Aa history Lovers 2006 moderators Nancy Olson and Glenn F. Chesnut page
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It was put together by the late owner of this list, Nancy Olson. ___________________________________ From: Ron Sessions Try this link - it works for me... http://www.a-1associates.com/aa/Authors.htm Ron ___________________________________ From the moderator: Al W. in Baltimore, who manages the website for the East Baltimore AA Group, tells me that they have recently changed to a new web server, which is case sensitive. This has been what has been throwing things off, and making people get error messages.
means that if you put AA in capital letters, the url won't work. If you type it as aa, the url works just fine. So we have two good places to look up this set of Biographies of the Authors of the Big Book Stories: http://www.a-1associates.com/aa/Authors.htm http://silkworth.net/aabiography/storyauthors.html I tested these just now, and both of the above addresses work. ___________________________________
founded the AAHistoryBuffs in March 2000: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AAHistoryBuffs/
AAHistoryLovers, the name under which it is still known. Nancy continued to be the moderator down to her death from congestive heart failure a little over a year ago.
AA history: "With a Lot of Help from Our Friends: The Politics of Alcoholism"
http://hindsfoot.org/kno2.html http://hindsfoot.org/kno3.html
reading among the administrators at the U.S. Surgeon General's Office and at a number of major national foundations, because it gives the history of how the Hughes Act was passed, the most successful piece of alcoholism legislation enacted in the United States in the twentieth century. All modern alcoholism treatment facilities in the United States depend in part on provisions originally laid out in the Hughes Act and the other associated bills which Nancy helped get passed in her capacity as aide to Senator Harold Hughes.
http://hindsfoot.org/nomem1.html http://hindsfoot.org/nomem2.html http://hindsfoot.org/nomem3.html http://hindsfoot.org/nomem4.html -- Glenn C. (South Bend, Indiana) Moderator of the AAHistoryLovers IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 3497. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: How many whom Dr Bob sponsored stayed sober? From: Mitchell K. . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/15/2006 3:55:00 PM
U.S. Canadian exchange rate. --- Jim B > Carl wrote > do you have any information on how many out of the > five thousand people > whom Dr. Bob sponsored stayed sober? > > My Ouija board says "3619." > Jim > > > > > IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 3498. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: How many whom Dr Bob sponsored stayed sober? From: edgarc@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/16/2006 5:30:00 AM
do you have any information on how many out of the five thousand people whom Dr. Bob sponsored stayed sober?
Jim
++++++++++++++++++ Mine says 3627, but it is admittedly an older model and some folks may have gone out between editions.... Edgar C
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From: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com [mailto:AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Mitchell K. Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 12:55 PM To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] How many whom Dr Bob sponsored stayed sober? mine said 2237 but I have to take into account the U.S. Canadian exchange rate. --- Jim B > Carl wrote > do you have any information on how many out of the > five thousand people > whom Dr. Bob sponsored stayed sober? > > My Ouija board says "3619." > Jim > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 3500. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: Re: How many whom Dr Bob sponsored stayed sober? From: Robt Woodson . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/18/2006 10:25:00 AM
I'm not the most knowledgeable member of this site by any means; and this would be my first post here, if it passes by our good moderators...My own belief
is that, perhaps the best response to this question would be "enough". Dr. Bob sponsored Henry "Clay" Pearce who worked the boilerrooms of the
rubbershops when many of the other Akron members had no jobs and were fallen on hard times like Dr. Bob himself...he was always willing to give, was described as one of those who would give you the shirt off his own back if he thought it would help, he tried on several occaissions to give money to Dr. Bob, he was described as a "stayer" (I have this from Sue and Smitty who shared several stories with me)...they laughed and said that whenever he came over he came to stay,... he, along with co-sponsor Jim Scott, the newsman, and booktrader, also sponsored by Dr. Bob, who was known to buy baskets of groceries too, together sponsored Bill Sipe, a very active twelfth stepper, (I have this from Bill's son who has his Big Book inscribed with this information), who sponsored Russ
Ickes, first manager of the Akron Intergroup Office, (I have this from a tape
of Russ's lead at the East Akron Group) who in turn sponsored my, now deceased, sponsor John Lietch, a past chairman of our Akron Intergroup, who worked for many years as Residential Life Co-ordinator at Interval Brotherhood Home here in Akron and was a longtime Chairman of the Founders Foundation, which then operated Dr. Bob's Home. John often told me the things that "old Russ" had told him. He himself said without "Gratitude" we don't stay long...Russ said "Without
Humility there is no Gratitude". The other thing he told me was perhaps simplest of all...he said, "These oldtimer's aren't going to be here forever Woody; someone's got to keep this thing going!" I know today who he was talking about; and, if it is God's will, then it will be the fellows that I sponsor, and those that you sponsor too, who will do just that. And it is my hope that, like Dr. Bob's sponsee's, there are enough of them to do the job. John was the youngest of those sponsored by Russ Icke's with Red Bates being the oldest...John and Russ and their wives Jackie and Edith were neighbors in the Trailer Park at Sandy Beach off S. Main Street in the portage lakes here in Akron, Ohio. I notice that there aren't a lot of people in between these few men, but I know that those between are just not visible to the eye as each of these men recieved and carried a very important message, faithfully and very succesfully over a long period of time. I may be an exception in knowing the history of my own sponsorship because there were so few between me and Dr. Bob, but the action of sponsorship, ...the unselfish principal which is illustrated here... is the same for each of us within this marvelous fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous, these fellows just stayed awhile at the job and were good enough to pass this thing along to me. A not too knowledgeable, but very grateful, Woody in Akron
