholic who at that time and who still is the chairman of the board of the general service aboard of Alcoholics Anonymous of Mexico now this non- alcoholic he met another world famous international lawyer at an International Lawyers Convention in London who started talking to him about that he was involved with this thing called Alcoholics Anonymous and has been since the early 40s a gentleman by the name of Bernard Smith who was perhaps a world one of the best world international lawyers chairman of the board of one of largest banks in the world a lawyer and also was a longtime chairman of The General Service Board of Alcoholics synonymous of our country of north america and the old alcoholic foundation in fact bernard smith did most of the legal work for our entity and also our incorporation and bylaws etc and etc and had a lot to do with basically checking out the 12 concepts that bill wrote and several other things and so this lawyer in mexico became interested in alcoholics anonymous what it would do for a human being and he came back and he offered his service now at that time they didn't have any non-alcoholic trustees on the uh general service board of mexico and he became one of the first and chairman and so portillo said are you still interested he says well sure he says well why didn't you call me about he says you know what i think about alcoholics anonymous he said it is the only freedom that the people in this country have or anywhere else he said nobody can touch them why didn'T you tell me well it was at the time you know when they devaluated the peso and they closed the banks and they had troops running around there with guns and everything else he said i didn't want to bother any time he says hang up the phone he got his secretary stayed in there and he said we have diplomatic relations with holland have them two drunks it'll be there have them fly to amsterdam let them clear immigration and amsterdam come directly to mexico city well i don't know if any of y'all been down there lately but you don't just walk into your terminal like you do here off the airplane in Little Rock they put you on one of them buses way out there somewhere and they bring you in and you're in a sterile area nobody is between you and immigration and nobody is the queen you have to use immigration cousins that folks got guns on and then two drunks get off of that thing in this sterile area and there are three drunks there with signs on them world service meeting And they ran up to them and hugged them, and they said, come with us. No, we don't go here. We go down here. They went down there, and doing all the talking in Spanish, and they told them, here they are. And they said where are your papers? Give them to them. Boom, they didn't even look at them. And they took them right through, took them straight to the door. Took them right to customs, and that's how they got into Mexico City. Well, when the World Service meeting was over, those two drunks from South Africa got worried, couldn't they get out? You know? and so one of them you know one of and incidentally one of the blacker days faith but he was not blind he was a model the second oldest living continued sober member of Alcoholics Anonymous in South Africa and in a we have no color line and so the same three drunks that brung them in there took them back through the same process stayed in sterile areas till they left now that's what heads of state think about alcoholics not heads of state in the Soviet block are beginning to ask a lot of questions about alcoholism particularly when they found out that atheists and Alcoholics Anonymous can stay sober agnostics can say so that you don't have to believe anything do you don' t have to do anything you can drink if you want to you ain't even remember anymore and it leaves it up to the individual's innermost consciousness of basic human integrity and honesty in the fiber of a human being and that is perhaps the reason that AA is the only free fellowship that's left in the world today for an alcoholic and so the 12 traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous stand as a sacrificial character of our life together and the greatest force of unity that we know tradition one our common welfare should come first personal recovery depends upon a unity probably no society no fellowship in this world sets a higher value on the personal welfare of the individual members and does alcoholics not but long ago we found that the common welfare had to come first far without it there would be very little personal welfare I'll ask you one question how can we be free people in the end and in AA if our fellowship isn't allowed to stay to leave us free free of alcohol and in a way to be free itself that's a tremendous freedom now individual sobriety depends upon the group and the group depends upon us let's live and let live and so unless we curb our individual desires and ambitions we can damage what the common welfare of the group I'm gonna give you two practical examples I've been involved with all of one of them is a noisy wet drunk and today in aa we don't see this as often as we used to and i don't know the reason and maybe it's good but you don't say it anymore there are a lot of groups and alcoholics anonymous after they get sober ain't seen a wet sloppy falling out of his chair drunk drugged to a meet you know and i'll tell you your group hadn't lived till you got one of them in there and they used to bring them and put them on the front row and they'd sit there and hold him there to keep him sliding