The Kirkbride Plan

This morning I drove north to tour what used to be called the Eastern Ohio Insane Asylum. A woman named Chris, who gave the program talk was very knowledgeable about it's history.

It was built in 1892 by the state. The buildings plans were based on a Dr Thomas Story Kirkbride, who believed that if people with mental issues could live in beautiful surroundings, with views of manicured lovely grounds, seen from any window of the buildings, that their countenance would surely improve, if not heal.

And so this self sufficient little town with hundreds of residents came to be. Eventually the asylum acquired several thousand acres. There they raised cattle, pigs, chickens, planted gardens and orchards, and lived off their land. The residents did much of the work in the barns, fields and kitchens. Many Kirkland-planned facilities looked like huge mansions, 4 and 5 stories tall. The plan put an administration building in the center, then the females lived off wings on one side, the males on the other. The patients who were the least ill and probably would not be staying long lived closest to the center building. The long term care patients lived further away, and the 'violent' ones lived on the edges, to the back.

At this hospital, I learned that it was decided instead of building one huge (and I'm talking castle size) building they would instead spread out. So they built a few hundred cottages on the grounds. The cottages are all now gone, but we saw pictures on a power point program and some were really beautiful homes.

Chris said most of the years the asylum was in operation, that the administrator lived on the grounds with his family. She said she has spoken with people who remember the administrators children being picked up by the school bus. Imagine how that would feel?

During the time Chris was employed there, a new rule said the residents could no longer be required to work where they lived. The livestock had long ago been sold, and the fields sold to a golf course, strip mall, etc. She spoke of one man who always wanted to sweep the dining room after meals. He would sweep, then they would give him his pipe and he'd sit down and smoke it awhile. She said he was very upset when he was told he could no longer sweep.

In the main lobby, there is a little display case with a few archives. It includes a mannequin wearing an old nurse uniform, and a ledger that I read with lots of interest. It's opened so you can only see one page dated 1921. Most of the who people entered there died there, though a few were only there a few weeks. It listed occupations such as farmer and housewife, and ages which were mostly 30's and 40's. It listed country of origin and it was amazing that almost no one was 'American' but it said Czechoslovakia, Hungary, English, Germany, Russia. Some of the reasons for admission were lunacy, menopause, alcoholism and drug addiction. There is also a straight jacket and a metal mesh mask! I also just read here on the internet that families facing the 'embarrassment' of a pregnant daughter would sometimes put her in an insane asylum.

Chris talked a lot about its operation today, in a clean modern large building. She stopped numerous times to give us details through out her power point presentation, then took us on a tour. One area is called 'the mall'. Those who are allowed can shop at a store for clothes, books and magazines & misc. items. There is a library, a music area, an art room, and a kitchenette where they teach cooking. There is a beautiful large gymnasium, the normal size seen in any high school. There are stained glass art works which I heard were made by a husband and wife team from Akron. We saw the dentist office, several medical type examination rooms and a few offices. And there is a large outdoor area with a large gazebo and a basketball court. They even have their own police department there.

Even though it sounds like I'm sugar coating this experience, it was evident that we were in a high security building. There was lots of locking and unlocking of doors. We'd been instructed not to wear anything revealing, too short, too low, or too tight, and they didn't have to tell me twice. The people who are here have committed crimes or tried to hurt themselves and are kept there under the order of a judge, who she said comes once a week to hear assorted patients requests. They are there because they are incompetent to stand trial, or not guilty by reason of insanity.

We were walked through three of the patient areas. Some people had been there a few days, some for 20 years. I won't describe those people in detail, but they weren't very scary or threatening. She said that if there was a yellow sign on an outside ward door, it meant to look before you unlocked it, because someone inside had tried to escape. Every door we entered had a yellow sign on it. So I was a little nervous about that. But they were all relaxed and most were sitting in groups chatting. Most of them waved to us and I wasn't sure if we should wave back, but sometimes we did. Some made comments which were, well, not inappropriate, but off-the-wall.

Their rooms have two beds and have all kinds of safety features to prevent patients from hanging themselves or hurting each other. They were all new and clean looking, and just looked like a regular room to me.

