The Swedish Serenity group's spring convention in Stockholm, Sweden

Hi, my name is GAIL. I'm an alcoholic. My sobriety date is 513 of 78. And thanks for inviting me to your birthday party. That was beautiful. I'm coming back. So you'll sing to me right on mine. If I come back, will you sing that beautiful song? OK, where we at? Here with the picture. There we go. But that I think I'm going to have to back it up because I think it speed forward while I'm waiting. Oh, we're OK. We're OK.

I brought you some gifts. I gave to Andrea's a video of all the sites in Akron, what it was like, what happened, and what it's like now.

And he'll be making copies for those who might want to see that. Some of you may not be able to ever travel to Akron, so I brought Akron to you

the front here. I'll leave the Four Absolutes pamphlet

in Asian. Here's the four absolutes.

The a pigeon, we call them pigeon. In those days of Doctor Bob, we got a document from him, and this is passing on from Akron, something that they were using very early on,

a postcard

of the stained glass window and

some early pamphlets. Doctor Bob thought the big book was too hard for the blue collar worker to read, so he had a gentleman in 1941 start writing some pamphlets. There are five of them here. They come from the group Conscience of the 1st 100 in Akron and I think you'll find him to be a real treat.

And there was the card on Founders Day.

Can you imagine this? When I return home, there'll be 12,000 people coming to celebrate Doctor Bob's last drink in Akron. For those of you that are coming over for the International, you could actually, if you have the time, you can actually come in for the June 10th celebration and still make it to the July 4th celebration in 2010 in San Antone. So those are gifts to your group and

we have those in our office.

You're welcome. Thank you

in the

thank you for your hospitality. I've just had a wonderful stay and I'm going in the time I have left. I want to tell you a little bit about somebody you don't hear too much about and that's Doctor Bob and his lovely wife Ann.

As you know, both of our Co founders were born in the same state. I don't even know anyone from Vermont, but they were both born and they were, they were only about four hours apart. They did not know each other. Up in the right you'll see St. Johnsbury. In the left hand corner is Dorset. This is quickly what Doctor Bob's hometown look like in St. Johnsbury. Just kind of a quiet, cozy little town. His daddy was everything. His daddy was the judge, the state's attorney, the member of the state legislature, Superintendent of the Saint John schools,

director of the Merchants National Bank, president of the savings banks, gun Sunday school teacher for 40 years.

Kind of rough shoes for old Doctor Bob. The following don't you think

his mother was church lady? She'd put him to bed at 5:00 at night. She was very, very strict. And Smith felt that it was Mommy's fault that Doctor Bob drank

just a few shots quickly here of the town. There's the church that he attended, but he got so turned off, like some of us do by religion that he's worried never go into a church again.

There's his birth home. He first discovered a jug of cider. Why bailing some hay? His town was a dry town, so it was hidden under some hay. And then he didn't drink again for a very long time.

He graduated from St. Johnsbury Academy, and boy, did he love cars. We'll talk a little bit about that. So did his son Smitty. He met Ann Smith at a dance

and he courted her for 17 long years. And girls, I promised you that he was handsome. Check this out. Graduated from Dartmouth in 19. O2 later becomes a doctor, has a lot of trouble. In college, he drank so much that he barely made it through. One time he turned in an exam, two exams I believe, and it was totally blank. He shook so much. Daddy would come get him. His father was always trying to bail him out and help him. He they'd doctor him up, and I mean doctor him up. This guy would get sick and be shaking and so sick

that he couldn't. He would be down for like a month. I mean, that's how sick he would be. But he eventually makes it to Akron, to Akron City Hospital. And here's another handsome picture of Doctor Bob as a young intern there. He's the one on the far right. Look at that one like a movie star. He's on the left here.

Who

for real? I look at this all the time

and forgive me.

He sets up his office at the National Second National Building in Akron, downtown Akron.

His father has to send for him and bring him home in 1914.

Here's an waiting on Bob 17 years. He finally shows up and here she is as a young bride and they get married and she's from Oak Park, Chicago, and the marriage takes place in this home.

They move into 855 Ardmore today. It's open to you to visit.

Have no idea what that was about.

