Yes I live in TulsaCounty, but not on a farm. Was born and raised here in OK..except for the 4 years we lived in Texas when my husband was in the service.
Glad you made your way here. It's a nice place to live if you can put up with the Twisters
I am very sorry for asking the question about the porch's. Those are horriable memories and now I understand you not saying anything about them. Forgive me.
ronl I am very glad you are writing your book. I hope you get even more healing while going thru the pain of it. The pain has to come up and out in order to be healed.
mkfarnan you and ronl seem to have adjusted to life really well after your orderal. I would not have wished what you endured on my worst enemy, but glad you survived and live to tell the story. Maybe others in the future won't be treated the way you and the others residents were. Well I didn't mean to write a book here lol. I will check back often for comments, take care, okie

Okie...
There's no need to apologize. Please, feel free to ask about anything you would like to know.
In fact, I insist, because there are alot of things that would help become more clear if we took a second look at it.

So, for everyone, if you have a question, feel free to ask. And you don't have to be sensitive about

Feel free to ask anything, thats the only way I can remember.

Ok Ronl. I've got a question for you.

You mentioned in an earlier post that you were given"instant potatoes". This is something I didn't know about. I didn't even know instant potatoes existed back then, but what do I know? I came from a farm where our food was raised and grown, so we didn't have much store bought food.

One thing I do recall about the mess hall is that every so-often they would put this "slop" on our plates. Now I don't remember whether it tasted good or bad, but it looked like something that came from one of the barn yards out back.
Later in life I found out that 2-3 of those farms just outside of the grounds, supported TCSH with most of the food and this made TCSH self sufficient.
You'll have to excuse me, but now that TCSH has surfaced, when one memory comes out a bunch of others follow, or some that has already surfaced, and start racing through my head, so I have to take time and put the pieces together or try to anyway.

Speaking of the farms around there. One of them has a connection with my "breaking out" , but there are still bits and pieces of this memory that still have to be put together, so I'll get into that later.

Mike

Thank you ron, I just didn't want to bring unpleasant memories for you. I think you have had enough of them. But what about your book? That's going to stir a lot of emotion for you. One day at a time. This makes a good sounding board, all though I don't know if it is intended for that purpose. Kirkbridge did say that your stoires were welcomed. I really hope that when your book is completed you can put this to rest. I am sure your memories will be there, but maybe not so much pain associated with them. That's the true test of healing. When the pain is not unbearable.

I don't know how many of you have read some of TCSH history on the site below, but if you notice, the 60's when we were there, was never mentioned, it was completely left out. Maybe because in that era, everything that happened there, stayed there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traverse_C ... al#History

ron do you or mark Journal? Sometimes that help to get thoughts sorted out. Either on paper or a blog. I know when I lost my mother a lot of people in our group did journal and it helped them a lot to straighten our their feelings. Just a thought.

And thanks to you both for being so kind. I have had mental health treatment, so I can identify with some things you went through, just not to the extreme you did with being a State run facility. Again if I ask and it's to personal just ignore me. I understand.

mkfarnam wrote:I don't know how many of you have read some of TCSH history on the site below, but if you notice, the 60's when we were there, was never mentioned, it was completely left out. Maybe because in that era, everything that happened there, stayed there.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traverse_C ... al#History

No I haven't read anything about TCSH, I have my grand twins and hard to do anything with them around. but will as soon as I can. Thansk for the link

mark I did go to the link you provided and also googled travers city state hospital. Your right about not there not being much out there. I did find site's where people who were there or had loved ones there had written books about being there. I think the only way the true story will be told is by people like you and ron...who were there and lived and witnesed it. That's the only way the world will know the truth!

ronl wrote:The cage was used as a form of punishment, It was called a place for cry babies. Never let them see you cry. I remember the cage as a very cold place.
.
Tonight I was contacted by a writer who is going to help me write the book, "Where Buffalo Roam". More later on this.
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I stayed up all night re-reading and looking at the old pictures, and yes my eyes at times were so full of water I could not see.
I still see the children lined up to go to the mess hall. I still hear their voices, and I can still feel the pain.

congrat's ron, I hope there is something in this for you this tie and this person is legit!

mkfarnam wrote:Ok Ronl. I've got a question for you.

