Memorial Day 2011 At The Cemetery
I’ve mentioned before how I used to work at a cemetery. This week’s PTP includes visual proof.
Yes, I’ve heard all the jokes about having a lot of people under my feet when I worked there. And yes, that place was dead 😉 Now onto this week’s picks!
I’m a little behind on this one, but Ellie Ann Battles The Virtue was just another strong effort from one of my favorite internet peoples in the universe.
Did you hear this amazing story of a lost class ring. Jesse Taylor Mattos lost his ring before World War II! It’s worth waiting through the short commercial on this ABC video to hear his short story.
I’d also like you to meet Laura Bond who blogs at Red Lips and Academics about “the (bumpy) transition from student to teacher.” This week she has some great observations about what it’s like when life is suddenly up to you. As in, no more syllabus or outline to follow. Gen Y will especially appreciate this look at the challenges of making your own way.
Also this week, a fitting post that also comes from a cemetery visit. Tom Bentley wrote Memories: The Long Arm of the Writer, and I really enjoyed this one.
Finally, a fascinating post even if I am many months late. This story is amazing! James Chartrand is a woman. No, it doesn’t matter if you don’t know who that is before you link over. Just read and you’ll see. Kind of makes me wonder if all you men are really men or all you women are really women. I’m definitely really a man though. Unless the videos are somehow faked.
Wow, looking back over this week’s picks makes me feel that this is one of the strongest batches ever! Dig in.
I’m always looking for more great pics from you!
I’d love to hear any feedback you have on one or more of this week’s picks.
Don’t forget School Photo Day! All you have to do is put a picture on your site with as little/many words as you like. Then tell us about it in the comment section.
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Life. Culture. Education.
Life as Pop Culture Professor Clay Morgan
In The Matrix, Morpheus tells Neo he can take the blue pill and go on believing whatever he wants to believe. Or he can take the red pill to stay in Wonderland and find out how deep the rabbit hole goes.
This is a red pill type site that provides information in an entertaining way. It’s about clear thinking and good writing. It’s about finding meaning amidst the absurd. It’s about humor and truth.
I’m a writer / speaker who teaches history and political courses at a couple of local colleges. Where is local, you say? Well, that would be Wonderland of course.
On topics ranging from pop culture to the meaning of life, my brain’s always poppin’. Take the red pill and unplug.
EduClaytion 
You worked at the cemetery? That place is dead!! Bet you had a lot of people under your feet. Hehe.
These are really great reads!
Now I’m gonna look at all my Internet buddies with an air of doubt…excepting you of course.
Thank so much for including my post about patience! But I don’t deserve the credit, that little inspiration puppy couldn’t go wrong.
You do to get credit. Thanks for believing I’m a male. Great post you had!
I’m excited to check out several of these posts. I didn’t know you worked at a cemetery, oddly I would find that calming. I like cemeteries. Off to check out those posts!
Cemeteries are pretty calming. Stress free if you have the right boss/crew. But May is tough.
I love cemeteries. Is that bizarre? I also read obituaries, so maybe that question answers itself.
Okay, Canadian me has a question: what exactly is Memorial Day? We (Canadians) commemorate Remembrance Day on November 11. (11th minute of the 11th hour of the 11th month) – history you will get that. But from you intro, Memorial Day also sounds like a civilian remembrance. Am I wrong?
Looking forward to your tomorrow vlog.
And to School Picture Day. I found my kindergarten picture. I’m pretty sure a math class could use my bangs as a lesson in angles…
Canada probably has something right going in that you recognize Remembrance Day on November 11th, also called Armistice Day in the states. That’s the end of World War I.
Memorial Day has become an American tradition that signifies the start of summer and leads to all sorts of eating, drinking, and shopping, but the primary intent is to recognize the efforts of military personnel across every branch and from every era.
I think cemeteries are fascinating. When I used to weedwhack those 15K stones I got to know many of the people by pondering their lives across the 300 years of history in one spot. I don’t do the obits though.
School pic day will be fun!
My wife worked at a cemetery. She also likes the Pittsburgh Pirates. You two have so much in common.
It’s like we are twins separated at birth.
I’ve enjoyed visiting several of the above sites, thank you ~
Cool! Thanks for checking those out.
Once again he e-harmony minus the dating fluff of the internet (that’s you) comes through. Great stuff.
Looking forward to reading those posts. How do you find all this great material? I think I’m going to put on my class ring right now, assuming I can find it, and maybe find my class photo with the most dated haircut.
Clay, I posted this yesterday but it didnt’ seem to take:
Clay, very much appreciate you giving me props about my post—thank you. I like that you worked in a cemetery; I was a bookstore manager in an awful mall outside of Seattle years ago, but whenever the weather was decent, I’d ride my motorcycle to a nearby cemetery for lunch. It was a beautiful, quiet place, with mature trees and rolling hills and I always looked forward to going.
And yeah, James Chartrand, great story. In the number of emails we exchanged when she accepted and set up my post on Men with Pens, I got a solid sense of a friendly, real person—it was a great pleasure to work with her.
I too love cemeteries. I live in a broad, fertile valley outside of Portland that was one of the first areas in Oregon to be settled, so there are pioneer cemeteries dotting the landscape. I like to wander around and piece together family histories using the gravestones. It’s stunning to compare the lives of those settling the valley 150 years ago to our modern existence. So much change in a paleatological blink of an eye.
No doubt. Moving to Oregon territory 150 years ago was not for the faint of heart.
Great mashup, Clay. Love the video in the cemetary, too. I love cemetaries. Looking forward to school picture day. 🙂
They are great places for sure, especially with so much history.
Wow.
Why do I suddenly want a pen name?
Great picks, Clay. I love how you introduce me to something new every week.
And I’m not the least bit surprised about the cemetery work. Not after the funeral home incident…
Crazy right? I know that story is amazing, but I’ve seen pictures of you so I trust you. And yeah, I guess my life was moving in the direction of corpses one way or another.
You used to work at a cemetery? That is cool. So much history!
You know it. Not a place for those afraid of ghosts.
You used to work at a cemetery? Did you ogle the tombstones of the dead celebs? Always find them fascinating.
I read thousands of stones and even kind of got to know some of the people in a weird way of thinking about them time after time while weedwhacking endless grass.
I happen to love cemeteries, because I’m into family history research. I took my oldest daughter to a cemetery once when she was about six…it was a Sunday afternoon, and it had been raining out. She decided that it would be a great idea to stomp around the graveyard in her rubber boots, yelling: “Wake up, people! Wake up!”
I nearly died of embarrassment…
Wendy
That’s pretty good. I saw some different things like that when working there. When you punch in with dead people the sense of the sacred tends to diminish.