Thanks everyone for sharing. I actually feel a bit emotional after reading what many of you have written. Inda and Laurie, thanks so much for sharing your personal experiences. This brings history to life in a way that is like no other.
I, like you Paul, had no interest in AA history in my early sobriety (nor before that for much of anything history related). Now, I smile when I see SavingSelf, (with only 46 days!) ask for information on about sites in Akron, and Hopeworks responding that the AA Akron site can be helpful. That’s what it has been about. One drunk helping another!
78 years ago today (December 11th) Bill was hospitalized in Towns hospital for his alcoholism. As I remember, it was his third or fourth trip there. It proved to be his last. While there he had a powerful spiritual experience (an “act of grace”) that became the driving force for Bill to seek out and attempt to help other drunks. It is indeed a “we program”. Thanks everyone.