The Big Shot Who Lost Everything to His Own Pride – Cecil C.

Thank you, Don. My name is Cease Corgill and I'm an alcoholic. I would like, first of all, to ask Don to send tapes to the speakers that I had to listen to that left early before I talked. and i would like to thank the committee for inviting me back again because this is the second time i've been here and and that's quite a deal for an alcoholic to be invited back because i remember the days that i wasn't invited the first time and it's a little difficult to be invited back if you're not invited the first time mind you i used to go sometimes to places i wasn't invited the first time i was never invited to talk but sometimes i said a few words a very good friend of mine this morning by the name of george goodall is speaking at capuscasing tennessee now you don't know george Goodall, and you probably don't know where Capuscasing, Tennessee is. But that really doesn't matter. But George promised me that he'd mention my name down there if I'd mentioned his IPR. And I've just had a great time. I shared a little bit with Dick this morning, and he seems like quite a fellow. He arrived here from Minneapolis, I understand. And we're have a little conversation and we were talking about Alcoholics Anonymous. And I said, well, the only thing that can destroy AlcoholicsAnonymous is ignorance and apathy. Ignorance of what you belong to and not complacency but downright apathy." And so I said to Dick, what do you think of that? And he said he didn't know and he didn' t care. So I don' t know whether you got the right chairman this morning or not it's been great over the last couple of days and when you're speaking at the Sunday morning meeting a lot of people Debbie was lucky she spoke on Friday night she got to know everybody and I've been walking around and people have been saying I wonder who the Sunday Morning Speaker is and I have been a very humble man I just listened And, of course, I come from a conservative town, so I dress very conservatively. And nobody really knew who I was. And that reminds me of a story. It doesn't really. I intended to tell it all along. But the reason I tell it is I told it maybe 10 years ago at Founders Day in Minneapolis. And there's a lady there that just doesn't understand it. And she's heard it ten times, and she still doesn't understand it, so I'm going to tell it again just for my friend in Minneapolis who happens to be a customer of mine, and I have to do these things sometimes for business reasons. And it's a story about a sweet old lady that bought a parrot. And she paid a lot of money for this parrot and she got home and she found out that the parrot couldn't talk and she was really upset. But she'd paid a lot of money for this parrot and she set about to teach the parrot how to talk. And finally, she taught the parrot three words and those three words were, who is it? And all day long, the parrot would be saying, who is It? Who is It?! Who is it?! you know. And she got a little upset, a little annoyed sometimes, but after all, she'd paid a lot of money for this parrot. She taught it to say these three words and she was pretty proud of herself. But one day she went downtown and the knock came to the door and the parrot says, who is it? The voice came back, says, it's the plumber. Parrot says, who is that? And he says, It's the plummer. Parrott says, Who is it?! He says, It's The Plumber. P-L-U-M-B-E-R. Plumber! Parrot Says, Who Is It?! and the old plumber wasn't on the program and he completely lost his serenity and he just fainted dead away and he's laying down there in front of the door and the Old Lady comes home and she looks down and she says who is it? and out of the house comes a voice it's the plumber so I'm not the plumer I'm your Saturday or Sunday morning speaker so i guess i better get with it i would like to congratulate the committee because i've seen them working well together and i think that's important that a committee gets along now i know you had a few fights in the back room but nobody knows anything about it and uh but it's so important and especially with your your theme give me your deal there it's such a great thing on your 38th and you'll round up, you know, and you're talking about love, you know and love spoken here. And I think it's so great, I didn't even have to get that. First of all, it's written right across there. That's all I had to do. And people would have thought I remembered it. Missed my cue card this morning. But it's still important. I think no matter where we go, whether we're working together downtown or in our own home group or that we get along. I once heard a story about a fellow that was out golfing and he went into the clubhouse and he was sitting there and he was really feeling down in the dumps and he's sitting there all by himself and he Was really disappointed with his day. And he said, Oh God. And a voice came down and said, Yeah, what's the trouble? He looked up and he said that you got and God said yes, that's me. and he said, what seems to be the trouble? And he said well I just can't putt. And God said well tomorrow when you're out just move your right hand around a little bit and I'm sure everything will be all right. So while he had him on the line he thought he better say something else to him so he said tell me God do they have a golf course up in heaven? God says just a second I'll check and he went away and he came back and he says I got some good news and I got som e bad news. First of all he said for the good news they've got the most beautiful golf course that I've ever seen. So the golfer says, well, what can be the bad news? And he said, your tee-off time is 10 after 8 tomorrow morning. So you see, it's kind of important that we be on good terms with each other because we never know when our tee-offs are going to be. and uh i i've been impressed by the the ladies that are that are looking after things and and you know helping out i've watched them and i i know that sometimes ladies are difficult to work with al-anons and aa ladies because they're always projecting things they always want to know well what's going to happen if something doesn't happen and you know and it it sort of gets you down sometimes but you know we put up with it because we do have a serenity prayer that says god grant me serenety except the things i cannot change and there's no use trying to change him you know but i was in amarillo texas and there was a a young lawyer who uh was going to chair my saturday night meeting and he was really nervous and and on on saturday morning uh he he got up real early and he was going to chair the banquet that night. And he got up really early and he was in his room preparing his deal for the night. Now, you must remember this is the first one that he had ever done and he Was nervous about it and he wanted to do a good job. And his wife walked in and this is what she said. She said, What would happen if something would happen to me? Would you get married again? Now, this is six o'clock in the morning. And so this young member of AA trying to do his job, he said, well, I'm a young man. I probably would. And he went on doing what he was doing. So she said, would you move her into this house? And he said、Well, the house is paid for. And after all, the mortgage money is pretty expensive. Probably what the heck, she's got to stay somewhere. And he Went on doing What he's doing. And she said、What about the bedroom? Well, he says, she has to sleep somewhere. You know, she might as well be there. She said, what about my jewelry? And he said, well, if you don't will it to somebody else, she may as well have it. And he continues on doing what he's doing. She says, what is it? He said, I don't know. What about my car? And she said, uh, well it's a small car with the gas crunch on. She might as well drive your car after all it's in good shape. She asked, what do you think of my golf clubs? He replied, oh no, not your golf clubs. She replied, you would marry her and move her into this house, into my bedroom, let her wear my jewelry, let him drive my car. What is wrong of my golf clubs. And he said, she's left-handed. So sometimes, ladies, it doesn't pay to project things. I'm not going to tell you too much about my drinking this morning. I am going to tell you one thing, that I did drink. I'm not here by mistake. I did drink and when I drank I caused a lot of people, including myself, a lot of heartache. But I didn't drink for very long. I started drinking when I was 16 years of age. I came from a good home and I went into the service. I wanted to be an athlete. I was a pretty good athlete. I went in to the service when I was 16 because I found out that I didn t like the discipline of my home, and I didn't like the discipline in my church. I didn' t like the discipline in school, so I ran away from discipline. To show you that I was a little smarter