The Danger of the Convention Speaker – Dave R.

About This Speaker Tape

September 1957. A back alley on Skid Row in Roanoke, Virginia, where the world stopped moving and the hair on his head actually hurt. Dave R. arrived at the doors of the fellowship with nothing but a paper bag containing a toothbrush, a razor, twelve pennies, and an ear syringe. He had spent years as a "professional" wreckage-maker: a high school coach who wrote bad checks, a husband who destroyed his first wife's life, and a patient who "found his thrill on Dick's Hill" in the state asylum, where he once chased squirrels in the inebriate ward.

After escaping the asylum and surviving a stint on a chain gang in the Great Dismal Swamps, Dave describes the "alcoholic count" that led him to rock bottom. He speaks of the "magic words" of the home group and the old-timers who used a kind but firm hand to keep him honest. He credits his Higher Power and the love of two women for a sobriety that has lasted over five decades.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Dave C. introduces himself and his sobriety date: September 12, 1957.
• 4:15 Early drinking years and the 'pleasure' of the pause before throwing up.
• 8:30 The delusion of being an undercover agent while the deputy sheriff comes to school.
• 12:45 The 'invisible line' and the first prolonged blackout leading to jail.
• 16:20 Experiences in the inebriate ward and padded cells at Dix Hill.
• 22:10 The chain gang at the Great Dismal Swamps and the first encounter with AA meetings in prison.
• 28:40 Hitting bottom in a Roanoke alleyway and being carried into the Easy Does It Club.
• 33:15 The 'inventory room' confrontation and the struggle with ego in early sobriety.
• 38:50 Tom M. puts a moratorium on Dave's speaking to humble him.
• 44:10 Laughter: The story of Henry waking up in a casket.