The history of AA at the Stateline Retreat in Primm, NV December 9th

Former archivist from Akron, OH. Former archivist from the Akron Intergroup.

Thank you, that's a great story.

Don't trip on my

feel like I'm at the rodeo here a little bit.

There we go. This will be good.

Well, I don't need this microphone. Hi, everybody. My name is GAIL and I'm an alcoholic.

I'm going to start out by asking you to tell you we only have one screen. The screen will not be lit. I'm a little codependent and I'm worried about some of you on this side of the room not being able to see. It's interactive. And if we can conjure up enough mojo, we might just get Bill, bring Bill Wilson back from the dead. And I wouldn't want you to miss that. So if any of you are willing to, I would suggest that you kind of move over and join this side of the room

where your perspective might be better for this interaction

and those of you that are antisocial will just stay where you are.

But but I will be taking attendance and talking to sponsors

and I'll be speaking kind of over here too. So

come on, it's like herding cats, isn't it?

Well, why we're waiting for the cats. Look, I'm already tangled up. Umm

wow, to be at this state line. I forgot how warm and wonderful it is. Not only is it an honor to be on a program with so many outstanding

message givers of Alcoholics Anonymous,

Yeah, it's almost surreal to me. But I must say that it is an honor to be with all of you. Very special gathering here of people. You can feel the spirit in this room. So I want to start off by thanking you for your sobriety

to be with you and events like this to me is like heaven on earth, just a little piece of heaven on earth.

And, uh,

I'm grateful last night I had an opportunity to share a little bit of my story,

but I get even a greater gift tonight. I get to tell our story. This is our story, a collective story of what it was like, what happened and what it's like, you know, with the writing of the big book of Alcoholics Anonymous. And I believe the true author of the story is God. And

Lee has brought all these great pictures that you're going to meet some of these people tonight, if you don't already know them in this story.

And many of them are friends of Alcoholics Anonymous. They're not Alcoholics. Many of them are just friends that were links in this chain of events called Alcoholics Anonymous.

So

I want to start out, this is the Woodstock of Alcoholics Anonymous and I was going to dress up in my bell bottoms but instead I brought this picture.

I I don't have time to qualify The Grapevine would really like to do this for a centerfold for Christmas, but I told him no.

If you notice, this is typical me. A half a gallon of wine on one side, a cigarette and the other a deck of cards and my zippers down

and and just look at my face. That's on May 13th of 1978. I found my way into the wonderful program of Alcoholics Anonymous

and this is another photo of me. This is me in a blackout.

The the way I got involved in always loved the history of Alcoholics Anonymous. I happened to get sober in Akron, OH and loved AA and later found out we didn't have too many history books out but I found out Oh my God. Much of our story took place in my hometown and we have something called Founders Day and Lois and would come back. Bill had already passed and Lois would come back to Founders day every year and she would bring some companions. And I mentioned last night when I spoke that I always say yes.

One thing the old timers told me always that they asked you to do something, always say yes. And I had said yes to being a Hostess at Founders Day. And that entailed what are we going to do with Lois and her companions? And I, I seated Lois and and Barry up on the front and I was seating a beautiful woman by the name of Nell Wing. And if she was really easy to get to know, she was a wonderful woman. And she was started to tell me about who she was. Actually. She said, you know, I was Bill Wilson's secretary, and I worked with him on the writing of the

12:00 and 12:00. And, you know, if I was a cartoon character, you know how people's eyes kind of come out and then they pop back in their head. You know, I was like, oh, my God. And there happened to be an empty seat. And I sat down next to her. And she told me she would get an autograph book for me because the book Lois remembers had just come out. And I said, oh, no, thank you. If there's anything I could do for you, just ask. Don't ever say that in Alcoholics Anonymous unless you're really willing to go to any lengths. She said, GAIL, yes, there is. I'd like you to start an archives.

I didn't know what one was. I thought it might be some smelly old papers in Washington. I wasn't sure. But I did try to do what she asked. And I, by the way, my last name in French means the cross, and my mother was going to name me Carrie.

When I got this assignment, I felt like I was carrying the cross because we had nothing at that time.

And so I by the way, that's Nell there. She was a true friend of Alcoholics Anonymous. She was a companion to Bill and later to Lois. In fact, if you were to visit Stepping Stone, she had her own room there. She was like a Wilson.

