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From: Pioneers of
A.A.
He Sold Himself Short -- Earl Treat, Chicago, Illinois.
(p. 287 in 2nd and 3rd editions.)
Heading: But he found that there was a Higher Power which had
more faith in
him than he had in himself. Thus, A.A. was born in Chicago.
by Nancy O., Moderator, A.A.
History Buffs
Earl's date of sobriety was originally April 1937. He had a brief
slip in
July of 1937.
He grew up in a small town near Akron, Ohio. Due to his interest in
athletics and his parents' influence, he didn't drink or smoke till after
high school. All this changed when he went to college, but still he
confined
his drinking to weekends, and he seemed to drink normally in college and
for
several years thereafter.
After he left school he lived with his parents and worked in Akron.
When he
drank he hid it from his parents. This continued until he was
twenty-seven.
He then started traveling on his job throughout the United States and
Canada.
This gave him freedom and with an unlimited expense account he was
soon
drinking every night, not only with customers, but alone.
In 1930 he moved to Chicago. With the Depression limiting his
opportunity
for employment, and with a lot of time on his hands, he began drinking in
the
morning. By 1932 he was going on two or three day benders.
His wife became fed up and called his father to take him back to Akron.
For
the next five years he bounced back and forth between Chicago and Akron to
sober up.
In January of 1937, back in Akron with his father to be sobered up, his
father told him about the group in Akron, who had the same problem but had
found a way to stay sober. Earl knew two of them, one of them
Howard, an
ex-doctor, whom he had once seen mooching a dime for a drink. He
didn't
think he was that bad and would have none of it. He told his father
he could
lick it on his own. He said he would drink nothing for a month and
after
that only beer.
Several months later his father was back in Chicago to pick him up again,
but
this time his attitude had changed, and he was willing to talk to the men
in
Akron. When they got to Akron they routed Howard out of bed.
He spent two
hours talking to Earl that night.
He was indoctrinated by eight or nine men, after which he was allowed to
attend his first meeting, which was led by Bill Dotson (A.A. Number
Three).
There were eight or nine alcoholics at the meeting and seven or
eight wives.
There was no Big Book yet and no literature except various religious
pamphlets. The meeting lasted an hour and closed with the Lord's
Prayer.
Then they had coffee and doughnuts and more discussion until the small
hours
of the morning.
He stayed in Akron two or three weeks and spent a lot of time with Dr. Bob
who took him through the steps in one afternoon. Dr. Bob helped with
the
moral inventory by pointing out some of his bad personality traits or
character defects. Earl wished every alcoholic could have the
benefit of
this type of sponsorship today.
He returned to Chicago in 1937 to start A.A. there. He got angry and
got
drunk when his wife criticized his coffee drinking and smoking.
(Earl is the
heavy smoker and coffee drinker mentioned on page 135 in The Family
Afterwards.) When he slipped he realized that the alcoholic
has to continue
to take his own inventory every day if he expects to get well and stay
well.
Soon Dan Craske, M.D. began referring prospects to him, and another doctor
in
Evanston referred a woman. This was Sylvia Kauffmann (The Keys
to the
Kingdom). Earl suggested she go to Akron. There they
dried her out and
explained the program to her, after which it was suggested that she return
to
Chicago to work with Earl.
It was Earl who urged Bill Wilson to codify the A.A. experience, resulting
in
Bill writing Twelve Points to Assure Our Future, first
published in the
April 1946 A.A. Grapevine. These are now known as the long form of
the
traditions. Earl later urged him to shorten them to the Twelve
Traditions as
we know them today.
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