Memorial Day - USA

[CarlS]

Carl & Mae Lyne:

That's a fine thing you do keeping Justin's gravesite updated and tidy. The flags and the solar powered light are awesome!

I'm rather surprised that there are any Veteran's graves missing flags. That's something here is coordinated by the local VA Office, the Boy Scouts, and the VFW & American Legion.

Thank you, AJ. Here, too, the VA coordinates with service organization at the Nation Cemetery in St Augustine and some of the private cemeteries. Why this cemetery is not included, I do not know. There are so many veterans interred in Florida that it is Herculean task to put flags on the graves. Mae Lyne and I do our part every year both on Memorial Day Veterans Day.

 

[CarlS]

Carl that is so nice Justin's grave really looks great What do the small stones signify

Thanks, Dave. Mae Lyne put three of them there - two from my dad's property in North Carolina that Justin loved so well and one from Princess Place Preserve. My mom put one there that contains sea shells and fossils because Justin loved the beach, The helicopter, car, dice, etc were placed there by his friends. Someone always makes sure there is a fresh stick flag.

 

[DaveM]

That is so nice to do that type of thing

 

[The Seeker]

Thank you, AJ. Here, too, the VA coordinates with service organization at the Nation Cemetery in St Augustine and some of the private cemeteries. Why this cemetery is not included, I do not know. There are so many veterans interred in Florida that it is Herculean task to put flags on the graves. Mae Lyne and I do our part every year both on Memorial Day Veterans Day.

Whenever you file the papers for Veteran's Death Benefits or for a marker, the name and address of the cemetery goes on the forms. So the County VA Office has a record of every veteran's grave. There are Civil War and Revolutionary War Vets in the cemeteries around here and they even are sure to put a new flag on those every Memorial Day.

 

[CarlS]

Yes, I knew that. There just too many here for each one to get covered. Service organizations try to pick up the slack. Justin is the only one killed in the line of duty since the Viet Nam war to be interred in this cemetery.

 

[The Seeker]

I was thinking the rocks were something like the Jewish tradition....

If you go to a Hebrew cemetery, you'll see many small rocks on top of the headstones. Those are left there by people who visit the grave to show someone was there.

 

[CarlS]

I was aware of that tradition. That is not the case hear though. The only tradition that we have is that we fill the grave once the vault lid is closed. We do not let strangers bury our family members. And we do it with shovels, we don't use the back hoe.

 

[The Seeker]

You ought to get a break in the cost of the grave opening/closing then...LOL!!

Damn...that's approximately 6 tons of dirt to shovel by hand!

 

[CarlS]

It is probably half that amount. About half of the dirt that comes out when digging the grave goes back in. The vault takes up the rest of the space. It is still a lot of shoveling.

 

[hemibee]

The family of a girl my wife grew up with all get together the day before the funeral and they dig the grave by hand. I thought they were doing as you but I was corrected, they do it all by hand. I had thought about doing as you but no one else in the family was agreeable to the idea.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[The Seeker]

Well, different states have different rules concerning the depth of a grave. Here in PA, you have to have at least 3 feet above the top of the vault (below the frost line) at it's shallowest point (we bury people on hills here). So 3 feet x 4 feet x 7 feet would be around 6 tons if the ground is level.

There is NO WAY I'd ever attempt to dig a grave by hand in this part of the USA. You're bound to run into hard clay, huge rocks or boulders, and the worst....shale. It would be much easier in Florida where it's more sandy soil.

Cemeteries around here won't allow you to dig it yourself anyhow....they get $1200 for about 20 minutes of work with a backhoe.

I have used my backhoe to dig about 25 graves for the Amish who won't even try that by hand. I though about contracting with a cemetery until I realized that I'd have to haul the backhoe on a trailer there and then load it up again. That takes as long as the actual digging and there's where all your cost is incurred.

 

[CarlS]

The laws are pretty much the same here - three feet above the casket/vault. A vault is not required; but most cemeteries (except Jewish cemeteries) require a vault.

 

[The Seeker]

Yep....no vault required by law here, but the cemeteries require them unless it's a Jewish, Muslim, or Amish cemetery.

I was once walking through an old section of a cemetery that had Civil War graves before they required vaults. My foot suddenly fell through the ground into the space that was once a wooden casket. When i pulled my foot out, my shoe stayed down there. I decided NOT to attempt to retrieve my shoe!

 

[CarlS]

I have had that happen, except I did not lose a shoe. Most of the older cemeteries here did not require vaults until the post WWII era.

 

[DaveM]

Now just think one day when they open that grave and find a modern day shoe what they will all think

 

[The Seeker]

Now just think one day when they open that grave and find a modern day shoe what they will all think

"Look! We've uncovered a Civil War period time traveler!"

 

[DaveM]

that is what I thought