The South East Texas Area Convention in Beumont, TX

Man. Hey. That fell in the back with the hat on by the water fountain. Could you hear me? A nice looking hat on.

You hear me alright? That's right. That's right. Right. Well, if you can't hear me, do like that, and I'll speak up or get closer.

I'm gonna, tell a joke. Kinda loosen up the crowd, but it but it's not for you. It's for me. So whenever I say the punch line, laugh. So it the setting's in a little town up here somewhere in East Texas.

I don't know the name of the town, but it's a small one. Everybody knows each other. And, the deacons and the and, preacher were in a meeting at the church talking about everybody. And they run out of folks to talk about, so they started talking about the town liar. Everybody knew him.

You know the town liar. Lied about everything. This guy been lying since he was a child. So they got to thinking they need to repent him, and they prayed about it. And they thought, you know, the best thing to do to that liar is to give him some of his own medicine.

So they decided they were gonna make up a big lie, excuse me. And go tell it to him and give him some of his own medicine. So that's what they did. The preacher volunteered to do it. So the next day, the preacher went out to the liar's house, knocked on his door.

Liar come to the door and he seen it was a preacher. So in in a small town, when the preacher comes by, you invite him in for coffee. That's what he did. They went in the kitchen. The the liar started making coffee.

And the preacher said, well, now's about as good as time as any. Said, did you hear what happened last Wednesday? A prayer recital. Liar said, no. Preacher went on.

He said, all of a sudden, come cutting through the center aisle was a grizzly bear. Right behind that grizzly bear was a curd dog. Run them all the way up behind the pulpit. All of a sudden, they were snapping, growling, fur flying, barking. Few minutes went by, here come that curd dog.

He done killed that grizzly bear. Preacher said, you believe that? Liar didn't even slow down, turned and looked at him and said, yes, sir. That's my dog. I'm gonna, try to relay my story tonight.

What it was like, what happened, and what it's like now. I'm not gonna let the truth get into way of a good story. First off, I wanna tell you who I am. My name's Iron Mike, and I'm an alcoholic. Iron Mike.

And I'm glad to be sober today, and I'm grateful God showed me mercy instead of justice. And I wanna thank all the committee members and putting this fine thing together. We're gonna have a ball this weekend. Even though we're starting a little bit early, that's good. I can get down a little bit early and start enjoying myself because I'm nervous.

I was born in Louisiana and raised on the Texas side. Now Gatemouth Brown's got a song like that, and I ain't gonna sing it to you. I was brought up in Pasadena, a little town, just south of Houston. I would like to tell you that I come from a broken home, but I didn't. In fact, I'm flying up to Dallas on 18th to help my parents celebrate their 54th year of marriage.

They, but you wouldn't, you wouldn't know that by the way I acted. I've got 2 sisters, younger and older. Both of them are very successful. There's no alcoholics in my immediate family. I can go back to the, to any kind of drinking in my family.

I'll go back to about age 9 or 10. It wasn't me. It was my father. What happened was we would, we would barbecue on Saturdays. And mom and the sisters would go inside, and they'd make a salad and a cake.

And me and dad would go out and barbecue on the on the patio. And he'd drink. And, apparently, he would get drunk. Well, one time he come in and, him and mama had a fight, and he hit her with the cake pan. And, she loaded me and my sisters up and took us to a hotel in Houston, the old Carousel Motel.

I don't know if y'all ever It it wasn't a whorehouse back in. It was a it it was a it was a regular hotel. But years later, who'd have thought old Mike would have gone and seen it? But that's another story. Anyway, she loaded us up and took us over.

And, and the next day, we come back and, and I have a a vague memory of my father being in there cleaning up in the kitchen. And, they had a little conversation. And, that's my buddy, Donnie. He's always late. He's a nice guy.

And, my mom said, no more drinking. That's we're gonna leave. And my father lines up with the big book Alcoholics Anonymous. He was a hard drinker. The big book says a hard drinker can stop if problems are hard enough.

