What We Were Like

The story of AA in Rio began in June 1946, when Herb D., who had sobered up in Chicago in 1945, came to Rio on a three-year contract as an art director for an American advertising company. As a newcomer to the program, his immediate concern was to join a group in the city where he would be living for three years. But AA as a group was unknown in Rio then, and though he had the names of AA contacts in the city, they were all transients from the States. Since none of these AAs were planning to stay in Rio very long, they had not formed an ongoing group.