Places that are part of our history--the Old Stone club

An Informal History of Old Stone and No Names Anonymous

By Pat M.

"What we need is another club . . ."

Like all stories, this one began with "you know, what we need is another club" said Jerry L to Pat M.  If you are alcoholic (even a little), this will cause you to think a lot.  I don't know when Jerry said that to me but I do know that on November 1, 1989 Old Stone Club opened at 613 Cherry Street in the old St. Mary's School building.  Now to regress . . . Jerry knew some people (I know . . . no news there) in Louisville, KY who were involved in opening a club there.  So, Jerry set off for Louisville to gather all the information of how, when, how much, etc, does it take to do this.  He, of course, brought back a ton of information.  The only info that stood out in my mind (and still does to this day) is that you better have real thick skin to do this as some folks don't take kindly to new ideas, not to mention starting what was perceived as an uppity club.  Well, obviously God had selected the proper scout for this mission.  I didn't know anyone then, and I still don't today, that met these qualifications better than Jerry.

You would have thought that we were starting a multimillion dollar corporation.  We had meeting after meeting, . . . every Monday night & certainly in between.  I can assure you that these meetings were just like other AA business meetings . . . sometimes loud, sometimes hurt feelings (we are a sensitive lot, you know), but in the end, the club opened in spite of us all.  I suppose I should thank my understanding employer because at this time I was working the 3P-12A shift on Mondays.  [On second thought, no thanks is necessary since I may have forgotten to mention the meetings to my employer.]  As I said, I really don't know how much time passed between the initial thought & the opening of the club, but it certainly was a turbulent time.  I believe that Sharon & Margaret might verify this.  Fortunately, we took turns being discouraged and ready to throw in the towel on this project.

No Names Anonymous and A.A.

I suppose that the picture I am trying to paint would not be complete without mentioning the difficulty that some had (some still do) with the separation of the club and Alcoholics Anonymous.  The purpose & the only purpose of what we now know as No Names Anonymous is to provide (rent) meeting space for AA, Alanon & Alanon related groups.  And yes, there was quite an upheaval about "charging" to belong to this club.  Once again there was a misunderstanding of what the corproation is and is not.  I think Jerry explained it best (so far):  The Evansville Country Club charges dues to belong.  If you can't afford them or don't want to pay them, then don't.  No Names Anonymous was never meant to be free.  The corporation; although tax exempt; is responsible for paying bills, mortgage, utilities, etc.  But, of course, one may attend meetings at the club without membership.  Ahh, the difference between the club & AA.  

Why it's called No Names Anonymous

You probably have guessed that the services of an attorney would be necessary.  We can't do anything (not even die) without "the attorney."  At any rate, of course Jerry knew one in the program and put the arm on him.  For those of you that have experienced this with Jerry, no explanation is necessary.  So Bill H. was contacted and agreed to do this (pro bono, of course).  He set out with great enthusiasm to set up this corporation.  And did he ever.  The Articles of Incorporation were drafted.  Since we had not had any discussion of what this corporation was to be called, Bill just used "No Names Anonymous" to fill in the blank on the form, indicating that the name had not yet been selected.  Well, I guess it still hasn't.  The group conscience was that the name of No Names Anonymous would work.

The naming of the club/clubroom was done by Al R.  He said we should call it Old Stone Club and the board agreed and that's what we did.  That was done January 22, 1990.

Old Stone I

Bill H. knew Father Steve L. (no anonymity--I just don't know how to spell his last name) of St. Mary's parish, who knew that the detox center "Stepping Stone" had moved out to its new location which left a vacancy.  So, after much dialogue between Bill, Jerry and the incorporators a deal was struck.  We took possession sometime in September of 1989.  You would think that I would know what the rent was in the beginning since I was the guy writing the checks, but I don't.  I do recall it was a minimal amount in the beginning.  However, I can report we were paying $1,200 a month in August 1991.  This first place became known as Old Stone I after we lost it to the parish.