You know, like, wife's gonna leave you, love problem, hospital, something like that, medical. And he stopped. Go turkey. He says, there's no drinking in my home when I got old enough to be interested. So my first drink, was around 11 or 12.

Going to boy scout camp, and my buddy's dad drank, had a full bar. And we went over to his house and got us a fruit jar. And we started filling up from 1 bottle to another. And I was 11 or 12. I didn't have no idea what vodka or bourbon was.

There wasn't no difference. We filled it up. I I hadn't drank at that point. We went to scout camp, pulled out that mason jar. And, I'd like to say that I had a real fond memory of what happened, like some some keen alcoholics have that.

I just don't. I'm not one of them. I know I participated, and I don't think participated because I was alcoholic. I think I participated because I was having peer pressure. That's one of things that, that I've always had was a a bad case of what I call oddballism.

You ain't gonna find that word in the book. I made it up. But it explains how I felt. And I felt that for a long, long time. And I'm sure I'm quite sure I was feeling it that day I took that fruit jar and and took a sip of that whiskey.

I don't remember if my buddy drank any. I don't remember the whole story because I blacked out. And I didn't continue drinking from that point on. That was my first drink. I rocked along, did a little stretch and reform school at 13.

I'm sure I was experimenting with drinking and other things. I didn't know this, but a few years ago, I was at my mother's house and we were sitting drinking a cup of coffee with that lovely woman and we were talking. And I told her I said, you know, I can't believe that I left home at age 14 and she stopped me and said, you're my only son you left you left home at 13. And I guess I I never went home after reform school, kinda hit the streets running, drinking, doing anything, kinda like Waterfront Joe. I was a any o.

I wasn't a whiner. I was a any o. Do anything. And that went along, age 17, went to the penitentiary. State, 3 years down there on the Ferguson unit.

I went to my first meeting on the Ferguson unit. I couldn't have been 18 years old. Kinda like lining up with old Bill's story here. He talks about being across the country during war and he saw that dog where it said this man died of not by musket, but by cold beer or something like that. Right?

Died of pot, but not talking about the kind you smoke. And, and Bill said he had a a moment of clarity or a ominous warning that was fleeting. And I'm sure that's what happened to me on that Ferguson unit. I went to one meeting down there. And the only reason I went to that meeting was because they asked me to go if I wanted to make parole.

Said I was an alcoholic. And I was the same reason, like, Bill, how could I be alcoholic? I ain't even old enough to drink. They denied my Pro Ford. Got a thing down there in the unit, the on the Ferguson unit.

I guess it's in all the units down there. That's the only one I've made so far. It's called the 19. 19 reasons why you ain't getting out. And they had the one checked on mine said I was alcoholic.

So I went to a meeting on the Ferguson unit, and I forgot about that. It was a long time in sobriety before I remembered I went to that meeting. But as I look back now, I didn't go in there to talk about my problems. I promise you that. Or make friends with nobody.

I went down there probably because the parole board told me to. And also, I think they had donuts and coffee and stuff like that. I made one meet and I didn't go back. Come up for parole and I told them I'll do my time day per day. And they're not damn near dead.

They obliged me. I got out of Ferguson unit somewhere in early 76. Hit the road running. I, got to thinking. You know, Mike's probably, probably ought to back off the drugs a little bit.

That that could be a problem. So I've I remember consciously stopping all drugs and just drinking. But I can tell you I can look back now, and I don't remember any difference. I don't remember it being different being any kind of like profound difference. So with that said, I rocked along a while, had no address for a long, long, long time.

I know some of you know and can relate to that. Let me give you a few examples of my drink and then we'll move on into sobriety because I got exciting sobriety. And I wanna share it with you. But let's get back to Mike's drinking. I never got a DWI.

Of course, I never owned a car till I was 35 years old. Now, that helps a little bit. Got a lot of p eyes. I owned a motorcycle for years years years. That was my only form of transportation.

