In this connection the vernacular surrounding customary drinking is extraordinarily colorful and ambiguous, which further complicates our efforts to get at the historical Bill W. When, for example, Robert Thomsen writes in the 1970s of Bill W's "benders," his meaning can be understood quite differently by a reader born in the 1930s than by one born in the 1980s.
While Bill W's conduct was obviously boorish and shoddy, its opportunistic character was in keeping with his established drinking pattern and reinforces a common-sense inference that drink was not normally or routinely available to Bill W. In any event, this episode led Bill W to take a "no more booze" pledge at the beginning of 1927.
Seiberling, "Origins of Alcoholics Anonymous." Typescript of Henrietta Seiberling's recollections of Bill W. Welfare and Youth Series, Rockefeller Family Archives, Pocantico Hills, NY.