Alanon and Alateen came to visit Civil Air Patrol (CAP). They did a presentation

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to explain their programs to our group. The adults have a spouse, relative, or friend who is an alcoholic. The teens have a parent, sibling, other relative, or friend who is an alcoholic. Actually anyone who affects your life and has an alcohol problem can be the reason why you go. They discuss experiences, the things they've tried, what worked and what didn't work for them and why. That it's not your fault no matter what the alcoholic says about their drinking and you. I'm glad they came. I wish I would have been able to go to them when I was a teenager. My Father (now passed onto the next world,), my Uncle (also gone), and my Brohter (just had a heart attack this year, but still with us)were all alcoholics. My Mother would have never let me go even if we had known about it. It was the "family secret." To me, you had to either not know us or be an idiot if you didn't know we had 3 alkies in the family. I spoke to my friends at school, but they didn't come from homes affected by alcohol at that point in time. So they didn't really understand. I felt very alone. The Alateen representatives talked about that happening. My Brother is in Florida right now. I married a man who doesn't drink and moved away from my home town where everyone that was friends with my family were either alcoholics, living with alcoholics or much older than me and passed on. So I refused their invitation. But something did hit home for me. They said there are always residual things. My car is always ready for me to "run away from home." I've always had a plan for that since the 4th grade. Never did it, didn't like many of the possible consequesnces, but in my mind and now in my car, it's always there. At any rate, it was wonderful to meet people who were happy and interested in coming to volunteer. So many times people are willing to come until they hear they won't be paid to do it. But we do have a few people who are willing to come to talk to our children about alcohol, drugs, and tobacco. I'm trying for a rotation of 12. That way, we have different people all year long and I won't have to read a lesson plan that would bore the most interested learner. They just want the word out about their programs. Everyone I spoke to at CAP said, "Ala-who?". They're not allowed to advertise. But I thought I saw a commercial for them years ago, "You can see what alcohol is doing to your loved one, but can you see what it's doing to you? Call Alanon." I could be wrong, but I thought that was them. Maybe it was call someone else at the end, but I thought it was them. Your comments on any of this such as have you heard of CAP or either of the A group? If you've ever been to their meetings. If you have alcoholics in your family. Anything you realize has stayed behind even if you left the situation(s). If you went to the meetings, did you find peace of mind? If you never went to one, would you have gone to one at some point? Thank you for reading all of this.