We Began to Count Noses - Silkworth.net

But I have never thought of that as something to do and then forget about. I very
early came to see that there had to be a continual renewal of that simple deal
with God; that I had perpetually to keep the bargain. So I began to pray; to place
my problems in God's hands.
For a long time I kept on trying, in a pretty dumb way at first, I know, but very
earnestly. I didn't want to be a fake. And I began putting in practice what I was
learning every day. It wasn't very long until my doctor friend sent me to tell
another alcoholic what my experience had been. This duty together with my
weekly meetings with my fellow alcoholics and my daily renewal of the contract
I originally made with God have kept me sober when nothing else ever did.
I have been sober for three years now. The first few months were hard. Many
things happened; business trials, little worries, and feelings of general
despondency came near driving me to the bottle, but I made progress. As I go
along I seem to get strength daily to be able to resist more easily. And when I get
upset, cross-grained and out of tune with my fellow man I know that I am out of
tune with God. Searching where I have been at fault, it is not hard to discover
and get right again, for I have proven to myself and to many others who know
me that God can keep a man sober if he will let Him.” 49
In the last paragraph quoted, Joe says he’s been sober for three years now.
Like Myron, he appears to be slightly ahead of himself and may be projecting
into the future to the expected publication of the book in the spring or summer of
1939. Bob lists Joe with fifteen months of dry time as of February of 1938; this
would seem to indicate a “slip” for Joe although there is no such indication in his
story. We can not explain the conflict but we do have Dr. Bob’s hand written
roster in 1938 and the stories of the nine Akronites who preceded him to help
determine the order of the First Forty.
The seventh man to step onto The Golden Road would be Robert Oviatt.*
Bob’s story “THE SALESMAN” appeared in the Original Manuscript draft of the
book Alcoholics Anonymous.
Bob first met our friends and was introduced to The Solution in the spring
1936 but wasn’t ready for it. His story reveals how his mother had heard of Dr.
Bob, the success he was having with drunks, and how he had decided to go and
meet with him. Oviatt met Doc and attended his first meeting but “didn’t care for
anything religious.”
Bob O. could see however, the solution working for the men he had met,
but just couldn’t find his place among them. John Barleycorn would prove to be
the great persuader.
* Bob Oviatt has been often misidentified as Bob G., or Bob Guilatt. See People in AA History,
http://www.aahistory.com/aa/people.html; or First Edition Authors www.barefootsworld.net