Showing posts with label Cherokee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cherokee. Show all posts

Excerpt--February-April 1969: Driven

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The Long Road to Cherokee
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(Cherokee, Iowa)

Driven:
To the institution. I remember this part in black and white. The police car threaded up a hill, wheels crunching the ice. 

Excerpt moved to Memoir Madness

Excerpt--Other Patients in the Institution: Perky Penny

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I don’t know why Penny’s* here in the first place--she’s been here over a year--and she keeps flip-flopping between Wards 2 and 4--maybe it’s because she’s mouthy and sassy and takes no lip from the staff. I call her Perky Penny.

Excerpt--Other Patients in the Institution: Carrie the Cutter

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(Cherokee, Iowa)

February 1969

I’m worried about Carrie*, a 15-year-old girl I have befriended. She shuffles between Ward 2 (wacko unit) and Ward 4, depending on her behavior. She’s on 4 now, but I’m afraid she’s headed back to 2 very soon.

Excerpt moved to Memoir Madness

Excerpt--Other Patients in the Institution: Joyce

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(Cherokee, Iowa)

February-April 1969

If Penny is a lost kid dumped into the institution and Carrie a bonafide wacko, then Joyce* is just plain scary.

Other Patients in the Institution: D.J., The Mighty Sage

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February - April 1969

I meet a new friend today--it’s kind of cold, a cruddy day, but I have to get out of that stuffy ward and take a walk, get away from Carrie and her wild escape stories.

Excerpt Moved to Memoir Madness

Excerpt--The Institution: Proving My Sanity

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Staff meeting today. About 30 or so doctors and nurses sit in on this gala affair. More like the gallows. I’m not sure why they have these meetings--I feel like a bug stuck on a pin, struggling for life.

When Carrie had her staff meeting a few months ago, she ran out in the middle of it, and ended up on locked ward for two months.

Excerpt Moved to Memoir Madness

The Other Patients in the Institution: Anna on the Lam

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February - April 1969

What a wild weekend. Anna, a chick who was admitted shortly after me, and her boyfriend Benito, took off from the hospital on Saturday. I knew that they were planning an escape, but I didn’t say anything to the staff. I figure it was their bag--they would have to suffer the consequences, whatever that might be.

Excerpt Moved to Memoir Madness

Excerpts from Memoir Madness: Moved to MemoirMadness.com


Six-word Memoir: Escape

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Released from Cherokee, I fled Iowa.



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"Escape" is copyright 2008, Jennifer Semple Siegel.

Text may not be republished or reposted without permission.

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Six-word Memoir: Cherokee

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I was committed, against my will.


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"Cherokee" is copyright 2008, by Jennifer Semple Siegel.

This text may not republished or reposted without permission.

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"Jennifer Juniper," Donovan Leitch, 1968 (YouTube)

Jefferson Airplane

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Jefferson Airplane: "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love"

Jefferson Airplane performing live both "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love" on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. More
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