Gulf Shores, Alabama, also known as Redneck Riviera, is a favourite holiday spot.
This story is another outstanding share from a Gulf Shores AA meeting.
The meeting was organized around a circle of tables. Well-established, there were many old-timers. The meeting opened in the usual fashion. The Secretary of the meeting asked if there were any newcomers. A young man raised his hand and admitted that he was coming back from a slip.
As usual, everyone perked up, and the meeting pivoted to meet the slippery returnee’s needs. The shares focused on early recovery, working the Steps, and the need for a good sponsor.
We were halfway through the meeting. An AA brother with a gentle southern drawl introduced himself as an alcoholic. He said, “I had some slips before I finally got a sponsor and began to take this program seriously.”
Then after a pause, which in the south is not a gap between words, but a paragraph between thoughts, he continued, “I am a carpenter. When I was apprenticed and made a mistake, my boss would slap me up the side of the head.”
“I had been on the job for a week, and I had been admonished in this way several times. I asked him, why do you do that? Why do you hit me like that?”
“Well, this is what my boss told me, he said, “I could put my hand on your shoulder and look you in the eye and say, ‘don’t do that again, that is naughty.’ But you wouldn’t remember because you are a thick-headed, slightly dense redneck. For you, I do something memorable.” He was a tough old boy for sure.”
Our AA friend wrapped up, “When I came to AA, I did not take it seriously enough. I went out drinking again. God handled me in the same way my old boss treated me. God could have told me that I was naughty, and I ought not to do that again; I would not have remembered. I was a thick-headed, slightly dense redneck.”
“So, God arranged for serious negative consequences. He slapped me up the side of the head. It sure hurt. But after enough slaps, I finally got the message, and I have been sober ever since.”
As he sipped his coffee, we all laughed and remembered our own ‘slaps up the side of the head.’
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