Old Stone II

The building at Sycamore & 6th, which was the old Salvation Army Building, became Old Stone II, as Rick K. explained to us on Founder's Day.  Once again Jerry spearheaded the search committee to find this location, although there were many other people involved in the search.  I will not attempt to name them all for I'm sure I will omit someone and you know what that will cause.

Well, with the help of a member of the fellowship who happened to sit on a bank board we obtained financing.  I'm not so sure I would loan the likes of us that kind of money.  Things were sailing along fairly well; we were barely making payments, but we were making them.  It seemed we were having leaky roof issues on a regular basis.  So the experts were called in and you guessed it:  we needed a new roof.  This roof was a flat one which meant sealer, tar rock, etc.  You would think material like that would not cost (I have no idea) a ton of money.

Here came Jerry again.  He putt the hit on a guy named Greg L to hit up his friends, colleagues & enemies to do an official fundraiser.  Greg and his staff set out with great fervor to solicit funds for this project with a mass mailing.

Old Stone III

One of these letters wound up in the Redevelopment Office of Evansville.  The head of that office (I don't remember her name; she has since passed) called Greg and told him that she needed to speak with him right away.  Back then, I still knew something so I got this urgent phone call from Greg and we decided we better meet with this gal (duh).  So we did.  Now you don't just have a meeting when Greg is involved.  We had us an eating meeting at the Cork.  She informed us that she was not telling us what to do, but if she were in our position, she would not put a new roof on the building.  As luck would have it, our building was sitting right where the mayor wanted his parking garage for the Victory Theater (something about Eminent Domain which was about to become Imminent Domain).  I informed her that I didn't think he was a member and they ignored me after that.

Well, I embrace change as well as the next drunk--you know, fear, anger and more fear.  Of course, not realizing what a great thing was happening, Greg and I made this great decision to inform the master architect (Jerry) immediately of this great injustice that was in the making.  Well, Jerry went to work again--arm twisting, shaming and whatever it took to form another search committee.  Search they did.  And the result, as you have probably guessed, became Old Stone III.  With the money negotiated for the Old Stone II property and negotiations with the city for the current property, No Names Anonymous is still in business because of a lot of people.  For those of you who don't get out much, let me tell you that Old Stone III is the great exception in AA & Alanon meeting spaces.  We have been very, very blessed and a bit spoiled.

I can assure you that many, many people were involved with all of the Old Stones.  This account is merely my reporting and my experience.  I can, however, tell you one thing that I know to be absolutely true:  If it were not for Jerry L, the No Names Anonymous corporation would not exist.  That is not to say someone else couldn't have done what Jerry did.  BUT Jerry is the one who got the call and he is the one who went to work and he is the one who worked until he left for the big meeting.  This is not a case where a person became good because he passed.  It is exactly what Jerry did . . . good work.

Members who are part of our history--Steve F

He said "I've made mistakes; I'm not a mistake."  (Misty C)

He also had that saying on the mirror of his bathroom.  (Jeremy F)

He carried a list of the things he lost because of his drinking, and would look at that if he was ever tempted.  (Jeremy F)

Members who are part of our history--Mel H

After he was sober, Mel went to work one day, on a train, and wasn't his normal self.  He was really tough to get along with--enough that the other workers on the train asked him what was wrong.  He stopped, and realized he'd forgotten to pray that morning.  They wanted the spiritual Mel back bad enough that they stopped the train, made him get down in the cinders outside of it, and pray!  Then everything was okay.  (Pat R and Bob E)

Events that are part of our history--Dr. Bob's visit in 1941

Here is the Evansville Press story about his visit:



Ex-Drunks Laud Doctor at “Victory” Dinner Here

There was another convention in Evansville Sunday night.  But it was the strangest convention in Evansville’s history.  There were no badges, no resolutions were adopted, no committees were appointed, no one wanted his picture in the paper, and there was no fund raising oratory. 

