My Very Best Meeting

My Very Best Meeting

Submitted to Grapevine - June 2008

At that time I was traveling throughout the US installing editorial software in newspapers. It was just before the year 2000 computer bug and I was upgrading our customers so they would not be affected when it happened. That year I visited 35 different cities and had the privilege of attending at least one AA meeting in each of those cities. There wasn’t time to research a meeting when I arrived into town so I would jump in the rental car, say a little prayer and start to drive. Of course I would increase my chances by heading out on my adventure at 7:30 and looked in church parking lots around the motel. I always found a meeting.

One night I was installing for a paper in Canton Ohio. I was staying in a motel in Akron. I had a chance to drive by Dr. Bob’s house but it was closed. I said my prayer and off I went to find a meeting. Sure enough right down the street was a church with a full parking lot. I found bumper stickers and knew this was a meeting. I never could have imagined just how special this meeting was. I stepped into the church basement and was greeted by this elderly gentleman saying, “welcome to the Akron First Groups 63rd anniversary”. What a privilege. This was the first official AA meeting ever and they were still going strong some 63 years later.

On display was a large glassed case with First Edition Big Books signed by Bill and Bob. There were all sorts of letters and pictures of the founders and the first 100. What a thrill.

This without a doubt was the best meeting I’ve been to in my 22 years attending AA. Thank you Akron First Group.