When I was in 6th grade I volunteered at the nursing home across the street from the middle school. (My mother was the only person who called me a "candy striper.") I don't remember how long I did it - certainly no longer than a few months - and I don't remember much of what we were asked to do. Just mail delivery. So instead of having a complete and balanced recollection of my time at Maplewood Manor, I have two very vivid and personally disturbing images:
The first was on the elevator down to the lobby. I was alone for a ride of just one floor with a resident. He was very old and not entirely sane so when he asked me (12 years old) for a kiss, I politely declined. As the doors opened on the lobby floor he was walking toward me with his lips puckered. I bolted. Seriously, ran like hell.
The second, and last memory I have of the place was in the common area. I was reading the jokes in a large-print Reader's Digest. There was only one other person in the room. An elderly lady watching a TV show on the couch across from mine. She kept drifting off to sleep. I had been there for a good half hour when I noticed her hand was moving, gently and fluttering, on her genitals.
So now of course I look back on that and think, "Good for old lady sexuality! Maybe not in a room with a terrified 12 year old volunteer, but she probably didn't know what she where she was anyway." At the time, I was done. No, thank you. Dudes with dentures trying to get close in the elevator, and a little clitoral rubbing in the common room: not my thing. I still don't ever want to go back there, and won't if I can help it.
Posted by liz at December 2, 2004 01:21 PMmy last volunteer job resulted in similarly bad experiences...
i was 15
1) 250 lb. 5' girl stripping in the middle of the mall.
2) 23 year old boy writing me a letter saying if i didn't go out with him he'd kill himself.
3) 20 year old boy with cerebral palsy dying, and hearing 10 of his retarded classmates talk at the funeral--saddest thing ever.
4) getting hit over the head with a stainless steel lunch box.
5) having to wash the same girls armpits every morning because she stunk so bad.
apparently you learned your lesson, whereas i did not and 6 years later i decided to go work at a group home where i got scabies and attacked with a shard of glass (at least that time i got paid).
Posted by: melanie at December 2, 2004 03:33 PMGive please. What's the earth With all its art, verse, music, worth - Compared with love, found, gained, and kept? Help me! Can not find sites on the: Acai berry in india. I found only this - acai berrys. You be well on your way to more energy, and dropping pounds and inches in no time. Place on the web for bulk wholesale acai. Best regards :-(, Reuben from Burma.
Posted by: Reuben at August 15, 2009 01:53 PMGood Day. I have come to the conclusion that politics are too serious a matter to be left to the politicians. Help me! It has to find sites on the: Vibramycin with methadone. I found only this - vibramycin syrup. Vibramycin, usually, they have effective infections and will upward piss to get the toxicity of swings. Vibramycin, fed not with your sick foam living? THX :-), Dyanne from Vanuatu.
Posted by: Dyanne at February 23, 2010 01:52 AM