Comments on: Random Thoughts From Childhood-Dark Clouds Building

By: Mat

Mat — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 03:16:58 +0000

Suzanne it was great to read your post. That goes for any of the Ivy House alumni that have posted a comment to one of my stories. I agree 100% about your assessment of Ivy House. I started looking for information on Ivy House several years ago and found much of nothing. I contacted the Salvation Army in Philadelphia to request an alumni list but, was told there was not one. I got to visit Ivy House about 2 years ago while I was in Philadelphia and it sure brought back a lot of memories. I would love to communicate with any Ivy House alumni to just reminisce about the good times we had and to find out if anyone knows what became of the house parents and/or other kids. If you or any other alumni want to chat, I can be reached at ivyhouse72@yahoo.com.

By: Suzanne

Suzanne — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 02:42:35 +0000

I’m so sorry that your memories of Ivy House are so sad. I moved in on November 17,1969, Thursday afternoon, 2:15, an hour before the other children came home from school, Gompers Elementary, with my brother and two sisters. My houseparent was Ms. Ryan, not so nice, but whatever, I was just taken from my mom, again. That’s how vivid that memory is still today. Sounds so bad, right? Not at all. Ivy House was the best thing that could have happened to my family and me, even if we couldn’t see it at the time.

I personally loved it. I met my best friend on the first day in cottage 1, in the girls bathroom, sitting on the floor talking. I had just turned 8 yrs old a month earlier. Thirty-nine years later, we’re still the best of friends. What I got from Ivy House was a new, bigger family, since it held 48 kids, 16 kids per cottage. I remember some kids who had hard times and felt that I somehow had to defend them. My sister and brother fell into that category. They just couldn’t accept their circumstances and were angry and bitter.

Somehow, I grew up very quickly, especially after my best friend’s sister continually told me how I would graduate from high school living in Ivy House. Never would I believe it. “Nuh uh”, I’d say, “My mom said we are going home soon.” After a year I began to tell my brother and sisters that mommy wasn’t gonna take us home because she had no money and didn’t know how to take care of us.

I graduated from high school ten years later, living in Ivy House. We went to all the Jackson 5 concerts, hit Coney Island every summer (xmas in July), and began driving the Ivy house vans and station wagons, after I passed my drivers test at Belmont Police Barracks, at 16 years old.

Not everyone, well very few, had the kind of experience I had growing up in Ivy House. I learned that you better get your education and be self-sufficient, because you can’t depend on others taking care of you. That may sound sad. But my best friend, her family, me and my family, learned how to survive and thrive. I learned not to be a baby mama because you might lose your kids. I also learned how to work, starting with the chores we had, starting out at $.50 in cottage 1 and graduating to $1.50 by cottage 2.

When I left Ivy House, I had saved up $2700.00 from working odd jobs and waitressing at IHOP. I can’t complain, but could see many who could. I guess each person receives the hand they’re dealt differently. Sitting together for breakfast, playing basketball in the gymanasium, playing on the running tree, are fond memories for me. At 17 yrs old, I left for college and so my life goes…

By: C.J. MacKechnie

C.J. MacKechnie — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:31:48 +0000

Even with all that is against foster kids today and back then. We have had to adapt and overcome each and every unknown situation that seem to just explode into our lives. Yet , we all have to decide if we will become that better human being that every says we are not or use that as an excuse to take another drink or hit of that drug. Succoming to the belief that we (foster kids) are worthless and undeserving of love. Which is not true. We foster kids have great worth and are very deserving to be loved. A foster kids only crime is that to have been born to bad parents.