The Group Conscience That Voted to Keep the Meetings Fresh – Larry S.

Thank you. Mostly in and out. That's kind of what she said. Once again, it's such an honor and a privilege to be up here. We get to do this all over the country. And me and my damn full scheduling, I have scheduled too many of these things. This is way out of state for us. us. But we're real grateful to be here. We're running a different schedule this weekend than we're accustomed to, and we hope that we can get everything that you bargained for in this deal. We are going to take a break once an hour for you to go out and do whatever it is you need to do. If you need get up and get coffee, get it. If need to get up and let something go, get. You're not going to bother us. We will be covering a lot of material and it's going to be extremely helpful if you have a pen and a highlighter. If you don't have either one don't make for good luck. The charge to you this weekend is that we're going to pass along a lot of information to you that was given to us purely by a couple of guys named Charlie Parmalee and Joe McQuainey at Arkansas. And we were trained by people that were trained by them. And our hope and desire this weekend is to pass along information to you pure in nature with our damn fool egos and wisdom out of it. And when we have an opinion about something, we will make it very clear because my opinion has no place with this information. The very first piece that we're going to go over today is a piece that you've not seen before. But what we're going to do at this point, we're gonna turn this thing into a little meeting and I'd like to clarify that this is not an AA meeting. This is a big book study. So, we're gonna start it out by saying welcome to the Eugene, Oregon Big Book Study. If you would, let's take a moment of silent meditation and open this thing up with a serenity prayer. And during this moment of silence, let us think about why we're here. Serenity prayer? God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things that I can't and the wisdom to know the difference. If you do have a cell phone, we'd ask you to silence it at this time. And if you've got a newcomer with you, keep them quiet, will you? We got a few of these. We had a big box of them and we've run out. These little big book dictionaries. They cost us two bucks and that's what we'll sell them to you for. They're extremely helpful if you become a student of this book because there are words in here that were written in the 30s. and I know being a South Georgia boy I don't understand some of that stuff so I need to look it up short words and long ones hope everybody's got a big book we talked about smoking I don' t need to go back over that I've asked a friend to read the preamble I'm John. I'm an alcoholic. Good job, John. It says, unless we AA members follow to the best of our ability the suggested 12 steps to recovery, we almost certainly sign our own death warrant. Our drunkenness and dissolution are not penalties inflicted by people in authority. Instead, they result from our personal disobedience towards spiritual principles. Thank you, sir. It would probably be a good idea to tell you that my name is Larry Scott and I'm an alcoholic. My sobriety date is December 31st, 1987. And I'm free tonight. I've asked a friend to read the tradition statement. My name is Leo and I am an alcoholic and I live in New York. This is the tradition of alcoholics and non-alcoholics. They must function, but at the same time it must avoid the dangers of great wealth, prestige, and entrenched power, which necessarily tempt other societies. Although our traditions at first sight seem to deal with purely practical matters, the actual operation they disclose is a society without organization, animated only by the spirit of service, a true fellowship. My name is Christian Proctor. I'm an alcoholic. My sobriety date is August 7, 2001. I know a lot of purists in this room are probably going, preamble? Tradition statement? Where the heck do they get these things from? There's a couple groups out of California, Escondido, the Misfits group, and then the Robbers Roost out of Vista, California, and then The Robbers' Roost East out of Atlanta, Georgia, and then We Are Not Glumlock group out of Montana, Georgia. Something happens when you hear, rarely have we seen a person fail who has thoroughly followed our path. People just seem to tune out, go out, grab a smoke, go make some coffee. Because they've heard it a trillion times. We, per group conscience, voted to go to the 12 and 12 in the ninth tradition and actually pull those two readings that you just heard. And it keeps things fresh. It's our prerogative to decide what we want to share in an AA meeting as long as it's in compliance with the literature and hopefully our group conscience statement that we're going to be able to carry a vision of hope for those who are suffering from alcoholism. And one of the reasons why we went to the 12 and 12 in this, because we're a big book study. We're just alcoholic, and we want to keep it mixed up a little. And this next reading that you're goingto hear was written by a guy out of Dallas, Texas named Cliff Bishop and co-authored by a fellow out of the Northeast named Bob Bacon. And what we did is we asked their permission to plagiarize it, condense it down to where it would fit within this format. And it talks about the success rate as it has declined since 1955, and we've got a friend that's going to read that for us. My name is Allen, I'm an alcoholic. Hey Allen! What happened? That question is being asked a lot of alcoholics lately. What happened to our success rate? The Forge in the second edition acknowledges 75% success rate. Today's numbers are much less. The problem is we no longer, we are no longer showing the newcomers that we have a solution now. We're not telling them how important Binkley is. Instead, we're using our meetings to jungle off discussions of our problems, our ideas and our opinions. We're telling newcomers just don't drink and go to meetings. Don't rush into taking these steps. Take your time. That relapse is part of recovery. Most meetings are turned into a misery trap for newcomers and those who depend upon the discussion and participation of the type meeting. What's the solution? We're placing the focus back on the big focus, we need to tell the newcomer that there is a solution. We have had a spiritual waiting as the result of taking the cross steps. that this is a message we need to pass on. Today there are groups of covered-up comics that are starting meetings based on this tradition to pass upon the message of our comics. It's clear as form, direct, and faithful. That is our mission here. We're all students of the book. We are not gurus or experts. We've studied this text and researched materials so we can share it with others. When we are through, we will introduce you. When we are through, we will have introduced you to the office. Thank you, Alan. Thanks, Alan The disclaimer for this thing is that we are students of the book We're not gurus, experts, or authorities We simply want to share with you guys this weekend The information that we've discovered And that was passed on to us by those that have gone before I've been doing this personally for 14 years And being here with a group of guys tonight Is where it all began for me And we're going to go through that in a second. But there was a period of about 12 years that I only attended men's gatherings just like this in Southern California, in Georgia, and in Florida. And all of a sudden the women found out what we were doing and asked us if we'd bring it to them. And they were mad? And I've got to tell you, I miss being with men. Being introduced to men in my fifth year is the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Scariest damn thing that ever happened to me. Because I can't get over on you. And I like that. In this, and we're only going to do these readings and what I'm about to do with you right