Turn the 1918 Penny Over and It Says In Higher Power We Trust — That’s the Whole Third Step – Tim T.

About This Speaker Tape

Tim T. opens with warmth and humor at the 56th Florida State Convention, telling jokes about airport pickups and penguins before diving into a harrowing drinking story. He grew up in chaos — six stepfathers, thirteen stepmothers, over twenty schools, never finishing eighth grade. He left home at fourteen to find his biological father in New Orleans, only to watch his dad relapse and go into the DTs. He traveled the country as a teenage drifter in the 1960s, married at eighteen to a fifteen-year-old girl he barely knew, and spent years cycling through jails, workhouses, and penitentiaries. A 20-to-40-year prison sentence in 1975 actually brought him relief because no judge could punish him worse than he had already punished himself.

After prison, Tim's second wife lost everything decent she had to alcoholism — her honesty, unselfishness, and love — which he uses to illustrate the family disease. He quit the one steady job he ever held because two years of doing the right thing hadn't produced the American Dream he expected. By thirty, his family fed him holiday meals on a paper plate through a car window because they loved him too much to keep enabling him. He hit bottom on June 23, 1982, shaking, crying, weighing 112 pounds with hepatitis, and a psychiatrist in the psych ward — himself a recovering alcoholic — gave him the most valuable thing anyone ever handed him: a meeting schedule.

Tim's sponsor shaped his recovery with blunt, practical direction — read one page of the Big Book a day, never say no to AA, pray with please and thank you. He walks through the steps with vivid stories: a penny from 1918 teaches him the Third Step, pink socks from an unwashed red T-shirt teach him to read the directions, and his Eighth Step list shrinks to just his mother before his sponsor explains forgiveness. He married Mary, a woman in the fellowship who earned her PhD in sobriety, and their AA wedding drew 350 people — a stark contrast to the day in prison when nobody on earth would accept his collect call.

The talk closes with Tim caring for his aging mother, reversing their roles with grace. When she told him "I know you do" instead of "I love you too," he understood that love is shown, not declared. He puts flowers on her grave every Saturday because he said he would — and that, he says, is the real difference sobriety made. He leaves the audience with a challenge: whatever you do between the Serenity Prayer and the Lord's Prayer matters less than what you do between the Lord's Prayer and the next Serenity Prayer.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Opens with thanks to convention organizers and humor about airport pickups
• 4:30 Introduces himself as Tim T., describes chaotic childhood — six stepfathers, thirteen stepmothers, twenty-plus schools
• 8:00 Leaves home at fourteen to find his father in New Orleans; watches his dad relapse into DTs
• 13:00 Drifting across the country in the 1960s; finds a six-pack of Olympia beer at a Utah on-ramp
• 18:00 Marriage at eighteen, arrests for stupid crimes, representing himself in court and losing
• 23:00 Sentenced to 20-to-40 years; feels relief that no judge can hurt him worse than he hurt himself
• 30:00 Hits bottom June 23, 1982 — 112 pounds, hepatitis, restraints in psych ward; psychiatrist in recovery gives him a meeting schedule
• 37:00 Sponsor's practical directions — one page a day, never say no, please and thank you as prayer
• 44:00 Third Step penny from 1918, pink socks teach him to read directions, Eighth Step forgiveness lesson
• 52:00 Marries Mary from the fellowship; AA wedding with 350 guests versus no one accepting collect calls from prison
• 57:00 Caring for his mother — 'I know you do' instead of 'I love you too'; puts flowers on her grave because he said he would