than the teenagers of today, I ran into the army. That is not a good move to run away from discipline. That was really my first big mistake in life. The first night that I was in the service, I had never drank before, did know anything about it. I went downtown with that big uniform on with the rest of the men. And I went to a beer parlor and we went in there and I had some beer and some great things happened to me. I became what I wanted to be. I was a great conversationalist. I could just talk about anything after a few beer. Somebody said something that I didn't like too much and I found out that I had extra muscles and I told him where to head in. We went to a dance and I was Canada's own Fred Astaire. I just glided across that floor. My God, it was beautiful. I took a girl home and I Was Charles Boyer and I was Clark Gable and the great lovers of that time all in one. But the next morning I woke up at that armories in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. And I was that same scared little fella that had joined the army the day before. But every night I would go downtown with the boys and and I could be what I wanted to be. And it was just beautiful. And I didn't think there was anything wrong with that. I thought everybody did it and everybody was doing it. It seemed like the thing to do and I enjoyed it. I got along very well in the service. I became an instructor when I was 16 years of age. However, I got kicked out when I was 17. I went back home and I got a job working in an aircraft factory and I did very well. All of a sudden I got some responsibility that I couldn't handle. And so I ran away from responsibility and I ran back into the service. All of the time I was drinking with the rest of the people, didn't think there was anything wrong with it. I ran Back Into the Army and this time I was a genius. I told them I'd never been in before and I knew everything about the army and I became an instructor. I got recommended for my commission when I was 18 years of age and I'd love to stand here and tell you that I was an officer in the Canadian Army but I got kicked out when I was 18 years of age. I went back home and got a job in a newspaper, and I was drinking with all the fellows that were coming home on holidays. I was out in the street selling advertising, and it was a good job. But all of a sudden, I got too much responsibility, and once again, I ran from responsibility. I didn't know it at that time, but I know it today through the AA program. I ran from responsibility, and I ran into the Navy. And I settled down to a bit of serious drinking. I got recommended for my commission. I went away to officer's training. And I would love to stand here and tell you I was an officer in the Canadian Navy. But I got kicked out of officer's train. It seemed that an officer that was in charge didn't appreciate me telling him what he could do with his ship. and i was down at the docks here and i noticed that it's really a physical impossibility to do with his ship what i told him to do with it and i i didn't get kicked out of the navy i just got kicked out officers training i became a gunner on a merchant ship and i say sailed all over the world and i got drunk all overthe world and i would like to tell you people that i a lot of you people are indebted to me because i was down in the south pacific with a lot of your people and we were down in australia one time and there were uh one of your ships got torpedoed and it was loaded with tanks and it was supposed to go to new guinea and our ship was the only ship that was empty and they ordered our ship to take your tanks up to new Guinea i don't mean your drunks i mean your tanks and we took your ships your tanks out of the water and we took them to New Guinea and up there and those japanese people were very narrow about that and they were shooting at us doing a whole bunch of things and and we brought we got your tanks unloaded and delivered and i want you to pay tribute of some way to me for that but because i practically did it single-handedly and uh and we were coming back and we had been drinking quite a bit because we had a cargo of liquor to take to new zealand australia and we hade some of the guys had stolen some of it and we had quite a supply and when we're coming back into australIA our own aircraft came out to meet and our captain thought it was the japanese planes coming back and he got really excited and our gunnery officer ordered us to start shooting and suddenly he realized that we're shooting at our own ships and he became very panicky i don't know why we weren't hitting them and and so so you have to visualize the gunnering officer standing up where i'm standing and I'm down below in charge of this big forward gun like right down about there those of you people who know merchant ships you know where I'd be standing I'm in charge this big gun and he had to stop us firing so he screamed down and he said cease fire and so I fired I said okay Cappy I thought he was just trying to be friendly and I became an alcoholic, got kicked out of the Navy and became a member of Alcoholics Anonymous and you're stuck with me but I would like if any of you people are in the Navy to remember that, that I did a lot for your country but while I was in the navy I got married to a beautiful little gal from back home and I'm still married to her and I would love to tell you that I was a very good husband and a very good father but i wasn't because i was an alcoholic father and i was an alcoholic husband and i don't care who you are you aren't a good father or a good husband if you are an alcoholic father and an alcoholic husband it's just not possible because you do things that you don't want to do and uh it's just not the way to live i came back from the service and i start celebrating the end of the war I started getting jobs, I started losing jobs I started to celebrate the beginning of the Korean War and I probably celebrated the end of that I became a fighter The last two years that I drank I think I had 17 fights and 17 knockouts and I lost them all And I wasn't fighting in any rings or anything I was fighting just because I was very arrogant because I didn't like myself and I became that type of a person and i got uh i start playing poker and that's a bad combination if you're drinking i share that with you i know that none of you alcoholics down in this country i see a sign there fargo they're playing blackjack now or something but but i knowthat none ofyou are stricken with that but if you happen to sponsor somebody someday i would suggest that you tell them that that's not really the thing to do is to combine booze and poker play and i tell you that because i was a fighter and a poker player and that's what got me to alcoholics anonymous i was at a big stag for a hockey team and i've always been very interested in hockey and i have always been on hockey committees and attend hockey games and i was at this stag where we were raising money and of course we had a poker game and I was in this poker game, and I did a little something that a great big fellow that weighed 275 pounds didn't appreciate. I did something like cheating, and he and I had a fight, or I should say he had a flight. And I was drunk, and hit me, and the cement floor. It was just like that, and I got up and he hit me and I hit the cement flooring. We did out a whole bunch of times, And finally I stayed down there, not because I didn't want to get up, but because I couldn't get up. And I went to hospital. I didn t go to hospital because I was an alcoholic, there were no treatment centers at that time. I just went to the hospital because had been beaten up by this great big bully that caught me cheating. And that is where I found Alcoholics Anonymous, was in that hospital. Now I know why I became an alcoholic. I became a alcoholic because I'm a Protestant. And that's really not the thing to laugh at. I am a Protestant who grew up in a Catholic community, and I was probably one of the only the protestant families that lived there and that is the wrong place back in the early 50s to grow up i'll tell you and i grew up hating catholics i don't think too much of them as yet some of them give me hosts and a hostess to look after me and they're catholics you know introduced me this morning to a fine lady sister you know they really start things out great for me and and i grew up with resentments against catholics and you would have too because they used to call the bingos in latin so i couldn't understand them and i got into this this hospital and and it's a catholic hospital and i it was before medicare in saskatchewan and i i had to give a bad check to get a private room and i I I was in there five days and then this little sister she came by and I and she seemed she couldn't find a bank for this check and i had a difficult time getting out of that hospital probably had i been