And, until the motorcycle crave got real heavy here the last 10 years, there wasn't many of us out there. You know, they'd come up and they'd find me in a ditch and they'd find the motorcycle in the ditch, and they couldn't prove I was riding it. So they'd hold me on in for p I. But anyway, this particular time I was on that motorcycle, and I can't remember if I was going some place or coming back. So I was pretty drunk.

And, it was somewhere around downtown Houston. And it was in the middle of the night, and it was raining real bad, and I saw it refuge off the highway. You know how all the highways are elevated? I went down. I ended up down in the Montrose.

And, I pulled into a little, cafe of sorts and, and ordered breakfast. Well, when I took a bite of my breakfast, it was cold. And I, and I looked up and I looked around, nobody's in there meaning to cook. And I said, hey, my breakfast is cold. He said, well, it ought to be.

You've been laying in it for 2 hours. Apparently, I come in and, and rode in there real fast and hard, and everybody left but to cook. And I and I ordered breakfast and fell out in it. And then come to with egg and everything stuck to my head, took a bite, and complained about it being cold. Well, being a nice natured fella like I am, I threw the plate at him and got out of there real quick.

Another instance. Got this one's got Beaumont. It's a little bit of Beaumont in it. I was, I was up here, in Beaumont working for a little steel company. I wasn't in here trying to, better myself.

I was on the run from Houston. And I was up here, done talk some crazy man to let me, rent a room from him. You'd have to be crazy to let me rent a room from you, especially when I get to drinking. And I was always drinking. So, we stayed up.

I guess I was up here 2 or 3 months rocking along, doing good. You know, looking good, working, drinking. Well, the people in Houston forgot. You know how we forget. How the the knots go away and, you know, stuff gets out the pawn shop and we forget.

And they forgot. And I got to talking with them on the phone. They said, hey, Mike. Come on down. Let's party this weekend.

Oh, that's a real good idea, I thought. So I got my new friend that I was living with there. We got up in his car because I didn't have one. And we took off for Houston. We got down there in Houston and, got to drinking, and, and I hit him right off, lost my ride.

He left me down there. And, by the time the weekend was over, come Sunday, I had to get back to work in Beaumont. Didn't have no ride. And you you know it. Them folks didn't want me at their house no more.

I done hit a couple of them and and nobody was talking to me. Nobody wanted to give me a ride home. And, so I was downtown by the bus station in Houston. Some of y'all might know where that area is at. And, I apparently had enough for a bus ticket to Beaumont.

Well, I had a half a pint left. A little bit like a just a dust cutter, not the whole half a pint. I had it hidden off in my boot. And, Don apparently bought my ticket. I don't remember purchasing it, but I must have already bought the ticket.

And, and so I I thought I was out of sight of the bus driver. You know how they hang out by the front of the bus, make sure everybody gets on? Well, I got that half pint out, and I and I knocked it out, and I threw it down, and I turned, and the bus driver was looking at me. I thought, oh, man. So I tried to get on the bus.

Uh-uh. No. No. You ain't getting on the bus. You're drunk.

And I told him what I told what I basically told y'all, please, I'm not drunk. I'm working in Beaumont. I need to get back. He said, I'll tell you what, Padma. He said, I'm gonna let you on that bus.

You make one peep. I'm putting you off. Oh, you can bet your bottom dollar, old Mike's gonna be good. So I loaded up on the bus. Well, I woke up and, yeah, have you ever been on a bus?

It was dark. And you you know how you hear the road. We're rocking along and and I didn't recognize none of the area. Of course, it was dark. Well, sure enough, when we stopped, we was in Alexandria, Louisiana.

That old boy was right. Mike was drunk. Of course, I do what I always do. I blame him. It wasn't my fault.

It's the bus driver's fault. And I went inside and complained to the ticket people, and they told me to, shut up and sit down. Basically, what y'all been telling me for a long time. And, so anyway, that's that's a little bit of my drinking. Let's get me sober.

