AA's Beginning at a Kitchen Table

Over the last week or so, several people have asserted in meetings that June 10th was AA's 74th Birthday. And this has been irritating me no end. First of all, AA's not a human being, so it doesn't have a "birth" day --- it has an Anniversary. Second of all, and more importantly, while most people consider June 10, 1935 as the day AA began, that's not necessarily the case. While June 10, 1935 is the day that Dr. Bob got sober and stayed sober, that doesn't necessarily make it the beginning date of AA. In fact, there have been at least two people who would argue that AA began somewhat earlier than June 10, 1935. And while those two people differ in terms of what day AA actually began, they both agree that AA began at a kitchen table.

The first guy that I'm talking about is Ebby Thatcher. He believed that Alcoholics Anonymous had its real beginning when he went to visit his drunk friend Bill Wilson to share with him his new found sobriety. A sobriety that Ebby had found through the Oxford Groups. Ebby reached out to another drunk because reaching out to others was somehow a part of his staying sober. When he and Bill sat down at the Wilson's kitchen table, Bill noticed that something had changed with his formerly drunk friend Ebby and he eventually was devastated to learn that Ebby's solution to his drinking problems was to "get religion." Bill's devastation came because if religion was the solution, then he was doomed. Ebby would have difficulty actually staying sober over the remaining years of his life and it's reported that he held on to a resentment toward both Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob because they were elevated to the status as "C0-Founders" of AA and Ebby was left behind without such distinction or honor.

The second guy that I referred to above is me. While I don't think I'm the only one who believes that there's a beginning to AA that does not fall on June 10, 1935, I'm the only one talking about this right now. In my mind, the beginning of AA came about some weeks before Dr. Bob's getting sober on June 10, 1935: the real beginning occurred before Dr. Bob's last relapse, when he and Bill Wilson met and talked for several hours sitting at the Smith's kitchen table in Akron, Ohio. That meeting was, in my less than humble opinion, the real beginning of Alcoholics Anonymous.

When Bill Wilson made his business trip to Akron, Ohio he was about 6 months sober. His sobriety program included, among other things, the key ingredient of trying to help other alcoholics recover from their shared disease. The business deal fell through and in a moment of despair Bill found himself standing in the lobby of his hotel not knowing what to do: everything he'd worked for had failed, not only his business ventures, but also every attempt he'd made to help other alcoholics. None, other than him, had been able to stay sober. Standing there in complete despair, he looked at the door leading into the bar and he heard the voices and laughter and the tinkling of glasses. He thought about going in for just a soda -- maybe that would help bring him out of this doldrums. But for some reason, he had a second thought and that was the thought that eventually brought about the beginning of AA: "I need to find a drunk!". He knew that if he was to stay sober that day, he had to find another drunk to try and help.

That's when he say a sign in the lobby that listed various churches and phone numbers. He called several and eventually got hold of a woman who answered his call: He explained to her that he was an alcoholic and that he had been sober six months. He explained that he needed to find another drunk to help in order that he could stay sober. While she was not an alcoholic, this woman was part of a group of people (the Oxford Group again...) who included one member who seemed to fit Bill's requirements and that drunk was Dr. Bob Smith. The woman called Dr. Bob and he agreed to come over to her house and sit down with Bill for fifteen minutes---but no longer.

Bill went over to the woman's house and sat down with Dr. Bob at their kitchen table (not sure if that's factually true, but for now, humor me...) and they talked and listened to one another for hours. For both men, they identified with each other and their struggles with alcohol. They also identified with the inability to stop drinking and staying stopped. And Dr. Bob was taken with Bill's idea that the secret to staying sober was trying to help other alcoholics get and stay sober. Even though Dr. Bob drank again, on a business trip of his own, I still consider the date of these two men sitting down at the Smith's kitchen table as the real beginning of Alcoholics Anonymous. In fact, I think that the fact that Dr. Bob drank again after this encounter with Bill Wilson is actually the most important argument for treating this kitchen date as AA's Anniversary! You see, the secret that they'd discovered---helping another alcoholic in order to stay sober---actually worked! Bill stayed sober. And eventually, Dr. Bob did too! And because the two of them committed themselves to this new AA adventure (ok, I know that they made this commitment on June 10, 1935!) this weird organization called AA came about and continues to this day.

I realize that in an organization's development, there are all sorts of various milestones and key events that lead to the organization's coming about and all are important in the overall process. But for me, lone wolf that I am, the key event in the coming about of AA was most clearly the day these two men sat down and shared their stories with one another. Had that not happened, it's not at all clear that AA as we know it would have come about. And if AA hadn't come about, I'm not at all sure I'd be sober today. Although, who knows: there are many kitchen tables out there and many struggling alcoholics. Who's to say that two other people---maybe even a woman!---wouldn't eventually have done the same thing that Bill and Bob did.

Take care! And Happy Anniversary fellow AAers, whatever day you want to celebrate it.

Mike L.