Sober 24 years since 9/17/1992, Mike's home group is in Etowah, NC and he is sometimes listed as from Etowah.
He says,
"I am grateful that I came into a group of Alcoholics Anonymous that they studied the book, they believed everything that book said and they taught me this program of recovery. Thank God for people who stay in AA."
He got sober in Charlotte, NC.
His father left his mom with three small children and Mike on the way. His grandparents worked in a Lutheran church, raised them and taught him everything he should have known about how to live by principles but he would not listen.
It was easy to get booze from the winos on the tracks on the way to school. He stopped trying in school in 6th grade because alcohol was giving him what he needed blacking out by 15.
"Tenth grade were the funnest three years of my life."
Every job he found was one he could drink at, mostly construction. One time he, a girl friend and another couple lived out of a Cablevision van he worked in. His home was impounded several times.
On the streets, age 28, he got tired of that way. Charged with assaulting his Mi'kmaq Indian wife, a judge gave him a choice of two years of prison or AA. He hated outpatient treatment. After eight months of just not drinking he drank one night, but AA had ruined his drinking.
That was his last drink.
He could barely read when he came back to AA but he knew he needed a man to help him get sober. His sponsor read the book to him and taught him how to read it.
(1 hr ) (10.3 MB) (id#1673)