Here it is the 1st day of the 2nd week of August, (though I’m posting this near the end of August) and I’ve been nursing my left eye since the operation for a detached retina back in May-June. It is still a discomfort. Doesn’t hurt all that much, but when I get up in the AM it’s sometimes uncomfortable for 30-40 minutes. Then the rest of the day it’s better, and I keep my eyelid partially or fully closed to lessen the discomfort. Late at night, it’s back to being uncomfortable. I have eye drops I’ve been using for over 3 weeks now since I restarted using them after visiting the optometrist at the VA in Walla Walla, and she recommended doing so. Remember I’d had the surgery done in Tucson. Anyway, I’ve been pretty bored just hanging around the house so today, I went out to start the car in 88F heat and it wouldn’t start, dead battery from sitting so long without being started. So I set up the charger and came back in and checked the service records for when or if I replaced the battery. I did find a date on the battery…4/20…cool, I guess I did replace it in April of 2020, 4 months after I bought the car. So it’s rather new still, and it’s one of those non-serviceable types. But, it took the charge and started the engine so I’ll leave it be for the time being. And get out there to start the car more often.
Once the car was running, didn’t have anywhere in particular to go, I’d originally thought I’d just head to a museum over in Walla Walla that I tried to visit last year but it was closed due to Covid. But with the dead battery problem, I decided I’d just head up the hill outside Milton Freewater and visit the cemetery. Dead Battery – Graveyard…fits somehow.
And it is cool! There are hundreds of pioneer graves up there. Even a few mausoleums. The cemetery was originally built in 1865 so yeah you’d expect there to be old tombstones there. The main road snakes back and forth from one side of the grounds to the other, and I could imagine them starting out as carriage roads as they were pretty narrow and a bit rutted, you can see that from the way what blacktop there is has slumped and conformed to the old ruts. Then the trees all around the grounds are healthy older broad-leaf types, quite tall most of them, so there’s lots of shade, but even then up there it was 101F, so I just drove around with my AC on rather then stepping out of my car. Oldest tombstone I saw from the road was B. 1827! The guy was 38 years old when they built the cemetery in 1865.
While traveling back and forth on the roads, I could see there were many gravestones between the roads that I couldn’t see well as the roads were set pretty far apart, and then there was an interesting mix of dates on the gravestones. Many of the dead were born late in the 1800’s and usually died in the early 1900’s but there were many, sometimes right next to the old tombstones, more modern gravestones. A mix of times.
My family went 36 years without anyone in our two (mom and dad’s) families dying of natural causes. We had one cousin, (5 year old son of the West’s) who drowned at grandma’s Lake Washington lake house during that period so we in the family don’t have much experience with death. Since that period of course, most of the patriarchs have passed on, one every few years. But as a result, I’ve not visited many for burials but do have a fascination with them and have visited, taken pictures, and written about a few I’ve visited while RV’ing though. The Mexican graveyards are the most interesting, FYI. They tend to have these often visited mini-mausoleums dedicated to the dead, with lots of pictures, flowers, food or beer left for the departed.
The property has a very nice view of the Milton Freewater valley in the distance as this cemetery was built on a hill overlooking the valley. It’s due east of where the main section of town was built. It is surrounded by farm land, much of it today was harvested wheat fields but on the south side was a large, bright green corn field. Overall, a very nice peaceful place for the dead. While driving around, a cute little grasshopper hitched a ride on my windshield I suppose to remind me of the fragility of life? Since they only live for one year on average. And 50% get eaten by predators. But I digress.
Plan is to head back and walk around the grounds and take some pictures of the gravestones. Even found an Elam Headstone up there and I and one of my daughters friends are FaceBook acquaintances and she is an Elam so I’ll ask her about it later.
I came back the following Sunday with my camera, and the gate was closed. Found that it’s closed on weekends. Disappointing but I’ll come back on Monday.
Didn’t get to visit at all this trip.
