Two Siegel Brothers Sober Side by Side — Family Disease Working in Reverse – Alan S.

About This Speaker Tape

Alan S. celebrates 36 years of continuous sobriety since October 17, 1989, speaking at his home triangle of Atlanta clubhouses where his brother Mark also got sober. He opens by proving family disease — two Siegel brothers, same introduction, sober side by side. Before he got it, though, he burned 17 years of hard knocks: walking into the clubhouse only to use the phone to call the dope guy, sitting in the back drooling, being hugged by people who told him to keep coming back while he waited for his mother to pick him up.

He grew up in Atlanta as the kid who couldn't sit still — ADHD before anyone treated it, conduct failures every year on the report cards his mother saved. The alcohol and drug stories stack up: Rod Stewart on the bed calling him Bubba, a Drew Hill Country Club tennis racket attack after raiding the beer-filled Coca-Cola machine, neighborhood friends who pulled in their burglar bars when they saw him coming. In 1982 he took the geographic to Israel — one-way ticket, $200, detoxing on the plane with a Dutch soccer team, six hours in an airport security office mistaken for a terrorist. He lived five years on a kibbutz, joined the Israeli Defense Force and drove a tank, smoked kilos of cheap Druze hashish, and still didn't get sober.

The turning point came at his mother's kitchen table. His brother Mark and sister-in-law brought him home; his mother looked at him and said, "Son, I miss you." On October 17, 1989 — the day the San Francisco World Series earthquake hit and his TV went blank — a newly sober friend drove him to Decatur Hospital. His first sponsor Emmett gave him Daily Reflections, which he has read every day for 36 years. His second sponsor Dennis, a big book Nazi, sat him at a Waffle House near the old Skyland Clubhouse and told him the amends to his mother wasn't about paying back the money he had stolen — it was flowers, kindness, and building a life. She finally told him to stop buying flowers.

Today Alan's daughter is 30, owns her own home, put herself through college summa cum laude with scholarship, and has never seen him drink. He got custody of her as a single father when she was 10. He has buried three sponsors, fired one, and is openly looking for a new one at 36 years. He and his brother survived a brutal business split and came full circle to family. He runs with a Saturday morning breakfast crew, pushes men to The Rock workshop, and wears Life Is Good shirts because — after three divorces, a six-year dating drought, and a new introduction his ex-wife just made — life actually is.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Host introduces Alan from the Triangle Club, 1989 sobriety date, regular at The Rock
• 2:00 Alan opens: family disease proof — same last name as his sober brother, date 10-17-89
• 5:00 Running the streets of Atlanta, friends locking doors and pulling in burglar bars when he came to beg money
• 9:00 Drew Hill Country Club: emptying the beer-filled Coca-Cola machine, beating a tennis player with a racket, sheriff calls father
• 14:00 Geographic to Israel, $200 in his pocket, detoxing with a Dutch soccer team on the flight to Tel Aviv
• 18:00 Five years on a kibbutz, driving a tank in the Israeli Defense Force, cheap Druze hashish
• 22:00 Mother's kitchen table: 'Son, I miss you' — the moment that cracked him open
• 26:00 Getting sober 10-17-89, the day of the World Series earthquake, friend drives him to Decatur Hospital
• 30:00 Waffle House with sponsor Dennis: amends to mother reframed as flowers, she finally tells him to stop buying them
• 38:00 Single father getting custody of his 10-year-old daughter, three jobs, watching her grow into a homeowner who put herself through college