You mentioned in an earlier post that you were given"instant potatoes". This is something I didn't know about. I didn't even know instant potatoes existed back then, but what do I know? I came from a farm where our food was raised and grown, so we didn't have much store bought food.

One thing I do recall about the mess hall is that every so-often they would put this "slop" on our plates. Now I don't remember whether it tasted good or bad, but it looked like something that came from one of the barn yards out back.
Later in life I found out that 2-3 of those farms just outside of the grounds, supported TCSH with most of the food and this made TCSH self sufficient.
You'll have to excuse me, but now that TCSH has surfaced, when one memory comes out a bunch of others follow, or some that has already surfaced, and start racing through my head, so I have to take time and put the pieces together or try to anyway.

Speaking of the farms around there. One of them has a connection with my "breaking out" , but there are still bits and pieces of this memory that still have to be put together, so I'll get into that later.

Mike

http://www.geocities.com/tcasylum/barns/index.html
Found a site mark that talks about the farms...you may be intereted in if you haven't already seen it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_timeline
First instant potatoes came on the scene in 1946 French's Instant Potatoes

okie...Thank You for the links, I haven't seen those before. That is very interesting. Those big barns out back always interested me.
Maybe cause we had a Dairy farm.

Instant potatoes.
Don't get me wrong, I was not saying that Ron was wrong, in fact I wasn't questioning his being serve instant potatoes. It's just that it's something wasn't served as a everyday dish. Usually when something happened to a kid,eventually everyone heard about it, but that's all the further it went. I was just surprised I didn't hear about it. I do remember there were times when some kids were profile out and force to eat every kind of food they hated, Like asparagus

The farms,
They say that the farming system was shut down in 1957. What they didn't say was that after that some small local farms helped.
I've met some of the farmers.
In the link that "okie" provided there's one barn that stands out very clearly in my mind, that's "barn #206" along with the farmer and his wife. That's because that farm has a connection with my (breaking out) and the last time I ran away. There are still pieces of that story that I can't quite remember.
This will be a long story, but with out the missing pieces, It can't be told from start to finish and make sense.

BTW Okie, it,s MIKE

Instant potatoes was all we ever ate, they were the first generation dehydrated potatoes and taste awful.
Us kids had a small area where they built the new children unit, down by the creek and we use to grow veggies and tend to them 2 times a week. Our teachers in summer use to take us there.
I remember the awful food, but you had to eat it or punishment would be given, lol.
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Journal, this is the second time I ever wrote out about my stay at TCSH, the first time I burnt it after writing it in fear that someone would read it.
Up till now I had real fear even looking at pictures of the place. When I would do searches I would do a re-format so no-one could find that I was looking. I'll bet other kids have this same fear. Like in that Carrie Movie at the end a hand came out of the ground and grab you, hahaha.
Now I cannot figure out what I was so afraid of.
I still get those visions looking at the rundown pictures of hall-18, I always see the other kids, and hear the noise.
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I hope there is something in this for you this tie and this person is legit!

I plan on a simple deal, 50/50 and will allow her name on top. Its ironic but her name is Heidi too. She is not the other Heidi who wrote the other book on TCSH. She is from the Traverse Area and was planning on a writing a book on the hospital and found this thread and decided it was in the interest of the both of us to join up.
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OK, this must have been after my release in 65 or 66 I wasn't there when Hall 18 was moved to another building.


I think I gave the wrong dates of my stay on an earlier post.
I was born in "54", I was admitted to TCSH at the age of 7, and was there appox, 5 yrs.
So that comes out to, 1961-1966.