out of the chair, you know. And they'd tell whoever's talking that night, well, we got a new wet one, and he's going to be on the red roll. And you talk to him, and they'd instruct you what to tell him, you know. And you ain't live till they fall out, and they burn up the rugs, you know. And I kind of like that, because then you know it's there. The rug is there for what it's supposed to be there for, you know, and mess up everything. And you're up there talking. I don't know if you've ever been there in a group, and somebody's up there telling their story about drinking, you know, and how they drank for 45 years and then burned up the cars and lost an arm and shot their wife and dog and kid. And then one day they woke up and realized they had a problem with alcohol, you Know? And they talk about blackouts. The thing that amazed me about a drunk when he tells his story, he talks about them blackouts, how come we can remember it so well to tell her is the thing that amazes me. And this wet drunk said, Wait a minute, you don't know nothing about drinking. let me tell you about drinking and somebody said shut up you know how wet drinking drunk answer you when you tell him shut up make me somebody said we said shut up he said i said make me and somebody back in the room said you can't talk to that brother drunk like that he's an alcoholic and the other one says shut up you don't know this you don' t know the difference between chicken salad and a turkey and that's exactly what that wet drunk wants somebody is making a fuss over you know they're arguing with each other because he just comes from someplace where they're arguing with him and if there's anything a wet drunk will do to you if you make a 12-step call if he finds a crack in your armor he'll eat you up alive and then the members got to arguing about can he stay can he stay all this and sometimes they get into fights and arguments and sometimes the wet drunk gets very very belligerent and sometimes i have to call the police and sometimes it has him to leave but they bring him back when he is in better shape to hear what to hear the message because you see in that meeting just like right in this meeting right now there's always someone with a concrete block in their belly so big they're fighting the drink they're fighting living in this world sober and they they're dying for somebody to talk with and everybody just rushes by it goes off you know and so every member of alcoholics anonymous the common welfare is for every member who comes there and so what are we doing we bring that wet drunk bike when they're in better shape to hear the message for we're putting the common welfare first but it is his welfare too if he is ever going to get sober for the group must still go on functioning whether he or she gets sober whether they leave whether they stay ready for him and others to come and yet that's only one rare aspect of the problem when we get sober in a we begin to throw throw off a few small bits of that big ego and we met well i can't handle alcohol but i can't stay away from it on my own fine but then we find that there's still plenty of this uh this ego sometimes it leads us to taking other members inventories or gossip about gossip about their supposed shortcomings i guess i'm the only member of aaa in this meeting this afternoon that's guilty of that you know and it may lure some into hogging the discussions every discussion meeting you know you know i quit going to those side groups oh so-and-so is getting up there and they're reading the preamble they're saying the serenity prayer they're introducing the speaker and they are always making a talk and they close it with the Lord's Prayer they're even taking up the money and I'm tired of going to that deal every time they up I told you see them up there well you know how to avoid that simple if you have to do anything and you turn it down don't gripe at the ones that are doing it that's how simple that whole deal is somebody's going to have to do it and then you got the other one that even your volunteer won't even let you do it we'll get into that too you know and so as a result you know anyway we slip in that spot and we get to start credit somebody way they criticize well this is selfish bro you know we got the greatest answers in the world it's self-programming don't take my inventory and here's the grace some are sicker than others sure aren't we yeah and say well why don't we indulge ourselves into this little bit of fun well we all know the good reason why we shouldn't maybe because indulging this kind of immediate personal danger because what it threatens the individuals on sobriety but more serious it threatens the very basis of our surprise it's a privilege to be a member of alcoholic phenomenon i have to ask myself all the time how come i have been so fortunate because when i come to alcoholics anonymous the only other place that i could be a member of was locked up for my rest of my life in a penitentiary are in an insane sign and in the free world to be a member of alcoholics anomalous and to come and go that's the basis of where I found my spry and a way to live and that is a group because self-righteous gossip cannon will damage a mutual trust is vital to have group the compulsive talking talker can ruin an effective discussion meeting now back in the old days and we don't really hear it so much anymore I guess maybe there is I really don't know maybe I'm not looking for it like an old age they didn't have any women ladies today and I called lady women you know anna