Dear Grapevine

Candy raid Thailand-style

In 1982, when I was four months sober, I traveled to Chiang Mai, Thailand, to spend two months with my partner. Friends of hers there took me to the only AA meeting in the city, which was in a local hospital. It met once a week, and the group consisted of just me, an American missionary and a German professor. There was no coffee, just a bowl of candy, which I happily raided. Of course the two asked me to speak after warmly greeting me. That meeting kept me sober.