Decatur Cemetery Will Soon Have a Meadow Thanks to Volunteers
Decatur Metro | April 30, 2012 | 1:08 pm
Chris writes in…
Quite a lot of work is taking place in the Decatur Cemetery “meadow”. This is the area east of the cemetery that had been over-grown with kudzu for many years. There were scores of volunteers working two weeks ago and yesterday (4/27 several volunteers under the leadership of former DHS teacher Laura Cadenhead, now with REI) making progress. I am told that a famous international landscape architect from Georgia Tech is in charge of the operation.
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Who is the famous landscape architect from Tech?…seeing as they dont have a landscape school. Gotta go to UGA for that.
Unless they are a professor teaching those silly Tech kids how to design. 😉
I walk my dog there frequently, and I’m not really sure of the point of what they did with the trail. They moved the trail over away from the creek, while they should have just had it go straight through that area they blocked off for the “meadow”, imo. It’s now more of a poorly marked sort of path/trail full of stumps with no real clear markings. I’m assuming they’re going to work on that, but it just seems like it would have been better staying where it was and going through a nice grassy meadow, instead of around it, on a limb and stump covered trail.
The park just keeps getting better and better. We’re very lucky to have access to such a beautiful place. My sincere thanks to the city, and all the workers and volunteers who are making it happen. And while I’m at it, I think (so far) they’re doing a pretty good job maintaining the park/renovations too. Was worried about that a little bit.
Good.Does that mean people can now stop sledding on graves?
One would hope.
I’ll probably be cremated but if I’m buried anywhere, all may feel free to sled on my grave. I imagine that sledding in cemeteries can harm gravestones, not to mention tender young skulls, not to mention incurs liability for the City, not to mention raises religious/respect issues, not to mention invokes the story in Ethan Frome, so my official parental word would be “no sledding if it’s prohibited”. Nonetheless, the image of sledding in a cemetery appeals to me. Please dance at my funeral, laugh at memories of me, sled on my grave, and otherwise enjoy that I once existed!
That’s what they did in cemeteries during the Victorian era.
One of the small cemeteries in my hometown had gorgeous wildflowers in the summer and lots of privacy. For teen couples, it was a lot prettier and more historic place to hangout than the backseat of a car. The occasional adult gathering flowers or walking their dog or visiting graves kept things from getting out of control. So I’ve always thought that cemeteries ought to be multipurpose!
As someone who benefited from a late night graveyard make out session in high school, I second this line of thinking.
But the Victorians also only bathed once a week, and I don’t recommend that either
Hmmm, never thought Nellie would be the too couth prude around here!
WHAT IF A COLD DEAD HAND REACHED UP FROM THE GRAVE AND GRABBED YOUR ANKLES???
Then I’d have to say told you so.
Daily bathing in a HEATED shower or bath is not “sustainable”. If Michael Pollan hasn’t condemned it yet, he will.
The dream of the 1890s…
Here’s another “dream of the 1890s”: WSJ’s MarketWatch reports today that, subtracting for inflation, housing prices are now down to 1895 levels.
Dream on…
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-us-house-prices-wont-recover-2012-05-01-1225310?siteid=bnbh
If you weren’t aware, there are cremation plots available at Decatur Cemetery
Hmmm. Cremation plots. I’ll have to notice. I’ll bet they are too small to sled on.
Since one of the big draws of cremation is lower cost, does a cremation headstone defeat the purpose? On the other hand, I’m a little worried about the fact that most records are digital now. Is hardcopy saved for all death certificates? If we have a major digital disappearance, some electrical storm that fries anything not hardcopy, will there be any permanent record of all who have existed? Will headstones be the only permanent record?
A creation plot generally has a flat brass marker.
As for death certificates, they are recorded and digitized by the state vital records office and the cemetery itself will also have a record. Decatur Cemetery is in the process of computerizing all their records.
The Luddite in me says that brass markers and marble headstones may outlive digital records. But maybe that’s because I still have all the hardcopy photos of my children that I framed or put in special acid-free storage boxes. Meanwhile the many SD discs, CDs, DVDs, jump drives, computer hard drives and other media on which I have stored digital photos on are who knows where? Under beds, in floor cracks, in drawers, in places that I may never see again. And the devices that they once fit are gone anyway. And as for the Georgia Vital Records Office–I sure hope they have hardcopy because I believe that many of their electronic databases have been corrupted or become obsolete over the years. I remember reading something in the AJC…..something like Georgia’s death certificates are in the worse shape of any state.
I guess I’ll leave it up to my survivors. If they want to pay for a brass marker or headstone, fine, but don’t do it just for the geneologists–they need a challenge anyway. Otherwise, dancing, music, and funny stories among friends and family are how I hope they memorialize me. Sledding on my remains, if permitted and respectful of all others concerned, is encouraged.
The idea of people sledding on my grave doesn’t particularly bother me, but I would NOT want to think it was happening on the graves of my parents or other family members. Actually, I have no intention of being buried in a cemetery, but still would never feel comfortable letting my dog or child run rampant over graves and don’t like to see other people do it. When I was growing up, we played in the cemetery all the time–it was between our house and a creek that we liked to play around–but part of our ingrained behavior was to never step on a grave. It has to do with respecting other people’s feelings, even if you don’t know them and don’t know for sure what their feelings are.
Did you notice that someone was married at Oakland Cemetery last weekend?
No, I did not see that. Were they standing on somebody’s grave? (If so, then as long as it was someone they knew and they had a good reason to do it, that idea doesn’t bother me.)
They were in front of one of the mausolea, with the party sitting along along the walk leading up to it. I don’t know if there was a connection to the family.
Now, if we can just keep the dogs on their leases when using the area. It has become the “let the dogs run wild” area.
Do your dogs really have leases? If so, can I get a copy? Also, how do you collect rent from them? Mine are just freeloading mooches and it’s getting on my last damn nerve just thinking about the $50 bags of “all-natural, grain-free” bison and lamb that I need to buy later today because someone thinks that Alpo is just beneath them!
I love that the dog food has to be grain free but it was good enough for the bison and lamb. I buy the same stuff and think that every time.
That’s whatcha get fer givin’ ’em a taste of the good stuff!!! But I do feel your pain– our pup has tummy issues, so he has to have the Blue Buffalo Basics (for dogs w/ sensitivities), the cost of which is anything BUT “basic”!
Got up this morning, put on my slippers, walked in the kitchen and died.
And oh, what a feeling as my soul went through the ceiling
And on up into heaven I did rise.
When I got there they did say, “John, it happened this-a way,
You slipped upon the floor and hit your head,
And all the angels say, just before you passed away,
These were the very last words that you said…”
The game is Finish That Lyric (Without Looking It Up).
Ooooo– where’s our token Lyrics Only Guy when we need him?
Oh, please don’t bury me, down in the cold cold ground
I’d rather have them cut me up and pass me all around
Throw my brain to the hurricane
The blind can have my eyes
The deaf can take both of my ears
If they don’t mind the size.
******
I know four chords and have bad rythym but what I do know I learned at The Old Town School of Folk Music. This is the same place where John Prine went as a mail carrier before he found his rightful career.