We Drew Straws for You and I Lost — Rotten Ron’s First Day as My Sponsor – Keith D.

About This Speaker Tape

Keith shares his story at the 6th Annual Tampa Bay Roundup in 1992 with sixteen years of sobriety. A self-described Texan born into a long line of alcoholics, he describes a life driven by adrenaline, fighting, and an insatiable need to be where the action is. His drinking progressed through white lightning and country dances, a geographic cure to California where he fell in with hippies, and escalating violence until every relationship was destroyed. He entered a 30-day detox run by Dr. Paul O. where all 38 other patients predicted he would drink immediately — he is the only one of the 39 still sober, and over half are dead.

A 12th-step call from a man named Jack changed everything. Jack grabbed the gun Keith pointed at him, threw it on the couch, and said he never had to drink or be lonely again. Keith's early sobriety was raw and violent — he carried guns to meetings, wanted to drink every waking moment, and stayed sober for the first eighteen months purely on resentment and spite. His sponsor Rotten Ron, who openly said he did not like Keith, dragged him to men's stag meetings where profanity was the native tongue and old-timers knew how to handle dangerous newcomers.

The talk is rich with stories about his wife Sue joining Al-Anon, his daughter reluctantly attending Alateen and eventually becoming a successful model in Milan, and the chain of sponsorship that tricked him into working the steps. Keith describes how sponsoring a man who could not read or write forced him back into the Big Book and back to his own sponsor for answers. He closes with a powerful message about trust, dignity, and the daily practice of holding your head up — insisting that the same man will drink again, and that real sobriety demands real change.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Introduction — sober since May 11, 1976, glad to be at the roundup with his wife Sue
• 3:30 Tunnel vision metaphor — sobriety widened his view from looking through a straw to peripheral vision
• 7:00 Dr. Paul O.'s detox — 39 patients, 30-plus days, no narcotics, walking the hallway laughing and crying
• 10:00 All 38 peers predicted he would drink — he is the only survivor, stayed sober on resentment
• 14:00 Growing up in Texas — white lightning in pickle crocks, fighting as a contact sport
• 20:00 Geographic cure to California — 30-day trip, hippie neighbors, Doc and Professor prescribe tie sticks
• 27:00 Jack's 12th-step call — gun in his face, you never have to be lonely again
• 35:00 Sponsor Rotten Ron, men's stag meetings, writing names on bullets, the grenade as a fifth step
• 45:00 Sue quits drinking overnight — just not an alcoholic, daughter forced into Alateen becomes Milan model
• 55:00 Sponsoring the weird guy who cannot read — chain of sponsorship, writing a shared fourth step, closing on trust and dignity