Cemeteries

Today's Wonder of the World is...Old Cemeteries.

I don't know about you, but I love old cemeteries.
I've been thinking about cemeteries ever since church yesterday. We celebrated All Saints Sunday, which meant that our minister read out the names of those in the congregation who had died during the year, and family and friends stood in their honor. There was also a time for people to stand and say the name of anyone else they loved who had passed away since our last All Saints service. It was a sad but sweet service, and very meaningful.

All Saints Day was a big deal in France--sort of like the French Thanksgiving, in that people traveled to be with their families and eat a big meal together. They would lay flowers at the graves of their loved ones, and spend family time together, telling stories and remembering.

This might sound gloomy to you, but Todd and I used to enjoy pushing Sam in his stroller through one of Clermont's city cemeteries after lunch. (Yey French two hour lunch breaks!) After we moved home I wished I had taken pictures, but thanks to a Flickr friend, here it is...

Flickr photo by connyyeah
As you can see, it's beautiful!

Now that we're back in South Carolina, we're lucky now to have a beautiful old cemetery right within a stone's throw of our neighborhood. (See the first photo.) About 160 years ago, when cows roamed the pasture that is now our subdivision, a textile mill was built just down the river. The mill owners thought the workers should have a place to worship and built a Methodist church, and over the many years the congregation and the cemetery grew.

It's not as peaceful as it used to be. Nineteen years ago, when we first moved into the neighborhood, it was still out in the country. You hardly ever saw a car unless it was turning in to our subdivision. Now that Greenville and Greer have grown like crazy, we're practically in the middle of things.
Still, the cemetery feels quiet, even with cars rushing by.

The stones are beautiful. I always wonder about the families and their stories.

Usually I don't rant too much in this blog. (I save it for my sweet husband. Poor thing.)
I like to stay positive. Besides, this blog is about wonders, isn't it?
But...(here it comes)
Allow me to show you a maddening wonder.
It's not wonderful at all, though it used to be.

Just down the road about two miles from my house used to be the most beautiful family cemetery. I never even noticed it during our first two years in Greer because it was encircled by five or six huge old oak trees.
Here it is up close.

Two years ago, they started building all around it. First there was a CVS. Then a mini-strip mall, then a Walgreen's.
And then, last spring, they cut down all those big beautiful trees. They only left a couple, in the distance.


They put up a chain link fence around the tiny cemetery, as if that would protect it.

And here's the new neighbor on the other side. It's Walmart.

Now, I'm not really railing against Walmart. (Even though there's a perfectly good one about a mile and a half down the highway.) I'm just sad. This used to be a beautiful peaceful place and it's not anymore.

Okay. Enough of that. I think I'd like to cheer myself up now.
I know. Let's look at some other interesting cemeteries.
I believe I've shown you the one in Corsica, but here it is again, in case you missed it.


And here's the one in Normandy, where my grandfather is buried.


And last, but not least, a cemetery in Salzburg Austria.

Flickr photo by rotraud 71
I love that they plant flowers on their graves!
Not a bad use for the body left behind... flower food!

Have a wonder-full Monday, y'all!

Love, Becky

A Good Scare!

Today's Wonder of the World is...A Good Scare!

I've always been amazed that some people LOVE a good scare.
What about you? Do you enjoy being frightened out of your wits?

Me? I like my wits. I want to hold tight to them. I want to super glue them to my body, and then add duct tape, just in case.

For example, I would never ever pay good money to inch one little toe inside this house.

Flickr photo by esywlkr
I wouldn't step in for free! Or even if someone tried to bribe me with creme brulee!
In fact, I'd even drive an extra mile just to avoid looking at that bloody writing! And those bloody red windows and the scary bushes and the menacing white brick thingies and those frightful weeds!

Perhaps I should seek therapy.
Or maybe I'll just blame it on my brother Steve. That's cheaper.
Steve, you see, was a pesky little brother, and especially pesky once he discovered how much fun it was to hide behind the shower curtain and jump out at me when I was staring at myself in the mirror.
I still check behind shower curtains, and he's a four hour car drive away!

But Steve never made me sit in a tank full of cockroaches or swallow a live fish, so why can't I stomach the thought of this?

Flickr photo by paperlizard
BECAUSE IT'S DISGUSTING, THAT'S WHY!
Please, people, if you're a fan of this sort of thing, explain it to me!

I would also never do this.

Flickr photo by Jari Kaariainen
I mean, why?
I suppose it's a question of degree.
I did go flying in college with my future husband the day after his pilot's license came in the mail. The plane was tiny and looked as if he might have built it himself. But we were in the fog of new love and infatuation back then, and he probably didn't even watch where he was going.
(Sarah, my sweet college student daughter, if you're reading this, know that if you ever do such a stupid thing, I will track you down and throttle you, my dear. Love, Mom)

I do like a good roller coaster

Flickr photo by aqu ari um
As long as it's not at the fair, where they put them up and take them down blindfolded in the dark. After their third nightcap.
Or maybe that's my inner scaredy cat talking.
Speaking of my inner scaredy cat...

Flickr photo by GTM (M. Alreshaid.)
YIKES!
RUN! RUN AWAY!

Sorry.
By now you can probably guess that I'm not a fan of slasher movies either.
In fact, I'm still a little traumatized over Terri Johnson's sleepover in third grade, when she made me stay up and watch Green Slime.

But don't think I'm a complete coward.
I do enjoy suspense. That's why I love this woman.

Flickr photo by booboogbs
Just look at those Bette Davis eyes.
No wonder! It's Bette Davis!

