{"id":29770,"date":"2015-12-19T11:20:20","date_gmt":"2015-12-19T16:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=29770"},"modified":"2018-12-04T14:04:41","modified_gmt":"2018-12-04T19:04:41","slug":"exploring-a-cemetery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/?p=29770","title":{"rendered":"Exploring a Cemetery"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Halloween, I explored a little of a cemetery near my apartment<\/a> with the intention of going back.<\/p>\n

Last weekend, temperatures in Pennsylvania soared into the low 70s, so I trekked over to explore some more. For some reason, exploring cemeteries is something I like to do. My mom says I take after my grandfather in that regard.<\/p>\n

The cemetery, the Susquehanna Memorial Gardens, is off Cherry Hill Road, but if I hiked down Oak Road (which I drive every day to go to work), then cut across Fruitlyn Road (a mostly paved back road) I would enter the cemetery from the back.<\/p>\n

The cemetery seems to be fairly new — like within the last twenty years new — and it’s a cemetery without tombstones. Rather, graves are marked (and, in many cases, well in advance of death) by copper slabs that are flush with the ground.<\/p>\n

I shot over a hundred pictures. I’ve whittled them down to about forty. There’s no story here. I’ll present the pictures with some occasional commentary.<\/p>\n

\n

\"20151213_131305\"<\/p>\n

This is Oak Road. My apartment complex is under the water tower. You can see that water tower from miles away. There’s even one point along I-83 near Glen Rock where I think you can see it.<\/p>\n

\"20151213_131429\"<\/p>\n

\"20151213_132157\"<\/p>\n

This is the masoleum. There’s no fence along Fruitlyn Road; you can just cross the grass and enter the cemetery grounds.<\/p>\n

\"20151213_132348\"<\/p>\n

\"20151213_132416\"<\/p>\n

You can see the fire observation tower above Red Lion. This is in the general direction of the Weis Market shopping center.<\/p>\n

\"20151213_132427\"<\/p>\n

The water tower, again.<\/p>\n

\"20151213_132528\"<\/p>\n

Standing at the front of the masoleum, you can see the Greek-like temple structure I explored in October<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"20151213_132650\"<\/p>\n

There are a number of signs like this throughout the cemetery. Some are numbered, some are not. I’m not sure what they mean. Are you supposed to catch them all, like Pokémon?<\/p>\n

\"20151213_133346\"<\/p>\n

People have decorated the graves of their loved ones for Christmas. There are wreaths, trees, lawn flags, stuffed animals, and the like. There will be more.<\/p>\n

\"20151213_133454\"<\/p>\n

\"20151213_133458\"<\/p>\n

\"20151213_133550\"<\/p>\n

A Jesus statue. There will also be more of these. This cemetery is more explicitly religious — and Christian — than any of the others in the Dallastown area, and that’s including the Methodist and Catholic cemeteries.<\/p>\n

\"20151213_133840\"<\/p>\n

\"20151213_134114\"<\/p>\n

There were a number of recent interments — as in, within the last seven days — at Susquehanna Memorial Gardens. I counted six. They were generally very obvious — car tracks in the soft grass, benches graveside, sod that had not set, the piles of flowers. Sometimes I sat down on the bench, looked up the name in Google, and found the funeral notice.<\/p>\n

\"20151213_134443\"<\/p>\n

\"20151213_134628\"<\/p>\n

\"20151213_134727\"<\/p>\n

I had to think about what I was seeing here, and then I realized — this grave was marked to be dug out imminently.<\/p>\n

\"20151213_135056\"<\/p>\n

The veterans momunent. The graves around it are, naturally, for veterans of the armed forces.<\/p>\n

\"20151213_135503\"<\/p>\n

Another Jesus statue. I think this is meant to be a representation of the boy Jesus impressing the Jewish scholars with his knowledge.<\/p>\n

\"20151213_135617\"<\/p>\n

\"20151213_135646\"<\/p>\n

The water tower, again!<\/p>\n

\"20151213_135728\"<\/p>\n

Dallastown can be seen in the distance. Dead center is spire of the Lutheran church.<\/p>\n

\"20151213_140224\"<\/p>\n

Dallastown again. To the right is the Lutheran church. To the left, the spire of the Methodist church. I had to go higher to get this shot. I also took one that had the Catholic church as well, but its spire isn’t distinct.<\/p>\n

\"20151213_140310\"<\/p>\n

\"20151213_140607\"<\/p>\n

\"20151213_140754\"<\/p>\n

Across Cherry Hill Road is a house\/compound that really<\/i> lights up for Christmas. I suspect you can see this compound’s lit lights from orbit. That<\/i>‘s how bright it is. This is how it looks during the day.<\/p>\n

\"20151213_141406\"<\/p>\n

The Last Supper, I think.<\/p>\n

\"20151213_141547\"<\/p>\n

\"20151213_141932\"<\/p>\n

\"20151213_141953\"<\/p>\n

John the Baptist and Jesus. Behind it is for interring cremations.<\/p>\n

\"20151213_142308\"<\/p>\n

\"20151213_142740\"<\/p>\n

\"20151213_142833\"<\/p>\n

\"20151213_143001\"<\/p>\n

\"20151213_143116\"<\/p>\n

\"20151213_143745\"<\/p>\n

I liked this image of the masoleum, the clouds, and the light.<\/p>\n

After this, I walked back home. I cut through the orchard we saw back at the beginning of this photo essay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Halloween, I explored a little of a cemetery near my apartment with the intention of going back. Last weekend, temperatures in Pennsylvania soared into the low 70s, so I trekked over to explore some more. For some reason, exploring cemeteries is something I like to do. My mom says I take after my grandfatherContinue reading “Exploring a Cemetery”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[4337,3921,4336],"class_list":["post-29770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life","tag-cemetery","tag-pennsylvania","tag-susquehanna-memorial-gardens","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/29757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}