Posts about my brother Mike.
Willowbrook Park was outside the grounds of Willowbrook, the institution. I remember the crunchy gravel, Mom called it ‘coke’, and the seagulls and pigeons. It was a desolate place. Most of the visitors were families of Willowbrook residents.
These are my brothers. My parents took us camping. I think we had fun. Dad used an umbrella to fan the camp fire, I helped put up the tents. We played ring-around-the-rosie.
Before Mike went away, Mom and Dad took us, Mike, Dave and me, on camping trips. I have mostly good memories of them. I think it was Dad who took the 8mm home movies of us kids playing Ring-Around-the-Rosie. When we got to the ‘all fall down’ part, Mike didn’t understand, so I good-naturedly jumped […]
Mom and Dad loved music. They listened to orchestral music and were captivated by opera. Dad would meticulously follow along in the score and the libretto was never out of arms reach. I can only imagine the wonderful times they had as a couple, listening together. “When Mike came on the scene, I never got […]
There was a park just outside the grounds of Willowbrook. We took Mike there a lot when we would visit. I remember once, when we seesawed together he got off at the bottom. I would still ride with him, but I was wary of his every move.
The swing set in the back yard had a glider, that’s the best way to describe it. There were two seats, and the riders would sit facing each other, feet on foot rests. Pushing and pulling, in cooperation, would start the ride. Mike never got it. This is Mike standing on that contraption.
I think this was taken by Mom in East Paterson. Dad is pushing Mike on the swing. I was a toddler when we lived there.
When our family went to visit Willowbrook, we would take him to nearby Al Deppe’s, a souped-up hot dog stand, somewhere on Victory Boulevard. My brother Dave and I played Ski-Ball and marveled at the piano-violin machine that would play duets at the drop of a quarter. I was always wary because I never knew […]
My brother Mike went away to Willowbrook, a large mental institution (6000 residents) on Staten Island in New York State, USA. If you search for ‘Willowbrook’ and ‘atrocities’ on the internet, you will get more than 45,000 hits. The horrors were exposed in 1972 after which, New York State took actions that addressed the conditions. […]
