So Cal Speaker's in San Diego, CA

Speaker for this evening, Day P from San Diego.

My name is David Patton, I'm alcoholic and I've been sober since June 21st 1986.

Most time when it comes to a speaker meeting, I hear a dynamic speaker 10 minute speakers speak.

I feel sorry for the 45 minute speaker.

Tonight's no different. Let's give a hand for a Catherine.

I'm so excited to be here. I really am. I this is one of the most favorite things I get to do in Alcoholics Anonymous and honor and privilege. One thing, Sam, for having me up here. Sam and I go way back

a long time. We both attended Mesa colleges the same time and I was taking an accounting classes and Sam took the CPA exam and he's helping me with my accounting classes and and he says I think I should study for the next museum. And I said, Sam, shouldn't you wait? And for the results come back,

Well, he became an accountant and I became a social worker.

If if you didn't catch it by now. I got sober when I was about two years old.

I always do this speaker prayer every time I speak. God make me a hit.

The truth is, I've already invited God in this conversation. I've already invited him here.

Can you feel him?

It's one alcohol talked her to another. I just happened to have the microphone tonight. And it's honor and privilege to do this. And I realized that God uses my experience, strength, and hope to help others quite a bit in and out of the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous.

And I was supposed to share in a journal way what I used to be like, what happened, and what I'm like tonight or yeah, tonight I

come up to the present moment, right? Because that's all we got is the moment, the present moment, the 4th dimension.

So I'm a I'm going to carry you back to my childhood. I was born and raised in a little town called Vero Beach, FL. My, my parents were completely opposite. My dad is a very stoic gentleman.

He didn't have the ability or he didn't have the wherewithal to express emotions very much anger or love either one. He he never said I'm proud of you or anything like that. He was this guy that was heavily involved with the Moose Lodge and

but he was always a good provider, stable environment, very stern

and he had some good morals and good values. My mom was just vivacious, really vivacious woman that was a bartender and she was really good at it and she was a drinker. Now. She was a very talented woman. She cooked very well. She sewed and there's several outfits that I still wear that she

not this suit. This is a Macy suit,

but she's made me shirts throughout the years and I still own several of them.

My dad is also this historic guy that he's in this generation where you don't talk about the the inevitable when he dies. He's a hoarder and so he

doesn't talk about, you know, the, the legal aspect when he's going to die, what's going to happen to his properties and stuff like that. And, and so he's having a lot of medical issues. He's in his late 80s and he's having a lot of heart attacks and strokes and stuff like that. And our conversations are very limited today.

We should talk about the weather or, you know, whatever is a journal topic. But no, nothing really deep

and I miss being able to talk to my dad

now my mom,

and she's always been a very selfish woman. Always,

even when I was a little kid and she was always that way. To this day, she's that way and, and what she's going through is she's has dementia and

my sister is 2 years younger than me.

And

my sister is taking care of all the legal aspects, all the taking care of my mom and, and my dad and my sister lives on the on the West Coast of Florida. So it is a really big deal. And I said to my sister a few months ago, I said, how can I help? She goes just make the phone calls. So when I talked to my dad, I talked to him a couple days ago about the hurricane that was

in South Florida. And we talked about that. And we talked about the little moisture we had here. And he

and I called my mom and I look forward to that phone call every time. I said, mom, are we ready to run around the block again? And she just laughs and we talk a little gibberish and

I don't know what it feels like to her, but I know what it feels like to me.

It feels good that I'm able to do that on a on a weekly basis.

And if either one number to die today,

my sweet clean with them.

That's Queen.

Now what I was going growing up.

I was restless, irritable, discontent. And I just remembered this a couple of days ago. I've got an older brother

and he was cutting the lawn and I was pushing this toy lawn mower and my brother was cutting around a tree or something like that and he wasn't going fast enough.

And I walked in front of him and here's what I heard my mom say,

your kid needs to go to the hospital. And I heard that. And I haven't thought about that in many, many years, but that's what I heard back then. And they got me to the hospital. And what was going on when I was about five or six years old, I got a lazy guy and they put an eye patch on my eye.

