November 9 in A.A. History

In 1944, four months before his 58th birthday, James “Jim” R., co-founder of the first A.A. group in Baltimore, Maryland, died [near right: headstone; far right: obituary, Baltimore’s The Evening Sun] of a heart attack after playing handball at the Baltimore’s Central YMCA. He had gotten sober on 7 Jun 1933, more than 18 months before Bill W., and he never drank again.

In 2001, the General Service Office (GSO) sent a complimentary copy of the 4th edition of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous [left], to every registered group in the United States and Canada.

November 8 in A.A. History

In 1944, the Scarborough (Ontario) General Hospital Service Meeting [left: Scarborough General Hospital, c. 1956] was started by Tony T., Duncan Donald M., Jack T., and Joe S., all of whom remained continuously sober until their deaths. Bill M. from the Unionville Group attended the first meeting and would participate until at least the group's 25th anniversary. Tommy H., also from the Unionville Group, attended the inaugural meeting and would continue until his death in 1999. Betty, Tommy’s wife and a hospital employee, supported and facilitated the meeting, even arranging discounted parking for members. Roy St. C., a hospital patient, would attend the second meeting, and other patients would soon follow. Eventually, Murray D., who would die after 44 years of continuous sobriety, would become a regular attendee, arriving early to set up and make coffee.
    Originally a discussion meeting, the format would evolve into one that lasted for over 25 years: three readings followed by a speaker sharing their experience, strength, and hope for 25 minutes, and concluding with a 15-minute question-and-answer period. This format would prove to be quite suitable for the hospital setting.

November 7 in A.A. History

In 1944, the Cleveland (Ohio) Central Committee held its monthly meeting with 37 members representing 23 of the 44 local groups, plus one from Toledo. “[A] restless and exciting atmosphere was quite noticeable,” said one attendee. Even after the call to order and the Serenity Prayer, as reports of old business were being read, the moderator had to call the body to order “again and again.” Still, there was “a murmur of persistent whispering.” When they reached the last report, that of the Hospital Committee,

    … the impatience and restlessness… was [sic]… obvious. Not many seemed to know… the reason for the strange atmosphere… Rumors had… spread that a group of members, mostly old-timers, were… proposing the affiliation of… A.A.… to the Oxford Group. Others… had heard that this same group wanted to have a screening committee to approve applications of new members. There… [were] many different rumors about what was to be proposed. Two members were so incensed… that they… voice[d] the opinion that it would be… better not to allow the group of agitators or reformers to talk. It wasn’t easy for the moderator to maintain quietness and proceed. Finally the turn to new business began.
    One member… requested to be heard on… [an item] of new business. The moderator consented and this member,… [said] that he was speaking not only for himself but also for… other members. He said some… were present and others were not; however,… their names were Charles D., Dr. F. F., Cliff B., Paul J., Elmer L., Abby G., Kay H,, Clarence S., John D., Jack D., Clarence W. and a few others whose names… [have been lost]. All present had their eyes and undivided attention fixed on the man talking,… waiting for the bomb that was supposed to explode. [He]… went on to say that he, as well as… [those he represented], had driven to Akron for some time to attend meetings of the Oxford Group… before the actual birth of A.A.… [T]he purpose of their interest in the Oxford Group had been the same interest… [as] now… [in] A.A. Practically all of… [them] had journeyed… to Akron… to acquire… sobriety…. However,… many men and women here [are] in need of our A.A. program and… [he] and the… men he represented [thought] that the Central Committee… [consider] the establishment of a Central A.A. Office similar to that already functioning in Chicago.
    Even before he… [was] back in his chair, practically every member’s hand was raised requesting the floor. After a… prolonged discussion the assembly became divided… [between] those in favor of the project, and [those]… against. After almost three and a half hours of debate, a motion was made and carried that the Central Committee appoint a committee to formulate a plan as to how the establishment of a District Office could be carried out.

    Three months later, to the day, the Alcoholics Anonymous Cleveland District Office would open [right: looking through the glass door entrance to that office].

