Aa history Lovers 2006 moderators Nancy Olson and Glenn F. Chesnut page
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again reprint the book, and a sense of the meeting at the 1979 AA General Service Conference approved this project. The articles are unchanged; statistics and other facts included reflect the Fellowship as it was in 1960." Bruce C. ---- From: "Jim S." (james.scarpine at verizon.net) Fourth printing, 1979. Jim S. ---- From: Shakey1aa@aol.com (Shakey1aa at aol.com) "By the end of 1964,the last copy of the 3rd printing had been sold, and AA Today became unavailable. Since then, many members have suggested that theGrapevine again reprint the book, and a sense of the meeting at the 1979 AA General Service Conference approved this project." One would think that the 4th printing would be 1979. Perhaps a member of AAHL has the 4th printing to confirm it.
Phila, Pa. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 3831. . . . . . . . . . . . Re: AA Online From: Ernest Kurtz . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/2/2006 7:45:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII Dennis wrote: > It certainly would be wonderful if there was > searchable access to past Box -4-5-9 publications.
current archivist, Amy Filiatreau (non-alcoholic) is working to digitize much of the early information, and she says she also hopes soon to get all of Box 459 available electronically.
online, and they are offering much helpful knowledge. The changing attitude of various people at G.S.O. to recognizing online "groups" and "meetings" is emerging as one important part of the story. I thus really appreciate your passing on of Frank M's comments, and I hope your message and this one elicit more of that kind of information. It seems important to remember that GSO is made up of individuals, and that each staff member brings to general discussion what he/she learns from contact with the grass roots of the fellowship via their particular desks. As in the general population, then, some GSO servants were enthusiastic about, others wary of, the new technology and its possibilities. I hope others will step forward to offer remembered experiences of either. ernie kurtz IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 3832. . . . . . . . . . . . Group conscience meetings From: Ernest Kurtz . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/2/2006 10:23:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII A question has been posed in a different setting: "Do you have any guidelines, electronically available, on the subject of group conscience and group business meetings?. In particular the role of the Chairperson?" I trust some AAHL members will be interested in the topic; responses may also be posted directly to "JOHN e REID" (jre33756 at bigpond.net.au) Kell C (kellcheevers at hotmail.com) or Denise H Brisbane Traditions (jha at powerup.com.au) Thanks for this group's help. ernie kurtz (kurtzern at umich.edu) IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 3834. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: The reading of "How it Works" at the beginning of meetings From: Robert Stonebraker . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/1/2006 9:04:00 PM
brother sending a Big Book to a non-alcoholic sister who helped organize a meeting in LA. Does anyone know anything about this story?" This is a long answer from a 2002 AA HISTORY LOVERS post by . Nancy O. Bob S. from Indiana ))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
Mississippi From: NM Olson
of sobriety was March 23, 1941. Her name at the time was Sybil Maxwell, though she later opened her talks by saying, "My name is Sybil Doris Adams
Stratton Hart Maxwell Willis C., and I'm an alcoholic." She was born Sybil Doris Adams on May 20, 1908, in the small oil town of Simians, Texas. Her parents were poor but hardworking and she had a brother Herman, ten years her senior. Herman was called "Tex." Sybil adored her big brother. She remembered that when she was five and he fifteen, he would hold her and rock her to sleep. Tex joined the Army during World War I was reported missing in action, and when the family heard nothing further they assumed he was dead. However, when Sybil was thirteen they learned that he was alive and living in Los Angeles. The family immediately moved to California. Sybil felt like a misfit in Los Angeles. She affected the flapper makeup popular at the time: heavy white powder on her face, and two big red spots of rouge on her cheeks and lots of lipstick and black eyebrows.
she wailed. "I was in eighth grade out there in Los Angeles, and the other kids laughed
at me. I had trouble making friends, being shy and timid by nature, but also my papa wouldn't let boys even walk home with me, let alone go to parties. I just wasn't allowed to do anything, and I knew I didn't belong anywhere. "So naturally I started drinking at a very early age, against my better judgment, full of shame and remorse because of Papa's teachings. He was a good man. When I was fifteen, I got drunk one night, passed out, and had to be carried home and put to bed in my mother's bed. I cried the next day and promised that it would never happen again -- and I meant it. But I didn't know myself, I didn't know the disease of alcoholism. The next Saturday night the kids handed me a bottle and I drank it. And I continued to do that through a couple of semesters of high school, and I stayed drunk through seventeen years of failed marriages and more jobs than I can count."
as a secretary. It was the first in along list of jobs. At various times she was a real estate broker, a taxi driver, a bootlegger, an itinerant farm worker, the editor of a magazine for pet owners, and a salesperson. 'I didn't mind working," she said, "but I never seemed to get anywhere. I was just on a treadmill because of booze." She had a child by her first husband, a sailor. She thought having the child would prevent her drinking, but she drank more than ever, and her parents eventually took the child from her.
thought getting away from their city friends would help them quit drinking, but she soon was drunk again. During one of her drunks she heard music. At first she thought she was hallucinating, but she followed the sound and wandered into a tent where a revival meeting was in progress. The preacher asked for anyone to come forward who wanted to be saved. "Well, that was me," Sybil told AA members. "I went all the way down while the people were singing. The preacher put his hand out and placed it on my head, and I threw up all over him. It was so terrible! I was so ashamed, I couldn't bring myself to tell anyone about it until I got into Alcoholics Anonymous eleven years later."
mother's house. Her brother, Tex, now had a speakeasy on skid row, and to make money to take to her mother to support the child, she went into the bootlegging business with him. Eventually the speakeasy was raided and they were out of business. Then she went to work in a taxi-dance hall.