And there's other complex I got going on. I'm a bed wetter

until I was about 12 years old and I'm wetting the bed and I don't know why I'm wedding the bed

but I got these two complexes plus on the middle child. So I got an older brother that disappeared when I was a kid. He's disappeared now. I haven't talked to him since 1990 so I do not know where he and no one know. He's just gone and it's sad, really sad.

At 12 or 13 years old, my mom decided that she had enough of the marriage and and left town, abandoned two kids. My dad and I fought all through high school and basically my sister and I were Glad's kid Keys before they invented that term

because my dad worked really hard. And there was a couple of years where he worked the night shift. And so we didn't see him for a while, you know, so far on the weekends.

But he was always, he was always stable. And you know his word.

They gave me some good values and principles that I look to buy today.

When I was about 12 years old, he went out and financed a lawnmower for me, said go out and make your own money. And that's been a good, valuable lesson that I learned.

When my mom left town,

my dad and I fought, you know, and I had a lot of resentment, anger, frustrations and all that good stuff that was going on.

And one clear example of how selfish I am, about 40 years ago, Hurricane David was going through South Florida

and my my father, my grandmother lived about half of half of 1/2 hour drive. And my father, the phone went out, the electricity went out. So he he gathered myself and him and we're driving this Vega down the road in this hurricane to go get my grandmother so we could get her to safety. And I'm complaining about the whole situation, not taking an account that my grandmother could be scared or

or whatever, and my father's doing the very best he could to do what he had to do.

And that was way before I took a drink of alcohol. Graduated high school 1981.

I don't know if my father said this or not, but here's what I heard. Son, what service you join in?

My last name is Patton.

I joined the United States Navy.

I get in the boot camp at September 1981 and my company commander looked at me and he says I don't know what you need drunk or laid. Now I had an experience, didn't even one of those.

I don't know what I was missing,

but I graduated boot camp November 1981 and I had my first drink of alcohol and I was no longer breathless, irritable, disquietent. I no longer had that twisting in my gut, no longer had it in my gut. And I knew why my mom drank 'cause that magic of that alcohol did its job.

I was no longer irritable. I mean, it's just

and I chased that feeling to the gates of death.

I was in the Navy. I was a boy or technician stationed in Charleston, SC

I worked hard, really hard and it was 120° temperatures and I will say that I was well liked, but I always got in these little blemishes. I could describe them as a pinball machine. I would bounce in and out of the,

for you young folks, a pinball machines where you stick

ordering is and you had these flappers and sometimes, sometimes they get the extra balls. Sometimes I'd get the free bonus points, but sometimes that ball would go straight down in the center and I couldn't hit the flappers. And that was the story in my drinking career. Absolutely.

I was a sailor and there was a girl in every port and there was a drunk in every port and there was disaster in every port and there was

and I was well liked, so I was well protected from trouble. But every now and then I would get in these little troubles where they couldn't Get Me Out of

over and over. And I was saying and never drink again.

My friend Renee asked me to share this story.

She owes me 5 bucks.

My nickname in the Navy was Papa Smurf, so I had this brilliant ideal.

Alcoholics always have brilliant ideals, don't they? I was about 20 years old and I had this brilliant ideal that I was going to get a tattoo of a Papa Smurf on my rear end.

Like I said, Alcoholics have brilliant ideals.

Get to the tattoo place. And the tattoo place was closed for lunch.

Thank God they have lunch. Hours, huh?

Seconds and inches. Boy, that tattoo would look great at at 20 years old, but at 55, I don't think I'd like that great.

I spent ten years in the Navy and I never got a tattoo.

December of 1984,

I'm in Cocoa Beach, FL and it's Christmas Eve and I meet these two people outside this bar and they said we know where we can get some women at and it's more liquor.

That's two important ingredients in my life,

women and liquor. So let's go. And so we went down the road in Cocoa Beach, FL

and they give me stopped and I'm stopped and they stick a gun to my chest. This is a 1984 Christmas Eve in 1984. They stick a gun to my chest. And as they were driving off with my 1984 red Chevette, not a Corvette, but red Chevette. I'd pray to God if he got me my Chevette back, I'd stop drinking.

