Friday, October 30, 2009

Tuesday Reminiscences: In which I remember a halloween past



I realize it is Friday, but bear with me. I just read this Slate article about people who love visiting graveyards and especially love taking pictures of tombs and uploading them to a website that is like Facebook for graveyards. These people are called gravers. Secretly, I wish I was one of these people. I love graveyards and one of my favorites is the one in San Luis, wherein can be found this large pyramid. On it is carved something like, "DO NOT DISTURB THE SLEEP OF DEATH" or something equally threatening. It has Masonic symbols all over it, which brings up the point that the Masons have the best graves. Hands down.

The Halloween of 2004, we were all just puttering around at Patrick and Peter's house, maybe 5 or 6 of us. I don't think we even really realized it was Halloween, just another weekend night with nothing much to do. I believe it was Peter who suggested we go over to the cemetery just to look around at the cool graves. We got in all my favorites: the headstone that's shaped like a tree stump, the Sinsheimers plot, the Jewish section, all the quirky Mason's graves and ended up sitting around the pyramid, talking. From the pyramid, you can see the drive-in screen, so I think we watched the silent movie for a while, or at least made up what the actors were saying.

Then, a police car pulled up. We all just looked up and watched as an officer got out and walked over. "Good evening, officer," Peter said in his pleasant way that he has.
"Well, you didn't scatter..." she began. It was only at that moment that I saw how it must've looked. Five or six college kids hanging around a graveyard at 11 o'clock on Halloween night. Who does that? And, it had seemed so normal up to that point.

I think we talked to the policewoman for a few minutes and then she left.

Not a particularly exciting Halloween edition of Tuesday Reminiscences, but seriously, how many modern people get to be buried inside their own pyramid? The Tucson cemetery is huge; it's several city blocks at least. Maybe we'll go over there one of these days and poke around.

4 comments:

michelle m said...

In case you want to make your "graver" dreams a reality, I can hook you up with the group that I belong to... it's like a web mafia. So, if someone across the country needs a pic of somewhere around here, I can claim that request, take the photo, and upload it. And, I can ask the same thing of others around the country. It is fun. And genealogical. And it may get you in less trouble with the police.

Emily said...

You are a woman of varied interests Amanda! And Tom swears up and down that he's going to make it part of his will that he MUST be buried in a mausoleum.

Bridget said...

Not that I'm trying to cross-reference everything in your blog, but check this out - it's a pyramid tomb in a Dead City in Syria. It's not just masons in San Luis Obispo!

I love the good Mormon (I assume) kids hanging out at the graveyard, addressing policewomen politely. Lovely.

Claire said...

that was a great halloween.

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