catholic she would let me out but you know as protestant she wanted that check paid for and i paid for it because i i phoned the only person in the world if my credit was any good with and that was my bootlegger he was a taxi driver and he came up and bailed me out of that hospital i may have been there yet and i my doctor who had been in a service with talked to me in that hospital, and he said, cease. I can't do anything more for you. I have built you up physically. And he said there's nothing more I can do for you, and then he sat down by my bed, and he told me I was in a service with you. You drank too much then. Things have got worse since you got home, and I would suggest that you join Alcoholics Anonymous. Now, I was 27 years of age. that's not young today i know that you're coming in at 12 and 11 but but in 1952 that was a young person and i didn't want to join alcoholics anonymous but he didn't leave it at that he went out and he got a couple of members to come and see me and i'll never forget those two guys and i hope i never do they're both passed away today bill was one of them and bill was the sloppiest drunk in all of canada but bill came to see me and he was dressed up and he looked good and he had a brown suit on and he Had a bow tie and a silk shirt and he Was clean his hair was combed and he HAD shiny shoes and and i knew that something had happened to bill the other fellow was a chap i'd been in a service with and he came back and he got into some trouble and he landed in our penitentiary and he found Alcoholics Anonymous in the penitentiary and he too looked different neither one of them had they could have just stood there and I would have known that something good had happened to them and I always like to go on a 12-step call looking good because of what those two people look like because they attracted me to this fellowship of AlcoholicsAnonymous and they talked loud I was in this private ward and they've talked and I knew the whole hospital was listening. And I didn't want anybody to know what I drank. I come from a town of 35,000 people and I wasn't a quiet drunk. And they left me on a Saturday morning. I got out of that hospital and I went down to an emergency meeting that they had at 10 o'clock on a Friday morning to meet me. And you know every member of Alcoholics Anonymous in the city of Prince Albert at that time came to see me they were all there they had a real live one and at that times we didn't really wait for them to come in if we got one we really looked after them and I wish you could have seen me that morning I was still black and blue from the beating that I'd received my jacket was torn my shirt was still covered with blood and uh i had my overcoat collar up and i didn't want anybody to see me and and but they came in and and it it was strange i knew most of them but i hadn't seen them for quite a while i guess they were going different places than i was and they after they finished talking to me and i liked everyone i didn'T like some of their you know that they're a little sarcastic i thought they said we've been expecting you and it's the 16th of january and they said happy new year you you know, and I mean, they said some strange things. We've got a chair for you and all this stuff, you know. I really didn't appreciate their sense of humor, but they seemed like pretty fine fellows. And there were no girls at that time in AA in our city and just guys. And I liked what I saw because, and not only that, it was quite a thing to have 14 people come out to meet you when you come out of hospital for going in there for being beat up and cheating in a poker game, you know it's just like this morning somebody said there's not a great crowd here well I think there's a terrific crowd here for the fact that none of us really wanted to come in the first place you know you know there's none of Us just jumped up one morning and said golly what will I do this morning I think I'll join Alcoholics Anonymous you know It wasn't that way and we're all here this morning you know looking sane and sober and fully clothed and it's quite a thing and i'm proud of you but but there i was i didn't want to lose these people because they they seem to be real friendly but after they finished talking to me and there were some old people there my god some of them were 45 and 50 years old and geez real old people and and i i thought my god what is this you know and but when they finished walking they said they wanted to take me home and i thought oh no i'll go home by myself because my wife she was very narrow about me being away four or five days and and she always used to say unkind things to me when i got home and so i thought well if i take these guys home i just got him as friends she'll chase them away too she'd run all my other friends off and and so I decided that that they shouldn't take me home but they insisted on taking me home now some of the gals this is before Al-Anon was started in our our part of country some ofthe gals who had been who were the wives had been up to see my wife and they told her about this thing and I can remember walking in and she said she opened the door and I was real scared when she opened that door because I thought she'd come on with you know what some of these wives are like and she says I think everything's going to be all right hon and she kissed me and I thought by golly if this is what AA is I'm hanging right in there, because that was good enough for me. And that night we went to our first meeting. We went to a meeting and they had a social. It was a Saturday night and they had a special before the meeting. And they played games, stupid games like pin the tail on the donkey, you know. Now that really wasn't my idea of a Saturday Night. And here I am with all these old people, and they're playing games like that. And then I look around, and everybody's having a good time but me. And so I tried to join in. And you must remember that I didn't want to come to Alcoholics Anonymous. I was something like the three alcoholic rabbits. I don't know whether any of you down here know what an alcoholic rabbit is. I mean a real, genuine alcoholic rabbit. They sit out by the fence up back there in Saskatchewan with their ears drooping down, and they're real genuine alcoholics. And there were three of them, and they were known as Foot and Foot-Foot and Footfoot-FOOT. And Footfoot used to phone him, Foot-foot-foot, and he'd say, let's pick up Old Foot and we'll go down to the bar. So Foot-foot and foot-foot foot, pick up old foot, they'd go down To the bar one night foot foot was sitting talking to foot foot foot and foot foot foot said to footfoot he said, where's foot? And foot foot sent to foot foot foot he said well old foot was here just a minute ago but he went outside so foot foot and Foot, foot, foot. They went outside and found poor old Foot. Foot was dead. So Foot, Foot said to Foot, Foot, what do you think we should do with Foot? And Foot,foot,foot said to foot, he said well I think we should take him to the funeral home and after the funeral Foot,Foot said to Foot,foot,foot he said what do you think old Foot died from? Foot,foot,foot said to Foote,foot he said I think he was an alcoholic and Foot, foote said to foote,foote he said do you think we're alcoholics and Foote foote foote said to Foote foot he said we're drinking quite a bit and Foute foote said to foot foot foot he said do you think we should join Alcoholics Anonymous and foot foot foot said to foot foot he said well we might as well we got one foot in the grave anyway and that's what I thought I thought you had to have one foot in the graveyard to come to this outfit but here I was with these people and I remember that night this guy stood up and he said he'd been sober for a year. And I sat back, and I knew this fellow. And I thought, liar, you know. He was a traveling salesman, and I know he went out on the road and he probably drank all week and then come in and told these donkeys he was sober. And they had quite a meeting. I didn't believe anything. And then when the meeting was all over, a couple of old-timers who were sober about 18 months and they they took me into another room and they said cease you heard tonight that there's no musts in Alcoholics Anonymous but they said tomorrow morning at eight o'clock there's a meeting right here and you must be here and, you know, I've never stopped going. I'm glad they talked to me like that. That was January the 16th 1952 because of you people, because of the grace of God and because of the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous all over the world I have never had to have a drink and for this I'm truly grateful and I just had a beautiful time at AlcoholicsAnonymous youngest member in the group the youngest member in the whole province of Saskatchewan and we went to deals not nearly as big as this but we went everywhere with