Photography Road Trip — Part 2
I love old cemeteries. Can spend hours wandering around them and reading headstones. The history of a town or an area is chiseled in its headstones.
When my friend Anita took me on my birthday photography road trip, our main destinations were old, interesting abandoned buildings and cemeteries. I covered the buildings in this post:
If you are squeamish about graveyards, move on now.
The two main cemeteries we visited are at two different Missionary Baptist churches. I don’t know much about their beliefs except that they strongly adhere to what they consider to be Jesus’ command to take Christianity throughout the world. Most of the Missionary Baptist churches that I’ve known have African-American congregations. but from the local names on the headstones at these graveyards and the multitude of Confederate flags etched in stone and the areas where the churches were located, Anita and I are certain that those congregations are white, or mostly white, with deep Florida roots.
Both cemeteries had dates going back to the 1800s. We were able to trace whole families, often seeing multiple graves for babies or toddlers who were born one after another and died one after another, as well as headstones for several men who had three or four wives each, most of whom appeared to die in childbirth.
Many of the headstones had engraved Confederate flags or the letters C.S.A. for the Confederate States of America.
Two of the most interesting headstones were these uniquely Southern ones:
The prettiest graves were these mosaic works of art:
Many had small statues, knickknacks, children’s toys, and other baubles that I haven’t noticed in other cemeteries. Maybe it’s a Missionary Baptist tradition to decorate graves??
Missionary Baptist churches tend to be plain and unassuming — no cathedrals or stained glass windows. But, we were fascinated by the architecture of this one:
And, it was a beautiful day to tour cemeteries:
Even Anita’s dog Lina enjoyed the cemeteries!
