Big Book Podcast Howard L.

This is the 85th and final episode of the Big Book Podcast. It features the six Appendices and list of AA Publications found at the end of the Second Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous published in 1955.







Howard L, sober since January 1, 1988, presents this inspired reading of the Big Book and encourages listeners to revisit earlier podcast episodes that feature the main chapters and stories in the First and Second Editions of the Big Book. Enjoy listening on our website, BigBookPodcast.com, or download and subscribe to the podcast for free at Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. If you have a minute, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Also join our facebook group, Big Book Podcast Listeners, where you can share your thoughts and experiences with fellow listeners.







Check out Howard L.’s newest podcast, “AA Recovery Interviews“, where AA’s share their stories in an interview format. Search for it on Apple Podcasts and other podcast apps. Or listen on https://recoveryinterviews.com

This is the final story in the Second Edition entitled “Freedom From Bondage” and was printed in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Editions of the Big Book. It was written by Wynn L. who joined AA in 1947 at the age of 33. Married and divorced four times before she got sober in AA, Wynn married her fifth husband, George L., shortly after her story appeared in the Big Book. George was a fellow member of AA at the time and the two of them became a popular duo at speaker meetings. Of those meetings, Wynn’s step-daughter, Caroline, was quoted as saying, “My dad was Wynn’s opening act. He couldn’t help but be funny. Then he would defer to Wynn, whose tale was hair-raising.”







Wynn and Jack P. of Los Angeles started more than 80 meetings in hospitals, jails and prisons in Southern California from about 1947 to 1950. Jack P. reports that during this period they were widely criticized by other members of the Fellowship who thought this was not something A.A. should be doing.







Howard L, sober since January 1, 1988, presents this inspired reading of the Big Book and encourages listeners to revisit earlier podcast episodes that feature the main chapters and stories in the First and Second Editions of the Big Book. Enjoy listening on our website, BigBookPodcast.com, or download and subscribe to the podcast for free at Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. If you have a minute, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Also join our facebook group, Big Book Podcast Listeners, where you can share your thoughts and experiences with fellow listeners.







Check out Howard L.’s newest podcast, “AA Recovery Interviews“, where AA’s share their stories in an interview format. Search for it on Apple Podcasts and other podcast apps. Or listen on https://recoveryinterviews.com

This story, printed in the 2nd and 3rd Editions, was penned by Bob R. who sobered up in New York City AA in 1947. The story’s literary flair reflects Bob’s earlier ambitions of becoming a playwright and the depths to which he had descended prior to sobriety. Though not much is known about Bob, he did write a follow-up to his story for a 1967 issue of the Grapevine entitled, “Come On Be Happy, Too”. The article provided an updated perspective of a sober member of AA some 12 years after the original Big Book story. Bob wrote, “I hope I am no less human for being dry, twenty-years-plus dry, in AA. The bad old years, the years of suffocating in the deep morass of alcoholism, are years I could have used to good advantage had I not been trapped by this hideous disease. There were seven or eight years before I found AA - oh, how I could have used those years! But they were not wasted; they stripped me of everything, including self-respect; but they made me ready for the happiness of the last twenty years in AA.







Howard L, sober since January 1, 1988, presents this inspired reading of the Big Book and encourages listeners to revisit earlier podcast episodes that feature the main chapters and stories in the First and Second Editions of the Big Book. Enjoy listening on our website, BigBookPodcast.com, or download and subscribe to the podcast for free at Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. If you have a minute, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Also join our facebook group, Big Book Podcast Listeners, where you can share your thoughts and experiences with fellow listeners.







Check out Howard L.’s newest podcast, “AA Recovery Interviews“, where AA’s share their stories in an interview format. Search for it on Apple Podcasts and other podcast apps. Or listen on https://recoveryinterviews.com

Published only in the Second Edition, this is the story of Nancy F., who got sober in New York City in 1945 when she was 39 years old. It is said that Nancy and another young woman, perhaps AA pioneer Marty Mann, were often asked to go to hospitals and drying-out places frequented by the wealthy, because they were younger and "presentable." According to reports at the time, they carried the AA message wearing little black dresses, pearls, and hats with flowers on them. For 15 years, Nancy was also a regular attendee at one of the first "women only" meetings, started by Marty Mann in Midtown Manhatten.







