We Began to Count Noses - Silkworth.net

“July 2, 1936, I again contacted the two individuals, and since that day I have
never had a drink.” 40
In Paul's story he mentions four or five men who helped him.
“With the help and advice of these two individuals and two or three associates, I
was able, for the first time in two and a half years, to stay sober for six weeks,”
We can now suggest it was Phil Smith who first carried the message to
Paul as both were in the insurance business and Phil would likely have been the
drinking companion referred to in Paul’s story. 41 Paul tells of his initial dry time
of six weeks which began in January of 1936,* the beer experiment, his relapse
which lasted “for some time” and his subsequent return to the fold on July 2,
1936. The Amos Roster lists Paul with nineteen months of dry time which
harmonizes with the account we have given.
The fifth man the original three would succeed with was Tom Lucas. Tom
is listed on The Amos Roster as having seventeen months in February of 1938.
Tom describes his first encounter with Dr. Bob in his personal story from the
Original Manuscript draft, titled “MY WIFE AND I.”
“I was pretty jittery when my wife opened the door to admit a tall, somewhat
brusque professional man who, from his speech, was obviously an Easterner. I
don't know what I had expected, but his salutation, designed to shake me up, I
can now see, had almost the same effect as the hosing with cold water in a
turkish bath.
"I hear you're another 'rummy," he said as he smiled and sat down beside me. I
let him talk. Gradually he drew me out until what I did tell him gave him a
picture of my experience. And then he put it to me plainly. "If you are perfectly
sure that you want to quit drinking for good, if you are serious about it, if you
don't merely wish to get well so that you can take up drinking again at some
future date, you can be relieved," he said.
I told him that I had never wanted anything as much in my life as to be able to
quit using liquor, and I meant every word of it.
“The first thing to do with your husband," he said, turning to my wife, "is to get
him to a hospital and have him 'defogged.' I'll make the necessary arrangements.
He didn't go into any further explanation, not even to my wife. That evening I
was in a hospital bed. The next day the doctor called. He told me that several
former alcoholics were now dry as a result of following a certain prescribed
course of action and that some of them would be in to see me.”
“There can be no better safeguard to sobriety than faith and trust in God. It can be
cultivated through prayer and observing the happiness of those who live a blameless life”
* See DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers page 111. The date of January of 1936 is not cited. See Sources p.352.