Have you ever watched her movies? YOU MUST!
All About Eve, Mr. Skeffington, Now, Voyager, Dark Victory, The Great Lie...and plenty more! Bette Davis really is a Wonder of the World.

But what...you only have two minutes? And you're one of those nuts who likes a good fright?
Okay. You think you're so cool. Don't say I didn't warn you.
You asked for it...
GREEN SLIME!

Have a wonder-full Thursday. I'll see you tomorrow--that is, if you aren't trembling under your bed, crying for your mommy!
Love, Becky

Fences

This may not be a Wonder of the World



but it tickles me.
See, the phone numbers are the same.

It makes me imagine this:



Not exactly Child Care At Its Best, but hey, at least they're corralled.

This reminds me of the old advertisement I have hanging up next to my back door.
I love babies, and sometimes I start to get this nutty idea that I'd like to have Child #4. (Yes, I'm well aware that I have a soon-to-be 18 year old, plus two other kids and a dog that thinks he's my fourth child.) So I hung the advertisement up as a preventive measure. Whenever I start dreaming about baby toes and that sweet baby smell, I look at it and come to my senses.

Plus it's funny.



Of course, if you haven't had children yet, pay this no mind.
I love mine madly.

Bwaa ha ha ha.

(I really do!)
Happy Tuesday!

Happy Friday!

This is not today's Wonder of the World.



Although it is pretty wonderful.

We live in Peach Land, and this water tower is about 45 minutes from our house. Sue Monk Kidd wrote about it in The Secret Life of Bees, except she changed it to a giant peach on a pole inside T. Ray's peach farm. If you drive down I-85 through South Carolina, you can't miss it. When my brother's friend Mike first laid eyes on it, he said he wanted to marry a woman with a hiney like that. I don't know if that worked out for him or not, but every time I drive by Gaffney and see the peach, I think about Mike and his lustful desires.

No, today's Wonder of the World is what upstate South Carolina is really known for--or at least used to be. Think John Edwards.
No, not Nice Hair. Try again.
It's a textile mill. John Edwards' parents worked in one in Seneca, about 40 minutes from me.

More specifically, today's wonder is The Textile Mill Village. That's what interests me. The people and how they lived.

Not this so much.


It's not a very pretty photo.

But I do like looking at it because that mill used to be right around the corner from my house. It was the very first mill built in this part of the state, first constructed in 1820, long before the postcards described Greenville as The Textile Jewel of the South. During the Civil War it was churning out fabric for Confederate uniforms, and it kept going strong until the mid 1930's. The mill burned down in 1943.

Here's all that's left of the mill itself.



This is the mill office. They moved it across the street when they built the new road. If you look at the old photo, you can see it in the right bottom corner. When we first moved to Greer/Greenville in 1990, this building was used as a post office. The old postman didn't always have stamps, but he did give out lollipops to kids for free. I'd love to fix it up and live in it. But my husband says over his dead body.

And this is left too.


Remember the river picture from yesterday? The same river powered the mill. I think the dam is lovely.

But my favorites are the mill houses. There used to be hundreds around this mill, but now there are just a few.





I do a Meals on Wheels route in another mill community across town, and just about everyone I serve worked their whole lives in the mill. My friends say I'm awfully nice to volunteer, but they don't know that I'm just obsessed with this mill village thing. That, and I like the people. They invite me in and tell me about their lives, working and living to the rhythm of the whirring looms and the dinner whistle. It's a feast for both of us.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Welcome!

Hi, and thanks for finding me! Welcome to my very first blog. I'm a little nervous...but maybe before I bite all my fingernails off I should tell you why I want to blog. Here's one reason...


This is my desk. See how messy it is? I've been writing like crazy lately, and when I'm working really hard sometimes I forget to have fun. It shows as the piles on my desk get higher and higher, and it shows in my writing too. Lately I've been slaving away on my latest work in progress-- push push push-- and my writing was getting wilted and droopy. So I looked at my favorite blogs out there (probably yours--I read it all the time when I should be doing laundry) and you motivated me!
So here I am.
I'm ready for fun.
I write mostly memoir, so of course I love to collect oddities and wonders of life--things that make me want to laugh or shudder or both--things that goose my creative spirit and make me want to write. So I thought I would share them with you. I hope you'll join in and add your two cents!

Now, this is not a wonder of life:

It might be in your house, but it's not in mine. It does not make me want to write. It makes me want to throttle someone. My middle child is a 15 year old boy who comes home from track practice every day and rummages through the kitchen cabinets like a bear, tearing into anything he can find. Notice how he has no respect for the top of the bag. And the embarrassing thing is that this picture was taken just a minute ago when I went to answer the phone. I put that bag away yesterday, so you know what this means? Ben had Doritos for breakfast. Don't tell anyone.

I will try to find a better wonder of the world for tomorrow.

Meanwhile, here's one last picture of who's under my desk when I blog. I thought you should know.

This is Tanner The Slobber Dog. He looks kind of beaten down in this photo, but I assure you he has a healthy will of his own. He sits with me when I write and follows me around every time I get up. Actually, Tanner's quite a good example of a wonder of the world. He once ate half a container of spackling paste, and we had to stand him up on his hind legs and give him doses of hydrogen peroxide until he threw up. It's amazing that he survived, but more amazing that his regurgitated paste set up in the perfect shape of a bunny rabbit. Anyway, he's good company and keeps my feet warm.

Time to get back to work! (Me, not you!)
Please introduce yourself, and thanks for stopping by!