I was a bad bad girl in the 60's ask me anything about reform school

[patdem]

I was there when I was 13 till I was 14...then got sent back when I was 14.5 till I was 16...Bon Aire School for Girls...sounds like a prep school no?

Ask me anything!

[patdem]

1. I do remember the second time I was there...they gave us a HOT

water duche....it felt very much like punishment for having sex. It hurt like hell!

[latebloomer]

3. Whoa!

How else were you tortured?

[patdem]

8. Well, I remember stretchintg my hands across the room

and touching both walls. And the length included a bed and about 1 foot to the window...so I figure my room measured 5 feet by 6 feet? give or take an inch or two?

[roughsatori]

2. My mind is being rather salacious now so I will refrain

from asking what first popped into my mind :P. Instead I ask you: How was the food? And how were they at teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic?

[patdem]

5. I discovered slow toast...that bread that is toasted from the inside out

and I love it to this day...I also discovered the difference between the taste of fresh chickens and grocery store chickens...I learned how to press sheets...and I was amoung the smartest kids however, I was also even then a rable rouser and ended up in solitary confinement for 20 days, sans books, clothes, bedding.

[roughsatori]

7. I was a Saint until the beginning of 11th grade

Then I dropped out of school to move in with a female drug dealer prostitute. I eventually got out of all of that, but Shirley remains one of the people I have loved the most in my life. She died of AIDS in prison a few years ago. She was a hell-raiser but incredibly funny and intelligent.

Now slow toast? To make it do I put it in the toaster on low heat? I love toast. It reminds me of when I had rheumatic fever and couldn't walk for over a year as a child. I was extraordinarily happy reading and eating tea and toast though.

[patdem]

10. No slow toast is put in the oven on a slow oven till the bread is

compeletly toasted...every part...It is like the salad cruellers...only a whole piece of bread! SO delicious...slow bake in the oven till there is NO softness to the bread....

My best friend in reform school escaped and became a prostitute in NY....she was gone for about a year before she was returned...We all hailed her for the escape and her life of freedom.

[short bus president]

4. Were you by any chance

in any of the "reform school girls" movies?

And didja ever knife anyone fer lookin' atcha funny?

[patdem]

6. No I never 'knifed' anyone..but I did punch out a 'lesbian'

cause I knew no better....and ended up in solitary confinment for 20 days....I and a friend heard that this 'lesbian' was attacking people in her dorm...so we agreed to punch her out when she walked by us....I punched...but my friend chickened out...and testified against me...so I alone spent 20 days in solitary for doing the dirty deed...and in fact the person I hit...was REALLY a NICE person...only I believed the gossip

[roughsatori]

9. You sound like you were a female, heterosexual version of

Jean Genet. Spiffy.

[JVS]

32. Did you get payback on your "friend" who ratted on you?

[patdem]

11. Who here knows ANYTHING about reform school?

how can this die when the guy that masterbates 7 times a day is promoted? I am completely dumbfounded?

[short bus president]

13. I'm just trying

to work up the courage to solicit you. ;-)

[patdem]

15. Solicit me for what? To explain reform school

solicit for what? Honey I am used goods....bruised goods....so what are you wanting to solicit?

[short bus president]

16. a reaction like that, primarily

but I'm sure you're full of fun stories. Do tell!

:P

[patdem]

18. Stories...I have stories that will make your hair curl

In fact I am thinking about writing a book...a reality book...not a 'girls in reform school' book...but the real reality which is not even cute!

[sasquatch]

12. Did your parents send you or did a juvenile court?

What act did you commit that got you sent there?

[patdem]

14. The first time my parents declared I was now I forgot the term

it meant they could not control me...so I got sent to reform school...the second time my probation officer promised me she would recommend me to be put up in a foster home...that was her promise to me so I would not run away again. I showed up for court, expecting her to recommend me to be put in a foster home...and she instead said I shoud be returned to Bon Aire (the reform school) I almost collapsed because all along she promised me she would suggest I be sent to a foster home....

[patdem]

23. Incoragible...now I remember...I was incoragible to my parents

so they turned me over to the state when I was 13 years old

[sasquatch]

17. Did you have a hard time in high school afterwards?

were your parents abusive? Why did you run away? Did you attend College afterwards? Did you graduate College with a degree? Do you have children that are rambunctios as you are?

[patdem]

20. I got a GED and my score was good enough for me to get into college

I attened college at Providence College, Norfolk State and Old Dominion but never received a degree...in fact I loved learning more than I considered a degree. I disagreed with several professors and decided I could not continue.

I am an extremely intelligent person. But I cannot accept the status quo I have always questioned authority...and that is partly why my mother hated me...I never said yes because yes was the easy way. My mother would be a very good Nazi....I on the other hand would be someone she would turn in...and make no mistake ...she would turn me in!!!

[patdem]

22. sasquatch...i could NOT go to school!!!

I skipped school every chance...My parents would drive me to school and I would walk into the front door and out the back... I hated school. Having been to reform school who could make me do anything? If I had a back door I was outta there! I cannot explain that? Other than freedom became more important than school?

[44wax]

19. I worked at a juvenile hall

There are 30 one person cells to a living unit. There were 5 units. At any given time we had 20 to thirty girls locked up in two coed units. Every now and then we would get a girl who could out smart and aggravate asshole staff. Invariably they would end up in a situation and be put on isolation. Most of these girls "knew the score" and if I was honest with them I could talk them out of trouble. They were also more creative in the type of shit they could stir up among kids and staff. Nothing more pathetic than a staff member with his/her knickers in a twist as the result of losing a power struggle with a kid. In your adventures in reform school were you able to make any positive connections with staff of any kind? Do you have any funny stories about assholel staff?

[patdem]

21. When I was incarcated it was cut the hair down to a curlers lenght

give then a permanent...and make then all look alike...today much is very different....no one goes to reform school for running away from home they all go to some happy place in psychology? I was thrown in with children who were guilty of having step fathers that raped them...I have so many stories so many atrocities and this was Virginia...can you imagine Alabama during this time?

[sasquatch]

24. That's Awful

I think it is great now to think that girls who runaway from home because of awful parents are given psycology instead of incarceration.

[patdem]

25. I agree....TOTALLY...one in 100 persons were criminals

most were just social infractions...running away...or when parents wanted the kid to just go away..they would claim incorrigable...the kid is just incorrigable....put him/her away!

[sasquatch]

26. We've made a lot of progress in child abuse

We used to think Girls or Boys that acted like that were just bad and the parents were never wrong because God said so:grr:

Now we now that most of the time they were victims of shity parents and "reform" would just make things worst most of the times.

[latebloomer]

27. or the kid's reacting

to some horrifically dysfunctional family situation-- parents are totally messed up but the kid gets defined as the problem.

[sasquatch]

29. Good point

That is a very good point.

[sasquatch]

28. Did you consider youself a criminal then or now looking back at it?

Or were you a victim of abusive or shity parents? You said your Mom was a good nazi was she abusive? If you don't want to say you can PM me and tell me I know others that can help because we've also walked that crooked mile. It has made me a different person which isn't bad but, I also get therapy because of my past and it helps.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

30. Have you ever considered writing a book?

My jaw is locked open and I can't get it off the floor.

People need to know about this. There are a lot of reasons why we shouldn't return to the "Good Old Days".

My heart aches for what you and the other girls must have suffered...

~hugs~

[pizzathehut]

31. But what else is there?

Like the kid that killed the 5 yr old girl simulating a wrestling move? You dont want to put them in prison with adults.