Both my wife’s father and my father were alcoholics at one time in their lives. It is a difficult thing to watch a person you love struggle with an addiction such as that. They both grew up during the age of ‘prohibition’. An exciting time between law enforcement and the cunning of men to meet the needs of others who were willing to break the law for alcohol. Too, illegal booze production, warehousing, transportation and selling was a very profitable business. A time when breaking the law was a very common thing to do because a large majority of the citizenship disagreed with the law of prohibition. My father-in-law was able to beat his problem with the help of Alcoholics Anonymous. He was a hardworking, loyal husband who never failed to provide for his family. When his alcoholism came to a point that he realized that it was getting the best of him, he was humble enough to seek help. My wife’s parents have long passed away and when my wife was going through her memory file the other day she came across her father’s little, “Just for Today” card, that fit in his wallet. I asked if I could have it? I was reminded how powerful the advice written on this one little card is. Many organizations are pregnant with ideas and concerns but find no delivery system. On the back, of this one little card, the part that had been glued to my wife’s memory loose leaf folder, I found the following statement. “God Grant me the serenity to accept things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference.” On the inside there was the, ‘Just for Today Prayer’, that is the information that the organization would go over in their weekly meeting with their recovering members. Sections of it reads as follows; “Just for today I will try to live through this day only, and not tackle my whole life problem at once. I can do something for twelve hours that would appall me if I felt that I had to keep it up for a lifetime. Just for today I will be happy. …Just for today I will adjust myself to what is, and not try to adjust everything to my own desires. … Just for today I will try to strengthen my mind. I will study, I will learn something useful. … Just for today I will exercise my soul in three ways: I will do somebody a good turn and not be found out. … Just for today I will be agreeable, I will look as well as I can, dress becomingly, talk low, and courteously, …Just for today I will have a program, I may not follow it exactly, but I will have it. … Just for today I will have a quiet half hour all by myself, and relax … I will try to get a better perspective of my life. …Just for today I will be unafraid, especially I will not be afraid to enjoy what is beautiful, and to believe that as I give to the world, so the world will give to me.”
The men and women who work with Alcoholics Anonymous, work as volunteers, Why? Because they, too, are recovering alcoholics. They use the term recovering because once an alcoholic, a person is always a potentially active alcoholic.
Prohibition was alive and well during the 1920 and 1930’s; a dark period in American History. A time when alcohol was illegal to make or to sell or to even have in your possession. Mobs in the large cities were primarily kept in business and became wealthy because of the trade in illegal alcohol. Of course there were other things, too. The law was changed when lawmakers finally realized that they could regulate it instead of trying to fight it as illegal. During the writing of my family history I came to realize that my grandfather on my mother’s side was a bootlegger, one who made illegal alcohol during the prohibition period. The population, in general, felt social drinking should be legal. Alcohol was back and could be legally purchased again. With ease of access came a different kind of crime, alcoholics who became criminal to get an alcoholic fix. It was eventually determined to be a disease, a disease that a person could contract by systematic use, called ‘alcoholism’. My dad became an alcoholic just after I had turned 18 and had left home for work in another state. After his death I did find AA’s little booklet in his stuff but I don’t believe he ever became seriously involved with them.