The Big Book as a Guide for the Non-Alcoholic – Don B.

And she's a great gal. She's a titled woman, legitimately titled woman if you care about such things. So she did lots of things in AA. She wrote some books. She wrote a whole thing. She was kind of a... I don't know. It's hard for me to talk about. She was an artist, and she also wrote stories. And she wrote a story. I know that the story is talked about, and I would love to find it. She wrote something to people who don't make it. And I would certainly like to have read that. Her sobriety date. Oh, she was married to Drew Pearson. Does that mean anything? And Dudley Labod. And Kennedy Magruder. she didn't mind getting married and unmarried her sobriety date is one of 1944 first month of 44 isn't she a funny girl it makes sense Drew Pearson of course in the same business she was raised in you know one of the nice things that happened to the Browns when they were there looking. They were so downhearted and the two boys wanted to help so much and they said, you know I think grandmother's got a bunch of stuff in storage we haven't looked at it in 30-40 years out there. Maybe we could go out there and they went out there and they found a personal diary made from the first day sober right to the last time she could remember who she was. Oh what a great find for them. I mean when you're on that kind of a trail They wouldn't let them take it away, but they let them bring a copier out there and they just copied for days all this stuff. Part of the information. God bless them. They did such a wonderful job. Get the book. It's a great story. This next one on 418 is Harrison Kimbrough. Kimbrugh. K-I-M-B-R-O-U-G-H. Story's going up all over again. I don't have a... No, Data Sobriety 1960. Pretty short story, too. In fact, his Stars Don't Fall is the longest story. Hers is longer than Wilson's in her writing. 422, upon the second generation, unknown. We know he'd come in in 250, but we don't really know who he is. Both parents joined two years earlier. We know that just from his story. the last name could be Mansfield but we don't know because the Mansfields came in together we'll back up 1960 the next one is being an alcoholic the day of sobriety for this person was 11 of 47 but we dont know who they are she was listed in who's who of America we know that much about her but we Dont have a name for her and of course there's stories me an alcoholic this is a story and here's a great story everybody knows this guy Dr. Alcoholic Addict and he got sober in 12 of 66 and he slipped to July of 67 his death came in 2000 he one of the funniest guys I ever heard talk in my life his name is Paul Olinger and his wife was Max he took Max down to his hospital where he was on staff because she was crazy and they ended up keeping him one of the first stories here was titled The Bronze Moccasins he didn't do well making wallets in there but he made some bomb moccasins it was kind of a joke between them they did a lot of speaking together they kept him in the book but they changed the name I don't like it when they do that but it's their business they changed it to acceptance was the answer that's the famous part of him he was a great speaker he was a very funny guy and you just they just talk I mean between the two of them they used to travel together and speak as a pair which was pretty funny they lost either almost all it says 457 five time loser wins his name is Morris Bourbon he came from Long Island, New York his date of sobriety was December of 71 he slipped in 91 after 20 years he had two years of December of 93 he lives in Florida I believe he's still alive he works at the Alano Club I believe he's alive I believe he's still alive five-time loser I've met some people that knew him. I've met some people who he was their sponsor. This one on 464 is called Promoted to Chronic. Her name was Helen Brown. I do not have a sobriety date for her. She worked at the GS office in New York. 474 is called Menard. His name is Menard Bernard. He's son of tall man. How do you like that one? He's an Indian. He'll join the tribe. They don't have a sobriety date, but we know he stays sober. Bell to the Ball. We don't know anything about her. Jim's story. This is Jim and his last name was Sharp. And he's a doctor. His dad was a doctor before him. He's black. He's in Morrison, D.C. He got sober 11 of 1940. And he actually took the, believe this or not, we were at that time racist. And black people couldn't come to meetings for a long time. Particularly up until 1950, the whole South was segregated. But he does a great job of staying sober and I've got tapes of him. He was supposed to go to one of the conventions. 