Why He Needed a Sponsor Who Spoke a Foreign Language – Bob F.

About This Speaker Tape

33rd Annual Gratitude Ball - 2007

A 126-pound wreck of a man Bob F. spent decades as a professional disaster in Cleveland owning a bar called the Cockroach Inn that eventually barred him from his own premises. He describes a life of 'irregular' behavior—stealing cars at thirteen getting a DWI on a horse and once being arrested for screaming into a dead telephone in a hotel lobby. The turning point came in 1985 after waking up on a bar floor having consumed a lethal cocktail of 28 beers and Jim Beam. He credits his survival to a network of old-timers who stripped his house of alcohol and forced him into a life he didn't plan including a degree from Lakeland Community College. Now a retired Teamster and dog trainer he views his sobriety as a gift from people who loved him when he was a 'rock head' and a total embarrassment to his mother.

Topics

Timestamps

• 0:00 Opening banter about the food and stealing tomatoes from Jack's plate.
• 4:15 Laughter: Story about the 'sober problem' and his wife's reaction to him cutting back on meetings.
• 7:30 The 1968 police encounter on the shoreway and the 'cloud' of pot smoke.
• 11:45 The hotel lobby incident: screaming into a telephone that wasn't connected.
• 15:20 The 'DWI on a horse' story and the judge dropping the charge to public intoxication.
• 19:10 The Cockroach Inn: owning a bar but being locked out by the staff.
• 24:40 The bottom: waking up on the floor after 28 beers and Jim Beam on January 18, 1985.
• 28:15 The 'house cleaning' by old-timers and the discovery of 50 cases of Pabst in the barn.
• 33:50 The 'late night trash can discussion group' and learning to take a personal inventory.
• 37:10 The brutal mentorship of Larry Lawrence and the 'you're not going to make it' introductions.
• 43:20 The forced education: being pushed into Lakeland Community College by the fellowship.
• 52:10 The relationship with his sponsor Rick D. and the lesson of the 'two sides to every story'.