 Question submitted by Laurie L. S. & Wendy L. H.
"How did the slang pidgeon
(sponsee) come about and approximately when
did it come into the AA lingo, as it is rarely used when referring to a sponsee any
longer?"
Hi Laurie L. S. & Wendy L. Hall! Thanks for the question. Your E-mail
return address didn't work, so I am going to trust God that you'll come back to the site
to see your answer as the question of the month!
The word "pigeon" used to denote a newcomer appears to have come from Dr.
Bob, our Akron, Ohio co-founder. According to the reference to "pigeon" in DR.
BOB & The Good Oldtimers, it was being used as early as 1940.
John S., who joined A.A. in January 1940, thought his
A.A. friend Wade was nuts.
"He'd pick up the phone and say, 'How are you? ... All right. How's your pigeon?' And
that was the end of the conversation. I thought he had telephonitis. But he was just
keeping in touch."
(Incidentally, the word "pigeon"--as applied to an
A.A. newcomer or
prospect--was probably coined by Dr. Bob himself. "He used that word," said
Smitty, and one A.A. recalled that Doc would often announce at a meeting: "There's a
pigeon in Room so-and-so who needs some attention.'" Or he might refer to the patient
as "a cookie.")
- DR. BOB and the Good Oldtimers, p.146 -
Dr. Bob used a considerable amount of slang as part of his conversation. He
referred to his wife, Anne, as "the skirt", or "the little woman".
When he received a kiss, one time he commented, "who slipped me that slobber'."
He described one of his benders as, "It was a blazer."
There are additional references to the word "pigeon" in various Grapevine
articles:
Pigeon:
November 1980, page 39 (letter)
September 1986, page 39 (letter)
Debate over term:
December 1955, page 61 (letter)
April 1986, page 36 (article)
Definition of:
September 1963, page 4
Dislike of term:
October 1957, page 63 (letter)
July 1980, page 40 (letter)
April 1986, page 36 (article)
New member as:
April 1979, page 20 (article)
Our archival repository has an extensive collection of Grapevines, but to date we have
only catalogued and filed issues from 1944 through to the end of 1955.
God willing, and time and money permitting, the rest of the Grapevines should be
catalogued by mid-1998.
Thanks for the question and big hugs!
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