497. This guy's story is our southern friend. his name is John Henry Fitzhugh Mayo where's O'Shea hey you like that one O'Sea he's from Hancock Missouri his date of sobriety was 10 of 35 he died in 1943 and never drank again Bill Wilson was the sponsor this next guy on 508 is Patrick Delaney we're getting into the Irish crowd now his sobriety date was 5 of 47 the story is the prisoner freed desperate drinking he's from Ireland his name is Pat Devlin on page 512 B-E-V-L-I-N out of New York don't know much about him other than that and we have 517, and we do have some tapes of this guy. We have a whole series of tapes on how Ireland started. This guy's name is Sackville O'Connor Mellon. He is the career officer. He got sober 4-6 of 47 and died sober. Sackvill Mellor. Last name is Mellom. I'll get there in a minute. Let me, Sackville O'Connor Mellon, M-E-L-O-N, the career officer, stayed sober. AA was started by Irish boys who went back to Ireland and started it in the United States. Another chance, page 526, another chance is the black lady by the name of Bertha Benson from Louisville, Kentucky. She got sober 3 of 72. If you're not getting tired, I am. Oh, God. The man who loses his life, his name is Bob, his date of sobriety is 1 of 47. I don't have anything else for you on him. It could have been Edward Roberts, the man who losses his life. Very famous woman from California, next one, page 544. Her name is Wynne Laws. Wynn W-Y-N-N Wynn Laws married a lot of times she has the prayer in the back of the book which is about the relief for resentment pray for somebody for two weeks so her date of survival was 7 of 47 so she slipped after the story was written and made a comeback she she's a wonderful speaker very inspiring freedom from bondage was her name and of course my favorite one of my favorites Bob Pearson A.A. taught him how to handle sobriety and he came in July 4th of July 1961 and his wife Betsy came with as an alumni he was GSO manager from 1974 to 1985. He said they changed the rules after that. He has a tremendous interesting story. He had two esophageal hemorrhages. You're not supposed to survive them. And he went to see Dr. Harry Thiebaud and got his, I told you about the first time, he got this guy that took him to his first meeting and never took another drink. Amazing guy. Wrote for the grapevine at two and a half years. He's a writer by trade. His professional career included writing for Franklin Delano Roosevelt's speech when he was in the military. And he's written lots of stuff. His son is a pretty famous writer. Bob Pearson. Bob and Betsy. We okay? All right. Next question. I don't know what we're going to do. This will be easy for you. My name is Ralph, alcoholic. Members handed me a question and they would like to know is the big book written as a general text intended for others i.e. to the wives, the employers or as the 12 and 12 was specifically written for the alcoholic? And is it true that the 12 and 12 was written with a lot of material that was not okayed for the big book? Well, let's see if I can cover that for you. I'll try to make it easy. As easy as possible. Let's go back to the beginning of the book where he's talking in the doctor's opinion. Oh, let me make sure I can find it here. Maybe it's in the first edition. Getting a little more down, but I'll make it. Hang in there. If you can hang in with me, I'll take it. Okay, on XIII, and he starts with, We have alcoholic synonyms of more than 100 men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body. He drops down a few lines and he says, Many do not comprehend, oh, we think this account of our experience, the book, will help everyone to better understand the alcoholic. Well, obviously the book is not just written for the alcoholic, it's written for anyone who wants to understand the alcoholics. Many of y'all comprehend the alcoholic is a very sick person. And besides, we're sure our way of living has its advantages for all. All-inclusive spiritual principles. Okay, now what was the next part of that? In 1955, prior to 1955, the second edition of the book, what had happened is AAU, URAA, through the service board of Alcoholics Anonymous, had purchased or been given all of the royalties, all of his stock in the big book and we became the owners of the book and paid Bill Wilson royalties on the book. Is everybody clear with that one? Okay. When Bill stepped down in 1955 because Dr. Bob had died, he saw that he wasn't going to live forever and that he better find a way to create a way of some kind that AA could exist without the two co-founders. But as long as Bill was alive, you can bet your bottom dollar that nobody did much of anything without talking to him. He could start a counter-revolution in a minute and win it. And so, in 1955, prior to that coming out, they decided to write the book. They do things very slowly. And so he wants to rewrite the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous. And the board of directors said no. And as a compromise, he wrote this. He called it Essays. They were intended to be joined hand in hand to make a further explanation of what he meant here. That's what it was about. Just get after him. I'm wide awake now. Somebody bring me a Diet Coke off State of Nine. This guy's going to be mad. Michael said, we've got to go home now. My name is Butch and I'm an alcoholic. What is the history of and how and when did the spiritual experience get into the appendix of the book? I've heard different stories. Spiritual experience comes in in 55. You won't find it in a first edition book. Same thing as if you get it, that book that the folks brought in here the other day, the first edition book. The book starts with page one. Thank you. With page one Oh, I wind up now. I'm only allowed two of these a day. This is my fourth