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[Dallas]

Good question. Thank you for bringing up some precious memories for me!

During my first year sober I did some travelling across the USA. Driving. I had one of those big AA directories with me to find meetings and to keep in touch with AA, but the directories were not always up to date. And, often... late at night, when I would start feeling a bit crazy... needing a meeting... and it was too late at night to find a meeting... I would cruise coffee shop and restaurant parking lots looking for those AA bumper stickers... hoping to find some AA's having a meeting after the meeting! And, often... that's how I found them!

If it hadn't been for the bumper stickers... I would have had to go in the coffee shops and announce "I'm a whiskey hound from LA and I need to find some AAs -- cause I'm getting thirsty! Can anyone help me find them?"

I also remember being freshly sober... and driving the freeways of Southern California... and stuck in traffic jams feeling like I had road-rage... restless, irritable, shaking and discontented... and feeling like "Man I need a drink!"... and one of those cars with the circle and triangle in the window would pass by... or a bumper sticker that said "I'm a friend of Bill W." -- or "Protected by Smith & Wilson" or... "This too shall pass" or "One Day At A Time" or "Easy does it!" would be just the help that I needed to save my day and help me stay sober until the next meeting!

I've heard many stories by many alkies just like me... who shared the same experience... that "God helped us through someones AA bumper sticker" and it was the miracle that we needed to either help us stay sober or alive!

I remember also, hearing a lady speaker once, from the podium, who had pulled over to the side of the road with a loaded gun and was going to end it all. And, a policeman noticed the AA bumper sticker on the back of her car so he turned around to check on her. He walked up to her door and said "I'm a friend of Bills. Are you okay?" And, it literally saved her from taking her own life.

If the sticker in your window were to help one alkie to stay sober one more day... how would you feel about it then?

If the sticker in your window helped to save a recovering alcoholics life... how would you feel about it?

I don't know how you would feel... but I sure would be grateful and I would feel like I was living on top of the world to know that I had helped just one person with my unusual looking little sticker!

Dallas

BTW: It has been at least twice... in my own sobriety, that a cop saw my little sticker and decided to check on me to make sure I was okay! And, I'm glad that he did! Was it God -- or was it odd? Who knows... all I know is that I'm still sober to tell about it!

[Rusty Zipper]

and great share Dallas...

your story reminded me of another bumper sticker...

"Easy does it"

i remember when i was out there... following el' caro's with one of those stickers on their bumbers... it just seemed that everyone of them wasnt'n drive'n the way i wanted them to... go'n way the hell too slow... takeing big wide slow turns... crawling to a stop sighn, looking left, right, up, down... cripes... whats wrong with those people?... are they out of their minds.. dont they know who i am?... hurry up, move, get out of my way, i'm in a hurry!!!

i would look at that sticker and say, easy does it my (_zip_)... i say...

never knowng it was the helping hand of alcoholics annonymous...

for petes sake, and who the heck is pete anyway?...

well, after me hurrying my way to hell (a lifetime, 43 years)...

only after surrendering, hit'n the rooms... working the principles of A.A. and comeing back from that hell...

i now look at those stickers, have chuckle, and say... zip, you knuckelhead, if you only knew... "Easy does It"... now i'm do'n it...

xxoo, bless... zip

i now know what "Easy Does It" means...

[anniemac]

LOL Zip!

And, wow, Dallas, thanks so much for sharing that. I have concerns that my ego is somehow involved - but hey, since it's somehow involved in just about everything I do, don't know why this is nagging at me.

Thanks guys - so great to have you here with me during my work day!!

[musicmode]

What if...ya thought of it this way?

At one point, someone(s?) thought-a the bumper sticker...then, at another point, there would-a had to have been a group conscience as to whether or not the bumper stickers, etc., were "appropriate". If they're out there, then the decision has been made, they're ok.

