Hi Pookie,

I haven't checked this site for awhile, so I didn't respond to you -sorry!

No, I was never a patient at Gaebler. I'm just interested in it because I volunteer at a nearby psychiatric hospital. Plus I like to jog at Rock Meadow.

Your stories seem strange to me because the kids I work with don't really get "privileges" or anything like that. If a kid wants to leave the house for a bit I take them for walks all the time. I play basketball with them - but these kids REALLY suck :-) This is honestly the first time in my life I've ever been considered good at basketball.

I think the biggest change is how mental disease is managed. The kids I know stay in the program for a 2 months tops. Then they are managed through other systems. Keeping kids in a hospitalized setting seems cruel and really expensive.

Anyway, I'm super glad to hear you're doing well, and I hope the town does something nice with the land, although I doubt there's any budget for it right now.

Hi again pookie. I chatted briefly with
City counsilor who basically said they will prioritize Fernalds development before coming to a decision on what to do with Gaebler. The gist I get, and I could be completely wrong, is that Waltham is waiting for commercial real estate to recover before committing to anything.

Hey Pookie I saw it last night on my jog too. As far as I know you're not trespassing if you don't pass the fence. You're feelings must be mixed seeing it come down. I hope we take better care now of Children with family or mental issues than we did back then : my hunch is we treat them the same but a Pharmaceutical company gets a chunk of profit

Class of '65...People that share their memories are what keep sites like these cool; So thanks from me. Talking openly and honestly about things is a sign of strength, not weakness.

Besides, ideas like separating the vulnerable from society and exploiting them are ideas that don't really ever die. They just come in and out of fashion. So, it's best to understand what systems we built in the past, why they were wrong, and how we can avoid them in the future. In a small way, people like you help us reach that goal, IMHO.

Rod is probably responsible for the strict juvenile muder laws in MA: All 14+ murder defendants are tried as adults by law. I remember reading that he told his victim while leading him into the woods to his death "You never know when you need a baseball bat!"

Was There...actually Christina Hill was aquitted upon appeal. You can't legally say she killed anyone. I wonder what became of her?

Is anyone planning on visiting gaebler one last time? I'm really interested in seeing it and hearing stories about it before it's too late.