> Cemetaries are beautiful places, and very nice to walk through. In the town where I spent most of my childhood, there is large cemetary, with many meadows that don't have graves in them yet. it was a perfect park: no busy roads, lots of trees. My friends and I were divided into two groups: those who were allowed to play in the cemetary, and those who weren't. The parents of the permitted ones figured that as long as we weren't climbing on the tombstones, there was nothing wrong. The non-permitting parents thought that it was disrespectful to play hide-and-seek or whatever in a graveyard. The groundskeepers tolerated us. I was allowed to play in the cemetary, and I still believe that it wasn't disrepectful. However, if anyone has an opposing viewpoint, I'd be interested to hear it.


When I'm not at college I live across the street from a cemetary. It is a pretty small one, and for war vetrans, so it's not much used anymore. A wall surrounded it, and an old house looking building is in it. The house used to be used as an office for the Fish and Wildlife Service; my sister and I met a wonderful woman who worked there. We had picnics in the cemetary with her. We would also climb on top of the wall and walk around it. Whenever families would come to visit, we would always hop down because we didn't want to offend anyone. My birthday is around Halloween, and I would have sleepovers and take my friends across the street and my dad would come yell to scare them.

The toumbstones all look the same, but my favorite one has the imprint of a Metal of Honor on it. He was, I think, 26 when he was killed, and I have often wondered what heroic thing he did and if he knew he was going to die.

Gahalia