Welcome (continued)
J: Actually the growth of it began--up until about 1980 we would do
five or six Big Book studies a year. Very few people in A. A. had really
reached some of the tapes. But in 1980 a great friend of ours we have
that's passed on, Wesley, in Florida.
He was a great student of the book. He was very enthused--we met him in
Omaha late in 1978--and he was quite enthused because he had been a
student of the book for many years, but he had never really unlocked the
total concept of the Big Book. He had been a student of the book way
before Charlie and I came into the program. He was quite enthused with...
the way we... saw the Big Book.
He asked could he--in 1980 he was the chairman of the international
luncheon at the international conference in New Orleans--he asked Charlie
and I, could he give away a hundred sets of Big Book tapes. And we told
him... we have nothing to do with any tapes or anything.
We told him we don't have anything to do with tapes. I guess so ... you
can give them away. It doesn't make any difference. So he was over the
international luncheon and what he did--he gave away a hundred sets of Big
Book study tapes as door prizes. You would have had to have known Wes, he
was a cunning and baffling alcoholic.
C: Powerful too.
J: He was powerful. He was over the luncheon so, he seated each person.
He knew where each person would be seated. So he chose the people to win
these tapes. (laughter) He picked out the people to win these tapes so
they would go back to all countries, to every state and every community.
So actually this was when the great interest in the Big Book study
began.
So... Charlie and I have had the great opportunity to go
to many states and many places and overseas and Australia and New Zealand,
Canada and the Bahamas, to talk with people about the Big Book,
"Alcoholics Anonymous." But still we feel it's the same simple
thing as the beginning, a group of people getting together to learn more
about the program (in) "Alcoholics Anonymous."y
[
Big Book History ] ]