And so I did get involved in the purchase of Doctor Bob's home and held it my name and then it rolled over into foundation. I thought, now I have a place to put this archives. So I flew out and stayed with Nell. I can't believe how wonderful that was. And she took me out to visit Lois Wilson so that I could tell the difference between what belongs to Alcoholics Anonymous, belonged in the general service office. Bills work for us, but personally, what belonged to him

belonged at the house. And so I I learned a lot. In fact, she told me I couldn't be an archivist at Doctor Bob's house if I wanted to be an A a archivist

because they can't own property. And I spent the next three days trying to talk her out of our traditions.

Here I am having a drink with Lois. That is me in that picture. I was sober in that picture,

however my hair hadn't sobered up yet.

I'm

skilled powerless over it. It's a bit unmanageable,

so I'd like to take out a quick little quick field trip. I know some of you are going to get that sugar buzz at about halfway through my talk, you're going to start nodding out,

but I'm going to get this part in. Just want you to know that in Akron there's a lot for you to see and I wouldn't want you to miss the archives that I later got involved in at our intergroup office. Some of you may have seen the stained glass window. It's one of the first things you'll see in what we call our flying blind room. It's framed with the four absolutes and those are all sobriety coins. And why we were doing this is 1000 pieces of glass in there. And if you had come in to visit, you would have been, we would have asked you to if you wanted to cut a piece of glass and become a part of that window.

Or you could have thrown in your sobriety coin and you to helped us frame it because it's men and women who normally would not mix.

And then you'll go down a long hallway where the big books written in many different languages, about 55 are there and there's flags right above them. And then the big books are in the cases and when we get so many visitors now from different countries that they signed the big books from their country. And those books are all now becoming archival as well as a poster that you might see there from the first a as in Russia, it was presented long before we actually had the archives. When I would be standing at Founders Day, a woman gave it to me from

and she won. She said the groups was given to us from the first AAS in Russia. It signed and the people of France would like Akron to have it. So you'd see that there along with the tartans. Do you know that they have recovery tartans? They took the Smith clan and the Wilson clan and they took the plaids and they made tartans and they're commissioned.

And then there's 26 displays and we have like a headset you can put on and you can travel through if one of us is not there to take you through. And we'll walk you through the beautiful story of the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous.

And after you go there, you'd actually go into, well, that's an art gallery. It's got some different things in it. And you know what? I need to back that up. Something happened here.

I just want to back it up.

It's not going to work. I was going to take you into the interior. It doesn't want to go. But we have Sister Ignatius Rosary, Dr. Bobby's manuscript, copy of the books, and letters from Hank Parkhurst. Lots of wonderful things to see. And then we also have a lab, because paper dies and we want it to be around for as long as we can. So we're trying to clean it, preserve it, deacidify it, and keep it for future generations.

And if you want to visit the website there, the voices from Doctor Bob and the good old timers are MP3 files. You're welcome to download them and listen to them. We're also trying to keep those voices alive. OK. Now for what we came from,

this took me about six weeks in PowerPoint to learn how to do that front slide.

I've advanced since then. Some of you have tried some of these programs. This is just sort of set the stage here of Akron, early Akron,

and we were a rubber capital of the world. We weren't known. Now we're known as the birth place of Alcoholics Anonymous, but at the time we were the rubber capital of the world. And we had some families there that were like royalty. One of the families was the Firestones, and Mr. Firestone had several sons. One of those sons named Russell, was a terrible alcoholic. And I like to say all the King's horses and all the King's men could not put that kid back together again.

Money won't buy sobriety if it if, if Mr. Firestone could have bought that son's sobriety, he would have.

They sent him away to treatment. They did all that they could. And then there was an intervention of sorts. This guy on the left, his name's Jim Newton. He's one of my favorite people in our story. You may not have heard of him. A lot of people don't know this part of the story. He was a God can use womanizers. He was a young luggage salesman. He's in Massachusetts and he's chasing pretty girls and he thinks he's on a way to the singles dance. And he follows him right in. And he ends up at an Oxford Group meeting

and it becomes a great Oxford Group member. In fact, he's down in Fort Myers, FL, and he's working for Thomas Edison. Almost was like a son to Thomas Edison developing real estate while Harvey Firestone was good friends with Thomas Edison. And he's visiting and he takes a liking to Jim Newton. I mean, really, these are such slender threads. And he brings him to Akron

and he becomes friends with Russell or Bud, who's in this picture here on the right. He even now this is so codependent and and this is this is so he goes away to treatment with him, trying to help him. Even, you know, jogs with him, does all that stuff. But he the kid just can't stay sober. And the family gives up hope. Well, Jim talks about why don't you come with me to Denver with the Oxford group is meeting. They traveled by train

in those days and he agreed to go and there was a flask of alcohol. There was some controlled drinking. He turned the bottle over to

Jim and and they just did the controlled drinking the whole way there.

