Waking the Dead: "Gon But Forgoten"

Unlike many people, I have never gone through a "Goth" phase.  I am just too square.  With few exceptions, I've always been drawn to the merry rather than the macabre.  One of those exceptions is cemeteries; I love them.  I love the tranquility.  I love the history.  I love the ritual.  I love the monuments and tributes.  I love the universality of honoring loved ones who have passed on.  Okay, okay, I love that they can be a little spooky too.  

One of my favorite cemeteries was one we found on a coastal hike starting from Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia.  If I find some of our pictures from Waverley Cemetery, I'll have to share them with you.  I'm sure the significance of the cemetery, beautifully poised on a cliff above the ocean, is without end to an expert in the history of colonial Australia; its graves date to some of the earliest British inhabitants of New South Wales.  To us it was simply a lovely place to stop and explore along our walk.  The effects of time and of the salty, ocean air are quite evident, and lend an added measure of drama to the final resting place of Australian notables.  It is one that I would love to revisit and strongly recommend that you visit it if you're ever down Bondi way.

Mary beneath the archway to Anaheim Pioneer Cemetery 

Back home we were given a tour of Anaheim's Pioneer Cemetery by some of its most famous residents (Anaheim, not the cemetery specifically), our friends Bob and Amber.  Founded in 1866, it may not be quite as old or quite as dramatic as a cliffside graveyard in Australia, but what we saw inside was pretty inspirational.  We were careful to go during the brightest light of day so we wouldn't have bad dreams that night.

"Precious darling, thou hast left us,
Left us yes, forever more.
But again we hope to meet thee
On that bright and shining shore."

Anaheim Cemetery is home to the oldest mausoleum on the west coast of the United Sates.  Within its walls also stand the markers of many important names from the annals of Orange County history.

Samuel Kraemer was the first white settler in the area
 to start farming, introducing new techniques for
cultivation and irrigation.

Augustus Langenberger and Clementine Schmidt Langenberger were
part of the original Anaheim Cemetery Association - pioneers in Anaheim
 and founders of Anaheim Cemetery.  

The Langenberger family mausoleum, built in a Spanish mission style, is a highlight of
the cemetery tour.

The Kraemer's portal to the eternities

Anaheim was largely a German settlement, so many of the oldest graves are entirely in German.

Very roughly translated, the epitaph says, "Here resting softly this man sleeps."
...or maybe just "Rest in peace."
How's that for only one year of high school German??? Pretty bad, probably.

There were many veterans' graves as well.,  Not being a
 historian, I had to look up the significance of the star marked G.A.R.
 G.A.R. stands for Grand Army of the Republic and signifies the
 deceased's service in the American Civil War.

As much as I enjoy history, it is really the ornate headstones that hold all of my interest.  Blame it on the grave markers in the queue at Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, but I am always on the lookout for interesting shapes, intricate carvings, beautiful statuaries, and funny epitaphs.  As it is only but a couple of miles away from Disneyland, I almost wonder if some of the Imagineers came to Anaheim Cemetery for a little inspiration.

I knew the odds were against me, but I really did spend a fair amount
of time looking for a marker that read "Fronts."

I love the draped fabric carved into this headstone.

A bit of faux bois never hurt anyone.

A bit more faux bois with a hanging scroll

I love the statues of angels.
I wonder if statues like this were individually-carved
 or cast from a mold.

I also wonder if there are any craftsmen around
who still create this kind of marker.

For every elaborate monument there is one so simple that it serves merely as practical documentation.

The saddest headstones are of course the most diminutive - those belonging to children.  I had never noticed before, but many of the miniature, heart-shaped headstones document the age of the child including the months and days.

"Baby Twins"

Obviously, the purpose of wacky tacky is not to be a huge downer, so we have to show you one of the strangest grave markers that we found, the one belonging to 19-year-old John A. McCoy.

"Killed on a thresher"
I am stumped as to why his family thought this was absolutely
necessary to include on the headstone - especially if they were charged
by the letter.  If that was the case, I think I probably would have
left off that gory little tidbit of information.

By far, the most significant and interesting headstone to me was a tiny marble slab marking the grave of an infant child.  Hand-carved, it seemed to tell the whole story of the family that lost their baby, Louise.  They were clearly neither wealthy nor well-educated, but the love for their child was abiding.  I imagined that they spent all the money they could afford on the marble itself (unhoned, unpolished), and then were left to their own devices to carve it.  I find that the spelling mistakes and omissions/edits actually deepen the sweetness and sadness of this tiny headstone.

"Louise Cowan
Born March 31 '14
Died May 15 '14
not
Gon but ^ forgoten"

Anaheim Cemetery
1400 E Sycamore St
Anaheim, CA

Walt Disney and an Imagineer, Marc Davis, discuss

the development of The Haunted Mansion.

What do you think, is it weird to like cemeteries so much?  Have you visited a cool cemetery lately?  Do you have a cemetery close to you that is the final resting place for someone famous?  Or even better, someone infamous?

Cheers!

Mr. Tiny

Waking the Dead: Happy Trails

Sunset Hills Memorial Park & Mortuary - Apple Valley, CA

Don't you love when things come full circle?  When we were very young, my grandparents took us to the Roy Rogers Museum.  There we saw all kinds of amazing things, including a fully-taxidermied Trigger.  My grandparents were great for taking us to some off-beat places and that day is one of my fondest memories with them.  The memory can't be entirely relived because the museum as it was, was moved to Branson, MO, and that outlet of western wonder has subsequently shuttered its doors as well.  Now the closest we can get to that sunny afternoon with my grandparents is the final resting places of those great stars of the West, so we headed on over to Sunset Hills Memorial Park in Apple Valley to visit the graves of Leonard Franklin Slye and Frances Octavia Smith, otherwise known as Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.