November 6 in A.A. History

In 1880, Ernest Jacoby [right, 1913] was born in Manchester, Lancashire, England, as the eighth of eleven known children of Bertha Iklé and Siegfried Jacoby. After emigrating to the United States in 1888, he would become a rubber merchant in Boston, Massachusetts, and a parishioner at Emmanuel Episcopal Church. In 1908, he initiated weekly meetings for men struggling with alcohol problems. This group would later advertise itself as the Jacoby Club, “A Club for Men to Help Themselves by Helping Others.”

Today in A.A. History—November 6–8

	In 2020, the 62nd Australian General Service Conference was held online [left: Conference Report cover]. The theme was “I Am Responsible.” Among the advisory actions was #009/2020, which stated:     Conference resolved that the creation of a virtual Area be included as part of the review of the General Service Structure by the Conference Policies & Admissions Committee. All Conference members are requested to advise of any concerns so they can be addressed in a guideline for creating a virtual Area. A draft of this guideline will be circulated to Conference members for input, following which a mail poll will be conducted for approval of the guideline prior to Conference next year.

November 5 in A.A. History

In 1962, the CBS radio program Dimensions of a Woman’s World, hosted by Betty Furness [right, 5 Mar 1962], featured an epi­sode about “International A.A.” Furness began by saying, “I’ve just discovered some of the international aspects of Alcoholics Anonymous… and it’s a most interesting story.” She shared stories about A.A. overseas and concluded by saying, “A.A. both here and abroad working with Loners, or large groups of people… is an extraordinary organization.”

In 2002, the Scarborough General Hospital Meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous [left: the hospital of that name, c. 2014] in Scarborough, Ontario, celebrated 25 years of continuous service, with one original member and several early members in attendance. The speaker was Mildred F. from the Rox Glen Traditional Group of A.A.

In 2019, Central Recovery Press published the first edition of Writing the Big Book: The Creation of A.A. [near right: cover] by William H. “Bill” Schaberg [far right].

November 4 in A.A. History

In 1939, the Cleveland (Ohio) Plain Dealer published the second [right] and final article in Elrick B. Davis’s second series titled “A Physician Looks Upon Alcoholics Anonymous.” It read, in part,

    The first appraisal in a scientific journal of Alcoholics Anonymous, former drunkards who cure themselves by curing each other with the help of religious experience, was published in the July issue of the journal Lancet [sic]. It was “A New Approach to Psychotherapy [in]^* Chronic Alcoholism.: [sic] by W. D. Silkworth, M.D. physician in charge, Chas B. Town’s Hospital, New York City. A drunkard [Bill W.] during a moment of [deep]^* depression had the spontaneous “religious experience” which started his cure. This was the seed from which came Alcoholics Anonymous. Dr. silkworth [sic] was at first skeptical. He is no longer.

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^*Brackets in original

	In 1939, encouraged by Nona W., Marty M. and Bill and Lois W.* first visited Joy Farm in Kent, Connecticut, which was run by Ethelred Folsom [left], who preferred to be called Sister Francis, after Francis of Assisi. A remarkable woman, her generosity provided a home for those in need of healing and spiritual nourishment. Because her beliefs aligned with the principles of Alcoholics Anonymous, she offered the farm to Bill W. for the work of A.A. Bill declined, but in 1940, others established it as the world’s first 12-Step treatment center, renaming it High Watch Farm [right: aerial view].

    Marty would later describe their arrival:

    There was something there, something that was really palpable that you could feel and every one of us felt it. To say that we fell in love with it, is not to use the right terminology at all. We were engulfed… What is at the Farm was already at the Farm before we ever found it. It found us, in my opinion.

    Bill famously described the spiritual atmosphere as so thick that you could cut it with a knife.

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^*Marty, in a speech at the 25th anniversary of High Watch, mentioned that it was late October and that Horace C. and Bert T., along with their wives, accompanied them.

In 1940, Bill and Lois W. moved into one of two small upstairs bedrooms [left, line drawing from February 1951 A.A. Grapevine] in the clubhouse at 334½ W. 24th St. in New York City, where they would live for about a year.^* Lois increased the apparent size of the room by removing unnecessary shelves and painting the walls white with red trim. She also made a dressing table out of an orange crate.