But on the way coming back,

another slender thread. Sam Shoemaker was on the train.

Some of you may know who Sam Shoemaker is.

He pulled into a train car and those days was called soul surgery and he got down on his knees and he surrendered. Now when he gets off the train in Akron, he's not the same guy. He doesn't look the same.

The lines on his forehead were gone. He's no longer beating the wife, and the father is so grateful. If you think of the prodigal son story, what does the father do When the son returns home? The father throws a big dinner.

That's what Mr. Firestone did.

This is the founder of the Oxford Group, Frank Buckman. I like that somebody in here would correct me right now if I didn't say Buckman

and a lot of press. This is a big deal. The Firestones are throwing this party. They are royalty. And Akron is very intrigued by this. They're going to get next to it and they're going to hold this at the. You can see, by the way, this was a very high social affair. All of our society came out for it and they were quite dressed up. That's Harvey Firestone there on your left.

And they're going to hold it at the newly opened Mayflower Hotel.

This is Depression Times. But they had set aside money for the opening of this hotel. And it's a year and a half old in January of 33. And they're going to hold a dinner. And there's about 400 at that dinner. And Bud Firestone is going to give testimony to his recovery from alcoholism. That's really important because when we get to talking a little bit about what happens in New York, there's going to be a difference in how drunks are received in both cities.

But because Oxford groups coming to town for this drunks recovery, it makes a difference at this time. Henriette is going to get involved and Ann Smith, because they're going to hold house parties and they're going to hold them in the morning and at night for the next 10 days. They're going to keep them in Akron. They're going to go out into the pulpits of the churches. And I always believe in looking back at this is this is if the soil is being prepared

at this time, Doctor Bob will get involved.

And for the next little over two years, he's going to do everything that the Oxford Group says. He really liked the Oxford Group. His disease had progressed. He was kind of getting down and out. He didn't have too many friends. And he walked into a room like this. And I imagine that the Oxford Group had a similar spirit. He saw the laughter, he saw the sharing, he heard all that. He was very attracted to it. And for a man that never said he was never going to set foot in a church again, he did all that. He went back to church. He read the Bible and the and the Oxford Group was were prolific readers

and he was reading all the time and he did everything, but he couldn't get sober. I think that's really important because they had most the principles that we have today in our 12 step program. And here's a man that's doing everything. But there was one thing missing.

So the Henrietta is here, and she gets a call from a woman by the name of Delphine Webber. And Delphine Weber says, what are we going to do about Doctor Bob? And she says, what do you mean? What are we going to do about Doctor Bob? She said, well, he's got a terrible drinking problem. You know, his business, his practice is about gone and about ready to lose their home. And they don't ever share at Oxford Group meetings.

So I I picture in this picture here of Henrietta. She's in her quiet time because the Oxford Group took morning watches.

They called it guidance. They'd get up in the morning. They would read from a devotional, usually the Bible.

Then they had this part for listening, and they'd have a pencil and a paper, and they would write down what they thought God's guidance was for them that day. Then there was another real important part. It was called checking

and they would, you would call somebody up much like maybe we would have sponsor today and they would check your guidance to see if where that was coming from. And they'd run it by the four absolutes, which I'll tell you about in just a minute to check to see if that guidance is really coming from God.

Henrietta's going to get guidance. And the thing about her guidance is has to do with an intervention on Bob and Ann. You can go home and turn on your TV's and learn about intervention. There's programs now on TV. Back in 1935, I don't even think they used the word. They might not have even called what her guidance was intervention. But she gets guidance to call her friends, T Henry and Clarice Williams.

They lived in this beautiful Tudor home. He was a tire mold inventor and he worked for National Rubber Machinery shop, National Rubber Machinery shop. You know, Bills coming to Akron to take over at a proxy fight. That particular company, he's going to lose his job because of Bill Wilson.

