Cemetaries are beautiful places, and very nice to walk through. In the town where I spent most of my childhood, there is large cemetary, with many meadows that don't have graves in them yet. it was a perfect park: no busy roads, lots of trees. My friends and I were divided into two groups: those who were allowed to play in the cemetary, and those who weren't. The parents of the permitted ones figured that as long as we weren't climbing on the tombstones, there was nothing wrong. The non-permitting parents thought that it was disrespectful to play hide-and-seek or whatever in a graveyard. The groundskeepers tolerated us. I was allowed to play in the cemetary, and I still believe that it wasn't disrepectful. However, if anyone has an opposing viewpoint, I'd be interested to hear it.

My Favorite Interesting Tombstone:

In Memphis, there is an old graveyard that my friend Walter and I would explore. There are mass graves from the yellow fever epidemics that had decimated the city twice in the past. There is also a tomb that has a 5-inch diameter hole in the door, through which one can only see total blackness.

My favorite gravestone was erected in the late 19th century, with an inscription telling the story of the woman buried there. The stone had been erected anonymously, and the story tells that the woman had been raped, became pregnant, was then was outcast by her family and friends, and she finally died during childbirth months later. The writer was angry with the family that had treated the woman like that, and condemns them on her gravestone. Very dramatic, and very sad. I think it's fascinating that someone was outraged enough to erect that stone---the injustice done to the woman would have been forgotten, but instead people are reading her tombstone over a century later.