Today was one such day.
First, a little background.
My father is guardian for one of his nephews (my cousin) since his father - my father's brother - passed away. He is an extreme case of 'special needs' and now lives at a care facility. My parents try to visit him weekly (yeah, Covid put THAT on hold for a while). As the parental units are not exactly Spring Chickens and I usually have the time I try to chauffeur them on these excursions. The facility is smack in the middle of their old stomping grounds and they take no small pleasure in sight-seeing (at what I cannot fathom) and telling tales from back in the day.
Both parents have a fair interest in visiting the old cemeteries in the area. Some have distant kinfolk in them, others family of people they knew, and some are just interesting. It is usually my task to locate new spots to visit.
Today was one such trip.
We arrived an hour early for the scheduled visit with the cousin so we looked into an old cemetery nearby. As with so many others, this one has been essentially abandoned. Everything is overgrown and a couple of markers have toppled. It would take specialized equipment to reset the stone and the site would have to be cleared first. Sadly we could only locate about 12 of the 15 listed memorials.
Efforts there concluded - for the moment - we were off to the scheduled visit after which there was more touring about the area.
During this portion of the day family history was discussed. This lead to mother wanting to see the house where my cousin's mother (my future aunt when she would marry my uncle, my father's brother) lived back decades ago. And where my uncle had written his name in the cement holding the chimney together.
Understand that this is a HOVEL. It is only slightly more upscale than the Clampett cabin from The Beverly Hillbillies. Slightly. And it is on what remains to this day a grave road.
We are out in the sticks, people.
That portion of the excursion done we head back to the nearest town to regroup and decide what to do next. I check Find A Grave and see a small family cemetery relatively nearby that has never had any of the graves photographed. So we decide to see if that can be rectified.
Usually when there are hinterland excursions planned I am prepared. Long pants, boots, long sleeves, tools, etc. As there was no such plan today I had left all that stuff at home and worn shorts.
Ok. You are now up to speed enough that the rest of the story will make a modicum of sense.
First off, I am already looking like a dolt. The cemetery is located further along the road we were already on earlier looking for the house and name on a chimney described above. This meant backtracking some 4 or 5 miles. Not the end of the world, but not great either. If I had only checked before we left THE FIRST TIME....
That aside, we pull up to the point where Google Maps indicates is the jumping off point to hike in to the cemetery. It is marked as some distance back off the road.
Now the area is NOT DEVELOPED. It is wild. Well, wildish. There has been timber harvesting in the past few years. This means few trees and a lot of scrub. At least that increases visibility.
I leave the Old Folks with the vehicle and set out cross country. Picture using a compass and a map, just electronic versions of both. Walk a distance in the indicated direction, pause, re-orient to insure travel is in the right direction, proceed. Repeat.
Sure wish I had worn long pants! The scrub and brush are ripping my shins to shreds.
A wise man would have abandoned the search for the day and returned another time.
I may be wise.
I may be intelligent.
But however wise and/or intelligent I may (or may not) be, I am far, FAR more stubborn.
I may be wise.
I may be intelligent.
But however wise and/or intelligent I may (or may not) be, I am far, FAR more stubborn.
So I push on. And what do I find? An access road leading in my direction of travel as well as back to the road.
Son of a .....!
If nothing else this makes progress easier.
A couple of hundred yards further along I spot a rock wall and the top of a monument peeking out above it.
Bingo!
Let the photos begin. There are only 5 graves in the cemetery and there is a Find A Grave photo request for every one.
If I had the time, and had brought a set of pruning shears, I could have cleared the whole thing in about an hour. Alas, such was not to be. I settled for taking the photos, updating GPS locations, and getting the hell out of Dodge.
I did a good deed for the day, though. I doubt it did much to erase any of the evil I have gleefully committed over the years.
And I paid for my stupidly not being properly attired for the exercise later. A nice hot shower was waiting for me at home.
Want to guess what that felt like? Yeah. Literally salt in my wounds. I think the neighbors heard me screaming in pain. All for lack of long pants.....
No comments:
Post a Comment