Chy
07-13-2008, 07:32 PM
You'd think by now that everyone knew. Yet I was active in A.A. and its meetings for two or three years before I ever heard mention of the founding. Finally, I learned that the date was June 10, 1935 - the date that Dr. Bob had his last drink. But that didn't satisfy today's historians. They tinkered with dates and concluded that Dr. Bob didn't have his last drink on June 10th, that the medical convention to which he went in Atlantic City never occurred when AAs said it did, and that A.A. was founded on some other date thereabouts.
If you asked someone when George Washington cut down the cherry tree, just think how many different answers the historians might provide. Does it matter? Today, we don't even seem to celebrate his birthday and prefer lumping all our presidents together.
Well, AAs do care. It matters to them. So I set forth all the arguments and dates long ago in my title, The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous (http://www.dickb.com/Akron.shtml). You can study them there if you like. Long after A.A. was founded, Lois Wilson wrote that it had been founded in 1934 when drunks were coming to the Wilson home in Brooklyn. Others wanted to date it when Ebby Thacher first carried the message to Bill Wilson. T. Henry Williams often said that A.A. started right on the carpet of his Palisades home in Akron when Dr. Bob, Henrietta Seiberling, and the others in the Oxford Group knelt and prayed for Dr. Bob's recovery. Still others like to date it as of the publishing of the Big Book in the Spring of 1939. Clarence Snyder claimed he was the founder, and that the first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous was held in Cleveland on May 11, 1939. One would-be expert has now asserted that the "original" program occurred some time after that in the 1940's. And, Bill Wilson made the statement that the first A.A. group began when A.A. Number Three was cured of alcoholism, was visited by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob in the hospital, and walked from there a "free man" - never to drink again. That happened very shortly after Dr. Bob himself got sober.
So you'll have to make up your own mind. FDR changed Thanksgiving. We call Armistice Day Veterans Day. And on and on. Which leads to the conclusion that "founding" days are perhaps less important than the founding. Personally, I'm convinced that A.A. began. I am convinced it began at Dr. Bob's Home in Akron. I am convinced that Bob and Bill agreed that it began when he took his last drink. I'm convinced that fairly soon, Bill and Bob agreed that the founding date was June 10, 1935. And thereafter, Bill Wilson attended and actually spoke at "Founders Day" each year in Akron where the "founding of A.A." on June 10, 1935 is celebrated.
Do you know when A.A. was founded? I don't. But I'm very sure it was founded because that's where I took my last drink forever and was cured.
For more information about the founding of AA please visit the original source of the article...http://www.mental-health-matters.com/articles/article.php?artID=591
If you asked someone when George Washington cut down the cherry tree, just think how many different answers the historians might provide. Does it matter? Today, we don't even seem to celebrate his birthday and prefer lumping all our presidents together.
Well, AAs do care. It matters to them. So I set forth all the arguments and dates long ago in my title, The Akron Genesis of Alcoholics Anonymous (http://www.dickb.com/Akron.shtml). You can study them there if you like. Long after A.A. was founded, Lois Wilson wrote that it had been founded in 1934 when drunks were coming to the Wilson home in Brooklyn. Others wanted to date it when Ebby Thacher first carried the message to Bill Wilson. T. Henry Williams often said that A.A. started right on the carpet of his Palisades home in Akron when Dr. Bob, Henrietta Seiberling, and the others in the Oxford Group knelt and prayed for Dr. Bob's recovery. Still others like to date it as of the publishing of the Big Book in the Spring of 1939. Clarence Snyder claimed he was the founder, and that the first meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous was held in Cleveland on May 11, 1939. One would-be expert has now asserted that the "original" program occurred some time after that in the 1940's. And, Bill Wilson made the statement that the first A.A. group began when A.A. Number Three was cured of alcoholism, was visited by Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob in the hospital, and walked from there a "free man" - never to drink again. That happened very shortly after Dr. Bob himself got sober.
So you'll have to make up your own mind. FDR changed Thanksgiving. We call Armistice Day Veterans Day. And on and on. Which leads to the conclusion that "founding" days are perhaps less important than the founding. Personally, I'm convinced that A.A. began. I am convinced it began at Dr. Bob's Home in Akron. I am convinced that Bob and Bill agreed that it began when he took his last drink. I'm convinced that fairly soon, Bill and Bob agreed that the founding date was June 10, 1935. And thereafter, Bill Wilson attended and actually spoke at "Founders Day" each year in Akron where the "founding of A.A." on June 10, 1935 is celebrated.
Do you know when A.A. was founded? I don't. But I'm very sure it was founded because that's where I took my last drink forever and was cured.
For more information about the founding of AA please visit the original source of the article...http://www.mental-health-matters.com/articles/article.php?artID=591