Taking The Fun Out Of Funerals

[+Konnarock Kid & Marge]

We don't mind going geocaching in cemeteries and have learned a lot in them but this was one lesson I could have done without:

 

Wonderful but very, very sad location. Many graves but totally uncared for. The place is like a jungle.

P.S. I'll bet this is a geocaching first: after finding the site I wondered off to look at a grave marker that we could see from the rear. Well, when I stepped in front of the marker to try to read it, I tried to stomp down some weeds that were blocking a view of the marker. That is when all hell broke loose. What I thought was about two feet of weeds was a really deep hole covered with weeds. I don't know how I did it but I flew out of that hole like something was after me. I truly don't know how deep the hole was, but if I had not had one foot out of the grave, I might have joined the current resident as an uninvited guest.

P.S. No.2 Marge is still laughing her _ss off.

 

This is from our log at the Piedmont's End (GCEABA) cache.

[+Desert_Warrior]

Good thing your other foot was not on a banana peel!

[+planetrobert]

that is bad karma dude, one foot in the grave.

[+Boot Group]

Eek, that sounds horrible. On a serious note, though, may be a local boy scout, who is looking for a project, would want to clean up the old site. Of course, warn about the hole in the ground.

[+Cache Viking]

Yikes. I have visited many of old cemeteries none while caching. I will from now on be more careful in the old overgrown ones.

[+Confucius' Cat]

Eek, that sounds horrible. On a serious note, though, may be a local boy scout, who is looking for a project, would want to clean up the old site. Of course, warn about the hole in the ground.

Ah, don't clean it up... it might be somebody's little private hunting preserve.

 

I knew a man, years ago, who hunted rabbits in an overgrown cemetary- right smack in the middle of KY's third largest city! Amazingly he never got caught. (.22 cb caps don't make much noise)

 

Maybe you fell into a "poacher trap"?

 

(I am in no way condoning illegal hunting, just a little aside observation and a story someone might find interesting)

[+Anonymous']

Oh boy I just hate cemetary caches, I'm always afraid something like that is going to happen to me.

[Archaeologist-PA]

I wouldn't be surprised to see something like that. A lot of graves aren't actually buried "6 feet under" like you would think. And burials from the 19th century and early 20th century were generally in wooden coffins, of which the lids often collapse, so there is some subsidence as everything settles.

[+Anklebiters]

I was in an old old local cemetary caching (we decided to do this one at night to add to it) we were also snapping some pictures, we actually captured some freaky images while we were there. Anyway on our way out we heard something that scared us a bit. We huslted outta there in a big hurry. In our haste I stepped on a grave which apparently had some soft dirt. I instantly sunk up to my knee, this completely freaked me out! We later went back to the grave I had sunk in, I thought it would have been a new grave. Oh no it was from the 1870's there was also no sign of where my foot had gone into the soil. Freaky stuff!

[+EraSeek]

We used to visit a creepy old graveyard like that at night when we were teens, just to scare ourselves. Believe me, we succeeded!

[GeoGerard]

LOL

 

This reminds me of an incident nearby.

 

A few years ago some workmen were starting to close a grave here in town.

 

They just wanted to put sand in the hole and heard a sound.

The coffin (with a loose lid) went open and the man (presumed dead) was sitting right up.

Guess what he said: "I want a drink."

 

Those two guys never resumed the work they did.

 

ps. this really happened!

Edited August 30, 2004 by GeoGerard

[+mrmnjewel]

LOL

 

This reminds me of an incident nearby.

 

A few years ago some workmen were starting to close a grave here in town.

 

They just wanted to put sand in the hole and heard a sound.

The coffin (with a loose lid) went open and the man (presumed dead) was sitting right up.

Guess what he said: "I want a drink."

 

Those two guys never resumed the work they did.

 

ps. this really happened!

Not likely.

[Shoobie & the Sand Crabs]

LOL

 

This reminds me of an incident nearby.

 

A few years ago some workmen were starting to close a grave here in town.

 

They just wanted to put sand in the hole and heard a sound.

The coffin (with a loose lid) went open and the man (presumed dead) was sitting right up.

Guess what he said: "I want a drink."

 

Those two guys never resumed the work they did.

 

ps. this really happened!

Sure

[Shoobie & the Sand Crabs]

Eek, that sounds horrible. On a serious note, though, may be a local boy scout, who is looking for a project, would want to clean up the old site. Of course, warn about the hole in the ground.

I think there would be plenty of boy scout offers depending on how bad mabye even an eagle scout project.

[+KC0GRN]

I actually helped fix up a very old cemetary in my area. A local geocacher, known for his devious hides and amazing cito efforts, organized the clean up. The only reason we knew about the cemetary was from another local cacher placing a cache on the border of the cemetary.

 

We used the cache page as a place to organize the cleanup and later post the results of our efforts.

 

Here's the link Hudson Heritage Cache

[+SixDogTeam]

WE have a small rural cemetery here that grew into woods about 50 years ago. An Egle Scout project restored the cemetery, removed trees, set existing stones in concrete etc.

[Neos2]

Genealogy is another of my hobbies. Old cemeteries are great places for geocaches, in my opinion--especially since it gives me the opportunity to look for relatives while I cache.

 

I am careful where I walk though. The lids of coffins tend to collapse after many years, and the ground caves in under that spot. (Talking mostly about old cemeteries here--Many newer ones have concrete slabs over coffins to prevent the sinking).

 

Those low spots in the cemetery are why you sometimes see where someone has noted that "there are only 25 tombstones, but obviously many more burials in the area".

 

You can't even count on the ground being soft near the head of the stone, as many stones have moved over time--some have even sunk compeltely under the ground.

 

The moral of the story--be careful where you walk and always have a caching buddy with you in an old cemetery--or at least a cell phone--so you can call for help if you twist an ankle or something.