Book Pile

talk about no one reading anymore...

geez, this is wierd

How sad to see that pile of books just rotting like that..

Fragments of the past, scattered to our feet

disturbing Motts, very much so

How many little hands touched those books and where are they now..............

Very sad and tragic picture;makes me wonder more than ever what happened to the children who lived here.

i would have taked a couple home with me.

(LOL) I was just thinking how I would probably get caught under the load of 60# of books or they'd find me sitting & reading them for hours on end...

My work-study job in college was in the library and I feel a spiritual connection to books but here - this is incredible!

the little hands that touched those books are now living in neighborhoods near you. check out the local agencies that have group homes for the mentally retarded, all those little hands are grown up now

sadly i know a few of the pennhurst people who went in there as young children are now adults wandering aimlessly around town unable to function without help...........sad

Reminds me of that scene from Ferenheit 451 where they are burning all the books....

From the few titles I could make out, they're school books. I also think they're from the 60's as a couple covers look familiar

I bet you could get a pretty penny if you took those books to an antiquity book store.

They're water damaged school books. You wouldn't be able to give them away. Used book and record stores are very picky. They only want certain things.

i just hate to see books rotting away like this. but i suppose you attend to the urban explorer's rules very strictly, or what?

Would love to save all of those books and display them

Someone piled the books like that because they dont just fall to the floor and make a nice neat pile....

BOOKS!!!!!!!! MY weekness!!!!! I would have loved to just spend the day going through all of them!

oh, my. such a beautiful image, but scrolling down throught the comments the mention of Farenheit 451 just made me so sad. I wish someone would take the books and restore them. They're so facinating.

Wow, thats amazing. I love old books and i think its sad that all that knowledge is rotting at our feet.

that's one of those simple objects that still seem really creepy things... yeah, that's weird
~Cortni~

I just got home from Pennhurst and it was amazing... need to go back again to see more but its crazy that i saw those same books... wow... my cousin took one... creepy.

Mott, can you remeber anything else of the books you found?

If you look closely at the blue and red books that stand out most, you'll see a picture of a boy and a girl at a... computer? (that's on fire??) - Never the less, it's definately educational and it's possibly for language remediation. It wouldn't suprise me given it's location. I think the title for the book spells "Developing For (or From) Language".
But then don't judge a book by it's pixelated cover.

There's another one. a blue paperback that almost looks like it spells "REITERATE" with a distinct "A" at it's begining which confuses things.

Feel free to expand, anyone.

That's ARITHMETIC.

How sad that those books are just laying and rotting, those are probably worth a fortune now. Such a shame to see any book just writhe away like that.

I think the red and blue book is "Developing Your Language"

Cecilia, I just found this site. Yes those little hands are men and women entering their senior citizen age, or late fifties. These individuals yes can be your neighbors. Many were placed in CLA's, they are facing years of torture and abuse, rejection and frustrated cause they were nevered Loved. They are having nighmares and cringe hearing the word Pennhurst. Some not able to tell their stories cause have can not communicate, mostly cause they were afraid to speak or never taught to speak. I know this cause I work with many individuals who were "patients" and "residents" of Pennhurst.

To all of you who think going in there for fun to get your picture, thank God that you were not forced to go there and that you are going there at your own free will and at a time when it is closed. It is not a playground, It was a place where human rights were not practiced or even respected. If those walls could talk.

Marcia, darlin', hide your head and don't look for a little while. :-)

Where's that potato when we need him/her?

people were sent there because their families were ashamed of their children, some were sent there because the police and social workers (child welfare) found these children in unfit homes only to be taken from one section of hell to a worst section of hell, they were sexually abused and overmedicated and strcited from any individual rights.

If you actually "cared" you wouldn't make such ugly, blanket statements. To slam families who sent their child to a residential facility because it was the usual practice at the time is a cruel and hurtful thing to say. There may have been a handful of families who were embarrassed, but that was mostly because of how they were treated by others. And just like in every other home there may have been children who were abused, but tell me that doesn't happen today and with so-called "normal" children in "normal" families. "Unfit homes," my aching behind! You have made such ugly and hurtful charges against such a large segment of the population that I am stunned. The families of individuals who lived (and in some cases still live) in residential facilities are some of the kindest, gentlest, most caring people I have ever met. The pain and guilt that many of them went through (and in many cases still have) about sending their child away is some of the deepest and most grievous pain I have ever encountered. To call their homes "hell" makes me wonder about the deepest recesses of YOUR own personal soul (or perhaps your total lack of knowledge about these families). And then to assume that every single person was then sexually abused and tormented is just as sick. People like you frighten me, especially when you hide behind the "I care" label. What you care about is muckraking and voyeurism, and that is what "hell" is. My guess - you stir it up all the time and make life hell for others and then act self-righteous about it.