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^*Pass It On says 5 months (p. 239).

In 1963, Bill W. attended the funeral service for Rev. Dr. Samuel Moor Shoemaker, III at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Owings Mills, Maryland near Burnside, the Shoemaker estate [right: recent photo of the manor house at Burnside]. Thirty years later, Shoemaker’s younger daughter, Nickie Shoemaker Haggart, “well remembered” something Bill had said to her as they stood together that day in the driveway at Burnside:

    Don’t let anyone ever tell you that I founded A. A. If it wasn’t for Sam Shoemaker, A. A. would never have been born.

November 3 in A.A. History

In 1938, enclosing the latest chapters for the proposed, yet-to-be-named book (which would become Alcoholics Anonymous [right: 1st ed., 2nd printing]), Bill W. wrote to Dr. Bob S. for the third time, seeking feedback from the members of the Akron, Ohio, “Alcoholic  Squadron.” He urged Dr. Bob to encourage the Ohio members to “speak up or forever hold their peace” regarding the drafts he had been sending. It turned out that Dr. Bob had not shared any of these drafts with the other Akron members.
    Bill added that he hoped “to get out there about December first for a week or two so we can cover these matters better.” However, the ongoing writing and editing of the book ultimately prevented Bill from making that trip.

 

In 1941, at 8:00 p.m., the first Alcoholics Anonymous meeting in Columbus, Ohio, took place in the basement of the Downtown YMCA [left, c. 1926] at 40 W. Long St., with six attendees.

In 1975, Lois W.  [near right] , Bill’s widow, and Tom S.  [right, 2nd from left]  cut a blue ribbon to officially open the A.A. Archives at the General Service Office (GSO) in New York City. In attendance were Nell Wing  [right, 2nd from right], non-alcoholic archivist; Dr. John Norris  [far right], non-alcoholic chair of the Board of Trustees; Lois; George G., Class B (alcoholic) trustee and chair of the Trustees’ Archives Committee; Tom S., former Class B (alcoholic) trustee and former chair of the Archives Committee at large; other trustees; GSO and A.A. Grapevine staff; and a few overseas guests.

    The opening speaker called for “a minimum of myth about A.A. and its co-founders.” Dr. Norris emphasized that A.A. can continually renew itself by returning to its source. He recalled Bill’s frequent admonition that the Board and GSO should document everything they do. Both George and Lois paid special tribute to Nell Wing. Lois reminisced about the early days of A.A. on Clinton Street in Brooklyn during the 1930s. She noted that most of the early records were not saved, partly because their importance was not recognized, but mostly because “we were just too busy trying to help alcoholics and their families.” Lois added that Bill appreciated the theoretical significance of these records, “but he wasn’t very good at doing anything about it.” After the “usual closing” (i.e., the Lord’s Prayer), food and coffee were served. Then came the big laugh of the day: everyone realized that the opening of the archives had not been recorded for posterity! [Leftt: the A.A. Archives, Winter 2022.]

November 2 in A.A. History

In 1881, Frank Belford Amos [left, as a young man] was born in Caldwell, Ohio, the youngest of three children of John Major and Mary Elizabeth Wallar Amos. He would later become a close associate of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and an original Class A (non-alcoholic) trustee of the Alcoholic Foundation.

In 1939, the Cleveland (Ohio) Plain Dealer published the first article [right] in a second series by Elrick B. Davis about Alcoholics Anonymous, titled “A Noted Divine Reviews ‘Alcoholics Anonymous’”:     When 100 members of Alcoholics Anonymous, the extraordinary fellowship of men and women who have cured themselves of “incurable” alcoholism by curing each other and adopting a “spiritual way of life,” had established their cures to the satisfaction of their physicians, families, employers and psychotherapists, they published a book.     It is a 400-page volume of which half is a history of the movement and a description of its methods, and the other half a collection of 30 case histories designed to show what a wide variety of persons the fellowship has cured.