"The Cowboy's Prayer" - Roy Rogers

In the dappled sunlight of what I like to think (although I have no substantiation by a certified horticulturist) is a cottonwood tree, is the final resting place of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, the King of the Cowboys and the Queen of the West.

Who knew Dale's birthday was Halloween? Spooky!

Obviously, as regulars on TBN, the Rogers were devout Christians.
I did a search for the meaning of the 33 inside the triangle and came up with some lame answers like
"Perhaps it was his brand," and "I think it has something to do with the age of Trigger when he died."
A more likely explanation was that Roy Rogers was a Mason and there are 33 degrees of Masonry.  Masonhood? Masonship? Masonism?  In looking up the significance of the 33 and the triangle, I was directed to all kinds of occult, conspiracy theory, and secret society websites...a little too creepy for my taste, so I'll just go with a simple,
"Yep, he was a Mason alright." 

And don't even get me started on their western wear...
If they weren't already dead, I might kill 'em for it.
(I'm a pretty terrible kind of a person, aren't I?)

Amber, Bobby, and Mary paying their respects under a beautiful desert sky.

The graves of the Rogers can be found quite easily; they are immediately to the left of the main entrance, under a shady tree and next to the fish pond.  As long as we were in the area, we decided to see if there were any other noteworthy headstones or wacky tacky epitaphs.

I was a little perplexed at the Sironi's marker.
Were they buying engraving on the installment plan?
Why do we know so little about them?
Their individual headstones revealed a little more about their personalities.

Trigger

Visiting Roy and Dale's graves was a bit like visiting the markers of my own grandparents', which I try to do at least once a year.  The very last song played at my grandma's funeral service, as performed by the women of her choral group and played on the organ, was "Happy Trails."  See what I mean about everything coming full circle?  So to you, I also say, "Happy trails, until we meet again."

"Happy Trails" - Roy Rogers & Dale Evans

Sunset Hills Memorial Park & Mortuary

24000 Waalew Rd

Apple Valley, CA

(760)247-0155

www.sunsethills.cc

Cheers!

Mr. Tiny

Waking The Dead: Tea With The Duke

Southern California is a land of many wonders.  But, being a mere adolescent in terms of relative development with the rest of the world, we are bereft of the trappings our elders, namely the beautifully-manicured public parks so often found in big cities and European capitals.  Playgrounds (really awesome ones like La Laguna de San Gabriel Playground) abound in our suburban sprawl, but nothing in our neck of the woods provides the order and tranquility of traditional parks except, of course, a good old-fashioned graveyard.

Every once in awhile we like to explore a local cemetery in search of peace, pretty mausoleums, elaborate headstones, funny epitaphs, and even a celebrity or two.  Nestled above the beach in Corona del Mar, CA is Pacific View Memorial Park.  Sweeping vistas of the Pacific Ocean promise a peaceful rest for all of the residents there.  My grandparents claimed their little stake of Pacific View nearly 30 years ago and I would be lying if I said that I didn't think the chief reason for the their pick of plots had nothing to do with their propinquity to that of one Mr. Marion Robert Morrison - better known to you and me as John Wayne! 

A humble arrangement of silk flowers honors his memory.

Growing up in the area, I always knew that John Wayne was interred at Pacific View, but I had never really looked for his gravesite.  Knowing that both of my grandfathers were/are huge John Wayne fans (my paternal grandfather had a crudely-executed portrait of The Duke that know takes pride of place in the living room of my brother and his wife), I felt it only proper that we go and pay our respects to The Duke. I looked at the time when we entered the cemetery and realized that it was just about tea time; this was our first time having tea with nobility!

I thought, "Find a penny (or quarter), pick it up, and then all day you'll have good luck," but Mary told me it was bad form to remove the quarter form the headstone.  I am familiar with the Jewish tradition of placing small stones on the grave, but I had never seen the same done with small change.  You learn something new everyday.

We had a vague idea of where his plot was but instead of disrespecting the deceased by tramping all over, I looked up "directions to John Wayne's grave."  I followed the first link that came up and expected a plot number but was surprised to find what read like a treasure map.  For instructions on how to find the grave go here.  After taking thirteen paces past hangman's tree, we found the grave site and said "Howdy" to The Duke. Naturally, my grandfathers were fans of the westerns, but my favorite entries into the Wayne filmography are The Quiet Man and his unforgettable story arc on "I Love Lucy," and "The Lucy Show."

I was actually very surprised that Wayne's grave marker is so unassuming.  There are plenty of marble mausoleums and ostentatious gravestones, but his subtle stone marks a plot on a sunny slope facing the ocean among all the regular folks.  We only had a short time to visit Pacific View, but we managed to see a few things that day that made us smile.

"Got coffee Lord - then beam me up"
Nearly 102 years old when she moved on to that giant percolator in the sky and Lucille's sense of humor thrived.

Just like the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland -
a grim reminder that "There's always room for one more..."

The Quiet Man (1952)

If you've never seen this film, do yourself a favor and watch it.  

John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara at the height of their powers!!!

Pacific View Memorial Park
3500 Pacific View Dr
Corona del Mar, CA 92625

www.pacificviewmemorial.com


Cheers!

Mr. Tiny