our group and people I stayed sober just by pats on the back people say doing a fine job young fellow you know and that's beautiful I mean who wouldn't want that I'd been looking all over the world for that people to accept me and love me and it was just great and for about three years I was just having a great time and then a horrible thing happened in our group some younger members came in walked right by me and talked to the older members older members walked right by me and talked to the newer members and I don't care if you're an Alateen, Al-Anon or Alcoholics Anonymous this is going to happen to you one day you're going to become a middle member and it's a bad thing you're just like a hole in a donut you're nothing you're standing out there nobody's talking to you I seriously thought about going out and practicing a little bit and coming back in and getting that treatment again but thank god i didn't do that just about that time we had a little catholic fellow in our group by this time i'm accepting them and and uh he he said that we asked him to chair our group and we have discussion groups and he said he would chair it providing that we did one thing we said what's that and he says well i'll chair it provided we go through the steps as a group and that we do the steps. We just don't talk about them, we do them. And he said, I don't care who comes in to AA, and the Prime Minister of Canada at that time lived in our town, John Diefenbaker. He said, I don'T care if old John comes in. He says, we're not going back to step one. We are going to sponsor people properly, and we are going do these steps as a group, and if you'll let me do that, I will chair the meetings. Up until that time, we'd been doing from two, then to eight, and nine, and then back to five, and nobody knew anything about anything. And so Ernie started to take us through the steps. And that is the experience that I've had in Alcoholics Anonymous that I'm going to share with you this morning, this experience I've Had since coming to this program. And I can remember that first night when Ernie Started those steps, and he took a look at that step where step one says we admitted we're powerless over alcohol, that our lives have become unmanageable. I didn't even know at that time that there was a second part to that step. I thought, sure, I'm powerless over alcohol, so I've come to Alcoholics Anonymous. But then it says that our lives have become unmanageable. I had an unmanangeable life as far as money was concerned. I came to Alcoholic Anonymous, I hate to even announce this little sum down here where you have so much money, but I owed $6,200. I know that seems, and probably a lot of you got that much money in your pocket this morning, but I owed $6,200 in 1952. And if you put that into inflationary terms, that's probably about $20,000. And I didn't owe it for anything. I just owed it. You see, I came to AA through a poker game, and I owed it to some strange people. And my boss had got sick and tired of me getting phone calls, and him getting phone calls. And so he took me to a bank. He endorsed my note at the bank for $6,200. He and the bank manager, they didn't even let me send the checks. They sent the checks to the people I owed money to. They made Babe and I sign a paper that never again would we charge anything. We would pay cash for everything. And three years later, he bailed me out for $7,500 because I had an unmanageable life as far as money was concerned. but I found out through that step one that financial problems had nothing to do with money I found out that it had a lot to do with big shot ism I found out that it had a lot to do with pride I found out that it had a lot to do with ego now I know it's ridiculous even talking about financial problems to you people but just in case you ever sponsor somebody that's got a financial problem you say I heard a little old fella from way up there in Saskatchewan talk about that. Maybe we better write him a letter, and I'll write back. Because financial problems can cause you a lot of problems. It caused me to become a bigger liar than I was when I came to Alcoholics Anonymous, and that's big. It cost me to become a cheat and thief. And I remember one day to show you what type of person I was. I went home and my wife you know those sneaky Al-Anon women she said as we sat down for lunch she said I thought you said you paid so-and-so and by this time I was an eye specialist you know I did this and I did that and I said look at if I said I did that I did that you know and she says well how come they would phone today and say that it's not paid and you know what the big eye specialist did i walked over first of all i threw my food into the sink and smashed the plate in front of my wife and two little girls then i walked over to the telephone and ripped it off the wall and informed her that they would not be phoning her anymore and i went into the front room and pouted now that's not drunk that's sober in this beautiful fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous where you walk down the street and everything is beautiful. You know, there I was in my own home with three beautiful ladies, my wife and two little beautiful daughters ripping phones off the wall, throwing my food away and acting like an idiot. So I found out I had an unmanageable life and I would suggest if any of you ever meet somebody that's having a financial problem that you tell them it's not going to do much for their sobriety we went on to step two where it says came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity i told ernie and the rest of the boys i've never been in a mental hospital so how can i be insane i said how can I come back from somewhere I haven't been and they said cease that's not what we mean we mean that you are a negative thinker and I was especially if I was talking about one of you people and if it was negative did you ever see a group of AAs or Al-Anons sit around having a coffee trying to help somebody that's not there and they say things like did you know, have you heard isn't it awful I mean that's the type of person I was and they said see that's what you have to do is change your thinking to positive thinking. I was something like the negative barber. This fellow slid into the barber chair one day and he says, like a haircut last month for three weeks. Barber said, why three weeks? He said, well, I'm going on vacation. Barber says, where are you going? And he said, first of all, I'll go to London, England. Barber say, you're not going to London. He said I am. He said you're no, I said I wouldn't go there if I were you. Now he says I've never been there but I heard. Lousy place to go. Too many people, too many cars. The guy said look it just cut my hair. If I don't like it there I'm gonna Paris. The barber says, you're not going to Paris. I said, I am. He said, you are not? I said I am, wouldn't go there if I were you. No, I've never been there, he said, but I heard, he said, they really fleece the tourists. The guy says, look it, I don't care. If I don' t like it there, I'm going to Rome. The barber said, You're not goin' to Rome? I said. I am! He said. You're no? I said am! He said I wouldn't got there if i were you, and he said, i heard too many Catholics there. The guy said, lookit, I' m a Catholic. Yeah, but he said I heard different kind of a Catholic over there. Three weeks later, the guy came back, slid into the barber's chair. The barber says, how was your trip? He said, it was good. He said it wasn't. He said it was. He says he didn't go to London. He did. He didn't. It says I did. And he says, I'd love to stay longer, but want to get on to Paris. She says you didn't go to Paris as I did, he says you did. This is a day. And he says they'd love just stayed there long, but wanted to get onto Rome. He says you didn't go to Rome. He says I did. He says didn't this is a dead and he says the matter of fact, he says a great thing happened. He says I got an audience with the Pope. He says you didn't, he says I did. He says she didn't and he says he says the most beautiful thing happened he says i knelt down bent down to kiss the pope's ring and you'll never believe what the pope said and the barber says what and he says where the hell did you get that lousy haircut and i was something like a negative barber i didn't know but i'd heard you know so they told me that step one i had an unmanageable life step two they told me that i could find a manager they used to say pray and i say who too and they said doesn't matter just pray act as if at night they'd say say thank you i say who too and i said doesn'T matter just pray and I did it and I stayed sober you know and and it's just beautiful and and so then they went on to that third step where it said made the decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him and you know decisions i mean you watch the people in