I went walking up to Orrstown today, about 4 miles (6.4 km) northwest of downtown Shippensburg. There was an old Mennonite/Amish cemetery that popped up in one of my weekly email newsletters from Geocaching.com, and you know me and graveyards, I just had to go find it. So since I had two days off in a row this week and the weather was decent, I picked today to go.
It was a goodish hike up there, and it was a little tough to find, being at the end of a dirt road off Orrstown Rd. in an area where most of the roads off Orrstown Rd. are dirt. But thanks to a kindly Old Order Mennonite lady named Mrs. Zimmerman who I bumped into along the road, I was able to pick the right dirt road. (And isn't it a wonderful coincidence that a Mrs. Zimmerman was my good luck on the birthday of yet another Zimmerman, one Robert, aka Bob Dylan!)
It's fairly plain and undistinguished. Most of the stones in the foreground are earlier, from the 1800s, and are plain, unpolished limestone or granite with simple lettering and little or no ornamentation. They very much reminded me of the Quaker cemetery and gravestones in Newport (which I did
a post on 3 years ago) in their simplicity; not much of a surprise there, as both religious groups prize simplicity and plainness above all else, and it was William Penn, the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania, who invited the German Anabaptist Brethren (Amish, Mennonites, German Baptists, etc.) to settle in his colony and escape persecution for their beliefs and lifestyle in the old country.
What really captured my attention was the large number of infant gravestones, something that was also painfully common back in the colonial cemeteries of Newport. It was a tough life back in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, and the high infant mortality rate was one sign of that.
Note that the two 20th century stones are a bit more ornamental than the Minich sisters stone of the early 19th century. The stone for the son of Walter and Amanda Gettel (notice the lack of a name for the child even though he was 5 years old) has a characteristic "Pennsylvania Dutch" dove of peace design carved into it. But it's the stone for Dena Viola Meyers that intrigued me the most; the stone's shape is certainly interesting - the heart shape of the upper part of the stone with the palm fronds incised under it - but it's the lettering that's so fascinating. It's pure Art Deco! I suspect the grieving parents got hold of a carver outside their religious community, one who was more up-to-date in his aesthetic influences. It's still very simple lettering, but far more "stylistic" than your average Amish gravestone. I so love anomalies like this!
There were a lot more child and infant graves in this cemetery, but the rest of them were more like the Minich sisters' stone. Some had square tops rather than arched, and most of them were much smaller than the surrounding adult stones. But all of the stones, adult and child, shared the same simplicity seen in the Newport Quaker stones - name and dates, but no epitaph or symbolism. There's such beauty in starkness like that!
And speaking of beauty... I'll leave you with three shots of the beautiful scenery up Orrstown way, the top one looking east toward South Mountain and the bottom two looking west toward Blue Mountain and Broad Mountain (and Big Gap between them). Enjoy!
© 2011 by A. Roy Hilbinger
I haven't identified the species on this spider yet; I found her hiding under one of the bridges in the Duck Ponds park, like the troll under the bridge in "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" folktale. She's a beauty, though!
Mother and child in the Redtail nest off of Possum Hollow Rd. The chick is still in the fuzz stage, no feathers as yet.
Here in central Pennsylvania, the war most remembered is the Civil War. Gettysburg is just on the other side of South Mountain from us here in Shippensburg, and here in the Cumberland Valley Chambersburg was burned and Shippensburg occupied by the Confederate Army in the course of Lee's march on the Union forces in Gettysburg. So for this year's Memorial Day post I thought I'd focus on a Civil War theme. Above is the grave of a Grand Army of the Republic soldier in Shippensburg's God's Acre cemetery on Prince St. behind the Vigilant Hose Company. And below is a video which includes an old recording of "Battle Cry of Freedom", the rallying song of the Union forces in the Civil War. The person who posted it says that the singers were veterans of the GAR.
It's fairly plain and undistinguished. Most of the stones in the foreground are earlier, from the 1800s, and are plain, unpolished limestone or granite with simple lettering and little or no ornamentation. They very much reminded me of the Quaker cemetery and gravestones in Newport (which I did a post on 3 years ago) in their simplicity; not much of a surprise there, as both religious groups prize simplicity and plainness above all else, and it was William Penn, the Quaker founder of Pennsylvania, who invited the German Anabaptist Brethren (Amish, Mennonites, German Baptists, etc.) to settle in his colony and escape persecution for their beliefs and lifestyle in the old country.
According to California radio evangelist Harold Camping, all the "true Christians" in the world will be taken up to heaven (called the "Rapture" in traditional Christian eschatology) around suppertime this evening. Of course most rational people just laugh this one off, especially as he's made this same prediction several times before. But I got to thinking; if his "true Christians" are like him and the other types who take this sort of thing seriously, then I hope it happens. Because it'll mean all the disgruntled, misanthropic sourpusses will be gone and the Earth will be left to those of us who actually know how to enjoy life. That sounds good to me! PARTY TIME!
I featured this card a couple of years ago as part of the Theme Thursday challenge, but I figured I'd repeat it today as part of the ongoing Tarot series.
Banks of Dame's Rocket by the cattail swamp along the Dykeman Walking Trail, taken while walking home from work this afternoon. There was a light Spring rain falling at the time.
The old half-barrels behind the shed.
A scene beside the shed.
Blue Jays congregating on an old log.
An Acadian Flycatcher keeping an eye out for food.
A Chipmunk in the backyard.
One of the bridges over Middle Spring Creek in the Duck Ponds park. I thought it looked very Japanese.
Mama Redtail sitting on her eggs. I saw her and her mate set up house in this tree off Possum Hollow Rd. and I've been keeping track of them ever since. Hopefully I'll get to post some shots of chicks in the nest.
While processing the original color version of this for posting (see my last post), I just knew this would make a great b&w shot. I think I was right!
Lily-of-the-Valley in front of the house
Daisy Fleabane along the Dykeman Walking Trail
Thyme-leaved Speedwell in the Duck Ponds park
Yellow Wood Sorrel in the Duck Ponds park
Dame's Rocket along the Dykeman Walking Trail
[I originally posted this several years ago; I thought I'd post it again for Mother's Day this year.]
Destruction, #16 in the Tarot major trumps sequence, is traditionally called The Tower. By either name, the card is all about the dramatic destruction that clears the way for new growth; it clears away the clutter and the waste - old habits, traditions, paths worn to ruts - so that there's room for new growth. It's the prairie fire that clears off the old, dead grass so that new grass and flowers can grow, or the forest fire that clears out the cluttering underbrush, or the volcano that spews hot, destructive lava that eventually becomes rich soil. It's catastrophic, it's painful, it's destructive, but the aftermath is all good. And in the world of archetypes, it's Lord Shiva.
Shiva Nataraja, Lord of the Dance, the god who dances to the song of his double-headed drum - dimi, dimi, dimi, taka nan tana keylo - which signals the dissolution of the universe so that a new one can grow in its place.