now, tonight, because of the time constraint. We do in here a thing we call the three parts of an alcoholic puzzle. Because invariably there's some guy in this room tonight that has no idea what the hell he's doing in the woods with 80 guys. and all these rules. Why did I pay to do this? Well, if you're like me, I have a problem. It looks like a Mercedes Benz emblem, doesn't it? First part of this puzzle is the problem. The problem is broken into two parts. The first part of the problem is the obsession of the mind. The obsession of mind is the greater aspect of this disease, and it is a disease. A lot of us walk into these rooms thinking that we have a moral dilemma that we don't measure up. We're just no good. What you have is a disease and the first part of this disease is the obsession of the mind. If you look up the word obsession in a dictionary, it will tell you that it's a thought that overrides all other thoughts. Simply put, when that thought begins up here, all I can think about is drinking. I don't think about her. I don' t think about my bike. I don''t think about business. Think about my dogs. And what happens every time is I cave in. I pass by that little old bar with them icicles painted on the front of it that says, coldest beer in the county. I'm in. And once I pour that alcohol into my body, it sets into motion the second part of the problem. It's called the allergy of the body. this component is what sets me apart from a normal drinker a problem drinker a hard drinker or the social drinker I stop for one reason well, one of a couple I stop when they lock me up behind bars to where I can't get to no more liquor or I stop when they grab me and they put me in a spin dry somewhere and lock me down. The other way I stop is if I die in the street and there's so many of us doing that today. There's somebody in this room tonight, back there in your mind, you're saying well I quit when I run out of money. It's not my story because when I run out of money I grab a tire tool and I beat the windows out of your home, your car or your business and I take what belongs to you and turn it into what I have to have because I'm on that run. This, and we're going to go over it in depth, this doesn't occur in the normal drinker, the hard drinker. The problem drinker and especially the social drinker they tip over a glass of sherry at the pool and say oops I need to go to treatment. It's not my story. Second part of the puzzle is the solution. The solution is found in a spiritual nature. It is the only thing that we found that will alcoholism. Well, this is powerlessness. This is power. Where do we find and keep that power? Third part of the puzzle. Practical program of action. Outlined in masterly detail in the first 164 pages of your book. Any questions on this? Our home group is over in Dunwoody, Georgia and there's a lot of housewives in that area. He'll do that little exercise And you'll point to that part, well, I'm not one of those sherry drinkers who dropped a glass of wine by the pool and showed up in A&A. And inevitably there's somebody in that room that their feelings are offended. We're knuckleheads, man. We took it to the dumpsters. We both lived on the streets. And we're so grateful that AA is the great evening up process. It doesn't discriminate one iota. I mean, as far as alcoholism is concerned, it'll kill you regardless of your background, your heritage, your upbringing, your education, your social class, how much money you have or don't have in the bank. I mean that's one of the great things about alcoholism is that everybody is affected in the same way, you know. But in the sam way also we got AA. And so we're a bunch of knuckleheads sitting in this room full of housewives, ex-cons, car thieves, you know. We got people who are shaking and baking still. And it's just so neat to sit in a room where, you know, the book talks about people who normally wouldn't mix. Man, let's take a look around. We're mixing pretty normally now, huh? In this room tonight over this weekend, please, I say this. I say it emphatically to a group of men because male ego is a bad dude. It'll get you drunk and get you dead. If we go over something tonight or this weekend that's unclear, that you don't understand because we do it so much at Second Nature. or we do this stuff in our sleep. Stop us. Make us go back over it and explain what we're talking about. Please. I sat in a room with Rob Hayes, the man that took me through the book. Great big fella. And he saw me over there kind of zoning and he says, Hey! You ain't got no idea what I'm talking about, do you? I said, No. He says, You better listen up and ask questions. You'll walk out of here drunk, boy. And you know what? Here we are. Somewhat sane. we're going to tell you how this thing started this isn't something that Christian and I drummed up Christian alluded to the fact that we were both homeless we were back in the day and we couldn't stand each other but what we discovered about each other several years ago is that when we looked at each other it was like looking in a mirror we both have a love and we have a passion for this book and it has manifested itself in God putting us together this book study was started by Joe McQueenie and Charlie Parmalee out of Arkansas I understand they have been to this retreat back before Joe passed and what happened is these guys discovered each other at an AA conference someplace and they discovered that they both had the same passion for this information in this book that the other had so what they would do is they would meet at conferences around the country and when they would meet, they would go to one of the other ones rooms and they would study this information and share what they knew with each other. Well word of that got out and there was this cunning, baffling and powerful alcoholic down in Florida named Wesley Parrish. Wesley Parrisch had enough money to burn a wet dog. This boy was loaded. And he thought well this information needs to get out to AA. So Wesley Parrish, with all his money, he put together a 1,500-seat sit-down dinner. And he had Joe and Charlie come and do a book study, the very first one. And back in the days, this is 73, they had the old reel-to-reel tapes. Well, they recorded this thing. Everybody had a nice dinner. And when it was over, Wesley had a raffle. And bless you, he was going to give out 100 copies of this weekend session he was cunning, baffling and powerful he rigged the raffle and what he did is he hand picked out of these 1500 people who was going to get a copy of that tape and what he did is he based that on their profile in their own communities wherever they were based in the world so that this information would get maximum exposure and the rest is history So they started touring the world doing these book studies. There's a couple of guys, a couple of brothers in Atlanta named Dante and Rick Regente. They were taught by Joe and Charlie. Well I ended up I had about five or six, seven years whatever it was sober and I endedup in a meeting one night and it was pretty much a discussion meeting but all I heard out of the core group of members was the book, the book the book the book and I thought this is just a little different. I've got one of these books I've been to book studies so I got Rob Hayes off to the side and I said what are y'all obsessing in this book and he says has anybody ever taken you through this? And I said well yeah. He says why don't you show up over here Wednesday night we're going to have a little old book study upstairs over here and see what you think Well, I showed up and they cracked the book open to the chapter to wives. I came that close to walking out. I didn't have one, didn't need one, didn't want one, was not interested. But for some reason I sat there and all of a sudden this book took on a life that I'd never known and I said, wow, that was pretty cool. He says, why don't you show up at my house tomorrow night? There's a group of men going to be over there and let's