Nancy personified what people can accomplish by staying sober. She went to high school in her fifties and graduated cum laude from college in her late seventies. Her search for spirituality lead her to becoming a Quaker and doing missionary work teaching English to migrant workers. Nancy spoke at the 2000 A.A. International Convention in Minneapolis.  She died in April 2005 with 57 years of sobriety.







Howard L, sober since January 1, 1988, presents this inspired reading of the Big Book and encourages listeners to revisit earlier podcast episodes that feature the main chapters and stories in the First and Second Editions of the Big Book. Enjoy listening on our website, BigBookPodcast.com, or download and subscribe to the podcast for free at Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. If you have a minute, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Also join our facebook group, Big Book Podcast Listeners, where you can share your thoughts and experiences with fellow listeners.







Check out Howard L.’s newest podcast, “AA Recovery Interviews“, where AA’s share their stories in an interview format. Search for it on Apple Podcasts and other podcast apps. Or listen on https://recoveryinterviews.com

This story's author is Sackville M., who got sober in Dublin, Ireland in 1947. Sackville helped reorganize the original Dublin AA meeting in which the secretary and a dozen members got drunk shortly after he joined. Of the three alcoholics from the group who stayed sober, Sackville became secretary and was instrumental in working with the Roman Catholic church to help them better understand alcoholism and generally improve AA’s relationship with the local churches. His AA service group also included editing the Dublin group’s bimonthly newsletter for more than 28 years.







In an October 1968 article in the Grapevine, Sackville reflected on the 21 years since he first entered AA and his rank as an “Old-Timer”. He said, “Old-timers must often be a headache to younger members. But the old-timer who has come to realize, as I hope I have myself, that he is not God's gift to AA, but that AA is God's gift to him, still has something good to give to his group: the demonstration of his continued sobriety, his active membership, and his gratitude for his recovery to - under God - the Fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous.”







This is the 81st episode, story number 9 in Part 3 of the Personal Stories section of the Second Edition of Alcoholics Anonymous published in 1955. It was printed in the Second and Third Editions.







Howard L, sober since January 1, 1988, presents this inspired reading of the Big Book and encourages listeners to revisit earlier podcast episodes that feature the main chapters and stories in the First and Second Editions of the Big Book. Enjoy listening on our website, BigBookPodcast.com, or download and subscribe to the podcast for free at Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. If you have a minute, please leave a rating and review on Apple Podcasts. Also join our facebook group, Big Book Podcast Listeners, where you can share your thoughts and experiences with fellow listeners.







Check out Howard L.’s newest podcast, “AA Recovery Interviews“.







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Annie C. first joined AA in 1947 at the age of 67. One interesting item that shows up in Annie’s story is the reference to a farm in Connecticut where she went for a few days after she had relapsed. This same farm, mentioned in other early stories in the Second Edition of the Big Book, was owned by Sister Francis, who took in addicts and alcoholics, helping those in need of hope.







In 1939, AA co-founder Bill W. came to Sister Francis’ farm with Marty Mann, one of AA’s first female members. They fell in love with High Watch Farm, and sister Francis fell in love with AA. She offered to gift her property to them so they could turn High Watch Farm into a retreat for those seeking recovery. More than 80 years later, High Watch Farm still operates as the world’s first 12-Step treatment center. The debate over the role of Alcoholics Anonymous versus the role of professional treatment can be traced back to the first days of High Watch Farm. It was at that time, AA’s future was set to remain independent from the business of “treatment” for alcoholics. In fact, the 6th tradition continues to address AA’s independence by virtue of not affiliating with nor endorsing of treatment facilities and other outside enterprises.