Coming up on the 6th of November is the luncheon to honor George Anne. She gave the best hugs, no doubt.

I’ve been thinking about the days when we were saving money to build the present building. About 17 years, or something like that, the Board put fundraising earnings back toward a building fund. A few of the pieces had fallen into place, and we were told that remodeling the building at 206 W. Helgra would not be feasible, so the Board had to get the ball rolling rather quickly. We could not just keep slapping a band-aid on an arterial bleeder, the repairs had pretty much run their course.

I’ve mentioned before this “Circle of Life” that included the Wheelheads, others in AA and Alanon, and the public. I’m sure I dubbed it that because the Lion King was a hot movie at that time. But the House Managers in the past all had to listen to my spiel or my theory, on how each part of the Circle of Life was needed, and how the public opinion was changing. It was mostly due to the efforts of the Board, these generous folks who were not Friends of Bill W. They didn’t have a dog in this hunt, but they had somehow grasped the importance of the Wheelhouse and decided to give their all to help. And one begat another. And then they brought two friends. And they brought two friends…..

Ralph and I met at Ken’s a couple of times a month and had breakfast. We talked about what the Wheelhouse needed. We bounced things around. We juggled. We prioritized, so to speak. I was doing the security job at the Governor’s mansion in Austin at that time I remember, so I was back and forth, gone all week, only here on weekends.

Ralph asked me to sketch a floor plan of a new Wheelhouse. Bobby R. and I measured the building at 206 to get a general idea of a size that would give us a benchmark. We made the meeting room bigger. The kitchen needed to be somewhat bigger. Likewise with the bathrooms. Bigger. Bigger. Bigger.

We come up with a floor plan and gave it to Ralph. He said everything should be bigger. So we did another one. He said bigger 3 times. So we did bigger.

Then one Saturday morning I met Ralph at Ken’s and he had blueprints. He was excited. If you’ve ever seen Ralph Russo excited then you know what that looked like. You know what that feels like. I could feel it. Something was up. Time to move faster.

He smiled fit to split as he unrolled the building plans. I looked at the drawings and whistled. Probably I looked like a deer caught in the headlights, because Ralph laughed and tapped the plans excitedly. “We’re doing this!”

I was shocked. “This is probably a million dollars, Ralph!” The back of my neck had begun to sweat like it did when I start getting nervous.

“At least….” Ralph was still smiling. It was contagious. I smiled too.

I was looking over the plans. A restaurant kitchen. The meeting room would hold about 10 of the meeting rooms at 206 W. Helgra. Large bathrooms. Industrial washing machine and dryer. The capability of holding 50 men or more.

When I looked back at Ralph I didn’t see even a hint of doubt. There was a surety on his face that was also contagious.

I was used to scrimping and saving when it came to the Wheelhouse. I am from a gone and vanished time of dumpster diving and taking the day-old bread from the loading dock behind Kroger’s. The kitchen was fully stocked in those days if we had a 50 lb. bag of beans and a 100 lb. bag of rice. The repairs at 206 were ALL done by Wheelheads. Anything to keep from having to dip into the money the Board was putting back. So this was extremely frightening to me.

It wasn’t frightening to Ralph and these other beautiful people who had suited up and showed up. If it was, they certainly didn’t show it.

Ralph was a little teary-eyed when he told me not to worry. He said, “This Is God’s House.” Usually I told him that same thing, while pointing to the sign on the wall. He reached across the table and shook my hand. “Here we go,” he added.

And these kind folks, with seemingly no dog in the hunt, they got down to business. Everything began to happen real fast. They spread the news. Like I said, they told two friends, and they told two friends, and…..

Fitting that we honor these kind folks. She gave the best hugs.