take a look at it again. So I showed out. There were 16 men in the room and there was an empty chair sitting right here. It was a long, narrow room and Rob and Rick and Dante were at that end and they opened the book to Bill's story. And they started talking about Bill Wilson. They talked about how he acted, the place he had put himself in in life. They talked abut the way he thought, the thought that preceded his first drink and how his drinking escalated. They talked bout the things he did once he started drinking. And they talked about the aftermath of his alcohol abuse and alcoholism. And I looked in that chair, and Bill Wilson was sitting there. This is no lie. This is my experience. And all of a sudden, that man started nodding. He took a pulse. And I went, wow. They brought the book to life. And that's our chore here this weekend, is to introduce you to some of these early players. And hopefully, by the end of this thing, you will have made the notes and the highlights in your own book and gathered enough information so you can carry this on. Because I don't know how many other guys are doing what we're doing, but I guarantee you there's a lot of people out here that want to know it. I mean, when Joe McQueen died, our phones started blowing up, and we're having to just say no because it's our charge to carry this message. and I don't want to go on this tirade but you go to these meetings and somebody wants to talk about the tore up weed eater I'm sorry y'all it ain't got a damn thing to do with drinking liquor weed eaters didn't get me in here I need to carry this experience and this information to that new guy that walks in here you know when you pull up in front of your first meeting you were scared to death you didn't know what to expect beyond the door and then you walk in and somebody wants to talk about weed eaters. We need to get that person when they walk in the door and tell them the truth. They walked in here to find a solution to what was killing them. That's our charge, guys. And that's why we're in Oregon tonight with y'all. And hopefully we can pass on a little information that was so freely given to us by the guys that went before us. you've got this sheet on the front of your thing it's called the timeline and y'all have already looked at it and perused this packet and you're thinking what are these guys doing Alcoholics Anonymous didn't start until 1935 but what God did in his infinite wisdom in 1907 he started pulling people together all over the world and he started out with a guy by the name of Frank Buchman Frank Buchman was a Lutheran minister living in Philadelphia and he had established a hospice for homeless boys he ran into got into a problem with the trustees of this hospice over the food budget and what happened to Frank is he got angry he got what we call a resentment today and it blocked him off. Here he is as a minister, a preacher and he can't preach because he doesn't have God in his life. So he leaves Philadelphia for Europe. 1907, skip forward to 1908. Bookman has what we call on this sheet of paper a conversion experience and what happened to him, he's in Keswick, England. He'd gone there for an evangelical conference that turned out to be somewhat boring and glum and he wandered away from that thing and he was going down the street and he saw a little old sign on the sidewalk that said there was a spiritual lecture given by a lady by the name of Jesse Penn Lewis. And this is Jesse right here. There's a ton of books. If you Google her name, you'll come up with a whole bunch of information about her. And what she did during this lecture that she gave to a small group of people, she talked about the solution that we now know today. And she actually sat down with Frank after her lecture and went over the information. And he walked away converted and walked away from the resentment that had been blocking him off. You with us? All right, 1918, 10 years later. There's a guy by the name, pardon me? Lewis, Jesse Penn Lewis. Ten years later, there's this Episcopal minister. His name is Sam Shoemaker. Well, Shoemaker was in Peking, China, and he was teaching Chinese men math. He got angry at these fellows because they wouldn't learn math. They're Chinese, and he's an American, and he got a resentment, and he gets blocked off from the sunlight of the Spirit. He can't do what God called him to do, and that's preach. well he runs into Frank Bookman and Bookman told him I get it I was blocked off from the sunlight of the spirit too but he says let me tell you about these four absolutes that I learned one of them is honesty, purity unselfishness and love and at that point Bookman decided to let go of self and allow God to guide his life now fellas let me give you a disclaimer on this stuff we're going over I don't know if you've got Waffle Houses out here, but this information and 50 cents will get you a cup of coffee at Waffle House. It will not keep you sober for a minute, but it kind of keeps it interesting for a second or two. Just hang with us a minute. Skip forward to 1921. Shoemaker gets ordained and he goes to Calvary Church in New York City. The cool thing about Calvory Church is it's got a mission attached to it for homeless people. And it has a 52-bed halfway house for alcoholic men. Okay, at this particular time, what we now know to be the Oxford Group was set up in this church and it was called a first century Christianity movement. It didn't become the Oxford groups until 1928. Little side note here, none of these people are alcoholic. Jesse Penn Lewis, Frank Buchman, Sam Shoemaker, they're not alcoholic. They simply deal with human emotions, human feelings, human resentments, basically everything that sucks about being human. We get cut off because ego inflicts itself upon others and upon self. One of the things that came out of this, when Frank Buchman had his barn-burning conversion experience, we grace over this word, he has a conversion experience. Now, he had the presence of God brought in front of him. He didn't have this little clap of thunder. He had a huge, God showed up. And that's changed his life. So when Bookman shared this with Shoemaker, Shoemaker didn't want to hear it. But he had just been told that he had a solution. He went up to his room and paced until midnight. And at midnight broke down and did what Bookman told him to do. And he had the experience, that conversion experience where God converted him into one of his soldiers. So we got these two guys, and we talk about the Oxford groups. This was their first thing. Buchman and Shoemaker were working together in Princeton, New Jersey, and they had this first century Christianity. See if this sounds familiar. One guy helping another guy reconnect with God. But it was based upon the first century Christian model where two or more are gathered in my name, I am there. But it was the blood of Christ. It was a Christian movement, and they tried it in Princeton, New Jersey, and it was very successful. Well, they went over to England and were trying to replicate it there, and they decided to adopt the name Oxford Group because it had an authoritative name. And the first century Christianity movement kind of pushed people off a little bit who had this problem with religion. So that's just a little Bit of background so you can see how we springboard from that into here we are 70-plus years later. All right. we're going to skip forward to 1931. There's a guy by the name of Russell Budd Firestone. He's the son of Harvey Firestone of the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio. If you notice how this thing has gone from Europe, Philadelphia, Keswick, England, Peking, China, New York City, and now we're in Akran. This thing's going to go all over the place, and I'm going to bring that to your attention because at the end of this deal you'll see where we're going to go with it. Bud Firestone liked to drink red liquor and show himself. He was a shame to his family he was a real eyesore and the talk around