[bluidkiti]

Big Book Study - Post #3

Good morning everyone, and welcome to those who have just joined us!

Turning to *page xv* and reading through to the end of the foreword to the
second edition, we have a brief history of AA presented. At the top of *page
xvi* the "alcoholic friend" was *Ebby Thacher*, sober two months in the *Oxford
Groups*. The *Oxford Groups* were a fundamentalist Christian movement that
sought to practice the principles of first century Christianity. Vestiges of
this movement survive to this day, although the movement has experienced
many transformations and is no longer called the Oxford Groups or Movement.
*Dr.* *William D. Silkworth* is the physician who introduced Bill to the
allergy theory and the mental obsession of alcoholism.

Bill and Dr. Bob Smith met at *Henrietta Sieberling's* house (of the
Sieberling Rubber and Tire family) through an introduction by *Rev. Walter
Tunks*. When Bill was pacing up and down the hotel lobby of the *Mayflower
Hotel* *in Akron* he was trying to choose between going to the bar and
scraping up an acquaintance or search for an alcoholic to help. Fortunately
for all of us, he looked at the church register. He picked Rev. Tunks' name
because it was an unusual name and he had a thing for unusual names. Turns
out that Rev. Tunks was a member of the Oxford Group in the Akron area and
steered Bill toward Dr. Bob Smith through Henrietta Sieberling.* Dr.
Bob*was also involved with the Oxford Group, though still unable to
stop
drinking. The first time the two of them met they spoke for five hours, and
this after Bob had elicited a promise from his wife *Anne* that the meeting
would last no more than 15 minutes.

*Paragraph 1, page xvii* - AA number three was named *Bill Dotson* - "the
man on the bed". When Bill and Bob approached Bill Dotson in the hospital
they had him moved from the open communal ward to a private room known as
"The Flower Room". The only people who had private rooms in hospitals in
those days were the rich or, in the case of "The Flower Room", the people
about to die. Bill D., being destitute, thought he was dying after being
brought to "The Flower Room", maybe it helped Bill and Bob carry the message
to him.

Keep in mind that the book hasn't been written yet and Bill and Bob would
work through the next couple of years carrying the message. They used the
Oxford Group's *Four Absolutes Absolute Love, Purity, Unselfishness and
Honesty*. Tall order for any alcoholic. It wasn't until the "Drunk Squad" of
the Oxford Groups separated from the Oxford Groups, starting in New York, in
*1937-38* that AA itself became a separate entity. The first meeting to be
called "a meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous" was held in *Cleveland* under the
auspices of *Clarence S.* in *1939*.

More on the foreword to the second edition and the beginning of the Doctor's
Opinion with our next post.

Karen H.