included and so i've known her a long time and uh uh you know and and they didn't have it the opposite sex and so and you know they didn't and when the first one come to Alcoholics Anonymous my god they said it's going to ruin AA that no woman was an alcoholic you know she had problems other than alcohol you know and she wasn't a real alcoholic and so as a result of it well The first one to get sober was a gal by the name of Florence Rankin. She got sober before Marty did. And old Florence, she come in about the time when they were writing the book of Alcoholics Anonymous and they hadn't named it yet, they didn't know what to name it and they were sitting around writing one chapter and sending it out to Akron for their changes and backers and forwards and they got down to where it was pretty getting close to put the book out. Florence come in there and they were arguing one night about what they're going to call the book and they had a drunk that was very active in those days by the name of Fitz Mayo and he lived in Baltimore originally and he knew everything in Washington so they said why don't you go down when you're in Washington go in the Library of Congress and they thought they were going to call it Way Out and so he goes and he sends a telegram back And he says, there are 12 already in the Library of Congress with that name. And the drunk says, no, that would make 13 and that would be unlucky. Then they thought they were going to call it the grapevine. And the FBI got wind of it because the FBI puts out a journal called The Grapevine. And the FDA didn't want no part of AA and AA didn't Want No Part of the FBI. So you say, well, we got the grapevine. That's true. And you know how they allowed it to happen? they were perfectly happy it's called the alcoholics anonymous grapevine incorporated period and as long as they put them two aas and what it spelled for and stood for the fbi was real happy about the situation and so anyway and then then they decided they were going to call it the first hundred men originally the corporation which is now works publishing company and then later became works publishing incorporated which is not aaws incorporated originally it was a 100 men uh incorporation and it was going to be a delaware corporation for the first hundred men who supposedly got sober and alcoholic none they were called the book for 100 men and florence had one of them women alcoholic fits she jumped up and started screaming and hollering you're not going to call it uh the 100 men you're going to called it 100 men in a woman and they said no that'll make the title too long she said i demand a vote for the group conscience they did i'd get the 1819 there 17 voted against her she's the only one who voted for it and they have said and then one night they still hadn't named the book and a then he's like a today we got members who thinks that aa will cure everything in this world you know back aches headaches falling out hair you name it so there was one of them had a friend that had a lot of money but the problem was he was locked up for the rest of his life in a nut house as a pure nut insane so they got permission to bring him out to this meeting hoping that maybe he would hear something that would unscramble his brain and it's you know and so they brought him in and they were arguing about it and they told him go sit in the corner over there and they're arguing about what to call the book and he's over there mumbling and somebody says shut up and another said wait a minute listen to what he's mumbling you know what he is mumbling anonymous alcoholic anonymous alcoholic now in cleveland in the akron cleveland area they had already been using that name this is before the book came out but not as alcoholics anonymous as anonymous group of alcoholics now where this gentleman without a full string of lights had heard about it no one knew but that's what he's mumbling and when I'm says enough wait a minute alcoholics not so if you if you're getting good before you get well in alcoholics anonymous don't get and too spiritual stop and realize that where we got our name from it came from a nut you see ours is a very since ours as a total synthetic recovery program and synthetic fellowship because it came everywhere and we just got it down to where we understand it and to where can communicate it nothing has been been invented in alcoholics and not even one day at a time because that had been used long time ago and if one really wants to understand the one-day-at-a-time living and I suggest you can find it as Bill sees it and it has to do with our emotional being is a human being one day to time and so that's how the book got name but they still were having problems you know in mackinac and they used to call it red rod hood and wolf and you have to remember and there was a gal by the name of uh gladys barm and gladys was a heck of a gal and gladis got sober right about the same time marty did maybe a little earlier and she later moved to dallas was a member of the group that i'm still a member of and a great gal and evidently at one time she had been a show gal or something and she and in now in philadelphia the group got started this way the first group there was a member of alcoholics anonymous who is i guess is responsible for more member more alcoholics being free to become a member of alcoholic synonymous than any member that's ever lived and he was an atheist his name was jimmy burwell and jimny burwell would go to their meetings in new york in the 38s and the 39s before the book come out