I went home and got drunk that day. I thought about it over a six-pack. I finally checked myself into a 28-day treatment program.

I was real leery of coming back and working for him, but I came back and there was no problem. He told me, "This all goes on your record, but if you stay straight for a year, it all comes off.' Well, it's off.

I was afraid when I got out of the hospital. I probably knew 500 people on a first-name basis in the Company, and I worried about what they'd think. That's comical now to think about. I didn't worry about what they thought when I was drinking.

I haven't had a drink in six years, and I have no desire to take one because I know where I'd be. I'd be back on that merry-go-round.

There's been maybe half-a-dozen people around here discharged for drinking and drugs. They had the same opportunity I had to get straight.

I look back at all the bad decisions I made – trading cars, houses. There's no telling how much money I wasted. I had drank away most of my friends. I'd hate to put a dollar figure on what it cost my family, the happiness I stole from them.

The treatment center recommended going to 90 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings in 90 days. I did it. I've gone to meetings three or four times a day. I found out how to be happy. I still go to A.A. meetings.

I think the best way to get better is to go to a "detox" center and get off completely, then get involved with A.A. The biggest part of A.A. is that you can't give away what you don't have. If you don't have sobriety, you can't give it away. That's why A.A. works so well. It focuses on sharing and caring for drunks. We all have one thing in common – we all drank too much booze for all the wrong reasons.

Some people say it's hereditary. I can't argue with that. My mother had alcohol and drug problems. My father had alcohol problems. My grandfather died a drunk. My uncle had a bad drinking habit. My brother was killed in a head-on collision with another boy, and they both had all kinds of drinking problems. That should have told me something. But it just didn't register with me. I figured it would never happen to me.

I want people to know they can put their lives back together. Before I stopped drinking, I couldn't borrow $200 from a bank anywhere. After I'd been in the program close to two years, I went to the bank to try to borrow the $10,000 I needed to buy back the house I had lost due to my drinking. The loan officer said, "Why don't you borrow $15,000 and pay off all your bills? You don't know what that meant to me. It's amazing how much better things have gotten for me. I want people to know there is a way out.

It's been more than a year now, and the money is straightening out. Family life is getting better. We still have problems, but at least one of them is not having them walk in and find me passed out on the floor. I'm trying to take my share of the load, to talk to my children more.

I could have lost my family, my house and my job. Some people do and still go on drinking. But I quit because I was afraid of losing everything, and I was tired of it. I was tired of the lies. It was lies to cover up lies to cover up more lies. Then there were the blackouts, doing things, saying things I didn't remember later.

I remember driving a big truck home knowing I'd had too much to drink. I'd hold one eye closed to focus on the lines so I'd stay on the road. It got so that when I came in to work in the mornings, I couldn't even write my name, my hand was shaking so.

I went to a treatment center, and they introduced me to A.A. I go to meetings regularly. It's like going to the doctor regularly, like a checkup. My wife goes to Alanon, to learn how to live with an alcoholic.