Maxwell, while working in the taxi-dance hall. One night a rich, handsome stranger walked in and bought dance tickets with Sybil for the whole night. During intermission he bought several pitchers of beer (the girls got a dollar for every pitcher their partner bought), and she told him her sad story. He offered to marry her and adopt her child if she would promise not to drink any more.
couldn't stop drinking. In 1939, while visiting her mother, she read the Liberty magazine article called "Alcoholics and God." She thought the story fascinating but did nothing about it and her downward spiral continued. Eighteen months later God gave her another chance, when she read the Saturday Evening Post's March 1, 1941, issue which contained the famous Jack Alexander article about AA She wrote to New York and received a reply from Ruth Hock, then Bill Wilson's secretary, who told her that there were no women members in California, but that Marty Mann was sober in New York. Ruth referred her to the small group of men then in the area. On Friday, March 23, Sybil's nonalcoholic husband, Dick Maxwell, drove her to the meeting. They found ten or twelve men seated around a table and three or four women seated against the wall. When the chairman began the meeting he announced "As is our custom before the regular meeting starts, we have to ask the women to leave." Sybil left with the other women but her husband stayed and the members assumed he was the alcoholic. When he rejoined Sybil he said "They don't know you're alive. They just went on and
on bragging about their drinking until I was about to walk out, when they jumped up and said the Lord's Prayer, and here I am." Sybil headed for the nearest bar and got drunk. But she remembered the Ruth Hock had written, "If you need help, call Cliff
W." and had given her his phone number. He explained: " You didn't tell us
you were an alcoholic. We thought you were one of the wives. If you had identified yourself as an alcoholic, you would have been welcome as the flowers in May."
full of letters bundled into bunches of twenty to fifty. He explained that they were all inquiries and calls for help from people in southern California. "Here they are! Here they are! If any of you jokers have been sober over fifteen minutes, come on up here and get these letters. We've got to get as many of these drunks as we can in here by next Friday, or they may die." The last bundle was of letters from women. Frank said: "Sybil Maxwell, come
on up. I am going to put you in charge of all the women." Sybil liked the idea of "being in charge" but replied "I can't, sir. You said I have to make all those calls by next Friday, or somebody might die. Well, I'll be drunk by next Friday unless you have some magic that will change everything so I can stay sober."
"And it says right in here that when all other measures fail, working with another alcoholic will save the day. That's what you will be doing, Sybil, working with other alcoholics. You just get in your car and take your mind off yourself. Think about someone sicker than you are. Go see her and hand her the letter she wrote, and say: 'I wrote one like this last week, and they answered mine and told me to come and see you. If you have a drinking problem like I have, and if you want to get sober as bad as I do, you come with me and we'll find out together how to do it.' Don't add another word to that, because you don't know anything yet. Just go get 'em."
Sybil was one of the delegation of local AA's who met them at the Town House hotel. Later she met Marty Mann.
down on her AA activities so that they could have more of a home life. He had grown to hate AA and refused to read the Big Book or discuss the Twelve Steps. Finally he suggested that the solution to their marriage problems was for her to go back to drinking and he would take care of her.
housekeeping room with a gas hotplate and a bath down the hall for nine dollars a week and went to work for the L.A. Times to support herself. "AA
just had to come first with me," she explained. Her brother, Tex, joined the week after she did. He started the second AA group in the area, and appointed Sybil coffeemaker and greeter for the new group, and finally made her deliver her first shaky talk.
out her grief and asked "What am I going to do, Bill? I don't crave a drink, but I think I'm going to die unless I get some answers." She said
Bill's answer saved her life. He wrote: November 6, 1952 My dear Sybil, Thanks for your letter of October 21st - it was just about the most stirring thing I have read in many a day. The real test of our way of life is how it works when the chips are down. Though I've sometimes seen AAs make rather a mess of living, I've never seen a sober one make a bad job of dying. But the account you give me of Tex's last days is something I shall treasure always. I hope I can do half as well when my time comes. I am one who believes that in my Father's house are many mansions. If that were not so there couldn't be any justice. I can almost see Tex sitting on the front porch of one, right now, talking in the sunlight with others of God's ladies and gentlemen who have gone on before. I certainly agree with you that little was left in Tex's grave. All he had was left behind in the hearts of the rest of us and he carried just that same amount forward to where he is now. If you like what I've said, please read it to the Huntington Park Group. In any case, congratulate them for me that they had the privilege of knowing a guy like Tex.
understand that the demonstration is the thing, after all. It isn't so much a question of whether we have a good time or a bad time. The only thing that will be asked is what we do with the experience we have. That you are doing well with our tough lot is something for which I and many others are bound to be grateful. This is but a long day in school. Some of the lessons are hard and others are easy. I know you will keep on learning and passing what you learned. What more does one person need to know about another!
