MEMORIES
Maxine (Mac) Holden

Mrs. Sally Turner


Mrs. Turner was the housemother over the big girls building and was in charge of the kitchen, also.  I have a lot of stories about my time in Bonny Oaks but the one that stands out the most is the affection Mrs. Turner showed toward her girls (as she called them).

She would tell us ghost stories while a bunch of us would sit around the big stainless steel table in the kitchen. One girl said she heard that if you boil straight pins long enough, you would get in touch with someone departed in your family. Of course I thought of my deceased father and wasn't exactly sure about this thing. I didn't know if I wanted to talk to a dead person or not.

Being the good sport Mrs. Turner was, she gathered the pins and started the boiling. After awhile, we heard footsteps on the back steps and everyone froze with bugged eyes. When the door opened, everyone screamed.  It was my brother, Ed Holden, delivering milk for the next day. Ed was more scared than we were and dropped the milk can spilling it's contents all over the floor.  After it was all over with, we all had a big nervous laugh.  I think that was the last of the ghost stories.

By the way, my sister Fran Holden, was the one who would not let them shingle all her hair off.

Lost on the Mountain

This is the time I got lost on a mountain.  Sometimes our memories are not as good as we would like for them to be.  In my case, it was getting lost on a mountain at the age of 11.


It was a real treat to leave the School for a picnic with all the girls from Bonny Oaks and have this outing in the mountains.  I can't remember which mountain it was.

While everyone was enjoying the festivities, I wandered away from the group because I could hear the faint sound of a waterfall.  I just had to see it so I kept wandering toward the sound as it was getting louder.

I just knew I would find it but also realized I had been gone a long time and started back to the group.  Suddenly I came to a fork in the road and took the wrong road which led me deeper into the woods.

I didn't really start to get scared until it started to get dark.  I realized then I was lost.  I became frantic and ran through briars and underbrush until I was exhausted.  I was pretty scratched up.

Even though night was approaching, I remember it was a beautiful moon-lit night and I could see many trails through the woods.  Of course I was crying out of fear and remember saying, "Dear God, just let me choose the right path".

I started down one of the paths and it led me to this house where (believe it or not) a woman was drawing water from a well.  I ran to her and embraced her around the waist and between sobs, tried to tell her I was lost.

These wonderful people didn't have electricity, indoor plumbing or a phone but fed me and bathed my scratches in alcohol.  I can still see the kerosene lamps they had.

The husband went down the hill to a neighbor's house and called the School to let them know I was there.  A few hours later, Dr. Lindsey (I think), showed up with all these people who had been searching for me.

They were mostly Boy Scouts and I learned later that there were about 300 of them.  When I was taken back to the School, I had a joyous reunion with my friends and was so thankful to be home.

This experience did leave an impact on me and, to this day, I am still afraid of getting lost.  I do have happier memories and I'll share them later.

There's a cute anecdote about Mac making up Bible verses on her sister Fran Holden's "Memories" page/cgh

Baptismal

Here is my Baptismal story and I hope that anyone who reads it will see the humor in it, as I still do today.


Every time we had a new preacher, he would preach Hell-fire and Damnation and that if we weren't baptized, we would go to Hell.  Not wanting to go THERE, I would get saved and be baptized.

Every 3 or 4 months we would get a new preacher who would preach the same message so here I go down the aisle to be saved and eventually be baptized again.

It's a wonder I didn't drown or grow fins in that Baptismal.  I think I almost learned to swim in it, too.  I would say that during my time at Bonny Oaks, I was baptized at least 15 times.

I was too young to know the true meaning of being baptized.  The last time was when I was pregnant with my twins and that time it was the real thing.

Mail Order Picture

One time at Bonny Oaks, I saw an article in a magazine where you could order a picture of Christ, kneeling in prayer , and it glowed in the dark.  I thought this was the most amazing thing so I ordered it from the magazine thinking it was free.

I did receive the portrait and it did glow in the dark for awhile.  I stared at it every night. Then it started to  lose it's glow so I decided to put it on top of the lamp by my bed so it would take in the light and maybe help it glow again.

One day I put it on top of the lamp, hoping it would restore it's glow.  I forgot it was there and when I finally did remember it was there, it had burned the whole picture where you couldn't see anything.

I was so sad to think of the trouble I went through for this great portrait of Christ.  Then I was called into the office because the school had received a bill for this portrait.  But when they found out I was at Bonny Oaks, they dismissed it.