Page 257 - The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous

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242 ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS
and then I became disgusted with myself and decided
to go back home. I think the thing that galled me was
that just after Easter I had drawn my salary for two
weeks’ work and had decided that I was going to send
some money to Vi; and above all else I was going to
send my baby daughter an Easter outfit. But there
happened to be a liquor store between the post office
and the mill, and I stopped to get that one drink. Of
course the kid never got the Easter outfit. I got very
little out of the two hundred that I drew on that pay­
day.
I knew I wasn’t capable of keeping the bulk of the
money myself, so I gave it to a white fellow who
owned the bar I frequented. He kept the money
for me, but I worried him to death for it. Finally, I
broke the last one hundred dollar bill the Saturday
before I left. I got out of that bill one pair of shoes,
and the rest of that money was blown. I took the last
of it to buy my railroad ticket.
I’d been home about a week or ten days when one
of my friends asked if I could repair one of his elec­
trical outlets. Thinking only of two or three dollars
to buy some whiskey, I did the job and that’s how I
met Ella G., who was responsible for my coming into
A.A. I went to this friend’s shop to repair his electrical
outlet, and I noticed this lady. She continued to watch
me, although she didn’t say anything. Finally she
said, “Isn’t your name Jim S.?” I said, “Yes.” Then
she told me who she was. She was Ella G. When I
had known her years before, she was rather slender,
but at this time she weighed as much as she does now,
which is up around in the two hundreds or very close
to it. I had not recognized her, but as soon as she said