November 1 in A.A. History

	In 1934, Edwin “Ebby” T. [left] made his “surrender” during an Oxford Group meeting at the Calvary Church Rescue Mission [right], located at 246 E. 23rd St. in New York City.

In 1941, Oklahoma’s Oklahoma City Times published an article titled “For Drunks: A Real Cure Comes to City” [right], which reported, in part:     Seven guys who can’t take their liquor without becoming “175 pounds each of roaring hell” met in an office in the Ramsey Tower Friday night to work over the eighth guy who was roaring drunk.      It was the first mass meeting here of Alcoholics Anonymous, an organization of former drunks formed by a drunk in New York six years ago, for the purpose of curing and keeping cured the sort of drinkers who are “alergic” [sic] to alcohol.

In 1947, A.A. “Group #1” was started in Anchorage [left, 1945], Alaska, with Herman C. as its leader. It would be the first lasting group in Alaska. Jack Alexander would write in his article, “The Drunkard's Best Friend,” which would be published in The Saturday Evening Post in April 1950,
    The group at Anchorage, Alaska, which started in a blizzard, has a dozen members, including one slightly puzzled Eskimo.

In 1963, the first all-Swiss A.A. meeting, a two-day event that began on this date, brought together French- and German-speaking members. Following this gathering, the all-Swiss Bulletin would be published in both languages [right: Dec ’63 Box 4-5-9 news of all-Swiss meeting].

In 2001, the fourth edition of Alcoholics Anonymous [left: cover] (the “Big Book”) was published; it included 24 new personal stories.

In 2001, JP Miller, the pen name of James Pinckney “Pappy” Miller [right, c. early 1980s], 81, died of pneumonia in Flemington, New Jersey. He wrote the screenplay for the film Days of Wine and Roses, which starred Jack Lemmon, Lee Remick, Charles Bickford, and Jack Klugman.

In 2022, JAMA Network Open published an open-access article by Marissa B. Esser, PhD; Gregory Leung, PhD; Adam Sherk, PhD; et al., titled “Estimated Deaths Attributable to Excessive Alcohol Use Among US Adults Aged 20 to 64 Years, 2015 to 2019” [left: p. 1] . The article concluded that an estimated…

    694,660 mean deaths per year between 2015 and 2019 suggest that excessive alcohol consumption accounted for 12.9% of total deaths among adults aged 20 to 64 years and 20.3% of deaths among adults aged 20 to 49 years.

In 2024, A.A.W.S., Inc. first published the Conference-approved soft-cover Plain Language Big Book: A Tool for Reading “Alcoholics Anonymous” [right: cover].

October 31 in A.A. History

In 1939, John Henry Fitzhugh “Fitz” M. [near right] and Hardin C. [far right]—both previously designated as “loners”—started the Washington (DC) Group of A.A. at Hardin’s home. Within months, Ned F., Bill E., George S., and Steve M. joined them. [This date assumes the group began on a Tuesday, which became their regular meeting night; they may have met for the first time 1–3 days earlier.]

In 1945, Vernon F. had his last drink. Born 22 April 1895, he joined the Pasadena (California) Group and died on 18 June 1964, with 19 years of sobriety.

In 1951, the American Public Health Association presented the Lasker Award to A.A. at their Annual Meeting held at the San Francisco Opera House for “meritorious service in the public health.” Each recipient received a statuette of the Winged Victory [left]. Originally, the award was intended for Bill W., but he asked that it be given to the Fellowship instead. The Lasker Foundation agreed, and when the Alcoholic Foundation Board polled Conference delegates by mail, they also approved. The Foundation declined the accompanying $1,000 cash grant [~$12,500 in 2025].

In 1957, John Richard “Dick” S. [right] died in Stow, Ohio. He had gotten sober on 28 February 1937 and his story, “The Car Smasher,” appeared in the 1st edition of the Big Book, Alcoholics Anonymous. He later rewrote it as “He Had To Be Shown” for the 2nd and 3rd editions.

In 1958, Clancy I. [below left] got sober. “I had to just get out of the rain and find a little rest,” Clancy said. “Somebody told me about a place drunks could go,” so he walked 72 blocks to a small alcohol rehabilitation center.

