Andalusia, Alabama

Honoring Our Public Servants ~ Postal Workers:  Please, please remember that postal workers are loyal public servants. In fact, please remember to give them a thank-you once in a while. You know, the political climate in which they existed for a while turned chilly. Stone Lake Gardens. [2017]

Loxley, Alabama

Defined by Our Duds:  Actions speak louder than words, so let's dispense with headstone epitaphs and show action instead. How did this couple engage with life? Just look at what they are doing and what they are wearing. He was a referee and she was a seamstress. Maybe those weren't the jobs that brought in the bacon, but they were the jobs that gave them an identity eternal. Greenwood Cemetery. [2017]

Florala, Alabama

Give Me That Old-Time Technology:  A Midland Power Max followed its owner to the grave. Do you know what it is? A CB radio (which is not the same as Ham Radio). CB radios were especially popular during the 1970s. Now, we have mobile phones and the Internet. Chapel Hill Baptist Cemetery. [2017]

Loxley, Alabama

Give Me That Old-Time Technology:  Does anybody really want to go back to this? Now, even pushing buttons seems a little too much like work. And, it's so big! And, with two cords, it's like being on a leash. In its time, though, the touch-tone phone was the very definition of "modern." Greenwood Cemetery. [2017]

Selma, Alabama

Free-Range Figurines:  These canines don't look like they are at all interested in free-ranging. They look perfectly content to sit at the feet of their master and smell the roses or wait for the next morsel of food. Do they realize that all food is spiritual in this part of the realm? Lincoln Cemetery. [2013]

Prattville, Alabama

Cemetery Visitors:  He is visiting his wife, and soon he may well join her in their final resting place. Do you think she knows he is there? Memory Gardens. [2013]

Pell City, Alabama

Identity Headwear ~ Firefighters and Nurses:  Who are you? Your hat may say it all. If so, why not take it to the grave with you? Lots of people do: nurses and lots of firefighters, for instance. We start March with a lion of firefighter and a lamb of a nurse. (That's a March 1 reference!) All month: hats and caps. St. Clair Memorial Gardens. [2018]

Andalusia, Alabama

Log Cabins Forever:  Hardly anybody today can claim to have been born in a log cabin, but everyone can lay claim to one in paradise. The log cabin has become a symbol of the frontier roots of American independence and self-sufficiency. The next frontier is the great beyond. Stone Lake Gardens. [2017]

Geneva, Alabama

Log Cabins Forever:  Because they succumb so easily to fire, rot, and demolition, not many authentic log cabins survive on the American landscape. If you patch one onto your headstone, however, it will last for eternity. This one seems still to be occupied, and someone must be feeding the dog (and the dog's nemesis). Geneva Cemetery. [2017]

Cuba, Alabama

Voices from the Land of the Living ~ First Person Plural Subjective Case:  "We miss his happy smile and friendly greeting, for to know Jimmy was to love him." Clay Memorial Cemetery. [2005]

Robertsdale, Alabama

Voices from the Grave ~ First Person Singular Subjective Case:  "I have never had it so good." Common are the assertions that the departed are in a better place. Bethel Baptist Church Cemetery. [2017]

Appleton, Alabama

Voices from the Grave ~ First Person Singular Subjective Case:  "I'm Free. Don't grieve for me for now I'm free. I'm following the path God has laid you see. I took His hand when I heard Him call, I turned my back and left it all. . . . Lift up your hearts and peace to thee. God wanted me now. He set me free!" Weaver Cemetery. [2017]

Robertsdale, Alabama

Voices from the Grave ~ First Person Singular Subjective Case:  "If we never meet again this side of heaven . . . I will meet you on that beautiful shore." Do you think he might have been a Johnny Cash fan? Check out the boots and hat, too. Bethel Baptist Church Cemetery. [2017]

Fowl River, Alabama

Voices from the Grave ~ First Person Singular Subjective Case:  "I Love Anything That is Fast, Loud And Has Big Wheels!" Add another exclamation point and get ready for a month of "perpendicular pronouns"! St. Rose of Lima Church Cemetery. [2017]

Geneva, Alabama

Mistakes Were Made:  Just ask "Floyd," whose names appears (a) not to be "Floy E." or (b) not to have been "Floy E." Take a look: He may still be alive. He would be 109 years young when this photograph was taken. [2017]

Florala, Alabama

You've Got Mail!  If you want a mailbox at your grave site, be sure you have enough postage to get a letter off to that special friend who always wants to keep in touch no matter how far apart you two are. Why not gift him a few Forever Stamps? Chapel Hill Baptist Cemetery. [2017]

Castleberry, Alabama

One True Love ~ A Man and His Tractor:  No riderless tractor here. Thanks to the 'rock of ages' and a skilled tombstone artist, this farmer will ride his tractor into eternity. Not just his tractor. His John Deere. Holland Cemetery. [2017]

Appleton, Alabama

A Symbol of Home ~ The Bird House:  We often conceptualize the soul as a bird. Well before the Christian Era, in fact, the Egyptians symbolized one aspect of the soul by a bird with a human head. And, Plato reminded us that "the soul takes flight to the world that is invisible but there arriving she is sure of bliss and forever dwells in paradise." So, a bird house in a cemetery makes perfect sense. Perhaps this bird house is meant to be a way station on the soul's flight to heaven. Weaver Cemetery. [2017]

Brewton, Alabama

Commemorating Historic Cemeteries:  There are "union cemeteries" all across the United States, and most have nothing to do with Union troops of the Civil War. So, why is the name Union applied to so many burial grounds? Perhaps to set them apart from the sectarian cemeteries that were run by (and often adjacent to) churches. Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist: all could be buried in a union cemetery. Some folk, however, may not have been welcome, and that is the type of information never mentioned on historical markers. Union Cemetery. [2017]

Andalusia, Alabama

Defined by the Regional Economy ~ Logging:  Here's a headstone that puts someone in his place: the Southern pine forest that is the source of an income for so many people in rural Alabama. Yet, we also know something about the person himself: He was "a friend to all both near and far." Stone Lake Gardens. [2017]