{"id":18,"date":"2013-12-04T00:03:06","date_gmt":"2013-12-04T00:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nashvillerecovers.org\/wordpress\/?p=18"},"modified":"2013-12-04T00:03:06","modified_gmt":"2013-12-04T00:03:06","slug":"guys-with-50-years-sober-to-speak-at-202%e2%80%b2s-50th-anniversary-bash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/2013\/12\/04\/guys-with-50-years-sober-to-speak-at-202%e2%80%b2s-50th-anniversary-bash\/","title":{"rendered":"Guys with 50 years sober to speak at 202\u2032s 50th anniversary bash"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s called the Friendship House, but most folks in recovery call it \u201c202,\u201d so nicknamed for its address, 202 23rd\u00a0Ave. N., just off Elliston Place.<\/p>\n

\"202<\/a>And it\u2019s a bedrock of recovery in Nashville, celebrating its 50th\u00a0year anniversary with a big bash Dec. 14. How big a bash? Think giant-heated-tent and valet-parking big.<\/p>\n

So if I\u2019m being honest, most folks \u2013 myself included \u2013 were intimidated on their first few visits there to go to recovery meetings inside the white house. Ya see, 202 often attracts some street people and some folks who are drunk.<\/p>\n

For me, that was all fear: Do I really have something in common with\u00a0that<\/i>\u00a0guy? And the answer is yes, I do. We have the exact same disease of addiction. So it taught me \u2013 and others, I\u2019m sure \u2013 the spiritual principle that I\u2019m no better or no worse than any other people in recovery.<\/p>\n

Besides, I\u2019ve gotta be open minded to the fact that 202 really is where most other recovery meetings came from. The guys who started going to 202 \u2013 back then, a bunch of professional, well-to-do white guys \u2013 are the ones who started most of the meetings around Nashville that are still going today.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s one of the coolest parts of the celebration: A handful of guys who have been going to 202 for all 50 years will be speaking Dec. 14.<\/p>\n

One of the organizers, Leo W., has a mere 23 years sober. (DAMN! Impressive, Leo.) And he spent many of those 23 years going to meetings at 202.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s probably the best place in the city to see newcomers who need help,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people who come in and look bad. But a lot of us looked bad when we came to get sober. But we came to 202 and got our lives back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The festivities start around 1 p.m. Dec. 14.<\/p>\n

Leo and others will make some opening remarks at 1:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

And the big event goes from 1:45 p.m. to 3 p.m. That\u2019s the meeting where guys with 40+ years sober will speak. That\u2019ll be incredible.<\/p>\n

From 3:15 to 4 p.m., the mic will be open for anyone in recovery who wishes to speak.<\/p>\n

And yes, there will be refreshments, \u201cof the non-alcoholic variety,\u201d Leo adds quickly, laughing.<\/p>\n

No, you don\u2019t have to be in recovery to enjoy the festivities.<\/p>\n

For more info, check out the Friendship House website:\u00a0http:\/\/www.202friendshiphouse.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s called the Friendship House, but most folks in recovery call it \u201c202,\u201d so nicknamed for its address, 202 23rd\u00a0Ave. N., just off Elliston Place. And it\u2019s a bedrock of recovery in Nashville, celebrating its 50th\u00a0year anniversary with a big bash Dec. 14. How big a bash? Think giant-heated-tent and valet-parking big. So if I\u2019m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nashvilleprevention.org\/nashville_recovers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}