Changing of the Guard

I went to my first AA function at the age of nine. It was an AA picnic held at the Springfield College Day Camp. My mother had joined AA that year and become the second woman alcoholic in Western Massachusetts. There was at that time one meeting a week in Springfield on Wednesday night. She used to sit on the stairs where they couldn't see her because the group was so small you heard the same people over and over and she was terrified of being called on to speak.