More Calvert Drawings

Barbara sketched the Calvert City Cemetery

In the top photo, Barbara is sitting by the car, sketching one of the gates to the cemetery in Calvert. Her sketch is the drawing below the photo.

This lovely park-like cemetery is the final resting place for many of our family members, friends, neighbors, and members of the community.

We grew up just a few houses away from the cemetery.

I remember that, at one time, Edie, who lived next door to the cemetery, would alert us kids to a funeral going on. Several of us would go home and get a fruit jar, put water in it, and pick wildflowers that grew in the empty lots around us. As mourners left the cemetery, we timidly presented them with a jar or a handful of Indian Paintbrushes or tiny little yellow, purple or blue flowers.

We had a lot of Indian Paintbrushes, but I know of only one spot where there were Bluebonnets growing wild at the edge of town near the school. Of course, we believed that we would be put in jail immediatly, if we picked a Bluebonnet, so those were not even considered. There were lots of flowers in the park across the street, but we dared not pick any of those, either. The temptation was great, but, if Mrs. Sneed saw you pick a flower in the park, well, it would be too bad! And, on top of it, there was supposed to be a $5 fine if you got caught picking a flower in the park. We knew better than to pick any of the flowers from the beds of the neighborhood ladies' homes. And, the wildflowers were really pretty and cheerful.

I thought that the deceased would have a lot of flowers on their grave. But those left behind must feel sad at leaving their loved one in the cemetery. So, maybe they could use some pretty flowers to make them a little happier.

The dark clad recipients quietly thanked us and left the cemetery as we walked backward into Edie's yard to watch.

I don't have any idea who the people were, or who had died. It just seemed like something we should do since we were so close to the cemetery.

In this cemetery, there are quite a few graves that are at an angle. These are victims of the terrible Yellow Fever epidemic that wiped out about half the town. No one knew what caused Yellow Fever, so the graves were put at an angle in hopes that no one would ever open those graves and allow the germs or whatever might be causing the illness, to escape and cause another outbreak of Yellow Fever. The population was over 4, 000 at that time, and, after the epidemic, about 2,500 remained. The population remained in that range, even when I was in school.

Since they were burying people, night and day, I don't think that anyone will ever know exactly how many people died then, or even who they all were.

My great-grandfather had a cobbler shop, one of the first businesses in town. He had a "Chinaman" working for him who contracted Yellow Fever and died. That's the closest that any of my family members came to the disease, as far as I have been able to find out. But old timers talked about it, and it is still a topic of conversation even today.

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Stork Update!

The nest in Przygodzic has 3 babies in it! Three eggs have hatched, with 2 more to go! I haven't been able to see them as one of the storks is always sitting on the nest when I have taken time to look. But I can tell about the eggs from the animated little eggs at the bottom or their camera shot.

You can check out the other links, and the link I have that says Stork Cams, which has a list of many cameras trained on stork nests in various places.

Hope the babies make it this year!

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I added something for those of you who are Hillary Clinton supporters and for those who just like to design t-shirts. It's under Design a T Shirt. She had a "widget" on her website to add to your blog, where you can design a t-shirt for her campaign. Unfortunately, the whole thing doesn't show, but I think enough is showing so that you can design a shirt, or click on links you want.

I know one thing. After my recent experience of trying to paint a t-shirt with acrylics on a stretchy t-shirt, I'll try not to do that again! I started it a year ago, and I'm still not finished! That material is so hard to paint on!

I don't know how anyone can paint enough t-shirts to make a living at it, go to shows, and that sort of thing. One was enough for me! I have another shirt to paint, but this one may just remain plain-unless I really get in the mood for doing something frustrating! (I guess that should read challenging. I think that painting on fabric is a lot more than challenging, though. It's sort of like sewing. It doesn't take long before I am ready to throw the sewing machine in the garbage can, when I try to sew! Not nearly enough patience.)

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I enjoyed watching Bill Stubbs on Houston PBS tv. "Moment of Luxury" took us to New York last night. Really enjoyed the trip. In our area, the program is on Monday night at 8 p.m. Check your listings to see when it is shown in your area.

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