A beloved voice from Seattle Alcoholic Anonymous´s formative past emerged from the archives the other day.

A 90-minute tape was found by Angus L. of a speech that the late Eric B. gave to the North Coastal General Service Election Assembly in Pleasanton, California, in 1974. The speech reflects the memories Eric´s old friends have of him: inspirational, entertaining, and--in describing his own addiction and recovery--brutally honest. He spoke with the quiet authority of someone who has "been there, done that."

Eric died Feb. 27, 1997, after a brief illness. He had 45 years and three months of sobriety, and an unmatched history of service to the fellowship both here and on the regional and national scenes. Burke D. says of his friend Eric:

"He was the most respected oldtimer areawide, partly because of his extensive service and experience, but also because he projected a spirit of fellowship, a sense of humility and a sense of caring.

"When I was about a year sober, I was in a group of people with Eric. He turned around and saw me, and immediately I was the only thing in his view. He had that ability to make you feel important. We became good friends, and he and others like him played a big part in my sobriety."

Eric held many important posts in AA, including area delegate and then, in 1967, a trustee of the General Service Board. In the latter role, he became a friend of Bill W. It was a time when Bill was pushing for changes in AA´s governance, and Eric thus participated in the shift from a non-alcoholic majority to a majority of alcoholics on the General Service Board.

Eric came to Seattle from Winnipeg after wartime service with the Royal Canadian Air Force as a navigator on bombers being ferried to England.

Throughout his working life, both drunk and sober, Eric was purchasing agent for Rainier Brewery. He talked about some of that when he spoke to the California group.

"...I got a job at Rainier Brewery, which was ideal because I could come in to work in the morning, have a few beers and no one would know--or so I thought. As the purchasing agent, I was invited to a stag party at the Seattle Yacht Club. I got drunk and don´t remember all of the night, but I do know I parked my car in the middle of an intersection and started walking so I wouldn´t get arrested for drunk driving. I was picked up anyway and thrown in the drunk tank.

"In July 1951, my wife left me. That was in the morning. I had a few drinks before I left work that evening and bought a bottle on the way home. By the time I got home, I´d decided to commit suicide. We lived on a lake, so I swam out about 30 feet thinking about what a great funeral I would have with lots of people saying what a great guy I was except sometimes I drank too much. I put my head in the water, but as soon as I felt the pain, my plans changed. I swam back and finished my bottle.

"In October that year, my boss called me in and spent two hours talking about my poor job performance. I walked out of his office determined not to drink again as long as I lived. And I didn´t take another drink--until on my way home that night.

"Christmas Eve 1951, the eighth day of my last drunk, I was determined to call Alcoholics Anonymous. I had to say goodbye to the people in my favorite drinking establishment, so it took me eight hours to make the call.

"When I did, they told me to walk up to the Alano Club at Third and University. ..I decided I´d tell those AAs that my name was Joe Elmwood. When I got there, a fella put his hand out and I said, ´My name is Eric.´ I had to be honest...I had hit the first cornerstone principle of AA that Bill W. called ´deflation in depth.´ The people at the club shared their experience, strength and hope, which is the second cornerstone that Bill called ´identification at depth.´ He never identified the third cornerstone, but I believe it has to be a Power greater than ourselves. They all seemed to come together for me that day. "...I stayed at the club till 11 p.m., when they closed. When I came back the next day, I was shaking. Then a strange feeling came over me. I thought to myself, ´I can shake here to my heart´s content because I´m in a place where they understand.´ It took me 11 days before I could hold a cup of coffee in one hand.

"I think identification is key to being useful in AA. Once at a meeting I attended in New York City, I told how I used to test my penmanship to see if I could sign my own name without falling apart. If I couldn´t write it properly, I´d go out and have one or two beers and test myself again....A policeman in the group said he identified with my story. His hand would shake when he was writing a speeding ticket. Then I told ´em how it was 11 days before I could hold a cup of coffee, and a newcomer told me he identified with my story too, that he had refused a cup of coffee that very night because he didn´t think he could hold it.

"These are examples of why we have to keep in touch with new members. If we don´t, our usefulness to AA and ourselves will be diminished...First things first. Let´s stay with the simple things. The Big Book and other AA literature will give it to you straight... There is other good literature, but in the beginning, it´s important to stay with AA literature.

"In 1966, I was fortunate to hear Bill W. speak about the three absolutes of AA. The first is the absolute right of the member to be a member if he says he is. The second is absolute anonymity at the public level. The third is sometimes not conveyed to the newcomer, and that is absolute sobriety. I remember a district committee member who told me he´d been drinking for four hours, and wanted to know if that counted as a slip. Maybe he thought that because this is a 24-hour program, anything less than 24 hours didn´t count. He didn´t want to give up his service position, but of course he had to.

"I learned another important thing at a neighborhood meeting in New York. When I walked in, I asked a man if he was a member of that group. He said no, he belonged to all the groups. I asked him how long he´d been sober and he said, ´Well, I´ve been having a hard time.´ I think maybe he was having trouble because he didn´t have any roots in AA. You have to belong to a group because that is where the action is...I belong to the Empire Way group, which is the greatest group in the world. I hope everyone feels that way about their group because the sense of belonging is so important, especially at the beginning.

"I was in the program many years before I realized that the paper cover on our Big Book states, ´The Basic Text for Alcoholics Anonymous.´ As it says in the forward to the first edition, the main purpose of the book is to show other alcoholics precisely how we have recovered. That is why we should encourage everyone, especially the newcomer, to read the Big Book. It´s the closest thing we will ever have to a precise outline of what it is all about."

In his opening remarks to the California throng, Eric thanked them for being there. "If there were no service, there would be no AA. And if there were no AA, where would we be?...You and I are the watchdogs of Alcoholics Anonymous...So much money has been poured into the problem of alcoholism [recently] by governments...This is even more reason why we should be very careful to be the watchdogs..I was thinking about the problems that appear when the federal government gets involved in anything. As one fellow said not long ago about shortages, ´At first it was beef, then the next month after we quit buying it, they said we weren´t buying enough. If the federal government was ever put in charge of the Mojave Desert, we would be short of sand in 30 days..´"

Eric reached back into the early history of AA to re-emphasize his theme of the importance of newcomers and the newly sober. "I heard Bill W. talking about 1937,...when they were wondering whether to make the next move and set up the Alcoholic Foundation...opinon was evenly divided, but by one vote, they agreed to start the planning. A man who had been drunk the week before cast the deciding vote.

"Now, if that doesn´t prove that God is in charge and he knew what he was doing--I guess we wouldn´t be here today, would we?"

Research by Angus L. Written by Dick S.