Originally from Newport News, VA, Pat was sober almost 16 years since 8/28/1975 at the time of this talk. Pat 1st drank at age 13 at a party. It was magical stuff. She blacked-out and woke up in bed, afraid she was pregnant, with a marine she did not know. She was not that kind of girl - straight A student-church goer. Yet she drank again at every opportunity. Soon she was making C's and D's, sent away to boarding school and managed to graduate.
She got married at 18 because this guy asked her - it lasted 6 months. She worked in her father's trucking company and got to "know" many of the drivers. She liked the truck driver bars and the way she felt when she was there. She began to hop from job to job and her standards began to lower.
She became a stripper in some terrible places where she met her 2nd husband who did not drink. They stayed married 11 years.. She still had her day job. She began to go to jail, major fights at home. None of it was her fault. But along the way alcohol stopped working for her. She began to get moments of clarity which she did not like. In the last four years she drank at home in her rocking chair and purple bathrobe.
Pat got sober at age 30 in Los Angeles, CA with no friends. She called AA drunk and went to her 1st meeting the next night. She did not stay sober until she got a sponsor and took the steps.
(1 hr 3 min) (21.9 MB) (id#694)
