Headstones

Been to a cemetery lately? Modern headstones
are off putting to me, I don't want to see the
persons picture staring me in the face. Gives
me the creeps.

Some of them, like this first one, must cost a
fortune:

Funny you mention this, was just at one last week. What was weird was the newer pics were starting to fade, but a few from the 1800s had pics, smaller than these, but they were still in good shape. Being that far back it was kind of neat seeing the pic of the person, as I have done loads of research and seen old names in ancestry but you wondered about just who they were.

I like seeing the old dates. At a different one, which of all things is sandwiched between a highway and a runway!. I saw a guy's stone that had fought at Bunker Hill. This one took me to my landman days, see a few dates and fill in the blanks. Saw a few women who died in childbirth or right after.

As to me, nobody had better spend $1 on any kind of marker. I would prefer my body go to a medical school.

I want a holographic headstone.

Quote: AZDuffman

the newer pics were starting to fade, but a few from the 1800s had pics, smaller than these, but they were still in good shape.

I hope you mean 1900s

Quote:

As to me, nobody had better spend $1 on any kind of marker. I would prefer my body go to a medical school.

Medical school? no thanks. That's why I don't indicate OK for organ donations, if you check that I figure the med schools have free reign. They don't want the organs from old farts anyway.

Quote: odiousgambit

I hope you mean 1900s

Nope. Late 1800s.

Quote:

They don't want the organs from old farts anyway.

There is still stuff they use, like the whites from your eyes. I hate throwing away any good stuff and used to make sure to take parts from cars if I could when they were junked so not going to let myself go to waste if I can avoid it.

I like wandering around old graveyards and looking at the various headstones, statuary and the mausoleums.

You wonder what happened when you see things like 3 family members all died the same day. Lots of weird stuff. Sometimes you find famous names, but it's not the real person. Like I found Ben Franklin. One time I was with my sister and we came across her name on a stone. Even had the correct middle initial.

Creeped her right out. I mentioned, they must of forgot to bury her and said I would look around for a shovel.

Even the super old stones are interesting trying to figure out what they say, they are sometimes so worn.

Quote: rxwine

Even the super old stones are interesting trying to figure out what they say, they are sometimes so worn.

I find it amazing how people used to drop so much money on stones. Some are very basic but some are so ornate you just knew that they were a person of importance. I guess that is the point. I prefer to just scatter the ashes.

Also amazed that years ago you often had to mow the grass of a loved one's grave yourself, weekly usually. Enterprising kids would do this service for a few bucks, but it was so often on the family. can you imagine this today?

IF you spend enough on a head stone, you can immunize your assets from Medicare/Medicaid. So you intentionally pauperize yourself to get free medical care.

Medical schools do NOT have to accept a corpse even if they have agreed to consider it... current needs of the school and 'other circumstances' may affect your desires.

Heads usually go to dental schools, bodies to medical schools and first task in the Gross Anatomy Room is to delineate the cruciment tendon. Fr.G's hardliners during the inquisition seemed particularly fond of inflicting excruciating pain. LITERALLY.

Quote: rxwine

I like wandering around old graveyards and looking at the various headstones, statuary and the mausoleums.

Do you know the joke of the two transients who get work at the cemetery?

they take a break from pulling weeds and tending lawns on a bench near a mausoleum. One of them stares for a long time at it, marveling at the glistening white marble, the gilded statues and intricate decorations and tells his mate, "Man, that's what I call living!"

Quote: odiousgambit

Medical school? no thanks. That's why I don't indicate OK for organ donations, if you check that I figure the med schools have free reign. They don't want the organs from old farts anyway.

You worried about them taking you when you're just mostly dead? Or just don't want people poking at your pieces?

Reckon I'd have to resurrect and haunt anyone who blew four figures on a rock with my name on it. I was about to say you could buy a car for that, but the way things are going, four figures might not buy you a Big Mac by the time I pass =p

I had to have a talk with the kid just last week about this. "Daddy, why do they plant people when they die?" S#$%, son, good question! My mind snap decided that in the olden days, people put them in the ground to make sure they didn't reanimate and become restless, so that's what I told him. "They'd walk around?" "No, but people weren't that smart back then. They thought[ they would, so they started this tradition. We know they don't now, but the tradition stuck." I dunno, sounded like it was close to the truth =p

I, too, have a bit of a draw to old graveyards. Don't really care for new ones, but the old ones are like a time machine. Got a real old one just down the road and it's full of old growth pines. Huge, towering bastards, makes the place such a cool, shady, gentle place to be. Take out the markers and it'd be my dream yard.

I suppose I'd not minding tossing some parts that I ain't using to others. Donating my soft head is about the only thing I want to do, but the rest is probably too shot to donate for use. I just wish the options weren't so limited. I'd prefer to go back to nature as natural as possible. Burial without casket, or maybe just sink my bare body to the lake floor. Chop me up and feed me to turtles, something. There's a lot of good meat on these bones!