Good morning,

First, let’s answer the 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.

Bill served in World War I. Then, 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. He was disgusted by those jumping out of the windows of high finance.
He was better than that -- he would just get drunk.

In 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.

By the second half of page 5, Bill 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 is
no match for the mental obsession to drink.

At the top of page 7, it is now the summer of 1933. Bill's 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).

Providentially, Bill 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…

With our next post we'll start on page 8 with paragraph 1.

Karen





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