My Mother has been passing down her AA coins to me recently. I've asked her to look for the older coins that had "AA" on them. World services requested that the words AA not be used on anything other than "approved literature" around '90. So these are getting rare.
-- Edited by StPeteDean on Thursday 11th of August 2011 08:37:35 AM
That is so neat. At least you have someone that can pass the wealth on. What are they made with--brass, copper or gold? Or are they some sort of plastic like some of the others coins/chips? Just was wondering.
cool coins Dean thanks for posting. I decided to look at what coins I had from the past, I really had not paid any attention to them in years and didn't know what I had
The pictures below are the same 4 coins front and back, all have "AA" on them except the top left which is old and kind of unique. Top right is old "Founders day" with Bill and Bob picture.
In Cleveland it was only customary to get a medallion for your first year (1985) my sponsor bought it for me (bottom left). Bottom right is a coin from Clev area group I used top attend Walton Hills group @ the Ford Motor Union Hall.
(Dean if you know how to edit so people can enlarge, please do so, thanks)
-- Edited by Rob84 on Friday 12th of August 2011 01:23:17 AM
-- Edited by Rob84 on Friday 12th of August 2011 01:24:21 AM
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Rob
"There ain't no Coupe DeVille hiding in the bottom of a Cracker Jack Box."
My home group has some of those aluminum coins. They are from before my time. We restocked using newer coins so the aluminum ones we have left have big numbers on them like 35+ years, which we don't go through that many!
I encountered a little boutique in my travels in San Jose that sold all kinds of recovery stuff. They sold Big Books and other non-AA literature, coins, etc. I got my daughter's gold-plated 10 year coin there along with a leather cover and a Big Book. First time I ever saw an all-recovery store. Seems a bit of a niche market to try and make the rent (and the skim) for a strip mall in California.
Bari, recovery is very trendy in Cali, as is thing good health. I say that with admiration. Rob I cropped my pic tight and uploaded it from my desktop via the browse attachment. There is a way to select a larger format but I didn't look that close.
Bari, recovery is very trendy in Cali, as is thing good health. I say that with admiration. Rob I cropped my pic tight and uploaded it from my desktop via the browse attachment. There is a way to select a larger format but I didn't look that close.
This is true, VERY true, it is AMAZING how many of my drinking buddies got sober, when I first starting hitting the rooms, it was still pretty small, old guys etc, one young woman sponsored every young woman coming in, over the next few years pretty soon there was a pack of maybe 150 of us, we hung in packs of about 30 and did stuff together, 70's parties, movie night and make out, we kind of did "high school" stuff in our twenties, hard to explain, but so healthy and so fun...
so years later I "go out" and came back in maybe 2001, and it was CRAZY, meetings were PACKED, teenagers, young people, it was amazing, small county with 800 meetings, sober recovery stores are no "small niche market" in CA. we have rehabs in the Bay Area people from all over the country send their kids to, sobriety is POW'FUL strong, go to ceratin restaurants on certain nights and out of the 200 Patrons, 180 of us are going to the meeting up the street after dinner (Chip meeting up to 500 people I have seen crammed in the Gym) we have many many meetings with 2, 3, 4, 5, 600 people, speaker meetings, chip meetings, it's an entire secret society, my entire "community" was AA, my entire "Tribe", my mechanic, my barber, my butcher, my employees, my employers, my clients, it's like a HUGE "social network", and if someone says "He's Program" or "He works a Good Program" you know you are dealing with an honest man who will treat you more then fair, and you do the same in return, like ...it's like we all have God watching over our shoulders, and you feel -obligated- to treat your tribe extra well, and you get the same treatment in return, or the word goes out, "He doesn't work a good program" in which case dating opportunities, business opportunities, friendship opportunites dry up unless some shit gets cleaned up, we are forgiving, but we also "stick with the winners", it's a good system, instead of mans laws, Gods laws, and instead of locking people up, ridicule and ostracism, same as primitive tribes, and it WORKS!!! People come in and after a few years straighten up, fly right, and if they don't...we all know...it sounds wrong when I write it like this, but it's not, it's the best community I have ever been a part of, we carry each other when we can't carry ourselves, we help with money, with couches, with jobs, and we receive the same help in return
then when I moved back home a few years ago after being gone only 4 years, it had exploded again with young people, I went to my old home group, which was 30 people tops in my day, there were close to 200 teens, the speaker was still eating paste in third grade after 20 minutes...so I didn't really frequent that meeting any more...but Sobriety is Big here, I moved to Sacramento and...well...the meetings I went to are the AA of about 25 years ago still, good program but the...how to explain, it's not "mainstream" and for once I am not using mainstream as an insult, something happened in AA when it got so big...and...normal....that was really healthy, different ...I don't know how to explain it, but there is something about going to meetings with healthy people, from all walks of life that is really attractive, people learning to navigate the complex emotional interactions of everyday life without alcohol and not having some bitter old bastard monopolize the meeting and jump down their throat, but still have it remain "The Program", it's like California shone light in the rooms of AA and made it OK to be sober, as out own Huey Lewis from Mill Valley CA said, "it's hip to be square", and it is in the california coastal community
-- Edited by LinBaba on Friday 12th of August 2011 11:51:56 PM
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it's not the change that's painful, it's the resistance to change that is painful
Yeah LB, I used to love visiting my childhood friend in Hermosa Beach in the early '90s (till he got married ). The south bay alano club was 3 blocks away and the morning meeting was packed full of celebs, movie industy folks and pro athletes (retired mostly). Smoking and drinking became really "uncool" out there and it was refreshing.
). The south bay alano club was 3 blocks away and the morning meeting was packed full of celebs, movie industy folks and pro athletes (retired mostly). Smoking and drinking became really "uncool" out there and it was refreshing.