He's ready to lose his home because of depression. They were foreclosing on homes much like they're doing and right now. And the bank stopped just short of taking this home because they couldn't take any more homes. So this was to them God's house. And they said, can we use your house for a special meeting? We'd like to do a special meeting for Doctor Bob and Ann. Now they held the planning meeting on a Monday because they had what they called a set up meeting

and you had a leader and it was Henrietta

and she said we're going to share and we're going to share deeply and there's not going to be any pussyfooting around.

Now on Wednesday though, at 8:00 is when they had the meeting

and they all went around the room and we don't have it. We didn't have tapes back then, so we don't know what they said. I have no idea what those

high society had to say, what they put their hand on the stove instead of four letter word, I don't know. But they went around the room and they shared. And when it came Doctor Bob's turn, he looked up at him and there was this long pause and he thanked him. And he said, now at the cost of my profession, I am a secret drinker and I cannot stop. And they said, Bob, would you like us to pray for you? And he said yes,

and they're going to get down on their knees in this living room and pray for Bob.

Think about two weeks after that, Bill Wilson's going to come to town.

And of course, you know that call is going to go from the Mayflower Hotel to Henrietta Cyberling, who's living in this little gate lodge here. And I, I moved Carl Young away because it was bothering me last night that Young and Bob were hooking up because I thought maybe Henrietta was a better match here. So

now Bob and Bill knew that they had to work with another alcoholic to stay sober and they weren't sure what they had. They certainly didn't call it Alcoholics Anonymous. Doctor Bob worked at City Hospital at that time. So he called up a nurse and he said they were looking for somebody and they had a cure for alcoholism. And he said, and the nurse said, well Bob, have you tried it on yourself? And they had this guy strapped down to the bed and they make this 12 step call on Bill D and on

July 4th of 1935,

he's going to walk out of the hospital a Freeman and never drink again. And in your big books, it said that's when group number one begins.

But I don't know how many of you know that. July 4th. So the next time you see fire in the sky, you might have a little prayer of Thanksgiving for our own independence, huh.

They wouldn't have taken him the big book. They would have taken him 4 words.

Doctor Bob says that those were the only yardsticks we had. That's what we measured our behavior by. And if you come to the Akron Cleveland area and attend meetings,

we are still studying those words. Those words are still passed down to us from our elder statesman. And there's four questions that go with those four words of honesty, purity, unselfish. And love is what I'm about to think, say or do, right or wrong,

true or false, ugly or beautiful. And how does it affect the other guy?

They will continue to meet at this house Wednesday at 8:00. You know the night the prayer was said Wednesday at 8:00.

This house right here Wednesday at 8:00 will become the main meeting place of the group.

It will be called, well, it's called the Alcoholic Squad. Initially they don't have a name, but they call it the Alcoholic Squad,

and it grows in here. Only we can't sit still for the guidance. So we're jonesing all the time. So we just don't want to go and sit there and listen for God's voice. So Bob would take him into the upper room here and he would get the surrenders and then they would come back down and we pretty much filled up this house and we almost, and we just outgrew them. And the reason for that is for us, it's life and death wasn't just a social event for us.

If that's the mother group, I just want you to realize that I believe that all group, well, all groups come from this group.

And so you can trace your Home group back to the prayer that was said in that living room.

The other stage that's going to we're only going to have two groups for quite a while. They'll be the group that starts in Akron. Bill hadn't been able to get anybody sober before he had come to Akron. He had filled his house with Alcoholics. Not one had gotten sober. But he learned, thank God, before he came to Akron, that if you work with another alcoholic, you can stay sober. And he's going to return now. You know, he, when he,

he, this is Calvary Church. This would be the headquarters of the Oxford Group. And Sam Shoemaker is the head of that church.

They'll have meetings there that Bill and Lois will attend. And here's Calvary House where they went. And let's go inside and see what one of their meetings would look like. This is an actual photo of an Oxford Group meeting attended by Bill and Lois.

Looks like it's Thursday night meeting here,

but what's going to happen is, you know, Bill has that spiritual experience and all he wants to do is work with another drunk. He really doesn't want to be all things to all people. And what he will do is he will come back to the Oxford Group, but he'll knock you down looking for a drunk.

