Here’s to New Beginnings
Judy F., info@aascv.org
I hope everyone had a good time at the farewell celebration of the Rafters Group as they closed one chapter of their history to open a new chapter at a new location.
As many know my dad was one of the first people to get sober at the Rafters. His sobriety date was August 5th, 1974. While he was known around Santa Clarita AA, when he wondered up to the Rafters he was just sobering up from a recent “slip” (actually 22 years of slipping in and out). I remember him calling home to let my mom know where he was and that he had been given the responsibility of locking up every night at 11:00 pm. They had even given him a key.
In those first few months people brought lawn chairs to sit in and there were no tables to speak of. The podium was at the long end of the room and when you stood at it your back was to the train station. The coffee set up was off to the side of the podium and we didn’t have big coffee pots just Mr. Coffee’s so coffee was brewing constantly. Almost every meeting had donuts so between the coffee and donut expenses you can imagine where the majority of the 7th tradition went.
On Friday nights there was an Al-Anon meeting in the half-measures room where donated sofas lined a couple of the walls. Eventually the couches had to go because they became so disgusting and the Al-Anon’s moved their meeting downstairs and took up the space where the Spanish meetings were held.
Bingo was played at least once a month on Saturday nights and the men played poker on Friday nights after the 8:30 meeting. Bingo finally stopped when it became an issue that people wouldn’t leave to go on 12 step calls and the poker, well that really stopped when some of the men started losing their rent money. The Rafters also went through the “pinnacle” stage where the every afternoon people would congregate in the half-measures room for a quick game. When it came time that some people wanted to play cards instead of stopping for meetings our “pinnacle stage” ended with a lot of grumbling.
The first Thanksgiving at the Rafters was quite the family affair. Joe and Vic H. were there with their brood, Annie C. was there with her son John, my family was there with my 80 year old grandmother in tow. Oh my gosh – tons of food was served and at that time there was an old cast iron stove in the kitchen that kept things hot.
So enough of the reminiscing from this old timer and I promise no more “I remember when” stories. That the Rafters celebrated 50 years of carrying the message to the suffering Alcoholic is, in itself, a testament to its history and the need it continues to fill. Yes, we are saying goodbye to the old building, with each of us carrying our own memories to a new facility, but let us all remember the new members who will begin to establish their own memories of the Rafters AA Group. In the end may we all remember what our primary purpose is and may we celebrate another 50 years of carrying that all important message, HOPE.
Look for us at our new building – 22607 6th Street in downtown Newhall.