How I did it in Little Rock, Arkansas
By David Palmer
The movie musical, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” featuring Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell opened worldwide in 1953 and gave Little Rock, Arkansas a boost with the hit song that begins, “We’re just two little girls from Little Rock.” I saw the movie, a delightful romp, while stationed with a naval detachment in Izmir, Turkey never dreaming that I would one day live in Little Rock. The details of my arrival in Arkansas in 1972 and departure in 1974 are covered in my book, “Pathways to Serenity. Overcoming Your Addictions One Day at a Time” but suffice to say that my alcoholism at the time had a lot to do with it.
Six years later and newly sober, I returned to Arkansas, remarried my ex-wife and began attending to the needs of my three sons. With less than a year of sobriety, I needed a lot of help, and I got it. But the serious work of getting better was more of a celebration than the common dirge, “woe is I. I have to quit drinking and can never have fun again.”
So here’s how I got well in Little Rock:
1. I went to 12-Step meetings. There are more than 400 meetings a week from 6:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. I chose the Cosmopolitan Club as my home AA group but attended many others. I went to a meeting a day for my first ninety days, and I kept going.
2. I got a sponsor. Sponsorship is a vital component to recovery, and in my search for a sponsor, I chose wisely. His name was J. Wythe Walker. Wythe was a man of humor, sensitivity and wisdom who knew just about everybody of interest-drunk or sober. For example, before getting sober, himself, Wythe did some serious drinking with Winthrop J. Rockefeller who’s grandfather, John D. Rockefeller, was the wealthy founder of Standard Oil Company. Win, a World War II hero became the 37th Governor of Arkansas in 1966, served two terms and lost his bid for a third, partly because of growing public awareness of his drinking problem. Rockefeller died of pancreatic cancer in 1973 and part of his great wealth went to fund the Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation on Petit Jean Mountain, which concentrates on economic development, education, as well as economic, racial and social justice. Wythe, my sponsor and good friend, died of cancer in 1992.
3. I got a new sponsor, but it was Joe McQuany who most influenced my recovery. Joe, who died in 2007, was an international speaker on alcoholism, a founder of two treatment centers in Little Rock, an author of three books on alcoholism including a curriculum for treatment center operations. He was also a teacher of the 12-steps at the Wolfe Street Center, a facility he helped found in 1982. Joe, who was black, was also instrumental in integrating AA meetings in Arkansas in the 1960’s.
One of the first meetings I attended regularly in Little Rock was Joe’s noon lunch and speaker meeting on Roosevelt Road in the low-income part of town. I also attended his hour-long Monday night 12-Step meetings at the Wolfe Street Center—a facility he helped build to educate recovering alcoholics in the 12 steps.
4. I became a Christian. Very early in my sobriety, in 1981, I joined a pro-active evangelical Christian church, Fellowship Bible Church and Jesus Christ became the “higher power” I had sought for so long. Three of Fellowship’s founding pastors, Robert Lewis, Bill Parkinson and Bill Wellons have built a church of national relevance, and I am proud to say that they have contributed enormously to my recovery and spiritual growth.
5. I found a new calling. Ten years ago, at the age of 75, I retired from my job as a public relations executive and founded the non profit company, “One Day at a time” to help people get over their addictions and transform their lives. Our mission has remained the same: to reduce alcohol and drug abuse by promoting awareness, prevention, and treatment availability.
6. Our mission has not changed in ten years. It’s one day at a time and one community at a time, and my community is Little Rock. I know the city, its substantial resources including its entrepreneurial spirit. Making a difference has to begin at the grassroots level with families, neighborhoods and communities. In the mid-1990’s, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) gave out roughly $45 million in a series of grants to 15 communities, including Little Rock, to mobilize people and communities in the fight against substance abuse. The “Fighting Back project” produced a variety of milestones in the substance abuse reduction field, some of which endure today, but the bottom line was that despite some interesting projects, there was no net reduction in substance abuse. Psychiatrist and retired Vanderbilt faculty member, Dr. Anderson Spickard Jr. was in charge of the fighting back program and the author of “Dying for a Drink” with Barbara R. Thompson.
“Since most of our fighting back project directors are focused on issues like unemployment, redlining and other environmental problems, I worry that the original reason for fighting back will be lost.
“Fighting back is not a social or economic development program. It’s a program to reduce the use and abuse of illegal drugs and alcohol. Somehow we must keep focused on substance abuse. Otherwise, Fighting Back is in danger of getting lost in a sea of social programs which do not have the primary intent of reducing demand.”
I couldn’t agree more. As Marilyn sang at the end of that song, “I learned an awful lot in Little Rock.”
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