the lineup this morning trying to decide what they should have you know none of us like making decisions because you know we are people that hate to make a decision because you Know it may cause us some problems and and we may get so that that we can't you know We may make the wrong decision so we don't make any decisions and indecision it tells you will kill you it tells you that right in the book and so i had a difficult time making this decision but you know if you take when they read how it works and they tell you they're being convinced we're at step three which is that we decided to turn our will and our life over to the care of god as we understood him just what do we mean by that and just what do we do and it tells me here and so many people say how do we turn a will and a life over the care of God as we understood him. And if you read that, you will find out it's what you turn over. And when I found out what I was going to turn over, believe me, I wanted to turn it over to anybody. And so they said, made a decision to turn a will and a lives over the carer of God, as we understand him. Now I have a difficult time making decisions. I had a difficult this morning before I started to talk. I was trying to decide, Kathy had gone to the bathroom twice and I was trying to decide whether I should go to the bathroom. And right now, I don't know whether I've made the right decision or not. Back home, and I know you haven't got any of these people in Duluth, but back home we have people that are called poachers. You know, they shoot game whenever they want or they never get license they fish and do what they want and there was this one old poacher he used to go fishing whenever he wanted and this game warden was trying to catch him and finally a new game warding came to town went downtown went down to this old fellow's shack and he made friends with him and finally about two o'clock in the afternoon and this old game wardon dressed up in old clothes just like the old poachers and the old poet you said well i'm going fishing so the old game wardens should like come with you so they all poach you said come along so they get out the middle of the stream, they stop the boat and he reaches over and opens a big box and he pulls out a couple of sticks of dynamite. Lift them, threw them into the drink. Boom! Up comes the fish and out comes the net. He practically fills the boat. And out comes The Badge. And the old game warden says, I finally got you. And he's given it to him. He's given him a lecture. And The Old Poacher never said a word. Just reached over into the box, took out two more sticks of dynamite, lit them, handed them over to the old game warden. The game wardens sitting there with two lit sticks of dynamite. And the old poacher says, look buddy, do you want to talk or do you want to fish? He made a decision. And I think that a lot of problems, a lot of people have trouble with that decision. I have a friend of mine who was over in Ireland and he's walking down the street and someone stuck a gun in his back and he said, what are you? And the guy thought real fast well he says, if I say I'm Protestant and he says he's Catholic he'll shoot me so he says I'm Jewish and the guy with the gun says I'm the luckiest Arab in the whole wide world You see, sometimes we make the wrong decisions but here they told me to make this decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God as I understood it. And so I did it just like this. I said, look at God. I've made a bad job of managing my life. How about you taking over? I found out I had an unmanageable life. I found a manager in step two. Step three, I turned my will and my wife over to the carer of this manager as I understand it. And that's how simple I had to keep it. And I had a good time and I had it keep it simple because if I complicate things I get all fouled up. I had keep it that simple. talking about keeping things simple I have a friend of mine back home that has a ranch and another fellow said how did you get the name of your ranch and he says well I wanted to call it the Bar Q my wife wanted to called it the Susie Q my son wanted to cal it the bar Susie q my daughter wanted to caller Susie bar Q so we called it a bar Q Susie cue Susie bar cue bar Susy cue guy said that's a great name but where are the cattle and he said none of them ever survived the branding you know. I think that it's important that we do these things simply or we may not survive the branding, you know, so I did this and then they took me on to that beautiful step four and they told me that I had to make a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself and old Ernie was pretty smart because he'd heard people say well I can't find a pencil and a paper or i can't find enough paper old ernie brought the pencils and he brought the paper and he handed them out to us and we took him and he explained step four and he exclaimed that it's all about you know resentments fears and sex and he told us that prior to that he told Us and i'm and it was really something in the doctor's opinion and i'll never forget it because he told me that we He had to read the first 57 pages of the big book, and we read those. And then when he was telling us what we were like, and it's page 26 in Roman numerals. It must have been written by a Catholic. It says men and women drink essentially because they like the effect produced by alcohol. The sensation is so elusive that while they admit it is injurious, they cannot after a time differentiate the truth from the false. To them, their alcoholic life seems the only normal one. And listen to this. It says they are restless, irritable, and discontented. I guarantee there is not an alcoholic in the room or anybody that is stricken with the illness of alcoholism that doesn't know what it's like to be restless, irritable and discondent. And so Ernie said that we can get away from this, that we don't anymore have to be restless, irritable and discontented. he says we can do this by going through these steps and Ernie said I have done it and I've found these things and every meeting he used to read the promises to us on page 83 and 84 the big book and and so when we started on this step four I was so enthused and I didn't want to get behind because I was always a competitor and we went home and that week we did step four and I came back and I even wanted to show it to Ernie and Eranie said no it's yours he said just as long as you've done it and we had all done it. And then in the next week, we had to go on to step five where it says, you know, we admit it to God, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of our wrongs. And I found out something that there's only one thing that's tough about step five and that's step four. I found OUT when I did step four, I wanted to do step five. And some people say they went and talked to another person. They went and said, another human Being. That's not what Ernie said it said. Ernie says it says admit it to god to yourself and then to another human being and so i talked it over with god as i understood him talked it all with myself and then i went and talked it out with a little minister protestant mind you and uh he was my little presbyterian minister and and i shared this with him what i'd done in step four and i thought i would really shake the reverend up but i didn't as a matter of fact he shared a few things with me he too had been a little rang-a-tang these time, and he and I became very good friends. And you know, it is so terrific. And Ernie told us every week, he said, get what is coming to you out of this program. And he'd read those promises and he'd say, you people are entitled to those promises. And I think that so many of us, whether we're in Al-Anon, Alateen, or Alcoholics Anonymous, I thinkthat so manyof us jip ourselves. We don't get what is coming to us. But in Alcoholics Anonymous, in this book, and if some of you people think that this is some stupid propaganda that I'm bringing down from the United States or from Canada, I want you to know that I bought this book in the United State. And I want to thank you for giving us this book In Canada because it's a beautiful book and it's called The Big Book of AlcoholicsAnonymous. And believe me, it is something else. And each and every day, it's part of my life and I took that fifth step and it told me when I finished that fifth step, it told in this big book what to do. It told me to find a quiet place and take this big down and read steps six and seven and to go over the past five proposals that I'd done and find out if I had omitted anything. It tell me exactly what to do and it says in step six we're entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character and it said in step seven that we humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings and i found out that there was never a time in all of my sobriety that i was