I've been sober most of that time since I made that statement. I still haven't got that Chevette back

two weeks. 2 weeks later I buy a car and this is a very symbolism of

unmanageable ability in my life, drunk or sober during that period of my life.

Two weeks after that I buy another car

and it's a 5 speed. I never drove a 5 speed my life.

Two hours after, I own a brand new 1984 Chevette.

It was white, though it wasn't red. I burnout the clutch.

How do you burn up a clutch and a new car? I did

and eventually learn how to drive that car

and I moved in with these guys that like to drink like I drank.

I went to many, many spring breaks wall during that period of time and Sephiroth was never in college during that period of time.

And we used to take beer bongs to bars. Beer bongs is where you stick a funnel. Normal people don't drink beer through a funnel. Normal people drink half of beer and say, I, I, I'm feeling the effect. I I've had enough, but I drink that beer through a funnel and I had a lot of fun doing it.

May of 1985 was no different than the other night. We went to the bar that night and it was on a Tuesday.

It was drink and drown night. It was $5, all you could drink from 8:00 to midnight, and it was heaven.

And that night I left the bar and I was going 85 miles an hour in a Chevette

and I hit a ditch embankment. I fooled 65 feet in the air and I collapsed my long I had a busted liver, busted pancreas. Liver was busted. The kidney was busted.

They made that call to my parents. They said your kid may not make it out of the hospital,

so you better get out of your busy life and come up to Charleston from South Florida.

My parents had to take off work. My sister had to take out a school, My brother had to take off work,

and a friend of the family had to take off, you know, and they were up there visiting

their son. That put him through misery.

No parents should ever have to go through that. And I put them through that. I was 21 years old and somebody come in there, did

a, they asked me a stupid question.

I'm laying in intensive care unit and I'm 21 years old and all I'm caring about is that Chevette that I didn't like driving to begin with because I had to get to there. You know, I didn't realize the ramifications. Almost dying

and they asked me a silly question.

Do you think you got a drinking problem? I said. I don't think so. I think I I know I'm never going to drink and drive again.

Shortly after that I get introduced to rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous and it was a Friday night.

It was right about the same time, this in May, a night,

September 1985, I got introduced to rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous and I instantly fell in love with it. And there was a there was a person who was sitting beside me. That person was really, really old. And today I don't consider that old. I consider that really young,

35,

Dave, You know, I know you pee in the shower. I don't know how you knew, but you knew. So if you're new, we know,

we absolutely know. And please share your seekers with us so we can have a good laugh.

Share your problems with us and share your brilliant ideals, because I guarantee you

we thought of them.

We may have done some of them, but please share them with us.

I had this lurking notions of someday somehow wasn't going to control and enjoying my drinking. It wasn't quite done drinking. It was not quite done drinking

because I had that lurking notion that someday

I'll drink differently. It wasn't that bad,

Nicholas, to say. I had two near death experiences in six months and it wasn't that bad. So a year later.

Somebody did a

made a stupid comment to me.

This was in Fort Lauderdale FL Made a stupid comment to me said you can't drink

and I got a resentment and I said I'll show you.

Three weeks later

I'm drinking and I can't figure out how come I can't stop drinking.

I was dating a gal in in Fort Lauderdale and she was a psychology major from NYU and I told my boss at that time and said, you know, I'm dating a psychology major from NYU

and, and my boss says she has you for a summer experiment.

So our next date and we went on a date to movies and it was a nice movie and and I told her that experience and she goes, no, it's going to take a lot longer in the summer for you.

June 21st, 1986 was Father's Day.

My sister is having a baby and I'm in Fort Lauderdale, FL

and she's in a different part of the state and she's having a baby and

and here's what I'm doing. I'm partying with my girlfriend at that time

and I force fed her the beer and she gave me that look as that beer rolled down her nice outfit and she goes what's the matter with you? And I got that God awful look, the pitiful and incomparable demoralization and I conceded my innermost self. I was alcoholic and Fort Lauderdale, FL and I've been done drinking ever since. Then

I was done. I was done paying the price for drinking.