This is a picture of Anne Smith. She was just a lovely, sweet lady with a very melodious laugh. Both she and her husband had wonderful senses of humor. She loved to cook and she wanted to do nice candlelight dinners for Doctor Bob. However, Doctor Bob didn't like nice candlelight dinners. He's kind of a practical guy, wasn't much of A romantic, I guess. She once asked him to help take some wallpaper off the dining room and he brought the hose in from the living room into the dining room, escorted it all over. And I think that was

time she ever asked him to do anything. He wasn't real handy around the house. OK, so. But everyone liked him. You know, he was off to a pretty good start. They had two children. The zoo was on the left, Smitty on the right. They adopted her when she was five years old, and they were both the same age. They wrote a book, Children of the Healer. It's no longer in print, but you can get it if you search on Google. It

has a nice picture of Sue here. She will marry the 4th man in.

And here's a picture. The kids with the dog Roger. It was a pit bull and he's buried somewhere on the property I think. Well, people probably come dig him up and put the bones on eBay so you can buy the bones there.

Everything else is selling on eBay.

I think Doctor Bob thought the prohibition might slow him down a little bit, but really it didn't. He just managed to throw the bottles up on a porch outside the door here

and then to the right of the door there. That's the laundry chute he would then hide him from and by hanging him down the laundry chute

or he'd stick him in his Argyle socks. You know. Oh, you might not have known this. Did you know that Doctor Bob went back to study to become a proctologist? For some of you that might not know what a proctologist is, that's diseases of the rectum. That's why he was so good with us.

I've already mentioned to you about the Oxford Group coming to town. Doctor Bob's out of friends. He gets involved with them when they get their start at the Mayflower Hotel. I mentioned to you also that there was literature that they read. These are some of the things that we would have read in our flying blind period. We call it flying blind because we had no literature, no conference approved. It wasn't a conference until 1951.

We know that they took morning quiet times and here we have Henrietta praying for Doctor Bob and having the special meeting at T Henry's home to

help Bob and and share. Obviously if you're sitting in a group of down and uppers that don't have your problem, it's a little hard to share, isn't it? That's why identification is so important.

Don't know why I have Bill here. Oh, yeah. He comes and he meets Henriette at the Gate Lodge. And we've talked about it this. So I'm ready to start some information about Bob because when they meet for the first time, you know, he realized. Bob realizes one of the reasons he didn't get Sobers, he hadn't got the service into this deal. That's how important service is, that Bill had understood that you have to help another drunk to get sober. So Bob learned that. And he said a far more importance was the fact that he was the first living human being with whom I had ever talked

who knew what he was talking about in regard to alcoholism. From actual experience, in other words,

he talked my language. You know, they became best of friends and never really had an argument. But that does not mean that they didn't, that they always agreed they were like yin and Yang. They really were. For those of you that have heard some of the other talks that Doctor Bob's son used to say, if it was up to Doctor Bob A a would have never left Akron. If it was up to Bill, he'd have franchise. The thing. It's really true, too.

They began their morning at the House because Bill would move in. He'd spend several months in 1935

in Akron and 6:00 in the morning they'd get up and they drink lots and lots and lots of coffee. I just read where they actually had the dog drinking coffee in the coffee dish.

And

Bob did slip one time and he claims he got sober on June 10th and that's when he had his last drink and he always struggled. For some of you who may struggle with, per Bill, the desire to drink left right away. And for the other co-founder, he struggled all the time

wanting to drink. And it's a, they both teach us a different lesson. Bob said in the morning when I get up and put my feet on the cold floor, and this is after many years of sobriety, he says, I have a bottle. I have a battle all day to stay away from that drink. You know, there were times in the early days of Alcoholics Anonymous when I passed those salons that I had to pull my car over to the side of the curb and say a prayer.

Well,

Lois eventually comes to Akron to check things out and and that is not Herman Munster. You ever hear of the Adam's family? Isn't that a terrible picture of Bill? I'm sorry Bill, but it's the only one I have of Lois at Doctor Bob's house. She really can see when she visits. Now, Lois will start the family groups, but she actually observes Ann helping the wives. You know, Ann was already working with families and she saw the wisdom in Doctor Bob. And the two couples really hooked up and got along very well.

