A Special Noontime Meeting

Noon meetings at the club I sobered up in were attended by retired oldtimers, some of whom had gone through physical hell before they finally sobered up. This was in 1983, and the term ‘crosstalk’ had not been introduced to these guys. To say that they were a bit crusty would be an understatement, but they saved my life. My grand sponsor informed me that if I ever had to live on the streets, a large Maytag appliance box was worth fighting for. The oldtimers kept asking me questions, I kept getting the answers wrong, and they would laugh and say, “Dummy, it’s in the Big Book! Read it!” (Dummy was one of their nicer words.) I read it a couple of times, and then once more for good measure. I figured that if I didn’t have their time in recovery, I could at least attempt to understand AA. A “Cliff’s Notes” version, they laughingly informed me, was not available for the Big Book.