{"id":5565,"date":"2014-10-06T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spookymoon.com\/wp\/?p=5565"},"modified":"2014-10-04T15:01:58","modified_gmt":"2014-10-04T19:01:58","slug":"a-month-of-spookdays-birthday-cemetery-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spookymoon.com\/wp\/?p=5565","title":{"rendered":"A Month of Spookdays: Birthday Cemetery Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"tem<\/a>

Columbus C. Gough, Tema Cemetery<\/p><\/div>\n

October 1 was my 50th birthday. It’s okay if you forgot, you can still send me presents.\u00a0 To celebrate, the Spousal Unit and I did one of our favorite things: picked a direction and drove. There were lots of parks along 301 North, but I didn’t feel like stopping at them today. We didn’t find anything particularly quirky, but we did find four lovely cemeteries.<\/p>\n

The SU is good at spotting cemeteries while I drive. Mind you, he doesn’t actually like<\/em> cemeteries. He does this because he loves me.\u00a0 The first one he spotted was Tema Cemetery, right along the highway, but small and unassuming.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>

A concrete alligator amongst the many offerings on a child’s grave<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Praying<\/a>

Praying hands by a temporary marker<\/p><\/div>\n

Tema was lovely, with the older graves in the latter half of the 19th century, as is the usual with most of the graveyards in this area.<\/p>\n

\"These<\/a>

These guys aren’t going anywhere<\/p><\/div>\n

\"tem<\/a>

Genteel decay<\/p><\/div>\n

Sumterville was larger, with odd, unkempt tangles in the corners that contained surprisingly new graves. Telling was the sign asking for upkeep donations. I happen to like overgrown boneyards, so, no help from this corner.<\/p>\n

\"sum<\/a>

Sacred to the memory<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>

Dr. Henry<\/p><\/div>\n

\"sum<\/a>

Just Marsh<\/p><\/div>\n

There were many Marshes. One of my favorite names from the bunch: Aunt Piety Marsh.<\/p>\n

\"sum<\/a>

W.M. Cocowitch.<\/p><\/div>\n

Most photographic memorials are more recent, but W.M. died in 1921, at the age of 23. If I were going to be any kind of witch, it would definitely be a cocowitch.<\/p>\n

\"sum<\/a>

Her right wing is at her feet<\/p><\/div>\n

This is but one grave gift of many on another child’s grave.<\/p>\n

\"sum<\/a>

Nature leaves a rose<\/p><\/div>\n

\"sum<\/a>

A rock marks an unknown grave. Bet there’s a story here.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"sum<\/a>

Made beautiful by time<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Twice<\/a>

Twice marked, Dade City<\/p><\/div>\n

The largest burying ground of our tour was Dade City. I, of course, gravitated to the west end, where the older stones were.<\/p>\n

\"Rough-hewn<\/a>

Rough-hewn memorial<\/p><\/div>\n

\"dc<\/a>

“Darling, we miss thee.”<\/p><\/div>\n

\"dc<\/a>

Just peeking out<\/p><\/div>\n

Several of the stones had sunken until just a few inches remained above ground.<\/p>\n

\"If<\/a>

If my name were Texas, I’d keep it after marriage, too<\/p><\/div>\n

\"I<\/a>

I think he tried to get out<\/p><\/div>\n

\"dc<\/a>

and Dade City Women’s Club President for 17 years<\/p><\/div>\n

My favorite find was the last. We were on a long trek from 301 to I-75, wondering if we were ever going to find an onramp, when I spotted a street called Emmaus Cemetery. Clue to cemetery hunters: there’s usually a graveyard at the end of such streets, and often it takes some work to find. This one did. Just at the end, before a private residence, was a little-used track. Driving back, we found a grove with a small, private cemetery.<\/p>\n

\"Emmaus\"<\/a>

Emmaus<\/p><\/div>\n

I love finding secret, little-used boneyards.<\/p>\n

\"No,<\/a>

No, J.W. is not going to Hell<\/p><\/div>\n

I was curious about this symbol. The broken chain symbolizes death, and the hand is God plucking the soul to himself.<\/p>\n

\"Gorgeous<\/a>

A spiny orb weaver keeps watch<\/p><\/div>\n

\"em<\/a>

Few stones here were modern<\/p><\/div>\n

\"em<\/a>

Slanting light means it’s time to go home<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October 1 was my 50th birthday. It’s okay if you forgot, you can still send me presents.\u00a0 To celebrate, the Spousal Unit and I did one of our favorite things: picked a direction and drove. There were lots of parks along 301 North, but I didn’t feel like stopping at them today. We didn’t find […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-month-of-spookdays","category-photography"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spookymoon.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spookymoon.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spookymoon.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spookymoon.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spookymoon.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5565"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/spookymoon.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5565\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5596,"href":"https:\/\/spookymoon.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5565\/revisions\/5596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spookymoon.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spookymoon.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spookymoon.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}