The Young Bucks Who Need to Button Their Chin Strap – Tim H.

About This Speaker Tape

1987, a basement church in New Jersey. Tim H. arrives broken, blubbery, and bleeding from his esophagus every morning in the shower. He tries to look cool, but a muscle spasm sends his first cup of coffee flying against the wall. He is a "hopeless disaster" with the reverse Midas touch, having burned his life to the ground despite a good upbringing. He describes his drinking as a "quality" pursuit, from breaking into a gangster's garage at age ten to driving a refrigerated milk truck as a college beer promoter.

Recovery isn't a zen garden; it's "full contact." Tim recalls the "ABC's"—ashtrays, brooms, and coffee—and the grit of New Jersey diners where he learned to stop being a "loophole guy." Through a Higher Power and the heavy lifting of a fearless inventory, he moved from living in his car to surviving stage four cancer and a collapsed quintuple bypass. He warns that the graveyards are full of men who thought they could get sober "next time."

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Tim H. opens with his sobriety date: July 12, 1987.
• 2:15 Story about breaking into a gangster's garage at age ten for Windsor Canadian whiskey.
• 6:40 The 'beer scholarship' and driving the refrigerated milk truck in college.
• 11:20 The first AA meeting in Gladstone and the coffee-on-the-wall incident.
• 16:10 Descriptions of the diverse members of the fellowship: the felon, the Armani-wearing 'mastiff', and the one-percenter.
• 21:45 The 'ABC's' of service: ashtrays, brooms, and coffee.
• 26:30 The 'four food groups' of the AA diner and the requirement to call three different alcoholics a day.
• 31:10 Step 5: The ultimatum from his sponsor to do the inventory on Easter Sunday.
• 36:20 Discussing his son T.J.'s military service and traumatic brain injury.
• 39:15 Surviving stage four throat cancer and a failed quintuple bypass surgery.
• 44:10 Laughter: Story about being chased out of a house with a meat cleaver during a 12-step call.
• 48:30 Closing thoughts on the importance of literature and having a 'tour guide' for the steps.