Our group wanted a sign posted outside of our clubhouse, stating meeting times. We leased this building from the town, and actually, it was the town that requested that a sign be posted. There were meetings held to discuss this sign. In lieu of a group conscience, the sign was passed and it was a 'go'. This was prior to my moving in to this particular town. I got here, and was informed of another meeting--a business meeting, and I was invited to stick around. Among other things, discussed was what the sign would look like, who would work on it, etc. Being new to this particular group, I volunteered to paint it (service, right?). There's an old-timer who would build it, and I painted it. Now--for me, this little project wasn't about the sign itself at all. The old-timer put it all together, delivered it to my place..when I was finished, he came to get it--and there we were...we had a "tail-gate" meeting in my drive-way. For me, the 'point' to doing this little project was connecting to this new group, working with another alcoholic--an old-timer yet, to boot...and that little "tail-gate" meeting, even to date, was one of the best meetings I've ever "attended". The sign was just the tool that was used. Anyway--the sign goes up...it's up for a few days only when: all hell breaks loose about this sign??? . Word gets back to me about this, and apparently, there were a couple of members, who were not at any of the meetings where this sign was discussed--who were extremely upset because they felt that now that sign was there, anyone who saw them walk into this building would now know that they were AA--they felt that this sign was a breach of their anonymity. Soooo...another meeting was held. I'm tellin' ya...this sign caused such a ruckus...serenity??? Out the window...not for me, though--because I was still firm and comfortable with what the sign meant for me...the purpose of the sign had already been served for me. Opinions were shared at this meeting, and I shared mine honestly and from the heart. I really didn't know what to think about whether it should stay up or come down--that part--I honestly felt--was neither here nor there for me. I knew of another story of another member who had been overseas w/ the Navy, so I knew of one place in particular that had a sign outside of their meeting room written in Arabic--so I ventured to guess that it must be alright to have a sign posted?? But all I could offer was that, and how I felt. Well...the sign came down. The old-timer was extremely hurt by this...he didn't come back to meetings for months. Guess what? Neither did those few, except for 1, who weren't there for the vote for the yea/nah in the first place. I'm like what-ever...not willing to allow this to have an affect on my sobriety one way or the other...we don't stay sober for signs, or bumper stickers, or cakes or coins...or-at least for me, that's not what it's about for me. That sign, for me--had more of a hidden meaning for me..another member (Pat), who was for the sign, comes up to me during all of this hoopla, and quietly says (of what I'd said): "Now that's AA--and that's what I'm tellin' the others."

So---now...it's 3 years after all of this...I'd been attending a different meeting at a different place (oldtimers meeting )...I drive by the clubhouse, and there posted all bright&shiny as the day I painted it--there's the sign . I nearly drove into another vehicle--absolutely stunned. I go into the bank, there's a member there in the line-up...I tap him on the shoulder and point across the street--confused. Ya, he says, I guess they decided to put it back up cuz the ones who raised a fuss don't even live here anymore. O--kay??? I go home and phone Pat, and she's gigglin', cuz it's been up for about a week. Then, she proceeds to tell me that the group is going to have to find some other place to have the meetings cuz the town has other plans for this particular building. So after all of that--the sign hung there for about 3 months in total. I shake my head at the weirdness of it all, because...still--for me...today...it was never about the sign itself.

I was taught when I first came in that eventually, we would come to recognize each other simply based on our personalities and traits. I was taught that, eventually, there'd come a day when I would pass somebody in a store, and I would just know. Of course, it didn't make sense to me at the time, but--sure as everything else I've been told about this program, that to has materialized. I reckon the point is, not to get so focused on the "politics" that it diverts us from what the purpose of what we're really supposed to be focused on. If we get caught up in chaos, and now I've also seen it inside AA, that in itself can divert us from our primary purpose...stay sober and help others achieve sobriety. .

KEEP IT SIMPLE,
Anne

[anniemac]

Funny story, Anne! Sounds so alcoholic to me!!

As for the decal on my car - I doubt that AA as an organization had anything to do with its existence....someone just took the triangle logo and printed it up on some decals. So, no group conscience; just someone making a buck. Don't think there's an official AA Merchandise store!

[Dallas]

I hope the guy made more than a buck... that way he can keep making the decals!!! Without the guy making the decals --- those of us who love 'em and want 'em -- wouldn't have any other place to get them!

Just imagine.... the Big Book was originally published in hopes of making some money!!! A few times... the Pioneers were so broke and the book sales were so flat... that the printer wouldn't release any more books, and wouldn't print any new books... till they got more of the past due money that was owed to them! And, at the same time, one of our Founders and his wife... were homeless.....

I thank God for those who have stepped out and continue stepping out on the invisible limbs... risking much... so that some of us could be sober, happy, joyous and free... while those in Alkie business meetings sit around fighting and arguing over whether to have chips with dip, or dip with chips...or tostados with salsa! Often, those AA-related business meetings are the funniest show in town!!! They're always great for a good laugh... as long as they are not taken too seriously!