mkfarnam wrote:

okie wrote:Forgive my double posting this morning. I haven't figured this site out yet and am making big typo's. I can't find a way to delete the double post. Not puter savay yet.

okie, to delete a post.........you'll find at the top of the post a [X] next to [edit]. clicking that will delete the post. You need to do this before someone else posts because after that it's gone.

Thank you Mark for the info, will remember in the future. Right now not seeing the x.

I guess you and ronl won't be posting any more memories here, saving them for the book. Well Good Luck to the both of you. I will miss your being here. So glad I got to meet you guys. Thanks for your kindness and sharing.

I guess you and ronl won't be posting any more memories here, saving them for the book

not true, I am not setting up a forum, just a website so we can be found. Its a better name than backup.info which has no refrence to hall-18 in its name. All I did was move the files from backup to http://www.hall-18.com and placed a re-direct on backup to point to hall-18.

okie.. my release is connected with my running away. That's one reason why I'm calling it "breaking Away"
Also, this forum is not ending. Ron is just saying that any other forum we may have connecting TCSH, will have a link to this one.

Now that I've been posting , it's alot easier to let go of these memories. I begining to feel that more people should know about this while the truth is still here. Also when the stories told by later generstions they're made up and modified to their satisfaction.
Ron, for some time now I've been thinking of ways to get this thread further out in the open.
One thing I've come up with is:
Going to other "Kirkbride" state hospital forums in different states and finding the ones with the most traffic or with the most interested in the history. TCSH is one of the few still standing.

OR:
There is a site that has forums for every state. Each state has forums for some of the cities.http://www.city-data.com/forum/#u-s-forums
You only need to sign up once, after that your registered to all of them.
The Michigan Forum doesn't have a forum for Traverse City but we could start one, or go to each state that had a Kirkbride state hosp, and start a thread 'subject" State Asylems .

okie, you would like the OK forum, I post there every day. There's also a Tulsa and OKC forum.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/oklahoma/

I have a feeling that the other posters, except for maybe tcgirl1965 and okie, were from the Kirkbride forum and were more interested in the new TCSH and not the old.

Thanks guys for not leaving. I will follow you if you do Mike, so your release is connected to your running away. Are you trying to piece it together or do you remember the circumstances? Anyway I am glad you both were released. Had no business being there in the first place. They say ignorance is bliss.....well that didn't apply in your cases!

Mike I put the site you gave me in my fav list....thanks for the link.
So glad you two found each other and can talk about this. Repressing memories is not a good thing...also you both see the need for the "truth" to be told. Won't be easy for you...nothing worth while in life ever is...but you will come out with the satisfaction of knowing that all you lived through was for a reason. Others will learn from this. There are always lessons to be learned.

Ron the site you posted is awesome. You did a good job. Lots if info and pics. Hopefully more will come, you made it easier for them. I hope they can remember where they were. Some may have been to young or repressed the memory all together. Others just want to forget being there. Take's a lot of courage to do what you guys are doing. Your facing the monster in the face....and exposing it for what it is. Hopefully others in the future won't experience the same treatment, as was given to Hall 18 and 7.

http://pub13.bravenet.com/forum/static/ ... 30&msgid=0
I also found this site...mike it looks like you have posted there. Seemed to be a few people there that were patients.

Thank You okie. I forgot about that site That's a good site, everyone can be contacted,

Hi! First, I wanna say that I'm happy Mike told me about this site....I've been looking for information about TCSH for a long, long time....My grandfather was there years ago (he has passed a few years ago...and never talked much about it). And I'm glad to finally have some firsthand info on it...Even if some of it is very sad.
Secondly....I was wondering if Ron happened to remember a man named Lester or Lee....I don't recall the years he was there....He was my grandfather. Anyway, I'm glad to have been shown to this site. I find everything very interesting, like I've mentioned.

ShoeBoo:
Welcome to the forum. I hope your able to find more information here. This website is filled with many new and old pictures of TCSH. There are several photos of Hall#18 where Ron and I spent most of our time.
When you come across a picture of a room with a picture of
"the 7 Dwarfs" painted on the wall, that's Hall#18.
I'm interested in hearing about some of the tours of the grounds that you gave your friends, as mention in the other forum.
That is if you don't mind.


BTW...at the top of this page you can click "user control panel" then click "profile" and you can change your email there.

Thanks for the welcome! I've already looked at all the photos I could haha...I love them....As soon as I can I'm going to put up some of my own...Of course, they're all taken OUTSIDE the buildings...I don't think I'm allowed in most of the buildings since they've started renovating everything (which stinks).

As for my tour....Well, I showed them the grave of that cow....We found the Hippie Tree (at least what teens call it nowadays....not sure if it's the true one or not...). I talked about the separate wings (mainly the men and women's...I was interested in where my grandfather stayed...). I told him about the man made pond that has been destroyed (which ticks me off) and about the fountain in the middle...and how there were trees from all over planted on the grounds....I mentioned Kid's Creek to him. And told him about the barns and how my grandpa used to work in them...he said it was really relaxing for him (course, Grandpa was a serious country boy!).....That's about all I can remember telling him....

I have a question...Do either of you guys know if a Doctor was stabbed? I recall my mother telling me that while Grandpa was there, a man was going to be released, and Grandpa said "Don't you dare. He's not better yet. He's still dangerous." But they up and released him anyway and he came back to stab his doctor. I was just wondering if the story had any truth or if it's turned into a family tale.

