Everett 0. doesn´t have much use for treatment centers, except the one that worked for him: the Washington State Reformatory at Monroe.

"My theory on treatment centers is this: they get´ em dry but Alcoholics Anonymous keeps ´em sober . They had two treatment centers in the state when I came into Alcoholics Anonymous in 1957: Shadel´s [now Shick Shadel Hospital], that I couldn´t afford to go into. The other was jail, of which I had no choice . I went in handcuffs. In May of 1957, I joined the New Hope group at Monroe. I did two years. I´m probably the only active member of AA in Seattle who came into the program through New Hope [the meeting for Monroe inmates supported from the beginning by Seattle members. As many as 35 inmates attended in Everett´s time there.]

"They had me in there the first time for writing bum checks because I couldn´t work anymore. I´d been in and out of numerous city and county jails since 1952, the year I got out of the army. They gave me an honorable discharge. I never figured out exactly why ´cause I´d been discharged on account of drinking.

"Anyhow, I was back in Monroe on my second felony conviction in 1957, for stealing cars. I´d meet somebody in a bar who wanted a car. I´d take his money and go find him one, then go drink up his money. I found out the State of Washington takes a very dim view of that. I´d only been out six months.

"I hadn´t wanted anything to do with New Hope the first time, but now I met a man he passed away sober a number of years ago who brought me a bunch of old Grapevines and other literature to read. I told him, ´I´ll read the damn things. I ain´t goin´ anywhere.´ He came back a little later and asked me what I thought. ´Well,´ I said, ´it might be all right for you people.´ He was another inmate. ´I admit I drink a little bit too much now and then, but my life is still pretty manageable.´ He said, ´Yeah, so damn manageable you´re in jail again.´ Let me tell you, if I could have got my arm around his throat, I would have killed him, I was that mad. I reached through the bars, but I couldn´t get him.

"He got the last word: ´I made you mad, and I´ll make you think.´ And he walked away. Probably the best thing he could have done for me. I sat down on my bunk and looked back over my life and thought about what I had just done, and what I had allowed alcohol to do to me. I was 26 years old and starting my second felony conviction.

"And it dawned on me that maybe I not only was powerless over alcohol, but maybe my life really had become unmanageable. I had crossed the invisible line that they talk about, the line between social drinking and alcoholic drinking. One of the members of New Hope told me there´s no going back. It´s like a cucumber . Put it in vinegar and wait awhile and it turns into a pickle, but you can never change it back to a cucumber.

"Hell, I could relate to that ´cause I´d been pickled for years."

Now sober, Everett was transferred to the Clallam Bay Honor Camp and spent his last 18 months in custody there. As at Monroe, there was support from the outside for recovering inmates. "We had wonderful AA members come to our logging camp from Port Angeles every week. Sometimes there would be five or six of us, sometimes only two or three. I continued to study and read the literature, and in 1959, I was paroled to the great big city of Seattle. It was the biggest town I´d ever been in my life. I was a small town boy, born and raised in Clarkston, Washington.

"Here I was, 28 years old, alcoholic, no job, an ex convict. My parole sponsors were my aunt and uncle, who have since passed away. Both drinkers, they lived in a downtown hotel. My chances of staying sober were pretty nil, but with the help of a bunch of people I met through the Alano Club, I made it.

"I had a brother who worked for the Liquor Control Board. In 1982, after I had been fortunate to celebrate 25 years of continued sobriety one day at a time, my wife and I walked into my brother´s apartment in Poulsbo and tound the man, at 53 years of age, dead from acute alcoholism. He had 16 cases of good booze that he´d either bought, borrowed or stolen, and I don´t know which, and don´t really care. He literally drank himself to death. I tell you this for one reason. If you have any question that alcohol will kill you just go back to this story. He had the example of me having 25 years in AA. He had a copy of the Big Book wrapped in a towel in the bottom dresser drawer because he didn´t want anyone to know that he had the answer to his problem at his fingertips. He taught me one thing. He taught me that if I decide to go back to messing w ith alcohol, I could very easily end up exactly the same way he did, dead and alone."

Everett has maintained his sobriety through a marriage that ended in divorce, a second marriage that ended seven years ago with the death of his wife, and through two businesses that included long distance household moving for 25 years. "I had the privilege of driving cross country for three years. My world directory was in the front seat with me all the time. Whenever the urge struck me. I´d stop and go to a meeting.

"Been to meetings in every state west of the Mississippi except Nevada. Too damn busy gambling when I got to Nevada. Now I stick with AA meetings in Seattle. You can´t pull a slot machine handle in Seattle."

Through the years, Everett has done a lot of service work. He sponsors ´five or six" people. At one time. he was Intergroup representative, was in charge of the annual picnic one year and has been GSR for different groups. His principal interest in recent times has been organizing the annual Oldtimers lunch.

His social life revolves around AA.

´Some people can go months and months without the fellowship. I can´t. I enjoy my daily, and I mean daily, talks with other AA members . I don´t allow myself to get too far from AA contacts.

It´s been a good life. It´s been one hell of a fantastic life ´

Interviewed and written by Dick S.