more ready be entirely ready to have god remove all these defects of character and humbly ask him to move our shortcoming you know the problem is i think is that some of us some of Us are afraid of becoming too good too fast don't worry about that Some people say, if we do all that, we'll become a saint. I'll tell you, I'm privileged to be somewhere almost every weekend. And I haven't met one yet, so don't worry about that. Not even in Al-Anon, there aren't any. Just haven't meet them gals. And so here I am to be entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character and humbly asked him to remove our shortcomings then some guy started talking about humility and i realized that if i wanted to be humble to be a loving god to a loving God as i understood him that i had to get down on my knees and up until that time i would tell people don't worry about what position you pray in lying on your back in bed riding a horse in an airplane driving in your car walk it doesn't matter but never ever told anybody to get down underneath because i hadn't been down to my knees since i'd been in sunday school and then i was in new york one time and i heard a guy by the name of shy walker and shy told how he came out of prison and shy told how his so much wanted to stay out of person and he wanted this program but he couldn't he couldn't get down on his knees to pray and he said one night he came home and he was working and construction work and he had high-top boots and he kicked them under the bed. And the next morning he said he got up and he got down on his knees to get these high-top boots and he thought, my golly, seeing I'm down here I think I'll say a few words. And every night he used to boot his boots under the band so that the next day the next moment he'd get down and say a couple of words. I don't know whether it works with high-toe boots because it didn't have any of that but I know it works with ordinary shoes because i tried it i don't have to boot any boots under the bed anymore this morning before i came down here i was down on my knees i'll be down onmy knees tonight maybe in the middle of the day i don't know because i've got so many things to be grateful for and i i would suggest that the only way that i can be humble in alcoholics anonymous is by getting down ony knees to a loving god as understood him. And if there's any definition for humility, I would suggest that it is the ability to stand and the willingness to kneel. The ability to stand up and talk about what we believe in and the willingness to get on our knees and thank that loving God as we understood him for everything that has been given to us. I told you that I used to play poker and it was an obsession with me. And I realized that I hadn't stopped playing poker because I came to Alcoholics Anonymous. I felt I'd just be a better gambler because I'm sober. I'll let you in on a little secret. You can lose money sober. and it was causing me problems and I asked in step 6 and 7 if I could be relieved from this bondage of gambling and I no longer have to gamble I used to swear a lot there's a girl back home that knew me when I was drinking and she said I used clear out a beer parlor just by walking in I was telling Kathy and Mike how I got into the fur business and I told them how I get thrown out of a bar because of my language and I realized that I was going to be in Alcoholics Anonymous and that I started to speak in AA and one day a lady came in to our store to my store and she said we'd been praying for her husband getting in AA very fine fellow businessman and I heard that he'd gone to a meeting not to the group I belong to but to another meeting and I said I hear some good news at your house and she said well I don't know and I says well I heard he went to a meet and she says yeah and I say what do you think of it and she say I really don't know. And I said why? And she says well he came home and asked him how would you like the meeting? And she said, well, a strange bunch of people. She said they prayed a little and then they swore a lot and then we had a cup of coffee and came home and they didn't really impress the guy and so I realized that I couldn't go around from the podium or from anywhere cussing and swearing or maybe I wouldn't be perhaps I would attract some people but perhaps I would scare somebody away and I never wanted ever said or ever thought that anything I say from this podium will drive people away from Alcoholics Anonymous and I pray to God that that never happens to me and so I don't have to swear anymore because of step 6 and 7 and I don' t have to gamble anymore and that's beautiful I had other defects of character and I worked on them through this beautiful program we went on to step eight and each and every week the whole group is doing it and we made a list of all the people we'd harmed and became willing to make amends to them all no big deal you just take a pencil and a paper and you start to write and I wrote it down I even put my own name on up top because I had lost my self-respect in my own hometown when I was drinking and I had a difficult time to forgive myself and I found out through these promises that Ernie used to read every week that I could forgive myself and we went on to step nine where it said made those direct amends to such people wherever possible except when to do so would injure them or others and I used to have a difficult time walking down the main drag in my town because it's only about a half a mile long but I'd start on one side of the street and I'd meet somebody that I couldn't meet I'd go to the other side I'd meet someone coming from there and I couldn't meet them and I'd have to duck into a store down the back alleys or something the way that I used to be when I was drinking but Ernie told me that I could be a free man it told me in step 5 that we are building an archway through which we can walk a free map and then this little guy in our group says that don't jip yourselves, gang. We are entitled to everything it says in that book. All of those promises, each and every one of us are entitled to, and don't JIP yourself. And I can tell you one thing, I haven't Jipped myself. I made the amends. I made a promise I made amends to everybody that I had to make amends too. The financial amends as I told you about, they were no big deal because someone else made them for me, I hadto pay them back. and I had a good job, so I paid them back. But there were those other amends that you had to walk up and tell somebody that you'd assassinated their character. They didn't even know what they were talking about, but it was bothering you. In other words, what I had to do was clean my own side of the street. And I know that every one of you know what the promises are on page 83, but I'm going to share them with you because they mean so much to me. because I already read them once this morning. And it says, if we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are halfway through. We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness. We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it. We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace. No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others. That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear. fear. We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows. Self-seeking will slip away. Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change. Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us. We'll intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. And we'll suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves. Every one of those promises you are entitled to. Whether you belong to WEA, Al-Anon, or Alcoholics Anonymous, they're yours. But we have to work for it. When it came to Step 10, which says we continue to take personal inventory and when we're wrong, promptly admit it. I like talking about Step 10 because I was in Alcoholics Anonymous for about 10 years when all of a sudden I became Mr. Big Shot in my town I became Mr. big shot in my job I became mr. bigshot in my city I thought mr.bigshot in alcoholics anonymous and I forgot about step 10 I forgot to take a personal inventory I was working for the second or for the wealthiest man in our city and I decided he should be the second wealthiest man and I became very interested in material things and one day he called me into the office and it seemed that the store and i was managing the largest ladies wear store in the province of saskatchewan and looking after the furs for five stores and it seems that the storage just wasn't big enough for the two of us and it seemed that he wasn't about to leave and so he fired the great c score after 10 years of all of that hard work and i walked out the door with an attitude something like this well they won't last long now boy is that ever sick i want you to know they're still