Experience, Strength & Hope

One Sunday afternoon in Akron, Ohio, as our cofounders Bill W. and Dr. Bob were sitting in Dr. Bob's living room, they began to count heads. It was the fall of 1937, two and a half years after Bill and Dr. Bob had met. According to their count, there were about forty ex-drunks now staying sober in Akron and New York. Bill and Dr. Bob were ecstatic. Bill recalled the moment in his history of the Fellowship, Alcoholics Anonymous Comes of Age: "As we carefully re-checked the score, it suddenly burst upon us that a new light was shining into the dark world of the alcoholic. . . . We wept for joy, and Bob and Anne and I bowed our heads in silent thanks."