Saturday, October 2, 2010

The cemetery runner......a few pics I took this morning while out sweating............

Usually I post a few pics that I found on the web every evening. Tonight, I thought I'd put up a couple of pics I took this morning (note: no photographer, me). 

Some people are Mall Walkers (matching windbreakers, orthopedic shoes, and "Haband!" stretch waist Geriatric sweats) :0 Me, I'm a cemetery runner. Cemeteries are quiet.....dead people don't smirk at long out of shape, chain-smoker-of-non-filtered cigarette, middle aged women who are trying to get back in shape.

I also love spending my off time in cemeteries because I worked at one (and a few funeral homes) for several years,  well over a decade ago.

I digress...... .....I've been running, lately.  I haven't done it since I had to, while playing rugby and lacrosse about 20 years ago. Rugby...so you probably can imagine how much my battered knees are enjoying it at 45.  I run in the mornings now at Calvary Cemetery, a Catholic Cemetery on the Evanston/Chicago border (you can walk right out the back entrance onto Sheridan Road, then go down to the breakers on Lake Michigan, between Rogers Park Chicago and Evanston),  it's really nice early in the morning.  

This week, I started running at Rosehill Cemetery on alternate days. Rosehill is dear to my heart,  I worked there back in the '90s.  I was working there when David Wendell was the historian and archivist. A bit of a cranky old geezer type-guy in a young man's body (kinda Garrison Keillor-ish).  A really interesting guy to talk to, especially if you're a total history geek like I am. 

'Nuff said about me..........I was running this morning, and took a few pics of old favourite funereal statuary that I hadn't seen in quite a few years. 

Here they are, and I hope you enjoy them.



The incredible Frances M. Pearce and daughter sculpture, by C.B. Ives (she died during childbirth in 1864)
These two greyhounds mark the graves of the Stein family, ca. 1920.
The Jauriet monument....interesting "surrogate mourner" stock funereal sculpture from the late century....more erotic than spiritual, IMHO....(not a bad thing, jest sayin'...)
George S. Bangs, 1877.....he originated the idea of the railroad mail car...

'Night all...........Up next....A very uptempo early Jackie Wilson list. ZZZzzzzz...

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