The Weekly Cemetary Picnic
When my Great Grandmother was still alive, a feisty woman who still bowled at ninety years old, she used to visit my Great Grandfather’s gravesite every Sunday afternoon. When she was at the end of her life, she would skip the days when it was sleeting, so she wouldn’t slip and break her artificial hip. She used to say, “My original hip was free, but this one costed me money. So I better take care of it.”
She would bring a lawn chair and a picnic lunch, and would water the grass and plant flowers near his resting place. It may seem funny to kick back with a lawn chair and wear the biggest, brightest, most rediculous sunglasses in a cemetery, but if you knew them, you wouldn’t think it odd. My Great-Grandparents were the type of people that were always smiling and laughing and getting a kick out of life. In modern lingo, that’s just how they rolled. They had silly nicknames for eachother, and my Great-Grandfather always told Great-Grandma that he thought she was “up to something.” It would have been a more fitting testament to my Great-Grandfather’s memory than sullen faces and bleak clothing would be.
Great Grandma is no longer with us. She died at the age of 96 and was in good health up until about the last two months of her life. Sometimes people don’t cry as much when someone is that age. They figure they will inevitably die soon. Not my Great-Grandmother. We all balled like a young person had unexpectedly died. My aunt knew that every night she had a bottle of aspirin under the pillow in her pink casket, and had a Southern Comfort every night before retiring as well. So she slipped a bottle of aspirin and Crystal Comfort under her pillow in her casket. Great-Grandma would have slapped her knee and would have been the first one to laugh.
Even though Great-Grandma can no longer tend to Great-Grandpa’s plot, now where she rests too, I wanted to continue the tradition somehow. I live out of town, but found that I can use Gravesite Masters flower shop for sending flowers, gifts, roses, plants & more. They even provide services like delivering and arranging real or artificial flowers, depending on the rules. I rather be there, of course, but I like the idea of having live, healthy flowers there. It is depressing to go to a cemetery to see dried out, dead plants. Maybe when I am back in town, I will take my Grandparents with me and we will have cheese and crackers, a pitcher of iced tea, and wear our goofiest sunglasses.
The Fedora Chronicles
One of the interesting or fun places to go to on the net is the Electric Speakeasy at the Fedora Chronicles Website. You can chat with other folks about hunting down the best vintage fedoras and the very best of the modern milliners who are making them in the old fashioned quality and style. Not only that, but you have a chance to kick back and talk about classic films, living a retro life and more.
If you feel just a little out of whack with what’s modern and you think acting like ladies and gentleman is a lost art, the forum might be some place for you to hang out. Or, if you like to wear vintage clothing. Or if you like participating in reenactments. Or if you like classic films. Or you just want to have a conversation with sensible like minded people. There is always an interesting discussion going on.
If you want to give The Fedora Chronicles a try as a new hang out, Visit http://thefedorachronicles.com and once you are in, click on “FORUM” or read the library of material by regular correspondants.
I will see you there!
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