Akron. So he was coming back from Denver, Colorado on this train and he runs into Sam Shoemaker on the train and through conversation Shoemaker decides or figures out this guy needs some kind of a conversion to combat alcoholism, and he told him about his solution. And Bookman had a guy with him by the name of Jim Newton. Jim Newton comes into play in two or three different parts of this thing, one of which was a 12-step call on Bill Wilson in later years. But Bookman and Newton were current members of the Oxford Group out of New York. Skip down 1931. A fellow by the name of Roland Hazard, another white-collar industrialist out of the Northeast. His family owned Burlington Industries. They owned Allied Signal, Allied Chemical, $18 billion corporation. Had enough money to burn a wet dog. He had a problem. He couldn't stay sober. By the way, burn a wett dog, that money thing, that's a southern colloquialism. It's regional dialect. And if you ain't got the southern ending, you may not understand. That's a whole lot of money. You've got to pile up a lot of money to get a wet dog burnt. Anyway, Roland is a real sore spot, and his family, they're embarrassed by him. So, I mean, his father was a Rhode Island senator. His father was the mayor of Albany. I mean there's a whole bunch of politicians, and they've got lots and lots of money. Blue blood. blue blood and he can't stay sober so they send him over to Switzerland and he visits with a guy by the name of Dr. Carl Jung J-U-N-G and Jung tells him, he says man I ain't never seen anybody with alcohol as bad as you got it ever get straightened around he said every now and then, every once in a while they have what's known as a vital spiritual experience and that's Jung right there so this is where this thing gets interesting Roland is in Switzerland and he hears the solution to his problem but at this point nobody knows what alcoholism is we know what the we know what the practical program of action is because Buchmann and and Shoemaker are doing it. They're carrying their solution to resentment. You with me now? And then Jung tells Roland, he says if you have a vital spiritual experience you may overcome your dilemma. Two parts of the puzzle. Skip down to the bottom of 31. Dr. William Duncan Silkworth little neurologist over at Bellevue Hospital lost his butt in the stock market crash of 29. He's out of work. A guy by the name of Charles Towns opens up a hospital for the study and treatment of alcoholism and drug addiction. Says, Silky, why don't you come over here? I'll give you a job. So Silkworth goes to Towns Hospital, and he starts the study of alcoholism and drug addiction. Major player in this puzzle. Skip forward to 1933 Bud Firestone gets active with the Oxford groups back in Akron He meets a guy by the name of Reverend Walter Tunks, a gal by the name of Ann Smith that was married to our Bob Smith meets a gal by the names of Henrietta Cyberling and a couple named T. Henry and Clarice Williams and what happened Harvey Firestone, Bud's dad was so ecstatic about the change that had come over his son he holds a banquet this is going to blow your mind we just learned this at the Mayflower Hotel for Oxford groupers, 300 of them this thing about Harvey about Bud straightening up has hit the front page paper of the Akron News and about this time Dr. Bob starts attending the Oxford groups because his wife's aggravating him to death she says I found a group of people that seem to be sane, sensible and their lives are going somewhere he says fine and they kept going to these meetings for two years he'd go to the meetings at night and get drunk on the way home. Amen. He's my kind of guy. Skip down to middle of 33, Roland Hazard becomes active at Calvary with the Oxford groups. He's working with Shoemaker, a guy by the name of Shep Cornell, Seabro Graves, and Jim Newton there. And I've dropped these names because these guys are real key. These are early, what we would call today good 12-stepping boys. They love to carry the message. dropped down in 33 the fall of 33 bill wilson makes his first trip to town's hospital and he meets dr silkworth and dr silkorth gives him all these treatments with belladon and hydrotherapy and you name it fill him up enemas and vitamins and all kinds of stuff first of four visits y'all this is the fall of 33. Real quick, those guys he mentioned, Shep Cornell, Sieber Graves, they're not alcoholic. They're Oxford group members and the Oxford group the sole purpose was to take somebody who was doing some form of sin whether it be gambling or womanizing or overeating or alcoholism or some form or something that was separating them from God. They fell out of fellowship with God and their lives were falling apart. And the sole purpose of the four absolutes and the six tenants of the Oxford group was to reconnect to God. And so they're working with people whose lives were following apart, but they weren't working with any low-bottom, bottom-of-the-barrel drunks. They were working with white collar, well-to-do, come from good families. Guess why? Because it looks good when Bud Firestone, when he got sober, it was front page news for weeks. Bud Firestone, heir to the tire and rubber company, sober. Oxford groups have something to do with it. And they're doing things about gambling and womanizing all these other issues outside the scope of alcoholism so skip up to the top of 1934 Bob continues to go to the Oxford groups continues to get drunk every night. Middle of 34 A fellow by the name of Ebby Thatcher, Edwin Throckmorton Thatcher. Yeah, baby. Ebby is my kind of guy. I love Ebby. You know, hollow leg. God almighty, this boy loved to drink and show himself. He's about to be committed for alcoholic insanity. And we're going to delve into this deeper into the book study, but there's some fellows that showed up at court. Roland Hazard, Sebra Graves, which was the actual son of Judge Collins Graves that was sitting on the bench. His son, Sebro, Roland, who's this high-powered, you know, blue, white-collar industrialist, Shep Cornell. They show up at court and said, Judge, if you'll turn him over to us, we think we got something to help him with his alcoholism. He says, you better because I'm fixing to lock his tail up so they told him they said ebby if you have a if you'll if you're fine religion if you get religion no alcoholics anonymous yet you can you you can get over your alcoholism but in order to keep it you got to go give it away and they told him about the practical program of action so every scratched his head a minute he says huh I got just the feller. There's a little broke-down stock speculator over there named Bill Wilson. I've run with him. So he went to visit Bill because he wanted to keep this newfound sobriety. On December 11, 1934, Bill Wilson sucked down a cup of his last two beers and walked himself into town's hospital drunk as a coot. when he goes in there Dr. Silkworth told him listen up Ebby showed up and he told him he said Bill if you will have a vital spiritual experience or if you'll get religion you can get over your alcoholism but in order to keep it you've got to give it away those are two parts of the puzzle when he went to see Dr. silkware Sookworth told him. He says, Bill, when you start thinking about drinking, you can't quit thinking about it until you drink, can you? He says that's me. He said once you start drinking you can quit, can't you? That's it. He say I go on a tear and I stay out there for a while. He so let me tell you what my theory is. He says I think you have an obsession of the mind coupled with an allergy to the body. Bill said, yep, that's me. So at this point in time, guys, Bill Wilson is the only human being on the planet Earth that knows all three things. He knows the problem, the solution, and the practical program of action. He goes to Akron on a business deal to buy a national tire and rubber machine company. And during the negotiating, had it gone through, Bill would have been a multimillionaire, been