| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Tracey |
Posted - Feb 01 2007 : 4:53:58 PM
...cemetary??? I love cemetaries, always have. DD appears to have inherited my fondness for them. I've been known to make City Boy pull over so I could go check them out while we're driving down back country roads.
How about you?
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| 25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| FarmGirl~K |
Posted - Feb 05 2007 : 10:35:22 AM
Thanks for the links to the websites. I will have to look when I get more of a chance than 15 min break at work  They look pretty interesting. Especially the grave addiction one since there are so many other places to look at too. Living here in TX I do not see too many cemetaries. Kind of have to go out of your way to find them in my area. When I lived in NY there were many. My grandma used to live down the street from some & my uncle worked at one as well. I wonder if he ever saw anything strange. Unfortunately he's no longer alive, so I can't ask. My grandma used to take us when we were kids to see where her parents were buried.
"Work as if you were to live a hundred years, pray as if you were to die tomorrow." ~Benjamin Franklin~
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| Tracey |
Posted - Feb 05 2007 : 07:05:43 AM
Haven't seen zinc, but we've got a few that are wood that the information has all worn off from. The marble ones are holding up pretty well, though.
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| Amie C. |
Posted - Feb 05 2007 : 05:46:54 AM
Have any of you ever seen zinc tombstones? They look pretty much the same as any other, maybe a little more blue-gray in color. When you knock on them you can tell they are hollow and metallic. They were popular for a brief time in the late 1900s. My husband really wants one for his grave but I don't think they make them anymore (reason he wants one is because they do not wear away like marble, you can still read them easily after 100 years). |
| Horseyrider |
Posted - Feb 05 2007 : 04:09:04 AM
jpbluesky, the one that I saw is in the tiny town of Ohio Illinois. That's south and west of Rockford/Cherry Valley. It's about ten feet tall, maybe more; and at first glance you'd swear it's a dead tree in the cemetery. But just like you described, there are names on the branches....
It must've been a style around here at one time. It sure is beautiful; it looks to be cast in cement instead of carved, and the detail is amazing. |
| bboopster |
Posted - Feb 03 2007 : 6:50:51 PM
DH and I always stop at the cemeteries. We have seen some very cool ones in Mexico. We will be taking the Great River Road this year from Wisconsin to New Orleans by motorcycle, i'm sure we will run acrossed some good ones. Tracey, your DD sounds very charming. 
3 Blue Star Mother and Proud of it!
Pray for our troops to come home safe and soon.
Enjoying the road to the simple life :>) |
| Tracey |
Posted - Feb 03 2007 : 5:56:19 PM
City Boy and I both have said we'd like to be cremated. Simpler, I guess, and takes up less land. Not that I'm into the whole "there's not enough land to feed the people" theory, but I'd rather see it in farmland than graveland 
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| Forrester Farm |
Posted - Feb 03 2007 : 2:05:19 PM
This topic really started quite a conversation with my husband and I about burials. It seems as though so many people get cremated now - much more than in the past. What are your thoughts on that? Ann
http://annforrester.tohe.com
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| Tracey |
Posted - Feb 03 2007 : 11:29:09 AM
Well, I just had to do it...couldn't help it! Now I'll have one more thing to snatch away my time doing...travelling to area cemeteries looking for the perfect photo op!
http://marbletownangels.blogspot.com/
(Sounds like a baseball team, don't you think? The Marbletown Angels...I can see it now, Darling and her friends all dressed up in gothic make-up playing ball at the local graveyard...Rosemary, you in?)
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| Rosemary |
Posted - Feb 02 2007 : 4:55:22 PM
Oh, my! www.graveaddiction.com is great! Many of the symbols on the list of gravestone carvings were previously unknown to me. I was reminded that there was a winged skull at the top of Thomas Davis's headstone (he of Dorchester, late of Nantucket, so to speak). I'm going back for more browsing now.
That Potter's Field place is sad, isn't it? Nice that they cleaned it up, though. I wonder what a mixed achievement it was to be #1 there. Hmm. |
| Tracey |
Posted - Feb 02 2007 : 4:02:09 PM
Kelly, I saw a sign like that years ago at a cemetery as well. Too funny!
Rosemary, thanks for the condolences on Darling's warped mind...somehow I'm doubting your sincerity, though... And also, thanks for the compliment on the photos...not so good as City Boy spent more money than I deserve on a camera. Seriously...I've no clue how to work the bloomin' thing unless it's in point and shoot mode. What a waste, eh? I swear some day I'll learn...
