Mornin' everyone!

First, let's answer that question posted yesterday concerning "Pot"
in the Big Book. Here it is, on the old doggerel--the way Bill
remembered it (an abbreviated version):

"Here lies a Hampshire Grenadier
Who caught his death
Drinking cold small beer.
A good soldier is ne'er forgot
Whether he dieth by musket
Or by pot."

Beer or ale was sold by the "pot" or small cask hundreds of years
ago.

Bill's Story, page 1 - Bill's Story was put into the book as a means
of identifying an example of the disease in action and to outline
the spiritual experience.

Bill was born in East Dorset, Vermont in 1895 and was brought up
primarily by his grandfather. You can visit the Wilson House in East
Dorset and actually stay there. Bill and Lois are buried nearby. He
served in World War I and, during the Roaring 20's he discovered
Wall Street. The profit he speaks of on page 3 was a sizable sum in
those days.

At this point in his story, he still has no clue of his alcoholism.
He begins to have an inkling near the bottom of page 3:

"My drinking assumed more serious proportions, continuing all day
and almost every night. The remonstrances of my friends terminated
in a row and I became a lone wolf."

His friends questioned his drinking; that's a sin in every
alcoholic's book! Who needs them, right? He began to drink alone.

Bill continued to ride the bull market of the 1920's, but in 1929
the market crashed. Although he was disgusted by those jumping out
of the windows of high finance, he would just get drunk.

At the last paragraph of page 4 Bill is handed an ego puncturing -
"We went to live with my wife's parents." [At 182 Clinton Street in
Brooklyn]. That would crush most egos and Bill had quite an ego when
he made all that money. By now Bill has no illusion. He is a drunk
existing to drink. At the second half of page 5 he has lost all
control. He knew he couldn't "take so much as one drink." He
marshaled his willpower and what happened? He drank again! No
effective mental defense against the first drink. Willpower was no
match for the mental obsession to drink.

At the top of page 7, it is now the summer of 1933. His brother-in-
law is Dr. Leonard Strong. The hospital was Towns Hospital at 293
Central Park West (at 89th Street) on the Upper West Side of
Manhattan. The Belladonna treatment refers to treatment with a drug
derived from the nightshade family of plants and similar in effect
to valium. Hydrotherapy is shower and bath therapy (you do get
a clean alcoholic that way!). Most importantly he meets Dr. William
D. Silkworth for the first time. Bill begins to gain an insight into
his disease, and a little self-knowledge.

Did it work? During the summer of 1934 it did not. He got drunk
again and it got even worse. Bill is without hope: powerless. The
miracle is just around the corner…

Tomorrow we'll start on page 8 with paragraph 1.

Jim