I hear what you say Jim. I remember hearing Janice D say there's a lull of those between 5 and 12 years too.
I know that time takes time and some of my regrets for going back out is the fact that I would have double-digit sobriety if I got it and kept it, but I didn't.
I cannot change the past, but I can honor those that do have time and continue in A.A. Some of them tell me why they continue in A.A.; because they darn well need to. Now that may offend some in other recovery paths; but I was told that perhaps the ego is always with us and grows up along with our spiritual being as well.
I know of a few groups in Denver that have a bunch of very healthy oldtimers, middle timers, newcomers, alike because the continue to do steps... yearly.
This one group in particular has the whole gamut of sobriety, as evidenced by a group list of theirs ( I got this meeting list in 98 and don't have a current one;
6/1/59, 7/2/64, 3/1/66, 6/1/67, 1/1/71, 5/7/72, 2/7/72, 10/18/74, 5/30/75, 2/22/76, 4/3/77, 12/1/77, 5/19/78, 12/1/78, 1/2/79, 1/3/79, 3/11/79, 7/20/79, 9/3/79, 2/28/80, 4/1/80, 10/17/80, 2/24/81, 6/1/81 ,8/4/81, 11/8/81, 3/11/82, 6/29/82, 8/10/82, 10/4/82, 12/27/82, 3/10/83, 5/15/83
11/28/83, 4/14/84, 6/8/84, 8/10/84, 1/5/85, 2/18/85, 7/31/85, 10/10/85
11/24/85, 10/19/86, 10/31/86, 8/25/86, 11/6/87, 12/20/87, 1/1/88, 5/9/88
10/23/88, 2/8/89, 7/31/89, 9/13/89, 9/30/89, 2/2/90 ,6/2/90, 8/1/91
2/21/91, 3/3/91, 8/20/91, 3/30/92, 4/28/92, 11/23/92, 3/6/94, 6/6/95, 10/19/95, 6/16/96, 4/21/96, 8/17/96, 9/14/96, 11/7/96, 11/26/96, 3/18/97, 5/20/97, 1/4/98, 2/7/98, 4/5/98, 9/10/98
The line between oldtimer and newcomer is pretty fine here.
I go to meetings that have what you would call oldtimers, but they give the meeting up to the newer ones willingly. They haven't done any program work in a long time and they seem to be very comfortable with that.
They say stuff like... "Back when I first got sober..."
Add: What the list doesn't readily show is the 10s of people who come to the group every year and almost that many leave. A couple have stayed and remained each and every year because it's a strong group. But why only a couple of each as you go further up the list? Why so many newcomers?