I, I got a few sobriety dates I like to read out of my big book, Alcoholics Anonymous. This is this is by no mean a requirement for anybody, but this is my story. So I'm gonna share it with you the best I can. These are just some of the highlighted sobriety dates. I think I got a little time on some of these, but these are by no means all of them.

You people in Alcoholics Anonymous has never turned me away. Never turned me away. And I've done some absurd, bizarre things here. You've never turned me away. Oh, there's been a few groups.

I'm glad that I was there. I'm sure they're glad that I moved on. But never, not once, you tell me no. You can't come in, Mike. Or no, we will not help you.

And I put them in a little bit of a chronological order, but let's do the best we can here. 101786. That's my first sober chip with you folks. I picked it up at the Spring Branch Club. 11187, 9188, 61589, 82890, 3491.

I got 2 and a half years on that date. That was a good one. And my date now, 13094. I'll be, 12 years old, Monday. We, I spend a lot of time with my sponsor.

A lot of time. Love him to death. 1 of the best men I know. We get around them old timers and he puts his arm around me and he he tells him, you reap what you sow. And he starts laughing.

I don't know what all that's about. I picked up my first desire chip at the Spring Branch Club. And the way I did that, I'd just gotten out of jail for assaulting my first wife. I'd come home drunk and hopped up on things, pulled her out of bed, and beat her up pretty bad. Thank god she called along me, and they put me in jail.

They would have sent me back to the penitentiary even though I didn't have a paid lawyer. But wouldn't you know it? The first time in my life, I get a good court appointed lawyer. He tells me, look, we can beat this case. And I told him something he didn't wanna hear.

I said, I don't wanna beat the case. I'm scared. Every time I get out of jail and I've been in jail a whole bunch of times between when I got out the penitentiary and when I went to jail for assault and Cindy. And I knew something was wrong with me. I just didn't know what it was.

I didn't remember what happened on the Ferguson unit. I had completely forgot about any kind of Alcoholics Anonymous or or any kind of alcoholism. I had no idea I was clueless. Well, I got out of jail. They gave me a 10 year probation, which is really strange to give an ex con probation, felony probation.

But the DA worked with me. I told the DA that something was wrong with me. I don't know what it was and that I wanted help if there was help. And she said, well, we're gonna help you, Mike. We're gonna watch you like a hawk.

Gonna have to urinate in a bottle 3 times a month for so long, and it is like I thought that was my first time, like in the big book Alcoholics Anonymous, it says, all the different times we tried to stop. Take a trip, not take a trip. Trying just to drink wine only. Ad infinitum or infin, whatever the word is. One of my infinitems was that discussion with that DA.

And I figured, sure, to jail. Well, I got out of jail, and I didn't go to Alcoholics Anonymous. I just figured the law had me covered, and they did. I rocked along about 2 months, wasn't drinking. Everybody else seemed to be.

And I had a real bad case of irritable, restless, and discontent. I was probably made up with it. Couple months went by and I and I had Cindy in the choke hold in the closet, and I cut her loose. I had a moment of of clarity. I thought, my god.

What are you doing, Mike? So I was in a bad spot. Let me explain where we were living. I sure didn't have a home. We were staying there with her mother who had her mother there, who had her sister's kids there, who had her who had Bubba, her brother, which he'd done a too big a shot of dope one time.

Old Bubba, he wasn't on all cylinders. And and me and Cindy, and we're all living in a 2 bedroom apartment. And she's screaming in the back. Let me tell you, man. Things ain't looking good.

Everybody's home. So, so I was in one of them situations. Well, I I I made it out the bedroom and and got into the living room. Everybody was in the corner looking at me like this. And I, and I didn't know what to do.

Lack of direction. That's been my story my whole life. I mean, what do you do? I don't have no place to go. I ain't got no friends to go hang out with.

And, I didn't know it, but Cindy's mother had been going out and on when I when I married her daughter. That was a smart move. Well, we were right across the street from the Spring Branch Club, and them old apartments across the street. And I I, I didn't know it was over there. She said, Mike, there's a meeting across the street.

