Tuesday, June 12, 2007

childhood memories

I grew up on the southside of Chicago in an area surrounded by cemeteries. Behind our back yard was the edge of Mt Olivet Cemetery. My friends & I would play tag by jumping from cement casket to cement casket. And in the winter, we would slide down the cemetery hills on our little saucer sleds. We would often present our mothers with beautiful flowers (mostly gladiolas) given to us by the cemetery workers when they were cleared from the gravesites. (I think they must have said thank-you while cringing at the same time !) For a short time, Al Capone's gravesite was in Mt Olivet & the boys on the block would give tours to see his gravestone/photo for a quarter ! On Halloween, our neighbor Bobby would dress up like dracula and we would "play act" one of the dracula movies.
My little brother (about 4 yrs old at the time) was caught playing with some bones under our back porch one day, which horrified my mother. We brought the jawbone to the local dentist who verified it was "human". It seems the cemetery somehow managed to dig up some old (records lost) gravesites while making room for new ones. My mother was a good soul and arranged for the local priest to come out and give a blessing and have the bones reburied.
Come on Ghostwatchers....share your stories (bet you have some good ones !)

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