    He would leave a lucrative career with a Beverly Hills marketing firm to become the managing director of the Midnight Mission in downtown’s Skid Row, returning as a transformative leader to an institution that had once expelled him for bad behavior. Under his leadership, the soup kitchen and housing facilities would expand to include programs that addressed the social needs of those on Skid Row.

In 1963, Rev. Dr. Samuel Shoemaker [right], 69, died at Burnside, the family home in Green Spring Valley, Maryland, located 10 miles [~16 km] north of Baltimore. In his February 1967 A.A. Grapevine tribute titled “I Stand by the Door,” Bill W. remarked:     Dr. Sam Shoemaker was one of A.A.’s indispensables. Had it not been for his ministry to us in our early time, our Fellowship would not be in existence today.

In 1974, Sylvia K. S., 68, the first woman to achieve permanent long-term sobriety and author of “Keys to the Kingdom” in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th editions of Alcoholics Anonymous, died in Sarasota, Florida, possibly from emphysema [left: obituary from the 1 Nov 1974 Sarasota (FL) Journal, p. 4-A]. She was 35 years sober at the time.

October 30 in A.A. History

In 1940, the first A.A. meeting in St. Louis—and in the state of Missouri—was held at the Gibson Hotel, 5883 Enright Avenue [right, c. 1940s].^* Father Ed had been contacted by F., who claimed that his son-in-law had a drinking problem. However, it turned out that F. himself was the one struggling and seeking help. With Father Ed’s support and encouragement, F. gathered four other individuals and met with them at the Gibson Hotel. In December, they would form the first A.A. group in St. Louis.

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^*Some have suggested that this occurred after Father Edward Dowling returned to St. Louis from New York City, where he had met Bill Wilson at the 24th Street Clubhouse. However, that meeting did not take place until November 16, more than two weeks later.

In 1940, Bill W. wrote to a member in Richmond, Virginia, saying in part,

    I am always glad to say privately that some of the Oxford Group presentation and emphasis upon the Christian message saved my life. Yet it is equally true that other attitudes of the O.G. nearly got me drunk again, and we long since discovered that if we were to approach alcoholics successfully, these would have to be abandoned.

    He listed eight criticisms, including one concerning the Four Absolutes:

	… when the word “absolute” was put in front of these attributes, they either turned people away by the hundreds or gave a temporary spiritual inflation resulting in collapse. The Four Absolutes were originally published in Robert E. Speers’ The Principles of Jesus (1902) [left: 5th ed. title page].

Supporting A.A. in Ukraine

[Note that this post was written in March 2022, shortly after the full-scale invasion of the Ukraine by the Russian Federation.]

An A.A. friend sent me a very well-done flyer for an online A.A. meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine. It's shown to the left, but I've removed the Meeting ID and Passcode; I don't want to make it that  easy to attend. When I first saw it, I thought, "I only wish that we could do something similar for all the Russian alcoholics, who must also be terribly distressed at this time" (especially those in the Russian military).

This flyer was immediately followed by a less well-done message, shown below, purporting to be from "Ukrainian AA Service Center and the Ukrainian AA Service Board" to "the AA World Community." I was skeptical. This looked so much like a myth that I expected to find it debunked at Snopes ("the internet’s definitive fact-checking resource"). I did not. But I did find an article titled, "UKRAINE: New Crisis, Grimly Familiar Disinformation Trends", which said, in part, 

It is a grim measure of the frequency of crisis events in recent years, and the ubiquity of online disinformation, that when a major story breaks — a terrorist attack, a mass shooting, or an act of war — the writers and editors at Snopes can typically predict what comes next. Recycled videos and photographs, stripped from their proper context, and the same old tropes, all designed to inflame or confuse, or even amuse, the reader.

This is followed by a "grim overview of the familiar disinformation trends and recurring memes… in the opening days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine."