It was a convention of victorious ex-drunkards, who with their wives and husbands, 75 in all, from Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois, met for a banquet in the McCurdy to pay tribute to an Akron doctor who six years ago founded Alcoholics Anonymous. 

The anonymous doctor, once a hopeless alcoholic himself, was greeted with a storm of applause that was almost hero-worship.  Humbly, reverently he acknowledged the acclamation.  And then, without gestures or after-dinner prelude, he told the simple story of how he and a New York friend found the cure for alcoholism in a bit of common sense, will power and a great amount of faith and humility. 

Can’t Be Social Drinkers

He avoided the usual medical terms.  “It doesn’t do us any good to worry why we’re alcoholics,” he said.  “Let the psychiatrists argue the causes; we know only that we’re allergic, that drinking to us is a disease that due to the lack of something in our make-up we can never hope to be social drinkers.”  

The doctor defined an alcoholic--"an alky," he called it--as one who has reached "the obsession stage of drinking."  

Alcoholics Anonymous is no reform organization.  It has no quarrel with anyone.  It is not concerned about prohibition.  Nor is it affiliated with any religion.  Each member is concerned primarily with his own rescue, and in payment for it he is willing, anxious, to assist some other drunk who wants help.

Work Together

It is this working together that seems to be one of the big factors in the success of the A.A., which now has a nationwide membership of 6000 men and woman from all walks of life.  Because the normal alcoholic will not heed the advice of a non-drinker.  It takes someone who understands the problem of the alcoholic, who knows from experience that it is something far deeper than mere habit.  

"Every alcoholic must solve his own problem," the Akron doctor warned.  "You can't pay a doctor or a sanitarium or a psychoanalyst to do what only you yourself can do."  

In the audience which heard the anonymous doctor Sunday night was a prominent Tri-State doctor, an engineer, a sales-manager, a prosperous small-town Hoosier merchant.  There was no holier-than-thou attitude.  They were men and women who recognized the truth, that they were sick.  

They boasted of their own victories.  And, significantly, alcoholics don't say "It's been six months since I've had a drink."  They say "It's been six months since I've been drunk."  

Because, being alcoholic--and once an alky, always an alky--they know from past experience that if they permit themselves one drink there'll be no stopping.

Scared of Alcoholic Tonic

One man, who prior to six months ago admitted he was consuming more than a quart of whisky a day, said that even now he was "so afraid of the stuff that I won't even take medicine or a tonic that contains alcohol."  

So they regard that first drink with unspeakable horror, and avoid it--if they can.

There are slip-ups, of course, but they are comparatively few.  Nothing like the futile cure-alls and sanitarium treatments of years past.  Some of the younger members, especially, are optimistic and cocky enough to think that eventually they will be able to learn temperance like their friends.

No Preaching

So they relax from the A.A. program, and "slip"--and that is a word you hear often at these meetings.  "I almost slipped."  "I talked to him for eight hours and the next day he slipped."  But after they slip, if they do, they come back to the A.A. meetings.  And then there is no preaching, no threats, only help and understanding.  

Anonymous Alcoholics is no longer an experiment.  It works.  The Evansville A.A. chapte meets every week.  It has about 50 members.  Professional spiritual leaders are not encouraged to take a hand in the meetings.  Instead, they serve as the "bird dogs" making contacts between the A.A. and alcoholics who want help.  

No dues are collected at the meetings.  However, there is a "kitty" to which members contribute from 10 cents to 25 cents, or nothing if they prefer.  

Anyone wishing to contact the Evansville chapter of Alcoholics Anonymous may write the organization in care of the Evansville Press.