And after a while, that kind of got on the Oxford Groups nerves and they kind of gave Bill and Lois the cold shoulder. So by 1937, this is an artist's rendition here. They will start to meet at Clinton St. and they'll form a group and that'll be called the Drunk Squad or a nameless bunch of drunks.

Now Bill is is one minute he's a millionaire the next minute he's broke. You know, he's just up and down. I bipolar for sure venture here. I don't know, but he's trying to make a comeback. He's got a business trip. He's coming back to Akron. He's going to stop and he he's going to stop in and see his good friends. By now he had spent the summer with us in 35 and he's going to stop in and see Bob and Ann.

There'd been a lot of failures. This thing didn't take off real quick. A lot of people came in, but they didn't stick around. Even Evie goes back out

and they're sitting around in the living room at 855 Aardvar. And I know I photoshopped Bill in. I can see you can tell that, but I needed a picture of all three of them and the date should be 1937. They start counting up how many people are sober, and this is a big turning point here. They did not know what they had and they count up. And by God, 40 people had stayed sober. Some of them even had more than a year,

and for some reason at that moment

they realized they were onto something, that a light had come into The Dark World of the alcoholic. And all three of them wept,

and then they bowed their heads in prayer and Thanksgiving.

Now, if you know anything about Bill Wilson, that didn't last too long. The next thought right after that

was we need a chain of hospitals. He'd been working on Wall Street, and he knew about those chain of drugstores, so we need a chain of hospitals. We need some missionaries, and we better get together on writing that book so that the message doesn't get garbled.

Now, Bob, he was a little more cautious about things like that, and they had discovered this thing called a group conscience.

Maybe we ought to take it to the group and see what the group has to say. Very early move on a group conscience level.

And one of the beautiful things about this friendship that these two men had does not mean that they always agreed,

but they agreed to disagree agreeably. Now, Doctor Bob's son Smitty would say if it was up to Bob, AAA would have never left Akron. If it was up to Bill, he'd have franchised it.

And I want you to just kind of capture the two of them here. There's no sound to this.

Aren't they adorable? Check out Bob's tie

and you can tell there's that spirit of humor and you can see that they're free men that that they're you can just see let the sense of humor they both had and I don't know what they're saying. Bob's probably selling Bill to keep it simple. And

yeah, there you can check out the tie there anywhere. Argyle Socks.

And in just a minute, you're going to see Anne Smith. Bill would call her the mother of a A and she truly was. There she is now. She was sort of shy and didn't like this camera business at all. And she can just say, oh, come on, I just want to stay in the background.

We need a signer here to tell us what they're saying, don't you think?

All right,

So what they're going to do is they're going to go back to this. By the way, they called this the flying blind period because we we didn't have any conference approved literature, guys, OK, We were using Oxford Group literature. We were flying blind because we didn't know what was going on. So they go back to this house and they're going to put this thing to a boat

and

this is kind of how it went. This is the living room where they attended it, and Bill's going to pitch it, being the salesman that he was,

and this is what he's going to say. He's going to say we need a chain of hospitals,

we need some paid missionaries

and, you know, we need some literature to keep this message from getting garbled.

And the people from Akron and Squad are going to say the Man of Galilee had no press agents, newspapers, pamphlets or books. Keep it simple, Bill said. You can keep it so simple you'll have anarchy. He said, don't you know there's Alcoholics that are dying within gunshot of this house?

So they did vote on it, and I believe there was either 18 or 19 men.

And by just one vote they're going to send Bill back. And they said, wow, if it's going to take money, you can go back to New York and raise that money.

So Bill's going to go back to the Big Apple and he's going to put a pitch to the rich.

And he and his buddy Hank, they're going to go around, they're going to try to get some money, but they're not very successful. People say what's So what's a big deal about 40 drunk, sober, we'd rather give to the Red Cross or the Salvation Army.

Well, Bill was subject to some of those depressions and what he called imaginary ulcers.

And his sister Dorothy had married a doctor, Leonard Strong. Thank God. This guy's going to play a big part in this story. I'll tell you that much. So Bill goes off and he's he's going to go off and see Leonard

and he's going to start wine into Leonard about how nobody's giving him any money and the rich and everything. And you know what the difference between an alcoholic that's whining and a dog that's whining is, don't you?

