Sober just over 11 years since 1967, Ray was born in a rural four room house in Virginia.
His father abandoned the family when Ray was 8 which left Ray the man of the house because his two older brothers were put in foster homes.
It took him three years to get out of the 4th grade. He figured he would graduate high school at age 35 so that ended his formal education.
He sucked his thumb and pulled his ear until he was 13.
He drank for twenty years starting at age 18. He got sober in jail but never entertained not drinking.
He was drafted into the army in 1953 during the Korean was but served in the medical corps in Austria - he had never heard of it.
He went in the penicillin business selling the Army's product to service members with syphilis. He drank up all the profits.
He started working in construction and got obsessed with money. He pursued it regardless, started his own business but was spiritually sick.
When he came into AA seven years later, he was living on the street.
Ten years after this talk, Ray was still sober living in Waldorf, MD, some 17 miles south of Temple Hills, MD.
(1 hr 1 min) (14.2 MB) (id#2050)