And I threw my hand up. That meant no more talking. And that was followed pretty good up to that point. She started to go to Al Anon. And, and she went out on a limb.

She said, Mike, I I think they're playing dominoes over. I said, well, maybe I'll go. You know, and I she could've told me anything. Hey, over, building the building. I'd have gone.

I I needed out of there. I needed direction. And so that's what I did. I walked across the street and went over to the Spring Branch Club. When I got there, I didn't think, I didn't think I'd be welcome.

I almost didn't go in. I walked to that parking lot, and I've seen all them fancy cars. And you hear people in Alcoholics Anonymous say that, when they got here, they thought it was a bunch of underneath the bridge winos. Well, that ain't what I thought. When I got here, I thought a bunch of haordy toities ain't gonna let me in.

And the only thing I had in my bag of tricks as far as, any kind of tools to to work with people on a personal level was I hit you. That was it. I didn't have any kind of discussion or any kind of people skills. I was extremely violent and scared to death just like this man said. The one that was wearing the funny wig prior to me getting up with and, so I meandered around the parking lot and, and thank God I finally went in.

You know how our God is. Oh, man. Had me covered. I didn't even know it. And I went inside, and you know the story.

They wasn't playing dominoes. There was a meeting fixing to start. And once I got in there, I didn't have any direction. And I was one of them folks with a bad case of oddballism. I ain't playing.

I wasn't gonna ask anybody anything because I was scared to. I just didn't know. I had no people skills, period. And I followed the crowd in. And I got off in that room, and I sat in the very back with my back to the wall.

Make sure nobody's looking at me. I'd call them on that real quick. That's my only tool. Hit you. Looking for a way to use it.

Well, I sat in a meeting and, wasn't paying attention. And they don't do it like we do on south side of town. They do it wrong, but they have they have 2 people up there. Instead of a chairman, they got a chairman and a leader. They still got it like that today.

I've tried to tell them and straighten them out. They keep telling me the bus driver told me, sit down and shut up. But but, anyway, I got in there and they got the meeting going on. There's 2 big I got in there and they got the meeting going on. There's 2 big bull males behind them.

1 leading, 1 chair, and one of them's got a cowboy hat on it. Hey. Good looking fellas. Big bulls. And I ain't paying attention to them.

Well, about halfway through the meeting, the woman with the cowboy hat, all of a sudden real nicely turns to the person talking and said, please hold on a minute. His voice raised just a little bit. That got my attention. Then he turned real quick. The 2 people said, you too.

Over holding the conversation. Don't let the door hit you in the ass. We're trying to have an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in here. Oh, that caught my attention. And I don't know where this thought come from, but I remember it real clear.

I thought to myself, if them boys can't keep me sober, nobody can. I don't know where I got that from. Well, that was the end of that meet and I I was there the next day. Now I wasn't there to get a sponsor. I was there to see if any more action was going on.

Hey, they might be doing more than talking today and old Mike might get in on some of it. Well, you can say what you want, but I'm the one up here talking. And I'm a tell you a little something about my God. As I look back now, I didn't see it then, but I see it now. Clear as a bell.

I know my god had that fellow jump up and threaten them 2 people. It brought me back in the next day. It saved my life. I got a friend of mine named Mark. We call him Big Mark.

He just picked up 22 years. He just come back in from Iraq. He told me it's alright to share this story, and I'm a share it with you. Mark was having less than 30 days, and he was at the Clear Creek Club. Some of y'all not might know where that's at.

Stand by the Kemah Bridge. It's what we call a outlaw club. They're not hooked up with GSO or anything, which is their loss. But they told me the same thing. Sit down and shut up, Mike.

But anyway, Mark was over there with less than 30 days, and he was in a half measures room. You know where that's at. That's the room where nobody's actually going to a meeting, but they're hanging out in the meeting hall. Well, he was thinking about going out and getting drunk, and a fist fight broke out. And he told me he thought to himself, alright.

