A strong speaker, Tom was at the Roundup with his wife Julie.
Here is the Al-Anon Speaker he mentions in his talk.
Alcoholism almost killed him and though we laugh alot in AA it is important not to forget the seriousness of this disease.
He considers himself an extremely conservative, far-right, radical, Big Book AA member.
The message of AA is that there are real, live, 20th century miracles of God.
Raised in a very small town, Hayneville, AL, with 19 members of his high school graduating class, he went on to college at Auburn on a beauiful path. Part of that was to drink like a gentleman.
He is a Period Alcoholic - he cannot drink, period.
He did very poorly at Auburn and was asked not to return. He went back to Hayneville.
He got arrest for breaking into a friend's uncle's house to steal catfish from the freezer and shooting up the place to cover up the crime. He joined the Army but wherever you go there you are. He wangled an honorable discharge.
Out, he went back to school, got married, got a good job at Sears, had two kids. He had everything in the dream plus alcoholism.
He got arrested for private drunk in his own home in a way that made the evening news. He resigned from Sears from a jail cell.
He went lower before getting sober to the point that he does not remember the last two years of his drinking or the first six months of his sobriety.
(1 hr 7 min) (23.3 MB) (id#1204)