2874A Randolph Huntington Park, California
at a low point in life, and a few years ago someone I met at an on-line meeting sent a copy to me.
Gamblers' Anonymous. Sybil is perhaps best remembered as the first executive secretary of the Los Angeles Central office of AA, a position she held for twelve years. This was a turbulent time for AA, with much disunity and controversy within the groups that led to the Twelve Traditions. Sybil remembered that the groups regarded them either with opposition or indifference and the Central Office couldn't sell many copies of the Traditions pamphlet. Understandably, since Sybil began doing Twelfth Step work immediately, she took a dim view of the rigidity that crept into the requirements. Some areas required six months or even a year or sobriety before one was allowed to call on new prospects. She advised "If you don't get prospects from the Central Office, look around the meeting rooms. There is always the forgotten man or woman, nervous and scared, who would love to have you come up and shake hands. Just feel what the new person is feeling. It kept me sober, it kept my brother Tex sober, and it will keep you sober when all other measures fail." Her fifth and enduring marriage was to another AA member, Bob C. He has been described a "a high-spirited, warm, and loving man, fourteen years her junior in age and twenty-two years her junior in sobriety." "Bob and I are very happy," Sybil declared. "This has been the best years of my life." They were both enthusiastic meeting-goers and enjoyed an incredibly wide circle of AA friends. Sybil was honored at the International AA Convention in Montreal in 1985. She was then the longest-sober living woman in AA. When she was introduced to the 50,000 attendees from fifty-three countries, she told the colorful story of AA's beginning in Los Angeles, in which she had played such a vital role. When she finished her talk audience rose to its feet as one and gave her a standing ovation which continued so long that some thought it would never stop.
Jones,
Joan Zieger. "Gratefull to Have Been There," by Nell Wing. Various tapes of Sybil's talks ___ . [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 3835. . . . . . . . . . . . An online Varieties of Religious Experience group? From: Glenn Chesnut . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/2/2006 2:35:00 PM
and it struck me that there might be people in the group who were interested in forming a Varieties of Religious Experience web group (you can do it free through Yahoo), or who would at least be interested in exchanging emails with Robyn on this subject. And I hope that anybody who would like to point out specific ideas that Bill W. got from William James' book would send something in to the group.
since the Yahoo system does not have a button for forwarding messages, please send your email directly to her at: robyn mitchell (dollyleggs1 at bigpond.com) Glenn C., Moderator ____________________________ ROBYN'S MESSAGE: From: robyn mitchell (dollyleggs1 at bigpond.com) Date: Sun Oct 29, 2006 9:52 am Subject: Re: [AAHistoryLovers] Science of Mind, New Thought, and AA
Yesterday I mused about the probability of finding someone else who would be reading the book at the same time, I guessed that at least one of you guys would have read it recently, but didn't expect a reply to unsent mail so soon. The idea that Bill was reading this a few days off the booze enhances my experience of the text; and yes, there are several ideas that I recognise from the Big Book and a few of those are not Jamesian but are quotes/references he uses to illustrate his ideas, so it widens the circle of reading even further for me! thanks, Robyn
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ++++Message 3836. . . . . . . . . . . . RE: The reading of "How it Works" at the beginning of meetings From: Robert Stonebraker . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/1/2006 8:55:00 PM
--- from Bob S., tom2cor134@yahoo.com>, James R., and Debbie U.
direction as to the origin of the custom (at least for some groups) of reading "How It Works" at the beginning of meetings. From: "Robert Stonebraker" (rstonebraker212 at insightbb.com) Please read page 93 of AA COMES OF AGE. The year seems to be 1940 and a member named Mort J. insisted on reading Chapter 5 at the start of every session. This took place at the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. I think that hotel was on Hill Street or perhaps Broadway (Near Pershing Sq. Park). It is probably torn down now, but it was still there in the 1960s. Bob S., Indiana ___________________________ ALSO FROM: "Tom" James R "Debi Ubernosky" verizon.net)
From: Bill Lash . . . . . . . . . . . . 11/2/2006 9:07:00 AM IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII From Bill Lash, John Lee, Mark Everett, Tracy Flynn, Mike S., and Debi Ubernosky - - - From: Bill Lash (barefootbill at optonline.net) Just so you know, the Preamble is NOT Conference Approved Literature, it is written and copyrighted by the AA Grapevine. Also, it is DEFINITELY NOT required to be read at every sanctioned group. Namaste. Just Love, Barefoot Bill - - - -----Original Message----- Message #3826 from "earlynomad" (psycoweirdo at aol.com) Is it required that the Preamble be read at every sanctioned group, and if so, is there only one version that can be read at the group?
preamble and I am against it. I would like to know if there is something according to AAWS that the wording of the preamble must be of a particular nature.
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