And he stayed. And he just picked up 22 years, but I'm not saying it's okay to fight or anything like that. Well, what I'm saying is is that the same God that put that cowboy jumping up in that meeting to attract me was the same one that got Mark to stay. Was the same one. If you wanna look back, it's the same one that got you and kept you here.

My god, man. Look at the diversity of this crowd. We got everything from a street hood to attorney generals in here. This thing is wide, man. It's open for everybody.

Not just a select few. So anyway, I'm at the Spring Branch Club. I went back over there. I got a big boy to sponsor me. I don't know how long I stayed sober that time.

Maybe a few months. Went back out. Got back in. Went back out. By now, I surely don't have an address.

Does Bubba and mama and granny and everybody done had enough of Mike? And they done did like this to me. Oh, oh, Mike's living in a weed patch, and and I'm holding my own pretty good. Starting to hit the detoxes. Well, I I ended up north side 24, stayed over there for a while, moved on from there, was living in a weed patch over beside the north side 24.

I'd been through probably 11 detoxes at this time. Was wearing out the Harris County area. And I was walking on the street going down airline one day, and a woman in the club in the in the Alcoholics Anonymous pulled over and talked me into going home with her. Go home and, get a shower and let her wash my clothes and give me a good meal. And, and I went I needed a shower real bad, and I needed some food.

I needed some shelter. Well, she washed my clothes and they fell apart. Go figure. And she and she give me some of hers. Look, I got enough time to clean that one up.

Give me a minute here. What happens is, she said, wear some of mine. I said, I can't fit in your clothes. In the doctor's opinion, it suggested, at some time in my recovery or lack of recovery, sometime in my alcoholism, that I will lose track of the truth and the false. I won't be able to see Mike for who he really is, and I had no idea.

I thought I was 220 like I am now. I had me pictures as a full grown bull male. Truth was I was down about a £160. I don't look good at that weight, and her clothes fit me. She gave me a pair of blue jeans and a t shirt.

And I went back to the north side 24, and they wouldn't let me in because I'd already been there and caused some trouble. And they they let me stay there that night. And the next morning, they had 4 quarters sitting there in front of me and said, you start calling. You find some place to take you. And thank God, the wheelhouse took me.

It's over in Deer Park. Some of y'all might know where that's at. And I called over there and I got to the wheelhouse wearing women's clothes. Had one sock. No ID.

No wallet. No nothing. Didn't have a sack of clothes. And I got to the wheelhouse and, and the state of mind that I was in was not in I need recovery. I'd given up on that a long time ago.

I believe the alcoholism was gonna kill me. The progression was real and I could see it. It'd been 3 years since I'd been to the Spring Branch Club. The detoxes were were were getting closer, and I just couldn't seem to stop. No matter what, I couldn't stop.

And I figured it was gonna kill me. What I needed was a couple of good square meals, a couple of good night sleep, little meat on my bones before alcoholism came knocking, and I knew it was coming. I'm telling you, I knew it was coming. I had reached complete state of hopelessness. And the book book said that's a good place for old Mike to be, but I didn't know that.

Anyway, I got to the wheelhouse and, and, stayed there 10 days and was thinking about leaving. And a friend of mine stopped by to give me an old work coat that she had packed of mine. She didn't wanna steal it. She knew I didn't have a coat. It was dead off.

It was end of October in 89. If you remember that year, it got real cold. It dropped down to, like, 7 and stayed that way in December. Got real cold. Anyway, she brought the jacket by and she had 7 years in the program.

And she told me something before she left. She didn't tell me, Mike, thank you for abusing me. Thank you for running my life and running me out of town, which I did. She told me God's given away grace. You ain't gotta steal it.

You ain't gotta hog nobody for it. You ain't gotta beat nobody down for it. All you gotta do is ask them. It's a free gift, and she left. And I went back to the sick room in the wheelhouse and got beside my bed, and I said this prayer.

