Morning quiet time continued to be an important part
of the recovery program in 1938-39, as did the spiritual reading from which the early members derived a good deal
of their inspiration.
“Here in Los Angeles, they now emphasize meetings,” said
Duke P., who used to live in Toledo and was one of the pioneering members there. “I guess that’s because there
are so many of them.
When I started, they stressed morning quiet time,
daily reading, and daily contact. They also told me I had to do something about my alcoholism every day.” Duke
remembered taking a poll of “slippers” in the early 1940’s and finding that they had all stopped having their morning
quiet time.
“Now, after 38 years, Katie and I still have our
quiet time and morning reading,” he said. The Bible was stressed as reading material, of course.
Many remember that “The Sermon on the Mount,” by
Emmet Fox, was also very popular. “That was required reading for everybody,” said Dorothy S.M. “As soon as men
in the hospital could begin to focus their eyes, they got a copy of ‘Sermon on the Mount’.
“Then there was that little nickel book, The Upper
Room,” she recalled. “They figured we could afford a nickel for spiritual reading. They impressed on us that
we had to read that absolutely every morning.
There wasn’t any well-equipped bathroom in A.A. that
didn’t have a copy. And if you didn’t see it opened to the right day, you immediately began to suspect them.”
Bob E. of Akron recalled that another popular book
at the time was “The Greatest Thing in the World”, by Drummond. This, along with the Upper Room, was furnished
to the
members by Mother G.
Reprinted with permission from
DR. BOB AND THE GOOD OLD TIMERS (Page 150-151)