But, as I said, I only later looked on Snopes. First I searched the Internet. To my surprise, I immediately got a hit that looked very promising. It was on the aa.lviv.ua website and looked like this:

Since I don't know what I presumed was Ukrainian, and not having much patience, I immediately had the page automatically translated into English. It is indeed Ukrainian, and here's the English translation I got:

It was only later that I noticed that an English translation of the message follows the Ukrainian on the original, one click further down. I felt stupid and impatient for not looking.

Ultimately, I decided I'd check into the Kyiv online meeting and see if there was some way I could be helpful. I tried to log in a few minutes before it was to start. Due to the meeting having reached capacity, it was impossible to get in. It then occurred to me, If I'm having this much trouble getting in, there are probably Ukrainians who are also unable to get in. It horrified me to think that I could have had a part in disrupting their meeting. If, by some miracle, I had been able to get in, I sure hope I would have realized that the meeting was at capacity and left. But even if I had, my spot would have been filled by a non-Ukrainian.

I tried joining after the meeting was over. It was bedlam. It appeared that most people were unmuted and there were multiple conversations going on at the same time. I saw one man, who appeared to be that single Ukrainian member. He appeared to be quite stressed out. I also saw some A.A.friends of mine, which was disappointing. I only stayed a minute. The last thing they needed at that point was yet one more non-Ukrainian A.A. to join the fray.

Tonight, I learned from a reliable source that only one of the seven or eight regular Ukrainian group members was able to get into the meeting (presumably, the Zoom host). No doubt, many of the attendees had good intentions, although I'm also pretty sure some did not. Clearly, many also didn't think through the consequences of their actions.

And then, very late last night, My friend said that another friend of hers had found a Facebook post about the A.A. meeting in Kyiv earlier, shown at the left. It was so disheartening to read. Yes, many non-Ukrainians—maybe hundreds of them—got to feel good for a minute. Meanwhile, seven or eight locals never got to their meeting.

God As We Understand Him?

 I recently read Bill W.'s essay, “God As We Understand Him: The Dilemma of No Faith”, in The Language of the Heart (originally published as “The Dilemma of No Faith” in the April 1961 issue of the A.A. Grapevine). He begins this essay by saying, “The phrase ‛God As We Understand Him’ is perhaps the most important expression to be found in our whole AA vocabulary.”

For a long time, I've been vaguely uncomfortable with this wording, even though I knew what it meant the first time I heard it. In the last few years, but not in my early sobriety, I've sometimes heard newcomers asking about this expression, “How can anyone understand God?”  in a way that led me to think that perhaps this was an impediment for them. I realized my discomfort is just that. Perhaps understanding is not the best word. I think “God As We Conceive of God” is closer to the intended meaning. It will be interesting to see how the proposed plain language Big Book^* (i.e., Alcoholics Anonymous) will deal with this phrase. If at all.

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^* If you don't know what this is or what it means, check out Advisory Action #28 (on p 7) in this document: Conference Advisory Actions of the 71st General Service Conference, a list of all such actions adopted at the 71st General Service Conference last April.

19,560 days

Yes, I am still sober, still above ground. My posts slowed down drastically and then stopped altogether because I feared it would become too easy to identify who I was from my posts, due to circumstances of my life. Already, my brother had figured out this was me. For those who don't realize it, I was doing my best to respect Tradition 12. My brother already knew I was a deeply involved member of A.A.

Future posts will probably be less personal, on the whole. I hope this is, at least in part, because I have less interest in myself and more interest in others [v. Alcoholics Anonymous, p 84].

A.A. in these times of pandemic has been a great experience for me personally. Since mid-March 2020, I've attended online meetings on every continent that has them (Antarctica does not, due to insufficient bandwidth). I've been regularly attending meetings all over the US and Canada, as well as in Australia and South Africa. It has also become much easier to find workshops, conventions, conferences, and meetings that focus on topics like Traditions, Concepts, The A.A. Service Manual, and A.A. history. These are topics that I love learning about. I've been sober almost 29 years, been involved in General Service for 25½ of those years, but I sometimes think I've learned more about General Service in the last 16 months than in all the time before. Maybe not. Maybe it just feels that way.

Eighteen years

Still here, still sober, even if I'm not posting. Yesterday I celebrated 18 years of continuous sobriety.