Everett J. AA Male

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
The guy asked to talk to me, and he moved.
Probably one of the most welcoming people I've ever met since I've been sober and all that stuff. And I don't know, I could like talk to this guy for hours and all that. And he's part of this men's book study that I go to. And I don't know, I love him to death. His wife's very cool too. And I don't know, I really don't know a whole lot to say about Everett, but let's listen to him.

**Everett** (0:42)
Hi, everybody, my name is Everett, and I'm an alcoholic.
So, Friday, the date is July 4th, 1991, and I'm very grateful for that. I have 19 years.
And I would like to say, well, in about a week and a half, I'm going to have 20 years, so I'd like to do it on. We were down at the men's retreat one time. It's been about, well, about 10 years ago, or longer. And we were introducing ourselves, and Howie from Dayton, this is in May, and Howie says, yeah, in October, I'm going to have 10 years. And Greg looks at him, he says, yeah, that's nine years. And he says, well, in October, I'm going to have 10 You know, he says, yeah, it's nine years.
You know, we had a big laugh out of it, so it's like, don't do that.
But, oh, no, I have a new guy at work. Well, he's not a new guy in AA. He's a new guy at work at it. And we're riding around in my van, and after about the third day, I guess the subject of drinking come up. And he, like, asked me, you know, what do you drink beer or what? And it's like, I don't drink anything, you know. He says, really, nothing? I said, no, you know, I'm an alcoholic. He says, really? He says, you know, how long have you gone without a drink? I said, well, it's been 19 years. Yeah. Really? And I said, yeah, you said, you know, you've not had anything to drink. I said, nothing. Not even a beer. No. No white Zinf, no or nothing. No. He says, let me ask you this, have you ever wanted to drink? I'm like, hell yes.
I've wanted to drink my ass off at times. You know, I'm an alcoholic, you know. And, but I don't know. I'm going to try to keep this short, which means I'll run till 9 o'clock.
I don't know. I just have always been fascinated by drinking ever since I was a little kid. My family drank. My dad drank. You know, all of my uncles drank. And, you know, I just always associated with that with a good time, you know. I was just always drawn to it. And my dad, he got religion, I guess, about 1968 or so. And we started going to church, and he quit drinking. My uncles kind of stayed away, you know. I don't blame him, but, you know, I thought, man, this really sucks, you know. And it's like, you know, I kind of made up my mind, you know, as soon as I was able, I was going to drink. You know, even as a young kid, I used to take, like, mugs, you know. We had, like, these jelly jars, you know, that was shaped like a mug. I'd pour root beer in it, laugh, you know, chug it down and stuff, you know, just pretending like I was drinking, you know. So, you know, basically, you know, I guess I started drinking in earnest about 14 You know, you get out in the world, you get some connections, you know, you're able to get, you know, somebody's older brother can buy beer and that kind of stuff. And I grew up in Highland Heights, and there was this guy, you know, he was in the town of Draught, his name was Mr. you know.
And I grew up right around the corner from Jesus Joe, you know. And, you know, I always thought Joe was just so cool, you know. He was like a cross between Jimmy Page and the Fonz, you know.
You know, he had his long, flowing hair, you know, with his leather jacket and all his Jesus Joe regalia, you know.
But he used to use Mr. Woody, too, you know. And there was this one time that his son, see the deal was, you know, of course, you know. We'd, you know, he'd buy us a case, and we'd have to buy him a pint of liquor or whatever. And this one time, his son came running out, you know, just like running after us, you know, up there by Bluegrass Carry Out. And he says, you guys don't understand, he's an alcoholic, you know. You know, leave him alone, you know. And it's like, you know, why don't you mind your own business, you know. And it's like, you know, to me, I had no concept of alcoholism or anything. And Joe, when Joe got sober, a friend of ours, James, said he saw him over in Covington. And he says, man, I saw Joe. He says he's sober. I'm like, what? You know. And he says, yeah, he says he's an AA. And I kind of vaguely, you know, you know, you hear about AA on TV or whatever. And I'm like, why in the hell do you want to do that for? You know, because I just couldn't conceive why anybody would not want to drink. And shortly after I started drinking, I mean, I started smoking pot. So basically, I mean, that's my drunk-alog here, drinking and smoking pot, you know.