I was looking for cemetery websites; found one called 'Grave Addiction'...don't you love it?! http://www.graveaddiction.com/sunacre.html
Golly, we're a warped and feaky bunch! So glad E-less pointed me in this direction (come on, e-less...haven't you gotten your password working yet?)
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| jpbluesky |
Posted - Feb 02 2007 : 2:27:59 PM
MAry Ann - the tree stone I talked of was near Rockford and Cherry Valley Illinois. Do you think it could be the same one?
Ephesians 1:17 |
| Amie C. |
Posted - Feb 02 2007 : 12:50:05 PM
My hometown of Rochester has one cemetery in particular that really stands out. Mt. Hope Cemetery is supposedly the first municipal Victorian cemetery in the US (founded 1838). What makes it really cool are the famous people buried there, like Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass, and the glacial geographic features of the land. Mt. Hope is full of dramatic hills and deep glacial kettles and eskers. Apparently, there used to be lots of these features around the area but most of them were leveled to build houses by the early 20th century. It's an impressively beautiful place to visit. I especially am drawn to the overgrown areas, where I have come across Civil War graves buried in the underbrush (I've gotten poison ivy there more than once, but it's worth it). |
| Nancy Gartenman |
Posted - Feb 02 2007 : 11:31:48 AM
WOW, I thought Richard and I were strange, well maybe we are, but anyway we love walking around cemeteries, have been doing that since we were dating. Kelly, once in a while we go to Forest Lawn, but for the most part we find really old run down cemeteries to go visit, I figure those people need the company.
www.Nancy-Jo.blogspot.com |
| lilpunkin |
Posted - Feb 02 2007 : 10:44:46 AM
Kelly, That is hilarious, Dead End! I guess that would be something we would laugh at. LOL!
Life isn't measured by how many breaths you take, but by how many moments take your breath away. |
| FarmGirl~K |
Posted - Feb 02 2007 : 10:36:27 AM
When I still lived in NY there was a cemetary we visited every spring. Forest Lawn Cemetary. It is beautiful there. We always fed the ducks & looked at all the memorials they have there. There is one for President Millard Fillmore and the Blocher Family Monument. The Blocher one is gorgeous. It is enclosed in glass. It has statues of a mother & father standing over their son who has just died & an angel overhead. Story I heard was that he had died of a broken heart. I am not sure the story is true, but it still is nice to look at. Really a peaceful place. I guess they all are though.
A funny side note... one summer while we were up visting, we were on our way to a concert & got stuck in traffic. While sitting there I looked to my right & noticed a small cemetary & the small road next to it had a sign that said Dead End. I couldnt help but laugh. where was my camera when I needed it?
"Work as if you were to live a hundred years, pray as if you were to die tomorrow." ~Benjamin Franklin~
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| catscharm74 |
Posted - Feb 02 2007 : 09:39:26 AM
Yes, found some longs lost relatives in once and took a friend with me who also like cemetaries to have lunch with them. We talked about our family and we left flowers on each grave. Then we wandered around saying "hello" to their neighbors. I like to find the oldest grave site in a cemetary. I am fascinated by history. |
| Rosemary |
Posted - Feb 02 2007 : 09:33:31 AM
Robin, that place sounds lovely. Any chance there might be someplace on line where we could see photos of it? |
| Rosemary |
Posted - Feb 02 2007 : 09:30:13 AM
Bramble, I can't think of how mean a person would have to be to rob a graveyard, but I know they do. I often see small wrought iron fence pieces for sale in antiques shops, and I always say something to the shopkeeper about it, in case they aren't aware of the provenance. I'm sure most of them are, and don't care. <shudder> |
| Rosemary |
Posted - Feb 02 2007 : 09:27:08 AM
Tracey, my sympathies on the warped condition of your DD's mind! I love her already!
That's a very beautiful picture. You're good at that, by the way. I've noticed. Now I want to post a photo I took many years ago at the Adams Memorial in the Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington DC. It's the famous St. Gauden's statue for which his favorite model, Davida, posed. On the day I took the picture, well, there's a lighting effect on the finger of one hand that took my breath away when I got the prints back. I'll dig it up (no pun intended) at home tonight and post it tomorrow. |
| Rosemary |
Posted - Feb 02 2007 : 09:23:24 AM
Marybeth, why not do some research -- or better yet, get some high school kids to do it! It's a great learning experience that I'm afraid kids are missing out on these days, and I'll bet they'd find it interesting. |
| Rosemary |
Posted - Feb 02 2007 : 09:21:26 AM
On the subject of cemeteries, I would like to add a note of jollity. In Washington, DC, Congressional Cemetery was at one time intended to be the resting place for Members of Congress and other dignified folk. Apache Chief Cochise was buried there, as was (so sadly) the first child killed by a motorcar. It's seen better days, and there is always some movement to clean it up, which fails because it's in a very bad part of the city, beset by vandals and heaven knows what else.