the president of the company, and we wouldn't be here because Bill would've been drunk again. But that deal got sideways in Akron. He'd been sober six months, and he'd been running up and down the boweries and the ballrooms with that Bible under his arm trying to get drunks to see his way of life. And they were saying, get the hell out of my face with that bible. Silkworth told him, he said, Bill, quit preaching to these drunks. He says, tell those people what I told you. Tell them about the obsession of the mind and the allergy of the body, Bill. his first prospect was a Dr. Robert Holbrook Smith a little bit about Bob Bob going to the Oxford groups they believed wholeheartedly in spiritual intervention they believed in prayer and they believed in meditation, they believed actually listening for the answers that God was going to provide but they started praying and one of the most devout of the people praying. That's the best picture we can find of her. She's an old battle axe, but that's Henrietta Cyberling. She's got to beat her feet to make them sleep better. Now Henrietta Cyberling had no other business other than trying to help people. She is what we would call today a meddler. They were praying and they were specifically praying for Dr. Bob because Dr.Bob got very candid one night and told everybody about his drinking they all knew they could smell it on him they knew about his exploits you know he's a proctologist they knew all about these things that bob was doing they started praying for manna from heaven manna for heaven manma for heaven and when bill is in the mayflower hotel after that business venture went south and he's pacing the hotel lobby and he looks over and sees that directory and he makes that phone call the words that come out of his mouth ring like pure honey in her ears which is i'm a rum hound from new york i'm a member of the oxford groups and i need to talk to a drunk and she's like you gotta be damned oh my god i got the guy for you he's a proctologist and he needs to desperately hear from you now bob didn't want to hear from her didn't wanna hear from bill didn't wannna hear from nobody but she was a meddler she made sure she got ann on her side and she did and she got them together So Bill's pacing up and down the lobby of the Mayflower Hotel after his business deal collapsed, about to drink. The book even talks about it. And he knew what had kept him sober for the previous six months. And listen up, guys. He didn't call his sponsor, Ebby. Ebby would have gotten the relief on that call. Bill didn't called his sponsor. He says, I need to talk to another drunk, and he went to the phone directory. If you've seen My Name is Bill W., it's a little dramatized. What he did is he went into that directory, and they went to one name. tunks. In the northeast if you go for a walk they call it going for a tunk. Go for a tunk through the woods. It's taking a walk. It was a familiar word to him. He called Reverend Tunks. Reverend Tucks was a member of the Oxford groups. He just chose him at random. He says I need to talk to another drunk. He said you got just the feller for you. So he goes over to the Cyberling mansion and it was the day after he made the call because Bob was still sick as a dog that day. May 12th 1935 Dr. Bobbitt had extracted a promise from his wife Ann he says I'm going to go over and see this guy he says but you look at your watching in 15 minutes you come whooping on that door and get me out of there I'm sick I'm sickness and I can't stay she said I'll do it Bob Bob walked in and he stuck his trembling hand across the table. He said, Mr. Wilson, I don't know what you think you can do for me. He said I've been carved up and prayed over more than a Christmas goose. Bill looked him dead in the eye and said I'm not here for you Dr. Smith. I'm here for me." A 15 minute conversation lasted five and a half hours. As a byproduct of it, gentlemen we're in the woods of Eugene, Oregon tonight. Now I invite you when you go back to your room tonight take a look at this timeline extract any date, event, person out of this and we're not here tonight. There is no AA. We choose to believe that this timeline is divinely inspired that God put these people in these places at this time. And here we are. Alcoholics Anonymous. Alright, we're going to open our books at this point. I have a question real quick. You betcha. What were the four fundamentals? Absolutes. The four absolutes are called, bear with me, honesty, purity, unselfishness, and love. Thank you. You're welcome. When they took me through the book, and if I'm, I don't mean to be rude, but here's what they told me. They said, you see this page? This is a free page. It's blank. That's where they had me turn. They said that's what you know about this book at this time. And boy were they right. If you flip the page over one more, there's a title page there. It says Alcoholics Anonymous. Come over one More Page. It's going to say other books. These are all conference-approved books, and depending on what edition book you have, there's more books than others. Come over to the next page, Alcoholics Anonymous. Real quick about those books. AlcoholicsAnonymous is full of alcoholics. We like to come up with rules, and we like to try to enforce those rules. We have opinions, opinion, my opinion, and I know opinion is shared by a lot of devout members of Alcoholics Anonymous, that there are pieces of literature floating around Alcoholics Anonymous that even appear on this page. The idea is that we are united as a fellowship with one message. As a matter of fact, I love it right here. It says, sobriety, freedom from alcohol through the teaching and practice of the 12 steps is the sole purpose of any AA group. Problems other than alcohol. We have a problem sometimes because we delve into other problems outside of alcohol. But anytime I cannot reconcile something I hear or even sometimes read with what is in the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous, I take it for what it's worth. But it means that some of those other well-intentioned readings and writings that come out of well- intentioned groups that are not AA Sometimes have no place in our meetings. Yeah, we're going to leave it right there. Just, they're there, enjoy. If it ain't in this book and I sponsor you, we don't do it. You know, I don't have children. I don' t have a wife. So if I sponsor ya, you got wife and kids and you got a wife and kid problem, I take care of my guy. Be awfully grandiose and egotistical of me to come and tell you about how to rear kids. I don't know nothing about it. Come over to your next page. It says Alcoholics Anonymous, and there's a very first promise of hope on that page in squiggly writing. It says the story of how many thousands of men and women have recovered, past tense, from alcoholism. And every time we come to that word, I'm going to invite you to highlight it or underline it. Recovered. This is the third edition that I'm in, And just below it, in my book, I have the circle triangle still in there. Alcoholics Anonymous lost the right to this in 1976. Somebody forgot to renew it. You can go to Canada or England or anywhere else, they still have it. This triangle means this. It's an old spiritual symbol. And originally, I know you're having a hard time seeing it. If I wasn't lazy, I'd get up and put it on the overhead. It's got a triangle, first side of the triangle. Spiritual sense means mind, body, and spirit brought together as a whole human being. AA adopted it, and it means unity, service, recovery. We can do what I can't. Okay? Skip over. We're going to skip all the way over to the preface, page XI. Is that where you're at? We're going to go through the preface and the foreword to the first edition. We're gonna take a break, but it says this is the fourth edition of the book, Alcoholics Anonymous. The first edition appeared in April of 1939, and in the following 16 years, more than 300,000 copies went into circulation. Second edition, published