Chris has spent much of her career working in the community. She was very smart, very capable, and I'd want someone like her in my court. She spoke passionately about the problems that people go through when they have serious mental illness. For some years she did the admissions, being the first person a patient would see after some explosive event brought them to her, usually by ambulance or police car.

She said everyone was frightened or very upset and it was up to her to calm the situation down. She said she would explain that she was going to have to ask a lot of questions, but would they like a drink of water first? She hoped that they would later remember that in a worst time of their life, someone offered them a drink of water.

She described the common problem of patients not wanting to take their medications. But she understood it too. For example, she asked us if we were told we had to take a medication, but we could expect to gain about 50 pounds while on it, would we? Or we needed to take a medication, but then couldn't perform sexually, would we take it? Or we couldn't have a glass of wine or some beers with our friends, or we couldn't function at work because we couldn't think clearly, would we?

So it left me a lot to think about, but first I wanted to read about the Kirkbride Hospitals. Check out the link I have found to see pictures of these magnificent buildings.

http://www.kirkbridebuildings.com/buildings/index.html

Attic Orphans

Years ago I had a tortoise shell cat. It's been so long, I can't remember her name. She was a stray that I took in, and she got pregnant pretty fast. She had 3 kittens, two tortoise shells like herself, and a gold tiger male. Their nursery was a spare bedroom in my house.

One day I stopped at a friends house. They weren't home, but their mom was, so I sat at her kitchen table with her and chatted. I noticed an occasional little noise and asked her what in the world WAS that?

She told me that her cat had had kittens in her attic. She thought her cat had been killed on the road a day or two ago. She said "the poor things, they just cry and I don't know what to do about it?"

Well, I brushed my irritation away because that wouldn't help, I had to get those babies some care. I asked the woman how to get into the attic and she told me there was no easy way, and she pointed to a place on the ceiling where there was a square like a window on the ceiling. This turned out to be one of those staircases Chevy Chase encounters in his Christmas Vacation movie. I had to stand on a chair to reach a handle, and pull down. A ladder was folded up into this contraption, so I unfolded it out into the room, steadied myself and headed up.

It didn't take long to find two little gray tiger kittens. I scooped them up and came back down. They were tiny and weak. Their eyes were sunk in, everything was sunk in. They were badly dehydrated. They were about 3 weeks old, just a bit younger than my kittens at home. We couldn't figure out how the mother cat had gotten up there, but it didn't matter now.

I drove home and took the orphans into the bedroom. The mama cat was asleep with her babies. She ignored me when I walked in, so I just carefully laid each baby close to her nipples. The babies dove in. I sat down and watched for a long time. Finally the mama woke up, looked down, sniffed a couple times and started licking them both with vigor. By that evening their little tummies were round, and they had picked up energy. They would would survive! I was SO relieved!

I don't have a picture of those babies, so I've added a picture of my cat Danny. My husband found her in the alley during a bad windstorm a day before my birthday, so I called her my birthday present from him. Then he couldn't say we had to find a home for her. haha

Goat Island

My dad was the eldest of 4, with twin brothers and a little sister. There is a story he used to tell that was always one of my favorites.

I'm not clear on all of the details, but I want to write what I remember. It had to be in the 1930's. Grandma and Grandpa had taken the little sister Leah to have her tonsils removed. Back then doctors often had their offices in the home they lived in, and they removed tonsils right in their office! They left my father Russell, and the twins Gene and Dean, at home on the farm. They didn't know when they'd be back, so I'm sure a list of instructions were left for the boys. One of them was that a load of coal had been ordered and was to be delivered that day; they were to help the coal man.

Their house was located in a valley; and there is a quarter mile gravel lane leading down to it. So on this day, the boys were left on their own for a good part of the day. Dad said they fooled around, and eventually became bored. So they decided to walk to a friends house. I'm sorry I don't know who the friend was. But whoever it was, it had to be a walk as neighbors were quite far apart. They found this friend and decided to go play along the Tuscarawas river, near the White Bridge on Rt 800.

