update: the softball game turned out being played by our group against ourselves. the other group didn't show in force, just three of them so we mixed the teams and had a blast.
i have been asked and accepted facilitating the wednesday night meetings. i still find it strange when i start the meetings with "good evening my name is -------- and i'm a supporter".
i keep thinking about a jockstrap
I found this Perry Mason referring to AA and AA meetings in San Diego I wonder iif Earle Stanley Gardner was a AA member?
Episode Guide - The Seventh Season
April 16, 1964 [207] "The Case of the Antic Angel"
DirectorArthur Marks
TeleplayRobert C. Dennis
Peter ("The Big Valley") Breck plays William Sherwood, an ex-boozehound struggling to stay on the wagon. He loses the battle one night when he sees not a pink elephant, but Ruth, his dead wife, walking with another man.
Later, Sherwood gets a spooky call from Ruth and agrees to meet her. When she doesn't appear, Sherwood gets nervous and thirsty and is soon bombed. Outside the bar, he finds his wife in a car, and this time she's really dead. He calls Perry for help, but the lawyer and Paul cannot find body or car. When the corpse turns up in her apartment and Sherwood's fingerprints are all over her car, he's the natural suspect.
Vince KabatMichael Ansara
Sidney FalconerGeorge Tobias
William SherwoodPeter Breck (defendant)
Harry NilesRichard Erdman
Ruth Sherwood alias Lynne BowmanJanet Dey (victim)
JudgeMorris Ankrum
Webmaster's Note: Don Davis reports: "According to the actual epsiode, which I have just viewed, the corpse actually turns up at the bottom of a 130-foot ravine in a car rented by Vince Kabat. However, the defendant, William Sherwood, has indeed left bloody fingerprints all over the car, so that much is correct."
ZedSquared<
First of all, welcome to A2k. I hope your stay here is an enjoyable one.
AA members come from every socio-economic group. The only requirement for AA membership is the desire to stop drinking.
If Earle Stanley Gardner attended AA meetings, I would say Perry Mason would be the only person who knew about it . . . and Mason's not talking.
pueo, Thanks for the update, my wife is a very occasional one drink person. She is a very good supporter for me and attends meetings sometimes. I have often asked to open meetings and have never found a decenter. She never knew me during my alcoholic days, I wouldn't want her to see them! She has never be drunk or high - of course, this I can not grasp
BillW<
It is great that you have a wife who understands your problem with alcohol. Wish the same could be said of all married men in the same boat.
Every once in a while, it is good to remind your wife (and you) that you are only one drink away from your next drunk.
The character of Perry Mason was, of course, based on the books by Erle Stanley Gardner. But the synopsis you quote from the TV series, zedsquared, doesn't sound like it was a Gardner script. Most of the Perry Mason TV show was original writing. They ran out of Garnder material early and, besides, a lot of the original books were badly dated for 1950s and 1960s, having been written in the 30s and 40s.
One TV series which did a number of episodes with an alcoholic theme was Quincy, ME{/i], starring Javk Klugman. Without even looking it up, I can think of at least three which had alcoholics fighting their disease as major characters.
Good for you, BillW.
You are fortunate to have a wife who is happy with you one day at a time.
keep coming back.
it works if you work it..............
As an AA member, how do you personally deal with resentments?
Not very well. What I mean is, I don't let them escalate to drinking - but I do still have them. I go to meetings, and meetings, and meetings. I am successful in naming it, getting angry with it, accepting it and letting God had it - sometimes. This works if it is a non-recurring resentment - but, what about the ones that are a part of life. Such as an 18 year old irresponsible boy living in the home? Go to meetings and acceptance on a continuing basis - I'm happy and sober!
My biggest problem is that I have a tendency to let resentments slide like water off a ducks back. Then they build into something enormous and unidentifiable.
I try to deal with resentments the same way I would deal with any other emotional problem. I turn it over to my Higher Power. I also remind myself that apparent curses sometimes turn into blessings in disguise in the long run. Maybe some event or person over which I have a resentment is really God's way of telling me something. Remembering this helps me stop and examine the cause of the resentment and formulate reasonable ways of dealing with it. I find that I can handle anything that life throws at me as long as I try to look at it dispassionately and not go off the deep end.
I attempt to avoid resentments by accepting people (including me), places and things exactly as they are. The more I use this method, the easier it gets to accept things as being God's handiwork. When I get resentful, it means that I am not listening to my Higher Power. Inevitably, a resentment is, for me, a lesson in acceptance.
Acceptance yes and then in some cases - future avoidance
This is the courage to change
If we are painstaking about this phase of our development, we will be amazed before we are half way through.
We are going to know a new freedom and a new happiness.
We will not regret the past nor wish to shut the door on it.
We will comprehend the word serenity and we will know peace.
No matter how far down the scale we have gone, we will see how our experience can benefit others.
That feeling of uselessness and self-pity will disappear.
We will lose interest in selfish things and gain interest in our fellows.
Self-seeking will slip away.
Our whole attitude and outlook upon life will change.
Fear of people and of economic insecurity will leave us.
We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us.
We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.
Are these extravagant promises? We think not.
They are being fulfilled among us - sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.
They will always materialize if we work for them.
Alcoholics Anonymous p83-84
**Resentment is not only an enemy in recovery, but - at the same
time, if dealt with according to the instructions in the book Alcoholics
Anonymous, resentments are also the arrows pointing the way to
my own happy, useful & contented sobriety, to my salvation from a
life of alcoholism.
**After all - what is it that we use to BEGIN our 4th step but
resentment. What is it that can teach me so much that I need
to learn about myself - in my recovery, but my own childish
resentments.
**From the careful exploration of every resentment I've ever
had - comes the knowledge & the wisdom I've learned about me
and my own behavior. In my years of sobriety & through the
countless use of the 4th and 5th steps. (Naturally, the following
steps as well, but for the purpose of this discussion about
resentments- particularly I use the 4th and 5th step.)
I see how even my resentments can be my best teachers... IF
I use AA's basic instructions. Trust God and clean house.
**The use of the 4th step for ALL of my resentments is perhaps
the single most useful tool in my life today. From these I have
learned so much about my own M.O. (as detectives would call it)
I have a cetain modus operandi of my own, and as the years go
by, the work of going from the resentment, to the cause, to the fear
that is at it's base, has become a much simpler job. For in EVERY
case, in every situation regarding resentment - these resentments
have the one common thread throughout them all, & that common
thread is FEAR.
**It is amusing to me how many acronyms our members have
found for fear, for example, this is one that I've heard most often.
F false
E evidence
A appearing
R real
**Does anyone have any other acronyms they have used for
the word fear? I would enjoy hearing from other members
about their own versions of this acronym game for fear.
Has anyone heard from Babs since her last post? Does anyone know how to reach her via phone?
