Sunday, August 30, 2009

Ambling around...

Well, I haven't had a lot to post about lately, so I guess I'll talk about a cemetery. This is one of the Pioneer cemeteries in Dallas, on the edge of an old township called Letot that was swallowed by Dallas in the late 50's. For a bit of information about this cemetery go here.







Basically, this is a family cemetery containing 15 graves. The Mooneyham family settled in this part of Texas in 1844, making them one of the earlier settlers. One member of the Letot family is buried here, but most of them are in the "Old Letot Cemetery" about a mile away. Both are wedged between warehouses now... The only remnants of the community of Letot are these two cemeteries, and the Letot Baptist Church, which was sadly in need of repair the last time I drove by it. The Letot Elementary School was still standing at the beginning of this year, being utilized as a warehouse, but was torn down this summer.
This particular graveyard is not listed as a historical marker, while the Old Letot Cemetery is, and is under the control the the Dallas Historical Society.
It's been a rather interesting week... The most interesting experience I had this week was delivering human body parts to a research laboratory. Now, I've done that before. Or I'm assuming that's what was in those boxes. It doesn't really bother me, they have to get to the labs somehow, and it might as well be me... to be perfectly blunt, I've delivered Haz Mat that was far more hazardaous than this...
Usually you pick up a box that say Hazardous Material on one side and Human Tissue Samples on the other and you just take it. You don't know exactly what it is, and you just get on with it. It pays well, and it has to get there in a hurry. This job however I picked up at the airport. Now, any Haz Mat that is on the airplane has to be clearly marked as to the contents.
So, I'm driving around a box with "Human Eye Tissue" sitting in my front seat.
I don't know if it's just me, but as far as disembodied people parts go, eyes are right up there on top of the creapy list. Probably because when you talk to somebody, you look into their eyes, and you can communicate with someone with just a glance... eyes just seem more alive and human than other things. I don't know exactly why it's creepier than other things, but I do know that halfway to the delivery, I suddenly got a feeling that that box was STARING at me.
Anyway... that was the highlight of my week.
I so need a new job...

7 comments:

  1. Ha ha ha...you are so funny!!! I could almost feel that box staring at you too!!! You are such a refreshing writer...I love reading what you come up with! Even cemetaries!!! And...NO...you can not get a different job....it would completely change all of the interesting things you can tell us about at the end of the day! Don't even think about it!!!

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  2. The Pioneer cemeteries info is interesting- I hope you find more to post. I would have put that box of eye tissue in the trunk!!!

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  3. I must say, you have an interesting and varied job! I checked out the link, and there seems to be a lot of cemeteries listed, but none near me. I did check out one in Barre, Vermont, that I visited in 1990 while on vacation. That area was inhabited by many Italian immigrant granite quarry workers in the late 19th-early 20th centuries, so there is an abundance of granite. The immigrants were also excellent stoneworkers, and developed many elaborate granite memorials for their friends and relatives--things that would have cost many thousands of dollars to have it done by others, so the cemetery is both interesting and beautiful.
    Aiyana

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  4. What a great post! I was a lab tech in a previous life and I remember having a 'leg' delivered to the lab one lonely night when I was doing the night shift alone. Creepy is right!

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  5. Interesting job ya got there, Claude. Wonder if 'those eyes' belonged to someone famous/celebrity..good party conversaton...lol!
    I actually find cemetaries to be beautiful and do an ocassional tour thru some...but not on Holloween.

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  6. Hey Claude- Check this blog of my friend out in California. She is giving away a whole shoebox full of old matchbook covers for the price of shipping! I just know you like cool stuff, and this is really cool!
    Cindy's Matchbook Collection.

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  7. You are not, perchance, a Hell Boy fan ? Both of you seems to be hanging around the cemetries pretty often .....

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