Sober 7 years since August 1943, Ray, according to the Whitehouse Alano Club website, was with four other men at the first AA meeting in Iowa 10/29/1943. The date of this talk is estimated based on that date and statements by Ray during the talk.
Ray, in the tradition of the time, starts off telling a number of jokes.
Ray got arrested off a football field drunk in front of 52,000 fans yet was worried in early sobriety about his anonymity.
He was elected as District Attorney and used to take the bootlegger case evidence home to sample it.
He felt pity for one of his alcoholic cases and let him off easy. That man, Bud, returned in gratitude with eight days sober to bring Ray a Big Book. Ray told him he was 10 weeks without a drink. Bud told Ray you always drink again.
He gave Ray a Big Book and Ray read it cover to cover that night. Ray contacted Bud the next day and urged him to come to his office and help him find other drunks to work on. The next day they had 5 men in Ray's law office.
Ray was a lawyer on coming into AA. He later became a sober judge by a series of interesting circumstances after joining AA.
Note: At times the quality of the recording is a little off but always understandable.
(52 min) (18.1 MB) (id#1316)
