Doing time in 1983

[toad]

Man did I ever screw up in Feburary of 1983. I was living with this chick whom I later married (she died of an overdose in 1995), and she was a waitress at this mexican restaurant. There was some cocaine dealing taking place within the restaurant and she would come home loaded. I got jealous because I never got any cocaine and one night I got whiskey drunk and called them up and threatened to drive my truck through the front window. They knew I was crazy and called the law. Later that night I showed up in front racking my pipes and watching the people scatter from the front tables. I was with a guy that I had done time with before and we were having a blast. Later that night he robbed a donut shop and I like the fool that I was cruised by the restaurant. Quess what? The cops were waiting for me. I took off and they followed me. They finally blocked me on a street and beat the **** out of me. One of the cop's wife was also a waitress and the dope that was dealt there came from the police department. That cop that night told me he was going to kill me and get away with it..........scarry indeed. I got 90 days out of it. I was afraid to get out of jail. With the cops and the connections that the owner of the restaurant had I could have been in serious trouble..........About three years ago I went back and did a 9th step with the owner......the AA program has given me the tools to know freedom............any way..........I was sentenced to a metropolitian correctional institution where they kept offenders up to 2 yrs. I had been there several times in the years prior.

My first night there they announced over the intercom that there was a movie being shown in the visiting room. I went with nothing else to do. The film was a Christian film and it really sucked. After the film Smitty, a large black guard got up and started sharing how he had had a life changing experience. He shared how Jesus Christ had set him free from the violence he daily dished out. I remember Smitty in the seventies and he was mean. He stood up in front of about a dozen inmates, took off his glasses, and started speaking of Jesus. Tears flowed from his eyes as he shared his experiences. I thought it was the bravest thing I had ever seen. I was an airborne ranger in vietnam and this topped all. Smitty said that they had a few Bibles to give away and I got in line. I wanted what Smitty had. Whatever it was, it was missing in my life. I remember someone trying to butt in front of me and I gave him a jab with my elbow. I was ready to throw down with this dude.

I started reading in Matthew and somewhere in the Gospels I gave my life to Christ. Changed me forever...... I did my time, got out and got drunk that night, went back to the restaurant and almost did the same thing over again. Is that insane or what?

Jesus did not keep me sober, but He gave me the tools found in the Bible to keep me sober. Faith, Hope, Love, prayer, meditation, and service to my fellow man. AA has given me a place to apply these tools..........I am forever grateful for the grace of God that has allowed me to live long enough to get sober one day at a time.


.........................toad

[Rarly Harley]

Originally Posted by toad

Jesus did not keep me sober, but He gave me the tools found in the Bible to keep me sober. Faith, Hope, Love, prayer, meditation, and service to my fellow man. AA has given me a place to apply these tools..........I am forever grateful for the grace of God that has allowed me to live long enough to get sober one day at a time..........................toad

We all come to AA through different paths. The realm of the spirit is open to all who earnestly seek.....
In the spring of 1991, I was sitting in a church with a minister who used to be a 1%er. ( The same minister I did my step 3 with.) We had just finished a 3 to 4 hour session with me doing my fifth step. One of the things he shared with me was that he believed that I had been searching for God for 20 years through active alchoholism and drug addiction. That hit me really hard and I knew in my heart that it was true. God put that man in my path exactly when I needed him. I also knew at that moment that God had work for me to do. He had enough servants in the church, but what He didn't have enough of were rough and tumble other side of the tracks types that had found Him through the miracle of AA. That's the work I have been doing ever since. I gravitate towards my own kind in AA and I stay away from the suits. My AA work has taken me into jail and prison. That is where God leads me to do His work. Those are the folks I'm most comfortable with and there is where I have found my greatest rewards. 12 years ago, I was speaking in the Northern Treatment Center. At that time, it was a fereral institution for long-timers on murder beefs etc., all biker-lookin' types. I walked to the front of the room and told the men how happy I was to be there with them, how they were my people and they were the people I used to drink with. Then I told them my story.
At the end of my talk you could have heard a pin drop. They were all tuned in. Then I told them that my recovery was so important to me, that if they were all to jump me at that moment and try to pour a beer down my throat, that there would be blood all over the room and it wouldn't all be mine. Dead silence, followed by thunderous applause. The power of God was reverberating through the room, but I had deliberately used the phrase Higher Power, in my talk.
About 6 months later, a guy came up to me in my Home Group meeting and asked me if I recognized him. I told him I didn't. Well, he had just been released from the NTC, had listened to me talk and asked me to be his sponsor. He is a sober free man with his own roofing business today. It just doesn't get any better than that. I have been blessed to have other similar experiences in AA. God has been very gracious and patient with me. I would be dead or in prison if not for the Power of God's Love in AA, where everyone can come, regardless of their belief or disbelief. I for one will stand up for that life saving principle for as long as I live.....

[The_Hammer]

I did time in 88 at the Nebraska State pen. Didn't do me a nickels worth a good-now I thought I was a percenter (give me a break...*heavy sigh*), went out an d hammered out some hell another `10 years. Love ya toad, and wouldn't give a tinkers damn if ya could do somethin about it-I'd just love ya some more outta sheer rebellion like a good one percenter would!

[The_Hammer]

*hugs all his brothers and sisters and decides to refrain from anymore comment regarding Religion in this forum*