My Visit to Dozier Reform School today.. There are more bodies of boys and my thoughts....

The truth can be very freeing , lifting an emotional load through the pain of honesty. I went to the Dozier Reform School for boys in Marianna Florida today. They are still searching for buried bodies of  missing boys. Why  the visit?  Last night memories my childhood and Dad telling me stories. He said “ there are two places you don’t want to end up in Florida. One was a place for boys around Marianna . The other in Chattahoochee State Mental Hospital. This was the day I found out about a relative who resided in Chattahoochee until death.

My father was a great man with a rebel streak, so I must have come by mine honestly. The subject of the Boys facility came up during a story about stealing ( unknown long term loan)  relatives car and taking it to NYC for a joy ride.  NYC is a long way from Chiefland Florida. He did return with the car and his buddies in good shape.  Daddy spent a few nights in the “slammer” .The judge gave him a choice between  Reform School or the Navy . Off to the high seas he went with a smile and retired years later.

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 Have been trying to think about why I wanted to stop by there and see the place. It was like a strange closure of some type. In my mind I always wondered when Daddy would talk about things, how things like that could happen.  He knew firsthand and  I never questioned it. Will be honest and say.... In my mind ,as a child, there was some skepticism .

 The story of abuse varies with each person. The truth is quickly surfacing about the conditions these children lived under.  The good news , the world is watching in this age of technology.One photo struck me the most. The walls of the white house covered with blood. These walls never had to talk.They were there screaming the truth and people looked away. The children endured brutal punishment and many vanished into the night.

 Most of the boys were age 5-16.  Not all were at risk youth, the state kept foster children housed there as well. As the unearthing takes place, families and loved ones might get answers to questions launched many years ago.

The  White House Boys  is both a website and book detailing the horrors of Dozier.  Blogs are up of the survivors stories and God Bless them all. 

 I recall a boy in high school saying he was going there in the 1970's. Today the gates were locked and an eerie feeling set over the fence. I stood watching the wind blow over the grass  and through the lifeless white buildings.  Was murder was always there and we never took the time to notice it ? Did we feel differently then? How could this have happened ?

 I made a plan to visit  Daddy's grave later today and leave a fall bouquet of flowers. I felt the need to tell him he made a good choice. To let him know the truth has started coming out and he was right . I told him the survivors are now free to talk and tell the story without questions. He would be so proud of them. He never said how he knew of this place.... Just "it was bad".

 In closing....I stood looking through the locked gate today thinking...My thoughts were  interrupted by a man saying to me  "you really don't want to be in there". I thought the children did not either and not one person listened ......in 111 years.

                                                 THE WHITE HOUSE PLAQUE