A society that puts equality… ahead of freedom will end up with neither. — Milton Friedman, US economist (1912-2006)

Maybe that quotation doesn’t have much to do with the day’s topic–an ironic statement that will become clear as I go along–but I really liked it and therefore I posted it.

Well, here it is, Friday. Friday, as we know, is cemetery day. I know we’ve been skipping lately, but–I’m lazy. Having noticed the giant spike in views earlier this week, though, has given me a sense of responsibility, and therefore I post. (Bookmark us. Make us your homepage. Come back often. Danke.) Now, I have been contemplating the fact that I drive by three cemeteries on my way to work and I’ve never even gone in one. I’ve been thinking about remedying that fact, but recognizing that we have a backlog still, I decided to come in and do a post on one of the neatest cemeteries we’ve been to. “Neat” is a good word to describe it–it’s tidy, organized, well-kept, and interesting. It’s also fitting to follow the, shall I coint it, “restoration FAIL” of the last post, because here’s a cemetery doing restoration right. I’m talking about . . .

EQUALITY CEMETERY, Logan County, Ohio.
Because everybody’s equally dead when they die.

It was March. We were still giddy from bubbles and had decided to get really Headstony and go out for a drive to see some fabulous Logan County cemeteries. We rarely need an excuse to go out and drive. So out we went. As I believe, we probably went back to that Day Cemetery I’m preoccupied with and a few others. We may or may not have looked for UFOs. Then, as we were leaving one cemetery, Kristine says, “Well, there’s one more, if we feel like it.” And I’m like, “I guess we feel like it.” So we drove out to wherever this place is, and found Equality! The cemetery, not the concept. I don’t know what kind of a name this is for a cemetery.

A view of the cemetery

Anyway, I was immediately taken with the cemetery’s comfortably rolling layout. It is situated chiefly on two little hills with a kind of ravine running between them. It was getting fairly late as we made our approach and began exploring the area closest to the road. Then a man from across the street, apparently getting ready to get in his truck and drive somewhere, walked over and asked if we needed help. He introduced himself as the caretaker, but it was only after he had gone and I had a chance to look around that I realized I wanted to thank him profusely for doing a beautiful job with a fine old cemetery.

Chiefly what impressed me, and possibly because the McGraw Chapel cemetery had been our earlier stop that day, was the lovely and properly executed restoration work taking place in the old part of the cemetery. This was obviously the far corner, which happened to share a fence with the neighbor’s barnyard. Some of the stones were quite old and definitely in need of restoration intention. Feast your eyes!

A better restoration

Avoiding tacky poured cement, they actually have stone platforms that, I don’t know, kind of match what’s going on. Also, only a few stones are grouped together in these long rows, and the groupings make sense. (Personally, I’m not a fan of grouping; I suppose they do it because it’s cheaper–I don’t have a Ph.D in cemetery restoration, altough that would be cool–but it seems to me that especially in these hilly areas, clusters like that are only going to get into more trouble in the future.) Anyway, not only do they look good in the cemetery, it keeps all information intact!

It wasn't dark yet! Really!

Our adventures in Equality were cut somewhat short by the somewhat short March daylight. Although it was never really that dark for us, the cameras instantly assumed it was midnight and proceeded to make every picture look like it. However, not only does this statue show just how dark our cameras thought it was–it’s like we snuck in at midnight! And we totally didn’t! It was barely 7 PM!–Okay, I don’t remember the time. But anyway, the statue is also the prettiest non-creepy cemetery stone woman I’v eever seen. Actually, rather pretty, although now I think she doesn’t match the new tombstone very well.

Anyway, that’s Equality. I don’t have any directions for you because I wasn’t even a bit sure where we were But it was a great cemetery in Logan county . . . and has been part of our backlog for way too long! In fact, I think this clears up the backlog. Hooray! New topics coming soon.