They get the third man, Bill D We've talked about that. But I want you to know, when they tie Bill D down, they tie him down to the bed and Doctor Bob calls and asks if there's a guy in there that they they need somebody else to try to help, to stay sober. It's very important. So she calls the nurse, the nurse, she says hello. And he says, this is Doctor Bob and we're looking for an alcoholic to work with. We found a cure

for alcoholism and the nurse says, well, Doctor Bob, have you tried it on yourself? And so listen to what he says to the nurse. It's kind of cute. Here's what he gives her instructions just like a doctor. Now listen to me, woman. I want you to do exactly what I tell you to do. Exactly. Forget all those things they've been teaching about admitting patients. I don't care what your charge nurse tells you. Don't undress him. Don't give him an admissions back.

Forget about the urine specimen. Don't do anything. Do you understand? Nothing. I don't care if he wets the bed or pukes all over it, Don't change it. I don't care if he lies on the floor, leave him there. Just one thing he's going to want to drink. I mean whiskey. Tell him he can have all he wants just as long as he drinks an ounce of peraldehyde before he has the

remember. 1 ounce of each per aldehyde. Then whiskey. I see some of you making faces. They used to use sauerkraut and tomatoes too.

He began working with a lot of Alcoholics. He became the Prince of 12 steppers. Bill did get sober and that was the start of group number one.

He he liked to do a lot of slang.

He would call Bill Abercrombie. He called women frails or skirts. He called his wife Anne little woman. He didn't swear. He would say Godfrey Mighty. He called Henrietta Cyberling Henry or sister Ignacia IG or his wife Mama

Henry had a Cyberling called him the Rock of Gibraltar.

Now, Doctor, Bob and Ann were very, very humble and they didn't want all this attention.

He would just say, I just work here.

When they had 40 noses sober. We've talked about what happens. They get to writing the book and after the book is published and people find out about Alcoholics Anonymous, all the inquiries, we don't have a headquarters. They're all going to come into his office and he becomes very, very busy. 12 stepping

When the Liberty Magazine article came out, he was so excited because he said, you know, it looks like we might be getting a little bit respectable

in the Saturday Evening Post article. If you've ever read it, he is. His name is hidden in this article. It's Doctor Armstrong.

We've talked about Archie T staying with The Smiths for one year as they nursed him back to health and he would then leave and go to Detroit to start a a in in another city. And here's what he said about Doctor Bob that he that Bob said to him, no, Ann said this to Archie. She said, Bob and I want you to know that as long as we have a home,

that home will be yours too. And the house was always open all the time, people in and out all the time drinking their coffee. Earl was another guy who came in and Doctor Bob sponsored him. He went back to Chicago and started a A in Chicago. And here's Doctor Bob with one of his other loves playing cards. He said if you can't be happy in this program, there's not much use being in it.

Here's his son Smitty, with his wife behind him. And here's what he told Smitty

about his wife. She's all right, son. She's built for speed and lighthouse keeping.

She became a member of our fellowship.

Here's the daughter Sue with the 4th man who came in in Akron behind her.

And here's Ann Smith page dedicated to her as the mother of A A There's a replica coffee pot in her notes in the Bible that she read from. She'd read from the book of James. Bill would put on the coffee at 6:00 in the morning. But it was Ann who read from the Bible and LED the guidance and she would always conclude with faith without works is dead

or God is love.

Um, they firmly believed in the four absolutes, honesty, purity, unselfishness and love. We had no 12 steps. We only had 4 words. That's what we measured the behavior by. Were those 4 words?

Did you know that there were 12 steps going up to Doctor Bob's house for real?

Thought you'd like to know that you can count them when you come visit, which I hope you do.