Evansville Press, 10/27/41

Groups that are part of our history--Tristate Group

The group began meeting at J. D. and Rhoda's 420 S. Denby St. every Tuesday night. They later moved the meeting to Dr. W's and Dr. R's office, and then to a Presbyterian Church, where they met in one of the outbuildings (Dr. R was a member of the First Presbyterian Church). The group, which is today called the Tri-State Group, still meets in Evansville every Tuesday night. There is a letter from the New York A.A. office to "Joseph W." (Dr. Joe W) which is undated, but must have been written around the middle of May 1940. It says that a recent article in the Washington, D.C., Star was distributed by the United Press, one of the two major national press services, all across the country, and that this has produced two inquiries from Indiana. One is from Miss Katharine S., at the Beck Building on Spring Street in Jeffersonville, who wants someone to talk to her brother, who is a lawyer. She says that her brother "is working toward securing an appointment to the Supreme Court of Indiana. She says that he only has confidence in his own physician and I suggest that she get in touch with you and discuss the matter and then perhaps it would work out best if you spoke with his doctor first." The other was from C. P. B. in Huntington. He says "'I am interested in the problem of alcoholics as a victim and will be glad to hear from you as to what I can do to overcome same.'" The letter says that Dr. Joe's name and address has been sent to both parties. Joseph W. (Dr. Joe W) replied in a letter to Ruth Hock, the secretary at the New York A.A. office, on May 20, 1940. He told her that they had been holding meetings for about a month at that point, and we know that the first A.A. group in Evansville always met on Tuesday evenings, as it still does today, so the date of the first A.A. meeting in Indiana must have been April 23, 1940.

"I am very glad to get your letter and I am very glad to know you have referred the two people to our group. We would be very happy to handle any other that you might refer to us. We do have weekly meetings now being attended by 12 to 15 people. There are nine active members in our group and considering that we have only been going along about a month now in the organization work we feel that we are doing fairly well. "... I will report to you if either Mr. S. of Jeffersonville or Mr. B. of H[untington] reports to us. I am writing them a letter today extending to them an invitation to visit our group. "You will never know what great relief I have and what true happiness I get in working with other people who have had the same trouble."

A letter to Joseph E. W. from the New York A.A. office dated June 28, 1940, indicates that Dr. Joe had talked to Mr. S (presumably the lawyer in Jeffersonville, Indiana, mentioned in the earlier letter written around the middle of May). It links this with a reference to a visit Dr. Joe made to Louisville, Kentucky, which is right across the Ohio river from Jeffersonville.

"Glad to know you had an opportunity to talk with Mr. S, and was interested in the fact that you visited Louisville, KY. Do you make that trip very often? And if so, can you take any inquiries there? Please be frank about this for we have no desire to overburden you with A.A. inquiries to the detriment of your own affairs, and if you can't take them on we have complete faith that things will work out at the right time. "I took the liberty, however, of sending a Louisville inquiry to you today, advising him that if he could get to Evansville you would be glad to talk with him. He is H.H.H. He himself wrote asking for the names of members in Louisville and in the same mail we received a letter from his sister who advised that he had been contacted by A.A.s when he lived in Akron sometime ago but that he had refused to have anything to do with us at that time. He now seems very anxious which only goes to prove the old A.A. proverb -- 'If he isn't ready give old John Barleycorn time to get him ready.' "You might be interested in the fact that we now have 21 localities from coast to coast where A.A. meetings are held weekly, with another 20 localities where there are single individuals or a few who are attempting to get things started. You know how difficult it is to get any accurate figures on this thing but a rough guess brings us to close to 1,000 members. In our correspondence we use the round figure of over 600 men and women, to keep on the conservative side, and to keep to figures which we can more easily prove if challenged."

So the Evansville group was one of the first twenty-one A.A. groups established. If we look at a map of the United States, there were no other A.A. groups anywhere in the general area, so it became the center from which groups were formed, not only in most of the rest of Indiana, but also in southern Illinois and western Kentucky. The Evansville and Indianapolis groups also seem to have played an important role in the formation of the first A.A. group in Louisville, Kentucky. As we can see from the letter above, in June 1940, inquiries from Louisville to the New York A.A. office were being sent to Evansville as the closest established A.A. group.