I was in there 8 months when I was 21. The hospital was built so that there were three nurses stations who were responsible for about two corridors of patients rooms, which was about 8 rooms with four people sharing each room. This was way back in 1982 by the way. I still remember the 3 nurses who were responsible for my section. One was a gorgeous 24 year old blonde who wore lipstick and nice dresses under her nurses smock most of the time, there was one nurse who the other nurses picked on sometimes. She was kind of plain looking but I thought she was OK.
The third nurse was a male which surprised me because I don’t think male nurses were as common 40 years ago as today. But he impressed me. I had a bunch of jobs before I got in, I had washed dishes, been a custodian, stocked shelves, worked at gas stations, cleaned carpets etc. But this guy was only twenty years old and I was impressed that he had such a responsible position at his age; a way better job than I ever had. I didn’t like him for quite awhile but then after some months passed I thought he was cool.
Then one morning after breakfast he said, “How would you like to go somewhere tonight.?” I was surprised but I said sure. So 5:00 pm rolled around and I got dressed and he took me to this Chinese restaurant. He said order anything and I ordered a big plate of food. I wasn’t sure why this was all happening out of the blue. But we ate and talked and a good time. On the drive back to the hospital he explained the whole thing. He said that once a year each nurse takes their favorite patient out to dinner, a one time thing. I was shocked. I never felt well liked and I kept to myself and didn’t talk much in the hospital. But this guy chose me out of 32 people as his favorite patient. I still remember feeling so good about myself that he picked me. It was one of the few rare good things that happened to me in the 8 months I was there.