While playing there they found a rowboat. Well, what do you think 4 boys would do when they found a row boat on the shore of a river? And there was an island nearby. I think he called this Goat Island, and said someone kept a herd of goats there. So these boys took that boat and rowed around Tuscarawas River and went to Goat Island to explore/play.

They were gone a long time, hours by now probably. During this time the coal delivery came. There is a basement window where a coal chute from the truck was placed and the coal easily slid down into the basement in the coal room with a little persuasion with shovels. The coal man had no one to open the basement window, so he drove back up the lane and dumped that load at the top by the main road.

When Grandma and Grandpa finally drove home with little Leah, Grandpa was angry to find his coal laying by the road. And when they drove down to the house, the boys were gone. They were in big trouble. So the wait began for Russell, Eugene, and Dean to make their way home.

But...there was a big problem. The boys played all afternoon on that island, but when they decided it was time to leave, the boat was gone! (I remember something about it's owner coming over to get it and leaving them there on purpose on that island, because he was angry they stole it, and was going to teach them a lesson. But that detail I'm not sure about) The boys had no option but to wait for help. Dad said they called and yelled and called some more. But no one heard them.

As it got later and later, Grandma became more and more worried (I can only imagine!). I think they had a phone but I'm not sure. I know they didn't have electricity. Grandpa had to get in his Model T, or whatever they drove, asking around had anyone seen the boys? The news came to them that the boys had been seen heading toward the river. Can you imagine how frightening that must have been for them? Eventually he had a lot of people out hunting for them. And finally someone heard them calling and they were rescued.

The next day, the punishment was that Dad and his brothers had to carry the coal by buckets to the basement. I can only try to imagine how hard that was, but it seems like a pretty good punishment to me.

Added 5/31/09-My brother said I had the story right. He said Dad also was sent to bed without supper, but that Grandma took plate of food to him.

Lamb chops

At our house traditions don't change easily, yet one year my husband announced that a he ordered a leg of lamb for Easter. I was appalled. Everyone knows we have ham and scalloped potatoes and coconut cake made with a fresh coconut, and candy for Easter. I let him take over when the huge bloody thing arrived. Actually it turned my stomach a little. The man he'd ordered it from had butchered it himself and supplied a recipe. I got a little more interested when I saw the list of herbs for the herb rub. And the cream and red wine for the sauce.

So we entered uncharted territory and altered our tradition. We roasted that lamb. We searched for and discarded the fat pocket located above and to the outer area of it's knee. This fat we were told, was what caused the gamey flavor. We bought red potatoes, asparagus, yellow pepper and spring onions. I made a Key Lime Pie.

It was delicious. And we've come to look very forward to it.

This year we changed our lamb cut slightly. The last couple of years we allowed our dog to eat at the leftover lamb leg and it made him feel kind of sick, so this year, so we won't feel compelled to share, I bought two boneless leg roasts.

Here's our recipe (which I'll alter because now we have boneless lamb:

8 pound leg of lamb
2 tablespoons of olive oil

Put the lamb in the largest roaster you have. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Score the fat in diamond shapes. Peel a bunch of garlic and make little stabs all over the lamb and sick the garlic down into the slits. Then cover the lamb with the olive oil. Use your hands, this is the fun part.

Mix in a bowl:
1 tsp of each
thyme, basil, rosemary, tarragon, marjoram, oregano, 4 tsp of parsley and 1/2 tsp of black pepper.

Pat the herbs all over the lamb. Put it in the oven uncovered for 10 minutes then reduce the oven to 350 degrees and roast it for 90 minutes. Then arrange red potatoes, spring onions, and a yellow pepper cut into strips. Roast it for another hour or until the lamb is 160 degrees.

Move all the meat and vegetables out of the roaster and in that pan use 2 tablespoons of fat, 1/2 cup dry red wine, and cook til reduced by half. Add one cup beef broth and cook til reduced by half. Add 1/2 cup of half and half or cream and cook until it coats the back of a spoon. This is your gourmet sauce. (This year we tripled this recipe because the sauce is so good!)

We serve this with asparagus and coleslaw or a salad. It's fun to open a bottle of champagne at some point during the cooking, to help celebrate the beginning of spring.