June 2015
It is almost summertime and we at Alanoclubs.com are enjoying every last ray of sunshine and each degree of heat that this most sunny of seasons is bringing our way. Summertime is a time to get out of the house, visit old friends, make new ones, and connect with the world around you. As such, this issue of Alanoclubs.com newsletter is chock-a-block full of camp outs, round ups, conferences … basically any excuse to celebrate fellowship and enjoy ourselves. So what are you waiting for? Take it one day at a time and make the most of your sober sunny summer.
The Laughter and Learning Corner
A southern Baptist minister was completing a temperance sermon. With great emphasis he said, “If I had all the BEER in the world, I’d take it and pour it into the river.”
With even greater emphasis he said, “And if I had all the WINE in the world, I’d take it and pour it into the river.”
And then finally, shaking his fist in the air, he said, “And if I had all the WHISKEY in the world, I’d take it and pour it into the river.” Sermon complete, he sat down.
The song leader stood very cautiously and announced with a smile, nearly laughing,
…….. “For our closing song, let us sing Hymn #365, “Shall We Gather at the River.”
Did You Know: The First AA Meeting
Typically June 10, 1935, the day of Dr. Bob’s last drink is considered the day that A.A. was founded. When the first “meeting” was is less clear. At first it was Bill and Bob hanging out and looking for someone else they could help. Perhaps when they met with “A.A. Number Three”, Bill D. in his hospital bed on June 26, 1935 counts as the first meeting. According to the story “Alcoholics Anonymous Number Three” in the second edition of the Big Book, A.A. Group Number 1 of Akron Ohio, started that day with that meeting in Akron’s City Hospital.
Some might say the first meeting was when Dr. Bob first met with Bill W. According to Dr. Bob’s Story, they first met with Bill trying to help sober up Dr. Bob on Mother’s Day of 1935 which would have been May 12 at 5pm at the home of Henrietta Seiberling, a friend of Bob’s wife. This house has come to be known as “The Gatehouse” and is in Akron, Ohio. Dr. Bob drank after this meeting, but it was still the first meeting of two men talking about the program that was becoming Alcoholics Anonymous. Here is an excerpt from Dr. Bob’s Story:
“About this time a lady called up my wife one Saturday afternoon, saying she wanted me to come over that evening to meet a friend of hers who might help me. It was the day before Mother’s Day and I had come home plastered, carrying a big potted plant which I set down on the table and forthwith went upstairs and passed out. The next day she called again. Wishing to be polite, though I felt very badly, I said, “Let’s make the call,” and extracted from my wife a promise that we would not stay over fifteen minutes. We entered her house at exactly five o’clock and it was eleven fifteen when we left. I had a couple of shorter talks with this man afterward, and stopped drinking abruptly. This dry spell lasted for about three weeks; then I went to Atlantic City to attend several days’ meeting of a national society of which I was a member. I drank all the scotch they had on the train and bought several quarts on my way to the hotel.”
