This is "Change of Pace" month for this series. Chris G. of Burien is a newtimer, not an oldtimer, but he´s already a major activist in Seattle area Alcoholics Anonymous.

Chris, who is 38 and sober for less than two years, is a poster boy for the kind of folks who are coming into the fellowship these days. Until he sobered up on Oct. 2, 2000, he was a drug user as well as an alcoholic. In fact, he smoked marijuana for 27 days after his last drink.

"Many, if not all, the people coming into the program these days have also used drugs," Chris said. Angus L., who attends Pass It On meetings with Chris, interjected to say, "Yes, anybody under 40. I´m the only one in these meetings who´s a straight alcoholic. (Editor: he´s a senior citizen.) It used to amaze me, the number of people who started drug and alcohol abuse when they were 13 or even younger, but now it´s commonplace."

"A.A. needs to grow a bit past its intolerance for dual-addicted people," Chris declared. "Specifically, the ´A.A. Nazis´ who feel the mere mention of drugs at an A.A. meeting is inappropriate. They need to remember our primary purpose, which is to help the alcoholic who still suffers whether he has one, two or more problems. Fortunately, this sort of complaint usually comes after the meetings. That´s when people will say that A.A.´s singleness of purpose is paramount and we can´t be distracted by drugs.

"If it´s a closed meeting, you have to be an alcoholic to be there, of course, but I don´t think anybody should dictate what we have to talk about. It´s a support group, and you have to be able to say what´s on your mind. A lack of tolerance is the exact opposite of what we´ve been taught. Love and tolerance of others is our code."

Ironically, though he´s used them all in his time, Chris does not think he was drug-addicted. "I could not quit drinking without help, but I could quit using marijuana. Drugging is not nearly like drinking, at least for me. I was down just to using grass. With that other s..t-LSD, mushrooms, cough syrup-there was no guarantee of the type of high you´d get, but you sit down with a case of beer and you know what you´re going to get."

His drinking career topped out with up to six six-paks of beer a day. Occasionally, he would experiment with hard liquor-fill up a tumbler and drink it down, but beer was the drink of choice. )Angus: "most people do it in reverse.")

What brought him to this program was a terrifying incident which occurred at the conclusion of a staff party "where I´d drunk like a pig, as usual." Thoroughly drunk, he stumbled back to his car to leave the parking lot when a man with a bicycle started screaming that he´d run over his bike. The man demanded money, and Chris said he´d have given him everything he had if the man had not been so threatening. As it was, he said he´d get his ATM out of the car. Once inside, he took off, but not before the man smashed the hood with a rock and kicked out the right rear window.

Chris sped out onto Fourth Ave. S. He was doing 60 miles an hour when he ran two red lights before he nearly ran into a police officer and shoved the patrol car into oncoming traffic. Not surprisingly, he was arraigned the next day on a drunk driving charge, but got off with deferred prosecution, a $1000 fine, two years of outpatient treatment (which he is still receiving) and five years probation.

"I knew I was an alcoholic from that moment on, and had the potential to really hurt somebody. After I was arraigned, I went straight to an A.A. meeting at Pass It On." He´s been a hard charger ever since.

"I go to a minimum of one meeting a day, sometimes two or three. I started studying the Big Book with my sponsor and working the steps, all the time feeling amazingly miserable. But I had some hope that things would get better because people told me they would get better. And I had to believe it when I met all these people who were smiling and laughing and telling jokes."

Angus: "This guy is a natural born optimist, a social butterfly, a true extrovert."

Chris said he did all 12 steps as fast as he could and began sponsoring other alcoholics after only seven months of sobriety. He now sponsors eight people. Every week, he runs a Big Book study program for his sponsees and anyone else who wants to come. Thursdays, he leads a meeting at the SeaTac Federal Detention Center. And he only recently gave up his duties as secretary at a treatment center.

Like a lot of other alcoholics, Chris is the product of a difficult childhood. At 13, he came to Seattle to live with his father after his parents divorced. He and his mother were totally estranged for many years, and by the time he was 15 he´d torn the blanket with his father, who disapproved of his marijuana use.

He´d discovered booze the year he came here and enrolled in Madison Middle School. There, he felt he couldn´t fit in with anyone-"the wastoids (stoners), the punk rockers, the jocks." But alcohol and drugs, he discovered, made him feel comfortable around his fellow students. He was not alone. Asked how widespread drug and/or alcohol use was at Madison, Chris said simply, "Huge. Most of the kids either smoked marijuana or drank in the ninth grade. Acid, mushrooms and speed were real popular too."

An "A" student when he was 10, his grades declined steadily until he was getting "Ds" and failing when he dropped out of West Seattle High School at the beginning of his senior year. He´d been living on his own since he moved out of his father´s house when he was 15, supporting himself as a dishwasher and bus boy. He lived on the streets part of the time and with friends when he could ´til he decided to go back to school, this time at South Seattle Community College.

He was in a two-year college prep course, but that´s as far as he ever got. "The best thing I got out of college was my wife, Becky," Chris said. It was a struggle for the next 10 years, a series of low paying jobs for them both.

Becky finally got fed up and told him to do what he liked and never mind the money. A self-taught computer nerd, he soon landed a job in technical support at a computer software firm and has been there ever since. He is now a technical editor for the firm. He had an earlier interlude of sobriety at one point, thanks to Becky´s disgust with his drinking. But it didn´t last, and it took the DUI to lead him to, hopefully, permanent sobriety.

Chris is back in touch with both his parents now. He´d hardly seen his mother for 20 years, but stepped up to the plate when she became seriously ill this year. It was Chris who brought her here from Los Angeles to a more adequate living situation.

Why did he take on this responsibility? "It´s my job as a human being to look after my fellow humans. I want to live a life of service. And she´s my mom. I feel real good about how it´s turned out. She began improving as soon as I showed up."

So that is the story so far of one newly sober member of this ever-growing, ever-changing fellowship. With his dedication and commitment, and that of the other fledglings of this program, we can be confident that the torch that is being passed to a new generation will continue to burn bright and strong.

Interviewed by Angus L. and Dick S. Written by Dick S.