one. And some candy back there from Jesse. Let's try that again now. When did the spiritual experience arrive? They added it in 55 because they thought they needed an explanation of what a spiritual experience was. There's confusion about it. Some people thought that you had to have it like Wilson, instantaneous, lights in the room, wind rushing through on top of mountaintops, spirit blowing through you, and I'm looking at you saying, did you have that? You say no. How long have you been here? Been here about a month. I've been here about two weeks. I hadn't had it either. This ain't working. Let's get out of here. So they had to make a further explanation of the spiritual experience. I'd love to hear Ruth Hawks when she was interviewed. Because she was there, she typed the big book. She has a daughter who's now 29 years sober who used that book to get sober. She wasn't an alcoholic. But she knew Bill very personally. Very personally, very close to those people. Nell Wing, anything but Nell wing, personal experience, I view. Anything but Bob Smith Jr., I view。 Most of these people in history, Clarence Snyder, Jimmy Burwell, all I view. Well, I know Joe does a history of AA, but it's not I view, secondary expense. Anything else? Did Bill Wilson cheat on Lawrence? I haven't heard that one yet. Oh, I thought you'd be interested. Hi, thank you. Thank you for being here today. This is a friend's question. How many books did Bill Wilson write? Well, let's see if I can remember. He wrote A.A. Comes of Age. He wrote the big book. He wrote The Twelve of Twelve. I believe he wrote a book called A.H.'s Way of Life, which has now been changed. You won one around here as Bill sees it. Dr. Bob and the Good Old Times wasn't written by him or maybe it was I'll have to think on that well, I would get the book the latest book to come out there's a man I know all of you have seen or have the picture show at home my name is Bill W I don't think anybody in this room has seen that picture well the man who wrote that intended that to be a novel, a long picture show like Gone with the Wind would be. And in that he included and the way he got his information for that was he interviewed Lois when she was in her 90s on her back porch with a little hand recorder to take his notes from. So he got everything directly from her. her part of the book was very large usually when you read something about Wilson it's going to be just Wilson little mention of Lois so in this case he wanted to make a full story out of it and so they and he tried to sell it as a big movie in in movie land out here in Hollywood and they wouldn't buy it and there's a whole story that goes with it it's almost a God story and finally somebody called him up and said we'll make it for a TV movie which means you have to shorten it. So he talked to Lois and Lois always was supporting Bill and said this is really about Bill so let me, just drop me out. So he said I will write a book about you and make a picture about you later and that book just came out. It hasn't been made into a picture but I believe it will be. It is one of the most moving books from this disease from her eyes that I've ever read and it'll bring you if you know anything about their history to tears there's all such a personal story within it one of the things that really touched me was when she stood in front of the home their family had lived in for 55 years and the sheriff has taken the home and she's having to leave the only home she really ever knew until stepping stones came She talks about one time she sat down in New York Station. They moved 54 times in the first two years after they lost that home. They lived on welfare of friends. They had a Bill and Lois fund of about $50 that was given to them. They just, they lived in people's houses. They lived in tents. This is where they were vagabonds. This is wherever they could. She sat down and cried for an hour at Bill's house one time. Will we never have a home? And eventually stepping stones came to them through a God-sent gift by a woman who made it possible for them to buy that house out there. And then later on, as they split the royalties of the big book, Bill insisted that Dr. Bobby's partner get half, and he did. And Bob's practice came back, and He didn't need the money, so he just put it over in the bank. And Bill borrowed some money from him one time to buy some more acreage for the place. It's a gated community. I've never been there, I've just seen pictures. But it's a Gated Community nowadays, which means it's very rich community with lots of acres. And she lived to be a very old woman. She drew 80% back in a few years ago, 80% of $700 and some thousand dollars. She became a millionaire. Neris. Not just from the writings of Bill, but her own writings. And so she wanted stepping stones. She wanted to give stepping stones to Al-Anon. First she wanted to give it to AA. They wouldn't take it. And they made her mad. So she wanted to give it down on they wouldn't take it either. We don't take gifts of that size. But they always had someone who could work with her. She was pretty hard set and they would go out and see her and they talked her in to setting up a trust and she funded that trust and to this day that's how