#40 Graveyards, Ghosts, and Morrissey
Hollywood Cemetery, Richmond, Virginia and Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts
Henry’s favorite time of year is upon us: Halloween. This manufactured “holiday“ is getting bigger and bigger. According to multiple sources, Halloween is second only to Christmas for consumer spending and enthusiasm.
Before Henry was born, we collected about 20 items or so that we would bring out each year just for Halloween. Now, when October finally arrives, Henry can’t wait to find the boxes in the garage and pull out all of the items. To keep things somewhat under control, we allow him to purchase one new decoration each season for his macabre menagerie of spiders, ghouls, witches, and skeletons. Over the years, we have added a talking eyeball, a growling Frankenstein, and a flickering lamp to spice up our initial pile of haunts. Of all the Halloween decor we set up each year, his favorites are still the oldest things we have: a couple of styrofoam graves.
From Target.
That cost $5.00 each.
About 15 years ago.
What is it about those old R.I.P. tombstones that resonate with him and us?
We think it’s because behind each of them lurks a mysterious life and death story waiting to be uncovered. A story of which we will likely never know all of the details.
Seeing the old treasures once again as we pull them out for this Halloween season, made us reflect on two fascinating visits we made to real cemeteries filled with real people with real gravestones and real stories who we hope, are really resting in peace:
Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia and Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.
Next week, Michelle is going to take you to Sleepy Hollow, while this week, I am going to take you to Hollywood Cemetery. We hope you enjoy the trips! But…BEWARE! There are ghost stories to be found in each location…only go, if you dare!
First of all, you’re not lost.
While trying to locate Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia you will feel that surely Siri has lost her way and so have you. You will wind through fraternity and sorority houses at VCU, nice neighborhoods with old homes built with lovely wide porches, a little bit of urban blight, and just about everything else until you see a very small gravel parking lot next to the entrance. You will say to yourself, this can’t be THE Hollywood Cemetery where 2 U.S Presidents, 6 Virginia governors, and the President of the Confederacy are buried because…
There’s no one here.
And that’s the beauty and significance of exploring it. You will likely have the place to yourself. Well, maybe just you and all of the spirits who dwell there.
With the huge cemetery mostly yours, you will be free to ”think about life and to think about death” as Morrissey sings in Nowhere Fast. Neither of which, by the way, particularly, appeal…to him. Morrissey and cemeteries go together hand in glove.
What is appealing however, are the rolling hills and the beautiful James River flowing by the cemetery. They help you forget that this place is actually filled with the bones and memories of so many who were once loved and cherished and who walked and breathed like us. To look at the names carved into the stones, many from the 1800’s, makes you wonder how they lived. Were they happy while they were alive? Did they spend their precious few days worrying about the future, or did they throw caution to the wind and live each day in the moment and to the fullest?
For me, the most shocking part of our visit there was realizing how such important and instrumental men like James Monroe and Jefferson Davis, powerfully effected the United States and the world at large for so many years; then, just like the rest of us, they were gone.
And now, even though their actions in life so many years ago still haunt the present in many ways, their gravesites are largely ignored and their lives remain mostly unexamined by the majority of us. It’s hard to believe you could be so important, influential, and powerful; then, one day, you’re not. You’re just another name on a tombstone. Granted, maybe it’s a little larger tombstone or crypt, but you’re simply dust like all the hundreds and hundreds of other people buried beside you. It’s humbling and invigorating all at once.
The other really sobering part of the Hollywood Cemetery for me is the number of dead confederate soldiers who are buried there. It makes sense with Richmond as the former capital of the Confederacy, but their deaths, today, seem so senseless. You wonder if they had the chance to live again, would they choose to fight and die at age 18? Would they sacrifice the one life they had to give for what would eventually be labeled as the “Lost Cause” by their most adamant supporters. Would they choose to fight and die so young for any cause, lost or otherwise? It’s incredible to think how the ghosts of that war still haunt us to this day.
For me, as I think about life and I think about death standing in the Hollywood Cemetery listening to a distant train whistle blowing, more Morrissey songs flood my mind. “I Wish You Lonely” captures so much of what I feel. Morrissey’s lyrics are haunting and seem to apply no matter which decade they describe.
“Tombs are full of fools who gave their life upon command
Of monarchy, oligarch, head of state, potentate
And now never coming back, never coming back.
Tombs are full of fools who gave their life upon command
Of romance gone wrong
The same old glue and never coming true, never true.”
Cemeteries and Morrissey are truly meant to be experienced together. These lyrics from the 1980’s high school Smiths classic still resonate now almost 40 years later.
“A dreaded sunny day
So I meet you at the cemetry gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
A dreaded sunny day
So I meet you at the cemetry gates
Keats and Yeats are on your side
While Wilde is on mine
So we go inside and we gravely read the stones
All those people, all those lives
Where are they now?
With loves, and hates
And passions just like mine
They were born
And then they lived
And then they died
It seems so unfair
I want to cry”
If you’re ever in Richmond, take the time to go visit the Hollywood Cemetery and as you get close to the entrance, que up that Morrissey and The Smiths playlist. It will set the stage wonderfully with a blend of upbeat music combined with sobering and reflective lyrics.
But remember, as we painfully discovered after seeing a man and his wife kneeling around a more recent burial plot, the Hollywood Cemetery is still in business. For some, it is truly sacred and hallowed ground filled with loved ones and the recently departed and not just a historical site filled with ghosts of the past.
I looooove this read so much! Cayden’s holiday has always been anything fall,especially Halloween! With that being said Morrissey is one of her all-time favorites, she always tells me he feels like the epitome of the 80s to her and I say… He was and is lol This story was so cozy and so true… it’s like they only get to come back to life when someone like you or Michelle pulls them out of the grave♥️♥️♥️ Thank you for reminding us to tell the stories and look up the stories ….and talk about the stories!!