there they're still millionaires and they're doing okay and that was in 1962 and i can remember a little cousin that i had and she had was living at the west coast of canada and she came to visit me and she was a member of alcoholics anonymous and i can remember going downtown and getting all dressed up and buying myself a new bunch of threads and going down to see her and walking in and saying to her in my big egotistical way i said well kid how do i look and she said these simple words to me and i'm going to share them with you and i hope that maybe it will help somebody as much as it helped me she said you look real good on the outside cease how are you really on the inside and dear old dave murray who has now gone to that great roundup and i'm sure he's up there with milk this morning and i'M SURE THEY'RE LOOKING DOWN AND THEY'RE SAYING OLD CEASE IS DOING WHAT HE'S SUPPOSED TO BE DOING BECAUSE HE TOO who doesn't know when his tee-off time's going to be, and he better be ready. And old Dave took me up to a roundup, and we went up there, and we had a great time, but all the way up there Dave didn't talk to me because he knew that maybe I was coming back to Alcoholics Anonymous. Now I had never been away physically. I'd been to every meeting, but up here and in here I was away. After that roundup I went into Winnipeg, Manitoba, and I spent a couple of days in a hotel room I'm just talking to God. I decided that I was going to go back to my hometown and I was gonna go in business for myself. Now, that's no big deal because I had to do something. But I went back to Alcoholics Anonymous the way that you're supposed to be in AlcoholicsAnonymous with the proper attitude. For you see, I don't care who we are because it tells us that we've been granted a one-day reprieve. And Ernie told us that no longer did we have to be restless, irritable, and discontented. But if you don't do what you're supposed to do, and if you neglect these maintenance steps, one day you are going to get irritable restless and discondent. And I can tell you that because it happened to me. Thank God I didn't get drunk. But If I carry on those maintenance steps which is 10 11 and 12 and do them the way they're supposed to be done, there's no way that I can get restless, irritable and discontented because I'll be too busy and I share that with you because I hope that you don't have to go through that I went on to step 11 where it says sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood him praying only for the knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry that out if you look at that step it's probably about 17 words longer than any other step So there must be something great about it. And I can tell you it's a beautiful step. Each and every night when I go to bed in Step 10, I have to take a look at C's. Each and Every Morning when I get up in Step 11, I take out this big book called Alcoholics Anonymous and I read page 86, 87, and 88. I read the prayer on page 63, the third-step prayer. I read the prayer on page 76 I read those promises on page 83 and page 84 I read The Last Part of a Vision for You on page 164 I read other things I may read something from Emmett Fox I may even read the Bible I know it's not conference approved literature but I read it anyway and i'll tell you that's the most beautiful experience that you can start your day off now you may say well he must get up awful early i do i get up early because i want to start my day properly i also have an exercise program that i go to early in the morning before i go to work and i will tell you why i do that one morning many many years ago i was going to work and I hadn't discovered how to handle this situation yet of starting my day properly, I would start it with a fast prayer, boom, boom, down and up, you know, like as if I was doing calisthenics in the army. And I was going to work and I got in an argument with a guy from Vancouver, which is over 1,000 miles from where I live. And I said, I was gonna meet him in Montreal at a fur convention and I get in an agreement with him in my car. And pretty soon I'm arguing out loud. And this is a tough thing to do because the guy's not there. And you've got to figure out what he's saying. And, you know, and I got to a stop sign at a red light and there's people, you knows, it's a small town. Everybody knows everybody else. They're looking. I'm just giving it to this guy. I got in front of my store. It's a quarter to nine in the morning. I wasn't finished with the guy. I drove around the block twice because I had some more things to tell him. I came back to my store and went into my store at a quarter to nine in the morning completely exhausted. No, I don't want to live that way. And now you see, I do my reading in the morning. I call it seven minutes with God. And I do this and I can go out because you never know who's out there that's going to get you. There's people that don't know that I'm sensitive. And they say unkind things to me. It may be my staff, it may be my customers, it could be the guy that cuts me off and driving his car. And I don't have to worry about that because I've prepared myself for it. And there's another story about an old poacher that used to do everything wrong. And this game warden came to town, you know and he tried and tried and tried. His name was Ralph and he trying to get this old poacher and he couldn't get him but one night he went down and he bedded down outside this old poacher's shack and he figures in the morning when he gets up I'll catch him. Four o'clock in the morning hears this old door creaking open and he thought oh I'm gonna get him and a voice came out and says you want some breakfast Ralph and the old guy gets up from the hay and he goes in and he's having breakfast and he said how did you know i was out there and the old guy said i didn't know you're out there but every morning for the past five years i've opened that door and says do you want some breakfast you see we can't take that chance because there's going to be somebody out there so let's get ready for them. And we don't have to worry about them. Do you ever get up in the morning, it's seven o'clock in the evening, and just as you're going out the door, and wives are bad for this, because I've talked to other people when we're discussing you, and just as your going out of the door they say take the garbage out. I don't like taking garbage out. And one day I was taking some garbage out and it broke, and it's about 40 below zero. And I'm picking the garbage up. And my wife, I don't like taking it out, but I hate worse picking it up.And my wife came along and she said, can I help you? And I had done my reading and I just smiled and said, no, it's okay, honey, you know. But one time I'll tell you what I would have told her to do with that garbage the same thing as I told that officer to do with that ship and I would have been in serious trouble but you see I don't care what she says in the morning because I have prepared myself for her and everybody else and I can walk out of that house and not only that at nights when I come home I don' t have to creep into the house because of my big mouth I can walking like a man that I own part of that House You notice I say not all of them, but part of it. She may listen to the tape. But you know a beautiful thing happened to me one morning after I did my reading or when I was doing my reading. We have two daughters as I told you and our oldest daughter we gave her a lot of things. We gave her love, we gave er material things and education and you'll never believe what she did to us sister she married a Catholic an Italian one they're the worst kind and they have two beautiful little daughters I don't know why it must be the Anglo-Saxon in them but one is named Anna Maria and they used to live down in eastern canada around oshawa ontario and every time i was coming home from one of these deals or something i'd go that way naturally see my granddaughters in that catholic setting i'd do the best i could for her and and she came home with me and she was about three years old and i was doing my reading and she knocked on the door and babe said honey you can't go in there grandpa's doing his reading and she said well i have something to tell him and so i said let her in she came in i took her up on my knee i tried to explain what i was doing and then i said what did you want to tell me and she says i wanted to tell you that i love you and i said i want you to know anna that i loved you too that may not mean anything to anybody out there but to this old hard rock that came to alcoholics anonymous when he was 27 years old couldn't give love and couldn't receive it all of a sudden i'm telling that little catholic granddaughter that i love her this program is beautiful it'll do anything you know it says keep an open mind and live and let live those slogans work i'll tell you she has