The burgeoning color of the trees in our back yard and the icebox tinge to the air told us that this was a day for being outside. However, we are still tethered with Baby Wait 2018. But there’s always someplace to go nearby. I should rephrase that. There are always cemeteries to see nearby. So we aimed at one we’d never been to and another that we’d been to a few times. We wanted to see some Fall, some foliage, and maybe get some baby name ideas off the stones. We’re two days from baby and still don’t know what we’ll be calling him or her the rest of the his or her life.
 |
| See those leaves flying around? Perfect precipitation for graveyards. |
The first cemetery was in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Forefather’s Burying Ground was established in 1655. It has surviving tombstones going back to that century, as well as a myriad of interesting funereal art carved into the stones. I’m going do a full post on this, as it’s just too great a cemetery to gloss over. I will say, though, that I’ve lived 20 minutes from it for 10 years and never knew that it was there. It’s not considered a major historical attraction that I can tell. New England and its cemeteries, man.
The next cemetery we hit up is a famous one:
Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts. This is the final resting place of Hawthorne and Emerson and Alcott and dates back to 1823. It’s an amazing cemetery that we’ve visited before. But for some reason we forgot that, despite its woodsy feel, the cemetery isn’t the best place for Fall colors. Almost all the trees in the cemetery are pine trees, so its only new color this time of year is the burnt umber of the dead needles carpeting the ground.
We drove around looking at stones but didn’t do near the exploring that we did at Forefather’s. However, in driving between the two cemeteries we passed another in Concord that looked worth exploring due to its flush of yellow boughs. It was called St. Bernard’s Cemetery, and it was younger than the other two, dating to 1865. We got some great photos there.
Afterwards, we stopped downtown for some caramel cider and hot chocolate and mummy cake pops, and then headed home, where we relaxed and watched another Disney Channel original called
The Scream Team. Once dark hit, though, we took off to drive the neighborhoods looking for Halloween decorations.
This was sort of a fool’s errand. Despite Halloween being a nigh holiday, its residential decorations are usually better seen during the daytime, unlike Christmas decorations. You just don’t always light scarecrows and pumpkins and skeletons and corpses and monsters. Still, getting out there in the neighborhoods, knowing Halloween night is looming, felt more some kind of mental preparation. You could almost see the trick-or-treaters wandering to each door.
But we still saw some lights and glowing inflatables, before it was back home for another episode of
The Haunting of Hill House. Episode 5. A great episode with a fantastic ending.
A great Saturday. Some adventure. Some coziness. Some memories made. These are the types of days I want every day this time of year.
