Christmas at the Linn County Home, 1978 ~

I was just finishing my penultimate semester at Cornell College.  Janet and I had gotten married the preceding May and she graduated the day after.  For the first several years of our relationship Janet had planned to go to seminary after college and become a Methodist minister.  I had been anticipating becoming a minister’s husband.  Towards the end of her junior year she had decided that Christianity was inherently and irredeemably sexist.  She chose instead to go to social work school.  Since her degree was in English, she could find only one graduate program that accepted people without a social work-related undergraduate degree – the University of Iowa.  But she needed to get some social work experience before applying and thus she got a job as a recreation therapist at the Linn County Home.

Iowa no longer has the county home system.  It began back in the state’s early days as the county poor farm.  If you were destitute or disabled or a ward of the state you were lodged at the county farm and put to work to the best of your ability.  By 1978 the destitute were no longer part of the county home system but it continued to house, feed and care for the wards of the state – people who for one reason or another could not survive alone.  This caring institution was destroyed by the Reagan revolution and the people were cast out to fend for themselves.  The trickle down happened, but it wasn’t wealth.  America became a meaner place. 

The Linn County home had residents of all sorts of backgrounds and capacities and disabilities.  There were Downs Syndrome residents, developmentally delayed residents, schizophrenic residents, and late-stage incorrigible alcoholics.  Janet’s job was to give them something to do other than watch TV.  I frequently went to volunteer and help out.  I shot pool with the alcoholics.  I did that anyway outside the county home.  I chaperoned movie trips.  That’s how I saw Smokey and the Bandit – with a busload of residents.  They loved it!  I also came to help out at the county home’s parties including the Christmas party.

Most of the residents had severe mental restrictions with an intelligence and IQ below 80, if not 75.  To them, Santa was a god, if not The God.  Jesus was some nebulous idea, but once a year they got to actually be in the presence of the divine – Santa came to visit.  There was no holier or happier or exciting day at the county home than the night that Santa came.  Most of the residents were on their best behavior the weeks before the party.  They knew he was coming.  They knew that He knew whether they had been naughty or nice.

The recreation staff planned for the event by collecting presents for each resident.  They tried very hard to match the present to the resident and their interests.  Food service put a lot of effort into making it a special meal.  One of the recreation staff, Carrie, was in a musician family and was able to snag a good band for the dance.  Staff members brought their kids in.  It was a party for all and the best place to catch the Christmas spirit.

To see the photographs referenced in this essay go to Photographs by Number gallery 00025 or my Photo Catalog gallery 1978 December.