[Steps off soapbox and picks up bull's eye target to attach to shirt.]

It's just a pile of discarded books which are no longer of any use. Not every single book ever made can or should be kept forever. Many books lose their usefullness over time due to becoming obsolete or damage.

Those books look like old textbooks that are in no condition to be used. Due to their age they are probably useless as textbooks and certainly their condition makes them so. The only value they may still have is historical, and you don't need a bunch of copies of the same book for historical preservation. One or two of the same book is good enough, and I would bet you that the Library of Congress already has a copy of every one of those books.

As to the comment that one could sell them for a lot of money. Doubtfull. A book needs to be more than just old and worn looking to be sold as an antique. It has to have some historical signifigance, and be in at least decent shape. Doubt any of the books in that picture has those characteristics.

The only thing sad about that picture is the fact that someone failed to dispose of those books properly. They shouldn't have been just dumped in a pile in a school yard or wherever that is.

It's not a symbol of a society reading less, or the education system roting, or whatever. It's just a sign of someone being sloppy and not correctly disposing of no longer usable books.

I think they were in boxes. Look closely, and see the remains of the boxes that once held them. Somebody might had come along and pulled the boxes apart, looking for something valuable.

Hmm...I'd like to sift through some of those...

What a waste of perfectly good books! Granted that they are somewhat dated, but they could've been extricated from the buildings when they were abandoned and donated to some schools that don't have a lot of money. There's no sense in leaving them there to rot in a forgotten heap. How sad.

Move over Katie, I'll join you!

i found a few books when i was there ... not sure if theyre from the same building... they were just thrown in some bushes outside one of the buildings... but there was a book full of piano music and a childrens book about submarines. i was contamplating taking one home, but it just felt wrong so i put it back where i found it. very interesting though.

what room are they in??

looks like they like to read

"And then to assume that every single person was then sexually abused and tormented is just as sick."

Well, Lynne, this post is about two years late, but I still feel very compelled to post a comment regarding your above rant... I have been reading most of the comments put on Opacity, including yours, and I have to say that as hurtful as it may be to you to think ppl here were tortured and abused, sexually, mentally, and physically, you need to get a grip. I know u work in a facility and have at lots of others. You may not abuse your patients, (the world applauds u for not), but I guarantee you someone else does. Why is it so hard for you to imagine this abuse took place here and also on so many other institutional grounds? Of course there will be exceptions, but according to all the websites Motts posted here documenting the abuse, apparently it was the RULE. For ppl to believe this happened does NOT make them sick or demented. And I believe the person who posted did say "many people," not all.

Not everyone wears rose-colored glasses, and maybe u should take yours off.

[Yawn]

I want one that says "How to Get Your Younger Sister to Shut Up". My sister is yakking on and on, and it's driving me NUTS!!!!

how boring *sleeps* ive found old books in my home and piled them up and burnt them.

oh, hell no, i am insulted. i was given one of these books as matter of course in publick skool

*For Future Reference: people like Lynne who post here are NOT denying what happened. (consider unseen abuse going on right now in miscellaneous, ordinary looking homes) Rather, it's a clarifying thought that there are people in the mental health field working like heck to make sure that the system does not automatically mean a horrible end at the hands of The Uncaring.

boy,those are older then a lot of stuff

Yeah its a shame that the books weren't dispose of in a proper manner or recycled....unless of course someone may have wanted them. I guess I'll not ever understand why when any hospital or company closes (or in this case shut down) why is so much left behind?? All the equipment and most importantly the medical records should be diposed of properly....not just left for vandels to steal and destroy.....I'll not ever ever understand this ...........

hey motts,
I like to join this comment. I'm not a spy. But I'm interresting in this story of pinnhurst. what type of books are they thats piled up on the floor? I'm just wondering. I hope not any trouble.

wow.

and what is even sadder is that a lot of the people in Pennhurst state school could not even read let alone talk or even walk they sat in their own filth for days before an atendant could help them

Wow. Yeah, I totally believe in the "leave only footprints" kind of thing but it would have been so tempting to sack a couple of those .. maybe just flip through one and put it back?