camp myles standish

Hi All -
I grew up in the area and have some personal knowledge of the camp and school.
My Grandfather was an Engineer (train driver) for the Boston-New Haven Railroad. He actually piloted troop trains from Camp Miles Standish to Boston where they were loaded onto ships headed to Europe. He didn't talk about it much - pretty routine I guess. As a child in the late 50s & early 60s my father would take us through the area when we were out for "rides" - sometimes we would stop and see the pigs that were quartered in some of the run down wooden barracks that were still standing - that's right - live pigs. Back in those days, all the towns around had piggeries where edible garbage was "processed". In the late 70s, I worked as a Psychiatric Social Worker for the Mass DMH. I worked out of an outpatient facility in Brockton but would often be required to visit adult psychiatric patients at both Foxboro SH and Taunton SH. Neither of these were directly connected to the Dever School which was mainly for children and the severely retarded. I had occasion to visit Dever but had no official capacity there. One of the saddest things you ever want to see! Human warehouse. Someone mentioned Lakeville Hospital. Not related to either Dever or Taunton State - was originally a TB Sanatorium and later morphed into a long term chronic care facility. Never housed mentally ill patients as far as I know.