Page 198 - The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

Alco_1893007162_6p_01_r5.qxd 4/4/03 11:17 AM Page 183

ALCOHOLIC ANONYMOUS NUMBER THREE 183
they were both very much opposed to drinking. A
couple of hired hands were cleaning out the barn on
the farm, and I was riding to and fro on the sled, and
while they were loading, I drank hard cider out of a
barrel in the barn. On the return trip, after two or
three loads, I passed out and had to be carried to the
house. I remember that my father kept whiskey
around the house for medical purposes and entertain­
ment, and I would drink from this when no one was
about and then water it to keep my parents from
knowing I was drinking.
This continued until I enrolled in our state univer­
sity, and at the end of the four years, I realized that I
was a drunk. Morning after morning I awoke sick and
with terrible jitters, but there was always a flask of
liquor sitting on the table beside my bed. I would
reach over and get this and take a shot and in a few
moments get up and take another, shave, eat my
breakfast, slip a half pint of liquor in my hip pocket,
and go on to school. Between classes I would run
down to the washroom, take enough to steady my
nerves, and then go on to the next class. This was in
1917.
I left the university in the latter part of my senior
year and enlisted in the army. At the time, I called it
patriotism. Later I realized that I was running from
alcohol. It did help to a certain extent, since I found
myself in places where I could not obtain anything to
drink and so broke the habitual drinking.
Then Prohibition came into effect, and the facts that
the stuff obtainable was so horrible and sometimes
deadly, and that I had married and had a job which I
had to look after, helped me for a period of some three