One morning in the fall of 1985, at the Houston Adult Rehabilitation Center, sitting at his desk in full Salvation Army uniform, was our Chaplain; Francis D.  He was a very stocky man with white hair and dark rimmed glasses and a strong New England accent. He told me that he was from New England, and his parents had been professors at a local college. While he didn’t indicate that he had gone to college, Frank had a good use of the English language. He said that he had been “a haberdasher” (worked in men’s clothing) and had become an alcoholic.

I asked Francis to share how he had come to The Salvation Army.  Early in the 1960’s, he found himself penniless coming out of a blackout in the streets of Miami.  Scared, he said “I got to thinking if I got together with some other men of my same ilk we could survive better than alone”. Finding three other men with similar values together, they built a cardboard shack on the outskirts of Miami.

They rotated four different daily responsibilities. One would get up early and work through the labor pool. The second man would stay at the camp to protect their limited belongings, from other homeless men. The third man laundered the clothing, as being men of great ilk they wanted to be clean. Each had a full suit to wear and one to wash. They would not spend money at a Laundromat but would go to gas stations and wash the clothes in the bathroom sinks. When found and chased out they would go to the next one, etc. They dried the clothing out in the hot Miami sun. The fourth man had the most important job of all his job was to “procure the alcohol”.

I realized they stole the alcohol and asked what did they drink whiskey, wine, vodka?  “We drank Sterno.” **I gasped “you can’t drink Sterno, it is a solid.” Francis looked at me incredulously and told me that the man who “procured the alcohol, had to process it.” He said, they would put it in an old sock and squeeze it out over a kettle. I then foolishly asked,” why Sterno? ““Not wanting to deal with life on life’s terms we’d drink Sterno pass out and not come to until the next day”.

I asked him when or why  he quit drinking Sterno? “ One day it was my turn to go to the labor pool. When I got back to camp there were police, ambulances and fire trucks all over the place. The other three men were DEAD as DOOR NAILS.” Shocked, I asked “is that when you quit drinking Francis?” He looked at me and asked me why I would think that. All I could say was “your three buddies were dead that would have made me stop, why not you? What did make you stop?” He opened a book Somebody’s Brother *** showing me a highlighted section, about him.  “I was the most arrested drunk in the city of Miami with well over 250 public intoxication charges. Every morning I found myself in front of the judge.” This one morning the judge gave him two choices leave Miami and never come back, or  enroll in The Salvation Army ARC program and not drink. The latter, was his choice.

Over time he transferred to the Houston ARC, eventually becoming the Chaplain. Francis D. was promoted to Glory at approximately age 82. His body was transported to Atlanta where he’s buried in Section #25 at West View Cemetery.

I have shared this story many times with my Prime for Life (DUI) students in discussing how alcoholism will take someone down to the point they will drink anything containing alcohol, even when dangerous.

** Sterno, canned heat, a fuel made from denatured and jellied alcohol.
***Somebody’s Brother: A History of the Salvation Army Men’s Social Service  Department, 1891-1985.