# Is "people, places and things" in the Big Book?

**In short:**
- No. The phrase isn't in the Big Book or anywhere else in our sources.
- The nearest list in the program text is a different idea: in the resentment inventory "We listed people, institutions or principles with whom we were angry" (p. 64).
- On the advice the phrase usually carries, to stay away from drinking people and places, the program text mostly says the opposite. Any plan "which proposes to shield the sick man from temptation is doomed to failure" (p. 101), and the rule is "not to avoid a place where there is drinking, if we have a legitimate reason for being there" (p. 101). It adds a real condition: be spiritually fit, have a good reason, and if you're shaky, go and work with another alcoholic instead (pp. 100–102).

## What the search found

All our sources were searched for "people, places," "places and things," "people and places," "persons, places," "old haunts" and "drinking pals," with page breaks joined. The phrase doesn't appear anywhere: not in the program text, the stories of any edition, the pamphlets or the history books. (*A.A. Comes of Age* has a picture section headed "People and places," which is a caption, not the saying.)

## The list the book does have

Step Four's resentment inventory: "We listed people, institutions or principles with whom we were angry." (p. 64). The point there is to find our own part in each resentment, not to avoid anyone: "The inventory was ours, not the other man's." (p. 67). See: *How does the Big Book say to do Step 4?*

## What the book says about drinking places and drinking friends

Chapter 7 takes the question head on (pp. 100–103). It starts with a condition: "Assuming we are spiritually fit, we can do all sorts of things alcoholics are not supposed to do." (p. 100). Then it lists what "People have said" (p. 100): don't go where liquor is served, don't have it at home, shun friends who drink, avoid films with drinking scenes, stay out of bars (pp. 100–101). Its answer: "Our experience shows that this is not necessarily so." (p. 101). An alcoholic who can't face these things "still has an alcoholic mind" (p. 101).

"In our belief any scheme of combating alcoholism which proposes to shield the sick man from temptation is doomed to failure." (p. 101). "So our rule is not to avoid a place where there is drinking, if we have a legitimate reason for being there." (p. 101).

The same pages set limits, and they matter:
- Ask each time, "Have I any good social, business, or personal reason for going to this place?" (p. 101), or am I hoping to steal some pleasure from the atmosphere (pp. 101–102).
- "But be sure you are on solid spiritual ground before you start and that your motive in going is thoroughly good." (p. 102).
- "But if you are shaky, you had better work with another alcoholic instead!" (p. 102).
- "Don't start to withdraw again just because your friends drink liquor." (p. 102).

The same idea comes back elsewhere. To the wife: "We never, never try to arrange a man's life so as to shield him from temptation." (p. 120). To the employer: if the man is following the program, "he can go anywhere your business may call him" (p. 147). And in Step Ten, the result described is "We are not fighting it, neither are we avoiding temptation." (p. 85).

## What some members say

A fourth-edition story, "Safe Haven" (Part III), lists among the things the writer did that "were suggested for me not to do" in his first year: "hanging around old haunts with my old drinking pals" (p. 455), along with not using his sponsor and avoiding the Steps (p. 455). That is one member's experience in a later edition. It is close to the saying's advice, and it isn't program text.

*Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers* (1980) leans the same way for Dr. Bob himself. Its writers say that, remembering his own disastrous trip to Atlantic City, "Dr. Bob advocated that members stay in dry places whenever possible" (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). An Akron member, Alex M., remembers him saying of a bar on Main Street, "Stay away from that place." (Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, 1980). These are recollections printed thirty years after Dr. Bob's death, not program text, but they show that one co-founder's personal advice leaned toward keeping out of drinking places, more than Chapter 7's rule does.

## What this means

The phrase isn't the Big Book's. Its usual advice, keep away from drinking people and places, has a partial footing in Chapter 7's caution that a shaky person should not go and should work with another alcoholic instead (p. 102), and in Dr. Bob's remembered advice to stay in dry places whenever possible (1980). But the program text's rule runs the other way: a spiritually fit member with a good reason goes where his life takes him, and protection comes from his spiritual condition, not from avoiding places (pp. 100–102). See: *Does the Big Book say to avoid bars and drinkers?*

## Read it yourself
- Chapter 7, "Working With Others" (pp. 100–103): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt7.pdf
- Chapter 5, "How It Works" (the resentment inventory, pp. 64–67): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt5.pdf
- Chapter 8, "To Wives" (p. 120): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt8.pdf
- Chapter 10, "To Employers" (p. 147): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt10.pdf
- Personal stories, Part III, "Safe Haven" (p. 455): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_personalstories_partIII.pdf
- *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers* is sold by A.A. World Services: https://onlineliterature.aa.org

## Sources
| Source | Pages | Date |
|---|---|---|
| All our sources (searched) | — | various |
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Chapters 5–8, 10 | 64–67, 85, 100–103, 120, 147 | 1939 |
| "Safe Haven," Part III | 455 | fourth edition (2001); first edition of the story not shown in our sources |
| *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers* | — | 1980 (post-1950) |

*Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book and* Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers *are © A.A. World Services, Inc.*