Carl wrote do you have any information on how many out of the five thousand people whom Dr. Bob sponsored stayed sober? My Ouija board says "3619." Jim
++++++++++++++++++ Mine says 3627, but it is admittedly an older model and some folks may have gone out between editions.... Edgar C
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed] IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 3501. . . . . . . . . . . . The Origins of "Mocous"? From: schaberg43 . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/19/2006 11:46:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Here in Connecticut, I heard it again yesterday. The woman at the meeting said she was feeling "mocous" (pronounced: Moe-cuss). It is a term generally (but not always) applied to newcomers and indicates the jumbled, confused and usually foggy thought patterns that come with early sobriety. "Befogged" might be a good synonym. While this word is used with real regularity in our area and is understood by all, I have been unable to find it in any dictionary. Is this word in use elsewhere aroung the country? Does anyone know the origins of the word and its use? Is this an "AA-invented" word? And, if so, is it the only one you know about? Best, Old Bill IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 3502. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: The Origins of "Mocous"? From: sbanker914@aol.com . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/19/2006 1:29:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII In a message dated 6/19/2006 2:52:29 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time, schaberg@aol.com writes: Is this word in use elsewhere aroung the country? I heard it a lot when I got sober in NYC in the late '80's. We spelled it MOCUS "Mentally Out Cruising Uncharted Space" Susan NYC
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 3503. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: The Origins of "Mocous"? From: Tom Hickcox . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/19/2006 5:22:00 PM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII At 10:46 6/19/2006 , Old Bill wrote: >Here in Connecticut, I heard it again yesterday. The woman at the >meeting said she was feeling "mocous" (pronounced: Moe-cuss). It is >a term generally (but not always) applied to newcomers and indicates >the jumbled, confused and usually foggy thought patterns that come >with early sobriety. "Befogged" might be a good synonym. > >While this word is used with real regularity in our area and is >understood by all, I have been unable to find it in any dictionary. > >Is this word in use elsewhere aroung the country? > >Does anyone know the origins of the word and its use? > >Is this an "AA-invented" word? > >And, if so, is it the only one you know about? My lovely wife Jean, dos June 3, 1988, got sober and lived in the New York City area for 17 years afterwards and says that the word is an A.A. word and means "Moving slow and out of focus." The synonym she used is "befuddled." It is applied mostly to new comers but someone with a few twenty-four hours may say, "I'm feeling mocous." I had not heard the word used here in Baton Rouge A.A. until she used it. Tommy H in Baton Rouge [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 3504. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: How many whom Dr Bob sponsored stayed sober? From: ArtSheehan . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/20/2006 9:24:00 AM
while they were patients in St Thomas Hospital. Dr Bob's main activity was ministering to them as an attending physician (not as a sponsor) during their hospital stay (and he never accepted any fee for his services). For this, in his eulogy at Dr Bob's funeral, Bill W rightfully called him "the prince of the 12th Steppers." Dr Bob only lived for 15 years after sobering up. 15 years equals 5,475 days (leap years days not included). While Dr Bob may have sponsored some of those 5,000 patients, the notion that he sponsored 5,000 members over the course of his 5,475 sober days on this planet makes for an entertaining fable but little more than that.
Arthur
From: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com [mailto:AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Jan L. Robinson Sent: Saturday, June 17, 2006 8:31 AM To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Subject: RE: [AAHistoryLovers] How many whom Dr Bob sponsored stayed sober?
Jan R. -----Original Message----- From: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com [mailto:AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Mitchell K. Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2006 12:55 PM To: AAHistoryLovers@yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] How many whom Dr Bob sponsored stayed sober?
U.S. Canadian exchange rate. --- Jim B > Carl wrote > do you have any information on how many out of the > five thousand people > whom Dr. Bob sponsored stayed sober? > > My Ouija board says "3619." > Jim > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Yahoo! Groups gets a make over. See the new email design. http://us.click.yahoo.com/phWpKB/lOaOAA/xGEGAA/219olB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~- >
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From: Bill Lash . . . . . . . . . . . . 6/21/2006 8:59:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Interview With the Author of "Doctor, Alcoholic, Addict" First in a series of articles on authors of Big Book stories AA Grapevine, July 1995
the Third Edition of the Big Book; his remarks on acceptance, which appear on pages 449 and 450, have been helpful to many AA members over the years. This interview was conducted by telephone to Dr. Paul's home in California.
chairperson of the committee to review the stories. She wrote to tell me that the magazine was going to use an article I'd written on why doctors shouldn't prescribe pills for alcoholics. So she knew my writing a little bit and she asked me if I had a dual problem and would I be willing to write an article about it for consideration in the Big Book. My reaction to that was the same as my reaction when it was suggested I come to AA--I thought it was one of the dumbest ideas I'd ever heard and I ignored her letter. Later on she called and asked for the article, and I lied and said I hadn't had time to write it. She extended the deadline and called me a second time. I had a gal working in the office with me who was in the program, and she thought it would be nice to have typed a story that might end up in the Big Book, so she said to me, "You write it, I'll type it, and we'll send it in."