in 55, reached a total of more than 1,150,000 copies. Third edition came off in 76, achieved circulation Approximately 19,550,000. I came in right after the second, when the third edition was still out. The fourth edition came out. I went to a book study and somebody suggested that this big book was the second or third most published book in history. Obviously they haven't heard of a book by a lady, J.K. Rowling. I think the Harry Potter books have way outsold AA big books. But it is a well-published book. It says, because this book has become the basic text for our society. Basic text. Textbook. It's meant to be studied. It's not a novel. It' s not fiction. It is to be study. And it has helped such large numbers of alcoholic men and women to recovery, there exists strong sentiment against any radical changes being made in it. And there haven't been. Therefore, the first portion of this volume describing the AA recovery program has been left untouched in the course of revisions made for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th editions. The section called The Doctor's Opinion has been kept intact just as it was originally written in 1939 by the late Dr. William D. Silkworth, our society's great medical benefactor. When this book was originally reviewed, there were two things that came out. One of them was hopelessly cornball. And it was gender imperfect. And it works so good. We don't need to be putting hers and thems. we can leave it just as it is because if we go change in anything we're going to mess up a real good thing flip over to forward to the first edition please says this is the ford as it appeared in the first printing of the first addition of 1939 and by the way this is a duplicate so if you're sitting out there thinking i'm gonna steal that book because it's worth about 15 grand get your mind off of it this is worth about 15 dollars and i can tell you where to get one but this is what that book looked like and if you take this jacket off of it it was a big red book okay says we have alcoholics anonymous for more than 100 men and women who have recovered from a seemingly hopeless state of mind and body and you want to you want to highlight that and underline it especially the word recovered one thing you need to remember about this book, it's a sales pitch. It's a sale pitch to the medical fraternity to the men of cloth. We need their referrals and it's mainly a sales pick to those afflicted with the disease and the reason I tell you that it says more than 100 men and women. When this book was written there was somewhere around 40 people in the world sober but you can't go to the publisher and say hey I got 40 people that ain't drinking how about publishing this book? But if they go and said, there's over 100 of us, I'd say, really? Yeah. But it's kind of cool because when they started writing it in mid-1937, there were 40. But when it was published in April of 39, there were 100. It's kindof cool. I mean, Bill kindof goes out on a limb enthusiastically. And he does that a lot. Egotistically, yeah. The book shows, it says, to show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered is the main purpose of this book. A couple of things going on here as we go through this book keep in mind 1939 they were hand setting zinc type and wooden trays. This society didn't have two nickels to rub together so when they were setting this type in block style and they had a very important topic or fact that they wanted you to pay attention to, they would pay extra money to have either a bold or an italic placed in there. And it says several times through the book, Bill's going to say the main purpose of this book or the main object. And he gives us three or four different reasons for the book. And here He says, to show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered. Precisely, very strong word. Doesn't say this is, we're going to show you in a kind of sort of way or roundabout way. I don't know about you, but this alcoholic, I want what the first 100 got. I don'T need a watered down version. I DON'T need you to come to me and say, oh, just don't drink and go to meetings. Or my personal favorite is, just say no. What the hell does that mean? Precisely. I have a dear friend named Kay Bunn back in Atlanta. She has an open house around Thanksgiving. And she invites all these drunks over and they cook birds and they, you know, all the deal. And one year over Thanksgiving, she had this cake on the table. And it was called a Humminbird Cake. And I said, what is that? She said, it's a Hummingbird Cake。 She said you ought to try it. Have you ever had it? I said I hadn't never even heard of it. So I cut me a big old chunk of it off. I bit into it and I said my God almighty. I have never tasted anything like this in my life. it freaked me out so I said Kay do you think I could get that recipe she said absolutely she went to the kitchen she pulled out a 3 by 5 card index card and she wrote precise recipe on how to make that cake well for weeks after that Thanksgiving I was craving that cake obsession of the mind it was a 5 o'clock on a Wednesday afternoon and I had a meeting I'd need to get to about 8 but I had to have that cake so I pulled out that little three five card and I looked at it and said you put three cups of flour well I don't need a big cake it's just me so I used two and it said you need two cups of sugar well I like things sweet so I put three and it said that you use a half a stick of butter well I'd like it rich so I'll put a stick and you see where this is going and it said to preheat the oven to 350. Well, I'm in a hurry. I've got to be at that meeting at 8 o'clock. So I cranked that oven up to 425 and I whipped all that stuff up. Man, I slid it up in the oven and it's said to cook it for 45 minutes. Well, as I was in a hurdy, I waited for 30. Well, I pulled it out and guys, I had a cake. I swear to God, I had an oven. I had cake. But let me tell you something. It did not resemble Kay Bunn's Hummingbird Cake at all. Because you see, I changed it. I put my spin on it, and I came out with not even a resemblance of what it should have been. So to show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered. When I give this message to my guys, when I give it to you this weekend, we're going to show you precisely how this program works, not a watered-down version. You hear people say, well, just don't drink or use no matter what. Well, hell, if I could do that, I'd be sitting in Atlanta, Georgia. They had motorcycle riding weather today. I sure wouldn't be in damn Eugene, Oregon with snowbanks everywhere. No offense. I would. I love riding. That's the main purpose of this book. The book says for them, we hope these pages will prove so convincing that no further authentication will be necessary. That's an eloquent way of saying we hope you don't have to drink no more red liquor. We think this account of our experiences will help everyone to better understand the alcoholic. Now, many do not comprehend the alcoholic as a very sick person. And besides, we are sure our way of living has its advantages for all. Two things. It says experience will help every one, not every alcoholic. And it says down here in the last word he just said was advantages for us. For all people. The book addresses families, friends, employers, police, doctors. We want these people to understand what drives us because we're not bad people. Just really, really sick. And since May 12th, 1930, well, June 10th, 1935, really, since founding of the Alcoholics Anonymous, there's over 400 different 12-step fellowships now. The only difference between them and Alcoholics Anonymous is the first half of step one, you know? And we're really grateful that a number of the fellowships have adopted this program because it works, you know, and the 12-Step Movement has just changed lives. The book suggests, now remember, they haven't handed one of these out to a suffering alcoholic yet. There's about 100 of them as it's going to