AA Old Timers Panel

**Josh** (0:00)
Real quick, first off, I just want to thank everybody for coming out this weekend.
I've been involved with the Rule 62 almost since I first got started. My sponsorship family, when I was brand new, was heavily steeped in Rule 62, but I was pretty much scared of my own shadow. I didn't get involved within the first three or four years. But after I kind of grew in, started growing in this program and getting comfortable, it's been a huge part of my recovery and one of the biggest things. It's one of my favorite weekends every year. I get to see some old friends, people I don't get to see regularly. I get to make new friends. And I think I can speak for the whole committee. We appreciate it. You guys make this possible. So thank you for coming. Hopefully, you enjoy it as much as we do.
Thank you.
Now, with that being said, we'll jump into the old timers panel. We got a great panel lined up for you this year. We're going to start off with Liz. And I didn't, within the last five years, I've gotten to know Liz a little bit better. But I remember from when I first got here, going to conferences, she was always up front. She's always got a smile and a laugh. And you won't hear one person say a negative thing about her. And I'm looking for, I don't think I've ever heard her story. So I'm looking forward to hearing what Liz has got to say for us.

**Brian Doyle** (1:18)
Keep it tight, Liz.

**Josh** (1:20)
I'll try.

**Liz Snow** (1:21)
Thank you.
Hi, everybody. I am Liz Snow. I am an alcoholic. And hi, Pam.
Oh, God, and I forgot what it is. Oh, I'm an alcoholic, and to God's grace, an alcoholic is anonymous. I've been sober since June 12, 1985 And that means that Steve and I both have 41 years. Because he's going to come up here and tell you his date, and then you're going to think about it. In a couple of weeks, he's going to have 42, which he always brings it up to me. So I just want to inform you, we're both the same age. So before he says something about that, and he usually does. And you know, one thing about getting sober and being sober a long time, I did not want to come to Alcoholics Anonymous. None of us could hear it on a winning streak. I wanted to be a member of Al-Anon. You know, because in Al-Anon, you can drink and drug and do anything you want to really. And you know, I heard the speaker last year at Buckeye Roundup, the Al-Anon speaker, she said, you know, I just wanted for him to die. And I thought, you know, I understand that. You know, there's some of them, I just wanted them, you know, the alcoholics, not my children. You know, I wanted them to get sober. But, and stop stealing my shit. But, you know, it took a while. You know, so I came here through the back door. I had an Al-Anon sponsor that wanted me to work the steps.
And then she would do things. She happened to be a member of Alcoholics Anonymous, and she would say things to me, well, you know, this is what I did. And I thought, well, I did that too. And then she'd talk about blackouts. Yeah, I did that too. You know, I like to hit mailboxes when I, you know, drank, you know. And I would come up the next morning and get out, and you'd look and see if you got a new bump on the car. You know, and I had a lot of drunk bumps, you know, where I hit things there. Or you would look and see if you had your car. You know, that's the other thing, you know, or where did I leave it? And then you look, the other thing is, do I have clothes, or do I have no clothes on? Do I know the person that is in bed with me, or do I not? Oh, God, now I have to think. And then you want to go, oh, now I have to call somebody and ask what I did last night. Hopefully, I didn't piss anybody off or tell anybody off. And she would have kept saying things like that to me, and I would go, yeah, I did that. You know, and so what happened was one night, my kids kept going in and out of treatment. At that time, I was president of a union, negotiating a contract for the county.
And I know we're not supposed to talk about drugs, but I had 2,500 quilutes in my linen closet, a pound of pot, a bottle of Jack Daniels at my headboard, some Coke in my purse to help negotiate, because that way you can get to think better.