Now, I'd like to tell you that

I was on a spiritual giant

in my first five years sober, but I wasn't. I had a lot of miracles happen later that night.

A lot of miracles happen, but later that night, here's the beginning of one of them, I guess stopped for a DUI. My hood on my Ford Mustang,

maybe it's a four. Now my Ford Mustang pops up in the Highway Patrol, does the sobriety test on me and he says you're drinking. And at that period of time, I made a deal with a Navy recruiter and he made a deal with with a District Attorney. If you could give me back into the Navy,

they would drop the charges. Now, I didn't want to go back into the Navy, but

I don't look good in jail.

So I agreed about to go back in the Navy and I wrote the president of the United States a letter because

I've got one kidney and I'm not supposed to be able to go back in the into the military. They let me back into the military.

I get into the military and is it was a blessing. It was, it saved my life. It absolutely saved my life. I'd like to tell you that I was a happy camper in Alcoholics Anonymous. I'd like to tell you that I lived a spiritual principles in our first five or six years sober, but that's not been my case. I was 22 years old when I got sober

and what happened to me was it was I would participate in meetings like this. I had cervix commitments

and I would go leaf here and go into a nightclub and what we're in nightclubs. He used drinkers that were married or single or

I didn't have any temptations of drinking, but I did have a lot of temptations of lustful actions. And I've taken a lot of lustful actions that

I don't regret any of it because actually one of them actually did get physically sober. I was about two years sober

when I met her, and the last time I saw her, she was about four years sober.

And

the significance of that story was my motives were all whacked. All whacked.

And when I'm talking to her when she's about two years sober, she goes

and I'm, I said, you know, I'm, I'm really guilty about this. I'm really sorry about my behavior. She goes, no, God use you because I could not get sober. And I saw that you were sober and it gave me hope. And I'm like, wow, that's powerful. Even though my motives were totally Askew on page 70 in this book,

it basically says if I keep doing the actions,

it's on page 70. If I keep doing the actions that I know or inappropriately, I'll drink, but if I stop the actions, it's going to basically relieve me of that. And I stopped those actions.

I got involved with Alcoholics Anonymous because I had a psychologist said, why don't you try Alcoholics Anonymous? And I said I'm going to meetings. She goes there's more and going to meetings and going to meetings

and I absolutely got that. I got that.

I was physically sober, six years sober, but I was not

very spiritual

and I got really busy and I started applying to the 12 steps and 12 principles in all my affairs and my life changed. It changed almost drastically. I started to feel better about myself. I started doing a Steamboat wax

and it started participating in Alcoholics Anonymous. I was on the Young People's Committee and we were going all over California putting on young people's dances. And the only reason why I ever danced is so I could get

companionship later. But I was the coffee maker. I was the coffee maker. And this was before Starbucks. This was before Monster drinks. This was before any of that stuff. And I was a coffee maker for this young people's committing

and we were putting on dances all over the place. But the 12 steps and 12 principles. I'm going to read the 12 principles right now. Honesty, hope, action, courage, integrity, willingness, humility, brother who love, discipline, perseverance, spiritual wilderness and service. I started to apply those, all my affairs, everything I was doing,

everything.

And about that same time I buy this wet suit and I got this wet suit zipped up in the front and the knee pads are in the back. The surfers know, Zach, what I'm talking about. The knee pads are in the back and the crotch pads in the back and it's not fitting. It's not fitting and it's uncomfortable to take on and off and I'm about ready to throw disgusting thing in the trash can

and somebody from across the beach.

Hey dummy, the zipper goes in the back and I did not believe them.

And as

and ironically the name of the wet suit is Body glove and it fit me like a glove.

And as I was catching a wave out there in the ocean, I realized if everything in my life was to follow, I would have to follow the 12 steps into all principles in all my affairs.

It's one thing to believe that, but it's not a thing to live it. I

about that same time, I was discharged, discharged from the Navy for the last time, honorably discharged, and I apply for disability because I got one kidney, right. They tell me to apply. They sent to me to another psychologist and they told me something that just baffled me. It just baffled me.

You've got something wrong with you

and I didn't know what it was. They said it was acquired a brain injury,

a TBI

short term motor to Sarah See unable to communicate with each other,

unable to compete for employment.

