SLEEPY HOLLOW CEMETERY

I know it's strange--particularly at my age--but I do love old cemeteries.  I mean really old cemeteries.  In contrast to today's antiseptic versions, our old burial grounds are comfortable, and even comforting.  Often carefully landscaped, a cemetery provides shelter from the storm and quiet amid chaos.  Wandering among the memorial stones, we can read the who and the what and the when and the where.  Generally, we have to wonder about the "why," but oftentimes we can guess.  Tombstones, for centuries, have preserved the carefully carved records of the exceptional and the common.  But, is anyone really common?  If he or she is loved, truly loved, I have to think they're anything but.

Tarrytown, New York, is located north of New York City, in upscale Westchester County.  This past November, BC and I, being chauffeured by daughter Rhonda, had just left "Castle on the Hudson" where we'd enjoyed one of the most expensive lunches I'd ever met.  It was a truly delicious lunch, but for the life of me, I can't remember now what it was. I know we each had a glass of Pinot Noir and splurged on dessert, and probably spent a couple of hours on the entire proceeding.  I'd do it again, so that's my recommendation.  Rhonda was hoping to find a wonderful place to celebrate her 20th Anniversary and in my book, that would have been it, but she still had a list of other places to visit.  The next stop on our agenda was Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, located just a few miles from the Castle.

  Yes, the Sleepy Hollow of Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."

         As I'm still trying to figure out this photo thing, all I can say is that if you look very closely toward the lower left-hand corner of the picture (about a third of the way up and slightly to the right) you will see the bridge over which Ichabod Crane fled from the Headless Horseman...never to be seen again.   And, yes, of course, it's the exact bridge.

 Sleepy Hollow is nothing if not elegant.  Many famous and/or wealthy people are buried here.  It's a huge list but Walter Chrysler and Andrew Carnegie (as examples) are laid out somewhere among a number of Rockefellers.  I really wanted to find where Harry and Leona Helmsley were planted--remember what crooks they were once they were found out?  It's that sort of thing I love.

  I think it's because I lived a lifetime on the dry plains of Kansas before moving to the deserts of Arizona that I love green grass, running water, and autumn leaves.  There was no part of Sleepy Hollow that wasn't picture-perfect beautiful.

Actually, there isn't much information about Edwin Lister, the resident under this rather elaborate memorial.  I like that it comes complete with a perpetual mourner.  I took this picture because I thought he might have invented Listerine, but apparently not.  He did die with an estate of $1.5 million, $50,000 of which went to his wife when she vacated the house.  $50,000 is OK, but in comparison with $1.5 million?  I'm sensing tension in the relationship, and a "gotcha" in the will.

And here, I assume, lie the more ordinary of Sleepy Hollow folk...but even they have tremendous views.  I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon at the Cemetery, but it made me think that eventually, we all end up in the same place--so to speak.  I did really want to find Leona Helmsley's grave and ask her if being the "Queen of Mean" had been worth it, but I think she would have said "yes".  I understand she and Harry are entombed in a $1.4 million mausoleum on 3/4 of an acre of Sleepy Hollow prime real estate.  Yes, the rich are different.

Until Monday--Take care...

Margie

margiestaggs44@gmail.com