Margo Macartney

Remembering Margo

“What Margo helped me understand a little better was the paradox at the heart of Synanon, and for that I am grateful to her. I wish she could have stuck around a little longer for some more connection and searching after understanding.”

David Gerstel
Margo in Bisbee Click to Read Memories of Margo
Margo & Helise
Margo & Helise – Click to read Poem to Margo’s Mate
Click to Read Irving’s interview
photo Hugh Jeri and Margo 2
Margo, Jarrie and Hugh
Margo & Helise
Margo and John Peterson
Margo & John Peterson Wedding – Click to read Margo’s story
Margo - Newcomer 1963
Margo – Newcomer @ 1963 Click to read her story
Margo with Helise and Niece Amy
Margo with Nieces Amy, Sylvia and Sadie the Dog

I Loved Margo

By Gita Endore I loved Margo. And Margo let you love her. I remember her from Santa Monica. My dad was writing a book on Synanon and Margo’s job was typing up and re-typing up the corrections. Were there computers then, they would not have been compatriots. They were often together in that little office…

by synanonstories

Dick Greenway by Margo Macartney

Most of us living in Synanon were drug addicts and alcoholics during the early sixties. We lived in the Old Armory, 1351 Ocean Front, Santa Monica,. But not everyone had an addictive history. Throughout my time in Synanon, there were people whose families had not wanted to institutionalize them, but they were people who needed…

by Margo Macartney
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2 responses to “Margo Macartney”

  1. Gary Williams Avatar
    Gary Williams

    As was the case often in Synanon, I knew of Margo before I met Margo. That’s kind of the way it goes with a close-knit family the size of ours. She was Margo Stern back then in 1972. I had heard of her vicariously as I listened to tapes about her husband Chester and his shenanigans. I worked with her in 1975 at the school in Barn #4, we were both Demonstrators along with Ann Wisser, Linda Simon and others. Jarrie Tent was running things at the school in Tomales. At that point Margo was one of the older, old timers around in Synanon time…and that was saying a lot for being in Tomales. By 1975 Chester had already split and from what I could tell, Margo was a good fit in the school, working with the youngsters who were somewhere between eight and twelve years old. But then again, what did I know? After three years in Synanon, I was still wet behind the ears having just rotated to Tomales as a member of the Breeders. Margo was down to earth and made me feel welcome. She was complicated and although she had come through the same door as I, only well over a decade earlier, she never struck me as being quite as comfortable as I had thought one should or would be after so many years.
    We were all kind of in some sort of purge and churn mode where big time changes were coming at us seemingly on a weekly basis and the longer one had been in Synanon, the closer one’s value to the family might get scrutinized or analyzed in a Game. It seemed like all was in flux more so than usual. Old timers were being sent out to work, diets were changing, we were getting lean and maybe a little mean, and I think that there were more people in Synanon at that time than ever before. At that point in Synanon’s history I could only faintly imagine what Margo had seen and experienced as the wheel turns and who’s on top today might find a restive subterfuge in the pot sink next week. Oh, she had been a wonderful team player as we all did yeoman’s work attending to the daily lives of a young David Akey, John Paul Jones, Karen Wegerbauer, Denver Cook, Grant McDaniel, John Spataro, Nicole & Alex Wisser, and the like. Great kids all, and I enjoyed every minute of the four months or so that I worked with them along with Margo and the rest of the staff by my side, but that was at the very beginning of some monumental changes and perhaps Margo was sensing some things on a deeper level that few could perceive. I didn’t get to know Margo very well because my journey in Tomales was just beginning and from what I have learned of her story, hers was still to be filled with many twists and turns and great accomplishments. I read and enjoyed her book while I marveled at her ability to study, pass the BAR and write of one of her more meaningful cases. She was a hero in my small world, as I view all that I worked with and shared some experiences with as heroes that helped to get me through the reformation of a life worth living during a small space in time half a century ago.

    Reply
    1. Elena Broslovsky Avatar
      Elena Broslovsky

      Thank you Gary for sharing these memories of Margo

      Reply

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