Then came the inevitable explosion — something like that day the boiler burst in Wombley’s Clapboard Factory. A chill chokedamp of fear and frustration fell over the group.

When that lifted, a wonderful thing had happened. The head promoter wrote the Foundation office. He said he wished he’d paid some attention to A.A. experience. Then he did something else that was to become an A.A. classic: It all went on a little card about golf-score size. The cover read “Middleton Group #1, Rule #62.”

Once the card was unfolded, a single pungent sentence leaped to the eye: “Don’t take yourself so damn seriously.”