It was started in 1976 by Marian B and B. Marvis L, Marian and Marvis were working for South Valley Counseling Services, funded by Salt Lake County, After losing their funding, they founded the Sobriety Corporation, The meeting location was across the street from Hillcrest High School, that’s why it’s called the Hillcrest Group. After the meeting, we would walk across the parking lot to the Belgian Waffle Restaurant. We also held a few meetings in the back room of the restaurant.

Over the years, the group had to move many times. We have had many landlords. After leaving the offices of the Sobriety Corporation, they went out of business. We moved to a little, white, wood frame building on State Street by the Last Outpost Restaurant. That building is now a trophy store. The group then moved to the back room of the South Seas Restaurant, now closed. We met for about two months in the Copperview Community Center. We had two or three meetings in a beauty salon in Murray. We then moved to the American Legion Hall in Sandy until it burned down. When we were at that location, we were giving a lady in the group $10,00 to bake cakes for those celebrating A.A. birthdays, Instead, she spent the money to go to school. She said she meant to pay it back, but the money was never repaid_ George, the Commander of the American Legion Hall, called to tell me that we were about 11 months past due on the rent. At the next meeting, we told the group what had happened.  We passed a basket around and collected more than enough money to pay the rent.

We then moved to our present location, St, James Episcopal Church, 7486 Union Park Avenue. Marian didn’t give chips. She made up paper bags with colored stars on them. She had a formula for the number of stars in particular colors for each length of sobriety.

When we were meeting by the Belgian Waffle Restaurant, we would randomly speak. If there was a pause in the speaking, the Chair person would call on someone to speak. When the Central Office wanted the groups to have historians, a lady named Rachel told us she wanted to be our group historian. We gave her all the group history and never saw her again. Marian kept all the sobriety birth dates on index cards in a recipe box

For many years, the group had summer picnics funded with profits from the book raffle_ A young man named Mike, hosted the first one in his grandmother’s backyard. There was a rope tied in a tree and we tried to climb it. The picnics were potluck and most of them were at Riverton Park. We would play horse shoes and volleyball. The last two were at Murray Park. I miss them.

-Reed P.