press. And even before it went to press, Bill writes, It's important that we remain anonymous because we are too few at present to handle the overwhelming number of personal appeals which may result from this publication. No ego at all. None. We're going to be day-loosed. Being mostly business or professional folk, Bill really didn't hold a job. He was kind of in a consultative type position. He really didn'T hold a Job for the rest of his life. He was a hanger-on at AA. That's what he did for the rest of his life. Being mostly business or professional folk, we could not well carry on our occupation in such an event. We would like it understood that our alcoholic work is an avocation. Avocation is free service work. When writing or speaking publicly about alcoholism, we urge each of our fellowship to admit his personal name, designating himself instead as a member of AA. Very earnestly, we ask the press also to observe this request, for otherwise we shall be greatly handicapped. We are not an organization in the conventional sense of the word. There are no fees or dues whatsoever. The only requirement for membership is an honest desire to stop drinking. Sounds like some early sketchings of the traditions, doesn't it? You notice that one tradition there? It says the only requirement from membership is a honest desire. You ever notice they don't have honest in there anymore? Could you imagine what it would have been like if I had walked in here and said, You've got to be honest right out of the gate. See ya! I'm out of here. Honest desire. So they dropped the word honest. We are not allied with any particular faith, sect, or denomination. Thank God. Nor do we oppose anyone. We simply wish to be helpful to those who are afflicted. All right. You guys want to take five minutes? And we'll crank back up in five minutes because of the time. just a way of life how we doing good we're having a ball I swear to y'all I have never seen anything like I've seen over the last two days up here I mean, back where we live, Brasstown Bald is the highest point in Georgia. Yeah. I had a woman from Munich, Germany tell me it was a mere mogul. She says, oh, it's a mogul God. Get rid of some of this snow. It might be fun to ride these motorcycles on. Forward to the second edition. It says the spark that was at the bottom of the page, we're going to pick up on the third full paragraph. We're going cherry-pick a little bit. We normally do a book study in about 26 weeks, hour-long meetings. We're forwarded to the second edition, the third whole paragraph at the top. At the bottom, it says the spark that was to flare into the first AA group was struck in Akron, Ohio in June of 1935 during a talk between a New York stockbroker, more like a stock speculator, and an Akron physician, Dr. Bob and Bill Wilson. Six months earlier, the broker had been relieved of his drink obsession by a sudden spiritual experience following a meeting with an alcoholic friend who'd been in contact with the Oxford groups of that day. That was Ebi Thatcher. How's this sound, guys? Somebody said it was echoing earlier. We good? Good. You know, all you got to do is jig that worm a little bit and you'll get one of them out of me in a minute. It don't take much. Just jig it just right, and I'll bite. He's like a girl on prom night. You're bound to get some. All right. Says he'd been greatly helped by the late Dr. William Duncan Silkworth, New York specialist in alcoholism who is now accounted no less than a medical saint by the AA members and whose story of the early days of our society appears in the next pages. From Silkworth, Bill Wilson learned the grave nature of alcoholism. So there it is. Dr. Silkworth told Bill, he says, you have a fatal malady. If you continue drinking, you're going to die an alcoholic death. He told him that he had an obsession of the mind coupled with an allergy of the body. And we're going beat this to death over these next two or three days. That's what you got. It doesn't mean you're just no good. That's what people have been telling me all my life. You're no good, you're just never going to amount to nothing, Larry. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Damn it. All right. It says, though Bill Wilson could not accept all the tenets of the Oxford groups, what are the six tenets or the Oxford group? If you've got a fourth edition book on page 263 are the sixth tenets of the Oxford group. If you're on third edition, it's on page 292. these were adopted tenants that were modified for the alcoholic squad of the oxford groups which was the akron base and those nameless bunch of drunks over in new york city and these are the different says from this doctor the broker learned the grave nature of alcoholism though bill wilson could not accept all the tenants of the Oxford groups he was convinced of the need for moral inventory confession of personality defects restitution to those harmed helpfulness to others and the necessity of belief in and dependence upon god the one he couldn't hook up with was the very first one it's complete deflation bill wilson lived on the theory that an alcoholic didn't have to be torn down and then be built back up again when we walk in the doors we're pretty beat down already we don't need anybody else to do it for us yeah how many people walked in happy and well adjusted Yeah, I have yet to see one hand go up on that question. It says prior to his journey to Akron, Bill Wilson had worked hard with many alcoholics in the theory that only an alcoholic could help an alcoholic, but he had succeeded only in keeping sober himself. Bill Wilson was a man of his word. Bill Wilson said he had gone to Akran on a business venture which had collapsed, leaving him greatly in fear that he might start drinking again. He suddenly realized that in order to save himself, he must carry his message to another alcoholic. That alcoholic turned out to be Dr. Bob, the Akron physician. Now, Dr. Bob had repeatedly tried spiritual means to resolve his alcoholic dilemma, but had failed. But when Bill Wilson gave him Silkworth's description of alcoholism and its hopelessness, Dr. Bob began to pursue the spiritual remedy for his malady with a willingness he had never before been able to muster. Until he understood what the problem was, the obsession of the mind and the allergy you the body, he couldn't apply a solution to it. You ever have that old motorcycle, that old car starts spitting and sputtering? And somebody said well you probably got a dirty air filter. Well that person that told you that probably works on computers. Until you take it to a mechanic that tells you you've probably got to shorten the coil wire or you've got a bad plug in it, you can throw all kinds of remedies at it. But until Dr. Bob knew what the problem was no solution that he threw at it would work so he kept drinking he kept drinking there's a line matter of fact in vision for you where it talks about Bill and Bob's visit and Bob right you know in the story it says being aware of being somehow abnormal dr. Bob did not understand what it meant to be alcoholic. He's a he's a but doctor, he's a proctologist. No, he was Larry. All right. Next line in the book says Bob sobered never to drink again up to the moment of his death in 1950. It's not entirely true. Dr. Bob, he got sober on May the 12th, 1935 and what happened somewhere around June 6th or 7th, there was an AMA convention in Atlantic City, thank you, Atlantic City New Jersey and Bill was staying with Bob and Ann in Akron and they told him they said Bob don't go off up there to New Jersey you'll get drunk and he says no damn it I've been going all these years and it ain't gonna be no different this year Bob got on the train he drank all the scotch he had on the plane got to Atlantic City drank all of the scotts he had in the hotel stayed slim the whole time he was there he got back on the trail drank all scotty he had all the way home well June the 9th rolled around he's supposed to have been home on the 8th and