Cemeteries

Zogman

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It is that time of the year again. We go to 7 cemeteries and plant a few flowers. Six of those are well taken care of so we only take the mower to one. The wife insists on real flowers, no plastic. Make about 250 miles or so.

Tell about your cemetery visits if any or unique experiences. When I turned 14 Dad siad it was my turn to help with digging graves.
 


LBrandt

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I have 9 plots that I tend every year at two different locations. Visit a few more just to pay respect, its the way I was raised.
 

BrokenBackJack

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We had at least 4 we went to and pulled long grass/weeds and set out flowers and the LED crosses and angels that were solar powered. These were in ND and MN. Still go when we get back there but at the most only get back once a year.

But when we travel we always stop at the Veterans Cemeteries and walk around and just talk out loud to the inhabitants, thank them for their service, and the giving of their lives for us and our Great Country and we are amazed at their beauty and the way they are kept up.
We also stop at old cemeteries and walk through them looking at the dates and families names on the tombstones. How old some of the tombstones are still amazes me as so many are really ornamental and fancy.

There is one South of Nemo, SD a little ways on the West side of the road. You have to drive in a little ways off the road to see it but it is really a very nice and well kept up little cemetery and some of the tombstones are really quite fancy. We used to stop there every time we went through Nemo. Also stopped at the Veterans Black Hills Cemetery east of Sturgis, SD darn near everytime we went by. When we lived in Bismarck we went to the Veterans Cemetery south of Mandan usually every month. It is quite the humbling experience to stop and pay our respect to these fine men and women who gave their all to defend and fight for our Country and our way of life.

Went through the cemetery at Deadwood, SD 4-5 times and that is really something to be amazed about too.

The history of some of these cemeteries and their inhabitants is really something when you study them and take the time to walk through them. I guess we are all going to end up there one way or another.
 
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Retired Educator

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Fortunately for my wife and I our parent's and others in the family are buried in two cemeteries that are very well taken care of. Do put out flowers etc. but local Veteran organizations put our flags for veterans. If you have a well=-taken care of cemetery in your area please remember that that care is not free usually. A donation would be greatly appreciated I'm sure.
 

Zogman

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​Great point RE. Where my parents and one set of grandparents are is in an extremely well maintained cemetery. We donate to that every year and also to the local Legion post. They put out new flags every year.
 


wslayer

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I have 5 plots, all the same cemetery I look after. Need to put down some new weed blocker and get it cleaned up when it dries out a bit.
 

Ristorapper

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I have a mother and daughter in one cemetery very close to us that we tend to. In fact we visit that one quite often as the wildlife viewing is to our liking. We put flowers annually out at Veterans Cemetery for a bunch of relatives; Wife's parents, my dad, daughter's boyfriend, wife's uncle, my aunt and uncle. Our relatives that don't live close are so appreciative that we adorn their parents gravesites with flowers. It's a small price to pay for our beloved veterans that have pased on. We send photos to all those that wish to see the gravesites so adorned.
 

PrairieGhost

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100_0084.jpgThis old fellow was a fur trapper for I think it was the Hudson Bay Company. His name was Mike Berlingale. My grandfather homesteaded four miles south, he also bought this old guys homestead two miles west. My brother lives a mile east, and I grew up two miles west. My maternal grandparents homesteaded two miles north. My mother and her twin were delivered by an old native American lady on the banks of the Sheyenne river in a log cabin 400 yards north. General Sully trained his soldiers just a few hundred yards from here.
I bow hunted all around his grave when I was 13 and 14 years old. We wondered what happened to the stone so my brother and I dug around and found it deep in the grass and dirty. Evidently cattle had rubbed on it and dumped it over. We set it back up and read the stone "beware my friend as you pass by as you are now so once was I, as I am now so you must be, prepare therefore to follow me".