Anyway, the Architect of the Capitol or someone in his orbit designed a headstone back in when the cemetery was dedicated, that would be the standard for this place. It was square and stubby, with pyramid on top, really ugly compared with the graceful standards of that Victorian age. I don't know who (George Bernard Shaw? Mark Twain?) but in remarking on this design, some famous person supposedly said it "adds a whole new dimension of terror to death." |
| Tracey |
Posted - Feb 02 2007 : 09:16:56 AM
Ah, Rosemary....I shan't be allowing my darling daughter to read your post, I'm afraid, as she'd sit all day in a dusty library reading about the dead, too, given half a chance! It was funny, but there's a casket above ground at this cemetery (what do they call those?) and the concrete is cracking off to reveal the brick beneath it. I asked if she wanted to lye on it and I'd take her picture, lol, and she just looked at me all horrified, saying people found her creepy enough already. Then she lit up like the fourth of July and asked if we could come back and she'd dress dead and I could take pictures! I think she suddenly realized just how much more effective this would be at creeping people out than eating 'Walteroni'!
Here is one of my favorite angels from Bayview.
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| Marybeth |
Posted - Feb 02 2007 : 09:10:46 AM
Rosemary you are asking all my questions too. In one tiny cemetary here are about a dozen children all dying in april 1909. Fever? Flu? What tragedy took place? And all the little lamb on babies graves. Mb
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"Life may not be the party we hoped for...but while we are here we might as well dance!" |
| Rosemary |
Posted - Feb 02 2007 : 09:01:26 AM
Oh, cemeteries are fascinating. The older the better for me! Once upon a time when I was an actress for a living, I got to spend a summer on Nantucket Island doing summer stock. A short bike ride from the threate was the island's most venerable cemetery. I used to go there during rehearsal breaks to rest and think, the beach being off-limits on days when you had to perform that night. Isn't that Draconian? Anyway, on one of many return visits in subsequent years, I noticed a series of gravestones all had the same dates on them, all the deceased rather young, and some reference to a terrible tragedy. I went to the library and gained access to the microfiche files of the island newspaper dating back to that period (1890 or so, I think) and learned of a boating junket that went horribly wrong, with the young-adult children (boys and girls) of some prominent islanders killed not far off shore. Drink was involved, apparently, and much editorializing went on about that.
One of my favorite tombstones in that cemetery, of which I still have a rubbing somewhere, is of one Thomas Davis of Dorchester, aged 19 years 6 months and so many days, who "departed this life, at sea" back in the time of the great whaling vessels. The stone notes the latitude and longitude of where the ship was when he died on it, from who knows what. I have always felt connected to that seafaring young man for some reason. I wish I knew his whole story. If from Dorchester (Massachusetts? England?), why was he buried on Nantucket? His headstone was one of the expensive kind, so I imagine it wasn't for want of funds that his body wasn't sent home to his family in a pickle barrel, as I've heard they did in those days. Or had his whole family moved to Nantucket? If so, why the pointed reference to Dorchester? Was he a runaway? A criminal? Or one of those many young men of that time who took to sea in search of fortune, maybe a captain's favorite, learning the ropes of a ship he might have dreamed of commanding himself one day? What was his position on that ship? How did he die? Who mourned for him when they heard what had become of him? Who paid for the burial? What did he look like?
In my next life (oh, wouldn't that be fun!?) I want to be a researcher holed up in a dusty library someplace, looking up stuff like this. It's fascinating. Or maybe a glamorous crime-solving detective would actually take care of the research itch, with less chance of developing asthma. ;-) Hey, it worked for Nancy Drew...now, where did I leave the keys to my sporty blue roadster...?
I remember seeing one of those flat-on-the-ground slab kinds of grave stones once when I was a little kid. Maybe I remember it wrong, and it was just from a movie or something, but I'm pretty sure I really saw it. I believe it had a bat's wings on it and the phrase "May She Lie Still." Would you care to spin the tale that ended thus? Hmm. Maybe some Hallowe'en! |
| primjillie |
Posted - Feb 02 2007 : 07:17:21 AM
Add me to the odd lot that love cemetaries. Here in Folsom, CA is a very old one and very neat. The one that made me cry was in the Mendocino Botanical Gardens, which used to be a potatoe farm, I think, was a small plot with a little picket fence. There were only a few graves and most were babies. Such little plots with prairie flowers planted around them - so sad! |
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