I said, god, whatever grace you're giving it away, give it to somebody that can take it. Old selfish prayer. Poor old Mike. I was convinced I was gonna die. Well, the next morning, I'd like to tell you I woke up and the cool breeze was blowing.

Dove come crashing to the window, landed on my shoulder. I woke up. Nothing. But the thought crossed my mind. Maybe if I try these steps and cross every t and dot every I, give me a chance.

And that's what I did. I went to town. And, I was the only one at the wheelhouse with a driver's license. Only one without a car, but I had a driver's license. Nobody else had a vehicle, and they had a thing at the wheelhouse called the bread run.

That's where we would go pick up bread over at Kroger and cracked eggs and expired milk. And we'd take it to the wheelhouse, and then we would go over to New Hope Women's Center and then we go over to the legacy club in Pasadena and distribute the rest of the free food. Well, I was in charge of driving. You couldn't steal the truck. I thought about it.

But it wouldn't go like over 35 miles an hour. The thought crossed my mind. One of the things that I got one of the things that that got me here with you folks was a guy named Jimmy the hood. Used to work at the Legacy Club. He was a custodian there.

I'm telling you, I was plumbed up with that oddballism. Didn't feel like I fit nowhere. Well, every time I'd go drop the bread off, old Jimmy had a way of making me feel like I was a part of. And I look forward to that. And them old men were playing dominoes in the back in the middle of the day.

O'Kelly Sapp, AB Humphreys, Hacksaw, Archie, Bobby t. And I wanna be a part of that thing real bad. God, I want to fit in. And the big book asked me a question. Am I willing to go to any lengths and do I want what you have?

And I'm telling you, I wanted what you had. You hooked me in on a domino game and an old wino. Hook me in. I'm talking solid. And I went to work.

I drank 3 more times. 3491, I picked up a chip and stayed sober two and a half years. That was a good chip. Didn't miss no meetings. Was Alatine sponsor.

We got a few Alatine's in here that I remember. Was doing a big book study at the wheelhouse. Was extremely involved. Went out and got drunk. Ended up in a closed hamper behind the legacy club in the trailer back there where the custodian lived, seeing things.

I don't know if any of y'all ever seen these things. Kelly Sapp sold me up with a couple of bottles of Mad Dog, passed them through the clothes hamper. Drove me next door and sobered me up. And I got this sober date now of January 30, 94. I was living in Pasadena.

Had a girlfriend. Her name was Sonya. I called her junior. Nice woman. We were living together.

Had us a little apartment. I had a new desire chip in my pocket. I did the same thing I'd done 20 times before. I went to work in the steps, and it started to work. Got me a sponsor, worked through the steps.

Me and Sonya got us a little apartment. 6 months went by. My sponsor died. Old Spencer Andrews, a few of you might know him, died a tragic death. He was on the operating room and went out on him.

49 years old. Playing baseball for the legacy club. Broke my arm. Trying to help folks. Wouldn't you know it?

He yelled at junior and she left. So here I am with a 6 month chip in my pocket, broken arm. Sonia gone. Sponsor dead. It's time for old Mike to move, and I looked in the paper and found me a place in Batecliff, Texas.

That's 18 miles from Pasadena. I never heard of it. You don't get far without a car. I've never heard of it. Found me a place.

Went over there and the guy the guy let me rent it. And I knew real good and well that I wasn't gonna travel 18 miles every day to a meeting. I knew that. Not in city traffic. I'm My iron worker worked very hard for a living.

At that time, I was really working hard. So I knew I was gonna have to find me a meeting hall in that area. So now it comes up to the old Creek Club. Any of y'all ever heard of the Clear Creek Club down there? Kemah Bridge.

Outlaw Club. Well, I decided I was gonna go make a meeting there because that's gonna be my lifeline. It's by my house, and I come from the legacy club. Cowboys, discipline, structure. When the meeting starts, you need to have your coffee and be seated.

Meeting starts at 6 o'clock. Well, that's what I was doing, or they might have to whoop you. I was falling in line. Well, here I am living in Baycliff, and I decided I'm a make that meeting, the Clear Creek Club, 6 o'clock. Well, old Mike was there.