didn't show up and Ann and Bob said well he's out on a run and they got a call the evening of June the 9th and it was Dr. Bob's nurse in a little nearby community and she says he's over here and he's drunk come get him because he's got a very important surgery in the morning at 10 o'clock so they went and got him And Dr. Bob's snaking and shaking, boy. So the next morning, he was still snaking and shaking. And this is a little known fact. Bill Wilson gave Dr. Bobby the last drink he ever took. Gave him a couple of bottles of beer and a little pill. They called it a goofball. And what we later found out, that goofball was a little old-fashioned high-powered narcotic called Miltown. Got him settled down a little bit. As far as we know, there's nobody walking around with a deformed rear end so he went in and had a successful surgery you know that people talk about that that morning you know there's the old joke goes you know who gave more to the breakfast the chicken or the pig you know we're pretty sure that the hero the unsung hero of this story is that that poor bastard he got on that table at his rear end operated on you know he really took one for the team scalpel anybody who knows what DTs feel like knows Dr. Bob was feeling it that morning but the book says he's sobered never to drink again up the moment of his death in 50 it's kind of a kind of glazes over that because the the anniversary date the birthday of alcoholics anonymous is june 10th 1935 that is the date of dr bob's last drink and it's at this point of the book study we usually have a new guy in his first year going wow because he's counting his birthday is his first day sober sorry it's the last date that you drank i got drunk as a coot june july uh january i'm sorry december 31st of 1987 i didn't drink nothing on january 1st my sobriety date is december31st a lot of these new guys go wow it just came today so according to the book your birthday is based on the last day you drank how cool is that goes on to say this proof seemed to prove that one alcoholic could affect another as no non-alcoholic could it also indicated that strenuous work one alcoholic with another was vital and then he uses these words to permanent recovery not one day at a time he says strenious work dictionary says that strenuous means strenuously energetic yeah forceful energetic and then that other word vital vital means life sustaining you only have space over if you want to live pretty cool huh says hence the two men set to work almost frantically upon alcoholics arriving in the ward of the akron city hospital their very first case a desperate one recovered immediately and became AA number three. He never had another drink. This guy's name was Bill Dotson, D-O-T-S-O N. He said a desperate one. Let me tell you how desperate Bill was. This guy was in his eighth hospitalization in six months. Yeah. This guy became one of the greatest cheerleaders our society has ever known. He was an attorney from Louisville, Kentucky. And you think I talk country come on this boy talked real slow he says i don't know what you fellas think y'all can do for me he's that kind of guy but he they went in there and they said hey dude we found something that really works and um he asked him to come back and visit him keeping in mind this guy's been in a spin right now eight times in six months but he really wanted it and they told him about the obsession of the mind and the allergy of the body. And they told him if he had a vital spiritual experience, that he could probably stay sober. He sobered and never drank again. So as this work in Akron continued throughout the summer of 1935, there were many failures. But there was an occasional heartening success. When Bill Wilson returned to New York in the fall of 1936, the first AA group had actually been formed, though no one realized it at the time. Again, this is the alcoholic squad of the Oxford groups. They were looked down upon by the rest of the Oxford group. Because guess what Bill and Bob were doing? They weren't checking pedigree, they weren't checkin' their social class, they weren''t checkin'' the family history. They were lookin'' at whether or not they were alcoholic. And the Oxford groups were looking at a lot. They were paying attention to your title, the college you graduated from, and what company you were currently affiliated with. Because that mattered. The Oxford groups where about promotion rather than attraction. We learned a lot from the Oxford groups. We also learned a little bit about the Oxford group. We learned to learn a lot from another fellowship we're going to talk about here in a second. You couldn't go to the Oxford Groups just by walking in just because you thought it was a good idea. You had to be sponsored in because it was a white-collar movement. You just couldn't walk in. If you were a coal miner or a steel worker, forget about it. You had to be invited in by somebody of prominence and that's where we get this term sponsorship today. You don't have to be sponsored into AA but you certainly needed someone in your life to show you the path it says the second small group promptly took shape in new york to be followed in 1937 with the start of a third at cleveland and again the one in new york was the uh nameless bunch of drunks besides these there were scattered alcoholics who had picked up the basic ideas in akron or new yorg who were trying to form groups in other cities june 10th 1935 is dr bob's sobriety date december 11th 1934 is bill wilson's sobrietty date by late 1937 the numbers of members having and it uses a funny word substantial sobriete time substantial sobriet time as of night this late 1937 was two and a half to three years you won't hear that in a lot of meetings that we frequent they'll say you gotta have 5 years or 10 or 20 you can't chair a meeting until you got a year sober what is that? you can read out of a book Bill Wilson had 6 months 7 months 6 months when he visited Bob for the first time can you imagine this Bill Wilson walks into the gatehouse and Bob's snaking and shaking and he says oh please Mr. Smith help me Or Mr. Wilson helped me, and Bill says, sorry, Bob, I've only got six months. Call me in a year. Yeah. Do you get it? So if you're in this room tonight, and you haven't had a drink in a week, and there's a guy in here that's got a day, guess what? You got something for him. The stuff about these – the book doesn't talk about time frames. Well, except around the fourth step. Yeah, it says next and launched and immediately and that kind of stuff. Yeah. Yeah, but it doesn't say all these time frames that the fellowship has given our society. You've got to wait a year before you do this. You've Got to Have Six Months Before You Do This. And don't rush into doing that. The book is about let's go, let's do it now, let'S go. The best thing you can do is get into work, get into action. Let'S go! So by late 37, number of members having substantial sobriety time behind them was sufficient to convince the membership a new light had entered the dark world of the alcoholic. There was enough people that weren't drinking and getting their life together that they went, wow, this thing is real. This thing is working. It was substantiated. Now it says, It was now time the struggling groups thought to place their message and unique experience before the world. Unique experience. Nothing like this had ever been out there. This had been killing people since the beginning of time. And the unique experience was also a big departure from what the Oxford groups were all about. Unique experience is a lot like God as you understand him. The unique experience is you don't waste time chasing somebody who cannot or will not work with you. Unique experiences, you can carry the message, but you can't carry the drunk. That's a big thing to carry. And this is, again, unique experience. It says, the termination bore fruit in the spring of 1939 by the publication of this volume. I go turn it off. Is Larry's control free?