November 28 in A.A. History

In 1934 [Most likely date], Ebby T. [left] visited Bill and Lois W. at their home at 182 Clinton St. in Brooklyn and shared his Oxford Group message with a drunken Bill. Their accounts of the encounter differ significantly. The more widely known version—from “Bill’s Story” in the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous—describes the two of them at Bill’s kitchen table [right, in its current location at Stepping Stones].

    Both accounts had Bill drinking while Ebby was sober. Bill recorded his version in mid-1938, 3½ years after the event. Below is an edited excerpt of Ebby’s account, recorded in 1958 (24 years later):

    I called him up one night. I didn’t get Bill but I got Lois… and told her what had happened to me. Lois said, “Why don’t you come over to dinner some night?”… and she mentioned a date. I said, “Fine.”
    I went over about half past five… The only person home was an old colored man named [Elias] Green, who I’d known for years; he’s been with the family, Lois’s family that is.… And he said, “They’re both out, both Mrs. and Mr. Wilson are out, but come in.” Pretty soon Bill appeared. He’d been drinking, but he wasn’t too bad.… He made the excuse that he to go get some ice cream and something else for supper. Of course, I knew what he was going after… I’d done it a million times myself.
    Then Lois came in. There was another girl invited because she lived upstairs in an apartment. So we all sat down for dinner. We had dinner then we all moved upstairs (in those houses back there in the East most living rooms are on the 2nd floor).
    After a little hemming and hawing, Lois said, “Well, let’s hear about yourself.” So I started in. I guess they got me wound up and I guess I talked to pretty near one o’clock in the morning.
    And I remember Bill said, “I’ll walk to the subway with you.”… On the way over he put his arm around my shoulder, just before I went on the subway, and said, “I don’t know whacha got, kid, but you got something, and I wanna get it.”

In 1943, at the invitation of Warden Clinton T. Duffy, Bill W. was the guest speaker at the A.A. meeting held at San Quentin State Prison [left: Duffy with A.A. members at San Quentin, c. 1942].

In 1998, the first A.A. group in Mongolia, called “Бид” (“We”), opened its doors with the participation of Drs. O. Byambasuren and Z. Tuya from the Centre for Psychiatry and Narcology [right: Alcoholics Anonymous in Mongolian].