Don walked into a Cleveland AA meeting shaking too hard to sign a raffle ticket, until a man from the back of the room signed it for him and said the two words he had never found anywhere else: “we understand.”

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Don starts as a 15-year-old grocery-store kid who found a voice in booze, wound up in the Army instead of jail, came home with war stories, and eventually landed in Rosary Hall still convinced drinking was not the real problem. In this rough, funny, old-school AA talk, he remembers the people who fed newcomers, paid utility bills, sat up all night with suffering alcoholics, and taught him that AA is action. Don is blunt about anonymity, sponsorship, amends, resentment, and the Big Book, but his point is simple: the book matters, but it never welcomed a newcomer, made a 12-step call, or sat beside someone who needed help.

Don C. from Garfield Heights, OH speaking at Saturday Nite Live SE at Marymount Hospital in Garfield Heights, OH - February 13th 2003 - Don's sobriety date is February 11th 1968