First off I am sorry I haven't posted this weekend, I have been busy with my web server, and it is down again today as well.
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I do not recall a Lester or Lee, heck most names I have problems with anyway, always have had a problem with remembering names. But there was this guy who came to hall-18 for a short time who said he lived on St. Thomas Island, ?? I believe his name was Lee?? He was older than me.
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Kids creek, I recall them filling it in when they built the new children's ward down by the farm. If it is still there than it must be routed around the new unit. I remember us kids getting water out of it for our garden. The creek ran right through the garden.
I remember once that someone killed a small snake and tossed it into the creek, and later that day when we returned to that area, I went over to it to show the girls, lol, and when I went down to pick it up .... it bit me, I almost had heart failure. It was a garden snake.
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Mike, I remember and this may be the last day you were there. We and a few other kids were sitting under the overhang at the canteen one early evening facing the bandstand talking to some girls on hall-7, The girls were on the second floor next to canteen, and you said that you were gonna run away. I seem to recall you just walking away. I have no memory of you after that. This was the summer of 68?
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Hippy Tree again, if any tree was called a hippy tree it was between canteen and bandstand on the little knoll/hill. We were the closest thing to a hippy who was ever there. LOL, There was a picnic table set up there that we use to sit at. I played guitar and had yellow stripped pants, I must have looked real stupid back than. "Astronut"
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I never heard of a Droctor getting stabbed. That doen't mean that it didn't happen. lol

Mike does this bring back memories

click image for a full-sized view

Hmmm...Maybe this creek isn't the true Kid's Creek....I know that it runs up near the stairs that have been installed (across from them)...This Hippy Tree is located WAY in the back of the property....You have to walk quite a ways to get there (there's a path up near the barns...I can't remember the exact way, seeing as how we only recently found it with help from another friend). Grandpa wasn't from any Island....I don't remember just where he was living at before he had his nervous breakdown (a farm....the breakdown was because he was going to lose the farm--which was his livelihood for himself and his 7 children...).

The Doctor thing may have been at Grandpa's 2nd time around in the Asylum. I don't know the years he was there....

Back to the Hippy Tree, I'm pretty sure this isn't the right one (dang it!). Was your tree this HUGE thing? Maybe it was struck by lightning or something? I ask because this tree is split into about 3 parts....it's long dead, but huge and gorgeous....

There were so many Hallways there, and at first glance they all looked alike.The one in the picture looks like the one leading to the pool room, or are those the seclusion rooms on the right?

 

Mike, I remember and this may be the last day you were there. We and a few other kids were sitting under the overhang at the canteen one early evening facing the bandstand talking to some girls on hall-7, The girls were on the second floor next to canteen, and you said that you were gonna run away. I seem to recall you just walking away. I have no memory of you after that. This was the summer of 68?

Ron you just helped some pieces fall into place. For example: I remember the 3rd time I ran away I just walked away from a group, but that's all I could recall. Now that you mentioned that particular time, even more of that time made a connection.
You're right about most of this, but first, that wasn't the last time I escaped,but it was the first time I earned a "parol card" (With privleges you had to be supervised when ever you went out. With a parol card, you could go out on your own without supervision)
The day before that someone was caught running away, so all the kids started daring me to take off again. That night that's all that was going through my head, whether or not I should runaway. The main thing I was afraid of was losing my parol card, because that's something not everyone had and it took along time to earn one.
The next day all of the kids that was on parol were let out. Some of us went over by the canteen close to Hall#7. The Canteen was a small store about the size of the day room. You could buy candy and other things, but only if your parents had left money in your account. There was a name for what they held your money in at the nurses station, I just don't remember it.
Anyway, we were all talking and then out of the blue and without a word, I turned around and walked away. It seem that there was hardley anyone else on the gounds, so I started walking back toward the farms. By the time I got to the edge of the field I was face down on the ground with 2 attendants standing beside me, one was holding me down with one foot.
They grabbed my arms and started dragging me back to Hall#18.
Iwas thrown in seclution. (I can never forget the sound of the big steal door slamming) About an hour later the fat nurse came in and made me strip off my clothes. Then she grabbed my arm, spun me around and threw me against the wall. She yelled at me to stand still while she stuck a needle in my a** and shot me full of thorizine and then left. Minutes later I was off in nowhere land. ( now I know why some of the boys walked around like zombes)
A few days later I had a seizure. After that some attendants came in and started kicking me around and beating on me.
I'll skip my last 2 weeks in lock up and go to the day I was let out of seclusion.
This will put some of Rons last post in perspective.
Once I left the secusion room I went to the day room, aka, the "Annex".
I guess they were all at school because the place was empty.
I went to the nurses station where they were having a meeting. The doors were closed so I looked in the window and saw a nurse at the desk filling out a yellow sheet of paper. The only yellow papers I remembered seeing in there were "Transfer sheets". Later the boys came back from school, but Ron wasn't with them. I noticed the nurse showing the yellow paper to one of the attendants, so I walked over there.
I got a look at the paper. At the very top it said in small letters [TRANSFER FORM] under that in big letters it said: [HALL#20]. At the first line, written in pencil was the name Ron L***** That was all I had to know. Ron had been transfered to Hall#20. A place we all dreamed of going. Compared to hall#18, hall#20 was like being free.

So Ron, does that put some pieces together for you?

The last time I escaped was the winter of the same year in the middle of a heavy snow storm.

Mike

#1) The hall if you notice in the picture is the pool table, and to the right was the "ROOMS" I added the pool table this morning, because every time I looked at that picture my mind always seen the pool table.

Hall 20 never had the doors locked and I was there till the new childrens building was built, than I was the first kid to be there, it was great too, I remember the pool in the gym, the floor covered it and with a press of a button the floor would move away. The new school was in the new building too. The new building was used for the best kids, all the others were hosed in cottage 34 & 36. 34 was for the girls and 36 was for the boys. The new building was the new hall-20. Both boys and girls were housed together in the new building.

if you remember my transfer than you were there in early 1969, because thats when I made it to HALL-20.