the taxes get paid the upkeep will never One of the lovely parts about it that I've heard I'll probably never get there but one of the lovely parts about it you just call them up and say I'm here from wherever and I would like to have a tour of the home place. It's just exactly the way it was left when Bill died and she died. And his stuff is out in Whitson, a little building they build on the side so he could go out there and work and she worked upstairs and they did lots of writing besides what you think of. There's all kinds of stuff that she did for Al-Anon. And she was just a... In the story she talks about some really personal things. I just love it. She's real honest. It was a handsome good looking fella come to live at the house builds a mess. They begin to take walks together. All of a sudden, they're holding hands. We're getting a little too close here. And he left. The guy left because of that. But she talks about... I mean, she's really human in her talk. I love human. I love people who talk in human terms. But it talks about all the things she went through. And at the end of the book, she will take on everything they ever claimed about Bill Wilson. Nell Wayne was associated with Bill Wilson More a daughter. More like their daughter. She was out there every other weekend typing up their work. They didn't come to work in the office. They stayed there and she came to them and brought it back. She ran the New York office for years. She told Lois, I'm going to have to quit the job. They're associating me with Bill in a sexual way. And she said to her, oh, don't do that, honey. Bill has lots of enemies. she names two people who said everything was untrue i can tell you it's according to whose history you want to listen to bob smith jr said he got mad he said not true i they were my uncles and aunts i personally knew them in their homes around them for years never happened others have said never had others have written about it said it did happen so it's up to you just one of those mysteries. It's called The Life Story of Lois Wilson, When Love Is Not Enough. Powerful, powerful book. They'll make a movie of it, I'm sure. A sequel, I am sure, to Bill Wilson. My name is Bill Dudley. I know his name, I just can't tell you right now. You won't have any trouble finding it. It is brand new. One of the fortunate things for me is I suppose I have a lot of people who love me and a lot of people who want me to have things and everything that comes out new the book shows up at the house I don't even have to go look for it and I love it so much I just I just go close my door answer only those calls that are necessary and I start reading I love that's where I get a lot more history from with all these books we gave you who's got a copy of that of that of the books that we I saw one around here the other day Do you have one back there? If you'll see that guy in blue, the great J.R. Right. He will make you, you might give him a few cents, but he'll make you a copy of a book list people have asked me, what books have you read? That does not include all books. I will read anything. I love, I've read A Fire of Blood and Fire, who is the starting, William Booth, who started the Salvation Army. Great book. I can tell you, if you read these books of all these people outside of AA, they have one thing in common. Every one of them has been put to some kind of a test spiritually as to whether he was going to go left or go right. Every oneof them. And the same thing applies here. You will be tested. Guarantee you. Whether you're going to stay or go. Is that it? All right. Sell some CDs. No, not sell. I want to read something here out of the big book. We've already read it, but I'm going to read it again. It means a lot to me. Psalm page 164 from A Vision for You. our book is meant to be suggestive only we realize we know only a little God will constantly disclose more to you and to us ask Him in your morning meditation what you can do each day for the man who's still sick the answers will come if your own house is in order but obviously you cannot transmit something you haven't got see to it that your relationship with Him is right and great events will come to pass for you and countless others. This is a great fact for us. Abandon yourself to God as you understand God. Admit your faults to Him and to your fellows. Clear away the wreckage of your past. Give freely of what you find and join us. We shall be with you in the fellowship of the Spirit. And you will surely meet some of us as we trudge the road of happy destiny. May God bless and keep you until then. I also want to thank all of you for coming to this thing and for sticking around. It's been a real path for me and a real learning experience. I can't tell you how touched I am and how much I've learned and how faith has come to me through the process of the prayer meditation that brought this all to fruition. I mentioned in the beginning that it started with a conversation among a couple people and a short conversation and the blessing of meeting Don Brown. And it just means a lot to me and I want to thank everybody for being a part of it. And also, I wantto thank my higher power for putting Bill in my life. I'll week it out. Thank you, everybody.