I suppose its traditional today in conventions to have a sobriety countdown, never thought much about it. Starts with everyone standing, the speaker announces everyone with under one year sobriety sit down.. Then it goes one to two years sit downthe crowd begins to progressively thin of those still standing as years roll by.. By the time it reaches 40, very few are standing in this large crowdThose now seated look up, from their seats, as if symbolically, to those still standing.. Those who are standing look straight ahead and wonder where the time has gone by, and where are all their friends and peers with whom they attended meetings for so many years have gonesad but fleeting emotion may be a good analogy to what it means to be sober 40 years, an anniversary that I recently celebrated on the 12^th of January. Sober ever since my first meeting on that date 1974

Bill W the co-founder of AA died January 24^th. 1971. Several weeks less than 3 years before my coming into AA or even knowing anything about AA.. I knew Bill W. personally and this is what this posting is about.

It was the summer of 62 I just completed my freshman year in college.. My summer job was on 43^rd St. and Madison Avenue, N.Y.C. working in an upscale tobacco store. Our clients were the well to do, well dressed powerful successful executives. The movers and the shakers in Finance, Advertising, Law with celebrities adding to the mix. I took my job rather seriously, learning all the technical aspects of my products to win respect as a young man somewhat intimidated by my customers and I might add regular clients.

My boss was a rather charismatic, well liked Irishman from Cork Ireland who always had a joke or story to reveal ending generally with a spontaneous belly laughI got to know our regular customers well.. Credit cards were not as prolific as today as remembered Diners Club and American Expressmost paid still in cash or store charge accounts.I worked there 3 summers and after classes My boss and I, Jack, got along famously both of us loved to drink.. I would frequently go across the street to this delicatessen buy 2 half quarts of Rheingold BeerAt times I remember Jack would say Hide the beer here comes Mr. Wilson.. I did what he asked clueless as to why I do remember the frequent times Jack told me he was on the wagon...He and Mr. Wilson would conference in the back while I tended the front along with usually another sales associate..

Whenever Mr. Wilson came in it was a standard order 2 cartons of L & M cigarettes.. We didnt use bags everything was wrapped.I had his Diners club information, just needing his signature. Hed pick up his package then off through the adjacent entrance to Grand Central Station on to the N.Y Central commuter train to Westchester Country a familiar pattern to many of our customers. I might add me included.

Over the years, Bill would ask me with encouraging questions and offer advice about school and my future.. I learned a lot from this, basically this all mens club environment. I completed College went off to France and England to graduate school. When I returned I was one of the youngest stock brokers on Wall Street, hired by a man who remembered me from the Tobacconist as a young good looking go getter.

In the spring of 1968 I was entering The Bedford Hotel on Park Avenue in NYC.. I was living there in a semi private suite with 54 other Wall Street Trainees, Wall Street, an all mens club in those days for three months in order to complete my training for full registration We were told by the company that we were " Americas Bestthats why we were hired, thats why we were there.

As I entered the Hotel one evening dressed in a Brooks Bros. dark blue pin stripe 3 piece suitwhite shirt, red tie, spit shined brown tassel loafers carrying a hand tooled leather Mark Cross attaché case, I bumped into Mr. Wilson. I recognized him right away, and was surprised he did indeed recognize me so quickly.. He asked me what I was doing.. I told him I was living in the Hotel one of the broker trainees..

Bill by that time, late 1960s. .I guess you might say a celebrity of the times.. lived there when he was not able to return to Westchester.He no doubt knew about all of us who resided there at the time.. What he did not know was that One of Americas Best, so to speak, was one step away from putting a bullet in my head.. I was an alcoholic, who typically did not know it.. and I was dying a slow death till I was finally picked up half frozen in a snow bank. and with help, made it to my first meeting on a cold Bostonian day in 1974. It was in 1985 at a meeting in Clearwater Florida that I picked up the book Passing it On In the back was a picture of Mr. Wilson that I recognized instantly, in a hounds tooth Harris Tweed jacket .I was then able to fill in all the pieces.

Since I entered AA 40 years ago there have been no regrets, in my life, no skeletons. As Ruth D would say there are no mistakes made. Am I Americas Best?.. When I walk with God I am the best of the best.. when I am restless, irritable and discontent, as I sometimes am, I am not worth the value of a piece of old fish bait.. that doesnt happen frequently. but on occasions when I forget to practice. the steps I am generally somewhere in between.The value of keeping on.

Last year I experienced 33 days at sea alone on a storm battered sailboat, at its worst, when resigned to not making it, it was then that I felt the Hand of God.

What I have done with this gift that I was given, in part, can be viewed on my Face Book Page.. Tomas Sailor.. I thank Bill for his exampleThere were times when at 30 years old I felt too young for AA, not like today, most were a generation ahead of me and I would say to myself, but wait till they find out how much I drank.. and could identify with Bill, he too was a Wall Street StockbrokerIf you walk like a duck you just might be one as well. .a point crucial for me in hanging in there in my first year.

I have much to be grateful for particularly my Physical, Mental and Spiritual health on my sailboat peacefully at anchor on this small Island in the Pacific..

Tomas