How AA Came to Them

MY progression into alcoholism took much the same course as others--gradually over a period of fifteen years of drinking, then quite rapidly for the next five. But eavesdropping on a party line paid big dividends for me. I was brought up on a farm in Kansas where party lines were the general rule. But listening in was never allowed in our home. However, this morality was quickly forgotten when I picked up the telephone in my home many years later, and found it in use. This wasn't the usual conversation going on, but an AA woman talking to her new pigeon. I couldn't have put the phone down if my life depended on it. For the first time I realized I wasn't alone in my drinking problem. Although I had read an article about AA and had telephoned once to find out about it, I had done nothing after learning it meant total abstinence. I thought this was impossible and only wanted to learn how to drink and not get drunk. So this conversation between someone who was sober and trying to help another person over a rough day was a revelation to me. I heard Winnie and Sally several times after that. I would pick up the phone at many odd times in the hopes they might be talking.