October 21 in A.A. History

1862:  Bill W.’s maternal grandfather, Gardner Fayette Griffith [right], enlisted in Brattleboro, Vermont, for nine months with his military unit, Vermont’s Company B, 14th Regiment [left: a Company B sergeant, c. 1863], under Colonel William T. Nichols. The unit spent most of those nine months—until July 3, 1863—stationed near Fairfax Court House, Virginia, where they frequently encountered guerrillas and Mosby’s rebel cavalry. They played a crucial role in defeating the Confederate Army at the Battle of Gettysburg.

When Bill was 17, Griffith took him to a large 50th-anniversary reunion in Gettysburg.

1939: The Cleveland Plain Dealer (Ohio) published the first [right] in a series of five articles by Elrick Boyle Davis, titled “Alcoholics Anonymous Makes Its Stand Here”:

By now it is a rare Clevelander who does not know, or know of, at least one man or woman of high talent whose drinking had become a public scandal, and who suddenly has straightened out “over night,” as the saying goes—the liquor habit licked. Men who have lost $15,000 a year jobs have them back again. Drunks who have taken every “cure” available to the most lavish purse, only to take them over again with equally spectacular lack of success, suddenly have become total abstainers, apparently without anything to account for their reform. Yet something must account for the seeming miracle. Something does.

Alcoholics Anonymous has reached the town.

The publication of this series attracted a surge of newcomers, and soon Cleveland A.A. had more members than both Akron, Ohio, and New York City. Bill Wilson would later write,

The Cleveland pioneers had proved… the tremendous fact that A.A., when the word really got around, could now soundly grow to great size.

1985: The 8th World Service Meeting (WSM) took place in New York City with the theme “The World Service Meeting Takes Its Inventory.” Thirty-eight delegates attended. Two recommendations for future WSMs were made: (1) to hold a similar sharing session between WSM delegates and the trustees of the U.S./Canada General Service Board at the Tenth WSM in New York; and (2) to include a Delegates Only Meeting on the agenda for the Ninth WSM, scheduled for Guatemala in 1986. A third recommendation was discussed and forwarded to A.A.W.S. for implementation, namely, that:

A.A.W.S. prepare a booklet briefly highlighting the purpose and history of the World Service Meeting and include recommendations from 1969 to the present. Recommendations will be updated as practicable, and information about interim meetings will also be included.

October in A.A. History—day unknown

1946: The A.A. Grapevine published an article [right] by Grace O. [left] titled “Women in A.A. Face Special Problems”, which read, in part,

Now that women form an increasing membership in Alcoholics Anonymous, there seems to be a general feeling that they not only have a specialized problem, but, like the purple cow we’d rather see, they are one!… Here, then, is a list of perplexities and snags.

1. The percentage of women who stay with A.A. is low. Too many of them drop out after the novelty wears off…
2. Many women form attachments too intense—bordering on the emotional.…
3. So many women want to run things. To boss, manage, supervise, regulate and change things.…
4. Too many women don't like women.
5. Women talk too much. Gossip is a cancer to all A.A. groups and must be constantly watched. …
6. Women are a questionable help working with men and vice versa.…
7. Sooner or later, a woman-on-the-make sallies into a group, on the prowl for phone numbers and dates.…
8. A lot of women are attention demanders. Spotlight sisters. They want to be spoonfed [sic], coaxed, babied, encouraged, teased, praised and personally conducted into recovery.
9. Few women can think in the abstract.…
10. Women's feelings get hurt too often.…
11. Far too many women A.A.s cannot get along with the non-alcoholic wives of A.A. members.…