most
‘old
wives’
tales,’
that
there
is
a
‘terrific
turnover’
in
Alcoholics
Anonymous.
And
yet,
of
the
many
who
discovered
sobriety
that
vintage
year
of
there
are
some
known
to
1948,
most of us who have never flown far or fatally from the White Plains nest ”
.
Meanwhile,
White
Plains
and
Mt
Vernon
had
continued
to
produce
offshoots.
All
and
all
there
were
now
groups:
Bronxville,
Chappaqua,
Larchmont,
Mamaroneck,
three
19
groups
in
Mt.
Vernon,
New
Rochelle,
Pelham,
Pleasantville,
Port
Chester,
Rye,
Scars–
dale,
Tarrytown,
White
Plains,
Yonkers,
and
Yonkers
North.
By
eight
more
had
1959,
come
together
including
the
Bedford
Hills
Group
where
Bill
eventually
landed
after
first
“protecting his anonymity” in Chappaqua.
By
there
were
groups
in
Westchester.
The
old
Purdys
Group,
formed
in
1970,
30
out
of
the
Cops
and
Robbers
Group
in
Mt.
Vernon,
began
to
carry
the
message
1969
North
and
West.
One
of
that
group
had
visited
the
Big
Book
Group
in
London,
and
invit-
ed
the
members
to
visit
any
time
they
were
in
America.
Soon
after,
a
young
man
came,
three
years
sober,
and
led
a
Step
Meeting,
using
the
Big
Book
as
a
reference.
His
joy
and
peace
were
so
awesome
to
behold
that
after
that
night
the
elders
said,
“We ll
have
’
to
have
‘Book
Meetings’
if
that's
what
happens
in
a
persons
life
from
studying
it ”
And
’
’
!
so
it
happened
many
groups
such
as
It s
Guaranteed,
Maryknoll,
Katonah,
Crow
Hill,
’
Patterson,
Putnam
Lake,
Plug
in
the
Jug,
and
several
“Step”
named
groups
in
Putnam
County
forming
during
the
seventies
and
eighties
took
with
them
a
Big
Book
meeting
as
well as the step and open meetings.
Besides
the
parent
group,
White
Plains
now
boasts
A A
groups,
Yonkers
has
16
. .
14,
Bronxville
has
New
Rochelle
and
Rye
have
each,
while
Mt.
Kisco.
Ossining
and
12,
8
Yorktown Heights each have groups All together there are well over 175 groups today.
7
.
Bravely
touted
as
the
First
Annual
Round-Up
the
Westchester
County Wide
Service
- ,
-
get
together
was
held
in
at
the
Westchester
Community
College.
A
couple
of
years
1979
along
saw
us
move
to
the
County
Center.
Today,
the
Round-Ups
are
held,
fittingly
per-
-
haps,
at
the
Memorial
Church
on
Bryant
Avenue,
home
of
the
original
Westchester
Group.
Putnam
County
has
“come
of
age”
and
has
left
the
“service
cluster”
after
learning
the
ropes
to
sponsor
its
own
“Share A Day ”
Topics,
workshops,
“red ball”
meetings,
- -
.
-
special
speakers,
not
to
mention
free
lunch,
are
all
part
of
the
day
of
recover
and
fellow-
ship.
While
Round-Ups
stayed
an
important
part
of
Westchester
AA
life,
the
1980’s
saw
a
-
. .
surge
of
interest
in
Unity
Breakfasts
originally
arranged
so
that
all
the
groups
of
the
County
could
come
together
in
love,
fellowship
and
recovery
while
enjoying
a
great
speaker
and
those
scrambled
eggs!
Today
the
events
are
set
for
both
Spring
and
Fall
and are often a newcomer s early recognition that life can be fun even while sober!
’
,
18 / 18
10/21/05
