I would not jump. I went back to the bar. Tomorrow was another day. As I drank, the old fierce determination to win came back. ~ Bill W., pg 4.  I can say with all certainty, that I never played the stock market, nor do I ever plan to. It does not appeal to me.… Read More Back to the Bar

The local banker watched me whirl fat checks in and out of his till with amused skepticism. ~ Bill W., Pg. 4 One of the many symptoms of alcoholism is the money mismanagement we committed in order to afford our addictions. I would like to qualify that I was raised by an alcoholic who acted… Read More The Banker

I had acquired the impeccable coat of tan one sees upon the well-to-do. ~ Bill W., pg. 4 I have to laugh at my youthful exuberance which was driven by my naivety. I loved sun tanning. As a farm girl, I would get fantastic farmer tans riding around on the tractor or in the fields/gardens… Read More The Well-to Do

Golf permitted drinking every day and every night. ~ Bill W., pg 3.  I was raised on a farm. Farmers, as you know are self-employed. I learned very early on that alcohol was available everywhere on the farm. My dad had stashes in tractor tool boxes, among his fishing gear, behind bricks in barn buildings,… Read More Permission

In 1929, I contracted golf fever. ~ Bill W., pg 3.  I only played golf once. I hit a beautiful line drive clear into the opposite direction to which we we were playing. I sure hope no one got hit in the head by the errant ball. But, I did catch the fever of my… Read More The Fever

The remonstrances of friends terminated in a row, and I became a lone wolf. ~ Bill W., pg 3.  One of the most common occurrences of being an alcoholic is that we become lone wolves. But before that happens, there is a slow, silent coup of our social lives. I used alcohol at first to… Read More A Lone Wolf

My drinking assumed more serious proportions, continuing every day and almost every night. ~ Bill W., pg 3 One of the biggest mistakes we alcoholics make is to compare our insides with the outsides of others. The fact is, it is not how much we drank or how often we drank that matters. What matters… Read More How “Great” it Got

Scoffers could scoff and be damned. I made a host of fair-weather friends. ~ Bill W., Pg. 3 In our drinking days, our best friends were those who hung onto the bar as long as we could. We never had much time for or interest in people who could not drink as hard as we… Read More Scoffers Be Damned

Drink was taking an important and exhilarating place in my life. ~ Bill W. (pg. 3)  For Bill W. and many of us, our drinking increased as our successes increased. It seems that we relied upon alcohol to fuel our bravery and moxie in the world. If we wanted to be braver, more glib, or… Read More How Important is It, Really?

For the next few years, fortune threw money and applause my way. I had arrived. ~ Bill W. Ego tells us that when we have success, it is something we did to achieve it. Yet, when things do not go well, or we fail to achieve what we thought we deserved, we blame God. E.G.O.… Read More Fortune