Wednesday, June 30, 2010

My personal Blair Witch Project

I promised photo evidence of my trek with Laura into the woods on the block where we grew up. It's a nice woodsy neighborhood, lots of hills, and a garden club so people take pride in their lawns.



And in the middle of the block, it's all thick, humid, poison-ivy-tangled, mosquito-breeding, honey-suckle-sucking, Deep South woods.



We tromped around for a long time without finding my graveyard. Dad had some memory of where it was, but it was deeper back than he thought, and we were pouring with sweat and about to give up when I noticed something catching light.

See, when Katie and I found the graveyard, we found a trash heap first. What I'd seen was a section of forest littered with broken glass and other treasures.







Who knows what "Trend" is. Searching for a product named "Trend" on the internet is a losing battle.

But here's where things get creepy. A few yards away from the junkyard, we started to see markers. There are maybe thirty scattered in the underbrush.



Most of them are just rough stones, but a few have simple markings.



Okay, so maybe it's a pet graveyard . . . for someone with a lot of pets? But no, because there are a few real headstones.

Lucinda Ambrose, Born Nov. 22, 1881, Died May 18, 1923, Ambrose Chamber-4849, Stiratt, W. VA.



Louis Ambrose, Died Dec. 29, 1920, Ambrose Chamber-48??, Stirrat, W. VA





And a baby . . . DMCA Dory, June 15, 1956-June 19, 1956



There's another carved stone so buried it can hardly be seen, and the ones that really get to me . . . in the sunken grave. Here's Laura standing beside it.



There are two stones, one granite (a large slab with a thinner slab for the marker) and one pinkish marble (upper right corner), both tilted downward so they can't be read and covered over with fallen branches.





Not creepy enough yet? Am I disappointing you? Well, how about this rusted shovel sticking up out of the ground beside the sunken grave, because to me that is simply creeptastic.





How many unmarked graves can you find in this picture?

5 comments:

Brans~Muffin said...

Wow! I love stuff like this, and the Shovel... Extremely Creepy!

Ginger Johnson said...

You just never know when you'll need a shovel in an old abandoned cemetery...

Tristen Dihdzere said...

wow, thats quite an interesting walk you must have had. and that shovel...creepy

david elzey said...

the thing about the shovel is that either they forgot it, or they thought they'd be back to get their shovel... but they never returned!

trend, if memory served, was an upstart brand of laundry or dish detergent that was introduced in the 70s. it's still around, looking like the bastard child of tide and cheer, usually found in discount stores. that bottle has the right color and markings for the 70s, i think.

Rachel Wilson said...

I love that you know that, David!