You're basically going to be on Social Security disability and Section 8 housing the rest of your life. And I was 29 years old and I was devastated, absolutely devastated.

I was 567 years sober and as devastated. And like I said, I got really busy and I started really feel good about myself. And now I got this news

and I buy a bicycle because I didn't have a money to buy a car or didn't have money to own a car and buy this bicycle. And I'm writing down the road and I see these box of quarters. There's a big box of quarters with the keys in them from newspaper stands. Young folks that there used to be things where they print, print on it with news

way before the Internet got invented.

I was out of money. I wasn't sure when I and there was number food in the refrigerator was out of money and it was two weeks prior to my next Social Security check and I spot these quarters

and I needed that $40. I absolutely needed that $40

and I found the found who these keys belong to and I called them up.

The dude knocked on my door and it's the only time I've ever used the word dude. The dude knocked on my door and he says dude you saved my life and has me $100 bill.

The next day,

dude, it's the same my life and hands me another $100 bill.

I needed that $40.00, but I got blessed with way more than that because I had the integrity to do the right thing for the right reasons.

From that,

from that brain injury class or that brain injury diagnosis, I was told to go to these brain injury classes

through the county and I went to the Community College district. I was there for a couple of semesters and they encouraged me to enroll in Mesa College.

Half of a a was going to Mesa College. It seemed like a. It seemed like a A meeting to me,

so I kept going to classes, kept going to classes, kept going to class, and kept going to classes. And eventually I got a bachelor's degree from San Diego State University.

Now, my father never told me that you guys put me through there. I attended the class and did the work, but you guys gave me the courage

year after a year after year after year. My diploma does not say I was 44 years old. It doesn't say it took me 15 years to get through the college. It says I earned the privileges of that bachelor's degree.

Before I got that bachelor's degree I was about 20 years sober

and this is about 13 years ago.

I'm driving a pickup truck and I get sideswiped from a meeting

and the the vehicle gets total and I'm buying another bicycle and I'm reliving what I had to Reg live when I was 8-9 ten years sober and didn't have car. I'm regulating that nightmare and not being able to

drive a vehicle because I couldn't afford one.

And I'm talking to my insurance agent

on a daily basis. On a daily basis, right before Thanksgiving,

he calls me enthusiasm. He has a secretary come and picks me up from my apartment,

has me come there

and he says you're buying a car today and I'm like, I can't afford a car. And he says don't kick to get horse in the mouth.

I want to repeat this. Insurance agent gave me a car in my 20s. I had a Camaro and I was getting a lot of speeding tickets sober. I was not a good citizen sober.

The insurance agent gave me a car and I said, how can I repay you? He's just do help others, help others. He knew I was heavily involved in Alcoholics Anonymous, but he also knew that I participated in a lot of service work outside the rooms about clogs. Anonymous.

One of the service works that I do outside of alcoholism, I do this on a routine basis is I donate blood. They actually want my blood. Can you believe it?

I donate blood because most people can't or won't. So I I'm able to donate blood, so I do it. The ironic thing about donating blood? It takes a human being sacrificed to make that time and effort,

so I do it on a consistent basis

and it helps me to be a part of society.

I was never going to work again.

OK, I got 10 minutes. I was never going to work again

and what happened to me was

what happened was I was never going to work again. So I interviewed for this position

with the State of California as a veteran employment case manager,

and the ladies that interviewed me said there was two of them. They were 45 minutes into the interview before they asked me a question.

We got enough. Your qualifies for the positions.

Both of those managers said this comment because they excused himself. They actually went out and cried. One of them said,

and this is much later. One of them says my job is to get you trained for the job. The other one and she's retired now.

The other one says I'm going to retire when you get married and I think she's going to be there a long time.

I I don't even have a girlfriend today.

Six years ago, my life turned upside down as a no, as no fault of my own. Six years ago, it turned upside down. I'm driving to a convention

in in

Mammoth. It was in Mammoth.

Jeff must be back there

of driving to a convention in Mammoth

and I get stopped by the Highway Patrol

and they thought I was drinking but then they thought I was on drugs and they drove my vehicle or towed my vehicle away.

