The Only Man Who Knows How AA Started Because He Was Sober and Bill Was Drunk – Ebby T.

About This Speaker Tape

Ebby T. speaks at a Memphis, Tennessee gathering in 1958, introduced as the founder who brought the message to Bill W. — the only man alive who knows exactly how AA started because he was sober and Bill was drunk. Ebby opens with a Texas rancher joke about bull shippers, then traces his story from Auburn, New York to Manchester, Vermont where he first met Bill W. around 1910. He describes his military school expulsion for drinking, working in his father's iron foundry, confining his drinking to Saturday nights until Christmas dances pushed it wider.

He explains that he knew as a young man — talking it over with Bill during that winter in school — that drinking ran in both their families and he would probably go the same way. His first solo drink, a glass of beer at the hotel bar, was the best he ever tasted: "I said this is for me." He describes the progression through the family business collapse, lost inheritance, and living alone in the Manchester house too drunk to paint it. The Oxford Group friends visit, the judge in Bennington, the fight with the ale bottles on the cellar stairs.

He details carrying the message to Bill — the dinner with Lois, the talk until one AM, Bill putting his arm around him saying "I don't know what you got, Ebby, but you got something that I want." He describes Bill appearing drunk at the Calvary Mission and getting up to speak, and Ebby telling the superintendent "Let him speak — he has got something on his mind." A unique Memphis recording with details Bill himself did not remember.

Topics

Timestamps

• 00:00 Introduction — the only man who knows how AA started
• 03:00 Texas rancher joke — two bull shippers
• 06:00 Auburn, New York — military school and first drinking
• 10:00 Working in the foundry — Saturday night drinking confined
• 14:00 Talking it over with Bill — drinking runs in both families
• 18:00 First solo glass of beer at the hotel bar — this is for me
• 22:00 Family business collapse and lost inheritance
• 26:00 Living alone in Manchester — Oxford Group friends visit
• 30:00 The judge, the cellar stairs, the ale bottles
• 34:00 Speaking through Vermont and moving to New York
• 38:00 Dinner with Bill and Lois — I do not know what you got but I want it
• 42:00 Bill drunk at the Calvary Mission — let him speak
• 46:00 Dick Peabody — the difference between an alcoholic and a heavy drinker
• 50:00 National Guard, taxi wreck, father says get out of my house