schoolhouses and cemetaries

Today, a beautiful, crisp October day, we visited some old cemetaries. Old cemetaries are everywhere, often we don't even know where they are. We live just down the street from one that now sits between a school and a grocery store. We were here for years before we even knew it existed. There are 2 south of us, both on busy roads, that I drove by a million times before I noticed them. Actually, they moved one of them a few years ago to make way for some road widening project. So today we went to 2 I had never been to. One is a secluded, fenced and treed in spot that backs up to a large concert venue (Verizon aka Deer Creek). I wonder what the story is--there are only a handful of graves, only taking up a small part of the cemetary, the latest dating from the 40's. There was a grave for a stillborn and a 2 month old, both alone. That was so poignant and sad. I wondered these people's stories. It's so hard to imagine that this spot, once distant to town and in the country, now is in such close proximity to loud rock concerts...something these people could never have dreamed. Now on concert nights the stillness is broken and the sound reverberates through the ground.

On our way to another cemetary (geo-caching) we passed this old schoolhouse. Again, the questions. When was it built? What is the story? What was the teacher's name and what was she like? What did the children go on to do? I wish I could go back in time and get glimpses, it's so hard to imagine it at all. And again, it's so desolate and sad. Why has it (and so many like it) been allowed to fall into ruin? I have always loved old schoolhouses. There used to be one in near ruins near my house growing up, and I dreamed of fixing it up into a house. It was torn down. I was sad then too. Why do so few people seem to care?

This is hard to see but it's the old blackboard at the front of the schoolhouse.