Memorial Day, 2010

Geez it was hot and muggy today. Just miserable.

Memorial Day 2009

Every year on Memorial Day weekend, my Mom and I visit three cemeteries in Kanawha and Putnam Counties, but this year we also went to Roane County, adding two more cemeteries for the Lee/Ferrell side of the family. Wow, those were both in remote locations involving driving through hayfields, but what scenery! It was a long day.

Remember friends, as you pass by...

I hadn't seen this marker before. It was in a part of the cemetery that used to be all overgrown. The "Father" was broken off, but someone placed it back in place.

At the bottom it says:

Remember friends, as you pass by
As you are now, so once was I
As we are now, soon you shall be
Prepare for death and follow me

In the old days, people were creative with their headstones. Nowadays they put plastic doodads on them. Oh well.

Believe it or not, that thing has a photocell on the back, presumably so that it will light up at night.

Memorial Day 2007 Weekend

Grave concerns on a sunny day. Every Memorial Day weekend my Mom and I visit three cemeteries. One of them is way up on a hill out in the country. It helps to have 4WD to get there. This panorama was made from 3 photos. Click to see a much larger version.


It's traditional for me to take a photo of a daisy in the barbed wire at this location. I did the first one when I was in high school.


On the way to visit my Grandma Allen's grave, we pass her old house. It hasn't been in the family since the 60s. I keep expecting every year to see that it's fallen down. Somebody keeps working on it but the progress is painfully slow.

UPDATE: Click on the "Memorial Day" tag below to see previous year's entries.

Grave concerns on a sunny day - 2006

I blogged about this last year also. On Memorial Day weekend, my Mom and I visit some really out-of-the-way cemeteries which require 4WD.








A lamb on the stone always means an infant is buried there. In the old sections of the cemeteries, there are a lot of infants.

Grave concerns on a sunny day

Each year, Mom and I go decorate graves in three cemetaries on Memorial Day weekend. When the weather is fine, it's a great experience. I took a camera this year...

This cemetary is way back on a ridge in Putnam County, near Hurricane. It helps to have 4 wheel drive to get there.


I love looking at the very old monuments.


Shooting bees is kinda scary... I can't believe I caught this one in flight. In the bright sunlight the tiny Pentax camera will muster a 1/2000sec shutter speed.


This is me doing a rubbing of a headstone. I'm doing it because we need to put a date on it so I'm going to do a "layout" and try to match the font.

Daisy in the barbed wire... this is trite. I did this exact same shot in high school at this same cemetary. I won some sort of art contest for students with it. I just re-created the shot for my own amusement.

Ladybug on granite monument.
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