Sober 9 years since 5/2/1983, the Sunday morning speaker, Rip is a self-proclaimed South Georgia Drunk.
A railroad man, his sponsor told Rip,
"If it didn't happen to you, it's none of your business."
When he could stop drinking, circumstances got better but Rip didn't get OK.
He could not stay stopped.
He would steal from one person and give it to another so that person would like him.
He lost his wife and kids, his railroad job and lived in an abandoned car at a service station in Atlanta.
In 1973, a man named Sonny visited him there, uninvited, and brought him the message of AA.
He went into treatment but left there with the same ideas, the same set of principles he came in with.
For 10 years he lived an awesome, terrible existence, in and out of sobriety.
AA always welcomed him back just the way he was until he was ready to do anything to get free.
(1 hr 1 min) (7 MB) (id#2726)