Talk about your odd couple. Clark S. is a flamboyant, outgoing yarn spinner who never rests. Karen, his better half, is quiet and reserved, and sometimes looks askance at her husband´s antics.

They met in AA, go to meetings together, and work the program at home. Sometimes, it´s a struggle. "I´m a typical male," Clark said, "which means that sometimes I just want to argue. That´s when she looks at me and says ´You may be right, Clark.´ We treat each other with love, acceptance, tolerance and respect."

When they work the program at home, Karen said they turn to Page 449 (third edition) or page 417 (fourth edition.) of the Big Book. A little refresher course on what it says there might be good for all of us:

"When I stopped living in the problem and began living in the answer, the problem went away. From that moment on, I have not had a single compulsion to drink.

"And acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing or situation-some fact of my life-unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing or situation exactly the way it supposed to be at this moment. Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God´s world by mistake. Until I could accept my alcoholism, I could not stay sober; unless I accept life completely on life´s terms, I cannot be happy. I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes.

"Shakespeare said, ´All the world´s a stage and all the men and women merely players.´ He forgot to mention that I was the chief critic. I was always able to see the flaw in every person, every situation. And I was always glad to point it out, because I knew you wanted perfection just as I did. AA and acceptance have taught me that there´s a bit of good in the worst of us and a bit of bad in the best of us; that we are all children of God and we each have a right to be here. When I complain about me or about you, I´m complaining about God´s handiwork. I am saying that I know better than God."

"There you have it," Karen said. "We´re not out to change each other. ´...I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes…´ So there you have it. What we´re doing has worked for 10 years. I can´t accept responsibility for his behavior."

But maybe she does, just a little bit, once in awhile. Clark said he was expounding his brand of AA wisdom to a group of people the other night when he looked up to see Karen in the back row with her middle finger sending a clear signal.

What brought this odd couple together? Well, AA, of course. Clark had sobered up Oct. 30, 1981 Karen was next, on Jan. 31, 1984. They met at the Saturday Night Dinner Bunch on Aurora Ave. N., Karen´s home group for 19 years. Someone sat in Karen´s regular seat one night in 1990, so she had to find another place, and there was Clark. They began going together. Clark soon asked her to move in with him, but, says Karen, "It took him five years to say he loved me, and then I moved in."

In doing so, Karen´s trailer full of her household goods broke free from the car and crashed into a hillside, destroying everything. "Now," said Clark triumphantly, you have to live with me forever."

In 1999, Clark asked Karen to marry him, and they were married on Nov. 6, 1999 in the senior center in the University District. Guests were asked to bring Big Books instead of conventional wedding gifts. They collected over 100 for donation to the Corrections Committee.

Together and separately, they play a big role in the success of Seattle Intergroup. Clark, when he wasn´t running scams, spent his 21 years in the navy learning a variety of trades, skills that have been indispensable in keeping Intergroup afloat. Much of the carpentry that was needed when Intergroup moved to its new location, he did. As a jack of all trades, he´s in constant demand.

Karen, who says she loves to organize things, has found her niche as Intergroup archivist. She was recruited by Larry J. when he was chairman of the Intergroup Board in 1996. She has served in that capacity most of the time since then, and has developed some outstanding displays of historic AA material. Among the treasures are some autographed copies of earlier editions of the Big Book by none other than Bill W. himself. There´s a complete file of the High and Dry, all lovingly catalogued. The collection is open to the public during office hours.

Karen is an unusual alcoholic. A former teacher, she moved here from Illinois in 1970 and started a business. She was 42 and had never had a drinking problem, but her business was going bad and she was getting a divorce. A doctor recommended "a good stiff shot of vodka to help me sleep at night. As time progressed, I needed more and more and was soon passing out. My working days got shorter and my drinking days grew longer. By the last six months, I was on a three-hour maintenance schedule to control the shakes." In just 2 ˝ years from that first drink, Karen was a full blown alcoholic. A counselor referred her to a treatment center, and it worked. She joined AA on Jan. 31, 1984. "I don´t know if I´d have made it without that treatment center," she said. "I knew nothing about alcohol or alcoholism."

Karen has worked all her life,, most recently as a manager in a dating business. Now she´s retired and focusing on the Intergroup archives.

Clark, of course, couldn´t resist saying, "Now that she´s home all the time, it´s taking some getting used to."

Clark took a far different path to sobriety. He was born in Friday Harbor, moved to Bellingham when he was 11 and was sent to reform school on Mercer Island at 14. He and his buddies "were stealing anything that wasn´t nailed down." His six-month sentence kept getting longer for various infractions, so he was still there when he became old enough to join the army as a condition of his release. He didn´t like the army, so he enlisted in the navy after six months with a different birth certificate and stayed for 21 years, rising to chief.

"The navy was the Government Drinking Academy," Clark said. "As long as you made it back to the ship, anything went." He served in both Korea and Vietnam with a checkered career in between. For one three-year stretch, he was a consultant in Hollywood and became close friends with a famous singer who had a severe drinking problem. So did Clark. "That´s when my drinking got out of control. I was drinking every single day."

He retired in 1971 and moved back to Seattle, where he worked for an insurance company until his new sobriety in 1981`made his colleagues uncomfortable and he was fired. He decided to become an alcohol counselor and went through six schools in this area before gaining his certification in 1984. He retired as a counselor in 1995.

Clark started slowly in the program. "For the first five years, I just came to listen. Then I began chairing meetings, making coffee and eventually helped found several new meetings. I was the ´House Mouse´ at Intergroup when they were looking for a candidate for Intergroup chair in 2000. I decided to run, and served a two-year term."

"I got him involved at Intergroup," Karen said. "We were in the old place then and things were always breaking down. Clark was handy, and did a lot of good things there." For the new place too, building shelves, painting and a hundred other chores.

Of his chairmanship of Intergroup, Clark says "It was fun. I had so much support from everybody-except for the archives."

Interviewed and written by Dick S.