This is just a picture to represent that the house was always open and people were meeting there all the time. In and out all the time. Here's a picture of a group of them. You'll see. I don't know if you've ever seen this before. There's Doctor Bob over there. Ann Smith's got a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. She didn't start smoking until very late and she rolled her own

bills over there to be right with Lois. It's a nice looking group of people,

lots of fellowship in those days. We've talked about King school and you know, people tried to heap a lot of power and and and prestige on Bob, but he would always say of myself, I am nothing. My strength cometh from my Father in heaven. He would not want us to worship him or make him into anything else but another drunk trying to get along. By the grace of God, he says I don't believe I have any right to get cocky about getting sober. It's only through God's grace that I did it. I can feel very thankful that I was

privilege to do it. If my strength does come from him, who am I to get cocky about it?

If he was sitting at a meeting and a man used bad language, Doctor Bob would say you have a very good lead young man, but it would be more effective if you cleaned it up a bit.

Thought you might like to hear that.

Blame it on Bob. If you speak more than 15 minutes, you're going to repeat yourself.

No souls are saved after 15 minutes.

The world's finest talks have been short ones. For example, both the Sermon on the Mount and the Gettysburg Address had been given in less than 5 minutes. With this point in mind, I also proposed to give a short talk. In fact, I just did.

He was a very calm speaker and he sounded grateful and sometimes he would point his finger or spread his arms, but he didn't gesture much. He always wore a suit and tie to meetings. When it came into a meeting, he was just another alcoholic.

He would always pick some good points. The peaker the speaker had made. Doctor Bob's remarks were usually kind, but if he thought a man was a phony, he would tell the man so.

When you are new, you should take the cotton out of your ears and put it into your mouth. Sit down and listen. That's right, son, listen. But you watch and see what the man does as well as listen to what he says.

These men showed you what will happen if you pick up a drink. They did you a favor. And when they don't pick up a drink, they show you how the program works. Either way, they do you a favor.

There are two kinds of people to watch an AA. Those who make it

and those who don't,

you have a spot. You have to sponsor yourself as well. You should stand back now and then and look at yourself and sort of laugh. Then help yourself.

Anne Smith was so kind and loving to the new members. That's why we call her the mother. She was always nurturing and making the families, the new people, feel welcome and comfortable. Somebody gave her some new dresses because she'd always just suck an old hat on her head and wear that same old dress. So somebody gave her some new dresses and one of the members asked her, are you going to be wearing the dress to the dance for New Year's? And she said no. She said there are some new people who won't have anything and I can't bear to wear any of them.

She felt in order to know someone's feelings, you had to walk a mile in his shoes.

Sister Ignatia, who worked with Doctor Bob and nearly 5000 patients together. She said there is no spiritual angle. It's a spiritual program. That's what Doctor Bob would say. He had no time for idle chatter and would always make his point quite clear in as few words as possible.

They called it defogging at Saint Thomas Hospital.

He had slogans. Keep it simple. There are no musts in a a The first one will get you easy. Does it?

First things first. Many of those came from Bob when he explained. Easy does it, he said

to Danny Kaye. He said, you know, Dan, many people coming into a a get the wrong idea of easy does it, and I hope you don't. It doesn't mean that you sit on your Fanny, stay home from meetings and let other people work the program for you. It doesn't mean you have an easy life without drinking. Easy doesn't mean you take it one day at a time.

And he talked about the camel.

He said God gives us just the load we are able to carry for that day. You know, the camel gets down on the sneeze in the morning and picks up the load. That's what we do in prayer in the morning and at night. At the end of our day, we get down on our knees and the load comes off, just like the camel.

When people struggled with whether they could drink or not, he'd tell them, go to the Mayflower Hotel, buy a bottle of whiskey, take a couple of good drinks, then cork the bottle. If you can stay there a couple more days without taking another drink, you don't need us. And then he had a way of saying things, and he'd say it. He said, I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll keep some oats in the bin and some straw in the barn for you,

because you're sure as hell going to come back.

He felt that the answers were there if you looked for them. People in the Old Testament were just like the people of this century and they had the same problems,

he wrote in the King's School Bible. It is the hope of the King's School group,

whose property this is, this is in the Bible, that this book may never cease to be a source of wisdom,

of something

humility and guidance, as when lived in the life of the Master.

That book is out at King School that meets every Wednesday. The inscription is out about anonymity, something kind of interesting. The AA who hides his identity from his fellow AA by using only a given name violates the tradition just as much as the AA who permits his name to appear on the press in connection with matters pertaining to AA.