and they'd get to talking about they didn't have anything like chapter five and they didn't know what to read they'd just read something what they thought would be spiritual talking about god and and jimmie would just literally have a fed and he said i don't want to hear it i'm sober member of aa and by guy i just don't like to hear this god business now he's the one that was responsible raising so much cane that the word god as we understand him were put in the steps and jimmy is the one that forced bill to do that but before that uh jimny would raise so much pain at the group it disrupted meetings so the group would call everybody but him and tell him where they're to meet and they and then he never could find the group but the problem is they were running out of places to meet to hide from jimmy well they went to bill and they said we got to get rid of jimny he's just raised nine kinds of cane and built so bill and dr bob formed an automobile polish company and they put jim on the road selling it and they made him sales manager of a one-man sales force of automobile polish that they never was going to manufacture to begin with but just get him out on the road so he gets about 90 miles away from new york city philadelphia and he does what any good sober drunk needs to do he goes and gets him a wet drunk and he starts talking to it and guess what this drunk took the bait so there started a group you have to remember the group when two or more alcoholics are gathered together for a sobriety, they may call themselves in a group provided they are self-supporting to their own contributions and have no outside affiliation. And so they started this little group in Philadelphia. And they used to put a blurb in the newspaper. They said if you have a problem with alcohol and you want to get fixed, they called it fixing drunks in them days, sort of like veterinary, you know. If you want somebody to get fix, this meeting meat here and it was in the hotel they put it in the newspaper and so and he used to have at that meeting you said in those days you used to have a guard outside the door they'd lock the door to close me and also only real alcoholics could come to the meet and then comes old gladys into that hotel and she's just drunkard and an eight dollar bill and she has on one of them flapper dresses she used to be a show gal and she had a little hat with a feather up the top of one of them they say a half net across here and i've met some of the people in the left and and and with their fishnet holes and then spiked heels and thongs wrapped around her ankles and just drunker and a billy goat with a big old purse and she comes a reeling in there and she's got this little piece of paper out of the newspaper and this man says what do you want and he said is this where you fix drunks he said you go over there and he says what's over there that's where them others meet well in them days they didn't call it alanine you know and the only reason a lot of the drunks could get to meetings because of the wives were the only ones that were working and the one that had any money and could drive and so uh they used to meet over there and have a meeting over there and that's it you know him and he said you go over there with them and she said no i've got trouble with alcohol and i want to get sober and i want to be fixed he says you go there and she says are you a phony or something who's beating in there and he said alcoholic she said i'm one and i'm going in there you said i could come he says now go over there well that she reached down and took off one of them spiked heel shoes and she started beating on that drunk and darn near beat him to death and finally when he got a breath or two and one eye was still open he says well if you feel that way about it go in of course he had no choice he's gonna kill it well that alcoholic happened to be abby thatcher and abby thatcher was our co-founder bill's friend and sponsor he's the one that carried the message bill and abbey later became uh gladys's sponsor and and and but to go back in a lot of groups and you know when aa spread out of the new york area and out of akron and start spreading everywhere and it got down to our part of the country well a lot of the group were meeting in you know in catholic churches and uh and and in basements of episcopal churches and and and you know and a lot of the of course you know what the church is in our country that's the southern baptist church and they ain't got no alcoholics in the southern back and in the small towns they didn't have any catholic church so naturally they got them an old abandoned storefront or an upstairs loft somewhere and it started to be the meeting place and then they'd come to the clubhouse and some of the ladies made curtains and then later on they moved to another place and they put a sandbox out in the back for the kids to play in and then THEY'D HAVE SUPPERS ON SATURDAY NIGHT AND SPAGHETTI SUPPER AND CAKES AND ICE CREAMS AND IT SORT OF BECAME A SOCIAL GATHERING ALONG WITH IT OTHER THAN A.A. MEETINGS AND THAT'S HOW IT SPREAD IN OUR PART OF THE COUNTRY AND SO THEY'RE COMMONLY KNOWN AS A.I. CLUBS ALTHOUGH THERE'S NO SUCH THING AS AN A. I. CLUB BUT THE LINGO IS THAT'S THE WAY IT IS and so back in those days and naturally and there was a group and and and where i come from it's one of them silk stocking groups and god almighty and they had what's known as what they call red riding hood wolves you know hen and shin or whatever you want to call it And they had a bunch, you know, that were getting good.