Posted on 03/28/2006 2:06:06 AM PST by Uddercha0s
LEBANON, Tenn. -- At the end of Bettis Road, across a padlocked gate and up a grassy hillside lane, generations of James Jordan's ancestors lie buried atop a wooded knoll -- for now.
A rusty fence encircles the cemetery, and tilted headstones point skyward amid the leaves. Walking among the locust trees, Jordan points out graves of long-dead kin, including the Chandler family matriarch who left instructions and money for preserving the cemetery.
"It's a shame," said Jordan, 51. "She died thinking that she had preserved the cemetery."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I'm serious. There are six billion people living on Earth right now. In 100 years, all of us will be dead and then some. By that time, there may well be ten billion people living and the cycle will repeat itself. In a few hundred more years, there could be almost a trillion graves. Where are we going to put all these graves?
do away with concrete vaults and caskets, dust to dust type of thing is the only way to go
or cremation
preserving a dead body is irrational
actually kind of funny. Where my parents are buried they have a 99 year lease. I'm not sure what they do after that but none of us will be around and that's what they figure
What should be done is what they did and still do in alot of the above ground cemetaries in New Orleans. I used to say my Rosary in while walking among the above ground graves. I was in one of the Catholic Cementaries one day and it occured to me that there were alot names on the crypt. In fact too many for that crypt to hold. It was like that all over the cementary. So one day I talked to one of the workers. He said it was his job to go in break up or remove the coffin and push the remains to the back where they all fall into this shaft area. That way a new place is open for the next family member. I mean it sounds morbid but all the folks are still there and that is what counts. I am not sure though how it works nowadays with all the extra embalming that goes on. I didnt want to ask that question. However thats a pretty good solution
A web site explained it better. Pretty cool description of what happens in the above ground cemetaries in NOLA
"So, the policy of keeping the dead above ground came into vogue out of necessity. The societies (ie. groups of individuals with a common profession, ethnicity, or creed) and the rich have their own fancy shmancy tombs (such as this society tomb entitled "Italia") , but most families have simple, economical vaults that are stacked one on top of the other. The most fascinating part of the whole thing is that the bodies that are placed in the crypts are "naturally" cremated. You see, the temperature inside the crypt on hot summer days reaches incredible heights - enough to turn most of a human into ash (barring the odd femur here and there). In fact, there is a fascinating ritual that surrounds the placement of the body in the tombs, and it goes a little like this:
Generally, a family will own a few compartments within a tomb. Whenever someone in the family dies, there are placed into one of the empty compartments and it is bricked up for one year and one day. This is the traditional Judeo-Christian mourning period. After exactly one year and one day, the compartment is opened, and the cremains are dumped into a communal pit at the bottom of the tomb. And there the remains further decay, in that old "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" sort of way.
(Of course, I couldn't help but think... what if you despised your father? Or your Aunt Edna? Or Cousin Charlie? And here you were, dumped into a pit with them for all eternity! Molecule touching molecule. Oh, the horror!!!)
But I digress...
Another interesting thing about this custom is what happens if you run out of room in the family tomb. Let's say there's a car crash and your brother and sister are both killed on January 7th, so they are bricked-up in two of the four compartments in your family tomb. Then, on March 24th, Grandma finally kicks the bucket. She goes into the third compartment. On April 27th, Grandpa is overcome by grief and puts his head in an oven. Now, he goes into the fourth compartment. Then, on July 16th, you come down with a fatal case of impetigo (who knows, it could happen). There's no room for you - all the compartments are filled. Where do you go?
Well, the answer is that you rent a unit until January 9th of the next year when brother and sister are dumped into the family cistern. And where are the rental units? Why, they are built into the walls of the cemetery. Talk about an economical use of space!
"Make way for Wal-Mart...."
There are gonna be a lot of haunted Wal-Marts down that way ... angering the dead is not a good thing.
There ought to be some way of preserving the cemeteries as well, though...or failing that, at least the information from the tombstones.
Anywho the Columbarium was later restored and is a remarkable building and a few pictures are available here:
http://www.noehill.com/sf/landmarks/sf209.asp
http://flickr.com/photos/ericinsf/sets/72057594070679473/
Really a remarkable building, nothing like it would be built today and very much hidden.
But traditional and traditions die hard - pun intended.
**He said it was his job to go in break up or remove the coffin and push the remains to the back where they all fall into this shaft area.***
Did you ask him what he did with all the jewelry he found on the bodies?
Who needs graves? All we need is space for the Soylent Green factories.
self ping for later reading
As the family genealogist, I record tombstone inscriptions all the time. It's good to get them on "paper" cause they don't last forever.
"James Jordan's ancestors lie buried atop a wooded knoll -- for now. A rusty fence encircles the cemetery, and tilted headstones point skyward amid the leaves"
--- Too bad Mr Jordan can't list any American Indian / Native American / whatever ancestry.
We have had major interstate highways stopped on the mere suspicion (or claim) that there may have been "Indian" burials somewhere nearby.
Perhaps he needs to "find" some "endangered" species living in the cemetery
I've heard the Swiss recycle graves after so many decades.
I've been trying to get digital pics and transcriptions of all the small family cemeteries I'm aware of for the same reason. Unfortunately, I think some of the burial places of my ancestors have been lost already. Someone also moved the markers from one to a nearby church cemetery, but I'm not sure whether or not the bodies were actually moved.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.