Well, the dog will stop whining when you let him in. So he's pitching. He's pitching the Leonard. And he's saying to Leonard, you know this. And Leonard says, you know, I knew a girl in high school who father worked with the Rockefellers. And so he puts in a phone call and then there's a letter of introduction. And the guy is Reverend Willard Richardson,

Rockefeller's best friend and spiritual advisor. Couldn't have picked a more perfect guy. And the next thing you know, Bill's on his way shortly after that

to visit with him, and he goes from ulcer to the 54th floor of the Rockefeller Building.

And this is when he says on what slender threads our destiny does lie.

He's going to meet with him and and Willard likes the idea and is going to introduce him to more Rockefeller people at a special meeting in December of that year. And Bill is going to meet in the boardroom, Rockefellers boardroom. And he sat down in a chair that Rockefeller had just vacated. And he said, boy, he thought he was getting close to that money. That's what they wanted. And they were all kind of sitting around and they really didn't know what to say. I mean, what do a bunch of drunk say?

It's something like that. And they looked at each other and they said,

why don't we just tell our stories? That's what they did. And as they started going around the room telling their story, Albert Scott says, wait a minute,

this sounds like 1st century Christianity,

which is kind of interesting because that was once the name of the Oxford Group.

Well, let's see who was there? There was Albert Scott, Willard Richardson, Leonard Strong. Doctor Silkworth was there. Frank Amos was there. And Leroy Chipman, Bill Wilson and Doctor Bob, Hank P Fitzem, Ned P and Dick Stanley.

The next statement is Gentlemen, up to this point this has been the work of goodwill only. No plan, no property, no paid people, just one carrying the good news to the next.

Isn't that true? And may it not be that this is where the great power of this society lies.

Now, Frank Amos was from Ohio, and I believe it was on his own dime. He came to check us out. And when he found out that Doctor Bob was a pretty good doctor now that he was sober. So that might not be a bad place to put a hospital and put Doctor Bob in charge.

He recommended. Now I have to tell you this, but I think Bill might not be accurate on this. He's been known to prefabricate our history a little bit.

I just read a book coming in on the plane and in there, and I believe it's true because a friend of mine just wrote a book on the Rockefellers. I don't believe it's 50,000. I think the recommendation was 10,000. And I think Rockefeller ended up giving us 5. But the way Bill tells it is it was 50 and they're and they're going to use it to put A to help buy down Doctor Bob's house. So he didn't lose it. He was close to losing it. He was putting all his time and work into drunks, as you know,

they're going to get a rehabilitation place and put him in charge, subsidized. A few people start those hospitals and get busy on the books.

By the time it gets across the desk from Richardson to Rockefeller,

it's Rockefeller's whole reaction to this is very interesting, he said. Somehow I'm strangely stirred by all this. This interests me immensely, but isn't money going to ruin this thing? I think it's interesting that he gets strangely stirred,

he says. I want to hear what goes on, but please don't bother me for any more money. No, I won't be the one to spoil this thing with money.

Now, the rest of them. Richardson, Amos, all the rest of them,

they don't go with him. It's only Rockefeller that says that. What they do is, well, I'll show you this, that 50, pretend that's not 50 anymore since I got that new information, get shrunk down to five. They use the money to pay off the house or pay down the house, and the house only cost 4000 to start with. That leaves the guys 2000 and they're going to put it in Rockefeller's church here and they're going to draw 20 to $30 a week from that.

Of course, that was worth a lot more back in 19 the 1930s.

Harry Emerson Fosdick is the head of the church. He will write the first big book review that will appear in the New York Times.

They're going to get a young attorney from the Rockefeller side and his name is John Wood. And they're going to draft our charter. And here's the big question. They're going to call it the Alcoholic Foundation. They have to know what is the difference between an alcoholic and a non alcoholic? You think that's where we got that Trump? I don't know.

Some of you got that and it's late and you had ice cream. All right.

And so they decided that an alcoholic is somebody who can't drink and an alcoholic is non alcoholic is somebody who can. They put Leonard Strong in as the secretary. Richardson Leroy Chipman will be a treasurer. Frank Amos, Doctor Bob will be on there. Bill R will get drunk and they'll be Harry B Bill will be on advisory committee and sitting on the sidelines.

They've got a little new, a little office at this time. Actually, this they started a car products business and that's Hank, Bill's partner, and Bill,

and they're going to hire this little secretary by the name of Ruth Hawke.