And I was devastated, absolutely devastated. I ain't done either. Either one of those

chemicals, but that was devastated and I couldn't share this with very many folks.

And what happened from that experience? I love San Diego to be closer to God

and the lawyer I hired, he happened to be a former,

a former District Attorney for that area. He happened to be somebody who was very familiar with her. Moran at brain injury,

he happened to believe what I had to say because I showed him all my awards, my certificates, my 27 year token, he says that's a great story. I believe what you had to say. He eventually got the charges dropped, but as he was saying this, he says you're scared aren't you? And I said, yeah, I am.

And he says I got big shoulders. This guy was big, wasn't fat. He was big. He looked like he looked at weights and he was a big guy.

God's really big.

God is really big. And So what happened from that experience is I got really closer to God as a result of that experience that I didn't do anything wrong. I may have swerved a little bit, but other than that, I really didn't do anything wrong and I had to live that nightmare

on a continuing basis for six months until those charges were dropped

and it changed my life. It absolutely changed my life because I got a big God today. I got a big God. I'm in a prayer meditation quite a bit

because there's 86,400 seconds in every day. I better make the most of them. I better make the most of them.

I'm going to end with this story. My favorite place in the whole world

is the Grand Canyon.

Most people have never been to Grand Canyon

and most people that get to the Grand Canyon

will have this experience. The look and see that big hole in the ground may be impressed for 10:15 maybe maybe a couple hours, but they never experience the Grand Canyon.

I've hiked that place twice.

Last time I hiked it,

I'm at the bottom of. I'm at the bottom of the hill.

I'm about 6-6 hours into this experience

and I'm almost out water and it's hot. It's 115° temperature

and I'm thinking I'm getting lost.

I know I'm almost there, but I I don't, I haven't seen anybody in a while and they looked down and I see some.

Donkey, too.

And if you've never been to the Grand Canyon, there's donkeys that carry people down to the bottom. I can't imagine riding on a donkey for eight hours. I just can't imagine that, but people do.

And I said, my God, that's amazing experience of seeing Donkey do.

The point of that story is

the point of that story is there's always somebody on the path before me

has given us some donkey do, and leaving it, there's always somebody behind me

experiencing a donkey do.

We're not alone on this path.

I get down to the bottom. I get down to the bottom and it's a sigh of relief. Then I'm down to the bottom. I'm about ready to check into the campsite, ready to get into the hotel, some air conditioning, you know, ready to take a shower. And that cool air hits me. It hits me really bad

almost passed out

and they get the Ranger over. They give a gallon electric light to me. He tell me go wait in the stream, go take a shower

and I do that and I think I'm OK. I think I'm OK

and I'm walking around the area waiting for dinner. They have a nice steak dinner down there and I'm waiting for dinner because I'm hungry

and a complete stranger never seen her before. I have seen her since a complete stranger says

you're dehydrated. I said no, I just had a gallon of that stuff.

She goes, when's the last time you peed? I said about 3 or 4 hours ago. She goes, you're dehydrated, you do not know how close you are to death.

The day before they had the helicopter, somebody out in there.

I didn't know how close I was to death.

It took a complete stranger to rescue me

and after I drank 3 gallons of water or electrolytes, I was able to go pee and and the next day I was able to hike up the mountain very safely because I was

well adverse of how I should carry stuff and had the electrolytes, plenty of water and plenty of food and stuff like that. So I was well prepared.

The symbolism of that particular part of that story is it was a stranger. I had to trust a stranger

to help me. So if you're new

or not new, there's a bunch of strangers in here that are willing to help you and just don't know which stranger that is.

Got 2 minutes left and I'm going to finish on time

because that's important.

Somebody wants some ice cream somewhere, I guess.

Me.

Most people that get to Alcoholics Anonymous have the privilege of getting the Alcoholics Anonymous.

We'll look at that

and there, that's all there is, but will not experience the deliciousness of how

great sobriety is. Sobriety is good. It's delightful

and it's not done alone. It's not done alone.

The choice is do you want to be

a tourist or do you want to experience sobriety?