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I hope someone is listening. Tough work, crappy hours, rotten pay, being aggressed against on an intermittent (if you're lucky) basis by some very dangerous people, and then being treated like dirt by "outsiders" who think all that ever happened was torture, mutilation, abuse, and murder. It's enough to piss a body off some days.

As well, when people act like the folks who lived in these places were nothing more than innocent souls whipped off the streets for the fun and amusement of the staff, it degrades the people who were sent here to live. The majority of these folks had some pretty serious issues going on. Years ago it was fairly easy to get committed somewhere. That has not been the case for many a long year. In the past several years I have sometimes spent weeks trying to get even a temporary commitment for someone who was suicidal/homicidal. The irony is that had the person gone through with the act before I was able to get them committed, *I* was the one who would have been sued. [Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California]

Institutions - not always a fun place to work, not always a fun place to live. Sure beats the streets and shelters most of the time, and the folks who did their good deed by "freeing all the inmates" now get to hear about them dying by the truckload every winter down by the railroad tracks or under the local bridges, assuming their deaths even make it on the news.

Yes, yes, yes, lots of nasty stuff happened in these places. Some people shoulda gone to jail for it. That's a fact. However, the jerks who never gave enough money to these places shoulda gone to jail with the staff who were abusive. At least the abusers only hurt one or two people at a time. The people who denied funding to these places hurt/killed thousands of people at once by their penny-pinching antics. Now the abuse happens on the streets with no one to watch it happen and precious few people to intervene.

Once again, rather than being a little Johnny-one-note and bitching and whining about what hell-holes/ghost pits these places were/are, I am hoping to Christ y'all (especially those of you who constantly come on here and bleed about this) are getting off your asses and getting out there and doing something about it. If you're gonna talk the talk, walk the damn walk.

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This was your evening "public service rant du jour". We now return you to your regular programming where you can talk about how morbid and gruesome and pitiful these places are, how many tortured souls' ghosts you see floating about, and about how all the developmental centers sucked - you just don't care what the people who worked there say - they were obviously all assholes anyway. :-)

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Axes used by firemen to bust down doors, most likeley. Somebody probabally found them in one of those big red wall glass things. you know bust them to get the fire estinguisher and stuff out. And had a little fun with them. But that's my rambling of today.

The ward was upper four south and that room was about par for the rooms for that ward. I worked at NSH. for fourteen years in the 60"s and 70's and I thought many times to bring in my polaroid and take photos of the patients in seclusion in those rooms where the temp. was about 60deg. and they were in wrist and ankle and pretty much in b'cou dicomfort. The whole deal was not romantic and ghosts did not abound at that time, but a lot of suffering did exsist . But I remind you a lot of good works by compassionate dedicated staff who at there own peril, put themselves out to these poor souls. The emphasis is on ghosts, it's romanticism and didn't exist at the time. At that time it was basic, raw , reality. Not unlike being in a war. The doors were metal and all the dampness just kind of bled rust. I do remember the poors souls behind those cold doors. If I had my wish I would raze all those buildings by fire just to purify them. There was a requeim back in the 90's to put all the souls to rest and they are. It's all the jerks who continually break in to the old place are shamefull. Let these souls rest in peace. It's no less than breaking into mausoleums and desacrating graves. Bless all my past friends on the hill, they deserve respect. John.

my link is on the main page of this site but it is still undergoing construcktion sorry should be up soon after xmas!!!

Don't forget to read about the Lynchburg Colony if you are covering eugenics. One of the best books out there on the eugenics movement is called "War Against the Weak." I highly recommend it. Also, a great website on the history of the ID/MR/DD field is the Disability History Museum at:
http://www.disabilitymuseum.org

That's me - just a piece of crap! :-) Thank you, soul of a serpent - you are aptly self-named.

Hey - I have a funny thought. Maybe I should work in one of these places to see what it's like. Maybe I'll have a more realistic expectation of what's out there. Maybe I'll learn some pity. Maybe I'll learn to feel sorry for everybody. Maybe I'll learn what's it's like to spend time in a hell hole like this where all these poor, pathetic unloved people just need someone to come and give them a big warm hug, where staff treat them badly and steal their little fuzzy dogs and stuffed bears and then when they throw these people out, they leave their cherished toys behind - just one last cruelty as they spit on those who leave.

Sounds better than the truth - and there's lots more to wallow in. And now there's someone to feel superior to - those cruel staff and the cruel institutions. While folks sit in their nice houses and petition against "those people" moving into their neighborhood and vote against increased taxes so "those people" can have staff who are paid more than a mere pittance and so "those people" can have a better life. Easier to poke at the people who took care of them and kept them alive than to do it yourself.

I am positive you are one of the people who took all the special ed kids under your wings when you were in school and made sure no one ever made fun of them. I am sure you are out there now donating your time and energy to making their lives better, rather than just sitting in front of your computer and feeling superior to those of us who actually do this work. I think you may be looking at the wrong side of the keyboard when you use the term "sterile".

Pow!

ROFML! hey I did it!

I'm in the process of writing a book about the people I took care of for many years. I don't know if this is the proper place to talk about the poor unfortunate people who lived there.

But you know, you had to know these people and you really understood why parents stopped coming to visit them. The were so burned out from caring for thier mentally ill child for 50 or more years.

Don't blame the parents for giving up..They wanted to live the rest of their lives without the trauma of being beaten by their son or daughter, or have checks and money stolen from them, Some even had to move into elderly housing because because they lost their home to fire or going bankrupt. (sp) because of their child.

Mentally ill people are some of the most selfish people in the world. it is me, myself and I - with no thought of what you are doing to another person..But These people are sick and when you understand what their illness is, then we can try to go ahead and bring some kind of peace to their shreiking voices. and minds .I can tell you about what Danvers State use to be like in the 30-40-50's..THis was when DSH was a self-governing little town of its own. The patients, staff, doctors, nurses, all worked together to make the community work...I know a lot about these times because my Uncle was a patient there during these times...and often at night when all the patients were asleep our nurse would come down and tell what it was like years ago - it was not a pretty place.
One movie you might want to find " The snake Pit" made in 1946. It was made on the grounds of DSH, but most of it was made in Marblehead...tthis is what an insane assylum was like ,My book is going to make" One flew over the cucoos's nest" and Girl interrupted look like a nursery school tale...

The person that made this website is an artist indeed.
BUt perhaps yo can get a picture of the fields and lower road and get a thread going on "Hospital life in he early days" so I don't take all the space here....Sorry I took so long to get back - but these pictures bring back memories for more stories...Even a nice shot of the old castle because this is where I'm going to take you. when it was a thriving self-sustained working community..

I guess that the bookkeeper did'nt do a very good job with keeping up with the records! lol

Nice picture! It looks like it is an old castle! In surprised how people can let a place like this fall down!

There seems to be so many becuase the shutter was open for about 12 minutes, so those are the amount of fireflies passing through the shot in 12 minutes.

Man, where can I get one of those for my closet? Change the wording a little, make the shelves bigger, and it would be perfect!

Wording of the name aside, I can see how this would be incredibly useful for someone who doesn't know how to interact in "normal" society. I think there are many people out there who would benefit from reading this, even though they are considered "normal". I wouldn't mind reading it myself, come to think of it...

Yeah, and again ~shudder~. I love children, and hope to have my own some day, but when the time for the "miracle" of childbirth comes, I will be in another state, far far away from the proceedings. I don't want to see it, hear it, or think about it. ~shudder~ I'll probably just adopt...

Now look what you did... I have the jibblies. ~shuddershuddershudder~!!! This is by far the scariest picture on the site! :D