The Crown Hill Cementary in downtown Inndianopolis has several notables buried there. Among the famous dead are President Benjamin Harrison, three vice presidents, Eli Lilly, Richard Gaitling, who invennted the machine gun, and author and playwright Booth Tarkington. The cemetary also has a huge Civil War memorial.
My original goal of the day was to visit John Dillinger's Grave.
Crown Hill is huge, over twenty-six miles of road. Martin and I were both chicken about asking where Dillinger's grave was located, but the gentleman in the cemetary's office was apparently used to death hags and even pointed out the "Star Route" on the map.
I thought it was a really interesting place and suggested we come back sometime, so we could explore it completely. Martin, ever the smart ass, suggested we bring a picnic.
bringing picnics to cemeteries is totally normal where i live! so i'm with martin:-) plus, if i were dead in a cemetery i would dig on eavesdropping on picnic-y conversations.
Posted by: amanda | May 21, 2008 at 03:52 PM
The Old City Cemetary here even has moonlight lantern tours.
My Mom used to take my Aunt Mabel out there when it was sunny and warm with a picnic to visit her Husband. I remember sitting out there with her perched on a lawn chair, proper little hat with a veil and a lace hanky, eating finger sandwiches and sipping tea while she told us stories about her youth. She was in her 80's at that time, in the 1970s.
Posted by: Nadine | May 21, 2008 at 05:33 PM
Others beat me to it, but I was also going to say that picnics in cemeteries used to be quite common. I love cemeteries - we have a very interesting one here we can check out together sometime - Lance's great grandfather even designed the gate house. I'll have to check out Crown Hill sometime soon. I've seen where Dillinger was shot many times, it's only appropriate to see his grave.
Posted by: Darr | May 21, 2008 at 06:14 PM
A few years ago, when I tried to pass Halloween (at least the witching hour) in our local historical cemetery, the neighbours called the police, who informed me that technically, the place was a public park, and subject to all the rules thereof. Including the one about not being there after 11 PM. Ever the smart-ass, I asked if I could bring a picnic, and was told that picnics would be OK, but I wasn't allowed to barbecue and had to be out by 11.
Recently, I looked it up on the Parks and Recreation website, and it's not listed there, so I think they were putting me on. Of course, it was about 15 years ago, so the designation might have changed since then.
Posted by: ronni | June 01, 2008 at 12:39 PM