Sunday, March 25, 2012

History has been a major influence




I must admit, part of this adventure is being on the road. In previous years, I would search out destinations. There was always a new city or town within a 2-3 hour drive of the house. This afforded me a few hours to look around and still be back within a reasonable time.
Then I stumbled across a few older cemeteries. I began to recognize certain headstone designs as being of a particular era. I went looking for the sections that had the short thin headstones or the taller kiosk style markers. These were generally in the same area of a cemetery, usually in the back and set upon a hill. I made a note of the names and took pictures of the graves that were older than 1930 date of death. I stopped at one cemetery in Waltz, Michigan where I found a family plot. It had 4-5 smaller headstones and on either end were larger headstones. The 4-5 graves in the middle were children, having died over a 5 year period beginning in 1920. The graves on the outside were the parents, buried in the 1950s. I would like to find out how this family lived and what happened that caused these children to die.
I began finding a lot of history in these old cemeteries. This was enough to feed my sense of adventure. I found many famous Detroiters’ buried at Woodmere Cemetery. Many had roads and through-fares named for them. If you are ever curious how nearby towns and streets got their names, stop by the local cemetery.

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