The former is maintaining his anonymity above the level of press radio and films, and the latter is maintaining his anonymity below the level of press radio in films. Since our tradition on anonymity designates the exact level where the line should be held, it must be obvious to everyone who can read and understand the English language that to maintain anonymity at any other level is definitely a violation of this tradition.

Let's talk about the ego for just a minute. He said so with the question of anonymity. If we have a banner, that word Speaking of the surrender of the individual, the ego is emblazoned on it. Let us dwell thoughtfully on its full meaning and learn thereby to remain humble, modest, and ever conscious that we are eternally under divine direction.

Keep it on a spiritual basis. If you keep principles above personalities and you're active and sharing your program with other people,

it will work out.

We're not Saints.

Before you mention anything about the man you bring him over here with, you drive. Bob did not like gossip in a A In fact, in his last talk, which I'm going to play for you, he'll mention that If the speaker does not, he has. He struggled with tolerance, his character defect that he worked the hardest on with the fact he sometimes got intolerant. So he said if the speaker does not say exactly what you think he ought to say, don't criticize. He may be saying exactly what the man in the back row needs to hear,

something that he said. You know how you don't do this here in Sweden? I bet. Do you ever argue at your meetings or have any problems? Well, you're not. We did too. And here's what he said. Gentlemen, please, we're still members of Alcoholics Anonymous. Let's carry the principles of a A into these business meetings.

You are servants of your group here to take the ideas formulated by the committee. Let one man talk at a time, and let us conduct this meeting as a service to our fellow members

of Alcoholics Anonymous. I think that should be on the wall of most business meetings. Huh? I don't think we can do anything very well in this world unless we practice it. We should practice acquiring the spirit of service. We should attempt to acquire some faith, which isn't easily done, especially for the person who has always been very materialistic, following the standards of society today. But I think faith can be acquired. It can be acquired slowly. It has to be cultivated. That was not easy for me,

and I assume that it is difficult for everyone else.

Poor Bob. Bill was having spiritual experiences all the time and he wasn't doing a whole lot to earn them. I mean, here's Bob reading the Bible, praying, you know, Prince of 12 steppers doing everything. And he had struggled to have a spiritual experience.

He says about spiritual experience. It didn't last long. He had one, but he said I had the most marvelous sense of peace

which transported me for a time. It was truly the peace that which path us all understanding and I shall never forget it.

We are all after the same thing,

and that's happiness. We want Peace of Mind. The trouble with us Alcoholics was this. We demanded that the world give us happiness and Peace of Mind in just the particular way we wanted to get it by the alcohol route, and we weren't successful. But when we take the time to find out some of the spiritual laws and familiarize ourselves with them and put them into practice, then we do get happiness and Peace of Mind.

There seem to be some rules that we have to follow,

but happiness and Peace of Mind are always here, open and free to everyone.

Doctor Bob, you know, you think he would like be real religious. He wasn't. He read the Quran, he read Confucius. He he even read a book on Buddhism, Confessions of Saint Augustine and the Robe by Lord Douglas.

The reading list that he would tell you to read if he was sponsoring you would be These Books for Sinners Only by AJ Russell, The Greatest Thing in the World by Henry Drummond, Sermon on the Mount, Emmet Fox, The Upper Room, a Methodist Publication,

and Probably As A Man Thinketh by James Allen.

He felt that in distant centuries the science of the mind would be so developed as to make possible contact between the living and the dead.

You know, Bill was real psychic too, you know. I don't know if you know. Do you know they were doing seances? Do you know that Bill had a spook room where he did the Ouija board? Have you ever heard of Saint Boniface? He was an old German St. in Germany, and I don't know what century, but he talked to Bill.

If you read the letters to Father Ed Dowling, who was Bill spiritual sponsor, you'll see some of that correspondence,

Doctor Bob said when I operated under those conditions of prayer, I never made a move that wasn't right. He prayed not only for his understanding, but for different groups of people who requested him to pray, Bill Wilson said. I sort of depended on Him to get me into heaven.

