Previous | Next :: Ghosts of the Past in Stone #2 :Sherwood Memorial Gardens : Knoxville Tennessee | August 8, 2010, 2:24 am

Well Im in Tennessee now...... in Knoxville to be a bit more precise......... I shot this image in the Sherwood Chapel & Memorial Gardens ......... I've been noticing graveyards in the last few days......... I saw one in Atlanta........ and a couple in Virginia and Maryland .......

I've not really been aware of these American graveyards till recently........ they are so different from British burial places. British graveyards are still normally around old churches... often there are graves that are hundreds of years old as well as the newer ones .......... the old graves have not been visited or tended for generations........ so there is a serious sense of abandon and the passing of time, of decay, to die and be forgotten .......... here in America the graveyards I have been noticing recently seem to be new and bright and all graves appear tended they all have flowers and some have flags...... some have pictures and bears some even wind chimes....... as if all have been recently tended as if all buried here are still cherished and sadly missed by their loving families........ as if none of the graves are forgotten over time........... these are commercially run graveyards they have a distinctly American vibe.......... they don't feel that depressing almost celebrating the life lived not concentrating on the death.

This image is actually made so late you really don't see the place that well......... but you do see the ghostly statue........ there were four skunks running about........ slightly freaking me out...... I'm a Brit I don't really understand skunks...... or even really believe in them....... I know that sounds nutz....... but for me they are just critters from movies...... I didn't want to discover that all that stink spray is real....... hehehe........ :-/ :-) ;-))

Thinking about it I saw an old graveyard with the graves from a yellow fever outbreak of a hundred years back in Louisiana........ it was flooded and dilapidated......... and had the same vibe as a British graveyard. So I guess in the US they are not all like the well tended commercial looking type.

Cheers Jez XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

www.jezblog.com