3,181 Comments Posted by Lynne

No, my darling one. :-)

And *I* say ignore the 98% good ones and find the 2% bad ones and make fun of everyone in the field and tarnish their names because of it! Maybe you'll smear a few innocent people, but if you brand them ALL as liars and sadists, surely you'll hit a couple of the worst ones, right? THAT'S what justice is these days. Can't let a guilty one possibly escape, so we'll hang 'em all!

Wish I could find another field with that "high" a percentage of obvious losers. I'd jump right in there with both feet.

Whoops! Sorry! Lost track of where I was!

OK, thank God everyone else is perfect but those sick freaks in the health field, eh? I say take the lot out and tar and feather their evil hides!

Wait! That means that some of us would have to go there and take their places if we want these people to stay alive (unless we dumped them all out on the streets without any resources and they would die). If we took the place of the evil staff WE would be the ones who would have to put up with mandatory overtime, crappy pay, occasional aggression, frequent incontinence, high injury rates, no respect from outsiders, frequent audits from outside agencies, and being called a piece of crap for daring to work with these fragile folks.

Hmmmm . . . .

Oh well, *I* don't have to do it so I don't have to worry about it.

You know what, y'all? I've changed my mind. I am tired of the repeated attacks from people who seem to be more "in the know" than anyone else. So here it is; what some of you have been waiting for:

Yes, the truth is that we beat up all the poor innocent locked-up mistreated people who live in institutional facilities and we ask all the staff to do the same. Hell, we fire them if they don't. We line people up without clothes for laughs and then take pix and show to the public because we are all sick and twisted. We also starve everyone and chain them to the bed because we are bored and sit around all day on our fat butts with nothing better to do. No one knows how to advocate for people with handicaps except people who have never actually seen one. You are all correct - you surpass those of us who have spent years doing this and we have all lied and hidden the truth from you very smart cookies who have finally figured us evil ones out. The jig is up - we're busted! Oops! Our bad!

Happy?

{{{{Lyric}}}}

Cyrus:

Can't 'member where I found this, but the whole thing is on the net somewheres:

"By the end of 1950 the average daily census had climbed to 2,799. Between 1950 and 1962 many new buildings were added to the already complex hospital. However, during this period whenever a new patient building was constructed, an old building was closed. After the Lodge Building was completed in 1956, patients from Butler, Cutter and Dix were transferred and these obsolete buildings were no longer used for patients."

Our friend, the Hoyer lift!

http://www.opacity.us/image1952.htm

Well, that does it for me! Consider me converted!

With "Hall-dol" and "Thora-screen," of course.

An autoclave type one WOULD need to be sealed. I was told that in the old days they just squirted them with steam and/or sprayed them with heavy amounts of disinfectant, then heated them to dry them out. They used to have to clean and re-use mattresses in hospitals before modern equipment came along, and the collection of buildings at this place runs the gamut in age. However, as I said, I am still not sure this was for mattress cleaning after all. Do you remember what the dimensions were?

Well, I have to admit, I have been wondering more and more about these devices and I asked for information about them tonight from a fellow who has lived where I work since 1929 (hard to believe, isn't it?) and he wasn't familiar with them at all. He worked the farm and the kitchen, though - never the laundry. He said they are definitely not incubators and definitely not ovens, however. When I told him that someone suggested they put people in them for cremation, he was quite insulted and wondered "what's wrong with people to think something as awful as that?" 8`-)

The mattress steamers I have seen before look like these and they used the vents to blow scalding hot steam across the mattresses. However, I have to shamefacedly admit that the more I look at these the less they look like the ones I saw all those years back. I have one more place to go to check these out, and that is the laundry at work. Some of the folks who work there have been there 35+ years, and if anyone can give a positive ID on these, they can do it.

Sorry, Bill - I'll let you know what I can find out - it might still be right, but it might be wrong.

P.S. Here is a reference about "mattress sterilizer buildings" from a 1918 article:
http://www.oldhickorychamber.org/oldhickory.htm

Donna and weasel,

People blow me away with stories like these. Keep them coming. There are so many sides - anyone who thinks they have the answer, especially someone like me, is bound to be wrong much of the time. The only way to know is to continue to learn from people who have walked the walk.

Thank you for your stories - they are difficult to read and must have been very difficult to live.

[Pssssst! That's where I bang my head against the wall in frustration!]

We still do that where I work. The steam plant whistle blasts out codes for missing people, fire alarms, indications when it's safe to return to the buildings, other disaster drills, etc.

See? I'm not the only one with "emesis basins" on the brain! 8`-)

Yes, aren't those tiles fab? I wish they didn't cost an arm and a leg - it would be swell to figure a way to put some up around the house. Course, then you need a big ole mansion to go along with it. :-(

Motts - did it look like the fireplace had ever actually been used before?

~Me - great references for marble and granite - thanks!

Tiley - yes, I love ceramic tile. I believe it was around the Victorian and Edwardian eras when they were using it a lot in home architecture, wasn't it? I have some great old tile pix in a vintage magazine I lent to a friend at work. GREAT stuff. This particular fireplace puts me in mind of majolica tiles.
http://www.tile-heaven.co.uk/majolica-01.htm

psychadellic one - plenty of room, plenty of room!