So that's what we did. But by that time they had done another printing of the Second Edition, and I thought, Fine, that means they won't use it. But Paula said she liked it and the Grapevine published it with the title "Bronzed Mocassins" and an illustration of a pair of bronze mocassins. Eventually it was put in the Big Book, but the title was changed, and my guess is that they wanted to show that an alcoholic could be a professional and be an addict, but that wouldn't make him not an alcoholic. It worked well but maybe it overshot the mark, and now one of the most uncomfortable things for me is when people run up to me at a meeting and tell me how glad they are the story is in the book. They say they've been fighting with their home group because their home group won't let them talk about drugs. So they show their group the story and they say, "By God, now you'll have to let me
talk about drugs." And I really hate to see the story as a divisive thing. I
don't think we came to AA to fight each other. Is there anything you regret having written in your story? Well, I must say I'm really surprised at the number of people who come up to me and ask me confidentially if what they've heard on the very best authority--usually from their sponsor--is true: that there are things in my story I want to change, or that I regret having written it, or that I want to take it out because it says so much about drugs, or that I've completely changed my mind that AA is the answer or even that acceptance is the answer. I've also heard--on the best authority!--that I've died or gotten drunk or on pills. The latest one was that my wife Max died and that I got so depressed I got drunk. So, is there anything I'd like to change? No. I believe what I said more now than when I wrote it. Do you think that your story might help those who are dually addicted? I think it does. I think the story makes clear the truth that an alcoholic can also be an addict, and indeed that an alcoholic has a constitutional right to have as many problems as he wants! But I also think that if you're not an alcoholic, being an addict doesn't make you one. The way I see it, an alcoholic is a person who can't drink and who can't use drugs, and an addict is a person who can't use drugs and can't drink. But that doesn't mean that every AA meeting has to be open to a discussion of drugs if it doesn't want to. Every meeting has the right to say it doesn't want drugs discussed. People who want to discuss drugs have other places where they can go to talk about that. And AA is very open to giving the Steps and Traditions to other groups who want to use them. I know this from my own experience, because I wrote to the General Service Office and got permission to start Pills Anonymous and Chemical Dependency Anonymous. I did that when I was working in the field of chemical dependency. We started groups but I didn't go to them because I get everything I need from AA. I don't have any trouble staying away from talking about drugs, and I never introduce myself as an alcoholic/addict.
insisting that AA should broaden to include drugs and addictions other than alcohol. In fact I hear it said that AA should change its name to Addicts Anonymous. I find that a very narrow-minded view based on people's personal opinions and not on good sense. History tells us that the Washingtonians spread themselves so thin they evaporated. Jim B. says the greatest thing that ever happened in AA was the publication of the Big Book, because it put in writing what the program was and made it available all over the world. So wherever you go it's the same program. I don't see how you could change the program unless you changed the book and I can't see that happening. It's a question of singleness of purpose? That singleness of purpose thing is so significant. It seems to be working; why would we change it? I can't think of any change that would be an improvement.
always the case. No, it wasn't. You don't get Twelfth Step calls as dramatic as they used to be. Now I find that if you're called upon to make a Twelfth Step call, it'll be on somebody who is in the hospital. You find out when they're available and not in some other kind of meeting, and make an appointment. But this might change as the number of treatment programs begins to fade out.
asked for help. One time I went to see this guy who was described to me as a big husky fellow. He was holed up in a motel. I found out from the manager of the motel that he was on the second floor, and as I was walking up the outside stairs to get to his place, I thought to myself, if this guy comes charging out the door, he could easily throw me over the stair railing and I'd end up on the concrete. So I thought, well, the good news is I'd probably be one of AA's first martyrs. Then I thought, yeah, but I'd be an anonymous martyr. I made the call anyhow, and he got sober for a while. In your Big Book story, you say that acceptance is the key to everything. I wonder if you've ever had a problem accepting what life hands you. I think today that my job really is to enjoy life whether I like it or not. I don't like everything I have to accept. In fact, if everything was to my specifications and desires there would be no problem with acceptance. It's accepting things I don't like that is difficult. It's accepting when I'm not getting my own way. Yes, I find it very difficult at times.
with my wife Max and her ways of doing things! She is an entirely different Download 13.83 Mb. Share with your friends:
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