We don't mow it. The guy was a man of the outdoors so I think he prefers the prairie over him, and perhaps an occasional deer browsing his grave. I see his grave every now and then and make sure the stone is standing. 100_0082.jpg
 
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fireone

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I don't go to organized cemeteries very often but the township has a number of unmarked single graves from settlement days that are forgotten. Used to be a lilac bush or tree there. It's a damn shame that some farmers plowed right over them. A neighbor splits rocks as a hobby and he took a few nice ones and used an impact bit to make crosses on them. Then we placed them at those graves.
 


Ristorapper

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It is that time of the year again. We go to 7 cemeteries and plant a few flowers. Six of those are well taken care of so we only take the mower to one. The wife insists on real flowers, no plastic. Make about 250 miles or so.

Tell about your cemetery visits if any or unique experiences. When I turned 14 Dad siad it was my turn to help with digging graves.

"Real flowers, no plastic". ha!! the one where my daughter and mother are buried (Mandan Union), the deer eat the real flowers as we have experienced so we have been relegated to plastic there. :(
 

gatorbaiter

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When I was young we visited what I think was the Fort Wallace Post cemetery in western Kansas. It had a lot of unique graves where they recorded the deaths, like scalped, shot, or such. I seem to recall one grave marker saying the man was murdered by another guy, and the grave next to him was the other guy and his marker recorded him as being hanged for the first man's murder. I've always wanted to go back and see if my memory is actually correct. I googled the cemetery and it did have pictures of some markers but not those exact ones.
My mother has told me some interesting stories about our small church cemetery. My great uncle is buried their. He was working as an electrician at Pearl Harbor in 41' and watched the attack from a hillside cave overlooking the harbor. One of the guys he was with went back into the cave to get out of the way and was killed by something ricocheting back into the cave. He never had anything good to say about the Japanese even till he died at 101 a few years ago. He did brag about spending a good portion of the war working at Pearl, and living in a house right on Waikiki beach.
Another uncle lost part of his foot in an accident when he was really young and they buried it in a corner of one of the family graves. So now he likes to say he has one foot in the grave.
There is also a number of young people buried there from a hundred years ago back when times were a lot tougher and medical help less reliable. Also a young man killed when he tried to stop a friend from committing suicide and was accidentally killed.
A lot of history in those places, some sad and lot just plain interesting.
 

WoodyND

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We plant flowers at 9 plots in the rural cemetery where our family is at. Last year the local American Legion post sent out a detail to honor the veterans there after doing a program at the cemetery in town 10 miles away. After that they drove another 26 miles to another rural cemetery and repeated. Then 15 miles back to where they started. By the time we got back to town, we had about 30 vehicles in line. I could not thank these men enough for their dedication and honor.
 

BrokenBackJack

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I remember when i was a lad, we used to hand dig graves. It wasn't a hard deal usually as there were 3 of us. The hardest part was when we would get a big rock that needed to be dug out and we were down 4-5 feet. Had to get ropes if we couldn't lift it out and tie the rope on it and if we still couldn't lift it we would get a plank and slide and pull it up on the plank.
We thought we were pretty smart as we made a big net out of rope to put around the rock and then tie our pulling rope on the netting.
Remember having to dig a couple when the ground was still partly frozen. If the picks didn't cut it we would then get some old tires and gas or diesel and set them ablaze. That thawed the ground pretty good or at least enough so that our picks would be able to bust up the dirt enough to keep digging.
Those were the days.
 

johnr

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Sadly, I visit zero.

I guess my parents are still living and tend to them now. Not sure why it really means so little to me, I sincerely feel bad about it now.
 


Trapper62

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Just buried my dad last October in our country church cemetery by the farm, went out to the grave Friday to fill in the spring settle and spread grass seed, wanted to get it looking nice for my mother for Memorial Day, brought back a lot of emotion. I'm fortunate to have had family members who take care of their loved ones graves so for me it was more of a visit to theirs, no real work other than my dads!
 

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