Comments

Yes, thank you sa1amand3er. I love the painting, and I keep wondering if the poor chicken got saved too!

That ceiling don't look too safe....the green looks like mold to me....Cool shot Motts, whats through that door on the right?

Wowza, I love the blue tones. Is it just the lighting or was that really teal blue paint??

DHS was a thriving self contained community many years ago. Patients that could, would work from sunrise to sunset. on the farm and orchards. they would come to the kitchens and have meals of fresh killed chicken , beef ,pork, fresh fruit, and veggies. All animals were raised to feed the hospital, gardens were tendered. MY uncle( a Patient) worked on the farm. He would take produce to Boston and sell it to the markets and this is where they got the extra money to buy more animals and tools

They had fresh eggs in the morning- They were fed very well.

The women worked in the laundry, ironed all the sheets with those big rolling irons. They sewed and mendd clothes.

In the evening the patients were tired fom woking and would go right to bed and get a good night's sleep. The populatin in the 30-s could have been around 2000.

I use to sit with the old men after supper and they would tell me stories of how hard they worked and that it felt good to work outside all day.. These old men who now sat on a stinking unit mixed in with the young hoodlem drug addicts who knew how to work the system to get more drugs.
These poor old men who had nothing to do anymore but look out a caged window. They were so bored beause the only thing they did was watch the tv on the sunporch . They missed working the farm

but time does change and some idiot politician said that these patients were no more than slaves keeping a dying community going. so slowly in the 60's things were shut down little by little, cattle were sold at auction, pigs and chickens slaughtered until there was no more

the meals in the 80's consisted of Powdered eggs, frozen fish sticks, french fries, a meal we use to call mystery meat becuase we didn' know what the hell it was. hamburg hash and instant potatoes..spaghetti with little hard balls (I couldn't call them meat).These old guys never fogot the days when they had fresh milk, and cream, eggs, and chicken, steak and chops...and a fresh apple, peach or pear just for th plucking....

In1972 came the time when DHS was de-institutionalizing and the bonner building was going to house those who could not be released.

MY uncle was released. He had been there for 35 years (he was also one of the first people along with Rosemarie Kennedy to be labotomized).. He was so lost - He called DHS home...he lived for about a year. He was beaten and robbed of his checks by other patients that had become the first generation of essex counties homeless people. My uncle had a room, but we still had to look for him when we didn't see him for a few days. He died of a heart attack when he was take to the emergancy room to get stitches where they cracked his head open.

The old men knew my uncle and from that day on - no one could come near me or even threaten me. They watched over me until they died off one by one or when the laws changed again and they were sent to facililties that cared for the aged and mentally ill.. I cried like a baby.

The dangerous and vilolent people were there too. in DHS the were in those little square rooms. But when they all came to the bonner building it was a nightmare - bad and good, young and old were housed together until 1990..I left in 91 when the bonner building closed down , took the retirement and went back to teaching...

Night of the living dead.....

I've yet to see anything even close to a "so-so" shot by you Mr. Motts.

Wow this looks too pristine to be in the same building!

Gross floor!

Makes you wonder who put it there and what they were experiencing......

Cool shot Motts!! See now it appears that there's a bunch of smudging on the walls here too....

Geez when the floors get this bad, they just look like they've always been dirt floors.

Good grief people, we're going to make poor Mr. Motts have to delete a bunch of comments again!

I don't know if anyone could tell what this is without having samples examined in a lab, but I for one don't wanna know what it is!

This is a really lonely hall.....

Cool shot, that's an awfully bright red too!

Thanks Lynne, it's always great when you describe situations in relation to what we're seeing. I noticed the bottoms of the doors right away and wondered ......

That was nice Bri, thanks! :-) This is one really great hallway....... and I just love all the symmetry in it.