There's a picture right down the same pictures right below here. That's the table that Bill and Ebby will meet at. If you get a chance to visit Stepping Stones, you can actually sit at that table, but they're sitting at the table and it's in, pass it on and underneath it it says Ruth never knew what she was getting herself into

and the reason for that. And she'll tell you this herself. And some of her sound bites she says she thought she was getting. She was going to be the secretary for the car products, but she said I never saw any car products being sold. She said it was either somebody passed out in a chair or down on their knees making a surrender.

And this is a part of the office there. The little circle is where the office was. And you know, we have word processing today, but Can you imagine the typing of that book as Bill would pace around beside her? And this is Hank now. He could have an idea minute. He was quite the promoter as well was his idea to write the book. And he will write the outline for the book.

And there's another picture of Ruth. She's going to get the five millionth copy of the big book in Montreal,

and there's her typewriter that's at office now, Little now. We couldn't afford to pay her.

We're going to have those stock certificates, but they're worthless.

They're supposed to be worth $25.00, but you know, they're just ripping her off. One, we're not incorporated or anything. They're just ripping her off. One of these a week as a weekly ration. And when I got to give this talk for the first time in Toronto at our international, my roommate was Ruth Hawke's daughter. And I got to stay there because she was, she was with us. Then I said, little did Ruth know that the book she was typing would one day save her daughter's life. And Lori stood up with about 30 years of sobriety.

That's pretty moving

now. Some of the ideas for the Big Book, we're told by some of our historians, had come from some other people. William James contributed in his book Varieties of Religious Experiences.

And we have this book here. This is the Oxford Group textbook. It's called What is the Oxford Group? And I just need to tell you a cute little story. You're going to like this. I've loved a I've, I've loved the history. And you know how we all are. We come into a, we just start collecting those books, don't we?

The Gate Lodge sits on the Cyberlink estate. It's called Stan Hewitt. They have harvest festivals there. And I was attending one of them and they had a book bin right behind the Gate Lodge. And I went to it and I said, you have any old a A books? This is 1983. They said no. I said, well, do you have any spiritual books? And they said yes. And my hand went to this little thin blue book and I pulled it out and I said, what is the Oxford Group? And I thought

we the movement or the group, I wasn't sure, but when I opened it up, the book said RH Smith, a 55 Ardmore his book Please return.

Maybe I should say that the book found me.

Now I try to get them down to 1/4.

Bargain addicted. I had to pay $0.35 for that book. I did return it. You'll see it at Doctor Bobby House.

Common Sense of Drinking by Richard Peabody was a favorite.

Chris, most of you know about Sermon on the Mount by Emmet Fox. Still a great book for us.

Some Oxford groups especially for Sinners Only

by AJ Russell and just because a friend of mines here that loves Victoria Kitchen. I Was a Pagan was also a really popular book

and

I don't know why it's doing that. I haven't a clue. Let's see,

why would it do that? I heard. So I have an idea why it did that, but I don't think I like it. I think there's, you know what it is. OK, we're going to do this

because this thing wants attention.

There we go.

Now let's get back here.

Now this doesn't want to get back. There we go. All right. Sorry about that.

OK,

alright,

OK. So we're going to talk another contributor. I think Evie had a lot to do with it because Evie brings Bill the most perfect 12 step call. And in that 12 step call, when Bill writes his biography, you can see many of our steps just in the message that Abby carried to Bill.

Because Bill's going to write his biography before he writes the 12 steps in the 5th chapter, how it works. He's also going to write along with his biography. There is a solution and a little bit of an introduction to the book,

and then he's going to ask Anne Smith if she'll write a chapter to the wives. And Anne just wanted to stay in the background, so she declined. Well, it's got a bit of a resentment about that.

And most of you know who wrote chapter to the wives, don't you, Bill?

That is funny today. That's funny.

Now through another series of slender threads, Bills going to get a tip to go see the the religious editor from Harpers magazine, Eugene X-Men. And he's going to take those three pieces to Eugene and Eugene is going to look at them. And now Bill wasn't a writer. You know, isn't it amazing what he did it just so few years of sobriety? I I anyway, Eugene said. Bill, this is pretty good,

He says, can you do anything else like this? Who goes? Oh yeah, yeah, I can, he said. Well, I'd like to give you