I had my coffee. I was sitting there on ready. 5 till 6, nothing. 6 o'clock, mingling and nothing. 605, joking, laughing, mingling, nothing.

610, they finally start the meeting and they do it wrong. As soon as the meeting was over, I run to the pay phone. See, I done got me a new sponsor, and I called and reported them. I told him the same thing that I just told y'all. Oh, I went home, and he listened.

He told me, are you through? I said, yeah. I'm through. He said, good. I want you to make that same meeting at the same time for the next 90 days.

And I just hung up. I didn't even step into that conversation. Well, I did and they got better. Had that nice little home over there in Bay Cliff. Never had a home before.

I moved in in August. My light bill was $12 for the month of August. I didn't wanna turn it out. I don't wanna plug in the refrigerator. I don't know how much electricity I'm thinking.

The only apartment I had before that was all bills paid, and that was with Junior. Things got things got real good real quick. You know, it's amazing what happens when we stop drinking, start making some friends, start trying to do the right thing. Things started happening, man. That little house, I started fixing it up, got me some furniture, bought me a truck, man, my own vehicle.

In fact, one time, I guess I had about a year sober. I was going to a meeting. It's on a Saturday. Had my little home. I was renting it.

No. It's home. Had my new truck, done bought me some teeth. You know how we do. I think I was looking pretty good myself.

So I'm a go make a meeting up at the Creek Club on Saturday morning, and, and god's put me in a spot. I'm about a mile off the bay, and I've gotta cross over a big bridge to go to the meeting hall. And I get I get the opportunity to look out and see that beautiful bay. I don't know how God picked up a thing like me and give me a second chance, but I know he has. Anyway, I was crossing that Kemah Bridge, and I was thinking, you know, just how good old Mike got it, especially how good I looked in that new truck.

And I was going over the bridge because the meeting hall's on the bottom of the bridge. I thought I'd check me out in the mirror, make sure I look alright. I look in the mirror, and I realize I left my teeth at the house. That was, that that was 1 year into sobriety. Things rocked along, doing like we do, helping others, going back to the wheelhouse, hearing them fist steps.

You know how we do. When you show up at a detox, you better be ready because they need you. They need you desperately. They need you. And, I was doing a deal.

All the team sponsor again, that's been fun. Working with others, going to meetings, getting involved, life's rocking along. Working on that house Well, I got to thinking. You know, what's old Mike? With all this time of 4 years, doing hanging out at the Creek Club when I done heard all the pretty girls were down at the Bay Area Club.

And I thought maybe I needed to broaden my horizons a little bit on a spiritual basis, of course. You know how we get to thinking. Well, I made a decision, and I let him know about it over at the creek. I said I've made a decision, and I'm tired of hanging around with you old men. Old Mike's moving on, and I'll see you later.

So I carried my happy self over the Bay Area Club. It's full of women over there. Well, the first meeting I'm in, sitting there about half cocked. Chairman said something. I thought he was talking to me.

Run up there and hit him. Goddamn. Can you imagine? In a meeting. That didn't go over very well.

At the Creek Club, they'd have took me down, but I wasn't at the creek. Thank God Walter was there in Big Al. The guy running and dial 911 on me. So I was gonna go in there and explain to him how I didn't mean to hit him. And big Al stopped me in the hallway, said, son, don't go in there.

I said, no. I need to straighten him out. He said, leave. So I did, and they straightened it out. And I had to go back and make amends to that man because I've never even met him before.

But it was a year before I did that. Went back to the creek, and they told me what y'all been telling me all along. Sit down and shut up. Well, 4th year was rough for me, and I made another decision. I said, god I got on my knees and said, god, I'm a load my motorcycle in the back of my truck, and I'm leaving town.

I'm gonna head north, way north. Unless you give me a sign, when spring breaks, I'm heading north. I'm in it. I didn't feel like I fit in anymore. I'd alienated myself in a few instances.