Here's what he said about the ego that I like. He said we have found it wise policy to to hold to no glorification of the individual. Obviously that is sound. Most of us will concede that when it came to the personal showdown of admitting our failures and decline, deciding to surrender our will in our lives to Almighty God as we understood Him, we still had some sneaking ideas of personal justification and excuses.

We had to discard them. But the ego of the alcoholic dies a hard death.

Watch out for sponsor worship. You know anything about that? We've all seen the new member who stays sober for a time, largely through sponsor worship.

Then maybe the sponsor gets drunk, and you know what usually happens? Left without a human prop, the new member gets drunk too. He has been glorifying an individual instead of following the program.

OK, this is about Halo poisoning. It's about leadership. And it said continue to take personal inventory and when you're wrong, promptly admit it. That'll take care of any Halo poisoning. The kitchen table was the a a church

Doctor Bob was all about keeping it simple, and

Anne's gonna die in 1949. And it says it seems a pity Mrs. Smith's wonderful work could not have received the public recognition why she still lived. But she must have known the gratitude in the hearts of many people

she had help. Akron should always be proud of the AAA movement which was born there, and proud of the fine woman who did so much to foster that movement.

I want to read to you a prayer that I'm leaving with you here. It comes off of the desk of Doctor Bob about humility. He could have never written the traditions. He was already humble. Perpetual quietness of heart. It is to have no trouble. It is never to be fretted or vexed, irritable or sore, To wonder at nothing that is done to me, to feel nothing done against me. It is to be at rest when nobody praises me,

when I am blamed or despised.

It is to have a blessed home in myself where I can go in and shut the door and kneel to my Father in secret and be at peace

as in a deep sea of calmness when all around and about is seeming trouble.

There he is with his car. The older he got, the faster he drove him. I'm not going to be able to finish with the people that come and take care of him,

but

he does say about death. I'll be gone in a short time to meet my maker for a while. And here's how I explained death. For a while. You see the plane and then you don't see it. That doesn't mean that it has disintegrated or disappeared. It has just found a new horizon. That's the way I feel about death. I will have found a New Horizon

memorial card. Oh, I have to say this real quick. In Saint Louis, Cleveland is the first international we passed the traditions. Doctor Bob is going to give his last talk. And in Saint Louis, Bill turns the program over to us in 1955. But do you see that chair up there? He left an empty chair for his buddy Doctor Bob on stage. And now I would like you to listen to Doctor Bob's last words at that talk to us.

My good friends in the AAA and Avenue, I feel I would be very missed if I didn't take this opportunity to welcome you here to Cleveland. Not only to this meeting, but those that have already transpired.

I hope very much that they have. The presence of so many people and the words that you have heard will prove an inspiration to you. Not only to you, but

may you be able to impart that inspiration to the boys and girls back home who are not fortunate enough to be able to come. In other words, we hope that your visit here has been both enjoyable and profitable.

I got a big drill looking over a vastly of faces like this, with a feeling that possibly some small thing that I did in a number of years ago

played a infamous small pot. In making this meeting possible, I also get quite a thrill. And I think that we all had the same problem. We all did the same things, we all got the same results in proportion to our zeal and enthusiasm. And stick to itiveness,

if you will pardon the injection of a personal note at this time. And let me say that I've been in bed the five of the last seven months.

My Skype hasn't returned as I'd like some of my remarks of necessity be very brief,

but there are two or three things that flashed into my mind on which it would be fitting to lay a little emphasis. One is the simplicity of our program.

Let's not louse it all up with Freudian complexes and things that are interesting to the scientific mind but have very little to do with our actual AA work.

Our 12 steps, when simmered down to the

the last,

resolve themselves into the words love and service. We understand patrolves and we understand what service is. So let's bear those two things in mind.

Let us also remember

to guide that airing member of the tongue. And if we must use it, let's use it with kindness and consideration and tolerance.

And one more thing,

none of us would be here today if somebody hadn't taken time

explain things to us to give us a little pat on the back, to take us to a meeting or two, to have done

numerous little times and plotful acts on our behalf.

So let us never get the degree of smart complacency so that we're not willing to extend

our attempt to that help that has been sold beneficial to us, to our less fortunate brother. Thank you very much.

That's it. Thank you.

Thanks.