We Wouldn’t Trade the Worst of These 35 Years for the Best of What Came Before – Cliff W.

About This Speaker Tape

This recording captures a longtime AA member recounting the early history of Alcoholics Anonymous in Los Angeles and California, spanning from the early 1940s through the mid-1950s. The speaker describes the post-class phone answering service that saved his life, his reluctant but transformative service as a delegate and trustee, and the remarkable cast of early members who built AA on the West Coast — from banking executives to football players to dentists who started groups in mountain towns.

The heart of the tape is a series of vivid personal encounters with Bill Wilson. The speaker recalls the old-timers' first nervous meeting with Bill at a hotel, discovering he wore tennis shoes and cussed — "just like us, he's a drunk." He shares the dramatic Yale honorary degree incident where Bill nearly accepted an L.L.D. but reversed course after hearing honest feedback from the trustees, later telling the speaker he didn't want to "capitalize on humility." He also recounts how his blunt critique of garish proposed stories for the Big Book led Bill to scrap them entirely, using the speaker's letter as diplomatic cover.

The speaker weaves in lessons about AA's organizational growing pains: the Central Office power struggle resolved by businessman Chet Rood, the explosive fight over Al-Anon's relationship to AA that was defused when the wives said they wanted to be "damn well left alone," and the failed Wagoneers group that proved leaving Higher Power out of the program doesn't work. He closes with reflections on moving to Whittier in 1943, starting meetings in a town that claimed it had no alcoholics, and 35 years of sobriety shared with his wife Dorothy.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Early LA members — Tex Adams kidnapping story, Red Skelton performing at 1941 Christmas party
• 2:30 Post-class phone service saved his life; reluctant service as delegate and trustee
• 7:00 Meeting Bill Wilson in New York; morale crisis of 1950-51 when groups forgot about world services
• 12:00 Chet Rood restructures the LA Central Office with proper business practices
• 18:00 Roll call of early LA members and the groups they started across Southern California
• 25:00 First meeting Bill and Lois — old-timers in disrepute, Bill in tennis shoes, Marshall Brockway and the soap analogy
• 30:00 Earl Winnett's atheist Wagoneers group and the Saturday Evening Post article's impact
• 35:00 Congressional incorporation debate at General Service Conference; Al-Anon relationship fight
• 42:00 Bill Wilson turns down Yale honorary degree — the napkin moment and capitalizing on humility
• 52:00 Big Book stories controversy; moving to Whittier and 35 years of sobriety with Dorothy