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(#449) Joe P (Atlanta, GA)
6/13/1992 in Woodstock, GA  EVENT: HOW Place: Pat W's 32nd  TYPE: AA, Male, Story

Joe Phelan was Area 16 (GA) Delegate 1980-81 and later Southeast Regional Trustee at large. Originally from Boston, Joe got sober in 1949. The oldest of six kids, at 10 years old his mother was institutionalized for the first time as manic depressive. For the next 30 years she was in and out of hospitals and institutions. It hit him in the gut but thanks God that he was able to get in AA and have a great relationship with her for the last 15 years of her life. Drinking at 13 and alcoholic at 18, in the marines in WWII, though he did not drink in boot camp and had "potential", he failed to come back on time from a 72 hour pass in Washington. He came back wounded - from a bar brawl not combat. He stayed in trouble in Reno until the judge put him on a train and sent him home shaking and goofy. The next two years was a series of broken relationships, burned bridges and good jobs gotten and lost. In the end, all that was left was Joe and booze on the streets of Boston. His kid brother got him hospitalized under remarkable circumstances. It became his sobriety date.
(59 min) (13.6 MB) (id#449)