a little sister now and her little sister's name is chela louisa i just learned how to pronounce it and she leaps up on my knee anytime and she says i love you and i say i love you too and away she goes and she's happy and my other daughter has a little guy his name is jason he's a protestant and and he and i spend a lot of time together and we go hiking and we do a lot of things and don't think I don't do anything with those little Catholic girls I do a little bit I do it a lot with them too they go to our French Catholic school sister and that's not bad but a lot times I have to drive them and the sister says morning Mr. Corrigal and I grin back and say good morning sister you know and it's beautiful but this little guy and I we were having the car washed and there was a big Kentucky Fried Chicken next to the car car wash and he said grandpa why don't we buy some chicken for grandma and i said i think that's a good idea well he said while we're at it perhaps we should get some for ourselves i don't know about him and so we got home and we have a special table and chairs for our little grandchildren and uh we got there and jason said let's sit down here at the special little table and we're sitting there and Jason's eating his chicken and he says you know what i want to be when I grow up grandpa and I said what do you want to be Jason he said I want to be a grandpa and he said I want to have a store and I want to be the boss and that may not mean anything but that was probably the greatest compliment that I've ever received in my life the fact that a little guy wants to be like me and I could have lost all of that if I hadn't done this program properly. But today I can appreciate them and I can appreciate the love, and when it says love spoken here, I know what we're talking about. Step 12 said to me, having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs. spiritual awakening to me as it says in the book is certainly a personality change you know when i got up on friday morning five o'clock in the morning had to drive to saskatoon catch a flight to winnipeg catch a fight to winnepeg to minneapolis catch a flight from minneapolis back here be told that they're going to fly us to hibbing and buses back you have to have a personality change to handle things like that and a lot of those earth people that Don was talking about last night just can't handle things like that and I can remember sitting on that plane and this lady talking to me and she said she was upset about this Hibbing trip and she looked at me and I said well I've never been to Hibbung and I've ever been on a bus between Hibbling and Duluth on a Friday night before and I think it's alright and she quit talking to me. And she looked at me real strange when she got off the plane because I told her to have faith and I think we're going to land in Duluth. But then I got up on Friday morning and said while I was shaving my god I have to go to Duluth today. I would have been played out before I was finished shaving. but i'd done my reading and you know what i said today is the day that i'm privileged to go back to duluth they've invited me again and i got in that little old car of mine that the bank owns some of and i drove to saskatoon and caught those flights and was told that i may have to go to hibbing and all of that and i handled it properly because of my personality change and then it says we tried to carry this message to alcoholics I've probably made a thousand 12-step calls and every one of them has been a success some of the people are dead some of them are still drinking some of they are in jail I'm sure some of those people some of these people are in treatment centers some of us have short terms of sobriety and some of them have long terms of sobriety. But the reason I say that every one of them has been a success is the fact that old Cease is still sober and that's what they asked me to do was to try to carry the message to the alcoholic who still suffers and I've done that. And then it says practice these principles in all our affairs. Isn't it beautiful that we have principles to practice? And we learned that or I learned them through taking those steps in sequence one at a time with each of the rest of the group and it was beautiful and we all know what the principles are i understand there was a lady in this area an al-nan lady and she was trying to sober up her old boy and she must have been from this area because she had a lot of money and she couldn't get him sobered up and so she took him overseas on a trip and he was drunk when they got in the plane and he got drunker on the plane and got drunk when he got over there and she took him for a walk and those of you who have been to Europe you know where they have these great big wishing wells and they stood up at this wishing well and they threw their money in and they made their wish and the poor old drunk fell in and drowned and you know what that sweet little Alnon gal said holy malarkey this thing really works i don't think that's practice the prince there was another one got on a bus and nalan on gala she got in the bus here in duluth and and a lady sat down beside her and she said to this newfound friend of hers beside her she says gee i didn't pay the bus driver so the lady beside her said well don't worry about if the bus drivers not worried about what you're worried about she said look i just found a new program that demands rigorous honesty and i have to pay him the lady said oh buy yourself a halo and keep your money you know she said no this program demands rigorous honest i'm going up to pay them she walks up she pays the bus driver she comes back and she says i told you that honesty paid off She said, I give him a dollar and he'll give me change for five. I don't think that that's practicing the principles. But we all know what the principles are. And you know, it's great. Have you watched the love that's been in this room all weekend? And it's been easy because everybody's talking about it. There's a sign-up. but what's going to happen this afternoon when we get out of here and we head for home and we get driving down that old freeway and all of a sudden that sweet little Al-Nan sitting beside you she says, I forgot my suitcase in the room that's when you practice the love and you turn around and you go back and get the suitcase and you're trying to pick up time and all OF A SUDDEN YOU SEE A RED LIGHT BEHIND YOU and you mention a suitcase and just before you get home you're about 10 miles from home you run out of gas and once again the subject of the suitcase comes up it's easy to do it here but can we do it when we leave here that's what this program is all about I've had a great time and I'm going to catch a plane this afternoon I'm privileged to be invited and to stop off and see some friends tonight in St. Paul and leave tomorrow morning and go home and I'm going to go home a much wealthier person than when I came because I have got a whole bucket full of AA and Al-Anon and I've enjoyed so much just meeting so many old friends and new friends and I just had a great time and I want to thank the committee for inviting me back I want to thank you the audience because you've been such a beautiful audience because you listened and it's so easy to talk to people who listen you make it so easy for a speaker last but not least I wantto thank God for giving me another beautiful day to allow me to do I guess what I'm supposed to do in Alcoholics Anonymous because I too don't know when my tea off time is going to be and I just better do what I'm asked to do. And there's a little town just outside of Omaha, Nebraska. It's a small town it's a Little Town called Boys Town and as you drive up to this little town you see a statue and it's the statue of one little boy carrying another little boy and you can tell by the way he's stooped over and by the sweat on his brow that he's having a very difficult time But underneath are simple words, something like this. No, Lord, he is not heavy, for he is my brother. All of you people have become my brother and my sisters. And I want to thank you. And you know, when we talk about practice, about carrying the message to the alcoholic who still suffers, I guarantee this morning that there's some person in this room, whether there be Alateen, Al-Anon or Alcoholics Anonymous that has a football in their stomach and if you see somebody that you think is not looking as nice and as good as they should look and we can see it by that look in their eyes put your arm around them and tell them that you love them tell them what you want them and tell them you need them in this beautiful fellowship that we have and I'm going to close this talk and I hope that what I say will help you as much as it helps me. Each and every one of you this morning look really good on the outside. How are you really on the inside? Thank you, and God bless you.